Eskimo Joe

There is a endangered species of Lupine in Maryland that I would happily plant if I could get some seeds. We've put a big focus on reducing our carbon footprint (needless watering, lower energy usage, etc.) Adding the native Lupine would be neato. https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/Pages/plants_wildlife/rte/rteplantfacts.aspx?PID=Sundial Lupine

Trying our hand with Lupine this year. Put two plants in the ground this year with better soil conditioning. After our trip to Maine last year we're really in love with the plants.

They really aren't testing as aggressively and doing some funky math with their reporting. For example, Florida is not reporting cases from snow birds or others who have anything less than fulltime residency in the state. This is different from every other state in the US. South Carolina is only pushing their tests through one state lab and one private sector lab that's our of state, which has lead to a substantial backlog.

On the flip side of a sane re-opening process:

Almost certain not to happen. MD/VA/DC started working on our recovery and reconstitution plans on Day 1 of this event, in public health/emergency management you start working on recovery and demobilization as soon as you shift into response mode. A lot of re-opening hinges on ensuring a stable supply chain for things like cleaning supplies, testing and PPE. A steady, but safe way to open things up is go local (park playgrounds, hair salons, furniture stores)...wait 10-17 days for incubation/testing for community spread....then focus on regional (mass transit like MARC/VRE/WMATA)....wait 10-17 days for incubation/testing for community spread....then large mass gatherings like beaches and outdoor arenas.

DC/MD/VA likely start really getting back to "normal" between May 18th and 27th, IMO.

^yea that's not good to see hospitals go on total reroute. That's a big oof.

Much of the success for flattening the eventual 2nd spike with COVID19, as with any significant public health incident, is political leadership and intelligence of the population of a location.

These are the signs you want to see for the flattening out and eventual lowering of the curve.

It's entirely reasonable to expect at least a treatment protocol for COVID-19 by the end of 2020. There are several promising treatment protocols being studied and this would at least provide us with options to significantly lower the mortality rate going forward.

Couple of rounds of wet weather...Thursday night and then Saturday night. Good for the lawns at least.

I wish more states mapped COVID like this, instead of by zip code. Thoughts on this welcome from @mappy

Source: "dude, trust me"

Solid cell near Ellicott City. Putting down some continuous CG and spiking VIL a bit.

SPC issues SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH until 21:00 UTC

It's entirely possible to get a dump of small hail stones from sub-severe storms today. There are several mPING report in the 0.25" - 0.5" range in areas with limited population so you know the storms are producing if you're getting reports from the void.

Significant uptick in lightning just west of Garrett County.

Just like that a decent wedge of clearing appears on visible. Damn.

Hail being reported with the line NW of Morgantown, WV and it's 53/42 there. If we can manage like 65/45 today we're probably good.

This is your "classic" DC severe day. Cloudy, limited instability but decent lapse rate and/or shear. We get some clearing and one or two spots win out but for everyone else it's a ho-hum event.

Today has sneaky severe written all over it. Could be a legit big hailer or two even back towards Frederick.

Do what they do any other day of the year...lump them in the waiting room for 13 hours.

Plot twist. Certain states open up and just stop testing. Can't have a paper trail if you ignore the problem!