CheeselandSkies

It...might snow tonight.

Maybe I've missed it, but if not I'm surprised no one has mentioned it's the 15th anniversary of GHD I.

On 1/30/2026 at 5:45 PM, Chinook said:

Hey guys, I am thinking of getting a new laptop because I've heard computer prices are going up. I have a laptop from 2019 that is working well. And by the way, whoever answered my question about fixing my computer battery, thanks a lot. It cost me a good bit to fix my battery, but it was necessary.

I was shopping for new laptops, and possibly refurbished laptops. I am not sure I want to buy someone else's 3-year-old laptop. That might already have a lot of wear and tear, when a new laptop could be nearly the same price.

I was also considering the possibility of Linux, which I have never done before. If you look up information about Windows 11, they will say that it's bloated and it's spying on you. But I might still go with it. I have questions about radar programs GRLevel3 and Radarscope. They're not designed for Linux at all. Can they be run in Linux anyway?  That sort of question is what's going through my mind-- Linux is an unknown. I don't know if some of my favorite programs (or files,) will do the same thing on Linux. I know GRLevel3 and Radarscope aren't written for Linux.

If I go with Windows 11, I know my GRLevel3 can be put on it with my license code. I assume Radarscope won't have this capability and I could purchase it again. (Any thoughts on the Radarscope? I got the full package for Radarscope a while back, so I could see 4 panels. I don't know if that could transfer over to a new computer.)

One of the things I've struggled with is this: is trying to determine if a new laptop's monitor will be bright and as colorful as it could be. I want one that's above average. It's tough to tell from computer descriptions on the "nits" and "%NTSC"  I'm pretty sure 300 nits could appear quite bright, but I've heard there's better brightness. Are 60Hz and 45% NTSC reasonable? I like a good display. (I'm not exactly sure what I have.)

I'm kind of assuming Intel i5 and/or Ryzen-5 series does fairly well if you're not running modern graphics-heavy games. There's a part of me that says, "go with i7" because I don't want to be running something that's too slow in 5 years.

I've also noticed there's not a lot of 14" laptops listed when you search. For me, 14" is fine for portabilty.

I don't quite understand it when the description says "AI Copilot+ laptop."

Tangentially related: I thought my 3 1/2-year old desktop computer (Bought in summer 2022, previous one lasted nearly 10 years and only died because the power supply burned up because I'd let the fan get completely clogged with dust) was shitting the bed. Starting about two months ago it would randomly freeze, regardless of what I was doing (even just reading a site like this forum, as the only tab in Firefox and no other programs open). It would either reboot without warning, or just abruptly go completely unresponsive to mouse and keyboard inputs and require a hard reboot. Sometimes it would go an hour or two, other times (and this was seemingly becoming more and more frequent) it would do it every five-ten minutes.

I opened up the case and vacuumed out the fans (they were somewhat dusty, but far from clogged), ran the hardware diagnostics and everything came back good, installed all the BIOS and driver updates that were available. None of it made any difference and as a last resort before taking it to a repair shop, I went out and bought a $130 UPS/battery backup at Best Buy to plug it (and the monitor, and my external HDDs, etc) into.

Lo and behold, we're coming up on 48 hours of up time since I did this after work on Friday, and NO ABRUPT FREEZES/REBOOTS!

Couple of weeks ago I was seeing maps that said AA temps for Feb. Shocker.

12Z GFS is disgusting. Endless CAD through the end of the run. Although *at least* the last 200 hours of each run of that model are a total crapshoot, I'd really prefer a different look at some point.

58 minutes ago, madwx said:

If we’re gonna do it we might as well do it big. Hoping we can challenge some 2019/2014 levels here 

As long as it doesn't last for 8 weeks straight.

21 hours ago, sbnwx85 said:

No bugs at least

That wasp @A-L-E-K photographed better have skedaddled back to its hibernation hidey-hole.

*Looks at 18Z GFS and cries*

I HATE prolonged deep cold. Looks like those flagging the 2013-'14 similarities were right. Can only hope unlike that year it breaks in time to not totally bollocks season apart from a 3-day sequence in mid-F*CKING JUNE.

4 hours ago, Chicago916 said:

Wednesday/Thursday clipper uptrend. Or do we not care cuz it's not a big dog?

1 hour ago, Geoboy645 said:

Meanwhile here around Madison, we just had one of most localized snowfall events we have had in a while. The original forecast for Friday into Saturday was 1-2" Friday morning and then another Friday night. Instead we had a localized Fgen(?) band setup Friday night over the I-94 corridor and just sit for about 18 hours. With some occasionally heavy rates of 1-1.5" of an hour, Madison ended up recording 5" of snow on 1/16 and 5.6 on 1/17, although the snow depth doesn't quite represent that because of settling.. This was a very dry and fluffy snow too, so we could have localized ground blizzard like conditions tomorrow with the cold blast. Thing is, this band was not much wider than Dane County. I have some snow up here, but like 3-4" not 6+. And if you go N to Portage or S to Janesville they may have like 2-3 OTG. This honestly feels like a summer MCS that forms and doesn't move and dumps 5-6" of rain in a night, but just snow instead.

