Amazing Sounds When You Drop Ice Down A 450-Foot Hole. Also, Swimming In Antarctica

Some wild sounds when this chunk of ice was dropped down
a 450-foot hole in the ice down in Antarctica 

Scientists in Antarctica drill deep holes in the ice fields and glaciers of Antarctica, trying to discover clues about climate and the atmosphere tens or even hundreds of thousands of years in the past.

Popular Mechanics perfectly describes the sound you'll hear in the video. (I confess I thought of Bugs Bunny Looney Tunes, too).

According to Popular Mechanics:

"Princeton University geochemist John Andrew Higgins shared the video, which stars someone's hands only as they drop a chunk of ice down a 450-foot bore hole. The sound begins to bounce in layers, equal parts space laser and Old West shootout from a Bugs Bunny Cartoon."

A lot of the sounds you'll hear in the video below has to do with the Doppler effect. The Doppler effect the reason car horns sound like they're falling in pitch as you drive past them.

Says Popular Mechanics:

"'The first thing you hear as is the ice falling is the pitch of the sound changing,' (Researcher Peter) Neff explains in the video. 'That's the Doppler effect. Then when the ice hits the bottom of the bore hole, the sound doesn't only come straight up - the sound waves start to bounce off the sides of the hole. That's why you hear the plink! with sort of a heartbeat sound afterwards.'"

The scientists are taking ice core samples and finding some at the bottom that can be up to 800,000 years old. Air bubbles trapped in that ancient ice can give clues as to what the Earth's atmosphere was like eons ago, and how the chemistry of the air has changed over that time.

Here's the video. It replays several times so you can hear it over and over again.  Definitely turn the sound up, but headphones please if you are at work, out in public, etc.  You will want to hear it again and again. I know I did:



In a somewhat related development, an endurance swimmer recently decided to put on his Speedos and swim in a pocket of water around some Antarctic ice, to raise awareness of climate change.

Besides the activism, the videographer captures some really cool colors and hues in Antarctic ice and water.

Here's his video:

"On One Foggy Christmas Eve...."

Dense fog in Yankton, South Dakota this morning. 

I've seen all kinds of weather on Christmas Eve and Christmas.  Snow, cold, wind, clouds, rain, sleet, freezing rain, you name it.

Sometimes there's been a little patchy fog, like when it's raining.  But this time of year, there's usually not much in the way of dense fog. It's most common on still summer and autumn mornings, especially during periods of wet weather.

It's usually too windy and too brisk for much fog to form around Christmas. Which made the song "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer" confuse me when I was a kid. (It can certainly be foggy often in other parts of the world this time of year, but I didn't think about that).

Anyway, I felt an element of surprise Christmas Eve and this morning while on my visit with relatives in Yankton, South Dakota over the dense fog that has enveloped the area this morning.

The fog was widespread over the northern Plains, parts of the Great Lakes and elsewhere this morning. Some of it is freezing fog, which is making trees beautiful and frosty, but slickening roads. Here in Yankton, it was a tad above freezing, so there's no ice out there. But it was still tricky on the roads, as visibility was lousy.

Still, based on evidence found under Christmas trees throughout Yankton, it looks like Santa did manage to break through the fog with the help of Rudolph and successfully deliver all the presents.

Reports are the fog did not hinder Santa anywhere. Which is to be expected.

As I said, it is an unusual weather pattern for Christmas. One that will break up as more wind and storminess starts to glide across the country, returning us to a more normal weather pattern, relativelly speaking.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Vermont School Official's Very Bieber Snow Day Announcement

Springfield, Vermont Assistant School Superintendent David Cohn
announces last Monday's snow day in the way Justin Bieber would.

Last Monday, it snowed pretty hard in southern Vermont.

It was enough for schools in many towns, including Springfield, to declare a snow day.

Joining a fad among school officials getting creative with snow day announcement, Springfield Assistant School Superintendent David Cohn announced the school closing in a very Bieberesque fashion.

