August Banter 2022

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

Continued...

[nw baltimore wx]

I liked the pics but I hope either the Guardians or Twins collapse the next six weeks. 

 

[WxWatcher007]

 

[George BM]

@Kmlwx

Oh. My. Goodness.

*Ninjaly*

 

[StormchaserChuck!]

On 8/22/2022 at 5:44 PM, Always in Zugzwang said:

Continued...

 

Not continued continue

[Kmlwx]

8 hours ago, George BM said:

@Kmlwx

Oh. My. Goodness.

*Ninjaly*

 

Wait - what did I do this time? 

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

On 8/22/2022 at 6:15 PM, nw baltimore wx said:

I liked the pics but I hope either the Guardians or Twins collapse the next six weeks. 

 

Thanks!  As for collapsing, I cannot speak for the Twins but it would absolutely not surprise me if the Guardians do!! 

Cleveland fans always expect the worst...The Drive, The Fumble, The Shot, Two Game 7 World Series losses in extra innings (1997, 2016!)!  At least "The Shot" (Jordan's game/series winning shot over Craig Ehlo in 1989) has been replaced by the 2016 NBA Game 7 Finals "Shot" (Irving 3 pointer over Curry) and "The Block" (LeBron's block of Iguadala in the same game) when the Cavs won vs. Golden State.

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

3 hours ago, StormchaserChuck! said:

Not continued continue

Well OK then, pedants gonna pedant!

[mattie g]

On 8/23/2022 at 9:31 AM, IronTy said:

Chemtrails.  Deep state seeding clouds and spreading vax in the air....

HAARP

[toolsheds]

33 minutes ago, mattie g said:

HAARP

Jesse Ventura loved HAARP.  

[PrinceFrederickWx]

Butterfly on our sunflowers this morning.

[MN Transplant]

Curious to see whether this works.  From the Arlington tornado day last year (7-1-21).  Video to Time Lapse to gif.

[Maestrobjwa]

20 hours ago, MN Transplant said:

Curious to see whether this works.  From the Arlington tornado day last year (7-1-21).  Video to Time Lapse to gif.

Nice!!! Yep it worked 

[NorthArlington101]

Moved into my Arlington apartment… got an eighth floor view which might have some weather photography benefits but the elevation in the part of the urban core I’m is a pithy 200”. Next.

[George BM]

13 minutes ago, NorthArlington101 said:

Moved into my Arlington apartment… got an eighth floor view which might have some weather photography benefits but the elevation in the part of the urban core I’m is a pithy 200”. Next.

In what direction is the 8th floor view?

[NorthArlington101]

In what direction is the 8th floor view?

Looking west would’ve been ideal, but not what happened. Can see east and south pretty well, little bit north. Kind of a corner unit.

[WxWatcher007]

8 hours ago, NorthArlington101 said:

Moved into my Arlington apartment… got an eighth floor view which might have some weather photography benefits but the elevation in the part of the urban core I’m is a pithy 200”. Next.

 

4 hours ago, NorthArlington101 said:

Looking west would’ve been ideal, but not what happened. Can see east and south pretty well, little bit north. Kind of a corner unit.

Life above the tree line is a whole different world. You’ll love it regardless of the direction. Congrats.

[RDM]

3 minutes ago, IronTy said:

Electric is nice and easy - quiet and lightweight but you're limited by the design which is for a standard 15A circuit breaker so there's only so much they can do.  I've used my little Honda generator to use it in more remote locations but really gasoline is better for serious work.  We mostly have tulip poplar to split around here after storms.  Randomly the county came by and cut down a while bunch of trees by the sides of the road early this year so I went out with my chainsaw and muck truck and got all my firewood this winter for free.  The tulip trees are randomly easy to split, even huge logs.  

 

I'll get a gasoline one for the mountain property though.   

Poplar spits easy, but is a very soft wood.  It burns hot, but burns fast too.  I have a good supply of black locust from several downed trees on our property.  Locust is classified as a very hard wood on the scale.  About the only think harder we have domestically is pear and osage orange.  Tried to split osage orange long ago with my dad's splitter - don't ever try it.  The twisted grain makes it nearly impossible to split.  Locust burns great - has the highest heat content of any wood in N. America.  Splits great too - is why the old timers used locust for split rail fences.  And, it won't rot if left unspilt on it's side until you get around to splitting it.  

