7.7 Earthquake in Caribbean! Winter Weather Promises Broken as Winter Forecasts Went Bad.... Thoughts on Kobe and Fog and Life.

7.7 Earthquake in Caribbean.
Between Jamaica and Cuba.
Felt in Miami.
Yet... no coverage at all by CNN or FOX?
As Impeachment was on a "break"
You'd think they'd BREAK IN for a 7.7 Quake?
And that's why we have Twitter I suppose.

This is a developing story.

Imagine the local news in Florida will cover it.

And aftershocks obviously expected.

Possible Tsunami Concerns.

Sometimes Aftershocks can be as big or bigger.

If you have loved ones near this region.

Hope they are safe...

7.7 is huge.

Note in Miami buildings were evacuated.

I have friends in tall buildings in downtown Miami.

They definitely felt it there.

That has to be freaky because....

...in California you go "oh an Earthquake"

But in Miami when a building moves...

... your mind goes bad places.

#BREAKING: People evacuating high-rise buildings in South Florida due to shaking caused by 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Caribbean https://t.co/i9lpILZlsN

— Andrew Wulfeck (@andrewwulfeck) January 28, 2020

The rest of the blog is about the lack of winter.
And how FOG in LA made news sadly...
...with the death of an Icon and 8 others.

As always I'm watching the Water Vapor Loop.
Well unless my friend texts me on a 7.7 Earthquake...

#winter of #2020 that’s the flow. Check out that low. I know it’s not an eye but hey hurricane season distantly on my mind. Sweet tropical dreams. Enjoy the mild cool air. #carolinas calm boring winter. pic.twitter.com/aUYHGrCSkx

— BobbiStorm (@BobbiStorm) January 28, 2020

No apologies.

I am who I am.

I'm a Tropical Weather Person 1st!

Before I wish on winter weather...

...I'm tropically obsessed.

And I love the Water Vapor Loop!

I promised a blog today so here it is... a kind of catch up blog with many thoughts. Generally I'll be blogging more regularly now as for now things are somewhat back to normal in my life.

Okay, I'm being honest here.... it's been a beautiful winter in Raleigh North Carolina in that it's been cool and beautiful, not hot all year round and not one of those years when the city shuts down because of some snow and they don't send snow plows out and the salting didn't work because it rained first and we didn't get any of those sandwich winter storms of sleet, snow, sleet then lastly snow so when you walk outside your snow boots sink down after the initial "crunching" sound and your illusion of 5 inches of snow is really snow on top of lasagna layers of sleet and snow. And if you think I'm complaining on that ... yeah as for the next few days ice usually forms on top of the sleet covered snow that's not melting because it's cold and cloudy and school is cancelled for a week and all across America people make fun of people in Raleigh that can't drive in the snow... because they are clueless what it's like when it snows here after rain and the hilly road immediately freezes into a slope that could be used for a bobsled race in the Winter Olympics.

Really those pictures did need a Soundtrack...

...it's a very steep hill that froze immediately!

After 3 minutes of snow.... 

So no I am not being a Debbie Downer on our Winter Weather this year but I did decide early on that the "models" and the "forecasts" for Winter 2020 were grossly off target and it's going to be a repeat of last year that featured no real snow. Okay, we had a drop in November way too early then nothing, nada, nothing the rest of the winter. I'm not going to go maniac over every snow flake on the 9th day in my phone App showing me "maybe some mixed wintry weather" when I know how this is going to go. Until I see the change happening......we are in a similar pattern as we had in the hurricane season. Wet and rainy along the Gulf of Mexico, Texas gets storms of various kinds... a low forms in the Gulf of Mexico and often crosses Florida and reforms off the Carolinas. Then said storm flirts with the coast of Carolinas sending illusions of snow often discounted as graupel which is really like sleet but for some reason we have to show how academically smart we are with meteorological terms and call it Graupel. See definition below from Google.

Graupel (/ˈɡraʊpəl/; German: [ˈɡʁaʊpl̩]) also called soft hail or snow pellets, is precipitation that forms when supercooled water droplets are collected and freeze on falling snowflakes, forming 2–5 mm (0.08–0.20 in) balls of rime. The term graupel is the German language word for sleet.