To the tune of Justin Bieber's "Love Yourself," Cohn put out a video singing the fact that schools were closed this past Monday.  He just re-jiggered Bieber's lyrics to fit the snow announcement

Cohn said he is a Bieber fan, and Cohn also does have a good voice, so it worked.

Television station WPTZ reports the reviews are great:

" My mom showed it to me when I got up.......I thought it was really good. It was pretty funny," fifth grader Bella Guglielmo said.

"It's actually really cool. He had a talent," said Gavin Heath, another fifth grader in Springfield. Even the elemetary school's music teacher declared himself impressed.

It's only the beginning of winter, and I've seen Vermont school snow days as late as April, so Cohn better have new songs lined up for future snow dates.

Here's the video:

Earliest Sunset Of The Season Starts Today. Not Even The Winter Solstice Yet, Here's Why

The winter solstice in Vermont last year, on Decembe 21, 2018 was typically
dark and gloomy in Vermont. This is a view of the Winooski River
in Burlington, Vermont's Intervale. 

Today in Burlington, Vermont, the sun will set at 4:13 p.m.  The sun will set at that time each day through December 14.

These are the earliest sunsets of the year.

Which seems not to make complete sense.  The winter solstice doesnn't hit until  December 21 this year.  On that date in Burlington, the sun will set at 4:16 p.m., three minutes later than it will this afternoon.

So why is sunset coming three minutes later than it does today, when December 21 is supposedly the shortest day of the year? Why is this happening?

It's complicated, but I'll give it a shot here. This is not meteorology, my forte, but astronomy. But later in this post, I'll get into some weather too, since this is, um a weather and climate blog.

We regard a day as lasting 24 hours.  But that's not exactly true, depending upon the time of year. According to timeanddate.com:

"The length of a solar day, as this duration is called, is not exactly 24 hours long. It varies throughout the year because of the ellpitial shape of Earth's orbit and it's axial tilt. It is longer than 24 hours around the summer and winter solstices, and shorter than 24 hours aroud the spring and fall equinoxes.

"On most days, solar noon does not occur at the same time as noon on your watch. Around the solstices, solar noon occurs a few minutes later than the previous day. For example, on December 21, 2019, - the day of the Northern Hemisphere winter solstice - solar noon in New York will be at 11:53 a.m. On January 4, 2020 the day of the latest sunrise solar noon will take place six minutes later, at 12  noon.

As solar noons increasingly occur later, sunrises and sunsets also steadily occur later each day after the winter solstice. This is why a location's earliest sunset occurs before, and the latest sunrise occurs after the winter solstice."

This state of affairs is true throughout the northern hemisphere. In Burlington, Vermont, even as the sun starts to set later in the day around the winter solstice, sunrises keep occuring later.  The latest sunrises of the season in Burlington ar at 7:29 a.m. All those late sunrises come between December 28 and January 8, after the winter solstice.

Despite coming after the shortest day of the year, January is typically
colder than at the winter solstice. On the bright side, it's a bit
sunnier in January and February than it was in December. It was
 below zero on a sunny  late afternoon in Janaury, 2018 when I
took this photo of Mount Mansfield, Vermont. 

Now for the meteorology.

As most winter weary Vermonters know, the coldest weather of the winter usually doesn't happen around the solstice on December 21, but later in the winter when we get well into January.

If the northern hemisphere has the least sun on December 21, shouldn't that be be the coldest time of year?  

Um, no.

The atmosphere changes slowly with the seasons and there's a lag time of about four to six week until temperatures bottom out.  Of course you can get the worst cold wave of the year around Christmas, but usually it waits until January or early February.

Sunlight, though increasing, is still relatively puny going through January. Meanwhile, it takes the land and especially the oceans to release heat that was built up last summer.  The land and oceans are still releasing heat from months ago in late December.  With more of that heat gone by January and early February, it will be colder then. In general, anyway.

