mattie g

I was about to comment that by the time this upcoming warm shot is done, everyone except elevation and/or much farther west need something relatively anomalous to see appreciable snow. And by that time, most folks will just want mild weather to stay for good.

Same - living in South Jersey. I was excited by the storm, but even though we picked up about a foot of snow, I think I was more annoyed by the sleet and rain to really appreciate it.

Germination rate is really high, so I went ahead and started to thin the seedlings. At this rate, I'm going to have to pot up the tomatoes within the next week! As of yesterday afternoon, the broccoli had started to pop up, too. Wow...

I'd sign on the dotted line for this.

All seeds have sprouted, with the tomatoes and Prospera basil really cranking now. Jalapenos took their time but have started to sprout, as well, so I'm off to an encouraging start. Decided to start some broccoli the other day. Never tried it before, so fingers crossed on that!

Man...it's so easy to forget how much this place dies when winter turns to spring.

Overall it wasn't great here. I picked up 9" in the beginning of January (good storm) and came in under average snowfall for the year, so probably a C-.

I feel the Modoki coming next year, so I may actually "forecast" well above rather than near average. But yeah...not unhappy about my call, even if the winter kind of sucked.

DOH! Interesting to hear about your normal earliest spring blooms. There's a house around the corner that faces south, and sometimes I notice daffodils poking up in December, and there are also a few forsythias in the neighborhood that bloom around the same time .

No thanks. I'd rather just not discuss it.

Really? You mean that Seward's Folly wasn't the purchase of Alaska from the Egyptians?

Hard to say what motivates a person on an individual level. There are entire organizations dedicated to providing analyses on that, but just looking at it from a layperson's perspective, I think most to do with a desire to establish firmer hold on his power as he ages. Now...what's happening inside the halls of power in Russia I can't really say, but on the surface it does seem like he's desperate to remain in charge and continue to line his own (and those of his oligarch supporters) pockets at the expense of his people, and using an invasion of Ukraine to demonstrate power is a way to do that - both by stoking national pride and by showing that opposing him is futile. Thing is...it currently looks like his gamble has completely backfired. The interesting thing to me is his claim that they went into Ukraine to "de-Nazify" it and to "liberate" Russian speakers from a despotic government. It's a tale that has been used to great effect in the past, but the proliferation of social media and the like can easily refute those claims. Referring to Ukrainians as "Nazis" is very powerful, though - even more powerful than most may realize. There were a good number of Ukrainians who allied themselves with Hitler's Germany, much of it to do with the dislike of Soviet "mother Russia," though of course there were those who were anti-Semitic and gladly took part in persecution of Jews. My point, though, is that there's a very pointed reason to use that language when it comes to portraying the Ukrainian government (people?) in a negative light, particularly as Russia looks to block as much foreign media from reporting on the conflict as possible and are only concerned with ensuring that Russians are receiving only the information that the government wants to feed them.

Sorry to see that a legitimate question about a current full-on armed conflict in Europe was ultimately responded to with a very domestic political answer, completely devoid of nuance.

That's crazy. They're only just poking through around here. I realize that downtown is a different beast when it comes to weather, but wow. Is this earlier than normal for you?

End of the run on the 12z GFS has that confluent Bob Chill bowl-ish look. Would be typical if we got that as we hit the middle of March...

It would probably be easier to answer questions, if I'm honest. There's a ton to unpack and it's really tough to get my head around it all*. Feel free to throw them my way and I'll do my best. I'll also be honest and will tell you if I don't have the expertise / knowledge to weigh in. I'm not actively involved in foreign or security policy or anything like that now, but I do think my experiences give me a decent perspective on what's going on and some of the language being used by Putin to justify the invasion. * It's INSANE that we're even talking about a Russian invasion of Ukraine right now. Not that an invasion of a smaller country should be any different, but the unfortunately political reality is that it is. I recently saw some short clips of some of what's happening (nothing graphic), and it got me really unnerved.

35 and a mix of very light rain and some drizzle here in Burke. Maybe some mist, as well. Among the worst of weather.

It would be WW3, but it won't happen. I actually got my Master's in History by studying Eastern and Central European history of the interwar period, so I'm both fascinated and troubled by what's going on. It's way too much to go into in a post on a weather board (), but I'll just say that it's all intertwined, though it may not necessarily all be parallels.

Are you eagerly awaiting your icing event?

So...well over an inch of precip over 15 days as winter is ending = "devoid of precip?"

Wait...which "threat window" is this about? Is it the weekend of the 26th-27th?

I picked up a pretty standard feeder last year and put it near our landscaped pond area. Plenty of hummingbirds showed up within a few weeks of putting it up, even with having done so relatively late in the spring. The funny thing to watch was when we would get 3, 4, 5 hummingbirds at once. At first, I thought it was awesome that I'd get to to see multiple of them at once on a regular basis, but I never realized how territorial they are until I saw the scraps that took place over that feeder.

Not looking good, I assume.

Sowed my first seeds of the season today. Four varieties of tomatoes, one of jalapeños, and two of basil. All are under grow lights and on heat mats in the basement, and should be sitting at 75-80F or so on those mats. I debated some other herbs - particularly parsley and cilantro - but held off for now. Cilantro is odd to grow (but I LOVE it), so I might just sprinkle some throughout the garden during the season, but I have found that parsley can rally thrive if you transplant it correctly.

I was about to suggest Lira, but you beat me to it.