Stormfly

Same here. Nary a drop. Neither gauge registered but it looked like a few drops whizzing by the cameras. Call it a trace of a trace.

Yes just as the 5th! Tomorrow is June 15. That day back in 1980 came close to changing our lives forever. A strong (then F2) less than 300 meters from our home. Windows, vents and siding removed, cars demolished from tennis ball sized hail. No power for over a week! Learned Moonlight Sonata and Rage Over A Lost Penny during that time. Never liked piano much (I played organ mostly) but with no power, the Story & Clark upright it was! Rage is amazing especially when played to perfection like this young lady did, nailed it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk9ASyG6jag

Definitely seeing the towers to our NW.

Fliers everywhere now. My dog (border collie) isn't too interested in them UNTIL I decided to hold one and wave it at him. Not interested in eating it but playing fetch. So I wave it and let it go and it takes off towards a maple. He's very interested now running and occasionally on hind legs trying to reach it! I figured it would land on a branch but it does a u turn and heads back towards me. My dog looks confused at this point. I hold my hand out and it bounces and falls on the driveway crawling. My dog looks at it then looks at me. Typical action when we play frisbee or ball. So round two and wouldn't you know it, it flies toward the tree then comes back AGAIN! Now my dog is truly stunned and very interested. Could this be a new toy??! So round THREE. This time the cicada flies due east towards a taller southern pine. I tell my dog that one isn't coming back. He runs back to me pacing the ground then looks at me. You have to wonder what they are "saying" but (border collies) definitely have a body language. I'm thinking he'd do this all day! A few minutes later he started getting distracted and chasing fliers on his own. My wife says "Oh great, look what you've done now!". We're fortunate that we're in an ideal position where we can have a reasonably enjoyable experience with these bugs. Not annoyingly invasive as in car wash needed every day, sidewalks and drive cleared off, armies marching over screens, etc. They are loud enough to make their presence known and if you want to interact with them the forest is a quick walk or ATV ride away. Couldn't be better!

For thunderstorms it's hard to beat Cloudburst in Grand Canyon Suite!

Just not at night! The slugs would be intolerable! Easiest way to find a slug or two at night is to walk outside barefoot! It's pretty gross stepping on one especially when it's under your toes! And mowing, everyone mows too damn short! By August their lawns are brown and burned up. 3.5" to 4" works well and the grass thrives in all but the worst of drought which we haven't experienced in over a decade (here at least). And keep those blades properly sharpened as well. A dull blade tears off the (grass) blade rather than cutting clean which is bad too.

Flooded cars are never right again. The longer the water is in the system the worse! If the air filter is dripping wet you're going to have engine problems. Water is always bad on top of an engine. Flood water contains a nasty assay of unknowns. Not as bad as sea water but still long after things are dried every connector, contact, etc. will be tainted. Things start acting squirrely months sometimes years after the incident like power windows not working, dash indicators flashing, a/c not working with defrost cycle, power locks, phantom battery drain, you name it! And what a PIA it is to track it down. This is why I'd never buy a vehicle with flood damage salvage on its title UNLESS it was a project car that was going to be field stripped to the frame.

OK so the thermostat still is in the loop but you cannot turn off the cooling function. The dewpoints are very high today. Also humidity readings should be taken where the thermostat is or near a return. If close to a window or washroom it's going to be higher. I had to do an instrument pack swap today and (unfortunately) that meant climbing a tower. It's days like today that make me wish I could fast forward to late October.

Yes that is too high. Summer indoor RH should be 45-55%. Above that you promote mold growth. Are you saying the AC runs constantly? That isn't good for the unit and you will have a very high electric bill! With a constant running unit you'd have good humidity control until the evaporator freezes up!

What's the indoor humidity? Does your AC run a short time and shut off? (i.e. short cycle) It should be sized that it runs for long runs. Otherwise the humidity cannot be removed adequately indoors. It should never feel "close" or "muggy" indoors when your AC has been running for a few hours or more since first turned on. If your windows are leaky they should be fixed too as this is bad year 'round for energy use.

OK it's getting real here now! Over 40dB in the house, windows closed AC on. Went out by the garden and it's in the upper 70s. By the oak tree which sounds very 'alive' (think trees dripping after a shower) and it's in the upper 80s! All a weighted decibels. Quite loud buggers. Funny how they are as loud in a closed house now as they were 3 weeks ago with the windows open. Another interesting thing is they sing at night. Not as loud and not all the time. It comes and goes. But by 4AM when the birds are chirping they are singing quite loud.

Same here. Saw some saplings that were recently planted and NOT covered up. Oops!

LOL!

It's 03:42 and I hear their song inside the house, albeit faintly. Outside there is no mistaking the choir.

