Why are people so stupid?

 

Look at this idiot taking a selfie in a hurricane in Louisiana. I mean how stupid can you be?

They are preparing for a big disaster down there. A friend of ours in Mobile Alabama is really battening down the hatches. We just had a pretend hurricane up here. Hurricane Henri. I thought it was a big bunch of bullshit but the wife hade me bring in all the lawn furniture and the flower pots and generally act like the world was coming to an end. I keep telling her that Sandy was a once in a hundred years occurrence and we had about eighty five years until it came back but she wouldn't listen. The news media just hypes it up since we don't have honest weathermen like Tex Antione anymore. He told it like it is. 

Still you should never forget:

The mystery of the Bermuda Triangle may finally be solved

By Corey Charlton, The Sun October 21, 2016

Strange clouds forming above the Bermuda Triangle could explain why dozens of ships and planes have mysteriously vanished in the notorious patch of sea.

The remarkable new theory suggests the clouds are linked to 170-mph “air bombs” — capable of bringing down planes and ships.

Now the riddle could finally be solved after meteorologists speaking to the Science Channel’s “What on Earth?” revealed their findings.

Using radar satellite imagery, they discovered bizarre “hexagonal”-shaped clouds between 20 and 50 miles wide forming over the dodgy patch of water.

Meteorologist Dr. Randy Cerveny said: “The satellite imagery is really bizarre … the hexagonal shapes of the cloud formations.

rain

Here's the thing that kills me. I'm no kind of meteorologist or whatever, and I've never had much interest in weather. At all. A schoolmate's dad was on t.v. explaining weather and even he was uninteresting. And growing up inside a few military airbases, and weather being crucial to training, covered in CAP, I never much cared. I always preferred weather to be a surprise. Stupid, I know, but I didn't much care for technical things.

They just rattle off a bunch of numbers.

But this weather here just blows my mind. And I mean it. Because it ia so clearly observed. The picture is actually framed. All there is to think about is the show right there before you. I'm mesmerized, and it's not just me, others have sat out there too, how you can see the localized rain. Like in a western movie. I haven't seen it anywhere else. Or noticed. Within the frame the rain races around like a lunatic. Like someone up there with a gigantic watering can and we are its garden. And they're very careless about randomly emptying their sprinkling pail on us. The rest of the sky cannot do that, only one area is heavy enough to drop some of its water and the area flings around like a dripping mop. I'm fascinated by the moving localized rain in the narrow blue strip under the clouds. And it's barely raining. People stuck in the rain are not suffering.  I still have to go out there and water the plants.

Honestly, sometimes it's better than television or movies, or videos.

It's very short. I heard thunder and tried to get lightning. I think for that there needs to be a lot of positive and negative and this looks more homogenous, so no lightning.

We photographer types learn to live with disappointment.

Speaking of technical: [Look down there, now that there are so many, I'm getting the hang of this labels thing, or tags or whatever. When I type wea...t...h...e...r, then the thing makes suggestions as I type. There are so many now I can pick one best fits, or close, and that stops the spread of wildfire labels.]

Microburst Takeoffs

Planes "spontaneously" taking off during a microburst at an airport (link to source)

Unseasonably cold

A large, powerful high pressure system originating in the
Eastern or Western Pacific and stretching to the
North Pole is required to displace the pocket of cold air.

""The polar vortex will drop into Ontario during the first weekend in April," according to AccuWeather Long-Range Meteorologist Joe Lundberg.

This means arctic air will have a direct path into the Midwest.

"From Sunday, April 3, through the following week, most of, if not all, days will bring below-average temperatures from the northern Plains to the mid-Atlantic coast," Lundberg said. "We expect nighttime temperatures to drop to freezing as far south as the Tennessee Valley."

Temperatures will average 15-30 degrees Fahrenheit below normal with the core of the cold air directed at the North Central states. Normal highs during the first week of April are in the lower to middle 50s in Minneapolis, Chicago and Detroit and in the 60s from Kansas City, Missouri, to Nashville and Cincinnati.

"The intense cold could impact play for opening day MLB games in Pittsburgh and Kansas City, Missouri, on Sunday, as well as games elsewhere in the Midwest and Northeast on Monday," according to AccuWeather Lead Long-Range Meteorologist Paul Pastelok."

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/polar-vortex-to-plunge-cold-into-midwest-east-us-early-april/56265180

snow, March 23, 2016, Denver

The following is a photo essay in muted palette to sooth your nerves and calm your troubled mind. At least cover them in a blanket of detail erasing freezing cold crystal fuzz. The shots are all taken in thirty seconds standing inside with door open to the terrace.

"History shows a strong El Niño may mean huge snow for D.C. this winter or almost none"

All or Nothing at all.

We keep getting the question, what does the strong El Niño mean for Washington, D.C. this winter?

During the five strongest El Niños since 1950, winters either featured among the most paralyzing snowstorms in Washington, D.C.’s history or hardly any snow at all.

Why such variation? El Niños tend to have two primary effects on U.S. weather which play out in complicated ways over the Mid-Atlantic: 1) They push the average position of polar jet stream north, which favors warmer than normal air over the region 2) They intensify the moisture supply along the southern jet stream, increasing the potential storminess.

Wild Weather Weekend

A wild weather weekend is already underway. Snow, tornadoes, and a tropical storm: http://t.co/Yhst4pUem0 pic.twitter.com/8N4AmUPexM

— Eric Holthaus (@EricHolthaus) May 8, 2015

Algorithm Predicts US Supreme Court Decisions 70% of Time

Algorithm predicts US Supreme Court decisions 70% of time

"Supreme Court fantasy league to compete against computer model in upcoming term."

Now if only an Algore rhythm could predict the weather 70% of the time.

It Never Rains In Southern California...

...except for days like today.

Today's PSA

As it's gets colder the next few days, bring all your pets inside! Their noses and ears get cold just like ours. pic.twitter.com/EAypFcbzRh
— Brampton Fire (@BramptonFireES) January 6, 2014

cold

Boy, is it ever cold outside.

How cold is it, Johnny?

It's so cold I saw these two penguins buying a space heater.

And I have a cart to bring things up from the truck. The cart has a spongy rubber tube wrapping the handle. Tight as can be like a floaty tube that is glued on. The whole metal cart shrank. The usual things that fit tight in the cart could not fit as usual, and handle shrank so the rubber tube could slide back and forth easily.

The weather moved in like a wall of gray over the mountains, then obscuring them, then covering the foothills too, a flat gray wall advancing toward the city like an alien army except nicer than that and a lot colder looking and all the way up, and then suddenly we're in it. 

It's fun. 

I mentioned this to a few people outside here and there as the weather moved in observably right before us over a few hours and in each case their eyes lit up and they said they were watching it too, and it is rather exciting, and sometimes they pointed to their view. The haircut lady spun my chair around and said, "That is what we are watching." The Taste of Philly guy at the cash register pointed out the window behind me, the building blocks the view, but  allows a gap at the corner where from his station the mountains are in view, he described himself watching the whole thing.