RDM

Now,,,, IF we can get through about 20 runs and all the models show a similar setup, then I'll get excited. Until then, one run of one suite with so many things that CAN go wrong. Sigh...

Jeb if only that were true. We'd all synchronize a mass Jeb Walk in your honor. If sheer willpower could make it happen, we'd have a BECS inbound. Can't even believe I'm up past 2:30 watching the radar fill in from the SW, even though much of it is likely not reaching the ground. If we get anything more than a dusting in NOVA that will be success... Those guys ivo Parr's ridge stand a far better shot at something at least conversational. Currently 25F/20dp just N of Vienna

25/17 - pretty chilly out there... Radar returns in SW VA seem to be aligning with the sliver in eastern OH as projected on the NAM...

Yup - sort of like Herschel Walker, but bigger. I ran 4.5's in high school - as a 136 lb track and cross-country runner. Adding 100+lbs to that is surreal. I'm 270 now and could not run a 10 second 40 if I fell off the roof of a high-rise.

Henry just doesn't look like he's THAT fast until you see him break something free and leave linebackers in the dust. He looks like he's just plodding along and then, wow - he's had a 20+ yd gain. Very deceptive.

Another interception.... Ravens are lucky it is only 28-6.

Well said sir. As a retired Fed who managed a lot of people in my career in some very stressful circumstances all over the world there's a few things I used to share with employees and especially new managers to help them stay on track in their careers... And these things apply to just about everything not just forums about the weather (although I occasionally find myself not following them the way I should with the LR showing sn flips on a dime!). The first is to always assume noble intent. If you convey the same towards others it will invariably be returned in kind to you when you slip up and need a little "help". The second is when you get the urge to "just tell someone how you feel" go ahead and draft it if you must, but don't send it. Instead, sleep on it and first thing the next morning read it again and delete it. Chances are, after you reflect on it after a night's sleep you'll read what you wrote the day before very differently. The third thing was to remember it's ok to be passionate about whatever you do. Just keep in mind no matter how hard you work, no matter what you do in life, nor what you accomplish, the thing people will remember most about you is how you made them feel. In that regard, it's often not what we say to each other it's how we say it.

Transition to sn nearly complete here just N of Vienna. Down to 35F from 38 an hour ago. DP dropped from 34 to 33...

My vote is for 4 5's... And as a matter of principle, I am NOT putting the blades on my Kubota until there is something plowable on the driveway tomorrow. No way I'm gonna jinx this...

Precip is blossoming over central KY and TN.

Down to 33 & 21dp - Just outside the Tysons HI. Took the trash out - the still air has "that feeling"...

Been wondering the same thing. Many of the recent events since early Dec that went N of us did so in a way we were 2-300 miles from the action. (which is a world away, I know). Realize from I-81 N and W there's another entire climate at play, especially from mid-PA N in latitude. But in some cases one could see if the setup of the ridges and troughs over the Pac and CONUS was shifted some we could be closer to at least in the game (assuming also the WAR stays out of play). Perhaps wishful thinking here, but the boundary has often been in eastern Ohio diagonally down through western KY and SRN MO. My relatives in SW Ohio have already had multiple 4"+ events, which is a bit rare for them this early.

Couldn't agree more. Give us something tangible that represents winter - anything... snow, ice, sleet, FZR, wind, sub-0F, anything...

Oh my. I have the same Ortovox - someplace - with the strength meter option. It's a must for backcountry. Same for the shovels. Mine were relegated to vehicle duty long ago too. As they say, you measure how much your friends like YOU by the size of THEIR shovels. Used Ramer ski poles with self-arrest grips that can be converted into probe poles. Fortunately never had to use them for probing, but the self arrest feature saved me a couple times. One of the many things I like about the Alps is you don't have to worry about some curmudgeon ski patrol threatening to punch your ticket for skiing off-piste. You can ski just about anyplace you want other than a few off limits forests that are safe zones for avalanche protection. Lots of off-piste options from hut to hut etc. That said, if you get hurt off piste in Europe it is extremely expensive to be rescued. So ski insurance is a good thing. Lots of good memories.

Your reference to back-country caught my eye. What gear did you use for back-country? Do/did you tele-mark or use randonnee gear, or some other setup. I learned to ski on the bumps in Ohio (a whopping 350 feet of vertical), but really got my legs in the Alps during my first tour in Germany in the late 80's. Saved no money but skied my arsh off. Converted to telemark gear in 90 and have never been back on alpine gear since. Lots more tele skiing in the Alps my second tour in Germany in the early/mid 2000's, plus a fair bit of tele skiing in Japan w/backcountry in the most amazing snow I've ever encountered (and they get a LOT of it). Last place I skied in Japan was a decent of Mt. Fuji on tele skis - a memorable experience on an incredible day with unlimited visibility. Haven't skied for 10 plus years, so the tele experience now would be ugly at best now. Only skied Squall Valley out west. As a former Olympic venue I had much higher expectations - it was a big letdown. Good snow quality, but very disappointing terrain. Have heard Jackson is one of the best out west. However, for a relative comparison you can ski more than 2x the vertical of Jackson in Zermatt, Switzerland (over 8500 feet of vertical in one run). If you've never had a chance to ski the Alps, it is highly recommended. Pick the right times to go off season though to avoid the lines. If you go during ski break in the springtime the congestion can be crazy. In general, much more vertical in the Alps than about anyplace out west, but better snow out west.

