weatherpruf

27 minutes ago, the_other_guy said:

all that stuff causes cancer. you’re almost better off with the ticks

Lyme damages the brain and cases often go undiagnosed. It can cause dementia; Kris Kristofferson was diagnosed with dementia and it turned out to be Lyme after a long investigation; not sure how reversible that is, especially in the elderly. Some of the sunscreens cause issues as well, but melanoma is worse. Risk benefit....if you can avoid the ticks great, but that is getting hard to do. My dogs bring them in and I get them in the park right in the concrete jungle. I mean the microfibers in our clothes are also suspect, especially anything water repellent. It's pretty hard to avoid toxins, many of us have PFAS in our drinking water. You can use bottled but who knows what's in it right? And I'm not even going to get into air particulates and microplastics....

9 minutes ago, WestBabylonWeather said:

People are torn on the organic thing. But why eat pesticide if you have the option for organic. 

Extensive studies have shown little benefit to organic foods, and a lot of them really aren't organic. I learned this in fisheries; a lot of the stuff for sale in markets is not what the label says it is. Recently I have seen porgies labeled Dorado, farm raised hybrid bass labeled wild striped bass ( illegal in NJ ) and tilapia labeled as flounder. And one reason you'll see " wild caught" is because that just means it was caught in a net; it could be a farmed salmon that's escaped. No one knows unless they break out a DNA test. So just eat what looks good in moderation and don't worry about it. Avoid smoking ( everything including pot, which is not, as some believe, some miracle health elixir; clear studies show long term cognitive decline with use ) and alcohol. But if you want to smoke and drink, have at it. Whatever gets you through the day. within reason, is my philosophy. We're all headed to the same conclusion.

1 hour ago, JustinRP37 said:

Poconos are also a hot spot now. Same as central MA. Any time it is above 40 for a period of time the adult ticks will become active again. Never used to happen in the winter but now we pretty much see them throughout. Look at next week. Plenty of 40+ degree days with warm overnight lows. The deer are basically the singles bar for ticks. They mate on the deer. Mice harbor the diseases and act as the reservoir hosts. If you can decrease the deer you decrease the tick abundance. Best pesticide for clothes is permethrin. That stuff is excellent and I highly recommend that with tick checks still. Remember it is the tick you don’t find that will give you disease. As much as I don’t like using pesticides on my lawn, I do use it in the spring to help keep the ticks out of the yard so my son can play.  

I've been bitten by lone star ticks a few times. Always on look out for meat allergy to develop. I carry an epi pen. I've also read to look at acorns; mice make nests of the shells; if there are a lot of acorns, this is bad for us. Deer are facing chronic wasting problems and they may be decreasing, ( and already are ) in parts of the country. You can buy treated clothes, not sure how long it lasts, but the permethrin wash that you can add really smells. I've sent the ticks out a few times and docs are happy to take a copay, but they say that only covers the tick you know about. So its probably better to get bloodwork  if you can; because I have risk factors I am put on doxycycline whenever I get bitten.

1 hour ago, LibertyBell said:

even so there could be a fluke March storm like March 1998 had.  Not that anyone should ever expect such an event.

 

It also hit close to 80 a couple days.

14 minutes ago, Allsnow said:

Good to see Tommy’s pond so crowded on a snow day. 

Despite living nearby for 61 years, I have never been to that pond. Was reading the book Kings of Their Own Ocean, about the captain, Al Anderson, who tagged 62,000 bluefin tuna and changed the science by doing so. He was an author and trained fisheries guy, but he learned to fish as a kid at....Roosevelt Pond. Like Capt Dave Cararro ( of Middletown ) of Wicked Tuna fame, he made his reputation in New England. But you can't take Jersey out of the Jersey guy....I knew both of them briefly.

11 minutes ago, RU848789 said:

Thanks!!  That page can get a little cantankerous, but that's FB for ya.  We got very lucky with the bands as it looks like just 5-10 miles N of us didn't get much, but they kept coming here.  Really pure beautiful snowfall.  I truly never thought we'd get to 2.5" (or more) just 5 hours ago.  Just wish the snow shield went further north so everyone could've enjoyed it.  

Only one heavy band here but it snowed steadily. Looks to be about 2-2.5. Enough that the dogs were unhappy with it covering their toes. 

23 minutes ago, TJW014 said:

Coming up on about 3.5" here in the middle of nowhere in the Pine Barrens.


.

Watch out for the forest gremlins.

