Stormfly

Just install a foam suppression system in your yard!

Looks like someone had an accident with a can of Krylon ultra flat black!

Yes it was! I remember the power getting knocked out here. Then again back in '79 our electric was about as stable as a table with three legs! https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1979/10/11/snowstorm-startles-area/c1e39b0c-540e-49fd-bb9a-687cea842516/

LOL seems like there's always a port-a-potty going down anywhere there's winds over 50knots. Imagine being in there and a sudden gust tosses it over! Ugh!

Seeing data now which is good. Only in MD, you can have this long an outage without absolute needing it (i.e. svr outbreaks). I guess it would take a triple failure (DE/VA) to make something happen here. This is truly a natural disaster free zone (before 9/11 we used to say disaster free!). Not that I'm complaining, especially after the 08/23/11 quake that rattled chimney pots and wells. Could have been costly since insurance doesn't cover that.

Majority of the "blockbuster" storms are over weekends. ;-)

That would have been March 05, 2015 for us. I propped my Nikon D810 against the front door window and used bulb setting keeping shutter open 10 seconds. Not exactly stable but was impressed at the gain and glistening off the snowpack which was NOT glazed per se, just some farkle stuff from sun angle melting and sublimation losses. Anyhow, absolutely beautiful! And speaking of ice sliding across glazen snowpack, it's a neat sound too, when trees locked in ice start to sway a bit from a light breeze and it crackles. But heavy icing and stronger winds beware! Those ice torrents can maim or kill! Widowmakers for sure!

Maybe better weather tomorrow night! Last night's full moon was crazy bright. I was wondering what was moving across the ground when scrubbing through footage and it was the tower shadow which I'm used to seeing during the day in sun but not in moonlight! Now all we need is a decent 6" snow pack under full moon. Those are the best. Only thing that tops that is when we've had some rain on top and the snowpack is glazed over. We can only wish...

Livestream

Antares Launch should have been last night! Looks to be obscured for us unfortunately. As far as this AM, yes, perfectly clear for a test flight! Did anyone see this bright fireball yesterday AM? None of our cameras cover the sky in that direction (NW of us). I even checked for reflections as it was of sufficient magnitude to see that. Nope. I have to get more sky into view. That one was really nice!

Waiting for the worms to come!

Wow we just had the shortest bout of torrential rain ever! It was like sitting under a hydrant for about 90 seconds and then cut off.

Anyone consider making their own radar? It's not as far fetched as you think!

Notice something different with oaks. We have five pin oaks on our land and two of them are exhibiting the same exact thing. Just a splash of bright orange color like someone spilled paint on a bunch of leaves in one spot. I've found this on two of them that I see regularly. I will have to check out the others to see if they are doing this. Usually they turn evenly and hold their leaves well into December.

Feb 10, 2010, the second storm in the back to back blizzards of 2010. Storms like those are somewhat rare for us but they do happen as you know. Maybe 2021 will give us PDIII. :-D 09-10 was definitely a good winter, well remembered. Of course the majority of the snow was gone by Christmas in 2009 which was a bummer. I remember reaching the riding trails for the first time after those storms and still managed to high center my diesel Arctic Cat! That was March 09.10 and evidence of 20' plus drifts were present which isn't surprising when the wind has 250 acres of barren field to rip through until it reaches the tree line full of mature spruce and balsam pines.

Going on 11 years, and 2-3 year frequency would be fine. I know I'm about 500 miles too far south and east but still... It's been nearly 27 years since we had ice over snow so thick it could be driven on... Those are fun, countless hours of donuts @WOT on the four wheelers without risk of dying (most winters ponds freeze solid but only a handful get thick enough to assure breakthrough risk is nearly non existent).

Quite foggy here. Vis down to 100'!

Anyone recall October 01, 1986? I spent that day moving radio transmitter hardware from Severn MD to White Hall, it was near 90°F and could feel the change coming by dinner time. Nice line of storms rolled through. Power knocked out and tower for our 2M repeater in Phoenix took a hit. Next day was cooler thank goodness. Also, two years ago to this day we had nice storms roll through. A close hit to an overhead across the street knocked out power momentarily and the thunder set off a howling wolf on our porch.

Surprises are the best. A redux of 2010, OTOH, as much as I didn't enjoy plowing that much snow off the lane, I have to say I could go for that! This is one of my favorite shots. I took this looking back up towards the house after making a few passes. The piles of snow were close to 14' high!

Winter is coming!

That 01.25.85 event was a lifetime event for MD it seems. Last winter, did feature two warned events (snow squall warning) for us and we managed to squeak 8" approx season total for snow. But for folks not too far south of here the snow drought was very real. We can do wind very well. Imagine if the March 02 2018 event had the snowfall of the Feb 23 2016 system! It was windy at times (2016) but getting 70mph gusts with 3+ inch/hr rates would be interesting. Only thing better would be a 125 mph derecho with pea sized hail that reached up to car windows. Let's not forget the ice storm of 02.05.2014. We got hammered here, solid 500 (1/2" accretion). Fortunately it wasn't windy but power lines and especially trees were a mess. Matter of fact I still have some wood left from that one. Balsams don't do ice well at all.

Teens below zero? Another "flizzard" aka 02.15.2015? It's cool watching snowdevils whizzing through the pasture, two inches of powder with 60mph gusts do amazing things!

It was cold enough this AM I noticed several bees wearing yellow jackets!

There are guidelines out there for proper anemometer placement in regards to minimum clearance required from obstructions and following standard 10 meter above grade to reduce ground interference. Problem is in 90% of the cases, these aren't followed and readings aren't respective of actual conditions. Even worse, most home weather stations have slow update intervals with synchronized sample rates. Anemometer mass and bearing resistance producing less than ideal results even if location criteria are compliant. It's easy to blame the owner for sure, but proper location is difficult and selection of quality instrumentation is out of (financial) reach for the vast majority of weather hobbyists. RE: Chimneys... The instrument pack needs to be sufficiently high above the flue egress to avoid the corrosive effects of combustion gases particularly if solid fuel (wood/pellets/coal) is used. Also ANY mast needs to be properly grounded to avoid build up of static electricity. This needs to be done in accordance to local codes. This is overlooked particularly on wireless instruments as the thought of not having a wire coming inside the house means the mast is OK to NOT be grounded. It should be especially in areas prone to lightning strikes.

Sun looks crazy now! Never seen it this red this high up! Here at least. I shot this on my phone at the end of our lane: