Stormfly

Methinks the only operas that are going to be sung are Madama Butterfly, given the trends. But hey, who knows? We still have plenty of time for PDIII and even SSII (1993 redux). So there's that!

From my post last year about the Jan 25, 1985 event: It was Friday, January 25, 1985. Story time! I just got finished up with dinner. Turned on the TV and was flipping through channels. WTTG (Channel 5 in DC) was always sensitive to sferics and I used that to know in the summer when TRW was nearby or so. Never expected to see white static and crashes through the speaker in Jan. WTF! So I watched and again, not even a minute later, another one! So, I take a look out my den window facing due west and sure enough, I can see lightning in the distance. While this would be no biggie in May, in Jan it is and this area rarely sees thundersnow. As I kept watching, I noticed what I thought was a dog that got loose from one of the neighbors. It waddled closer in and to my surprise it was a HUGE Canadian goose! Well that surely was strange. And then there was another flash that was bright enough that it took my attention off the goose. I noticed a few flurries coming down as well. There were two more flashes and I heard thunder. This was sounding just like a decent thunderstorm approaching in the spring or summer. But! It was snow. And boy did it snow. The streetlights up on the main road disappeared and I thought perhaps the power went out, then the houses across the street completely obscured from view! Not foggy-ish, just gone. Then I realized what was happening. It arrived. What would normally be a torrential downpour was an intense snow squall that was a total white out. Looking out the window was like looking out there with a white sheet over the glass. Simply amazing. There was a blinding flash followed by thunder less than a second later. It was exceeding blue-white brilliant like a huge high intensity discharge (HMI) lamp starting up. The wind was also roaring. I ran downstairs to my shack and checked and the wind speed on my Heathkit ID4000 was at 49 mph. It was a very high sustained wind during the event. The peak gust was 53mph. The anemometer was mounted at 10 meters on a free standing Rohn 25G tower so those numbers are legit. The funniest part of the story is when I pulled the curtain back to look outside, there was a blinding flash of light and right outside the window was that damn goose! I scared him and he spread his wings and jumped in the air and I nearly fell backwards away from the window. I actually recall screaming, it was that bad. If you've ever seen the movie Free Willy, near the beginning where the kids were at the aquarium painting the tank windows with graffiti and the lightning flashes and Jessie sees Willy for the first time with mouth open and screams, well there you go, that's it right there! Anyhow, after that was over, we had a good 6 or 7" of new snow in well under an hour, 40-45 minutes tops and most of that was in that heavy burst. I would not want to be caught driving in something like that for sure. Those are the kind of *instant whiteout* that cause big traffic pileups on the interstate. Because someone is going to stop and someone isn't.

More lies!

It's the ninth anniversary for the Jan 26, 2011 event. Completely caught off guard with that one. And like the Jan 25, 1985 whiteout, it seemingly came out of nowhere... STORY TIME! This was a two part event and generally forecast to come in with an advisory event and end as one. In the morning there was enough snow to plow the lane clear. It ended as drizzle and clearing out the 3" or so of snow was typical slop that was expected. After lunch, the radar showed some showers inbound and colder air was wrapping around with some sleet embedded. This was forecast change over to snow before ending with 2-4" forecast so the WWA was extended to midnight. No big deal and did not really watch things closely. Then something different happened. Sleet was definitely pinging the skylights hard and to my surprise I got lightning alerts for strikes near Owings Mills, about 19 miles to my southwest. Radar echoes definitely showed sleet probability and maybe something else. Sleet continues up to dinnertime (around 1730) but seems to stop suddenly. Knowing what this usually means, I confirmed it changed over to snow. BIG flakes and really coming down. Great, going to have to plow after dinner. After dinner I get caught up in something downstairs and about 50 min later a colleague of mine texts me asking if my power was out. I thought it was strange and replied no and checked the BGE map and over 50k customers were showing out! I ran upstairs to see about 3" of fresh snow and it was really coming down. I also heard the UPS' beeping and our lights were dimming. The peak number of BGE customers that lost power was over 230k, more than Sandy! Went outside to start plowing and the sky was lighting up green to the south and east and seemingly everywhere. You know those eerie blue-green flashes of wires humming where downed limbs are causing million watt Jacob's ladders everywhere? I heard cracking and crashes, branches everywhere were succumbing to the weight of this snow that was sticking to everything. Too dangerous to be near the Balsams and Spruces so I decided to wait it out. Our gutters and fences looked like classic Jack Frost moments you see in Hallmark movies! Thousands of icicles six inches and longer everywhere. Running water from the rain and initially melting snow froze up nice. We wound up picking up 16" total from that storm. Spent the next day digging out and using a track drive snow thrower as it was too much for my trip springs on my ATV plow. My back hurt from it but it was fun and memorable! And (of course) the lights stayed on because we have backup power. Power line flashes are always fun to watch during ice and snow storms. That one was particularly memorable with the 60Hz humming. Almost War of The Worlds like!

I'll take the heat for it! There's nothing like ending a HOT day with continuous lightning and roaring winds. July 21, 2019 was such a day for us. Most of the time here we bust bigtime with anticipated widespread severe events. It's the ones that seemingly come out of nowhere that sneak up on you. Those you have to watch out for!

Yes but the reality is it's just like dropping a buttered piece of bread, it always falls buttered side down.

Could definitely be looking at warning level event by the 3rd... Flood warning that is.

Mud season starting early this year...