RDM

Sounds like you had a great trip. The view of Jungfrau and the North face of the Eiger is a sight to see also. And spot on about the Eiger aerial tram. It provides some great views with the right weather. If you want to do some great hiking in the late spring through Sept or Oct, the passes at the head of the Rhone Valley where the Furka, Gimsel and another pass meet are incredible. If you know where to look, you can see up close the Swiss gun emplacements guarding the passes, which are covered fake rocks and camouflaged boulders. The creativity in how they hide in plain sight is impressive. Switzerland has the proverbial picturesque appeal, but it is also the only country with a bomb shelter position for the entire population plus any visitors should they be attacked. Yea, I know... who is going to attack Switzerland?

Yup - it's amazing. From the top of the Klein Matterhorn you walk through a long tunnel bored through the top of the mountain at 13,300' - Ski out the back into Italy for a few hundred meters, then curve around onto the glacier at the foot of the Matterhorn and wind your way down the mountain. If there is sufficient snow, you eventually ski into Zermat at about 5000' asl. If you do that twice in one day, you know you've done something. Of course, along the way you can you may want to stop at a chalet for some strawberry waffles, fondue or a sip of cognac. The cable car/tram that goes from the Trockner Steg station to the Klein Matterhorn holds 120 people and was at one time the longest unsupport tram span in Europe (possibly the world - not sure). Near the upper end the tram rises nearly vertical up the face of the mountain.

Great shot MN. Zermatt is my old stomping grounds. My family had an exchange student from down in the Rhone Valley near Brig who worked in the Wega souvenir shop near the train station in Zermatt. She's like another sister to me and we've kept in touch for 45+ years. Through her family and friends in Switzerland I was very fortunate to get indoctrinated into the Swiss culture. Her dad used to drove the cog train from Brig/Visp up to Zermatt (part of the famous Glacier Express train route). First skied the glacier near the Klein Matterhorn in 81 during my first trip to Europe with my parents. Then a few years later lived in Germany for the first of 2 stints there. Skied Zermatt about 20 times, plus Sass Fe, Verbier, Crans Montana, and many other resorts in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and France. Did a fair bit of back-country in the Alps too - I used to only telemark ski but doubt my knees could take it now. If you had enough snow to ski from the top of the Klein Matterhorn all the way into town, that's about 8500 vertical feet in one run. About the only other place on earth that will match that much vertical in one run is in Chamonix. Did you have a chance to take the run down the other side into Italy? The run from Plateau Rosa down to Cervina is an awesome run.

Just took the trash out - very heavy mist atm. Feels strange - not opaque like fog and heavier/wetter.

On the subject of TSA delays - My wife and I flew to Tokyo earlier this month and returned to IAD from last Sat. We were dreading the flight out and even more the return flight as IAD is notorious for long lines at immigration. On the outbound leg - we were surprised at how short the line was for Immigration and Security. We were even more surprised at how short the line was on the arrival back. We only had a few people ahead of us in the Immigration line. Likewise, Customs "inspection" was nearly non-existent. The staffing at Immigration was clearly on a reduced staff on both the outbound and return legs of the trip. However, TSA appear to be making up for things by expediting passport processing. On the return at IAD, as soon as my wife and I had our iris scans done, the Immigration officer immediately handed us our passports back and pushed us on through. From start to finish was about 20 seconds max, for both of us. In my 40+ years of flying into IAD that was by far the fastest I've ever seen Immigration process people through at IAD. I thought..., maybe we just got lucky with the timing of our flight from Tokyo? Maybe we were in between the big "pushes" as the airlines call the ebb and flow of flights. That's possible. However, our flight was packed and there were a lot of people from other flights at the baggage carousals indicating Immigration was still processing a lot of people through. No doubt this is no consolation for all the nightmare stories we're seeing of airport lines around the country. And again, maybe we just got lucky.

The NWS warning/watch map is a kaleidoscope of colors in the mid-west. It's not often we see a map that goes from blizzard warning to tornado warning in less than 70 miles. Current view of the gradient between Lincoln and Galesburg IL is impressive. The zoomed in view centered on Lincoln shows nearly every color in the NWS arsenal.

CWG sounding the alarm with a couple of articles.

Haven't had a thick pea soup like this for a while. Visibility is less than 300' here atm.

Great to have you back doing PBP - much appreciated.

Nice picture - thanks for sharing. Pretty amazing when you consider that's a 2000+ mile storm and everything visible is at most about 8-9 miles thick. The fluid dynamics of what mother nature can muster is impressive.

Was thinking the same thing. We have right at 4" - and it's compacted/heavy paste. IAD was under the band for several hours. We lucked out here ivo Vienna.

Took a peek at the New England sub - they are getting nailed. Wind gusts 80+ mph. Half the Cape is w/o power. Some pretty amazing obs up there.

4" here. Based on other observations, sounds like we were lucky to get the band that hovered over FFCO for a while. (Norlun, IVT, whatever it was - it performed well for several hours. Looks great outside this morning. Still a little sn-

Just had a fairly large power outage hit our immediate area - 260 customers/houses w/o power. Fortunately, our house is still online - for now.

Same here NW of Vienna. Had several hits to the grid over the last 5 mins as the wind picks up. There's a lot of weight on the trees with this paste. Expect we'll loose power at some point soon.

Talk about a waste of our taxes... Was out for a Jebwalk earlier and four big snowplows come by... to plow 2-1/2" of slop. Amazing - four large double axle dump trucks doing the job of what one truck could easily do. Plus, because Lawyers road is technically a state route, which means VDOT is responsible. So, the four plow trucks were trailed by a supervisor in a SUV. Five vehicles, five drivers, at who knows how much per hour per driver and vehicle - to plow 2-1/2".

Been watching/reading your posts on the setup of the trough. Thanks for the tutorials. We're not very far apart geographically, but it is ripping SN or SN+ here NW of Vienna. Hope you're getting the same goods out your way.

I must admit that's part of the reason why I pushed my wife moved from West Spfld to NW of Vienna 20 years ago. It's not THAT far, but sometimes is JUST far enough to make a difference. My wife doesn't understand it. Nor does she understand the collective curse of our beloved hobby (or in your case, profession). haha.

Fatties mixing in now. Temp starting to drop - down 2F to 35 in last 30 mins.

With your previously stated 400 ft of elevation, you must be near Tysons. It's the only place in McLean with that much elevation. FYI - the communications tower at 123 and 7 is the highest spot in FFCo except for the land fill at the I-66 transfer station at FFCo Pkwy - It is the highest spot in the county. We're 375' ASL here just NW of Vienna, and just far enough away from the Tysons concrete jungle that we often get a little more sn because of the lower impact of the Tysons heat island. If that band sets up as currently projected, we'll be in business up through MOCO and down to Spfld.

Steady at 36F now. Was getting some white rain with the heavier band. Slacking off now and only rn- atm.

If only that 12k were to validate... Most of the forum would be happy campers. NJ and NYC would be shut down for a long time.

36F with rn/sn mix. Some fatties mixing in but not many atm. Lots of moisture in the fetch running across the SE into the GOM.

Based on NWS radar loop, it appears to be snowing along the M/D already - although it could be virga. Precip field has really blossomed the last couple of hours.

Yup don't recall a setup in recent memory where the Warning map nearly encircled DC as it does now. Sad