Stormfly

Lots of blue looking to the NW out my patio door right now.

Getting bright here, winds have died down considerably.

Different strokes for different folks I suppose.
I love the wind. Love the roar through the forest and the wind chimes going.  Which is the case right now with the southern-ish breeze.

Speaking of rarities with direction, strong winds out of the south will make the weather stripping on my front door buzz like a kazoo.  Very loudly once they hit 50 mph.  Isabel was quite the hoot, she played way past her welcome that day! Last time I heard a toot from the door was the morning of April 12, 2020. Prior to that would be Jan 25, 2010.  As you can see, rather rare indeed because the wind has to be primarily out of the south.

When I spent time at sea I always preferred a bit of rocking and rolling.  Of course when it's waves on top of waves and it's impossible to sleep and do other things that gets old fast!  As with most things we tend to get enjoyment out of there are always limits.

When the trees start cracking, skies lit up from faults, et al, then it's a bit much.  Multi day power outages are burdensome.  The diesel genny certainly eases the pain but the fuel cost is a splinter in the other foot.

Same thing with snow.  A foot even two perhaps is OK.  Anything more than that in one serving is just too much. (Yes I'm referring to Jan 23, 2016 where we had 37" here!)

21 minutes ago, RDM said:

The reference to Heathkit weather stations brings back memories.  Built my first weather station in 75, which measured 70+mph gusts during the blizzard of 78.  Hard to tell exactly how fast the wind was blowing because the anemometer was analog with a manual gust needle that measured "peek" readings.  

Yep, that would be the ID-1290 with the four dials.  No way to know peak unless you saw it.

Now we can just look at our phones LOL!

But I still like to watch the cups/blades spin on the anemometers even if it's by remote camera.

1 hour ago, VirgilCain said:

Not sure if it was the same meteorological set up, but I remember when this happened - it capsized a water taxi and killed 5 people in the harbor:

https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-remembering-the-baltimore-seaport-taxi-tragedy-of-2004-20170303-story.html

Yes often times conditions on the water deteriorate extremely rapidly and mariners in small craft are extremely vulnerable.  Just the other night there was an advisory for such conditions.  My Tempest that lives 70' AGL on a tower picked up some pretty strong bursts and I patrolled the PTZ across the higher spruces and they were dancing noticeably.  Would not want to be out on the water in a small ketch for sure.

13 minutes ago, George BM said:

I would ask whether it was the Nov. 20, 1989 low-dewpt derecho but I believe that may have been before your time(?)

Wow I do remember that one!

I was working graveyard shift and was awakened from my nap around dinner time by whistling winds and barking dogs.  Checked the Heathkit ID-4001 and it looked like a speedometer on the highway!  Sustained in the 40s and gusts in the upper 50s.  Lights were flickering and the sky was lighting up but knew it wasn't lightning as lighting isn't green!  That was a sneaky one for sure.

55 minutes ago, MN Transplant said:

If the event ends up looking like the NAM above, we are going to see massive severe thunderstorm warning boxes accompanying that line for wind.

I've seen this happen many times before and during said gusty showers I've heard people asking "where's the lightning?"

But those sudden bursts of wind can be worrisome to downright lethal particularly to mariners.

Lots of deciduous, particularly oaks this time of the year will often become widow makers releasing a torrent of branches up to an inch or more in diameter which can cause nuisance outages in the country.

18 hours ago, Stormchaserchuck1 said:

The cumulus in the sky looks like July. July clouds. It's probably going to be a hot Summer. 

I hope so!

Not this mid 80s 75DP BS!

Give me mid upper 90s and 60DP any day!

Followed by a sharp cold front dropping highs into the upper 60s lower 70s for a few days with breezy conditions.  Miss those summers.

52 minutes ago, MN Transplant said:

GFS is still most aggressive with Saturday's winds, with gusts well into the 50s and even some 60s.  The other models are not buying in.  The NWS point and click for me has a max gust of 47mph.

They rarely verify as true high wind warning events for our area.  I'm sure it will be breezy and the wind whiners will be whistling as usual!

Typical late March smell of freshly plowed fields here.  Definitely not smoke I can tell you that!

What boring ass weather!

^^^

We'll have wall to wall mesos and it will rain toads before that happens!

44 minutes ago, North Balti Zen said:

I heard racing, is that what you are hearing? They race out there ALL THE TIME- 695 is almost safer at rush hour because you can't go faster than 20. If it is midday or the weekend or late evening not uncommon for assholes to be going 100+ across all lanes racing each other. So senseless. 

I-83...JFX too.  I've been passed like I was standing still and I was going 85!