Yeah right.

I'm not going to play this game this year.

Either it snows or we get "graupel"

...or Spring comes early.

I've lived most of my life without snow.

I can make it through another Raleigh winter this way.

And if by chance snow surprises us... 

I'll be really excited!

If it snows when I'm in Seattle in February.

Oh well....

I'll be in Seattle ;)

I love Seattle.

Life will go on without me crying over missed snow.

(maybe it will snow in Seattle ..wink wink)

When I want to know the truth in NC

I go to 1 of the best local sources.

When Allan Huffman talks on snow I pay attention.

Even if he says a "flake" I smile.

You can take him to the bank.

He doesn't sensationalize.

Then again a few days earlier.

He pointed out the irony of snow forecasting.

The Great Raleigh Snow Storm of 2000

A forecast for "flurries" verified...

...an overachieving storm it was.

Totally shut down the city.

Way before my time here.

Okay I do read DaBuh every morning.

He's always got something to say :)

He's got great instincts ...

... and a way with words and music!

And  yes I have looked at the models.

I spend a lot of time on www.windy.com

Many other good sites but fun to play there.

Interactive, move around a bit.

Again look at that system in the Pacific.

Up close...staring at NC:

Yeah yeah... the Gulf of Mexico is busy...

in the Winter.

Pretty sure we see early season development.

As this trend continues weather wise.

Check out that system there right top pic.

Flow of moisture from ....

...yet our front is "moisture deprived"

Hmnnn

When I see snow in my forecast HERE...

...not on the 8th day of my phone App

Then I'll believe it!

(maybe)

The story of our time is weather related.

Kobe Bryant.

The helicopter he was traveling in crashed.

His beautiful 13 year old daughter on board.

All 9 souls on board died.

The moment I looked up in the Sushi restaurant with my daughter at the screen with Breaking News and saw how foggy it was during the search and rescue I thought immediately of the pictures of the fog from the night before that @icyclone posted on Twitter and I knew deep down inside somehow this was related to that fog. And after living close to a decade in the LA area I know how fast fog can move in ...especially along the coast. 

Unless you have lived there you really can't imagine ... well unless you have lived in London. One Saturday I was sitting in the living room where we were staying for the weekend and people had been setting up a huge buffet for lunch for after services at Chabad of Santa Monica in the backyard a few feet from the house. We did that in LA... ate outside never expecting rain. Suddenly despite the fact that it had been a sunny, beautiful LA day I noticed people racing to take apart the buffet table set up and bringing it inside to set up inside. I asked why and someone said nervously while looking outside as the blue sky disappeared "the fog" and I said "sooo??" as coming from Florida "fog" is kind of cool and rare and they added very nervously "the fog is MOVING IN...." and in the time it took to have that brief conversation I saw what looked like a cloud, suddenly in the backyard, obscuring the little building behind the house that was the Synagogue and definitely blocking out the view of even the table that minutes before had been set for a Queen.... being rearranged indoors. All I could think of is "that's fog? It's a massive cloud... that's not real" and I have to tell you we spent the whole day and night and next morning socked in by a cloud of fog that looked surreal in the glow of the streetlight outside the window ... the buildings across the street obscured from view... shadowy, impossible to make out what the signs on the building said. And I wondered...is that what it's like in London when they say it's "think like pea soup" and again the FOG itself had taken on a persona... a personality ... it wasn't just "fog" but something out of a horror movie; except being a weather person it was exciting for me as it was my first real experience with "THE FOG" in what's often Sunny California.

That FOG moved in fast this past Sunday in Calabasas. The pilot was said to be climbing above a "cloud bank" when he slammed into a mountain side killing all aboard including the man who was an Icon and a mentor to many who loved him. I always loved Calabasas as we'd drive around there often sometimes on our way down to Malibu as my in-laws lived in Northridge and we'd take long Sunday drives often when the weather was nice and we were in the mood. I always loved the way the shadows would fall as you drove through the hills of Calabasas a place now popular for the homes of movie stars and now remembered as the place where Kobe Bryant died. That's sad.