Electric log splitters are ok for small stuff, but they have significant limitations compared to gas.  Built my log splitter nearly 40 years ago for my senior project in engineering school.  Splits wood in both directions with a sliding double wedge to avoid the unproductive return cycle on most hydraulic splitters.  Have 25 tons of force on the out stroke and 17 in the return stroke.  It will work 4 men to death trying to keep up with it.  The axle is off a B-52 APU and the main I-beam is galvanized steel from an electric sub-station (don't ask how I got those components).  Still runs great after nearly 40 years.  

[IronTy]

23 hours ago, NorthArlington101 said:

Moved into my Arlington apartment… got an eighth floor view which might have some weather photography benefits but the elevation in the part of the urban core I’m is a pithy 200”. Next.

If you have a deck to measure snow depth, at that elevation you might get some snow while the rest of us get mix to rain.  I'm at about 90' in Calvert though we have 3400' in Bittinger.  

[IronTy]

3 hours ago, RDM said:

Poplar spits easy, but is a very soft wood.  It burns hot, but burns fast too.  I have a good supply of black locust from several downed trees on our property.  Locust is classified as a very hard wood on the scale.  About the only think harder we have domestically is pear and osage orange.  Tried to split osage orange long ago with my dad's splitter - don't ever try it.  The twisted grain makes it nearly impossible to split.  Locust burns great - has the highest heat content of any wood in N. America.  Splits great too - is why the old timers used locust for split rail fences.  And, it won't rot if left unspilt on it's side until you get around to splitting it.  

Electric log splitters are ok for small stuff, but they have significant limitations compared to gas.  Built my log splitter nearly 40 years ago for my senior project in engineering school.  Splits wood in both directions with a sliding double wedge to avoid the unproductive return cycle on most hydraulic splitters.  Have 25 tons of force on the out stroke and 17 in the return stroke.  It will work 4 men to death trying to keep up with it.  The axle is off a B-52 APU and the main I-beam is galvanized steel from an electric sub-station (don't ask how I got those components).  Still runs great after nearly 40 years.  

I agree.  From the heavy snow in January this year a number of locust trees came down in our development so of course i went out with the muck truck and chainsaw to harvest them.  I had to sharpen my chainsaw quite a bit cutting the locust.  That and leatherwood are extremely hard.  The locust trees are never really large enough to split around here so I can't comment on that.   

 

I had to make a rocket launcher for my senior project as a EE major.  A log splitter would have been a lot more useful, wish that had been my capstone.  

[mdhokie]

@CAPEYou have any details on the oak tree disease? We've lost 8 50+ year old oaks in the past couple years and everyone is scratching their heads (had arborists out to look before we cut them down). UMD is supposedly looking into it but I can't find any new information on the net. There are at least 15 more in the neighborhood that I can tell are gonna go soon. The crown starts dying off and the only leaves are off larger branches/trunk. 

I do have a ton of firewood from it all, although I would rather have the trees and shade 

[IronTy]

19 minutes ago, mdhokie said:

@CAPEYou have any details on the oak tree disease? We've lost 8 50+ year old oaks in the past couple years and everyone is scratching their heads (had arborists out to look before we cut them down). UMD is supposedly looking into it but I can't find any new information on the net. There are at least 15 more in the neighborhood that I can tell are gonna go soon. The crown starts dying off and the only leaves are off larger branches/trunk. 

I do have a ton of firewood from it all, although I would rather have the trees and shade 

There's Sudden Oak Death disease which I believe started on the west coast.  I believe I live relatively close to @CAPE but on the west side of the Chesapeake (?)...we haven't had any issues with oak here to date.  Heat and drought seem to be a larger problem.  One tree that has really suffered here recently are white pines.  Dozens of landscape white pines have died down here in the last ten years just on my way to work.  Not sure the reason, I assume heat/drought.  I have one that grows like 5ft per year but this winter when we got all that snow the top broke off so now it looks all funky.  Seems healthy otherwise though.  Loblolly pine seem to grow better down here.  

[CAPE]

Oak tree blight has been common on the eastern shore for years, but not sure what the cause is- probably multiple factors. Primary symptom is the tree doesn't fully leaf out, and the following year basically nothing, so its dead standing.

Some info here from UMD-

https://extension.umd.edu/resource/why-oak-trees-are-declining-or-dying

The photo at that link is what the trees here look like up top before they rapidly deteriorate.

