Cobalt

The USA sadly still has a very large at-risk population. 39.6% of US adults are obese, and about 1/3 have either prediabetes or diabetes. Both major risk factors for a respiratory illness, as obesity can pose similar risks as if someone was a lifelong smoker. Seeing as the deaths are so low here, we can't compare to Italy yet. We're still 1-2 weeks behind Italy. One Saturday ago Italy had 1,000 deaths, now they're almost getting a thousand a day. I'm just hoping people take precaution to stay home. Even people like me who would otherwise be perfectly healthy with little to no risk, spreading it to those who are at risk is the biggest issue

Most likely yeah. I've heard of people of younger age groups dying simply because hospitals in Italy couldn't attempt to treat any more people due to lack of resources (and likely shows that China lied about their numbers but I'm not gonna get into that)

Italy is getting hammered by this thing. Wow, kinda hard to fathom...

It reminds me of a quote I heard a little while back. Don't remember exactly how it goes but it was something like "Preparations before a plague seem alarmist, while preparations during/after a plague seem inadequate", and I mean I guess I see why people would object to what we're doing for COVID-19 if something like the flu can be terrible, but they're two different animals. Hospitals don't get as overwhelmed by the flu as they have in certain areas as COVID-19. Not to mention how it'll leave many with permanent respiratory problems. Also it's funny to see people compare this to the late 2000s Swine Flu. At this point in the outbreak the Swine Flu had 1500 deaths, somewhat close to a tenth of what we've already seen with COVID-19.

Despite the old population, Italy still has one of the more advanced medical systems in all of Europe. Furthermore northern Italy is the wealthiest part. In terms of respiratory viruses such as COVID-19, there's multiple factors that put people at risk aside from age. One is obesity, and well, if you take a look around this country, we've got plenty of that to go around, which doesn't boast well for rapidly spreading cases. I'm still rather confused at this comparison to the flu. The concern is with how fast COVID-19 spreads from person to person. Each carrier of the flu spreads it to on average 1.3 people, meanwhile each carrier of COVID-19 spreads it to 2.5 people on average. Not to mention the higher fatality rate. Italy having 300+ deaths per day would be much worse than any flu day even in the United States. Furthermore there methods of flu treatment are much more effective, and even if not entirely effective for the majority of the population, we have a vaccination for the flu. You can't even compare the two whatsoever

Anybody who would've fallen into a coma in January and woken up today would have a lot of catching up to do, like geez.... What a decade this year has been

ICONic timing, the GFS just came in south compared to the 18z run

Heya! I've been good. Busy with school, but I guess it's good that I'm not being distracted by winter weather threats? I've been checking in every once in a while though

Last year's Jan storm was great. Nothing can make up for the horrendous year we've had so far, but that storm was pretty great. Long duration cold smoke. Made the mistake of staying up for that late night meso which turned out to be the lowest rates of the 30 hour storm haha

GFS caved to northern solution. Go figure

I think people believe that this allows kids to be influenced by the hard hits and contact nature of the sport, but honestly in my experience it deterred me from wanting to play contact football. I was an avid fan when I was real young (still am). Was told by my dad that after Redskins losses I'd go up to my room to cry, until I got to the age where I just accepted Sunday losses as a fact of life. Honestly, I've heard from many that allowing their kid to watch a sport and get attached to a team will teach them a lesson about being let down by something they can't control. Pretty sure this doesn't apply for Pats fans though.

I'd argue that Meddle beats Dark Side (even excluding The Wall) for greatest Pink Floyd album just for Echoes alone but.. yeah I'm not gonna do that. The Wall > Animals > Dark Side > Meddle

Wow, 2020 has been ruthless for celebrity deaths so far. To be honest I'm always hesitant to talk about my taste in music here because it always makes me sound like one of those "I was born in the wrong generation" types, but music can certainly be timeless, and Rush was no exception. I've delved somewhat into their collection (helps that my dad was big into a fair bit of music around that era and got me into it early), but The Spirit Of Radio has always been one of my top favorites. Of course I can't appreciate it as much as those born in the time when the music came out, but it's nice to have a form of media so timeless that my friends still talk about it and listen to it, and likely my children and grandchildren will still be listening to the same incredible music. RIP Neal Peart.

1.5" here, it is absolutely beautiful outside. Very content with this system.

GFS Kuchera cuts totals in half for most, but still rather optimistic numbers

12/11/19: 0.3" 12/16/19: 0.3" Total: 0.6"

Ah yes, the start to the greatest winter ever that I was sadly too young to enjoy to it's fullest

This Snowchaser fellow sure lives up to his name.

In fact, I believe so? Look into the Ganzfeld Effect, some interesting stuff there. or so I've been told

I regret all of the time I stayed up for that. I remember DT was bullish on it until the Euro (?) finally dropped it. After Jan 4th we knew what type of winter we were in for.

More likely for it to be in the 80s on Christmas than for the GFS to nail a 10 day HECS

The GFS has been wildly consistent with showing a storm around that time. Only 10 days to screw it up >:)

Have we ever actually had a potent storm fall on Friday the 13th? Genuinely curious.

Glad to see you cheery as ever

BWI: 23.9" DCA: 14.2" IAD: 28.6" RIC: 9.6" SBY: 8.4"