My brother in Greece mentioned it being foggy recently... the same day it had been foggy in Raleigh and my brother in Miami posted pics on Twitter today of the fog in Miami, but the fog in Miami is never as thick as it is when it "moves in fast" in California.

Amazing how fog has been such an issue there year.

In Miami... in Raleigh... in Calabasas.

So yeah that's it from me today.

I'll be more regular this week and next.

Shorter blogs.

Less catching up and random thoughts.

My daughter who graduated from NC State was here.

Fun doing fun things with her....

She's back in Miami.

Stopping every time she sees a dog to pet it.

Really... 

:)

(because I raised her right she asks the owner first!)

:)

Very sad story on Kobe and the other 8 people who died.

Sad for snow lovers in Raleigh this year.

But I'm enjoying the beautiful blue skies.

The cool air as if it's air conditioned inside !!

The chance that it could snow maybe a flake LOL.

And well weather is what it is...

... climate is long term.

Climatology will say there's a chance.

Only time will tell.

Inspirational Icons are good.

Choose wisely.

Hopefully one day you too

 will be an Icon to someone.

Live your life to the fullest.

Do good.

Be happy.

Enjoy the weather you have....

.... see the silver lining.

And careful what you wish for...

Besos BobbiStorm

@bobbistorm on Twitter and Instagram.

Twitter = mostly weather

Instagram = weather, make up, random life pictures..

Ps.......

 I'm going to leave you with this great Tweet by Cranky ... if you are going to bug him for a "sound track" note he will give you one ........but it might not be the one you wanted. For me it was a real blast from the past so I'm smiling.

Little throwback video for some evening fun.@StuOstro talking about the Perfect Storm...and then... pic.twitter.com/T16fKXCT7i

— crankyweatherguy (@crankywxguy) January 28, 2020

EPAC Special Tropical Statement. Questions on El Nino and Winter of 2019 Abound... Stay Tuned for Surprises! Weather These Days is Like the Stock Market...

Eastern Pacific

January 2019

Putting this into the blog today and talking about it because anything that happens out of the ordinary needs discussing and bears watching. Yes I said bear.. it's kind of an old joke to some of us.. but true. And we are all watching the Stock Market even if we don't have money invested as we all have interests that it could affect down the line. The same with a system like this in that what happens there doesn't remain there it gets caught up in the flow. So yes...there's a circle in the Eastern Pacific and the National Hurricane Center decided to put out a Special Tropical Statement about it in January.

Orange circle up.

Discussion below.

Yes I know it's January.

Yes they start earlier than the Atlantic.

But rarely this early.

But weather happens.

Climate is the long term average.

Out of season development can happen.

Regardless of development....

Gale Force Winds likely over the weekend!

Why do we care?

What begins there....

...often ends up here.

Here being the East Coast.

That flow.... 

The signature of the last month.

Put it in motion:

Moisture caught in the flow...

A pattern seemingly stuck.

But is it?

I've spoken about this with a few of my friends lately in that it seems despite all the headlines and comments made we are in a strange time with mixed signals weather wise. There's a lot of volatility going on both in the market and in the weather world. We had an extremely cold winter like period during the fall in November where we had surprise snow storms in New York and Raleigh got a nice sampling of the winter stuff.... however December rolled in with warmer temperatures (that were forecast) and all we've seen is rain, rain and more rain. Raleigh broke records in 2018 for rainfall totals due to a wet year and two hurricanes that dumped huge amounts of tropical rain on us and now deeper into Winter we have rain from a moist subtropical flow. Where do we go from here? Oklahoma City has had warm temperatures yet they cooled off enough to get snow, freezing rain and sleet yesterday finally. Snow lovers there better be happy. But, the snow is going to melt fast the way it did here in Raleigh as temperatures rose fast into the 60s following the snow. Sound a bit like the stock market?

