RDM

Can see flakes out in Garrett Co. on several of the traffic cameras here...   https://deepcreektimes.com/other-area-webcams/garrett-county-state-highway-webcams/   

Down to 42 here NW of Vienna.  Feels great outside.  

2 hours ago, Random Chaos said:

While it's still raining in some areas, here are initial rainfall estimates from https://mrms.nssl.noaa.gov/qvs/product_viewer/

 

And here's my anemometer output:

Thanks for that.  Interesting gradient between the dark red blotch IVO of Vienna/Tysons and the light green rain hole IVO Dulles/Leesburg.    

1.98" yesterday and 1.16" since midnight.  Other than a few spells, the rate was mostly a steady soaker, which we needed.  Our area around Vienna missed most of the t-storms a couple weeks ago. 

1.47" so far - From the looks of the bowling ball rolling northward through Richmond would guess I-95 would not be the place to be this evening.  

1 hour ago, EastCoast NPZ said:

Gorgeous evening out.

Indeed - Just took the trash out to the street on our weekly Thursday evening ritual.  (Our driveway is 500ft long).  It's an awesome night out.  

93 here but feels nice outside in the shade with a slight breeze.  Doesn't feel like the dp is 70.  

6 minutes ago, mappy said:

Still powerless. Thankfully it’s less humid out so opening the windows is quite nice in the house 

Hope your power is restored soon.  Our power flickered about 10 times over a couple mins when the initial line came through.  Likely due to trees contacting the lines.  Normally, the breakers allow 3 or 4 spikes before the breakers trip as a safeguard (according to a Va Power lineman).  So it appears we got lucky.  Many weren't as fortunate.  

Just picked up almost 3x more with this line than with the initial batch that came through at 17:30.  

Received just shy of 2" from both rounds this evening.  Lawyers Road NW of Vienna near our home flooded again.  Happens anytime we get more than 1.5" in an hour.  However, this time FFCO Police didn't close the road like they normally do.  Was a precarious situation with the road completely under water and low visibility.  Had a white water rescue at the same spot a few years ago when a SUV was washed off the road.  

That was a brief but intense gullywasher a while ago.  Received .69" in about 10 mins.  A bit of wind too.  

Currently 3 tornado warnings in nrn Ohio and NW PA.  Not good.  

1.  Blizzard of 78 in Ohio and the wind and flash freeze.  Will never forget the unrelenting wind.  Only got about 14" of snow, but the wind closed everything around us for days until the snow blowers from Wright Patterson AFB and Dayton Airport got out into the remote areas to clear a path through the drifts.  Almost became a desperate situation when the grocery stores ran out of food.  Was an awaking to how precarious our supply chain dependencies are.  

2.  2016 and having 33" in our backyard.

3.  18/19 Dec 2009 - Best birthday present ever and awesome welcome home gift from 3 years in Thailand and no snow.

4.  1990 in Sas Fee Switzerland - 3 meters in 3 days - thunder snow followed by howitzer shots to reduce the avalanche risk.  Roads were closed for days - and the Swiss were like "no big deal".  

76F/71dp at 0740am - argh...   

Ended up with a pretty quick .65" out of this line...  Were shut out by the earlier round late afternoon.  

Pouring here atm - picked up .5+ in 15 mins.   Nice display outside too. 

1 hour ago, WxUSAF said:

It’s a pretty similar look to the worst dust storms we had in Iraq when I was there. Although we got visibilities down to <1/4mi with dust.

Yup was in Baghdad a lot in 2003/04.  Had several events where the visibility was 1-200 yds at best - could taste it and it didn't taste good.  Was like talcum powder - got into everything.  Was hell on anything mechanical, like the diesel generators.  Couldn't keep the filters clean.  

13 hours ago, Kay said:

even worse pic

We have one (or more) pileated woodpeckers that hang out around our home.  Saw one down at ground level attacking the soft spot at the base of a white pine tree in our front yard.  Got within 20 feet of him as he was digging at something.  Amazing how big they are up close.  And those eyes - wow.  Can often hear him pounding away on a calm evening from the entire neighborhood.  When he gets going on a hollow tree the reverberation echos like a drum.  

Have some smaller woodpeckers also in our area.  They love attacking the cedar trim on our home.  They've done a lot of damage over the years.  Small buggers only about 5 or 6 inches tall, but very effective at what they do.  