ROTFLMAO!!! Hysterical. And I thought this was a weather forum. It's actually a comedy site in disguise, albeit a thin disguise at best. You nailed it CAPE!

The game... hum... Let's see - I think I'm busy this afternoon. I've got to... nope, did that already. Maybe I can... naw, that's even more boring than watching the Skins. Hard to imagine what the atmosphere is like in the Skins front office these days. Tickets as low as $4 at the last home game? Hard to contemplate given the futile impossibility of even finding tickets not long ago. Wonder what the stats are for season ticket holders? At one time one of the most prized commodities in sports. Since the value of the Skins as a franchise is still up there, maybe Dan S. will give thought to cashing out and do everyone a favor by doing so. We can only hope.

Well shucks... I sure hope it ain't over with yet. But thank you. Been fortunate to have some interesting experiences and witness some of the most stark examples of weather Mother Nature can muster. I hope this coming winter brings us all a spectacle to remember. We are definitely due!

Mappy, You are assuming everyone here can read... Now, think about that... (please read on if you dare) The analogy is like the flight safety card in the seat back of the Pakistani Airlines flight I took way back in the 90's (I was sitting in an emergency exit aisle). The card said, "If you can't read this card please notify a cabin attendant". (again, think about that - I'm not making this up) Thinking to myself, if you can't read, how the h*ll will you know to notify a cabin attendant? It said the same thing in about 6 languages - I speak German, and the translated message said the same thing in German. So they really went out of their way to get it wrong in multiple languages. (and mind you, Pakistan and India both had nuclear weapons then and now - and I lived in India at the time). Unable to avoid the temptation, I pushed the overhead light for the cabin attendant. She came to see what was wrong. I asked if the card was a joke and she asked why? I explained the situation and she looked at me perplexed and asked if I wanted to move to a non-emergency aisle seat. I laughed said no and asked her to get the purser. The purser came and I asked the same thing about the card. At first she gave me the same perplexed look as the first attendant. Then all of a sudden, it hit her, as if the load of the entire PIA organization was on her shoulders. She got so embarrassed her eyes welled up. She sheepishly said thank you and that she would bring this unfortunate oversight to the attention of her superiors. The purser went back up to the front of the cabin and had a conference with the rest of the attendants and the captain. Pretty soon they were all laughing with a muted chuckle in an ill-fated attempt to downplay the hilarity of the moment. Everyone else on the flight was wondering what was going on except them and me. Wonder if they ever did reprint the safety cards? Which brings us back to the quandary here... If only everyone here could read...

No kidding on the STJ. Several of those members show it ripping from way off Baja. No lack of moisture in many of those setups.

Night and day difference from the Cooke era. Cooke epitomized the term, "take care of your people and they will take care of you". Was not too long ago when season tickets for the Redskins was THE thing to have. Snyder paid $800M for the Skins and Forbes says it's currently worth $3.4B, but that seems high based on all the empty seats. Too bad the NFL doesn't have some sort of 2/3rds vote option to force an owner to abdicate. In the big picture, the current Skins administration is hurting not only the Skins, but the league.

It's difficult to watch just about any NBA game anymore. The "it's all about me syndrome" is nauseating. On half the plays the player's reaction would make you think they just made the greatest play in the history of sports. Defense is nearly nonexistent in many games until the post-season. The pecking order of who gets by with violating the fundamentals is atrocious - seeing LJ take 6 or 7 steps and not get called for traveling, the obvious carry on many cross-overs, the "Euro Step" - it's so sad to what the game has become compared to what it was in the 80's and early 90's. Then there's the subculture of stats, bonuses, ball time etc constantly lurking in the dark shadows. It's muted the fun factor of fundamental athletic competition. It's no wonder attendance and tv ratings have plummeted. If they really played a full game flat out and as a team on both ends of the court, it may be worth watching again.

Got down to 22, where we're still at with 21 dp. The air mass dried out even more overnight.

Hi George - Thanks for the reminder. I did some poking around in my archives of VHS-C tapes and couldn't find it. Then got side tracked. That was the summer trip to Hintertux, Austria in 89 or 90. What an event - short lived, but so intense! Still remember the very unsettling feeling of having total vertigo and not realizing I was falling over until my head hit the slope. You hear people talk of getting vertigo and think, yea - uh huh - not me, or I used to think so. That experienced helped me understand the actuality of vertigo and my own mortality. Don't recall if I mentioned before I was a avid tele-mark skier back then. Did a lot of back-country in the Alps, with skins, beacons etc and encountered some pretty intense snowfalls. But nothing anywhere ever came close to that squall. Even the intense snowfalls on the windward side of the Japanese Alps did not compare in intensity - and they get a ton of snow there. Search on Yahoo for "Zao Snow Monsters" - the pictures that show up are the wind swept snow encrusted tops of pine trees - they get that much snow and it's excellent quality. I'll renew my search for the squall video and see if I can find it. Once I do, I still need to finagle a way to get it converted from analog VHS-C to digital. Thanks again for the memory jog.

Down to 30 with a 23 dp. Looks like 25 or so is within reach.