Usually, but not always, in mid to late February, you begin to notice winter's sting is beginning to fade. That's because by then, the increasing sun angle is beginning to overpower the heat being released from land and oceans. The northern hemisphere begins to soak in the sun's rays, and we begin the climb into spring.

By the way, the same kind of stuff happens in the summer. The latest sunset of the year is not on the summer solstice, and the worst heat of summer comes in July and early August.

One other thing you'll notice in Vermont.  November and December are made darker by incessant cloud cover.  It's the cloudiest time of the year. That's partly because the Great Lakes, lakes in Canada and parts of Hudson Bay aren't frozen yet.

Moisture from these bodies of water rises into the cold air and quickly condenses into clouds, which then move overhead in the Green Mountain State.

In January and February, it's a little sunnier. Sure, we still get a lot of clouds from frequent passing storms. But the bodies of water to our north and west are getting more and more ice covered by then.  There's less open water to release moisture ot the skies, which means less cloudiness to darken our weekend ski trips.

More Showers And Storms In Forecast, So We'll Just Enjoy This Beagle Watching Hail

A storm over Georgia, Vt on July 31. More scattered storms are
scheduled for Vermont and surrounding areas today.

We continue this morning to enjoy or endure, depending on your perspective, a weather pattern that is giving us rounds of hit and miss showers and storms this morning.

This, after severe storms caused some damage in parts of southern and eastern Vermont Saturday, and some really lightning-charged storms in far southern Vermont Sunday evening. (Fortunately, those storms had weakened some before reaching Vermont.

They caused a fair amount of damage in Saratoga County, New York, not too far from the Vermont border.

A few showers are scattered around parts of the North Country this morning, and a few more storms might pop up this afternoon. Most of those will probably be over and east of the Green Mountains, as it looks now.

After a break Tuesday, more showers and storms will fire up Wednesday, before things turn clearer and autumn-like by Friday.

It's pointless to predict at this point how extensive the storms might be on Wednesday (I'm not expecting anything huge at this point), we might as well enjoy the video, below.

It's a brave little beagle pup, experiencing his first, gusty thunder and hail storm. Some of the storm's loudest moments are a little frightening for this little guy named Smudge, but his curiosity about the storm carries him through. He even gets to snack on some hailstones after the storm blows over.

So here's Smudge to brighten your potentially stormy day:

Here's One Way To Travel Across A Lake In The Winter

A guy in Maine wanted to get across a frozen lake.

It didn't take much effort. He just opened an umbrella, and let the wind propel him across the slippery ice on the frozen lake. The man in the video claims he traveled three miles this way.

Looks fun. Watch:

WIndy And Wild In The Rockies

Very strong winds are pretty common along the front range of the Rockies in Montana, Wyoming and  Colorado during the winter.

Recently, a man stepped out onto the ice on Hogan Reservoir near Clark Forks, Wyoming. Here was the result:

Sorry To Be Gone For Two Days; Was Weatherman At Sister's Wedding

My husband, Jeff, hunkered down against the rain, tries gamely to sweep
water away from the spot in Shrewsbury where my sister, Laurie, would
marry Bennie shortly after. The heavy rain stopped just before
the ceremony. I had assured Laurie the worst of the rain would be
over by 4 p.m. and it was. Photo by David Jenne. 

Those of you who regularly read this blog thingy might have noticed I've been offline for the past two or three days.

I was down in Shrewsbury, Vermont, for my sister Laurie's wedding. Which was held outdoors.

This being Vermont, weather complicated the situation.  Because I am such a weather geek, I quickly became the de facto wedding weather crisis consultant.

It rained Saturday in Vermont. We knew it was coming, but forecasts called for showers. We were prepared to dodge the showers, and work the wedding ceremony in between any periods of rain.

The National Weather Service and other forecasters said the rain would be off and on. And they said the better atmospheric forcing would go by to our south, so any rain that fell would be quite light. We'd be OK.