13 hours ago, EastCoast NPZ said:

I know I would.

The problem there is that the summer is opposite of that.   And that'd be miserable.

I would be OK with it with the climate being the way it is there.

Biggest thing in winter would be reading under the glow of the aurora!

We heard peepers for the first time in Feb after that megatorch.  Gotta be a record.  They are getting louder again.
Before we know it the night will alive from the chorus of the numerous gray tree frogs.  I do want to put up an owl box so the barred owls have a home nearby. 

6 minutes ago, CAPE said:

Is anyone actually still tracking snow? We can't even get a rain storm lately. My seasonal wetland/mosquito breeding ground is barely damp, so I am ok with dry this time of year. I was just outside watering some of the newer trees/plants I put in during early Fall though. That 0.01" of rain last night didn't do much.

I saw a male mosquito flying around my patio last night just after dusk.  Now that's something worth chasing!

2 hours ago, mappy said:

Ah yes, schools ended up closing for the 2018 wind event. We all kind of laughed at that happening at first

Right but when the trees start coming down it gets real.  A person or car is no match for 30,000 pounds of hardwood!

On route 1 bypass north of Belair we witnessed a 10-50 (crash) where a large tree fell across the highway and a vehicle ran into it.  All airbags deployed.  If they were driving 5 mph faster they would have been instantly killed.

It's March, it's supposed to be windy!

4 minutes ago, WEATHER53 said:

35mph gusts for 12 consecutive hours

this is close but that one about 5-7 years ago in early  March was incredible. With DCA gusting 40+ for 28 consecutive hours and IAD for 36 hours consecutive

A huge debris pile in Laurel caugh fire and with wind was out of control and I think 95 south was closed for couple hours

we don’t do Winter so good but we do Wind. 

 

Sounds like March 02, 2018.  High wind warning verified for sure!  We had frequent gusts over 60 here and a ton of tree damage and power outages with wires down all over the place.  Messiest for utility workers since Irene in 2011.

This event is more of a breezy event for us.  Too bad it isn't snowing!

With humidity under 30% things are getting dry that's for sure.  Wouldn't advise anyone doing outside burning just on wind alone.

1 hour ago, vastateofmind said:

Curious -- what is your security cam system of choice? I've got several "flavors" of cam systems currently in place and want to consolidate...and I like the quality of your feeds.

UniFi.  That video is from a 5 year old G3 bullet cam.
I started out with UniFi video server using my own hardware (Dell dual Xeon box running Ubuntu server 12 at the time).  Loved the "roll your own" ability as one could start with a simple pc running linux or Windows and scale up to whatever they needed, etc.  Then Protect came out, loved its interface and ability to scrub through a time line in real time on mobile.  But Protect wasn't BYO and required Ubiquiti hardware either a Cloud Key+ gen 2 or their dream machine pro device which had limited hardware.  Later they released a multi drive NVR which is what I currently run.  Cameras are expensive compared to others but require no NVR license fees or subscriptions.  And of course the recordings are on premise. I run all home runs back to the rack in the basement with direct burial rated CAT6A 23awg pure copper conductor shielded ethernet.  Some call it overkill but being that I've had lightning peel the bark off a southern pine less than 20 feet from my shop building and the cameras never even missed a frame says something!

I do like the smart capabilities of the G4 line and upcoming G5 line too.  The Ai bullet can record license plates if that capability is needed.  Recently on G4 and up they've added smoke/CO alerts so if the mic picks up the telltale sound of a smoke or CO alarm it can send a push notification which is nice as the fire alarm in my shop is local only and sometimes when I charge flooded tractor batteries and a cell or two goes crazy and sets the alarm off I get it on my phone which is nice.

My PTZ is an Amcrest 4MP 12X optical 25X hybrid zoom.  I have it set up to record to folder on my QNAP 8 bay NAS with a 7 day rollover.  I use it mainly to watch weather systems roll in, check for hotspots at our bonfire and pits and it has caught Amazon drivers cutting through the grass countless times too!

2 hours ago, WxUSAF said:

Most solar power today since September 9th #sunangle

Nice!

My 15kW system hasn't been right since Sunrun sent out this guy that was high as a kite to replace cell modems in the inverters while the power was ON and got arc flashed!

Heads up, the audio contains frequent colorful metaphors, NSFW.
 

Breezy, chilly day on tap.

First measurable for season here!  About 3/8"

Chilly, bright moonlight tonight!

17 minutes ago, 87storms said:

This post made me check the radar and, I must say, I'm glad I did.

Wow no kidding!

So you wanna go on a trip?
The Caribbean looks spicy!