A few words about sound pressure measurements... First, apps for smart phones may not be properly calibrated. Depending on the app and what you have (another meter/reference) you may or may not be able to do anything about this! If the app recognizes the device properly this should be done for you AND should be reasonably accurate. SPLs at the extreme ends (<30 dbA or >120dBA) are NOT going to be accurately represented. Second and most important! The app will be the most accurate without any case on the phone. I know it sounds weird, but that apps are expecting a certain frequency response and baseline of the device's main microphone. A thick, protective case has several millimeters of resin between the device opening and the surface. To see how this can affect levels try covering your ears with your fingers extended so your palms are an inch from your ear (pinna). Especially the pharaoh frequency range! Amazing how much louder it sounds. This gain affects the midrange most. And finally, to measure (noise) levels, be sure your app is set to 'A' weighting. This is the curve used by OSHA and other agencies to develop guidelines for health and safety when exposure to noise levels becomes a factor for workers. Other common weights like C or unweighted will show much higher sound pressure levels since it's measuring all frequencies and lower frequencies while not nearly as threatening to hearing will push the number to very high levels. This is why an instrument set to unweighted will show 120dB when a large tractor drives by but on A it's only 90dB. 90dB A in the mid range (like cicadas) is quite loud and makes it nearly impossible to hold a conversation without raising your voice significantly. Using a cell phone would be nearly impossible without some type of advanced noise cancelling headset, for example. I find my Apple Watch series 5 built in noise meter is actually quite accurate. It constantly buzzes me about it being too loud around power saws for good reason! My ported 661 (chainsaw) idles at 101 dBA at three feet!

Hope that verifies! I'd go even as far to say it would be cool to have a year without a summer! :Q

They are the loudest this AM. Easily heard inside with windows closed and AC on. I was in the bathroom and one landed on the skylight and started its fanfare. Reminded me of a high pitched Klaxon horn (aka dive alarm) which is the LAST thing I want to hear when in the can! :| Finding more and more holes in my rounds. Good aeration for the soil that's for sure!

With these incidents the closer you are to the fault the more damage will occur unless you open your main breaker disconnect ASAP. Glad nobody's home burned down.

Was your AC on? (i.e. thermostat set to cooling?) We've had all sorts of electrical anomalies over the years. Probably due to a mixture of underground and overhead wiring, its age, and types of loads on it that were unthought of 50 years ago! Like today when the sun is full out at 12:30 we're sending over 13kW BACK to the grid. Then a cloud swings overhead and we're PULLING 2kW FROM the grid. All that swinging back and fourth. Multiply that by hundreds of others in the county with solar. Squirrels love to climb the poles. And this time of the year the rat snakes are ready to mate and are hungry. They climb poles too. Sometimes they inadvertently cause a fault between primaries or on an overhead cutout. Usually on a beautiful sunny windless day the lights go off and there is a boom outside no different than a 500 gram mortar people buy at Phantom. Such is country life. Trees, OTOH, are a HUGE headache for linemen. And if a large limb pushes a 33kV phase into a 13kV phase, I guarantee you fireworks of the 60Hz variety will happen. And if OCRs don't squelch it, serious damage occurs to the unfortunate homeowners fed by those circuits. I've seen driveways blown in to the air, pink flames shooting out of the ground 15' straight up, meters blown off the walls, fuse boxes melted like they were cut open with an oxy-acetylene torch. It goes on and on. Moores Mill Road (1988) was the worst accident ever. All about timing on that one, thank goodness as no one died that day.

Report this to BGE. They may tell you to call your homeowner insurance claims office. The insurance and BGE will settle this out. Also have a competent electrician inspect your service entrance, wiring, et al. This sounds like a circuit fault on the primary side where an overvoltage condition occurred. Breakers trip from the overcurrent preventing your wiring from bursting into flames. Surge protectors use single shot devices called MOVs which will conduct the excess voltage to ground. In the case of overvoltage, they get hot and if the integrated fuse/circuit breaker doesn't open soon enough they burn out. Sometimes the overvoltage makes it into the protected loads (TV, stereo, PC, et al) and those devices' MOVs can be damaged. Most devices using switching mode power supplies these days will run at 50-60Hz from 85-265VAC and can even survive a minute or two at 500VAC! Appliances with induction motors not so much. But those will draw sufficient amps to trip breakers fast enough before they burn up or go up in flames. While this is happening you will hear a loud hum like the buzz from a vibrator type aquarium pump. Modern home CAC units and controls are solid state and many still use a simple 120V to 24V control transformer. Primary protected by a fuse. If the red terminal shows no volts with the unit ON that's where I'd look first. Those control boards are fairly expensive to replace.

Exactly!

It looked like it was trying on radar. NWS going to Jacksonville to investigate, radar looked much more impressive there.

They are quite loud today. As far as some seeing NO activity, they are quite localized. If you drive around where they are active you will notice pockets of silence and then suddenly out of nowhere they are LOUD. Tuesday I was driving the backroads between Union Bridge and Belair and noticed this. Areas in Reisterstown and Glyndon were quite active as in windows down = cicadas joining the ride with you! If you had to wait 17 years for sex you wouldn't sleep for a few weeks! OK definitely noticeably louder today. Sun peaking through (660W/m^2) and sound in my family room is 46 decibels. Normally it's 31. It's loud enough that someone on the other end of a phone call can hear it. In the forest it's hitting mid 80s.

I was just NE of that, lots of lightning but no wind or noise from actual tornado on ground. So far this season this has been the best storm for us. No verified severe which is the case 89% of the time. Nice activity from second round right now. Lights are flickering too.