Stormfly

I-83...JFX too. I've been passed like I was standing still and I was going 85!

I would be OK with it with the climate being the way it is there. Biggest thing in winter would be reading under the glow of the aurora!

We heard peepers for the first time in Feb after that megatorch. Gotta be a record. They are getting louder again. Before we know it the night will alive from the chorus of the numerous gray tree frogs. I do want to put up an owl box so the barred owls have a home nearby.

I saw a male mosquito flying around my patio last night just after dusk. Now that's something worth chasing!

Right but when the trees start coming down it gets real. A person or car is no match for 30,000 pounds of hardwood! On route 1 bypass north of Belair we witnessed a 10-50 (crash) where a large tree fell across the highway and a vehicle ran into it. All airbags deployed. If they were driving 5 mph faster they would have been instantly killed.

It's March, it's supposed to be windy!

Sounds like March 02, 2018. High wind warning verified for sure! We had frequent gusts over 60 here and a ton of tree damage and power outages with wires down all over the place. Messiest for utility workers since Irene in 2011. This event is more of a breezy event for us. Too bad it isn't snowing! With humidity under 30% things are getting dry that's for sure. Wouldn't advise anyone doing outside burning just on wind alone.

UniFi. That video is from a 5 year old G3 bullet cam. I started out with UniFi video server using my own hardware (Dell dual Xeon box running Ubuntu server 12 at the time). Loved the "roll your own" ability as one could start with a simple pc running linux or Windows and scale up to whatever they needed, etc. Then Protect came out, loved its interface and ability to scrub through a time line in real time on mobile. But Protect wasn't BYO and required Ubiquiti hardware either a Cloud Key+ gen 2 or their dream machine pro device which had limited hardware. Later they released a multi drive NVR which is what I currently run. Cameras are expensive compared to others but require no NVR license fees or subscriptions. And of course the recordings are on premise. I run all home runs back to the rack in the basement with direct burial rated CAT6A 23awg pure copper conductor shielded ethernet. Some call it overkill but being that I've had lightning peel the bark off a southern pine less than 20 feet from my shop building and the cameras never even missed a frame says something! I do like the smart capabilities of the G4 line and upcoming G5 line too. The Ai bullet can record license plates if that capability is needed. Recently on G4 and up they've added smoke/CO alerts so if the mic picks up the telltale sound of a smoke or CO alarm it can send a push notification which is nice as the fire alarm in my shop is local only and sometimes when I charge flooded tractor batteries and a cell or two goes crazy and sets the alarm off I get it on my phone which is nice. My PTZ is an Amcrest 4MP 12X optical 25X hybrid zoom. I have it set up to record to folder on my QNAP 8 bay NAS with a 7 day rollover. I use it mainly to watch weather systems roll in, check for hotspots at our bonfire and pits and it has caught Amazon drivers cutting through the grass countless times too!

Nice! My 15kW system hasn't been right since Sunrun sent out this guy that was high as a kite to replace cell modems in the inverters while the power was ON and got arc flashed! Heads up, the audio contains frequent colorful metaphors, NSFW.

Breezy, chilly day on tap. First measurable for season here! About 3/8"

Chilly, bright moonlight tonight!

Wow no kidding!

So you wanna go on a trip? The Caribbean looks spicy!

I found this thread and am in the frequent replacement club too! Tempest number 5 is on its way to me as of this post. And too, mine is perched high on a tower and is a PIA to take down. My first unit was purchased in December of 2020. In June of 2021 I noticed its firmware was quite old compared to others. I emailed support and they said they needed to replace it as they identified an issue. It was producing readings that were within its operating limits. A few days later and some climbing I swapped it out. This was peak of brood X and I even had a cicada land on my arm and start singing which freaked me out. But a quick cell popped up and I heard thunder so I got wrapped up and was done. Or so I thought! Next AM I noticed the UV was 0 and we had bright sun. Status showed UV failed. I opened a ticket and they remote rebooted and then most of the sensors were no longer working. They said the lightning from the storm yesterday may have fried it but I know from in the past having a tree not 30 feet from the tower getting bark peeled to the ground from a strike had no effect on my prior unit. So a few days later, up and down the tower and Tempest number 3 is flying high. That one worked well up until the end of last September. The battery voltage was dropping fast after a few days of no sun. It would recover to 2.8 but as soon as the sun set it was back to 2.5V. Next few days of overcast it was down to 2.4 and then the report rate gets dropped to save power and it finally went offline. They replaced that with number 4 which (again) was put up. Last week during a quick gusty shower, the barometric pressure showed a sudden drop of 5 inches of mercury! We were nowhere near any tornadoes for sure! Of course it's borked again, in the ticket they indicated they would sending out a replacement. This will be number five. It's getting old fast and I do all climbing/rigging myself but make no mistake about it, I don't enjoy it! I'm thinking of just moving the unit to the center of the house on a tripod mount with 10' mast for the time being. This unit constantly reports rain events during most wind events over 15 mph. Of course towers and hardware are quite "chatty" when it comes to acoustics, which the rain sensor is based on. (It's a $.80 piezoelectric transducer found in most annoying beeper type alarms) I suppose I have too high of an expectation for an all in one solution coming in around $300 USD. The only good thing I can say is their support is outstanding. The unit is past its 2 year warranty period and they pay for shipping both ways and haven't asked for a dime. They also help out in a timely manner with things like calibration issues, et al. If this is something you put on a post by your garden, then no problem. On a roof, better be prepared (and comfortable) using a ladder frequently! You can see in my sig links to both TEMPEST and Ambient Weather 2000 systems. The AW is about $25 cheaper than the TEMPEST and produces decent results and has had zero issues since I put it up last November. It's on the same tower but much lower. You can see them on the tower here: The other AIO is an Accurite that was installed outside December 2018. And unlike most of their units this one is fully functioning including the lightning detection sensor which is attached to a pin oak about 70' (its branches can be seen in the lower left above).

41.4º sun angle taking its toll through cloud deck. The graupel on the deck has succumbed to mister heat miser already. Seeing legit dendrites now but they are very light.

Snow drought over!

Took the dog out a few minutes ago and wow the chorus of spring peepers by the twin lakes is really loud, like over a month early!

Heat verified! Get out and enjoy it before the winds of Friday (for the third time in a row!) come knocking on our door!

Snow Dragons! http://www.snowdragonmelters.com/home.asp?ID=2

Well without getting political count me in the "anything but rain but not sun" camp! I mean this time of year clear blue is good for solar production but I'm down 2 inverters (16kW total) and the parts are over a month out so BGE is hammering me to the tune of $500 a month.

▲That's actually quite the spinner for that region.

For fish, yes.

Low 60s for us, backed off a bit. Still quite warm but no records.

Even two days out, Lucy has her hands on the ball and Charlie always falls for it. Always.

Better?