1 minute ago, MANDA said:

Can't find a traffic cam on NJDOT site that shows anything but wet roads.

State of Emergency and NJDOT Commercial Travel Ban?  Was totally uncalled for.  Dilutes the message when one is actually needed. 

Was not THAT long ago that States of Emergency during winter storms were reserved for 12"+, blowing/drifting and heavy rates of fall so as to actually impede travel.  This was never any of that.

Then they wonder why people are apathetic and don't pay attention.

See my previous post. This isn't new. Whitman declared a state of emergency for a week because it was COLD. I mean, it really was cold, but ya know, we have heat in the modern world....and we did in 1994.

2 minutes ago, Kjtc1979 said:

I'm NYC based, and ran a school in Queens.  As a student, from K all the way through 12, school was only closed twice for inclement weather: Hurricane Gloria in 1986 and the Blizzard of 1996.  We got hit locally very badly by the 93 Noreaster, but schools were still open that day.  None of us from my area made it in.

The snow that we got once I became a teacher and then principal was on a completely different level than anything I saw growing up.  But NYC schools are under mayoral control, and who the mayor is made a big impact on whether or not we got a snow day.  DeBlasio was quick to close, while Bloomberg avoided it at all costs.  DeBlasio being a Brooklyn guy and Bloomberg a Manhattan guy might have a lot to do with that.  It's hard for Manhattan folks to imagine how hard it is to get around the other four boroughs during and after a bad snowstorm!

I do remember Bloomberg shutting down in March 2003 or 4 for a storm that never accumulated much. We'd had a run of big storms by then. You're right, the monster storms we saw in the 2000's were on another level. I believe they were an anomaly connected to climate change, and that we may have reached a tipping point where normal snows become more and more rare. But I'm not a scientist. I've just read this may happen at some point. No one can say when.

1 minute ago, Nibor said:

Went for a walk to Union Square during lunch

Will be in the Bronx tomorrow for my son's celebration at the zoo with his graduate cohort. Hope there will be some cover otg.

11 minutes ago, winterwx21 said:

Yep. As others pointed out, times have changed. It never used to be cancelled ahead of time for borderline events, because sometimes they bust. But posters made good points  on why it's reasonable to cancel beforehand these days. 

I still can't get over the fact that we can't even get a dusting on car tops here today. This is one of the most disappointing events that we've had in recent years. 

Also, a LOT of staff in North Jersey live in Ocean and Monmouth counties. If they aren't coming in, either because their own kids are off from school or they just don't want the hassle of driving and can burn a personal or sick day, then you have kids in school with not enough staff. And since they outsourced the subs to an almost minimum wage outfit that can't seem to find anyone who doesn't have a felony record, they can't get subs anymore. This mean putting the kids in the auditorium or cafeteria with a few beleaguered staff members who immediately regret coming in, and definitely won't the next time. 31 years experience here......

3 minutes ago, NEG NAO said:

and if the sun breaks through like reported north of us most of it will melt - I can still see blades of grass in areas of my lawn

Oh its really pathetic here. But its all we got. Just seen a plow go by and a salter and have no idea what they were plowing. I did take the snow blower out of mothballs in the hopes for 3 inches but it will not be needed.

2 minutes ago, winterwx21 said:

Yep. As others pointed out, times have changed. It never used to be cancelled ahead of time for borderline events, because sometimes they bust. But posters made good points  on why it's reasonable to cancel beforehand these days. 

I still can't get over the fact that we can't even get a dusting on car tops here today. This is one of the most disappointing events that we've had in recent years. 

There's another factor; attendance in general has dropped like a rock. And that's on a normal day. Any kind of weather and even fewer show up.

1 minute ago, Stormlover74 said:

Hrrr keeps it going through about 3 then it just goes poof

I have seen that dozens of times over the years and I cannot quite figure it out; it's like we are too far south for the NW storms, and too far north for the coastal ones. Could use one more decent band here. At least one made it....

5 minutes ago, Kjtc1979 said:

I was a school principal for ten years, and we had the authority to make the call to close on our own.  My rule of thumb was to close the day before if there was a credible threat.  The days of waiting until the snow is on the ground and accumulating depended heavily on their being a parent at home to pick up/watch the kids.  These days, parents need as much time as possible to know schools are closed, so they can make child care arrangements. 

State laws require X number of school days per year, so the students will just be in on another day this year.  It's always better to err on the side of caution and just make the day up later in the year.  Everyone's safe and you don't waste an instructional day on a half empty school building.

