Category: Weather - Slang's Anti-Singularity

Weather did thou go, weekend?

12/3/2012

It is simply a factor of random chance that a weekend gets totally hammered weather-wise, and the following Monday is beautiful. Still, the randomness of it doesn't make it any more palatable for folks who like to be outside. Such was the case this past weekend.

It started on Friday with some steady rains. I had originally thought I would get out for a quick run in the new shoes (Inov8 TrailRoc 255s), but the weather combined with family obligations (Damn kids, not wanting to walk 30 miles in the rain! Why, when *I* was their age...) didn't get me in close proximity to the shoes until nearly 8 pm. I was tired. The Lagavulin 16 and couch were yelling at me so loudly, there was no way I could hear the whispers from my shoes inviting me out in the rain.

So, I had to wait until Saturday morning. The sky was beautiful with a standing wave (or lee wave) cloud formation:

iPhone drag-type panorama

The only problem with this formation in this area is that it indicates powerful winds. I can attest. I was blown off the trail several times - much to my entertainment. Though on one occasion, it caused me to tumble. It was a "good" tumble, as it was my first crash since breaking myself on the bike in August. I rolled across the previously-crunched shoulder and clavicle and came up no worse from the wear - except a skinned knee. Waaa.

The weather started to blow in after the run, with rain being blown in from miles away creating a spectabulous rainbow over the WNC observatory:

On Sunday, the rain was pounding down in my area. I did an anti-Horace Greeley ("Go West, young man!") and headed east past Dayton to run in the desert. CCRunners had a group run scheduled at Iron Mountain for Sunday, though it was canceled. I was already dressed and ready to run-ble, and besides, I'm really not made of sugar and spice and everything nice (hard to believe, I know!), so I didn't expect I would melt in the rain.

The view when I pulled up. Wait, I'm running in this?

A great time was had by all. Well, all meaning me. It was wet and windy (steady rain, 20+ mph winds), but not the deluge of the slopes of the Sierra. The shoes did really well in the wet sand and mud. I did almost 5 miles at a blistering-for-me-regardless-of-conditions 10 min/mile pace.

Not surprisingly, I was completely alone during the run. I couldn't even entice a vulture to follow me. Not that I craved the company. The run was great despite/because of the conditions. Heading home (after changing into dry clothes top to bottom), I had a good feeling of accomplishment. That allowed me to face the rest of the day watching the rain pound down from inside without going stir-crazy.

Weekend and other stuff

9/24/2012

Hi there! Yes, it's been a while. What with legislative work gearing up, my body still not functioning as well as I'd like, and various mental deficiencies (sounds better than butt-lazy), I've not been out and about, nor chronicling the activities of the active members in the house.

This past weekend I was determined to do something. Today marks the sixth septiversary of my crash, and though I still maintain a daily diet of ibuprofen, I needed to get out and about. So, after a preliminary test on Wednesday where I went out for 1.5 miles during Mikaela's soccer practice, I thought things were acceptable for a longer journey. I originally thought I would head for Dardanelles Lake starting from the Big Meadows trailhead, but - "upon further review" - that seemed a bit adventurous for a first journey. Instead, I simply headed to the Dog Water on Hobart Road. From the house, that is about a 2.5 mile round trip, with a decent climb thrown in.

It was hot, dusty, and my lungs and ribs and shoulder creaky. I hiked up to the Dog Water and a little beyond, turning back at the 2 mile point. On the way down, I got all wild and stuff, and wogged. What's wogging, you ask? It's that slow pace between a walk and a jog. I clocked myself at 13:30 min/mile. Downhill. That, my friends, is wogging. I was tired when I got home, but felt pretty OK overall.

Saturday was supposed to be a swim meet for Spencer (and by, default for me too, as the charioteer), but he'd been unsuccessfully fighting a cold for the latter part of the week, and swimming didn't seem to be a Good Idea. Instead, I was able to take in Mikaela's soccer game. I'm glad I did. It was by far the team's best game in years, and was Mikaela's best game ever. The team shut out the visiting Elko girls, and Mikaela scored three times! Nice power kicks from the left side. Proud Dad-O!