Gawd, did it ever pour in Shrewsbury Saturday afternoon! The better atmospheric forcing seemed to go right overhead. I'd estimate an inch of rain fell in just three hours or so. The nearby Rutland Airport received 0.70 inches of rain in two hours during Saturday afternoon.

Plus, the temperatures plummeted during the rain. It went from 65 to 53 at Rutland as the rain moved in. Shrewsbury is at a higher elevation, so I wouldn't be surprised if the temperature dipped below 50 up there. In the middle of the afternoon in June.

The rain stopped just in time, which allowed Laurie and Bennie to say their vows

The wedding was scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. or so. It was still pouring. All eyes turned to me, the weather geek.

What to do?  I kept studying National Weather Service radar. There seemed to be some hope at the end of this rainy tunnel.

It looked like the heaviest rain was moving toward the northeast awfully fast. An area of no rain, or just drizzle lurked down near Albany, New York. This relatively rain-free area was coming our way. Would it arrive in time?  

I asked the bride, Laurie, if the wedding could be postponed until 4 p.m. or so. She said yes. (It was the first of two big yesses she would say that day.) The heaviest rain bands should have moved by to our northeast by then. There might be some lingering drizzle at 4 p.m., I said, but the heavy rain would be gone.

I just prayed that I would be right.  Thank goodness I was! The downpour abruptly turned into sprinkles and drizzle right before 4 p.m. Patches of fog formed pretty lacy patterns on the scenic mountains behind us. The wedding was on!

Almost. First, we had to do something about the river that formed right where the vows would take place. My husband Jeff went out and started breaking up sod that blocked the flowing water and sweeping the water away.

A wedding guest spied Jeff, with a battered broom, hunkered down under a gray sweatshirt, forlornly sweeping the water.

"Why are you doing this?," the guest asked, confused.

My husband replied, "What, give up show business?"

Jeff got most of the water out of there, but Laurie said her vows barefoot so she wouldn't get her nice shoes soaked.   It was absolutely beautiful. The weather was no match for the love between Bennie and Laurie and the family members all gathered on that beautiful Shrewsbury hilltop for the wedding.

Sometimes, weather problems can be defeated pretty easily.

TV Meteorologist Rick Rolled By The Original Rick Roller

Canadian meteorologist Brandon Gonez, left, seemed delighted to be Rick
Rolled on air. It helped that the actual Rick Astley came on set 

A "Rick Roll" is one of the oldest, and many would say most obnoxious internet memes.

For the uninitiated, getting Rick Rolled is when somebody sends you a link saying you MUST watch it because it's so incredible.

Then you open the link and instead of something you'd really go wow about, you get the music video of Rick Astley performing his 1987 hit "Never Gonna Give You Up."

So it was recently on a recent morning that meteorologist Brandon Gonez was going over the rather inclement weather that was plaguing Ontario and Quebec when the familiar strains of "Never Gonna Give You Up starting playing.

Even better: The actual, real live Rick Astley came on to the set to do a meteorological in person Rick Roll

So much for the lousy Canadian weather.  Gonez really did seem to appreciate the Rick Roll

Here's the clip:

Young TV "Meteorologist" Will Get You Through Your Day With A Big Smile

Kindergartener Carden Corts, 6, gets blown away and blows
the rest of us away with his televised weather report. 

For those of us wanting spring, we all need something to smile at.

I don't have full-on spring to give you.

However, we present Carden Corts, 6, who gave us a viral video of his own weather report. The video is at the bottom of this post and really is a great thing to watch.

A teacher in Carden's class had the kids do a weather forecast video for a school assignment. His father, Charlie, works at a design studio with a green screen. 

So magic happened.

At first, Carden forecasts bad weather, including a hurricane (Charlie Corts used a leaf blower to add to the effect.) Then there was a blizzard, then a tornado, but then, thank God, Carden gives us a forecast perfect for spring break - complete with dancing on the beach.

