A writer and a tropical muse. A funky Lubavitcher who enjoys watching the weather, hurricanes, listening to music while enjoying life with a sense of humor and trying to make sense of it all!
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Mardi Gras. Seattle Thundersnow, New Madrid Fault Severe Weather. Will March Turn Stormy Fast? Recipes for Weather and Drinks
Today is Mardi Gras and as I grew up in Miami when it was more Southern and the demographic mix in my neighborhood made Mardi Gras a big seasonal holiday for a city without seasons. So going to start off here by saying everyone should have a happy day and enjoy the weather if you got it as it may get a bit stormy again very soon. My Grandma spent some time in New Orleans when she was younger, the Garden District actually, and she had a healthy fear of voodoo queens and severe weather. She didn't like thunderstorms having grown up in Tampa they were used to thunder hitting so close that once it came into the house. I've heard it said when she was small she would hide under the bed during a good thunderstorm!
Of course Grandma Mary never saw Thundersnow that I know of...
Yesterday Seattle had Thundersnow, hail and then snow. They sort of won the wintertime trifecta and they can go quite a time between seeing snow or hail. Rain yes, but snow not so much and Thundersnow... well... you know that's Jim Cantore Land. Shame he didn't get to cover that storm. Love the way the guy responds "it's a convergence zone" when asked what's going on in the Seattle video. Watch the video ....
Is there such a thing has Thunderhail?
Shorter video with the "Thundersnow" at the end.
Those storms are moving East.
Winter has turned into Severe Weather Season....
Snow and Ice dip down like colorful Mardi Gras beads.
Warm air from the Gulf of Mexico moves North
Note the warmth of the Caribbean...
Pulls NW through the Yucatan.
Into the GOM and catches a ride North...
That translates to the image below
Snow way up North.
Rain moving up the Mississippi River Valley
Then that whole mess moves East.
Next 5 days.
Images available on www.spaghettimodels.com
But today we have this mess in the middle section of the country.
Doesn't it look like it highlights the New Madrid Fault?
Just a messy meteorology, geology mind.
A real recipe for severe weather.
A friend of mine Rob does great weather on his site.
Followed him for years, mostly for hurricane reasons.
But Rob really is a man for all seasons.
http://crownweather.com/
See the map below.
Note March will come in as a Severe Weather LION
Carolinas due to get weather Wednesday night....
So party today as it's Fat Tuesday.
Enjoy something delicious.
Ice Cream, Frozen Drinks.
King cake...
Oh I want a praline....
If you are off the wagon try this....
Personally I may pour bourbon over mine...
So hang in there March may be filled with weather.
And after severe weather season is hurricane season.
Eric knows...
Eric is watching.
So am i ;)
LOL (I'm laughing)
Have a happy, Fat Tuesday ....
Besos BobbiStorm
@bobbistorm on Twitter... add me please
My Grandma loved that song....
No that's not my Grandma but she could play like that ;)
Gulf Coast Weather Moving North Towards Mid West. California Fire Hose Stuck ON. What Does This Mean? El Nino? Hurricane Season?
Quiet today and then the weather comes back again.
An ongoing Seesaw pattern this winter.
I have a few things to say about the weather over the next few days and yet it is basically more of the same. Note the maps above and you see this ongoing busy, crazy, stormy weather and then quiet unseasonably warm across a good part of the country and then it's calm again. And, after discussing US weather trends I will give an honorable mention to the tropics at the end of this post.
Some Gulf Coast action as well as...
...the atmospheric river that's out of control in California.
Otherwise it's a quiet day today.
I want to show several shades of the same system here.
Note the Low winding up, funneling GOM moisture North.
It almost looks like a five year old tried to draw a hurricane symbol.
In the Louisiana, Mississippi area there is weather.
Following the water vapor loop above it moves North.
Up the mid section of the country.
When you have that much warm moisture moving North...
...it will eventually hit colder air and that collision brings severe weather.