After the game, I was feeling the high and decided to wog again. I did the V&T out and back: a 3+ mile round trip. I did it all with a running motion, but I did have to stop. I am not sure whether or not my inability to take in enough O2 is a function of simply being out of shape or residual effects of my pulmonary contusion. I've heard bruised lungs can take a long time to heal. The rib and shoulder pains were still there from the crash, but relegated to the category of "Usual Pain" that always accompanies me on a run - or a wog in this case.

Sunday, I dragged Spencer and Brando on a hike up the Stairway to Hell and over to Hobart Road and back - 4 miles. The weather was perfect, the whining less so. Actually, Spencer was pretty stout about it, despite the breathing issues and throat burn from his cold. I'm glad he came. Brando too. Brando? He's an exchange student from Sicily staying with us until December. Good kid, eats everything. I'll post more about him another time.

Speaking of weather, after analysis, the world record high temperature of 136F in Libya has been overturned. The record is now 134F set in Death Valley on July 10, 1913. Read the story here.

Mishmash

4/4/2012

A few quick hits, therefore the title. First, climate-wise, the Tahoe Basin finished the snow season with a strong March. That was apparent to me as the commercials on KFOG (the station I've been listening to via the interwebs in the morning for the last 14 years) touting the "9 feet of new snow at Squaw Valley!!1!" Unfortunately, the strong March was only strong enough to take the snow total to a meager 53% of average. (A quick aside: the story uses the word "normal" vs. "average." I hate that. What is" normal" anyway – especially when you only have ≈100 years of data out of millions of potential? Use what's accurate: average.) Of the watersheds in the region, that scored as the most, too. The Walker River basin finished at a dismal 39% of average. Look out summer, it might be a scary fire season. Things are dry, and if it gets hot, things will be extremely dry and flammable.

With a tip of the popular culture hat to either a stupid movie I never saw, or a post-Beatles John Lennon song I never particularly liked, my current state is either "Dude, Where's my Strength and Stamina" or "Starting Over." After stripping off a bunch of weight (probably unnecessarily, but sometimes life screws with you), and my situation being a roil of turmoil over the last few months, my physical fitness level has plummeted. I think things are finally bottoming out. I had a chance to get on a trail Monday, and to the yoga studio Tuesday. Wow. It, um, sucked? In one of the more egregious slaps in the face by nature, losing a fitness level occurs much, much quicker than attaining it. It seems all the work I did over the last 10 years evaporated in the last 5 months, and I am starting once again from scratch. As I unwillingly approach my half-century cake day, I am sure the re-acquisition of said fitness level (if even attainable) will be a more difficult slog this second time around.

Since next weekend is spring break for my kids, there are no events on the family slate for either this coming weekend or the next. Barring being roped into working either of the two races scheduled in my area, I might, might have a day to go exploring. I'll probably just do the oil and tire maintenance thing on the cars on Saturday and give myself Christian Magical Sunday to head out. Analysis paralysis! Where to go? I don't want to drive more than 90 minutes, though the draw to head to Austin, NV is strong (3 hours each way). Got an idea? Tell me.

Weather geek re-unleashed.

2/28/2012

I embraced my inner weather geek this week and purchased weather station software for my Oregon Scientific WMR968 station. I had been running it on a Windows machine until the laptop crapped out on me, leaving me in the eye of the hurricane, so to speak. So, in order to sidestep the dead laptop, I decided I wanted to try to more fully utilize an older Mac that we have in the house. Enter stage right, WeatherSnooper, the solution for me in that it is a Mac application, and it supports the weather station that I already own.

I made the purchase and, though it's still in the process of being shipped (Shipping? Really? Are they the only ones who don't download?), I decided to download the demo version to ensure I could connect up the station. This particular facet had me wondering, since the Mac only had USB inputs, and the WMR968 had serial output. Apparently not to worry, though, WeatherSnooper had links to two separate serial to USB drivers directly from the Help Menu. Saweet!

