Stormfly

I'm in Harford county and can see the lightning from our tower cam, same view as the clear sky shot I posted earlier.

I'll upload some video in a bit.  That is crazy.  If I saw that I'd guess those storms would be in Calvert county!

Feels like June.  The humidity could be lower especially if it's not going to rain!

And last night, for the first time I saw fireflies.  I have to say this is the latest I've seen them first.

Here is the view facing south.  That boomer near Calvert Cliffs isn't visible from this view.  I need to move the PTZ higher on the tower.

2.67" here, less than 2 miles NE of me over 5"

Gully washer for sure.  Not much in the way of wind.  A few lightning strikes or so.

And then BOOM!  While we were at the dinner table at 18:15 a blinding pink-ish flash and boom at the same time like a howitzer going off.  Caught nicely on security cameras (just the flash) and crazy report.  Peeled a tree right behind the detached garage.  I hate those, literally no warning at all, and the thunder part was seemingly over.

Also at 16:32 there was nice rotation noted just north of us where there was significant lightning activity.

2 hours ago, nj2va said:

Severe thunderstorm watch just issued.   Get ready for a few drops of rain!

Funny but think about when we get warnings, at least here actually experiencing warning criteria weather is slim pickin's.  That is 58+ mph wind gusts and/or 3/4" or larger hail.  It seems when we actually get legit svr it's the hail that comes. 

I'm seeing lightning from the cell that just ripped through Red Lion. 

We got a trace of precip today just before sunrise.  Talk about a bust.

Severe TS watch for us.  What an odd time to have one of those.

I will be watching, however.  Caught some lightning before dawn on the tower cam looking to our north.  Popcorn just north of the MD line. 20 mile radius CG alert woke me up.

11 minutes ago, mappy said:

Didn’t get much but a shelf cloud and two rumbles of thunder. Light rain as the best stuff missed me and went into pa. Saw some tree damage in Shrewsbury when I went out to get dinner 

Pretty much same here.  Some wind and rumbles and alerts for CG lightning <20 miles from the antenna here.  Breeze settled down a lot but just had the dog outside and it's quite muggy.

I don't know if anyone here remembers that silly movie "Click" but if I had a remote that let me skip things I'd probably skip to November.  Of course skipping 7 months/year means you'd notice everyone around you aging faster.  Even in an imaginary world there are limits.

Skipping traffic jams and taxes though, wouldn't mind that at all.

29 minutes ago, mappy said:

Watch expanded along the MD line 

That includes us.  Nice soupy southerly breeze.  It's quite disgusting actually.  Running central a/c for the first time of the year.

On 4/26/2020 at 7:47 AM, RDM said:

Good morning, If you haven't done so already, try cleaning the solar array with a rag and water periodically (if you can easily access it).  Suggest not using windex or anything with a solvent in it.  The ammonia may do more harm than good on the plastic cover over the array.  I clean mine every couple months now.  It helps some, or so it seems.  But the cloudiness of the plastic cover is getting worse and at some point I'll need to have the array replaced (if that's an option) or just buy a new unit.  Davis is probably betting on the 2nd option on purpose.  

You can buy a replacement cover here:
 

https://www.scaledinstruments.com/shop/davis-instruments/parts/vantage-pro2-parts/housing-parts/davis-7345-114-pro2-iss-sim-solar-panel-front-cover/

Or just the panel:

https://www.scaledinstruments.com/shop/davis-instruments/parts/vantage-vue-parts/davis-7011-017-vantage-vue-solar-panel/

I'm in the yellow (slight)...

Mark my words we'll have wind of sort, enough for damage.

Why?  I have a fir that's cracked halfway up and I can't get a bucket truck out here before tomorrow to pull it down.

And if it falls it will go squarely through the roof of the poolhouse!  Lovely!

Saw flakes on the security cameras.

Nothing really unusual for April here though.

I believe it was mid April 2014 where we were near 80 and the next evening we had a coating on the deck.  Quarter inch even.

But it's spring, the forsythias are green and buds are popping everywhere.  Time to start thinking ahead for 20-21 winter.

Maybe we'll see some legit tropical or if we have a real heatwave another derecho.  We missed out on that one here but the lightshow was fun.

