wxdude64

20 degrees warmer this morning. Had some sprinkles overnight.

Caps played better, but down 2-0 headed home. 

Currently 33.5 here after a 31.8 low. 

31.4 for a low. No frost/freeze warning here due to official growing season not started. I THINK it's 5/1. 

1 hour ago, BlizzardNole said:

Yep, and we would be wailing about the snow in VA Beach while we smoked cirrus 

truth

Hey! An almost 'normal' April day! 67.2/44.3 vs 67.5/40.8. Been a while it seems....

1 hour ago, stormy said:

The last 30 days says doom regarding moisture . DC and east have done great. Western areas are lacking. My April moisture is not good  1.92 vs  ..2 30 to date ...................................

**looks around at the 'greenness' after just cutting the grass for 2nd time this week**

Currently at 3.97 for the month here, the 5 CO-OPs within 30 miles of the house running 2.75-4.03 as of today. 

1 minute ago, EastCoast NPZ said:

Couldn't manage more than 3 drops of drizzle today.

Yeah, I had two decent looking areas head my way today, only for them to dissipate and turn south at the last minute. I MAY have 0.01 in the gauge lol.  

1 hour ago, WxWatcher007 said:

 

Haha far from a pro but I’ve done it a few times! I’ve never done solo but it may be possible. 

I think if I were to do solo I’d only have a predetermined zone I’d be willing to drive in—say staying in the front range of Colorado through central Kansas and bouncing around the zone depending on the severe wx outlook. During my trips I had at least one other person willing to drive, and we literally traveled thousands of miles each trip over the course of 7-10 days. One time we went from San Antonio to Corpus Christi to Amarillo in one day. That’s a lot to ask of one person. 

Expect to spend between $100-150 each night for a decent hotel. Gas isn’t terrible if you have an efficient car. Rental car with insurance (and always get the full insurance in case of getting totaled by hail lol) isn’t awful as well but check around to get the cheapest price. Don’t forget to factor in food. Each of my trips cost at least $1k. Being in multiple cities alone is worth the cost IMO. 

That’s all doable. The biggest challenge with a solo trip imo is the logistics when you’re actually in chase mode. Driving and tracking a supercell that could split, spawn a tornado, or throw out big hail far from the “center” sounds dicey.

If you did do it, I’d recommend keeping even greater distance and ALWAYS being prepared to move to a safer location. If you question in the slightest whether you’re safe, move immediately. 

Other than that, hell of a thrill and amazing to travel the country. I’d try chasing again this year, but I think the tropics will have me busy this summer/fall.  

 

 

A great response and I agree totally. I've never 'chased' by myself, only with my son on a few occasions. The part about driving AND keeping up with radar/warnings/sky conditions keeps me from trying solo myself. BTW awesome last pic!

Light rain here this morning, looks like a much larger and heavier round incoming in next hour or so. 

15 hours ago, clskinsfan said:

The USDA should not have changed the zones this year. People are going to lose their gardens. I kept my stuff in the greenhouse. But this is why you dont fuck with planting calendars if you are the government. 

 

Yep, only cold hardy stuff out now. I generally don't put anything that likes warm (or dislikes cold) until May 15-20. 

1 hour ago, nw baltimore wx said:

I’m trying to be respectful but I have no idea what we are discussing. My backyard is currently on the every five day shave regimen.

Agree, I mowed Saturday, needs it again. 

On 4/10/2024 at 9:43 AM, George BM said:

Question for those of you who saw totality in both 2017 and 2024. I notice that the width of totality with this eclipse was larger than it was for 2017. My question is: Did this eclipse's totality seem darker than 2017s?

Well, as someone earlier posted, my experience was VERY different. In 2017 I was on top of a mountain off Foothills Parkway in eastern TN, seeing that darkness close in from a distance was awesome! Being in central TX with small elevation changes you couldn't tell/see it closing in. However, it WAS a longer period of darkness than 2017. We had partly cloudy skies and missed about 30-45 seconds of the start of totality because of it, but the rest was awesome. Their neighbor has chickens and both the roosters carried on like it was morning once the sun broke back out. We saw an awesome bright eruption on the south/lower side of the sun during, and then the ring once the moon started clearing the sun. We got to our location about 4 hours in advance (visiting her relatives) and then stayed another day, so travel was not an issue for us. 