El Nino is constantly being discussed and I mean constantly on any given day in the weather world. As I have said nonstop here online for old timers no two El Ninos are the same and no two hurricane seasons are the same. The variance in the weather patterns as the Northern Jet hands off to the Southern Jet to where they both meet up for a quick fling and then go back to doing their thing defines what our weather is like on a day to day basis on the East Coast.

Add in a big player that produces gale force winds over the weekend and a big sloppy storm into California and that impacts weather in every city from California to New Jersey down the weather road. The big player that seemingly is in hiding is the flow that dips down from the Arctic and until that sleeping bear wakes up we are in for more wet, wicked, unseasonably warm winter rain patterns. As usual when it's warm here it's cold in Europe and it's snowing in Greece as I type this where my brother lives. Weather in the South Atlantic was so problematic a few days ago they rerouted my other brother's cruise ship to a different port. When we don't have the usual suspects on the weather map we often end up with unusual weather. So keep watching. Make sure those weather apps are activated as I'm getting the sense more and more that we may end up with some surprise weather on the East Coast somewhere. There's also a huge area off the East coast producing high surf in some places. And the beat goes on... 

Personally I agree.

Something bothering me too..

Questions that will get answers soon.

May you have an awesome weekend! Don't believe those constant long term predictions of snow that get pushed off every day to a later date on your weather apps but do believe the weather app when it says tornadoes or severe weather or fog may show up in your designated area in the next six to twelve hours. Pay attention!

Besos BobbiStorm

@bobbistorm on Twitter... follow me there for fast weather updates.

Ps.... a chaser chases and when there is a lack of hurricanes or snow to chase they chase whatever is interesting. Mike chased fog last night on Facebook and his viewers were excited to see him go live. And the fog that was ghost like indeed on the field near where he lives lit up by bright lights was enchanting to watch. Make sure you follow him on Facebook... Lord only knows where that boy will show up when he's reading to chase someone or something or some kind of weather ;)https://www.facebook.com/mikesweatherpage/

Tale of 2 Seasons. Hurricane Season Exiting & Winter Already Here and Staying.

When seasons collide.........

Trees with leaves get ice and fall down.

Football is played in the snow.

And our hurricane supplies ...

...become winter storm supplies.

Except in Florida.....

... where you can snack to your heart's content!

I'm sure I've used that phrase before but I can't think of a year that so exemplifies that saying in a meteorological way as 2018. We had a season that started early and looked as if we would have a map filled with tracks from barely there tropical storms and numerous subtropical storms. What's in a name? A name designates importance and yet it's hard to take a Tropical Storm that barely has any weather associated with it seriously ... yet it has a name and is on the map. Other weak tropical storms can intensify fast into players that take us by surprise. TWC likes to name winter storms ...they say to identify specific ones and others say it's just for hype...still it has a name and a hashtag online. Perhaps TWC got that part sooner rather than later, because if something doesn't have a name it doesn't really exist in a way that everyone can easily share information at the same time. In retrospect there was the SNOWCANE that the news channels gave a title to and splashed graphics across their screens several years ago in New York but there have been many "SNOWCANES" if you follow the New York media that loves to hype up anything and everything. Nuff said on names. So let's look at our map below.

This is preliminary as storms are reviewed by NHC.

This is from Jim Williams "End of the Year" review.

I suggest you watch it if you want a look back.

Please share it .... 

...good job by the man who was in the eye of Michael.

A look back at 2018 Hurricane Season ...

Save it to compare to next year.

I have some thoughts on that but ...

...that's a blog for another day.

Look at all those high latitude tracks.

And the longest track of all from Africa to the Carolinas.

And it's a high latitude track avoiding the cooler MDR.

Hard to even find Beryl on that map...

Remember Beryl? 

During the peak of the season we ended up with hurricanes.

Florence and Michael will be retired names.

They will go down in hurricane history.

And now we have winter that busted down our door.

Winter didn't knock gently.

Winter showed up early and refuses to leave.

The leaves on our trees are falling, clinging, falling.

The world turns below beautifully.

Look at that awesome Atlantic Gale.

Remember our old yellow circle from the NHC?

Yes it was there ....they saw it.

Yes it pulled together and swirled away..