Second round of storms came through here managed to produce a 61.3 mph peak.  Heard a few limbs cracking.  Glad it left as fast it came.

2.73" total.  Performed about as expected TBH, we usually bust but the eastern shore gets the goods.  I'm OK with that.  Don't feel like breaking my back logging downed trees nor paying thousands for a pro to do it for me!  Gotta save that money for a new drainfield, mine is 45 years old so it's only a matter of time.

No rain but strongest wind gusts so far peaking frequently over 50mph here.

For the first time since Jan 25, 2010 the front door "tooted" twice due to strong southerly wind gusts!  Last time before that was Isabel.  So that's saying something.  Power went off for 5 seconds at 0905 as well.  It rarely goes out for long here unless it's a legit event.  Last long term (>24 hr) event was 03/02/2018.

Be careful guys, we got 1.85" here so far, there's ponding in the yard and puddles everywhere our 7 month old border collie pup has dug!  Even strong trees can uproot in these winds.  At least they're still bare otherwise we'd have the usual damage from tstorm gusts in the summer but much more widespread.

4 hours ago, gymengineer said:

Have there been widespread 50 mph+ gusts across the area from a *southerly* direction since Isabel (03)?

Specifically for us it would be the morning of January 25, 2010. 

The front of my house faces due south.  The front door has metal weatherstripping and when the winds gust around 50mph or higher there's enough pressure to make it buzz like a kazoo.  It's quite loud.  And IIRC the last time this happened was then.  Before that would have been Isabel.

The sound is just like as is heard in this video here:

If this verifies then there's going to be a LOT of tree/power pole damage!

If there was an online gambling site for weather I'd bet on bust with these every time.  It's like betting on the Orioles losing on Sunday games!

1 hour ago, yoda said:

Anybody else catch the LWX afternoon AFD mentioning a possible repeat of February?

Oh yes, just finished clearing out the felled trees around the pasture (from Feb's storm) and have a few more widowmakers stuck in the ground from last night's winds.

And now this!  Chainsaws are ready!

A burst of wind just came out of nowhere here!

It got my attention around 2109 and the roaring got louder and peaked at 2113.  For the one minute interval I recorded:

(speeds in miles per hour)

Wind:  27.2
Gust: 50.9 (3 sec avg)
Max: 63.3 (max value out of 600 in the sample period)
Min:  10.8 (same capture parameters as max)

Anemometer is mounted a bit high due to terrain at 63' AGL so sometimes those max values seem high especially compared to packs at nominal 10 meter AGL.
But we have lots of trees and they were roaring like well March 02, 2018 which was really unusually strong winds for us.  Of course that event was long lived.
And looking at some of the models we're definitely in lion mode as far as spring is concerned.  Maybe its the cleansing we need as March was quite tranquil.  April can have its fair share of windy days.  1982 comes to mind.

First legit thunderstorm of the season for us in Harford Co.  Nocturnal storms are great.  Was watching it safely from our bunker in quarantine.  The PTZ on the tower is great for watching lightning spider all over the sky and I know the thunder is getting loud when I can hear it down here!  Saw some hail mostly pea and marble sized disks bouncing off the solar panels.  Nothing like what they got earlier in S MD and lower eastern shore of VA though.  And that's OK with me. 

CAD (Cold Air Damming) screws NE MD as usual.

Not a warning but an advisory was up for us yesterday.  We're close to the Mason-Dixon line. 

We're in a red flag advisory due to dry air and they're doing that???!

My concern this year is insects, particularly the stinging variety.  And I have lots of tree work on our property that I need to do.  As a neighbor of mine who's in his 80s tells me, it keeps you young.  He burns about 10 cords/year heating his place but now his son who is an arborist helps a lot.  His pile was up to 30+ cords last fall and it doesn't look like he's put much of a dent in that.  I wonder why! LOL  I don't mind the warmer temps if it's not gonna snow TBH.  We have Diesel (backup power+heat), solar, and electric (BGE) providing NM service here.  Plus a pellet stove which I usually put a handful of tons through, this year has been the lightest indeed!  I just wish we had a few zero degree lows in Jan.  Does a good job of knocking down those damnable insects.

Just now, Ji said:

Just buy it..its mid march...what else is there to buy?

Mud is free!

27th anniversary storm? LOL