Not so stormy today but stormier in a few days.
You can see this atmospheric ballet below.
Also note a lot of weather around Florida.
Dave Schwartz used to say the flip side of air moving down fast...
...was it forces air to move up on the other side.
He loved showing long loops where this played out on air
Know it's there...
And know the river of misery in California continues.
That fire hose set up aimed at the West Coast ....
...is stuck in the on position.
I lived in LA.
People lie it does rain.
But it doesn't pour often.
Northern California is beautiful but not used to deluges of rain.
Above you can see the systems lining up to land at LAX soon.
As for the tropics in February my favorite color popped up today.
Hmnnn.
And it hasn't gone unnoticed.
It's not a named tropical storm forming
It's a Gale of sorts. Stormy weather.
We watch patterns, however patterns aren't always facts.
But they are always worth watching.
And something tropical is always forming somewhere.
But even that region of the world is producing low numbers.
Note a lot of people are discussing what the rains in California mean. There's been a lot of discussion on whether we are headed into a strong El Nino or a neutral year or a weak El Nino Year. As far as I'm concerned it's too soon to tell. It's been an extremely awkward year in many ways with mixed signals and I believe this will continue for sometime. I read in one post from a good meteorologist that this flooding in LA and California was the worst since 1995 and 2004 and if that is true it makes you wonder as many are saying this is El Nino related. Note the hurricane seasons of 1995 and 2004 were epic and not what we would consider your usual low numbers in the Atlantic. So facts can be twisted, patterns can be misunderstood and when Mother Nature seems out of whack it's best to stand back and watch it play out before making big conclusions about the future.
If I was a weather doctor I'd suggest Mother Nature take some meds because she's been a bit Bi Polar these days and even a bit Manic. Happens, it's not the end of the world, but she might want to take some Passion Flower Tea or whatever it is that is popular these days to pop to chill out a bit. Whole Foods sells "Happy Camper" Mother Nature might want to check it out.
Just saying.
Maybe sprinkle some in the Pacific for California's sake.
Valentines Day, Blizzards, Hurricane ... What's Weather Do You Love? Tornado Warnings SE Texas Mother Nature's Stormy Valentine...
Valentines Day here makes me think on the things I love as well as the people I love. All those "tests" on Facebook that they really use for their own marketing never really hit the mark. I mean it gave me the following choices for my favorite weather: sun, rain, fog, snow. Ummmmmm.... no it didn't say Tropical Storms. Seriously? Okay, Hurricanes are a bit out there but it didn't ask if I liked Hail or Thundersnow? Facebook really can't get seriously, intense weather people.
Love this song but I owe my son for it as it was his favorite song for quite a while. He made me sit in the car and watch the video when it first came out.... so I smile at the memory. When he was young he woke me up in the middle of the night and insisted I come outside "NOW" to see this and so I did. We sat in the car facing North, wide open view of the sky and the light was lit up with a nonstop thunderstorm. It looked like a video being made for the Star Spangled Banner, except of course there was no flag. So that's Moe, a magnet for hail and wakes his mother to watch thunderstorms. For that matter there's Levi who sends me video of thunderstorms out over the Atlantic when he lived in his penthouse condo. Great views of storms and sky and Miami life. I guess my kids know me well. Or Mendy, another son, who sends me videos of driving in Aventura when it looks like a lake with squalls and waves splashing over the hood of his car. Or my daughter who takes better pictures than me when storm chasing. Every child has a weather memory of some kind.
What's your favorite weather? What's your favorite weather satellite imagery? Mine is obviously the water vapor loop because things pop out that don't always show on others.
Then again as photogenic as the Atlantic Blizzard Cane is...
...there's real weather today in America.
In the South and moving East is weather.
So far this morning we have had a Tornado Warning in Texas.
That's not red for Valentines Day...
Dangerous weather and moving East..
Mike as usual is on top of it.
Mike likes to be on top...of things.
Weather related ...of course.
Weather people are the best really...
