Fall/Winter 2020/21 Banter Thread

[Chicago WX]

It's been an incredible 3+ weeks of deep deep winter. Best run I can recall really. I will remember it fondly. But my body is ready for a break. Climbing at times, 3'+ snow banks to get to peoples houses ,day after day, is completely taxing. Walking thru yards with a foot and a half of snow...is exhausting. Navigating peoples sidewalks and porches that they have of course, not completely cleaned in 3 weeks, is almost maddening. Packed steps and porches of snow and ice...how the f*ck do they get in and out of the house all day? Seriously people, do us a favor and clean your sh*t up. That's my rant despite this absolutely great stretch of winter. Alas, in a few months...because seasons and all...I'll be complaining about heat and humidity, lol. Best climo.  

[Kitchener poster]

I actually enjoy shoveling as it’s a great core body workout. 

[Hoosier]

12 hours ago, Chicago WX said:

It's been an incredible 3+ weeks of deep deep winter. Best run I can recall really. I will remember it fondly. But my body is ready for a break. Climbing at times, 3'+ snow banks to get to peoples houses ,day after day, is completely taxing. Walking thru yards with a foot and a half of snow...is exhausting. Navigating peoples sidewalks and porches that they have of course, not completely cleaned in 3 weeks, is almost maddening. Packed steps and porches of snow and ice...how the f*ck do they get in and out of the house all day? Seriously people, do us a favor and clean your sh*t up. That's my rant despite this absolutely great stretch of winter. Alas, in a few months...because seasons and all...I'll be complaining about heat and humidity, lol. Best climo.  

Man that's brutal.  I agree, would also rank it as my top 3 week run of winter.  Was going through some storm/aftermath pics.  Never had snowbanks and piles like this.  Close, but not quite.  I'm 6' in my shoes... so yeah.  Needless to say this period will dramatically raise my winter grade 

[Malacka11]

15 minutes ago, Hoosier said:

Man that's brutal.  I agree, would also rank it as my top 3 week run of winter.  Was going through some storm/aftermath pics.  Never had snowbanks and piles like this.  Close, but not quite.  I'm 6' in my shoes... so yeah.  Needless to say this period will dramatically raise my winter grade 

That fade/beard combo is at least as majestic as the snow

 

 

[Stebo]

1 hour ago, Malacka11 said:

That fade/beard combo is at least as majestic as the snow

 

 

Fan of the two tone hair to beard combo? That is why I don't grow a beard

[Hoosier]

That's actually some snow/ice in the beard.  Was a little breezy that day and it blew the shovelfuls of snow into my face a couple times.

As far as beards, every guy should grow one at some point in their lives.  And if you think you can't grow a proper one, you might be wrong.  Common mistake is to give up on it too soon if it looks crappy 2 or 3 weeks in.

[michsnowfreak]

11 hours ago, Hoosier said:

Man that's brutal.  I agree, would also rank it as my top 3 week run of winter.  Was going through some storm/aftermath pics.  Never had snowbanks and piles like this.  Close, but not quite.  I'm 6' in my shoes... so yeah.  Needless to say this period will dramatically raise my winter grade 

Nice pic. and nice shovel/piles. I hate to say it but after getting older and having covid in fall, I caved and got a snowblower for the bigger falls. My piles will never reach epic status of 2014 again lol. It was a great stretch of winter, but no top 3 here. Id call it on par with Feb 2018 and Dec 2000. Better in Jan 1999, Feb 2011, Jan-Mar 2014, Feb 2015.

Pic from Feb 2014 (I'm 6'4").

[beavis1729]

Rick Thoman

 

@AlaskaWx

·

Feb 21

 

Nerd alert: 500mb low down to 460dm just west of Prince Patrick Island, NWT, Canada at 12UTC Feb 21, 2021. That's a serious "cold low aloft"! #Arctic

@Climatologist49

@WorldClimateSvc

[Stebo]

16 hours ago, Hoosier said:

That's actually some snow/ice in the beard.  Was a little breezy that day and it blew the shovelfuls of snow into my face a couple times.