And look at that front trying to make it through Florida.
Look at that feed across Mexico into Texas still.
Texas had nonstop no name storms ...
...now the weather is continuing into the winter.

Will that front make it through?

NOAA says YES

http://origin.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/allfcsts_loop_ndfd.gif

You have to click to see what happens...

Today in Miami and Broward County there's fog.

Fog usually shows up in late December.

It's early this year like everything else.

My youngest brother moved from North Miami Beach up to Broward County and it puts him closer to many places he enjoys taking sunrise pictures of ...including his backyard as he is on a small lake in the Hollywood area. I like Hollywood. I complain about Broward sometimes (sorry) but to be fair North Miami Beach is pretty much South Broward as it's so far NORTH and close to the county line. TY Park is a place my mother-in-law loved and walked every day for a year or two when she lived in a senior facility across the street from there. She was raised in upstate New York and could walk for hours staring a nature. Now she's in a rest home in Maryland taking walks around the large property there but she did love TY Park. My kids have birthday parties there for their children and picnics for get togethers. It's a great, green, beautiful, verdant park but you can't tell that from the picture above that looks as if my brother was somewhere in Paris on the Seine. 

http://www.broward.org/Parks/TopeekeegeeYugneePark/Pages/Default.aspx

That is the same park above as the fog picture I posted.

Probably close to where my brother took that picture.

Fog arrives in winter in Miami.

A few days here and there out of nowhere.

Winter came early this year everywhere.

Snow maps show the next five days.

Again Mike has these up on his site.

And some new links I noticed....

www.spaghettimodels.com

 Below is the "freeze line"
Note it goes down to the Florida Panhandle.

And today a good part of the country ...

..is covered in precipitation of some kind.

What a perfect day for Cyber Monday.

I changed my plans for today.

I'm packing up presents.

Trying to take stock of who gets what...

..and make sure I don't miss anyone.

It's a big family.......

Ordering a few things on Amazon because it's easy.

Maybe buy something for me?

Maybe... we'll see.

Will mail out stuff when the sun comes out.

And then...enjoy the cooler weather.

People who know me and know how much I love Florida also know I have come to love this time of year in the Carolinas. Dry air means I breathe better and am less prone to Summertime sinus headaches that are horrible in Miami and I have less pollen problems up here this time of year. I like the way the trees look showing off their beautiful structure and I can see the sky again! Well unless it gets down into the teens I like dressing up in leggings and short skirts over high boots or wearing a pair of jeans with an oversized soft shirt. It's one reason I loved LA in that the winter was always beautiful and storms would come through and clear out the basin and you could see the mountains in all directions including some with snow on top of them. I'm dreaming.... of Seattle but my mother dance card is filled through February with places I need to be and promises I need to keep. Lord I'd love to sneak away for a few days but it usually takes me that long to get past the long trip to Seattle to see my son and his family there and... a city I have come to love intensely.

What do you love? Is it on sale today? One of the best things about "Cyber Monday" is it's a time to load up on basics you need in life that are often on sale or sold on a 15% or 25% or even a 30% discount. Lancome Le Stylo Waterproof Black Noir is on my list as it's a staple in my life. There's a pricey item I buy once a year from Dior that blurs the lines between my eyes so I look way younger than I am (good genes really.... though Estee Lauder gets credit as does Drunk Elephant ....Google it if you need) so yeah I'm a bit boring as I'm not buying any big tag items this year. I'll be looking for deals on products I use often around the house (not just make up) and I'm decorating for Chanukah that also comes early this year. 

Happy shopping and stocking up on that dream item or those things you use often that you need at discount. Good luck with presents (think gift cards....they work well for older kids and adults) and as my father used to say "you gotta do what you gotta do" and so I suggest you do it with love and happiness and joy. I got some good Hungarian genes from him ;) (and Lithuania/Baltic too) and yes go for the Ancestry discounts today if you want to find any surprises under your tree in a few weeks ;) Thanks for reading this mish mosh today of deep information and run on sentences and thanking my meteorological friends who have enriched my life in so many ways over the years... Still going strong as the song goes... 