Working logically from top to bottom I tried them both to no avail. Discouragement ameliorated by several scream sessions, I did some additional investigations, and found that the drivers were specific to chipsets. But how do I find out what chipset my now 2-year old cable used? Once again, I called on Uncle Google and found a way to discover exactly which kind of chipset was in the cable I was using.

1. From the Apple, select "About This Mac"

2. Click on the "More info..." button. If you are running Lion this brings up an intermediate screen shown below.

2a. Click on the "System Report..." button.

2b. If you are running an older OS, it brings up the System Profile/ System Information application directly.

3. In the left pane under the hardware heading, click on USB and you'll see something similar to what's below:

Selecting the USB Serial Controller revealed that the chipset I was using was from Prolific Technology. No problem. Still following the instructions, I copied both the Product ID and Vendor ID and put them in another Google search. That led me to Prolific's website where I could download drivers. They had one specific to the OS version I was running, so yay! It looked like I might be in business.

Suffice it to say, I had several more scream-fests. Even the dog wanted to leave, and I even awed the parrots. After I calmed, I did yet more research and found another site with a link to a sourceforge download. Lo and behold, this actually operated like an OSX installer, and it freaking worked!!

So as soon as the real application gets here, I will once again be joining the throngs of weather nerds with personal reporting weather stations on Wunderground. On the surface, the application looks nice - a little hokey for my taste, but that's OK. I really wanted it so I can get back to uploading my data to Weather Underground.

Weather geek, ungeeked

2/24/2012

For the last several years, I've linked my Oregon Scientific weather station to the Internet as a reporting station for Wunderground. I migrated it from a standalone PC, to a laptop with a serial port, to a laptop with NO serial port running Window Vista Home edition. (I know, I know, but it worked and was free.)

To get it functional on the laptop without a serial port, I had to buy a serial to USB connector, and find a driver that would emulate the serial through the USB. Kind of a PITA, but I had the time and inclination to do it. Finally, Vista crappiness caught up, and the computer wouldn't run more than a few hours at a stretch before crashing. I upgraded it to Windows 7. The issue I have is finding - once again - the drivers to set up the USB/serial emulation. This time around, I don't have the time, and seemingly, the inclination.

That's where you come in, Internet. Can anyone help me out with this? I'm not the (smartest guy, sharpest knife...insert your favorite metaphor/simile here) about this kind of stuff; I'm pretty much a specialist in end user software customization. I'd like to be able to capture the data, and be able to access it from my travels, but as it stands now, I have nada.

Also, looking at you Ambient Weather... your software STILL relies on serial? Seriously?

Looks like a drought: in England

2/16/2012

Undeniably, we have been experiencing a dry winter here in northern Nevada. From my perspective, the winter of 2011-2012 has (thus far) been the driest I've experienced in the 20 years I've lived here. But we are not alone. Merrie olde Englande, the source of good mental movies of foggy and rainy London, green pastures with rock walls, etc., is in the midst of a impending crisis - as the UK Guardian reports:

… The impending crisis – which could have widespread consequences for farmers, food production, tourism, industry and domestic life – has been building for the past 18 months. Reservoirs were already low this time last year. Then came 2011, the driest year in England and Wales for 90 years.
In addition, we are now experiencing the driest winter on record, though this could change over the next few weeks, meteorologists have said. The crucial point is that boreholes and reservoirs are now at “notably low” or “exceptionally low” levels.

Things are different now, and weather patterns appear to be changing. What was once a climate conducive to crops will eventually no longer be. People are going to want to move to where the water is, and the people who are already there, aren't going to be particularly welcoming, methinks.

