vastateofmind

Always like to review returns on radar, and then confirm via "visual" results when looking out the front window to the southeast... Some impressive clouds/thunderheads all around us this afternoon. I think we miss out (again) this afternoon...but at least we got a bit of precip this past week to alleviate the thirsty grass/sod.

Welcome to the club! Wooooow....Weezer. I'd much rather see them than the next concert my good wife is dragging me to in early Aug....Eric Church. :/ Feeling you on this. We had a semi-steady, decently soaking rain at points yesterday...but I wouldn't mind getting under some of those returns for the sod I planted about six weeks ago. Okay...you had me at "old fashioned." I've known this for awhile, but you have impeccably good taste in beer...and mixed drinks.

Indeed. If I didn't know better, I'd say this radar screencap from a few minutes ago looked like a classic wintertime dry slot. Grey/black skies on either side of us, sunny overhead...we had some light showers around lunchtime but that's about it. Humidity is bad enough to slice like fudge. Time to stop worrying about the rain and/or storms and have an IPA...

This, bigtime. Based on radar at mid-morning....I (stupidly) did NOT water some of our new sod in the front yard thinking that we'd get under those bright yellows/oranges by midday. You'd think I'd learn by now. Of course, it all most fizzled out by the time it crossed east of I-95...I got all of five minutes of intermittent raindrops. Absolutely NOT holding out hope for those cells meagerly popping in western MD. Excuse me while I go out and water my very dry and mostly-drying sod.

Certainly got a lot darker out, but we've only received a few raindrops at 67 degrees...and radar makes it look like that's a wrap (at least for now).

You highlight two very critical must-have volunteers for efficient meets -- a knowledgeable/organized referee (newbies and experienced alike) who can keep the proceedings moving along at a steady pace, and a kickass clerk-of-course (preferably with runners/assistants!) who's not afraid to accost the coaches to get their swimmers to the staging area ON TIME, or chase down the swimmers themselves. As a former S&T judge, for about 15 years, I was always fortunate to work with awesome refs, starters and CoCs at our pool. Always encountered at least one "peacock referee" during a given season at an opponent's pool, but that's par for course. I've mentioned it before, but one of my favorite teams to compete with was @H2O's neighborhood pool, with whom we hold B meets each summer...his pool has some of the easiest and friendliest officials and families I've encountered in all of those NVSL years, with experienced officials, a comfy/spacious pool and surrounding grounds, and ALWAYS a great concession stand.

Truth. We laid down about 10 "squares" of sod about two months ago, to even up some garden beds in the front yard. I watered them religiously for two weeks straight and they took pretty well...but now at this point (along with the "regular" established grass in back/front yards), everything is starting to get that uniform, slightly-brown-from-underneath look to it. I expect that from patches in the yards...but I surely hate to lose that investment in the sod. Having said that -- we did get about a 45 minute soaker early afternoon, and we have intermittent light rain and some rumbles of thunder moving through now.

Was visiting friends at their cabin NW of Allentown, PA this past weekend...we had an HOUR, a whole HOUR...of rain on Friday afternoon up there. It was merely enough to create that ugly splotchy pattern in the pollen on my car...and it didn't alleviate the restriction for burning, so no bonfires. Was downright chilly on Friday nite up there, but beautiful yesterday and today...high 70s in the day, low 60s at night. Returning home today....90 degrees IMBY, but with a gorgeous breeze. So nice. Anyone experiencing a return of the smoke?

GOOD on you...volunteers are SO hard to come by. My wife and I served in almost all the NVSL volunteer lead positions...with hers culminating in swim rep for two season. (UGH!) Personally, as much a time-suck year-round club swimming could be, it was all worth it for the more "casual" summer swim season, where I could bounce back and forth between S&T judging (best seat in the house!) and serving as announcer (or more accurately, DJ Mikey Mike, when it came to playing the all-important MUSIC in between the official stuff ). NVSL can be a huge PITA sometimes...but it's offered even more rewarding perks off and on through the years, especially for developing camaraderie and friendships in your own neighborhood. In a teeny, tiny, itty-bitty way....I'm just a bit jealous of you and @H2O that you're still in the summer swim game.

Noticeably clearer for first time all week, no acrid stench outside either. Tempt got down to 55 and now on rebound...AQI at nearby Mt. Vernon is 97. Looks like things will improve a bit today on HRRR: https://hwp-viz.gsd.esrl.noaa.gov/smoke/index.html

It's SO hard to believe that time trials are ALREADY here...and another season is ready to start! You and @mattie g have my heartfelt sympathies...