As far as beards, every guy should grow one at some point in their lives.  And if you think you can't grow a proper one, you might be wrong.  Common mistake is to give up on it too soon if it looks crappy 2 or 3 weeks in.

Too itchy, hard pass

[Hoosier]

1 hour ago, Stebo said:

Too itchy, hard pass

That usually subsides past the few week mark as the hair grows out more.  Some guys get really bad itchiness but fortunately mine was minimal.  Of course if you work at a job that requires any facial hair to be kept really short, then you'll never be able to get past that stage of hair growth.

[UMB WX]

Snow mounds. What a sickness. Been shoveling and mounding snow strategically since a little kid to put up the fight back against warm cutters. 3 yrs ago I also finally succumbed to a snow blower for the biggies, but will go to my grave preferring to pick the up the shovel over pulling the chord on the Ariens.  

I never could have envisioned the turn around most of us would experience after the nearly snowless fall season through after Christmas. Continuous snow pack from just before the New Yr. to through possibly all of Feb seems almost unprecedented in our southern great lakes climate.  This winter has to rank among the best ever for me as I'm all about as many continuous  snow pack days as one can pull off over the the chase of a big dog.   Sad to see winter break and I'm already counting down the days and looking forward to when we all gather again to kick off a new winter season.

The sad and inevitable end to the winter appeal commenced quickly after the neat little snow event last night.  Could have let the Feb sun do its work in no time on the snow but that would be a sin. So we top off the banks, kill the gas in snow blower and send off deep winter how a snow weenie is supposed to.

Do we close the curtains, is this the end of the winter highway for 20/21?  I like to think we timed this winter break right, leaving just enough time to legit have a few more chances  at reading exciting winter AFD'S out of the LOT office.  If not.. so be it and maybe the severe wx weenies can finally transition to an early start to severe tracking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[hawkeye_wx]

3 hours ago, Stebo said:

Too itchy, hard pass

I grow a beard, but there's a point when it begins to itch and it becomes annoying when my head is laying on the pillow.  So, I cut it down to stubble and let it regrow again.  I don't want a big, gray beard, anyway, so shorter is better.

[cyclone77]

This time of year I'm in lumberjack mode, and usually have a fairly lengthy beard.  By late spring I usually hack it back to a long stubble and generally leave it that way till football season.

[IWXwx]

I'm a year-around long stubble guy.

 

[Cary67]

1 hour ago, hawkeye_wx said:

I grow a beard, but there's a point when it begins to itch and it becomes annoying when my head is laying on the pillow.  So, I cut it down to stubble and let it regrow again.  I don't want a big, gray beard, anyway, so shorter is better.

 

[michsnowfreak]

3 hours ago, Hoosier said:

That usually subsides past the few week mark as the hair grows out more.  Some guys get really bad itchiness but fortunately mine was minimal.  Of course if you work at a job that requires any facial hair to be kept really short, then you'll never be able to get past that stage of hair growth.

Years ago I used to dislike facial hair. However, after years of having a beard, I don't think I could ever be clean shaven again. Btw when I commented earlier on your post I realized I misread it. I thought you said this was in your top 3 stretches of Winter, but you said this was your top 3 week stretch of Winter.  Again, it was a great stretch here but certainly not tops. If this was 1998 and I was 15, it would be my top stretch hands down. But we've had so many good times this century we are spoiled.  I don't think mother nature will be able to top 2014 here. (Hope you heard that ma nature, I am challenging you).

[michsnowfreak]

3 hours ago, UMB WX said:

Snow mounds. What a sickness. Been shoveling and mounding snow strategically since a little kid to put up the fight back against warm cutters. 3 yrs ago I also finally succumbed to a snow blower for the biggies, but will go to my grave preferring to pick the up the shovel over pulling the chord on the Ariens.  