If you are in the South or SE you need to watch the weather.
And if not... enjoy the day.
Chase a storm.
Lie in the sunshine.
Have a drink or a give a wink...
Make it your day, your way.
But watch out for Mother Nature...
..Always
Besos BobbiStorm
A Valentines Day song for all my weather friends ;)
Snow is on the way to NYC, Boston, Philly.. Check Your Flights as Travel IS being impacted! Loss of a friend Rabbi Shlomo Schwartz "Schwartzie" and memories of LA days.
The Super Bowl has come and gone. New England won, as we all kow, and now NE is about to be buried under the weight of a snow storm not ticker tape. Oh... and NYC and parts of New Jersey and well this is a real old fashioned SNOW STORM! Love the purple on this map, yet the white is where the snow will make the most impact. There's already controversy on this storm and it's just weather yet politics rears it's ugly face. Welcome to 2017 huh?
Today the high temperature set records.
Friends in Crown Heights told me it felt like Spring.
Picture people jogging through Central Park in shorts and tee shirts.
Smiling, pretending it's really Spring in February.
You know that song .. Saturday in the Park...
Tomorrow winter comes back....
Like the cat... winter came back...
The good news...............
........is alternate street parking is suspended.
Hey if you live in NYC this is BIG!!
So let's look at this bomb of a storm....
Flow is there...
As for forecast totals.
Should they play out...
...there will be a lot of snow for play time.
If you have tickets to an airport in the path of this storm...
...or flying anywhere tomorrow you may want to check in.
That's the notice up on Jetblue just now.
Not good.
On a good day traveling in and out of Boston is bad.
I came back from Israel changing planes in Boston. I had, by the way, a sprained right wrist and my purse and laptop on my left shoulder.. As it was the first entry port I had to go out of customs there, go get my suitcase that was large and being sent on to Raleigh. Some kind, strong guy grabbed it for me and I had to take it about 20 feet to a man at Jet Blue who was taking our luggage and gathering it to send on to other places and then I had to go back through TSA at BOS at 7 AM when it's busy. I was in line for over an hour. As my ticket was made through El Al even TSA approved doesn't work and I never saw a line move so slowly in my life. I'm used to traveling, this was bizarre but I was told it's pretty normal for Boston in the early morning. Remind me never to change planes in Boston again, please. I barely made my plane and that was with a 3 hour layover. End of rant.
No really it was BAD I didn't even have time to look for a Boston Donut or a Red Sox sticker and it was so annoying. Anyway, they will get theirs sooner rather than later as winter is making a come back!
By Thursday morning the snow storm should show itself.
They do that they come out of stealth mode.
Boston NWS shows way more snow throughout the week.
It may look like that iconic scene in Love Story.
Really, find someone to go play in the snow.
Or hunker down inside.
So that's the story.
Old school snow storm.
It's not the end of the world.
But if your flight gets cancelled it may feel like it.
Been a long day for me. I had a friend or two that had doctor's appointments today and I was a bit worried on one in particular. There's a phrase in Yiddish I can't remember but it means sitting on needles ... that sort of feeling. I slept funny on my healing wrist so it was sore when I woke up. Tried to think good thoughts and not worry much and while online joking with my daughter and some friends a post popped up that took my breath away. A friend of mine or maybe a co-worker? No, yes... maybe. A friend's husband and a man who helped my ex-husband become involved in Chabad. I worked for Chabad in LA and in Miami in the 1970s, 1980s and into the 1990s in ways. I worked in LA during the 80s as I've said here often. Oh what a time it was and one of those "in the right place at the right time" sort of examples. You have to Google "Chabad" to understand fully, but even Google can't explain things always.
Chabad is sort of a Jewish Outreach that often works in schools, campuses and pretty much anywhere there are Jews who want to learn more about who they are and the meaning of life or let's say to add in the meaning of their lives. Our house was filled with guests coming and going and Sabbath meals on the Shabbos that had anywhere from 10 to 20 to who remembers how many people as people would show up to eat, to learn and to laugh. Good times really.