Good observation. Same thing with the birds in my neck in the woods, they seem to be unaffected by the pall of smoke. I just took the dog for an (unmasked!) 20 min walk, and I'm astounded that despite the light winds (probably 10-15 mph) in our area, and which actually feel quite nice....they don't really seem to be scouring out the haze and smoke "up there." So, even with light breezes, 30' - 40' treetops that are only 1-3 houses away distance-wise, seem to be perpetually shrouded in the haze/smoke. I know I've shared this observation a couple times today already but...I've never seen anything like this in my lifetime.

Some may see it as nerding...but I absolutely LOVE the access to the WIDE range of data that many of us have access to in our professional lives in the 2020's. Perhaps too much data at times. But to the extent that we can improve our analysis of trends, averages, means, etc. -- absolutely, bring it on and let's dive in.

Agreed, the stat tracking on PurpleAir is awesome. It's funny, Google started throwing that color coded AQI index number at the lower left corner of our smart screens late last year which I never really paid that much attention to except on high pollen days this past spring. Those numbers have never reached the ugly reds, maroons and purples that we have this week, though.

Mt. Vernon (closest reporting sensor to me) recorded a high of 403 (!) at 7:40 a.m. today and we've gradually dropping back down to the mid 190's about since about an hour ago. BUT, like you, on the upward rebound, and back up to 205 right now. Gotta find a mask and then get out there to quickly mow the front lawn. Smoke generally doesn't bother me, but there's a unique stench to this stuff...ugh.

Interesting description, and it tracks with what @Kmlwx described a few minutes ago..."burning fabric." The odor is definitely noticeable this morning and while smoke from a bonfire or campfire can be occasionally nice to catch a whiff of, this crap is NOT that.

WOW. I've never experienced visibility that poor on the WW Bridge, where National Harbor is obscured. Dear God. Just got a reading of 382 at Mt. Vernon, closest to me reporting right now. Again...mind-blowing.

I'm 57, grew up in northcentral PA where we had our share of small-medium sized wildfires in forests surrounding our town...have never experienced anything like this up there, and certainly not in 30+ years living in the DMV. The perennial wildfire threat seems worse out on the West Coast, arguably more the fire part than the smoke part...but this "smokestorm" is just mind-blowing.

You're lucky, my sons would've never asked/wanted me to do that...but then again, I'm just a nameless, faceless communications drone working in DoD. Having admitted that, however, I do believe you work in a unique and fascinating field...one that's interesting to a wide range of folks, certainly younger ones. I think the technological advances in GIS and mapping have been amazing to watch over the years. Also, enjoy those times when your daughter wants you to do career day...or at least have you nearby.

I believe Purple Air does real-time measurements on a map, can look back historically, too, I think -- it's one of the services that Google uses to display AQI on the Home Hub/Hub Max screens.

Indeed, and I'm curious about same -- slated to camp out just north of Allentown, PA region this weekend. I wonder now if this is going to drag out longer than expected. Yech. I've never seen AQI numbers like this in our area ever...this number crept up 20-30 points since I first started watching it around 6 a.m. today. Some pics looking across neighborhood...filtered sun is easy enough to see, but I didn't quite capture the inability to clearly see treetops even 1-2 houses away. Unreal....SURREAL, even.

Full sun for now, up to 73. Cloud breaks come and go but this is more than I expected. Wish I had the patio set up because we could actually sit out this evening without instantly being coated in pollen.

I've become a tad obsessed with photographing mammatus clouds in recent years...we seem to see them a lot in these parts, either just before or after a thunderstorm rolls through. They create some of the coolest textures in the skies.

LOL, I was thinking this morning that same thought about THIS afternoon -- since Fri/Sat/Sun appear to be not-good mowing days, wanted to get the backyard done this afternoon before showers hit (hopefully to last through early next week), and front yard done tomorrow afternoon before the weekend rain arrives. And sure enough...I finished at 2:45, and very light rain started here about 10 min later. Getting even darker now with some heavier returns on radar just to our west...wind picking up a bit as well.

Good question! For the mid-sized Midland radios I mentioned buying twice, the first WR400's backlighting failed (not a deal breaker) and then the siren/alert capability died shortly thereafter (though the radio transmission itself still worked). The second WR400, radio itself simply stopped receiving, period, after two years -- out of the 6-7 frequencies that are preprogrammed to receive automated wx forecasts, all of them simply played static. No amount of radio placement or antenna adjustments worked at all...radio just stopped receiving. I probably just got two lemons. Just received and set up the smaller WR120B yesterday...one nice upgrade Midland includes now is that you can simply select your state/county for SAME alerts right in the radio settings, and you don't have to go look up your county code on the internet and then "type" it in manually. Also, forgot how LOUD the siren is, damn.