3 minutes ago, katabatic said:

So...question about measurements. Around lunchtime, I was on an endless Teams meeting and we had about 45 minutes of fairly heavy snow. It looked like it was nearly an inch but by the time the meeting was over, the sun returned and most of it melted. How would I account (or not) for that?

ALL of these are really weird, whoever made them likes the Simpons I believe, but here is an idea and you can follow all the rest if you wish.

18 hours ago, Eskimo Joe said:

I'm looking for a batch of native flowering seeds that I can scatter over a 100 x 100 ft area. It's slightly moist, with intermittent sun. Looking to just throw them and see what grows. Any suggestions?

10 hours ago, WxUSAF said:

Prairie Nursery and other online nurseries have seed mixes that would probably work for that. 

10 hours ago, dailylurker said:

American Meadow 

7 hours ago, Kay said:

Those are both good suggestions for seed mix sources. I grow flowering native perennials but have never tried a seed mix scatter/meadow approach over a large area. Has anyone? Let us know how it goes if you try it?

I have a 20x15 spot I'd like to try something like this, partial shade though..... same seed types?

10 hours ago, Interstate said:

Norfolk has been more wild. 26-11 last night. Look at the box score.  The Orioles are going to have to make some decisions soon.
 

https://www.milb.com/gameday/tides-vs-knights/2024/04/03/753540/final/box

 

More like a football score

2 hours ago, 09-10 analogy said:

We got a hotel room where it's 99.7% totality, in Utica. Our daughter goes to school up near there so we're hooking up with her since her friends can't get their act together to see it. I think we're just going to stay at the hotel and if we miss out on 0.3%, it'll be worth it to have access to a bathroom and not worry about traffic. One thing giving me a little pause is the NWS threat matrix product, which shows 49% sky cover for Monday for Utica at 12 pm. But the p-and-c forecast is mostly sunny. 

 

Do the bit 'extra' and drive the 5-10 miles to get to totality. You will thank us ALL for the difference. I'm gonna be on the centerline west of Waco (4:30 of darkness) to enjoy. Whether cloudy or sunny, we are meeting some of her family so it has a duel purpose. 

Third or fourth round of rain/sleet/graupel/snow here. Almost whitens ground then stops and sun pops out a short bit to go back to previous. Temp hits 44-47 when sun is out, drops into mid 30's when precip falls. Currently 38.1/32.4 with all the above precip falling and a WNW wind at 8 gusting to 23. 

Wet period. Not quite an inch in gauge though. Set (tied) a warm minimum for the date (54.7), had gusty winds and hail with at least three separate thunderstorms. Lightly raining at 8 am with 58/56 and a barometer still dropping at 29.35! 

Just had about 2-3 minutes of hail here, small, mostly 1/2" with a couple 3/4" pieces about 10 minutes ago. 

4 minutes ago, Eskimo Joe said:

Wind gust to 102 mph reported at the Boyd, KY Emergency Operations Center (EOC) weather station earlier today. The reading was recorded on a Davis VP2 station that appears to be mounted properly

WOW

1 minute ago, wxdude64 said:

Confirmed tornado just north of Beckley WV about 20 minutes ago. 

AND NOW a new tornado warning for Greenbrier and Pocahontas counties...

Confirmed tornado just north of Beckley WV about 20 minutes ago. 

My numbers for March 2024

Averaged high was 59.2 degrees vs a normal of 54.4 degrees, a +4.8 degrees above average. The highest temp recorded was 76.5 degrees on the 15th. Averaged low was 34.6 degrees vs a normal of 30.0 degrees, a + 4.6 degrees above average. The coldest temp recorded was 21.5 degrees on the 1st. Averaged temp from the month was 46.9 degrees vs a normal of 42.2 degrees, 4.7 degrees above normal. The total precip for the month was 2.62 inches vs a normal of 3.52 inches, a -0.90 inches below average. The wettest day was the 23rd with 0.84 inches falling. There were 11 days with measurable, 5 days with a 'T' and 15 dry days. Total snowfall for the month was a 'T' vs a normal of 4.5 inches, a -4.5 inches below average, and goes into 2nd place behind the 0.0's for 1982/83/89/97 and 2000. Highest wind for the month was 51 mph on the 30th. There were 15 days with winds recorded above 25 mph. No new records for the month. Overall a warm, windy, semi-dry and snowless month. Records go back to October 1979. 

Under a STW until 1:15 pm here for up to 70 mph winds, but so far nothing close to that. Picked up .25 in about 9 minutes though. Still raining lightly.