I never could have envisioned the turn around most of us would experience after the nearly snowless fall season through after Christmas. Continuous snow pack from just before the New Yr. to through possibly all of Feb seems almost unprecedented in our southern great lakes climate.  This winter has to rank among the best ever for me as I'm all about as many continuous  snow pack days as one can pull off over the the chase of a big dog.   Sad to see winter break and I'm already counting down the days and looking forward to when we all gather again to kick off a new winter season.

The sad and inevitable end to the winter appeal commenced quickly after the neat little snow event last night.  Could have let the Feb sun do its work in no time on the snow but that would be a sin. So we top off the banks, kill the gas in snow blower and send off deep winter how a snow weenie is supposed to.

Do we close the curtains, is this the end of the winter highway for 20/21?  I like to think we timed this winter break right, leaving just enough time to legit have a few more chances  at reading exciting winter AFD'S out of the LOT office.  If not.. so be it and maybe the severe wx weenies can finally transition to an early start to severe tracking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would call uninterrupted snowpack for 2 months in the southern Great Lakes rare but not unprecedented. The record for consecutive days of 1"+ days at Milwaukee is 112 in 1978-79. As recently as 2013-14 they had 92 straight days.  In 2013-14, Detroit went from December 8th til March 30th without a 0 depth, although  there were a few trace days around Christmas that ruined an otherwise phenomenal stretch of solid white. And then the last week or so of that in March was trace depth as the massive drifts remained and the rest of the ground became open. 

[Stebo]

3 hours ago, Hoosier said:

That usually subsides past the few week mark as the hair grows out more.  Some guys get really bad itchiness but fortunately mine was minimal.  Of course if you work at a job that requires any facial hair to be kept really short, then you'll never be able to get past that stage of hair growth.

 

3 hours ago, hawkeye_wx said:

I grow a beard, but there's a point when it begins to itch and it becomes annoying when my head is laying on the pillow.  So, I cut it down to stubble and let it regrow again.  I don't want a big, gray beard, anyway, so shorter is better.

Honestly for me it grows so slowly that I would have to not shave for like 3 months to have anything substantial. So I just shave it all off once a week, by then it gets to stubble at most.

[madwx]

Today is the first day with over 11 hours of daylight here.  Really noticing the earlier mornings now as well

[Hoosier]

Take a trip down memory lane with some old TWC style graphics.  Just enter your location.

https://battaglia.ddns.net/twc/

[Hoosier]

On 2/22/2021 at 8:56 PM, michsnowfreak said:

Years ago I used to dislike facial hair. However, after years of having a beard, I don't think I could ever be clean shaven again. Btw when I commented earlier on your post I realized I misread it. I thought you said this was in your top 3 stretches of Winter, but you said this was your top 3 week stretch of Winter.  Again, it was a great stretch here but certainly not tops. If this was 1998 and I was 15, it would be my top stretch hands down. But we've had so many good times this century we are spoiled.  I don't think mother nature will be able to top 2014 here. (Hope you heard that ma nature, I am challenging you).

It is funny how the facial hair becomes part of your identity and you sort of develop an attachment to it.  

Yeah, it is my top stretch in a 3 week period.  Narrowly at the top, but still at the top in my book.  

[Chinook]

I am thinking about doing some more things with regard to making loops of radar and other maps where I need to a screen-capture. I have normally been using a click-and-drag method in a simple picture editor. I want to switch to some Windows utility that can create screen captures with the exact same dimensions, with the exact same pixels of the screen captured over and over. This is because it looks better when I produce the loop. Any recommendations?

[cyclone77]

5 hours ago, Hoosier said:

Take a trip down memory lane with some old TWC style graphics.  Just enter your location.

https://battaglia.ddns.net/twc/

Last year I downloaded the weatherstar 4000 emulator from this site. http://www.taiganet.com/forum/index.php/topic,4135.0.html

Once you download and figure out how to set it up, you can customize it to your liking.  There's also a forum with lots of answers to questions you may have from others who have set it up on their pcs.  I have it set up to run in the same arrangement that TWC had back in the day, with the cities in the current weather in the same order that it was for example.  You can also download different theme songs and insert based on whatever season you're in.

