Festus

Just heard from daughter who lives west of Hershey. Back roads are awful. Black ice city.

Squall line moving through York looks nasty. Might have to buckle up here in LANcaster.

Doing my annual tradition of pointing out that today is the earliest sunset of the year. Enjoy the extra few seconds of evening light tomorrow and it only gets longer from there. The latest sunrise isn't for another month or so. The culprit basically is the discontinuity between calendar and solar time. If you really want to waste a few minutes, here's a more detailed explanation: What Is the Equation of Time?

Sorry if this has been asked/answered. Don't get on here much during the warm season. What's the "official" calculation of Heat Index? For example, local WU site says Temp 93, DP 74, Index 111. Same numbers plugged into NOAA calculator shows Index of 103. WU Index is always way higher than NWS. Do they use some home grown method?

Interesting - just felt what was most likely an earthquake. Lasted maybe 5, 10 seconds. Curious to see if that really what it was or if my house is collapsing into some kind of sinkhole or something.

Flood Watch hoisted for Adams, York, Lancaster and Lebanon Counties. 1.5 - 3" rain possible. Itstrainingtime's lawn may need a thrice-weekly trim come April.

Chester County down this way has an SPS for heightened fire danger concurrent with a Flood Watch. A rather rare combo platter. My grid forecast adds up to 1.25 - 2.5" qpf. Hmmm, at 10:1 ... (if only )

I'm sure the hype machine will get cranking soon but here's a few details regarding the upcoming total solar eclipse: - Monday, April 8th. Starts approximately 2:00 PM, maximum around 3:20, done around 4:30. - Several counties in northwest PA will experience totality lasting around 4 minutes. - Nearly all the rest of PA will reach over 90% with increasing coverage as one travels southeast to northwest. - The next total eclipse anywhere in PA will be in 2144. Fingers crossed regarding cloud cover. Unfortunately Accuweather's 90 day forecast shows rain on the 8th so I guess we're whamboozled. But at least Memorial Day looks nice.

That's pretty amazing. I only have blotchy green clumps where the dog has peed. At least a few more weeks to wait here. Almost a certain prolonged Wind Advisory forthcoming. WSW in northwest PA and Costal Flood Watch for the Chesapeake so at least there's pretty colors on my CTP map.

With February 29th approaching, here's some (somewhat) interesting facts: A Leap Day is technically called "Intercalary Day". A true solar year is 365.2422 solar days. So it isn't exactly 1 day every 4 years different. So to keep things in synch, every fourth year, meaning every year whose number is evenly divisible by 4, is a leap year and is granted an extra day—that is, except for every 100 years, when we skip the leap day, except for every 400 years, when we reverse the rule and add a leap day once again. So the years 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not leap years. The year 2000 was because even though it’s divisible evenly by 100, it’s also evenly divisible by 400. The year 2100 will not be a leap year, but the year 2400 will be, and so on. You will truly be the life of the party when you break this one out.

Maybe 2" on the grass. Driveway and roads just wet. Looks like one more band coming through over the next hour or two and that's it. A definite underperformer in my backyard.

Wow, WSW issued for the southern border counties. 4-6". Finally get some CTP love down this way!

Gotta love that mid February sun angle - now equivalent to late October. Finished clearing the driveway around 11:00, bone dry by 2:00. At least around here, if all you saw were the roads, you'd have no idea there was a 6" snowfall ending 6 hours ago.

35 accidents/disabled vehicles on Lancaster 911 Incident list. Despite advances in ABS, traction control, all wheel drive, etc., peoples driving skills still suck.

32 now. Changeover here around 4, roads caved by 4:30. Lanco schools either two hour delay or not yet posted. No way schools open today.