Yeah. I work in local news and based on our mets' forecasts I was not expecting it to snow at all yesterday beyond the early morning.

On 1/16/2026 at 9:30 PM, Baum said:

NWS Pants down again:

INCLUDING THE CITIES OF LODI, SAUK CITY, WAUKESHA, PORTAGE,   GRAFTON, MADISON, CEDARBURG, MILWAUKEE, MENOMONEE FALLS,   DODGEVILLE, WATERTOWN, PRAIRIE DU SAC, MUSKEGO, MAYVILLE, BEAVER   DAM, JEFFERSON, WEST BEND, HARTFORD, LAKE WISCONSIN, MINERAL   POINT, BARABOO, WAUPUN, MEQUON, REEDSBURG, BARNEVELD, FORT   ATKINSON, BROOKFIELD, GERMANTOWN, NEW BERLIN, AND COLUMBUS   809 PM CST FRI JAN 16 2026       ..WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 AM CST SATURDAY     * WHAT...SNOW. 1 TO 2 INCHES HAVE FALLEN AND ADDITIONAL SNOW   ACCUMULATIONS OF 1 TO 3 INCHES WITH TOTALS APPROACHING 3 TO 5   INCHES OVERNIGHT INTO SATURDAY MORNING.     * WHERE...PORTIONS OF SOUTH CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST WISCONSIN.     * WHEN...UNTIL 9 AM CST SATURDAY.    

On top of that, it snowed most of the rest of the day yesterday (which was NOT forecast). We actually set a daily record due to the ridiculous ratios.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1ZDN338aPL/

2 hours ago, DocATL said:

The Wisconsin-Illinois state line is a naturally occurring snow boundary. It’s wild.

Just like it is in the opposite direction for warm fronts/tornadic supercells, with very rare exceptions.

5 hours ago, Rjay said:

 

I should just go back to using the NCAR model site that was the first one I ever came across, still looks like it did in 2006 and the GFS only goes out to 192 hours.

3 hours ago, andyhb said:

Ok but seriously, what in the actual hell happened with that run?

Looks like most of it comes from a wound up storm system that tracks from AR to the NC/SC border from FH246-270.

Verbatim would support some severe weather in LA/MS on the 23rd, too.

4 hours ago, cyclone77 said:

Had a few breaks in the cloud cover a short while ago which revealed just how much shear there is in the lower atmosphere.  Looked very ominous as the dark low clouds were ripping northwestward beneath fast northeastward moving mid-level cloud cover.  Sky looked pretty tornadic.  Probably not too far off from having a little tor setup.

Picked up 0.34" today.

On nearly every chase day I've had where I've seen tornadoes, or was within striking distance of tornadoes but missed them due to being dumb, I've seen that sky when approaching/arriving in the target area.

9 minutes ago, roardog said:

Not too many posters have probably been paying attention to this storm but there has been a huge NW/stronger trend with this over the last few days. It doesn't mean much to most here but to see systems becoming stronger as they get closer in time instead of weaker like we've seen the last 10 years is different.

Unfortunate waste of potential in both the  and departments. Could have done something significant with a little more antecedent cold air to pull in on the back side and different timing/better lapse rates in the warm sector.

12 hours ago, A-L-E-K said:

Spotted on the ground today, seems odd?

 

Yeah, those should definitely be in winter hibernation.

Founding queen of Vespula germanica (German yellowjacket).

I have Friday off. Why couldn't this system be about 6-7 hours slower?

2 hours ago, A-L-E-K said:

Oh, *bleep*. Hard pass on that look for me.

15 hours ago, Geoboy645 said:

This winter reminds me a lot of 22-23 just shifted 2 weeks earlier. Early cold and snowy period followed by a long period of storminess on the W Coast and warmth here in January. Hopefully this means we get a 22-23 like rally in February and it gets done by March 15th this time around. Madison and Green Bay recorded around 50 inches of snow in the Feb 15th to April 1st rally in 22-23. Something like that but a bit more spread the wealth and earlier would be nice to say the least.

Hey, by the last day of March 2023 I was shooting in Iowa so I'll take it.

Bunch of people rushed out and bought snowblowers for the end of November storm; now won't use them again for 5 years.

Here's the thing though. May not be true for other parts of the sub, but here in Wisconsin we can be solidly AA in Jan/Feb and it's still cold enough to snow.

I'm firmly part of the camp who can do without the extended periods of barely cracking 10°F.

From wind chills in the -20s today and tomorrow to...that.

The phrase "averages are merely a mean of extremes" comes to mind.

Between the first and second halves, this month will likely show up as close to "normal" temperature-wise around these parts when all is said and done, but it will say absolutely nothing about the conditions actually experienced on any given day.

22 minutes ago, IWXwx said:

Chasing tornadoes on Christmas would be a nice gift.

4 years ago OTD...

Cassville, WI live camera: