July Banter 2026

[snowfan]

7 minutes ago, MN Transplant said:

The USAF group has been circling south of town waiting their turn. That should be fun.

C5, KC135, KC46, C17 just circling at about 3k feet. 

[Kmlwx]

13 minutes ago, snowfan said:

C5, KC135, KC46, C17 just circling at about 3k feet. 

They went straight over me hauling ass and banking slightly to exit the city. Insane. 

[Kmlwx]

AFSOC was even better. 

[nj2va]

The pictures (and shots on TV) from DC are just epic. What a celebration of our nation! 

[Kmlwx]

16 minutes ago, Kmlwx said:

AFSOC was even better. 

Andddd the USAF fighters were nuts. Probably not going to see a concentrated air power demo before my time on this Earth runs out lol. 

[MN Transplant]

5 minutes ago, Kmlwx said:

Andddd the USAF fighters were nuts. Probably not going to see a concentrated air power demo before my time on this Earth runs out lol. 

[snowfan]

The B1 is splitting Waldorf and La Plata right now under 7k feet and descending.

[Kay]

Today is the first I've heard of experimental WoFS guidance but I like it already because you can pronounce WoFS

[Kmlwx]

58 minutes ago, Kay said:

Today is the first I've heard of experimental WoFS guidance but I like it already because you can pronounce WoFS

WoFS is spectacular! Insane how far modeling as come over the years!

[pazzo83]

Fitting that France wins on July 4th - our oldest ally, and definitely an important part of our victory over the British.  Plus - while most of the philosophical ideas of the founders (let's call it enlightenment-era liberalism) come from English tradition, plenty also come from the French (Montesquieu etc).  And of course, a ton of what is now the US used to be part of France!

[pazzo83]

There very likely is not a United States without the French, and there likely is not the French republic without us.

[nw baltimore wx]

Not sure how popular this will be, but as I’m watching the O’s game while listening to WW3 outside, I think I’m ready for drone displays in place of fireworks.

[Kmlwx]

11 minutes ago, nw baltimore wx said:

Not sure how popular this will be, but as I’m watching the O’s game while listening to WW3 outside, I think I’m ready for drone displays in place of fireworks.

This will be tough with the iterations of drone regulations happening the past few years. Especially in the DC/Baltimore region (and even extending to Southern Maryland, and down to Virginia Beach. Some of the most heavily regulated air space in the world exists here - and the concentration of major military installations contributes of course. 

Between JB Andrews, the SFRA around DC, Pax River down in Southern Maryland, and one of our biggest naval areas down in Norfolk - any mass drone event probably would be a tough sell. 

[nw baltimore wx]

14 minutes ago, Kmlwx said:

This will be tough with the iterations of drone regulations happening the past few years. Especially in the DC/Baltimore region (and even extending to Southern Maryland, and down to Virginia Beach. Some of the most heavily regulated air space in the world exists here - and the concentration of major military installations contributes of course. 

Between JB Andrews, the SFRA around DC, Pax River down in Southern Maryland, and one of our biggest naval areas down in Norfolk - any mass drone event probably would be a tough sell. 

For sure, but if it’s sanctioned and regulated, I think it could be done safely.

Regardless, it’s not a hill I want to die on, but fireworks seem antiquated.

[pazzo83]

13 minutes ago, nw baltimore wx said:

For sure, but if it’s sanctioned and regulated, I think it could be done safely.

Regardless, it’s not a hill I want to die on, but fireworks seem antiquated.

just wait until DC records the worst air quality ever recorded here in about 2 hours.

[Kay]

My power is out and I have no AC. It's actually not that bad and so far I have been able to avoid knee jerk emotional reactions and human fallacies but FOR HOW MUCH LONGER?

[AnEndlessMaze]

1 hour ago, Kay said:

My power is out and I have no AC. It's actually not that bad and so far I have been able to avoid knee jerk emotional reactions and human fallacies but FOR HOW MUCH LONGER?

Hope it comes back soon. This does remind me of the 2012 derecho in that it doesn’t feel like the power companies region-wide were adequately prepared for this. Could be the holiday or just complacency from lack of high-impact weather lately. I do remember back then everyone was so angry and then it did lead to better prep for Sandy later that year.

[Jebman]

4 hours ago, nw baltimore wx said:

Not sure how popular this will be, but as I’m watching the O’s game while listening to WW3 outside, I think I’m ready for drone displays in place of fireworks.

I'd like massive drone displays then about ten million dollars' worth of fireworks.

I NEVER, EVER GET ENOUGH FIREWORKS.

I'd forego a 20 foot Sierra Blizzard for a week of intense fireworks.

[katabatic]

The fireworks display at Wisp was awesome. Had a few sprinkles ~8PM which dropped the temp into the mid 60s so it was quite refreshing. What was super strange was after we got back home and turned on the Cubs game, Wrigley Field looked like the London Fog of 1952 - even delaying the game due to fireworks smoke. I used to live within walking distance of Wrigley and don't remember fireworks let alone those kind of after effects (I realize the wind was calm, etc.). Hit 88 yesterday and so, never reached 90 this past week.

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

10 hours ago, AnEndlessMaze said:

Hope it comes back soon. This does remind me of the 2012 derecho in that it doesn’t feel like the power companies region-wide were adequately prepared for this. Could be the holiday or just complacency from lack of high-impact weather lately. I do remember back then everyone was so angry and then it did lead to better prep for Sandy later that year.

Ugh, that June 2012 derecho event was awful!  It was over 100 degrees that day and still at or near 100 into the evening right before the blast hit.  Knocked our power out for 2-3 days solid which was miserable because the following days were still in the upper 90s.  During Sandy we didn't have a power outage (or perhaps very briefly, can't recall exactly?) even with the more consistent winds.  There was better prep during Sandy for sure as I recall...but also, the derecho ironically cleared out a fair bit of older trees/growth so that by October there wasn't as much to fall or get uprooted.

(ETA:  Interesting tidbit about the derecho event.  Didn't get a lot of rain from that where I was, it was primarily a literal blast of wind in a concentrated amount of time.  And there was a TON of lightning.)

[Maestrobjwa]

FIFA just changed their minds on Balogun--He can play tomorrow! Sounds like a "yeah we messed up" lol

[nj2va]

45 minutes ago, Maestrobjwa said:

FIFA just changed their minds on Balogun, lol He can play tomorrow! Sounds like a "yeah we messed up" lol

WHAT?!  Holy shit, amazing!

https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/49277378/usmnt-folarin-balogun-red-card-suspended-belgium

[Kay]

Still no power. Estimated back tomorrow evening atm but you never know, sometimes BGE manages expectations I think then gets done sooner. Over 16K "customers" affected still in Harford, the most anywhere, still a lot of outages all over.