The viral video racked up 1.1 million hits in just over a day on YouTube. So, meet our viral weather sensation, Carden Corts:

Mostly Random Thoughts On The Record Arctic Blast As It Concludes

A frigid near -20 view from a web cam at the University
of Vermont in Burlington this morning. Note the steam
on Lake Champlain from the rapidly shrinking part
of the lake that is still not frozen. 

I'm still working on a bit of an opus on how this huge Arctic blast and storminess has become a pawn in the climate change political wars, but since it's still in the minus 20s as I write this early Sunday morning, let's offer a few other bits and pieces on this first.  

RECORD LOWS

There were widespread record lows across the Northeast this morning, including here in Vermont, where Burlington reached 20 below, the first time the temperature there has touched 20 below since January 16, 2009.

It's also the first time Burlington has had a record low since 2015. (During just 2017 in Burlington, 13 record highs were tied or broken.)

Yesterday in Burlington never got above zero, the first time that's happened since January, 2014.

As the day goes on today, I'm sure we'll get lots of reports of new low temperature record set throughout the Northeast today.

The nation is now temporarily having more record lows than record highs, a reversal from the past year. According to NOAA, as of yesterday, 1.275 record low minimums have been recorded across the United States and just 161 record highs. (way out in the western part of the nation.)

The overall longer term trend has had record highs far outpacing record lows. I'm sure global warming has something to do with that. Over the past 365 days, the United States has seen 34,151 record highs and only 10,398 record lows at the many hundreds of weather stations across the country.

With this long Arctic outbreak finally showing signs of petering out, the pace of record highs will start to increase in the coming days and the pace of record lows will surely decrease.

By the way, back here in Vermont, temperatures are now forecast to get well into the 40s by Thursday. A January thaw seems almost definitely on the way.

NOT SHIP SHAPE

One bit of news that came out of that huge, destructive nor'easter that hit last week has me steaming mad at Norwegian Cruise Lines, of all outfits.

The 4,000 passenger cruise ship Norwegian Breakaway sailed into the teeth of the extraordinarily strong nor'easter on a return trip from Bermuda to New York last week and encountered 30 foot swells and hurricane force winds.

Passengers onboard reported water pouring into the ship from all angles, water dripping down elevator shafts, two inches of water in staterooms. Glass shattered everywhere as things fell off shelves. The force of the waves even shattered glass shower doors in guest rooms, reports CBS 2 in New York. 

You can see in a video at the bottom of this post scenes of interior flooding, and outdoors, immense waves and hurricane force winds.

The infuriating thing is Norwegian Cruise lines should have known that storm was there. The cruise company put out a statement saying the ship "encountered stronger than forecasted weather conditions due to winter storm Grayson during the trip's return to New York from the Bahamas."

There's shifting blame for your own mistakes on to an innocent party for you. The size, strength, intensity and general location of this storm had been widely forecast by meteorologists for days before the storm actually developed.  I call bullshit on Norwegian Cruise Lines.

Luckily, there were no serious injuries, but there was damage and a lot of vacations were ruined.

CBS 2 contacted other cruise lines, who said they wisely detoured their ships around the southern periphery of the storm to avoid the worst effects of the waves and wind. These maneuvers caused  minor delays in schedules. But who cares? Everybody was safe and sound on those ships.

FAST NEWS FRIENDS

On to a lighter topic: Inevitably, in extreme weather, news stations put their reporters outdoors into the thick of it, where they look miserable as they tell us the obvious: It's nasty out.

In Belmar, New Jersey, WNBC Reporter Tracie Strahan was out on a beach boardwalk during the storm, near a coffee shop that was closed due to the storm. This gal needed coffee!

Enter "Mikey Bones" as the reporter called him, Mike Flint of Neptune, New Jersey, who brought coffee to our intrepid reporter. The two became fast friends on air. The affable Mike, with his thick Jersey accent and goofy smile, just made the news report so much better and you can see Strahan get much happier on air with Mike, and the coffee.

