OceanStWx

I mean K index isn't always the tell all either. A good proxy for sure, but sometimes the ACE data can tell a better story. The May event was between a 5-6 and the aurora was a brilliant show around here for those that didn't have clouds. I know at GYX we've had some blah 7s, and amazing 5s (like October 2013 that peaked at a 5).

It should. After all it's going to get cloudy tonight, so it only makes sense.

Tough but not unbearable is what I remember most. No wind made a huge difference, because I've been at games where it was 20 with a 20 mph wind, and that feels like 4 degrees felt much worse that just being 4 degrees.

Man I mentally checked out on this one, seeing as I was in ITH for it.

I think it officially kicked off at 4oF, and all beer was poured from bottles as the tap lines were frozen. You had to poke a hole through the head of your beer to take a sip. And you're right, assuming the volume of the footballs didn't change much if they started the game at 12.5 PSI they would have dropped to 9.6 or so in that temperature range. I still think Vinatieri was kicking a rock around that night.

I just hope the weenies remember this next time somebody says something about climo and cancelling winter. You don't really need a February 2015 to turn a ratter into an average season. Too many cliff jumpers.

Well, wind off the water right? Must mean no snow inside 128.

It's going to be a north of 84 kind of winter.

That usually works out well in the winter.

Yeah, it's not placed in a good spot for us either. Right about where we normally try to view it, unless we can get some curtains higher in the sky.

Nice dense wind too. If we can just keep the convective debris clear, things look good.

Impressive given the amount of moonlight out there. I tried, but had no luck with the naked eye.

MWN reporting AURBO now.

MWN still in the clouds too, but reporting BINOVC now. So they might be able to spot any activity soon.

Clouds stole my aurora, and now clouds are stealing my severe.

Local area fogged in just in time for things to go to town. That was agonizing to watch knowing how good the display was. I literally could see the glow driving in my car as I passed breaks in the trees on the way to the GYX area. Arrived only to find stratus and fog streaming in off the water.

Got my first reds in November I guess it was 2013 here at the office. It was pretty cool to be able to see that with the naked eye. Ekster says this event Tuesday probably would've looked better in photos, but was more brief.

Since moving to work at GYX, I've seen them at the office at least a half dozen times in 5 years. And that's just at the whim of when I was on the schedule in the evenings. I actually was able to see this past one with the naked eye in Portland.

Nice catch, and excellent use of depolarization.

I would have a hard time believing true sleet (i.e. total melting even with latent heating going on). It's not unprecedented though, as the Groundhog Day blizzard in 2011 saw similar reports in northern Illinois. And if lightning was as prolific last winter as in 2011 I would have to imagine at least some graupel production would be going on to generate those kind of charge separations necessary. If truly intense upgright convection formed, I could envision a scenario where enough super-cooled water was lofted to form hail from these suspended graupel particles.

I think my best involved a strong clipper. We got about a quarter inch of solid glaze ice and winds were sustained 35 gusting to 45/50 mph behind the system for the evening launch. Now our UA building has doors that face north and south, so a westerly wind is basically pick your poison for which door to attempt to run out. I set the sonde up outside in an easy position for my free hand to grab it, because I know the balloon is going to catch the wind right away. This is something I had done many times before. So I come out the door and now the balloon grabs the wind and I'm being dragged down the ice with absolutely no traction to stop. I slide right past the sonde and end up crawling on my hands and knees to get back to it. After all that effort the balloon still got caught in an eddy and the sonde ended up bouncing. I mean that balloon is never going to lift you off the ground, but without traction is will take you for a ride. I can only imagine how it reacts once you're over hurricane force.

Those high wind launches are always your best stories, and the ones you'll remember. Though I can honestly say I never had the pleasure of even approaching 65 mph.

Well I'm not sure the reaction extended that far up the chain, but my guess is that politicians were leaning heavily on department and agency heads for answers as to why so many people died. These politicians of course had no prior knowledge regarding the forecast/warnings and just see the end result. The service assessment began this week, and what I'm personally hoping comes out of it is a focus on preparedness and response/action. Some of these deaths were inevitable, but I also feel that a number (probably significant) of them could have been spared with better preparedness leading up to and better response during the event.

I attended a conference where one of the surveyors gave a presentation on rating the Elie tornado. It was interesting how they went about it. Even though it directly impacted some man made structures they didn't feel like they had enough information to go on. They ended up using video (from a tripod) to track debris of known size to determine wind speed. Regardless, great thought, effort and care went into that rating.