Ha... weather is on sale this year.

https://www.weathershop.co.uk/shop/gifts/stocking-fillers

For Fishing...

For Sue...

For you know who you are....

And for those of you ready for some holiday music.... it's the most wonderful time of the year!

Enjoy Andy Williams singing of the most wonderful time of the year from 1963 a wonderful year in that a few of my closest friends are born that year (good people) and a younger brother who is in Greece somewhere and hey you can buy his book as a stocking stuffer or if you are looking to read poems and prose while sitting on the toilet this book is for you. If you read it you'll understand that as he has some fascination with broken toilets in his fantastic collage art. Yes, we are all originals in our family, different as night and day and winter and summer yet we have one thing that binds us... creativity oozing out of our veins and whether we are authors or photographers we are always looking through the world through the eyes of an artist.  

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1980911312

I don't make this up... see one of his recent works. His work is deep, devilish and delightful depending on his mood. Check it out on Amazon if you know someone who likes to read new authors and has a good sense of humor and an appreciation of poetry, prose and the arts.

Besos BobbiStorm

@bobbistorm on Twitter

Follow me on Twitter for faster updates on breaking weather of all kinds.

(no Ps... nope, nada, nooooooo)

Foggy Miami on an April Day. Not April Fools... After the Rain

Miami dressed in fog.

Okay it's actually Hollywood.

But it's one big megalopolis.

From Miami to WPB it all blurs together.

Especially today.

I woke up this morning half asleep and dragged myself out of bed to watch my grandson play before he goes to his mother this afternoon after school. I'm pretty sure we all know that slice of life these days in 2017. He's a bundle of energy in the morning. I call it "The Judah Show" and I sip coffee half asleep watching him get dressed for school. I enjoyed the espresso and looked out the window. Well, I had to open the blinds and look outside first.... And, then I wondered why it was raining that hard and I didn't hear the rain. Obviously, I was not fully awake yet. Out through the blinds, past the screen window and below the old school Hurricane Awnings everything was covered in gray with only the green, green grass peeking through to jazz up the view. And, then I asked my son "Is it foggy out there???" A light went off somewhere in my head this could be fog in Florida. Understand, we don't get a lot of fog in South Florida and it's usually in December or maybe February. Who remembers it's a pretty random event and I do mean pretty.

Remember my pretty tropical sunrise the other day.

Same Christmas Palms.....

...but cloaked in gray today.

Who knew a foggy day would wake me up? It's been a long few days while my in-laws are slowly saying goodbye to my Father-in-law. Mind you he could be weeks or months away from actually shuffling off to Restaurant Heaven, but he's at the point where arrangements are being discussed and everyone is coming in to see him. He's a Vet, he wants to be buried with other Vets who fought in distant wars or just served their country. I'm somewhere between seeing several kids who live in this area, taking care of some historical research and visiting with the other family so I didn't get to write much about the not tropical low that traveled across South Florida on it's way to socking Charleston and riding up the coast. I did enjoy the heavy rain that woke me the night before last and the puddles everywhere added a counterpoint to what has been extremely beautiful weather this trip home to Florida. Blue skies gave way to gray days and as the fog lifts today who really knows for sure? Well, I guess Phil Ferro knows but I didn't watch Channel 7 news this morning as Judah is watching his show that sounds like every other show he watches...

As it's Miami and not San Francisco the fog will lift, it's not London so if I don't go stare at the poetic fog I'll miss it's departure. Sort of a lot like life ....huh? My father used to always say God has a strange sense of humor. Why do the most beautiful picture views happen on garbage day? Seriously? 

That's the way the weather is going today.

Well, most of this week maybe.

Hopefully I'll enjoy the sunshine.

Cooler air, but not cold.

Okay the house AC is set at 73 it's cold.

So I'll be back sooner or later.

Just keep checking in.

Send me thoughts on Twitter

@bobbistorm

And y'all come back now .. please.

Besos BobbiStorm

Ps Going out and about today... 

Enjoying the city...

You got to enjoy the rain but know...

...every storm runs out of rain.

So true...