18 hours ago, nw baltimore wx said:

Beautiful day in Cambridge. Started out chilly and very foggy, but by 9AM, it was stellar. Perfect day for my niece and I to do her first century ride.

Congratulations to your niece.  Rode a century on my 1886 Columbia High-Wheel a long time ago in Germany.  That was a lot of "fun" - haha.  One of those things I'll likely never do again.  Never rode a century on a normal bike.  Hats off to your niece.  Nice average speed too.  

15 hours ago, MN Transplant said:

The trench was definitely on the order of 4' deep.  The guys who were down in there were up to their chests.  Our gas lines must have been deeper because they only had to dig around the existing water supply line to the house and not the gas line.

Good to know - thanks.  Was looking at the compactor in the background for a comparison, but that can be deceiving too.  Appreciate the update on the depth. 

27 minutes ago, H2O said:

Standard depth for water mains was 4’. Deeper than that was called over depth and the contractor charged more so every attempt was made to be at 4’. Gas was supposed to be min 3’ along with electric and telephone. Cable was notorious for being more shallow. 
 

Even at 4’ water mains here are subject to the impacts of the freeze thaw cycle. Most main breaks were between Nov-Mar due to the heaving of the soil. Part of what we did was replacing the older mains that became more prone to breaks from cold weather. 

Good to know - thanks for the insight.  Know all too well what you mean about cable and phone.  Sliced through our twisted pair before with a round point shovel some years ago.  Verizon would not fix it because we already had fiber.  Then a few years after that sliced through the fiber because it was only a few inches below grade.  They installed a temp fiber cable above ground until they could bury a new permanent line.  Kept the temp cable for the next time.  

On 4/24/2023 at 11:45 AM, H2O said:

I think its part of the annual replacement program.  If a new tower is built then added pressures will blow out old pipes.  And yes, those are original pipes so those go back to the 1950-60s.  

We always tried to work with VDOT to find out what roads they planned to pave in any given year and get in beforehand.  Makes zero sense to have them pave, we come in and tear things up and have to pave it ourselves.  Didn't work perfectly all the time but when it did its a beautiful thing.  

 

Enjoy a new water main!!

H2O,

    Always hoped that FF Water was working with VDOT on scheduling repairs around paying schedules for the reason you raised (not sure if you worked for FF Water or another org).  Seen a lot of examples that implied that coordination was a bit askew.  

    A question....   That's a really nice looking trench MN Transplant posted.  Looks to be about 2 feet deep - or so.  What is the standard depth for water mains around here?  Someone told me it is 2 feet, but that seems shallow.  Nat Gas is 2' min depth according to Wash Gas rep.  Back home in Ohio H2O and Nat Gas depth is 4'.  (much colder there).  

    Had major issues back in 78 when we didn't get above freezing for over a month.  The frost line got down to below 5 feet, which burst a lot of mains.  Trying to fix a broken main when the ambient temps are below 0F must be one of the most miserable jobs ever.  

Full sun here for the last 30 mins.  According to the NWS, the line in eastern Ohio is moving east at 90mph.  Wow.  Don't see that very often.  

4 hours ago, Stormfly said:

Wow I do remember that one!

I was working graveyard shift and was awakened from my nap around dinner time by whistling winds and barking dogs.  Checked the Heathkit ID-4001 and it looked like a speedometer on the highway!  Sustained in the 40s and gusts in the upper 50s.  Lights were flickering and the sky was lighting up but knew it wasn't lightning as lighting isn't green!  That was a sneaky one for sure.

The reference to Heathkit weather stations brings back memories.  Built my first weather station in 75, which measured 70+mph gusts during the blizzard of 78.  Hard to tell exactly how fast the wind was blowing because the anemometer was analog with a manual gust needle that measured "peek" readings.  

2 hours ago, psuhoffman said:

Oh god this again. I wasted an hour of my life years ago proving that the results from one season had no statistically significant impact on the chances of snow the next winter.  And it resulted in a bunch of “but that doesn’t feel right” replies.  I gave up on that. Math is hard. 

Yes it is - especially when you get into laplace transforms, hebert functions and higher level diffy Q.  Wish I could forget those agonizing elements of higher education.