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Showing posts with label weather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weather. Show all posts

September 2, 2016

New Moon

New Moon - the phase of the moon when it is in conjunction with the sun and invisible from earth, or shortly thereafter when it appears as a slender crescent.

There was a new moon last night (Sept 1) and  there will be another on Sept 30.

According to superstition, two new moons occurring in one month foretells bad weather.


June 3, 2016

404 Flood

Not only is it flooding here in Texas, it's flooding on the Internet with broken links.

Found on Brit+Co.


September 6, 2015

Close Lightning Strike Compilation

Warning: some cursing...and I can't say as I blame 'em.  I wouldn't even go so far as to call it "inappropriate".


January 3, 2015

niveous



niveous \ NIV-ee-uhs \ adjective

1. resembling snow, especially in whiteness; snowy.


It's cold here and we were supposed to get some frozen precipitation, but thank goodness there's nothing resembling snow on the ground.


December 30, 2014

Brrrr

This is just TOO damn cold.


February 1, 2014

Twister History

It's not known when the first tornado hit the United States; tornado records have been kept only since 1916.




December 22, 2013

Moonlighters

I'm sitting here waiting on the Cowboys/Redskins game that starts at noon and the host on the online radio show I'm listening to said it's raining in Washington, DC.  I decided I'd go look at the DC area weather radar to see if it looked like it would rain all through the game. (I'm thinking Dallas would benefit from good, dry weather because I think the offense will have to carry the day)

On the website header there is a graphic with two of the station's weather people;  I didn't pay them much mind at first, but after looking at the radar, my gaze was drawn back to them...they looked familiar:

The graphic says their names are Doug Hill and Jacqui Jeras, but I'm not so sure.


I think it's Joe Biden and Gwyneth Paltrow moonlighting at their second jobs.

June 9, 2013

Texas Panhandle Supercells

A video diary of a storm chaser from May 8, 2013 taken near Childress.(which is located at the very bottom of the east side of the state line that forms the Panhandle)

February 25, 2013

xeric

xeric xe·ric [zeer-ik]
adjective
of, pertaining to, or adapted to a dry environment.


Most of the time, I'd rather this part of Texas wasn't so xeric, but today the wetness is in the form of blowing snow. I'd settle for a little xeric conditions instead of this blizzard.   Oh well, at least it will be good for the farms and grassland.

That would make a cool name for a town, though, huh?  "Xeric, Texas".  You'd know someone was from out of the area if they pronounced it "Ex-er-rick"

September 1, 2012

Wind Map

From the website:

An invisible, ancient source of energy surrounds us—energy that powered the first explorations of the world, and that may be a key to the future.

This map shows you the delicate tracery of wind flowing over the US.

August 27, 2012

Weather Around My World

Almost since I first got on the 'net, I've used the Excite TV listings to see what's on the tube.  I prefer it over any other similar sites because it allows me to favorite the programs I like and they show up in red. 

Other types of programs are also color-coded which makes it easy to see movies, sports, etc.  at a glance and when they're airing.


I used to have Excite as my start page; they were ahead of their time because the page allowed one to customize with various modules - local weather, the TV listings, reminders, news, famous birthdays, word of the day and many others.  (now most sites allow that, such as Yahoo, MSN, etc.) They also offered up registered users with their own web space...many other sites have done that, too, but Excite was a little more advanced than most of the others, letting the owner use Java and javascript and also had a "file cabinet", a directory much like a "real" website.

The site has changed a lot since that time, though, changing hands and streamlining their offered content.  I don't use anything other than the TV listings now, not even their free email service and seldom look at the home page.  I had cleaned out my browser cookies and cache last night and when I do that, I have to sign into the site again to have my favorite shows highlighted.  I have to go to the home page to do that and after putting in my user name and password, noticed my weather module and decided to edit it.

What's neat about that Excite module is one can not only include their own local weather, but several other locations as well.  I've always used my own, but also some of the places where my family and online friends live.  I added a new location this morning - that way I can keep up with the weather of those I care about.


It might seem silly to some, but it makes me feel closer to them. I can usually claim bragging rights to the worst - hot/cold - weather, though.

May 1, 2012

Russian Through My Vacation

Moscow?  Really?



Your Summer Vacation is Moscow

You are vivacious and high-spirited. You take a breezy approach to living your life.

You take life by the horns and are big on taking a chance. You aren't going to sit at home bored!

You are a truly extroverted person. People matter to you, and you get so energized from socializing.

You are downright amusing. Your odd sense of humor gets people laughing.


I've been to the Moscow in Kansas and I never want to go back. We played a football game there when I was a junior in h.s. and there was freezing drizzle all through the game. We had them down 20-0 at the half. Kansas football had a rule that if there was bad weather or one team was handily beating the other and both teams agreed, the game could be stopped at halftime. When our coach came into the locker room after talking with the Moscow coach and told us we had to keep playing, I quickly changed my soggy socks for my dry "street" socks. They became soaked in a matter of seconds and I went home with no socks, chilled to the bone and shivering on our old, cold ancient bus. I've been miserable since then, but that's in the top five of all-time misery.