[IWXwx]

8 hours ago, Hoosier said:

Take a trip down memory lane with some old TWC style graphics.  Just enter your location.

https://battaglia.ddns.net/twc/

Dude. That makes me feel old.

[wegoweather]

8 hours ago, Hoosier said:

Take a trip down memory lane with some old TWC style graphics.  Just enter your location.

https://battaglia.ddns.net/twc/

That's great.  I got a snow removal job back in high school off the scroll on the bottom.

[Powerball]

As rough as the week of 2/15 was (being without power for 2 days straight), it's being able to see stuff like below in February that helps to make up for it. 

   Mesoscale Discussion 0135
   NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK
   0959 AM CST Sun Feb 28 2021

   Areas affected...northeast Texas through southeast Oklahoma and
   southwest Arkansas

   Concerning...Severe potential...Watch likely 

   Valid 281559Z - 281730Z

   Probability of Watch Issuance...80 percent

   SUMMARY...Thunderstorms are expected to increase in coverage and
   intensity by late morning into the afternoon. Primary threats will
   be isolated large hail and damaging wind gusts, though a tornado or
   two will also be possible. A WW will likely be needed before 17Z.

   DISCUSSION...As of mid morning a cold front extends from eastern OK
   through north central and west central TX. An isolated thunderstorm
   with mid-level updraft rotation has developed on the front and is
   located just east of Gainesville with another isolated storm near
   Mineral Wells. The downstream warm sector is already moderately
   unstable with 1000-1500 J/kg MLCAPE supported by upper 60s F
   dewpoints and 7-7.5 C/km mid-level lapse rates. Further
   destabilization will occur, but will be limited to some degree by
   widespread multi-layer clouds. Weak, progressive impulses embedded
   within the southwesterly upper flow regime and forcing along the
   cold front will contribute to an increase in thunderstorm coverage
   later this morning as the boundary layer slowly warms. The primary
   low-level jet has shifted east of this region resulting in small 0-1
   km hodographs. However, a belt of strong southwesterly winds
   increasing to around 70 kt at 500 mb resides above the warm sector
   and is contributing to 60+ kt effective bulk shear. Therefore, some
   storms should organize with supercells and bowing segments likely,
   eventually consolidating into a dominant linear mode. Large hail and
   isolated damaging wind will be the main threats. The small low-level
   hodographs should tend to limit overall tornado threat. However, a
   tornado or two cannot be ruled out.

   ..Dial/Hart.. 02/28/2021

   ...Please see www.spc.noaa.gov for graphic product...

   ATTN...WFO...LZK...SHV...TSA...FWD...OUN...

   LAT...LON   32559772 33599665 34899484 34329358 31909679 31859817
               32559772 

[beavis1729]

Ugh...the whiplash of winter to non-winter is so hard to take.  If it happens in late March, ok...but it shouldn't happen during DJF.  But every year, it does...it's just a matter of when.  It's like people are ok with 3 weeks of good winter, and then no more. 

Wish we could have gradual transitions and more consistent winter, instead of "all or nothing".

We got about 25" of snow in 3 weeks, with an average temp of around 10F...then the next 3 weeks will see 0" of snow with an average temp around 35F.  It's like a switch flips, even though it's still Feb.  Why can't there be a gradual transition...like maybe we get 10-15" instead of 25" in the next 3 weeks...and an average temp around 20F instead of 10F??

This is why our winter climo is so frustrating.  We have 3 weeks of good winter...but DJF is a 13-week period.  We work so hard to get wintry weather for a decent period...the lakes and ponds froze pretty well...then when winter finally sets in completely, it just vaporizes.  This doesn't happen in the summer.  In JJA, it's either "mostly summer" or "total summer" on any given day.  But in winter, it often ranges from "no winter" to "good winter"...and it just switches on a dime.  There is no room for error, or gadual transitions; any "above average temp" period melts snow and stops lakes from freezing, even during the heart of winter.  It just sucks.  So frustrated that there's no consistency.  We've lost nearly 18" of dense snow in 7 days...winter just disappeared.  I know it's late in the winter...but it's still Feb...and these episodes keep reinforcing our bad climo, which I can't bring myself to accept.  It's not really winter when the normal high in early Dec and late Feb is around 40F.

