Lightning

That precip along the IN/MI boarder is holding it's own pretty darn well and might not just disappear.

I noticed it was more intense on radar south of here during that time. I got about 1" during that period with about 3" total!! Gonna be interesting to see what happens the rest of the day. Models don't seem to see the southern part of the precip.

2-3" down. Looks like mid winter right now.

Around this area some apple buds are silver tip but most are not even that far yet. Further south and west of here in MI I bet there are more silver tips but I don't think much past that stage in at least most of MI.

Looking at the current condition of the buds, I don't believe there is any concern yet around here. From my experience with apple, cherry and peach trees is that the damage occurs once the blossom is out (or just popping out) and you get a good freeze or strong frost. When I was travelling this past weekend I didn't seem many blossoms until I got around and south of Springfield IL. St. Louis all the way to Oklahoma City area there were several trees in full blossom. A major freeze in those areas would be bad for them. What made Morch 2012 so bad is the flowers came out but the bees were not out. While the later freeze did cause some damage, most blossoms never got properly pollenated.

Went to Oklahoma over the end of last week and this weekend. On Thursday I drove through the storms around Chicago and saw some good lightning. Then I went through MO as the storms were going off. Lots of wind and good lightning but thankfully no hail while driving. Now I am home and its cold with ~1" of snow on the ground this morning.

I am planning to do a day trip, during that time, depending on the cloud cover expectations. Gonna be last minute planning like storm chasing

Just got back from our last ski trip for the year. Sad condition on the hills overall (normally this is a great ski time) but we did got 3" of snow Friday night and another 1"or so last night. Felt wintery with the snow caked on everything. Glad we stayed in the high hills around Nubs Nob. Driving around on Saturday there was not much snow in Petoskey itself.

Talking with my neighbors, they had picture fall of the wall with the thunder from that strike!!

What this doesn't scream winter to you

Wouldn't that be a kick in the pants.

The lightning strike has debris scattered over 100' radius area. Great storm this morning!! Edit: Also at the base of the tree there was about 1-1.5' deep hole. I took a picture but it just looks like a bunch of dirt

Another one with debris sticking in the ground (there were several but this was the best one).

Awesome lightning strike today about 200-300 yards from my house.

Sadly a teenage died while watching it being struck by a cannister during some of the explosions.

Mostly they are pretty darn good with the outlooks. If anything they tend towards over forecasting (which is not a bad thing with severe weather). Just shows while we have gain a lot of knowledge there is a ways to go with the weather!!

Oh yeah I agree that turning them back on when over is not needed. They didn't do that here. I was really just referring/wondering why the were only on for ~3 minutes. In each case here, the past couple years, the warning was just as the storm was beginning or had just begun. Several years ago I had a couple with warnings that went off once the storm was basically over. I have seen significant improvement at the DTX office with storm warnings lately. Likely partially due to the radar improvements that were done in recent years.

That explains a lot. I was wondering why the turned them off seemingly so quickly during the warnings I had last couple years. Makes sense to me.

Yes it is

Grand Blanc one was about ~15-20 miles north of me. Lots of lightning and on and off brief heavy rains, with multiple rounds of storms, over the course of 2.5 hours. Thankfully I did not get anything damaging this time!!

This is why I love the weather. Always different from extremes to completely boring.

I too hate zzzzzz patterns. Luckily January around here was great. But February has been a complete zzzzzz fest so I will say I haven't minded the mild February as it has been sunny. It would have been horrible to be cold and zzzzzz.

Interesting. Outside of a stray box elder (which I see all winter long regardless of temps), there are no bugs out in my area.

For those who don't click on that link. That picture is from last year.

Climate Change is not in the news daily. Billions upon Billions of dollars are not being spent it. Weather events are never in the news. You are such a drama queen!!!