Dry and dryer, a race, and off to Ohio

1/13/2012

So, we are now in the middle of January in the Sierra. Typically, there would be a lot of snow on the ground. Last year at this time, the Tahoe Basin was at 192% of average annual precipitation. This year, you ask? We are sitting at a whopping 7%, with no viable chance for precipitation until next week sometime. It seems that the forecast seems to show snow, but as it approaches it becomes virtual virga and never shows up. That's been the pattern for the last month.
I did a quick check on accuweather.com to see just how much precipitation has fallen. The answer: not much. In the last 7 months there has been only one precipitation event: a 2" snowfall with 0.20" water on November 4, 2011. To find the next previous incident of measurable precipitation, I had to go back to June 4-6, 2011, where over the three days, we received 2.44" of rain.
As a runner and outdoors kind of guy, I like being able to access the trails that are typically under meters of snow this time of year. However, my enthusiasm is tempered by knowing unless we get some serious snowfall, the summer fire season is going to get really ugly and be a spring, summer, fall and winter fire season. Also, if we are to get back to average snowfalls, it means a cold, and wet spring. Ugh.
I am starting to wonder if the changes we are experiencing will become the new norm? Last year, we received a lot of snow in December from a couple of serious storms, then a very dry and warm January and February, followed by a cold, wet spring. This year appears to be following a similar pattern, though without the storms that pummeled the area in Dec 2010. Only time and more data will tell.
On a different note, I am off to Columbus, OH for the next couple of weeks. Off to the land of cold, gray and flat. I'll miss the hill running, though I will try to get the miles in, regardless. I need to keep up on the goals!
But before I go, I am participating in my first race (Centennial Slug It Out 10k) in almost 2 years. I am not considering it a race though; it's just a run with a lot of people who happen to be wearing numbers. If I think of it as a race, and I don't do as well as I want (which has never happened), I'll go all dysthymic and make the airplane ride the next day worse. So, it's just a run... It's just a run... It's just a run.

Ending the year in the sun

12/29/2011

As the year winds down, I am spending some time in the San Diego area, enjoying the warm weather and beach proximity. I am down here with the family visiting relatives, and generally hanging out, doing as little as possible. Things can be pretty good, when the distance from front door to high tide mark is 1/2 mile, a Starbucks is about the same distance the other way, and a Roberto's taquaria is nearly on the beach, an additional 1/2 mile away. Best fast Mexican food on the planet!
Weather has been perfect in support of beach runs. I've been able to sneak in four while here, varying in distance from 2.5 miles (barefoot) to 9. Tides have been a planning issue, but I can live with that; who couldn't?
Speaking of weather, I've been watching what's happening back in northern Nevada. Things are looking likely to result in the driest December in Reno in 128 years. Yep, this will probably be the first December since 1883 with no measurable precipitation in Reno - at all. In fact, I believe the last precipitation to fall was in early November, making it something like seven dry weeks in a row. Yikes. Last I checked, the Tahoe basin watershed was at 10% of average annual snowpack, and that was two weeks ago. I'm sure it's less now.
Unless things change drastically, it's going to be a dry winter, and a scary fire season next year. Happy 2012.

Reno is a top 10 city in the US!

11/30/2011

Ok, so it's not a good place to be (9th) on the list of the saddest cities to live in the U.S. Men's Health magazine did a statistical analysis on various factors to determine the saddest cities in the country. Reno—the closest "biggish" city to me—finished 9th, just ahead of Las Vegas. Who's on top (bottom) you wonder:

100. St. Petersburg, FL
99. Detroit, MI
98. Memphis, TN
97. Tampa, FL
96. Louisville, KY
95. St. Louis, MO
94. Birmingham, AL
93. Miami, FL
92. Reno, NV
91. Las Vegas, NV
.
And at the other end of the spectrum:
10. Plano, TX
9. Burlington, VT
8. St. Paul, MN
7. Sioux Falls, SD
6. Madison, WI
5. Boston, MA
4. Omaha, NE
3. Fargo, ND
2. Manchester, NH
1. Honolulu, HI
.
Apparently, weather has little to do with it. Fargo? Omaha? Wow.