Were you around in 94? We ran out of days. Went to June 30th. Part of that was Whitman's decision to declare a state of emergency in NJ for....frigid temps ( talk about Murphy all you want, there is precedence here ). Schools heard that and closed for the WEEK. And what did her education secretary say? ( Leo Klagholz, who never worked in a public school ) " I heard the governor declare a state of emergency; I did not hear her say to close the schools." Private schools, of course, did not bother to make up all the days, but we did. I was in Elizabeth where they normally didn't close for snow.

8 minutes ago, winterwx21 said:

It's crazy that schools are closed for wet pavement here. I remember when they used to wait until snow accumulated significantly on pavement before making the decision to close schools. It's ridiculous that they make the decision to close way ahead of time for what's expected to be just an advisory level event. Today they ended up closing for nothing. It's still only accumulating a little on old snow with nothing at all even on car tops. 

They have the days built in so no loss. Some districts may use remote for the day. In a worse winter they wouldn't call it, but in mild ones they will for a small event. For one, people quickly forget how to drive in this stuff after a few lean years. There has also been a marked increase in erratic driving since the pandemic, with theories ranging from pent up frustration to viral micro brain damage. If you have been on 287, you know there is something to this....

20 minutes ago, winterwx21 said:

Yeah it just bumped up to moderate snow here too, but still struggling to accumulate even on car tops. Hopefully we can start to get a little accumulation. Sounds as if it's a completely different world for our friends just slightly to the south in Metuchen. 

I'm in Colonia and its underwhelming. Had a burst an hour ago but back to light stuff. I don't see us getting much out of this. But at least it looks like winter.

2 minutes ago, psv88 said:

In all seriousness this absolutely blows, no threats in sight now. Spring cannot come fast enough 

Earlier today I though something was actually gonna happen....there's even a sign on the highway warning of snow. Jeebus. Now we get busts before the storms even happen......

11 minutes ago, dseagull said:

Agreed.  I think I articulated my argument poorly.  You're right, its a weather board.  Apologies. 

No problem, and no need to apologize. We could have a good discussion but this is not why our friends come here. They'd go to an education forum to read that stuff if they wanted. 

6 minutes ago, WestBabylonWeather said:

This storm was too much for me emotionally. Devil be gone. 

Amen. Lots of words typed over what looks like it won't be a big deal for a lot of us. Even Anthony seems to have written it off. Or maybe he is just getting cynical.

1 minute ago, SnoSki14 said:

Ratios would have to be like 1:20 or greater based on what models show. 

It's bizarre and I'm seeing schools shutting down left & right already. 

I'm confused myself. I'm expecting about an inch. The rest of the world seems to think otherwise.

6 minutes ago, HeadInTheClouds said:

Because schools are generally close to where you live in urban areas and people can walk to them also. Up by me in Dutchess county most school systems cover large areas so it's a problem with buses driving in snow or ice. We had about 3 inches last storm and schools were closed. It's not uncommon in more rural areas. There are normally 5 days allotted every winter for snow days. 

At one time this was mostly true, but with the concerted attempts to dismantle public schools, many urban children now attend charters ( which are public in name only ) which can be way across town; some families have kids in multiple charters. 

25 minutes ago, LibertyBell said:

I don't know what his reasoning is, but Lee Goldberg has the mix line all the way up to southern Monmouth County.  He said the best snowfall will be in inland Monmouth and Ocean counties about 5-10 miles away from the ocean as well as Middlesex County. He said within a mile or two of the ocean in those counties may only see 1-2 inches of snow while 5-10 miles inland of there could see up to 6 inches of snow.

 

State offices off tomorrow and Rutgers online...

1 hour ago, Allsnow said:

Someone joked the other day that Freehold would manage to get the jackpot.....

1 hour ago, Big Jims Videos said:

I'm doing a story tonight on the difficult decision making process behind the scenes which superintendents face.  Looks like we picked the right district, focusing on Jackson Township.  Kinda surprised to see a warning here actually.  I don't see how with this current forecast schools would even attempt to open as the super told me they are moving away from early dismissals.  That never made sense to me, let's send the kids home in the worst conditions.  

I actually taught there 30 years ago or so. I asked the director, what about snow? he said they cancel on the 7th flake. Sure enough a storm was forecast in Feb and they canceled. Never saw a flake. At that time almost all of the kids were bussed, it was still semi-rural; wear orange if you cut school, the kids were told....