Scarlet Pimpernel

It's because he's very knowledgeable. I don't say that to be snarky, it's just true. When someone of his level of understanding gets nervous, it tends to affect what everyone else might think. If the typical weenies freak out, it's easier to "ignore" that panic. The other end of the scale sort of might be someone like Bob Chill. Very knowledgeable as well. But he was a lot more "Zen", and though he of course wanted his yard to jackpot (we all want ours to do so, LOL!), he was always of the "chips fall" attitude, as he would say. He usually would say stuff like "well, Mappy and PSU land will do well with this event, but I'll be fine with my 2" slush brick here in MoCo" or something like that. I'm sure he'd be disappointed inside, but rarely "let it out" unless he was being obviously humorous. I don't think I've seen a time that he ever "melted down."

OK, that's a little bit creepy looking, I have to admit! But funny too!!

How's it look compared to 18Z? I'm only on TT and it's not out too far there yet.

I think it looks better for the WAA front end going by the discussion here (though sleet later in the DC area)...but it's the uncertainty of the coastal that looks slower to get going through its run. I think it was faster on the transfer the previous cycle or two, for what it's worth.

Well, I got my degree (undergrad and grad) in meteorology, though not a forecaster per se. That's where a lot of my background synoptic and other related knowledge comes from. But beyond that, just reading in here (and other places), you learn the tendencies of how things work in this area. There are a lot of good posters on here, even if you have to filter out some of the BS posts. Pretty much any of the local "red tagger" mets in here have a plethora of great information and insight. But even those who are not technically "red tags", like @psuhoffman, @showmethesnow, @Bob Chill among others are great (though showme and Bob haven't been around here in some time, unfortunately). Really just reading a lot in this forum (and living here long enough) in a lot of ways helps. I learned an immense amount just by doing that, honestly.

Dammit, man! For half a second I was wondering WTF happened to my cursor!!

I initially read that really fast and thought it said HOT PANCAKES!! (mmmmm!)

So now that you put that ear-worm in, here ya go!!!

So you basically did a mental DGEX there.

...And then sit there watching the 6PM and 11PM local news and weather (annoying your parents in the process), looking at the crawler of school closures, hoping yours would be listed!!

For some reason, this made me think of the Monty Python "Holy Grail" scene where the peasant is shouting "Help, I'm being repressed!!"

C'mon...you know those Europeans! 4 hours of work and then time to hit the pub!! Wait...that sounds perfectly acceptable to me actually!!

Quite a marked change from 00Z, I believe?

"Mind the Gap!!" (ETA: Anyone familiar with the London Underground will get that!)

Sounds like you were channeling @ravensrule!!

Wow, I remember the Challenger explosion and just being transfixed by the news. I wasn't paying much attention to the weather out this way, as at the time I was in college at Purdue when this happened. My freshman year.

Yeah that was a very intense scene. I read that when Anthony Hopkins delivered that line and then made the "ts-ts-ts-ts" sound with his tongue (sort of on the spot, not planned), that Jodi Foster gave a sort of frightened/stunned start!

Fava beans...and a nice chianti!! LOL at the "Silence of the Lambs" reference...great movie (if chilling)!

Still the best example of this in my experience is Feb. 2003 PD-II. That came in like a wall of snow. The other big ones since have been similar, starting up quickly, but PD-II was the most dramatic.

Careful...this is a family-friendly discussion board! But seriously, that is a nice signature and a nice amount of QPF for the mean. The thermals seem a bit tough for DC east/south at least for a time (as always??), but the progression of the 06Z EPS sure looks great.

Looks like it includes the MoCo @Bob Chill and HoCo @WxUSAF jackpot zones in there, too (higher probabilities)!

Yeah, I'm kind of in this camp of thinking right now. Can't fret too much. But it is stubbornly consistent which is concerning (annoying?)...and don't much like seeing the light rain/drizzle from about Sunday afternoon through Monday morning, essentially. We'll see how things evolve.

Ahh, yes! That's another great term!!! And a way to gain a greater advantage. ETA: And true about zugzwang, it can also mean a move that would immediately lead to the player making that move losing.

Haven't gotten on there but yeah, I might be up for a game when I have a chance! Definitely consider that!! BTW, if you're into reading about chess, I'd recommend "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" by David Bronstein. Chess books and analysis are normally dry and dull, but this one has a lot of colorful description and wit. And it is semi-autobiographical about Bronstein himself, he had a rather remarkable career and life in many ways, despite being under the old Soviet regime and not exactly their "favorite".