I have a big one over my parking area with several dead branches and just had it cleaned up a week ago. Temporary fix as the tree will likely have to come down next year. I have 3 that are dead standing out back and the insects and woodpeckers are having at those, but they are far enough back that I will probably let nature take its course. The oak tree that fell a few weeks ago during a storm was a victim of carpenter ants- it had a weird extended trunk at the base with an opening that probably gave them access.

[GramaxRefugee]

19 hours ago, CAPE said:

Oak tree blight has been common on the eastern shore for years, but not sure what the cause is- probably multiple factors. Primary symptom is the tree doesn't fully leaf out, and the following year basically nothing, so its dead standing.

Some info here from UMD-

https://extension.umd.edu/resource/why-oak-trees-are-declining-or-dying

The photo at that link is what the trees here look like up top before they rapidly deteriorate.

I have a big one over my parking area with several dead branches and just had it cleaned up a week ago. Temporary fix as the tree will likely have to come down next year. I have 3 that are dead standing out back and the insects and woodpeckers are having at those, but they are far enough back that I will probably let nature take its course. The oak tree that fell a few weeks ago during a storm was a victim of carpenter ants- it had a weird extended trunk at the base with an opening that probably gave them access.

This is a pretty good description of the many oaks we've lost over the past 20 years. I've noticed that, upon cutting and splitting them, they're all infested with borer beetles. Don't know if this is cause or effect, but someone suggested protecting the trunk with permethrin in the Spring/early Summer, so we've tried that for the past 4 or 5 years, and so far have had less oak death. But, I just don't know if it really helps or just a coincidence. They don't look a heck of a lot better. Also, permethrin is not cheap. Also, it seems to attack the red oaks much worse than the white. 
Hope that helps someone. Guess this belongs in the garden thread.

[WxWatcher007]

My first class was a success this evening!

[nw baltimore wx]

44 minutes ago, WxWatcher007 said:

My first class was a success this evening!

I’m behind and been caught up in my own world. Classes?

[WxWatcher007]

I’m teaching a course on law and public service at UConn this fall.

Time flies. 

[mattie g]

Figured I'd put this here instead of mucking up the tropical thread!

3 hours ago, Weather Will said:

If August does draw to a close Wednesday without a single named storm forming, it will be the first empty August since 1997.  Source: Washington Post.

The thing is, if this had been a very active season to this point with a few really strong systems, everyone would be taking about how AGW is contributing to an increase in that kind of extreme weather. Now...I'm not at all arguing against AGW, but I suppose it's just more me being annoyed that individual storms or seasons get attributed to AGW, but if there's a lack of extreme weather then there's crickets. I'd actually like to see more discussion of the effects of AGW on weather over longer timescales, and how individual events shouldn't necessarily be attributed to those effects.

Also...repeat of 1997-1998 winter incoming? I guess not, what with that having been a super Nino and all. And even that goes to show that a single index isn't the be-all and end-all of seasonal forecasting .

[SnowenOutThere]

2 hours ago, mattie g said:

there's a lack of extreme weather then there's crickets.

If it is abnormal enough then it is also a sign that the climate is out of whack, whether its from climate change or that volcano earlier this year is unknown. Its mostly not talked about besides while it may be an indicator of issues it is less newsworthy, I mean the headline Extreme Lack of Hurricanes wont sell that well. Also when you are trying to convince someone to save the planet and their life by acting on climate change its in your best interest to not confuse them.

[MN Transplant]

3 hours ago, mattie g said:

Figured I'd put this here instead of mucking up the tropical thread!

The thing is, if this had been a very active season to this point with a few really strong systems, everyone would be taking about how AGW is contributing to an increase in that kind of extreme weather. Now...I'm not at all arguing against AGW, but I suppose it's just more me being annoyed that individual storms or seasons get attributed to AGW, but if there's a lack of extreme weather then there's crickets. I'd actually like to see more discussion of the effects of AGW on weather over longer timescales, and how individual events shouldn't necessarily be attributed to those effects.

Also...repeat of 1997-1998 winter incoming? I guess not, what with that having been a super Nino and all. And even that goes to show that a single index isn't the be-all and end-all of seasonal forecasting .

In my mind, you have to think about it as shifting the probability distribution.  Warming is always going to be on top of an existing mechanism.  

Tropical is tricky because there is still uncertainty how warming will manifest over the long run.  We could get the same number of storms globally, but an increase in strength.  Or other factors could intervene.  What if a result of warming ends up that the SAL becomes a dominant feature in the Atlantic?  Or the SST warming means more storms outside the climatological areas.