Video is below, followed by that video from the storm-tossed Norwegian Cruise Line ship.

The famous "Mikey bones blizzard television interview from last week:



The Norwegian Cruise Line in the big storm, where it shouldn't have gone:

Hair Freezing Contest Puts Fun Into Frigid Yukon

Participants in the frozen hair style contest in
Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada.

Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada is definitely one of the world's cold spots.

In the winter, the temperature is almost alwaysbelow zero.

So what better place to have a frozen hair style contest.

Uh, what?

Yeah, it involves getting people to create the most unique hair style possible by freezing their hair.

Here's how it works. There's a resort near Whitehorse called Takhini Hot Springs, where people can soak in water that has a temperature of about 100 degrees.

The pools are outside, and the contest starts when the temperature dips into the minus 20s, which happens a lot in Whitehorse.

People get their hair wet, wait a few minutes until it starts to freeze and get stiff, and style it in such a way that is, uh, different.  (Everybody stays immersed in the water up to their necks so they stay warm, except for their hair.)

I guess when it's winter, and you have cabin fever, you've got to think of something differnet to do, so why not freeze your hair?

Snow Day At Oregon Zoo Was A Pleasure For The Animals

Nora the Polar Bear enjoys a foot of new snow at the Oregon
Zoo in Portland this past week.

During Portland, Oregon's epic snowstorm last week, one of the places that had to close to the public was the Oregon Zoo. 

The roads were just too dangerous, and the zoo had too much work to do digging out from a foot of snow to welcome humans.

However, as the humans of Portland grumbled over nearly impassable roads, snapped power lines and broken branches, the animals at the zoo had a BLAST of a snow day.

Here's a wonderful video from the Oregon Zoo showing polar bears, sea otters, seals and an Asian elephant just loving winter.  (Staffers at the Oregon Zoo could NOT resist filming all these escapades.)

Next time I complain about having to scrape ice off my car, I'll try to remember to have fun like the guys in this video:

Australilan Dust Devil Becomes A Music Festival Dance Partner

A dust devil becomes a dance partner during
an Australian music festival last week 

At the Earthcore Music and Culture Festival in Pyalong, Victoria, Australia last week, as people danced, an unusual dance partner swept into the concert grounds.

A dust devil blew through, giving people a literal whirlwind moment as the music played.

Dust devils form when the sun heats an area of ground more intensely than surrounding areas. Maybe there's darker ground or a lack of foliage that makes the patch of ground heat more than areas nearby.

The hot air rises, through cooler air above, so basically you get a column of warm, rising air. The cool air that has been pushed away by the warm column circulates vertically, up and down. Then a gust of wind knocks that circulating air sideways, so now it circulates horizontally. So it forms into a column of circulating air - a dust devil.

The Australian festival dust devil looks fairly intense at first in the video you see below, so I wonder if it was a little dangerous to get into it.

But nobody got hurt and a good time was had by all.

Watch:

Cool Drone View Of Boston Snow Blitz

A drone's eye view of a snow-buried Fenway Park in Boston.
Let's hope the snow melts in time for the Red Sox's
home opener later this spring 

Somebody took a drone and flew it over snowbound Boston in the past couple of weeks, which gives a bird's eye view of how deep the snow is, how deep the winter is.

There is, for once, a slightly hopeful forecast for Boston. After a snow risk tomorrow, vaguely warmer air will drift into town.

That will bring highs in the 30s to low 40s into the weekend.

That's not exactly warm, and will only slowly melt snow. But a slow melt is actually a good thing.

With that much snow on the ground, you don't want a sudden warm spell with lots of rain. The flooding would be nightmarish.

Let's hope a dry pattern takes hold. Long range forecasts indicate not much in the way of precipitation for a week or so after Thursday, so that's a relief.

Speaking of hope for good things, watch the drone video through to the end. It really does end on a hopeful note.

Watch:

Cats And Dogs Teaching Us How To Manage Snow

I know this isn't exactly Eyewitness Breaking News, but I thought it would be fun to show you what to do if you can't go out and play in the snow.