It's so emotionally draining.  It's always something.  It's like we have 6 weeks of "core winter"...but you can't even count on that, as evidenced by the 50s/60s that occurred in each of the past two Decembers, near Christmas...when daylight is the shortest. Before Dec 15th, the lake is too warm, and the source region hasn't cooled off enough.  Then, after Feb 1st, the source region is colder...but then you have to hope for clouds if the temp is > 25F so that snow doesn't melt, because the sun angle is getting higher.  And you need the nights to be clear, to get radiational cooling and preserve the snow...and have a lower start to the warm-up during the following day.  My point is that it shouldn't need to be this difficult.  If we actually had winter from Dec 1 - Jan 10, it would have been easier to take what has happened over the past week.  We basically had 5 weeks of winter this season...with the last 3 weeks being really good.  Because there have only been 5 weeks of winter, I want winter to continue into March, to make up for the lack of winter in December.  I value duration over intensity...13 weeks of each season, not 5.  Summer is good when the calendar says it, Fall is good when the calendar says it...but let's have seasons in seasons.  Temps above freezing in the daytime is not winter. 

[WHEATCENT]

11 minutes ago, beavis1729 said:

Ugh...the whiplash of winter to non-winter is so hard to take.  If it happens in late March, ok...but it shouldn't happen during DJF.  But every year, it does...it's just a matter of when.  It's like people are ok with 3 weeks of good winter, and then no more. 

Wish we could have gradual transitions and more consistent winter, instead of "all or nothing".

We got about 25" of snow in 3 weeks, with an average temp of around 10F...then the next 3 weeks will see 0" of snow with an average temp around 35F.  It's like a switch flips, even though it's still Feb.  Why can't there be a gradual transition...like maybe we get 10-15" instead of 25" in the next 3 weeks...and an average temp around 20F instead of 10F??

This is why our winter climo is so frustrating.  We have 3 weeks of good winter...but DJF is a 13-week period.  We work so hard to get wintry weather for a decent period...the lakes and ponds froze pretty well...then when winter finally sets in completely, it just vaporizes.  This doesn't happen in the summer.  In JJA, it's either "mostly summer" or "total summer" on any given day.  But in winter, it often ranges from "no winter" to "good winter"...and it just switches on a dime.  There is no room for error, or gadual transitions; any "above average temp" period melts snow and stops lakes from freezing, even during the heart of winter.  It just sucks.  So frustrated that there's no consistency.  We've lost nearly 18" of dense snow in 7 days...winter just disappeared.  I know it's late in the winter...but it's still Feb...and these episodes keep reinforcing our bad climo, which I can't bring myself to accept.  It's not really winter when the normal high in early Dec and late Feb is around 40F.

It's so emotionally draining.  It's always something.  It's like we have 6 weeks of "core winter"...but you can't even count on that, as evidenced by the 50s/60s that occurred in each of the past two Decembers, near Christmas...when daylight is the shortest. Before Dec 15th, the lake is too warm, and the source region hasn't cooled off enough.  Then, after Feb 1st, the source region is colder...but then you have to hope for clouds if the temp is > 25F so that snow doesn't melt, because the sun angle is getting higher.  And you need the nights to be clear, to get radiational cooling and preserve the snow...and have a lower start to the warm-up during the following day.  My point is that it shouldn't need to be this difficult.  If we actually had winter from Dec 1 - Jan 10, it would have been easier to take what has happened over the past week.  We basically had 5 weeks of winter this season...with the last 3 weeks being really good.  Because there have only been 5 weeks of winter, I want winter to continue into March, to make up for the lack of winter in December.  I value duration over intensity...13 weeks of each season, not 5.  Summer is good when the calendar says it, Fall is good when the calendar says it...but let's have seasons in seasons.  Temps above freezing in the daytime is not winter. 