Here's one of the best Beatles songs, IMHO. The best one with the song and footage of the group in Russia had the embed code disabled.


March 18, 2012

Strange Blob on Radar

Some storms have been popping up in the region and I read on a Pampa woman's Facebook wall that she had seen storm chasing vehicles in town today, so I've been keeping an eye on the NWS Amarillo radar. We've been under a tornado watch since about three this afternoon.  Most of the storms are quite a ways away, down near Childress and moving on into Oklahoma. There are a few storms firing up near Perryton but they too are rapidly moving out of the area. I hope it stays calm; I'm not ready for a tornado. (now or any time)

The last few times I checked the radar, I saw an odd anomaly between here and Amarillo, close to White Deer. It looks like a small thunderstorm - most t-storms are ten miles or less in area - but it stayed in the same spot. The funny thing was it increased and then decreased in size when I set the radar in motion.


At first I thought it might be a grain elevator complex just to the north of Highway 60 - the distance looked about right, but I couldn't be certain, so I used the distance tool on the radar website and saw that it was around 17 miles from Pampa.

I then opened up Google Earth and measured 17 miles and realized the blob on the radar had to be caused by the Llano Estacado Wind Ranch™ near White Deer. I switched to street view in the application and couldn't see anything, but while the turbines can easily be seen from the highway, the closest one is around two miles away. The overhead view was better, however, and while a good side view of the turbines isn't available, they showed up, casting a long, detailed shadow.


February 6, 2012

50-50 Weather

This was today's question at StartSampling, one of the websites I visit every day. I've posted about it before, but for anyone who isn't familiar with the site, it features recipes, contests, trivia and a daily poll. (which is great for me, because those are among my favorite things) Today's poll question is about the weather and as you can see, the responses were equally divided.


I reluctantly voted for the hotter temperature; I'd rather it be somewhere in the middle, even an avg. of the two - somewhere around 70 degrees. Even though 105 deg. is too warm, I'd rather suffer through the heat than sub-freezing temps.

OTOH, my grandpa worked out in all sorts of weather and he always said he'd rather work in the cold than the heat.  His reasoning was you could always put on more clothes, but there were only so many you could take off. 

I never cared for working in either extreme; during frigid weather I've worn so many clothes it was hard to move and during really hot weather I sweat like crazy, pouring down into my eyes where I can't see.  (I've heard people say they "sweat like a pig" or dog, but pigs and dogs don't sweat) I've never worked at a job where I could take off nearly all my clothes, but if I did, I think I'd like to work with a bunch of women.

February 1, 2012

Happy Groundhog & Garazon Day!

A"bump" since I'm too busy celebrating Groundhog Day to actually put up a new post about it.



(have to use a graphic because Blogger won't let me put in those special characters) means "grin" in IM chat or forum posts, but it in this case it also stands for "Garazon", one of my best and long-time online pals. The G for grin was first used by our mutual friend, Brad and I guess Garazon and I picked it up around the same time. It became a "nickname for the nickname" for me with Garazon and that's how I started abbreviating his screen name.

Garazon and I "met" in MSN Groups, but started to become good friends when he made a flashy Halloween page for his group, complete with embedded midi sound file and some other special effects. Making a page was one of my goals when I first got online and I was determined to learn how to do it, so I started asking Garazon all sorts of questions. I'm sure he grew weary of me bothering him, but he should have been flattered if he had only known how hard it was...and still is...for me to ask for assistance. 


I hope we don't ever lose touch, but even if we do, I'll always remember Garazon because of our time in Groups and that he once said Groundhog Day was one of his favorite holidays. I don't remember exactly WHY he said it was, but I thought that was very funny and every year since we met a dozen years ago in Groups, I always think of him on this day.

The 1993 Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day is also one of my favorite flicks and I try to watch it whenever it's on. I link to IMDb often when I post about movies, but sometimes I get so annoyed when reading posts about my favorite movies; the site is full of argumentative and insulting posts.  I can understand contention when discussing politics and religion, but movies?  Good Grief.  It gets extremely nasty when a movie contains plot elements of either of those two subjects and sometimes people try to interject one or the other into the discussion when there's no reason to do so.

Anyway...just heard on the news that the groundhog saw his shadow and there will be six more weeks of bad weather.  That doesn't mean much here in the Texas Panhandle; it was a beautiful, fairly warm day yesterday but this evening is supposed to bring freezing temps and rain and possibly snow. 

June 26, 2011

sirocco

sirocco \suh-ROK-oh\ , noun;
1. Any hot, oppressive wind, especially one in the warm sector of a cyclone.
2. A hot, dry, dust laden wind blowing from northern Africa and affecting parts of southern Europe.
3. A warm, sultry south or southeast wind accompanied by rain.


So that's the name of the blast furnace-like gusts around here.

That's two weather-related words in a row that apply to the weather around here. I hope the next word is "precipitation".