Try anyway. This kitten in Scotland, seeing snow for the first time, gave it a shot. Thought this would be an upper if you're tired of winter:




Or, if you CAN get out and play in the snow, gather some pointers and tips for doing so from these dogs and cats:

The People Who Shoveled The Boston Marathon Finish Line

The now infamous photo, probably of Chris Laudani,
shoveling snow away from the Boston Marathon Finish Line.  

There's always sub-stories to major news events, like the New England blizzard this week, and the people who shoveled the Boston Marathon finish line seems to be one of them.

I put a photo of one of the shovelers in this morning's post about the blizzard and forecasts for more snow.

Meanwhile, other media was sleuthing around, looking for the person or person shoveling the finish line. It turns out it was persons.

It started with a photo taken during the blizzard by Philip Hillman, from a window several floors above Bolyston Street in the Charlesmark Hotel, right above the finish line.

The photo showed somebody shoveling, the photo went viral on social media under the hashtag #whoshoveledthefinishline. The Boston Police Department even got in on the act, trying to figure out who the mad shoveler was.

One of them turned out to be Chris Laudani, a bartender at the Back Bay Social Club, says Boston Magazine.

"I only did it to send a message... I love the Boston Marathon and everything it stands for. The finish line doesn't deserve to be covered in snow."

On its Twitter Feed, Ironman Triathlon noted Laudani is a triathlete, having done rather well in the 2013 Lake Placid Ironman, so he clearly has an affinity for athletes like those who run the Boston Marathon.

There are at least two finish line shovelers, says Mashable, citing photographic evidence of one guy in dark pants, another in khakis.

I'm sure the Internet will sniff that person out, too.

Meanwhile, according to the Washington Post another trend has seized Boston and surrounding blizzard-socked areas. Its Twitter hashtag is #BostonBlizzardChallenge, and involves teens stripping to their underwear and diving into the two or three foot deep snows.

Kids these days.

"Snow In Sligo!" Viral Video Rivals "Rainbow Man" In Weather Wonder

OMG! Snow on the Buddha in Sligo!!  

According to Boing Boing, we finally have a video that rivals "Rainbow Man" as most "Whoa Dude!!!"  reaction to weather.

You might remember "Rainbow Man" the awestruck guy - to put it mildly - reacting to a double rainbow in Yosemite.

That hilarious but oddly moving video from five years ago is closing in on 41 million hits.

Now we have the "Snowing In Sligo!" guy. In this video, the guy is holding a camera as he gets up one morning this week in Sligo, wherever the hell that is, and discovers there's a dusting of snow on the ground and it's still snowing.

There's even snow in the hands of the little Buddha in the garden!!!!

The snowing in Sligo guy is the most enthusiastic
about the weather since this guy, Paul Vasquez,
 who five years ago waxed poetic about a Yosemite rainbow 

The video is at the bottom of this post.

Actually, I looked it up. Sligo is in northwestern Ireland. So it's not too odd to see it snowing there. It happens pretty much every winter.

But I can't knock a guy for being enthusiastic about the weather. Although the roommate in the video who is trying to sleep doesn't seem so impressed.

You have to be patient with weather geeks like me and the legions of other weather geeks out there who get just a touch excited about rainbows and storms and snow. I'm sure my husband is tired of my minute-by-minute updates when severe weather looms.

But then again he seemed to like it last summer when I dragged him out of the house (During the middle of "Jeopardy!" of all things) to see some beautiful mammatus clouds glowing orange in the setting sun after a thunderstorm.

On the other hand, things can be taken too far. I remember years ago, when I lived in a dorm full of meteorology students at Lyndon State College in Vermont things did get a little excessive.

It was five a.m. on an October Saturday. We'd partied the night before. But one of the more enthusiastic students went to the met lab, as we called the meteorology center, to get an update on a cold storm approaching.