Rabbi Shlomo Schwartz worked anywhere his folding cardboard table could be set up on campus at UCLA or any college campus in the area including Fairfax Avenue on a busy afternoon. Over time he held Purim Parties at the Comedy Store and he went from Hippies to people in Hollywood to anyone willing to talk and admire his quirky tee shirt or hat and join in a conversation. He was an original. The video below was made for his 70th birthday, he had been ill and as always people hope they never have to see that story on Facebook if you know what I mean.. I did today. He passed away.
He had a smile, he had a goal, he had his mission in life and part of that mission was to do it with Joy. May you all know people who are joyful, funny and passionate. And may you give as much as you get and pass along those smiles, that love... And that's all I'll say here. It rarely rained in LA and it really, rarely snowed. In Carolina it snows a bit more but very little. I went from California to Carolina, a numerologist could have a field day with that I'm sure.
Give a little love... share a smile, do a good deed in his memory. Give charity, share something with someone. Make the world a better place than you found it! "Schwartzie did!" He touched thousands, tens of thousands of lives giving their lives more meaning. He passed a long the Rebbe's message in his own unique way and whether he was as he said "court jester" or a 4 Star General he was iconic and well no one like him. Yet our job is not to be someone else but to be ourselves, live out our own story and that's a story for another time.
Besos BobbiStorm
@bobbistorm on Twitter
Ps sorry for any typos... my wrist is almost back to normal but I'm way too tired to spell check.
Super Bowl Sunday, Quiet Winter .. Where's the Weather?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANZLWtwYvoE
So let's be real no one really is paying attention to the weather this weekend as we move closer to the Super Bowl. But, trying to find some sort of hurricane, weather angle in the world of indoor, retractable stadiums in the South is not always that easy. In this case the stadium being used for the Super Bowl was directly impacted by Hurricane Ike in 2008 so it wasn't that hard.
There was damage that to be assessed and repaired.
Games were moved.
Happens when you get a direct hit by a Category 2 Hurricane.
But the games went on and the stadium was repaired.
Better than ever and ready to host the big game.
It's been a boring winter in the Carolinas.
I know some people like that.
I'm not someone who likes boring.
Hello? Where is the weather?
See the grid below from www.spaghettimodels.com ...
It's like some grinch stole winter :(
Then again the Northern Lights were caught by travelers.
Talk about something not in the travel book...
Can you imagine looking out the window and seeing this?
Incredible.
I once saw a great sunrise over some Chemtrails in Atlanta on take off.
Not as colorful, red and orange but pretty.
I've never seen the Northern Lights.
I'd like to ...
....some day.
New images from a new satellite are blowing away meteorolgists.
I'll wait until the Hurricane Season to go gaga over it..
And on a personal note as a Miami girl..
Kudos to Jason Taylor for getting into the Hall of Fame.
He was always a Hall of Fame star to us.
So as we approach Super Bowl Sunday.
Let's look back at a year when weather played a role.
My father used to talk about this game...
And this one....
-15 degree weather
So yeah we have the nice new stadiums these days ;)
But oh what times those were.
Enjoy the game tomorrow.
And if you don't like football (ewww) ...
...enjoy the commercials.
Enjoy the food and drinks.
Personally I'm a Southerner so rooting for Atlanta.
Did I mention I'm a Miami Dolphins Fan?
Nuff Said.
Besos BobbiStorm
Look me up on Twitter @bobbistorm
Ps Oh my Middle School was the Falcons.
You don't think I'd forget something like that do you?
Location: Miami, Raleigh, Crown Heights, Florida, United States
Weather Historian. Studied meteorology and geography at FIU. Been quoted in Wall Street Journal, Washington Post & everywhere else... Lecturer, stormchaser, writer, dancer. If it's tropical it's topical ... covering the weather & musing on life. Follow me on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/#!/BobbiStorm