57 degrees here today in Northern Ohio and outside the failed storm  that actually hit toldeo and indiana and only dropped like 5 inches here in CLE earlier in Feb,  I feel this. it was in the 20's and teens here for 10 days barley any snow, bare ground,   and before that  period, the last snow we had was 9 inches in two days that melted immediately after Christmas. and since i'm right on the lake we got 9 inches on December 1st but it never got below 35 while it fell and was gone in 2 days. one of our local mets posted that we've never not had snow in march (we average like 12 inches) and so far the models are warm and zzz though 10 days.....

[Chicago Storm]

lol


.

[Hoosier]

47 minutes ago, beavis1729 said:

Ugh...the whiplash of winter to non-winter is so hard to take.  If it happens in late March, ok...but it shouldn't happen during DJF.  But every year, it does...it's just a matter of when.  It's like people are ok with 3 weeks of good winter, and then no more. 

Wish we could have gradual transitions and more consistent winter, instead of "all or nothing".

We got about 25" of snow in 3 weeks, with an average temp of around 10F...then the next 3 weeks will see 0" of snow with an average temp around 35F.  It's like a switch flips, even though it's still Feb.  Why can't there be a gradual transition...like maybe we get 10-15" instead of 25" in the next 3 weeks...and an average temp around 20F instead of 10F??

This is why our winter climo is so frustrating.  We have 3 weeks of good winter...but DJF is a 13-week period.  We work so hard to get wintry weather for a decent period...the lakes and ponds froze pretty well...then when winter finally sets in completely, it just vaporizes.  This doesn't happen in the summer.  In JJA, it's either "mostly summer" or "total summer" on any given day.  But in winter, it often ranges from "no winter" to "good winter"...and it just switches on a dime.  There is no room for error, or gadual transitions; any "above average temp" period melts snow and stops lakes from freezing, even during the heart of winter.  It just sucks.  So frustrated that there's no consistency.  We've lost nearly 18" of dense snow in 7 days...winter just disappeared.  I know it's late in the winter...but it's still Feb...and these episodes keep reinforcing our bad climo, which I can't bring myself to accept.  It's not really winter when the normal high in early Dec and late Feb is around 40F.

It's so emotionally draining.  It's always something.  It's like we have 6 weeks of "core winter"...but you can't even count on that, as evidenced by the 50s/60s that occurred in each of the past two Decembers, near Christmas...when daylight is the shortest. Before Dec 15th, the lake is too warm, and the source region hasn't cooled off enough.  Then, after Feb 1st, the source region is colder...but then you have to hope for clouds if the temp is > 25F so that snow doesn't melt, because the sun angle is getting higher.  And you need the nights to be clear, to get radiational cooling and preserve the snow...and have a lower start to the warm-up during the following day.  My point is that it shouldn't need to be this difficult.  If we actually had winter from Dec 1 - Jan 10, it would have been easier to take what has happened over the past week.  We basically had 5 weeks of winter this season...with the last 3 weeks being really good.  Because there have only been 5 weeks of winter, I want winter to continue into March, to make up for the lack of winter in December.  I value duration over intensity...13 weeks of each season, not 5.  Summer is good when the calendar says it, Fall is good when the calendar says it...but let's have seasons in seasons.  Temps above freezing in the daytime is not winter. 

The speed of the meltdown is similar to what happened in 1979.  On 2/22/1979, the snow depth was 20" in Chicago and it was down to 2" just 10 days later on 3/4.  On 2/17/2021, the snow depth was 20" and was down to 5" as of 2/27.  Of course 1978-79 was a much better winter overall.

As much as I enjoyed the stretch that we just went through, I would've rather had it earlier in the season for a couple reasons.  One, I love snow around the holidays and two, it is easier to keep adding to the snow depth at that time of year.  I wanted to see something truly extraordinary like 3 feet depth but we ran out of time for that.  By the time it gets into later February, you need more to go right to keep building the snow depth at our latitude.