Life with a weather geek: I dragged my husband
outside during the middle of "Jeopardy" one day last
summer to view these mammatus clouds
over St. Albans, Vermont.  

So at 5 a.m. or so that Saturday morning,  we were all treated to this alarm clock when our guy came back from the met lab: "Ice pellets in Hartford, Connecticut! Can you believe it! Ice pellets in Hartford! Wake UP!! Ice pellets in HARTFORD!!!!!"

Our ice pellets in Hartford guy got hammered with different pellets right after that, but what are you gonna do?

Except for that one incident, I enjoy people who view weather as a wonder, as something fascinating, Be patient with us. Be like my husband and indulge us in a little cloud or storm watching, even if it really isn't your thing.

You don't have to turn into a weather geek, or particularly like weather.  But maybe the love of storms, of rainbows, of snow will grow on you. And life might just become a little better for you.

Like this guy, in the "Snow in Sligo!" viral video:

Frozen Chicago Drone Flight Almost Makes You Like Winter

Some people put a camera on a drone and flew it around frigid Chicago last week as a cold wave embraced the Windy City.  

A beautiful but frigid drone view of Chicago
from Soaring Badger Productions.  

The people who did it are from an outfit called Soaring Badger Productions. They said all the drone trips were done while temperatures were below 10 degrees.

The makers of the video changed the name of the city they were filming from "Chicago" to "Chiberia."

Everything held up rather well, except the batteries in the camera kept dying with 10 minutes or so because of the cold.

The drone fights went over the half frozen shores of Lake Michigan, snow covered industrial areas, parks with hardly any people in them because of the cold, and expressways with light traffic. Nobody seemed to want to go out in that.

I don't blame them, but it is a pretty view from up there in that drone. Stark and bone chilling, but pretty

Watch:

Weather Radios Are Awesome Christmas Gifts, And A National Weather Service Ad For Them Is Even MORE Awesome

A weather radio like this is a perfect Christmas gift,
and the National Weather Service has an
awesome ad touting these.  

I just love, LOVE a National Weather Service announcement offering the perfect gift idea for you weather enthusiasts out there.

The gift is great: A weather radio. But the way the National Weather Service touts it is beyond perfect.

The ad that says how wonderful the weather radio is is given in the computerized voice of a weather radio that announces the arrival of dangerous weather.

The National Weather Service has pretty much advanced beyond the crude computerized voice, but some warnings, especially weather radios, do feature the voice.

A lot of us weather geeks have a soft spot in our hearts for that awkward voice, that is somehow simultaneously emotionless and full of heartfelt devotion to all things weather.

Or, as The Vane blog puts it, "dorky." And that's totally meant as a compliment.

The voice, one that sounds like a guy being muffled by a pillow while standing in a culvert pipe and under orders to show no emotion WHAT SO EVER begins by telling us:

"Ho, Ho. Ho. This is your friendly National Weather Service weather radio computer voice wishing everyone a happy holiday season.

The voice is funny, but does have a good point. A weather radio is awesome for saving lives. Especially for those living in tornado prone areas.

You can program the thing to only give you a warning for your specific area. If it's 100 miles away who really cares. And you can program it so it wakes you up with a blaring sound tone if there's a tornado right near you.

That's especially handy at, say 2 a.m., when you're sound asleep and not paying attention to any tornadoes roaming your neighborhood. The weather radio's piercing warning sound wakes you up and gives you time to hide in the basement while the tornado passes through.

Of course, these weather radios are handy-dandy for any type of weather problem, ranging from hurricanes to floods to blizzards.

I'm glad the National Weather Service is using a sense of humor to grab your attention and convince you to buy a weather radio.

And if stodgy Mark Trail endorses weather radios, you know it's a good idea.

The ad concludes with a photograph of a snowbound National Weather Service sign and a totally deadpan, "Let it snow, let it snow, let is snow," and the editorial comment, "Just be glad I don't sing."

Watch the totally awesome weather radio PSA below: