Scarlet Pimpernel

I say! Well hit sir! Ahhh, the games in the old Panic Room! Casinos, slot machines, bars...! And the occasional game of Twister (best played during severe season)!

Yeah the way the light can give such texture and color to the clouds at that time of day is kind of surreal! And it constantly changes. I did use Lightroom to boost the contrast and clarity some, but that is really what the sky looked like.

That's pretty cool! I didn't have a chance to go see it. But when I was in Atlanta years ago they had a special display for a short time of a few of his best known ones, including Starry Night.

Amazing sky last night around sunset! Like a van Gogh painting...

We're apparently in a Ninano this year!

Hey there Bob! Those are AWESOME shots!

All you need now is to add Jobu (but don't drink his rum!)!

That's quite uncanny!!!

You can't win...you can't break even...you can't even quit the game!! (A Murphy's type law, don't remember who originated it, but it's quite appropriate!!)

I was just going to say... Surely everyone would recognize Bogey and Casablanca! Now... Get off my lawn you youngsters while I go watch some silent movies! ETA... Bit of trivia. Bogey's character Rick never actually says the phrase, "Play it again, Sam!" He does say, "Play it Sam, play it again! If you can play it for her, you can play it for me!"

Probably not Weather gambling, man! It's the next big thing after all the sports betting stuff!

Omelettes!

C'mon, you surely know I was joking and ribbing you a bit for fun! Sometimes a bit of humor helps. But it has seemed like this year you've been a lot more pessimistic. I certainly don't think you're trying to be alarmist and in no way suggesting that you put lipstick on a pig and say how great things look. In fact I agree with a lot of your concerns about trends the past couple of decades. I've always respected your input and analysis in here, one of the posters who contributes a lot of good information. And in an impartial, fact-based manner. I won't go requesting "alternative facts!"

"We're dressed in our best and prepared to get torched like gentlemen! But we would like a brandy!"

Well, with all the doom and gloom here, how about some brilliant color of a cardinal!! I didn't have the best telephoto lens to take this at the time earlier today (left the heavy 100-500mm at home when I went out!) and had to crop it a lot, but you gotta take the shot when you have it! I wasn't originally planning on photographing birds, but I couldn't pass up a cardinal. They bring amazing color to the drab background of winter for sure.

I suspect PSU was secretly tapped by @WxWatcher007 to be the next Reaper after he retired! Only instead of the fine establishment that was the Panic Room, he brings statistics and dissertations on why we are doomed directly into the medium range thread!

So, that's unconventional. Usually people in here jump out windows (or off cliffs) when things look bleak!!

That's "PerLeR VerTeX", sir!!

Agree. I do this with my photography which has become quite a hobby over the years. Sure, I'd love to have a chance to get pictures of a nice snow event again, sometime. But even without that, there's a surprising amount in nature I find interesting to take photos of at this time of year.

Well, I can certainly do without the trolling and whining for sure! But I do appreciate the good analysis and commentary (even debate to an extent!) even as we're not looking at anything wintry for awhile. It's the tearing of hair and gnashing of teeth and "it's over, this winter sucks!" that makes it unreadable, as you imply.

Thanks for this. It's kind of what I was trying to say in part in my comment above, but you worded it a lot better. That's the idea I was trying to get across, what you said, about an increase in variability even as the base state becomes overall warmer. And I think what you said about NYC is kind of true here, to a lesser extent: there are more NESIS-level storms in the past 20 years, though fewer in this area compared to farther north of course. And fewer of the smaller but still fun events.

There's been a long debate, as I understand, about how representative or not DCA is for "The District" (and the immediate inside-the-beltway area around there) when it comes to snowfall. Seems there's always a debate after every HECS. Not sure about temperatures. It may be pretty well spot-on in terms of the urban heat island effects within the District itself. But snow? My own experience is that for several of those big storms, like 2016, DCA has notably less than reports that come out of several locations within the District; places like the National Arboretum, Capitol Hill, and the northwest areas of the city that all typically report. I used to live in the Capitol Hill neighborhood (up until 2009) and would almost always have more than what DCA officially listed, even for more modest events. It's tricky, of course, because even within DC there are elevation and other variations that can impact such measurements. ETA: Now all that said, using the measurements at DCA to note any trends at that location is still worthwhile I would think. For whatever that is worth. I don't really want to get much into the statistical argument that has been raging here the past couple of days other than to say I feel the trends have been clear, even when only taking the National Airport location itself since 1941 and discarding the previous "DC" measurement location in upper NW near Georgetown. And one other thing: I don't totally agree with a comment made that global warming necessarily equals "fewer big storms." In fact, I believe it's been argued that the opposite is true, at least to some extent, though the snowfall impact might be even more restricted to areas that can get cold enough. Relatively warmer atmosphere, more moisture...and so if you're lucky enough to have the right thermal profile and setup (which we still do get here!) at the right time, you can get a huge HECS-level event like a Jan. 2016. And I tend to agree with @psuhoffman and some others concerning the more "marginal" events around DC: that they do seem to be fewer. I know that's anecdotal and could be related to other factors and trends as well, but even still.

Yeah that is true. And I actually missed it, was up in Ohio for New Year's and drove back that very day of the storm! LOL! So got back home right after it was done. I literally drove through the snow gradient going south on I-270, from nothing to a dusting, to couple inches and finally 6 inches or so at my place.

Yeah, DC got nothing in December, and then had that one good storm on Jan. 3 last year, followed by some good cold. A few days after the 3rd, we got some kind of clipper(?) system that dropped a couple inches of powder on top. So January was pretty good for this area. February, as I recall, pretty well sucked for everyone, but then we got that one neat "last farewell" event in mid-March.