BuffaloWeather

Houses around here are getting pretty expensive. I believe the median home price in Erie County is around 200k. Average property tax is $4-7k in that range.

The Northeast is most expensive place in the US. My buddy bought a huge house in Austin for 300k. It would be more expensive here, and double the taxes.

All blue states.

The Alaskan vortex looks transient so not 2011/2012. I think it will take until 2nd week of December to get any cool air around here. You get a +PNA but with a +EPO/+NAO/AO it doesn't help. To me the long range looks seasonal. I don't see any extreme departures.

I got in a discussion with someone on facebook about NYS budget about it being a "welfare state". 70% of NYS budget goes to Healthcare, Education, and Pensions. 5% goes towards socialized programs.

That will change with how he handled the pandemic. Many people I know who voted for him are changing their minds. I guess we will see in 2022. Lifetime appointments should never be a thing, but that's another discussion.

NY always has a deficit because of the insane lifelong pensions we give to government/state employees. I see people come in my office with those pensions all the time. Its INSANE what these people get after 20 years of working. No other state is even close to what New York gives out.

From yesterdays presser

Confirmed Covid cases is around 12 million in the USA. Actual Covid cases is likely somewhere around 4-8 times that number. I’d say 60-70 million people have been infected already. It’s making it’s way through the population quickly just like the 1919 epidemic did in the 2nd wave. Vaccines are likely a little too late.

I can’t believe this is so difficult for people to grasp. As I already stated the actually confirmed cases in March-may before testing ramped up is likely around where were at today. Initial research revealed likely cases were 5-10 times those confirmed. Now we’re probably around 3-5 times confirmed case numbers with increased testing capacity. In no way does it mean if you stop testing the virus disappears. Not really sure how anyone can even draw that conclusion...

Nam shows some snow on Sunday

At least snowfall seems above normal in Canada, our source of cold air.

The first wave hit the Northeast. The second wave in summer hit the southeast and west. The third wave is hitting the midwest. I kind of wonder if it's just the natural progression of the virus throughout the country and just massive testing being done compared to earlier this year leading to a mirage of increased numbers.

I think the infection rate in the schools was .19%. Schools have been doing fantastic, I do not understand the reasoning in shutting schools down again. Especially when parents need a break after earlier this year and parents all nearly all back to work.

Nearly every long term indice/index/etc... paints a grim picture of this winter. Hopefully they're all wrong and we get slammed. We just need cold air to get things going. I just don't see a lot of it for awhile. The thing is Ninas usually feature great Decembers and spring arrives early. December is 10 days away. If things still look this grim at end of month it might be another ratter winter.

Whose ready for winter outdoor dining?

Do you have link to New York Covid tracking website that tracks that again? I deleted my bookmark.

Erie County Red Zone: Geographic area has 7-day rolling average positivity above 4% for 10 days and Geographic area has 10 or more new daily cases per 100,000 residents on 7-day average

Here are the metrics for yellow, orange, red. Page 5/6 https://www.governor.ny.gov/sites/governor.ny.gov/files/atoms/files/MicroCluster_Metrics_10.21.20_FINAL.pdf

Of course infection rates are going to go up in NY if you're only testing people with symptoms... https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/covid-19-testing Just went through the entire process and unless you answer the questions with symptoms you cannot get a free test. @Luke_Mages What is cost of test again $120? Infection rates are going to stay above (orange zone-3%) for the foreseeable future if you're only testing symptomatic patients. Does anyone know what the percentage is for red zone for NY is it 10%?

My good friend at the gym is a barber and we were joking about going to Boston and setting up a mini shop outside in some park lot. Technically that follows the New York State guidelines as they are in yellow zone, but 2 minutes away in Hamburg and you get your license taken away... If you're going to do a shutdown, at least do it by county... Crunch fitness is opened in Niagara Falls, but closed in the Erie county locations. You're going to see a massive influx of people driving up there to work out. It's counter intuitive.

Went and got takeout after the gym today at Pegasus restaurant. The manager there told me she has 30 waitresses, several with kids that are getting $60-80 a week in unemployment. They are now closing their doors on Friday. She does not know how these people are going to pay their bills. She said she is only scheduling 2-3 people a day for takeout in comparison to 10-15 per day during a normal shift. She also stated that customers that do take out rarely give tips in comparison to in person dining. Have to feel for the hospitality industry during all of this.

Nice general update from Buffalo news. Hospitals are not overrun here. https://buffalonews.com/news/local/covid-19-in-western-new-york-the-latest-map-and-statistics/article_261f0820-dcb5-11ea-9ade-d3e35b30860b.html According to the state Department of Health, 30% of this region's hospital beds – and 55% of its ICU beds – are available on average as of Nov. 16.

Exactly. Who are all these randoms? We have a nice close group of reasonable people in Upstate, its rare across these forums. Lets keep it that way. Back to Covid. 173k cases today.