My Sky Watching Obsession

I promise this cartoon wasn't drawn by Mini-Dew, but it could have been! Apparently I am not the only mom out there who has a problem with this. Becka (the artist of this great cartoon), doodled this in honor of her sky obsessed mom, Ruth.

Awesome! So me!
~Dewdrop

A little virga

OK, so this morning, there were 1.3 million still without power, a large percentage of those in Kentucky, where they have a record number of power outages as a result of this winter ice storm. The temperatures here in south Georgia today are dropping. The high yesterday and today only got to the mid-50's and we are headed back down to freezing. Yuck.

I was treated this morning, though, to some heavily sheared virga.

In meteorology, VIRGA is an observable streak or shaft of precipitation that falls from a cloud but evaporates before reaching the ground. It is also common in the Southern United States during summer (it's obviously confused.)

Virga can produce dramatic and beautiful scenes, especially during a red sunset. The red light can be caught by the streamers of falling precipitation, and winds may push the bottom ends of the virga so it falls at an angle, making the clouds appear to have commas attached. (Exactly!)

The word virga is derived from Latin meaning twig or branch. ~Wikipedia

It wasn't my first time seeing virga, but it was my first time photographing it. There was so much of it this morning, several of the clouds along the way to work were producing virga, so it was neat.

Yesterday, I had a beautiful little cirrocumulus/altocumulus/contrail display over my water tower. You know me...I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
~Dewdrop

More Mammatus...

Hey there! Thanks for stopping by for this week's installment of SKY WATCH FRIDAY! Please visit Klaus, Sandy, Ivar, Wren, Louise and Fishing Guy's SKY WATCH BLOG to participate in Sky Watch Fridays, which is WELL WORTH YOUR WHILE!! Thanks to Dot, the momma of this fabulous blogging event, and to my dear friend, Tom, who brought it to full blossom. I, personally, love visiting the skies all over the world!!! You should definitely come fly with us!I have decided to post another picture from my November 14, 2008, Mammatus Spectacle!

Mammatus (also known as mammatocumulus, meaning "bumpy clouds") is a meteorological term applied to a cellular pattern of pouches hanging underneath the base of a cloud.
~Wikipedia

This photograph demonstrates the magnitude of this splendid experience. The pic that I posted last week showed the view behind my house, facing due east toward the rising sun. This is the view in front of my house at about the same time, facing west southwest. The entire sky was covered in this amazing, miraculous, glorious phenomena for hours that day. In fact, there are what they looked like an hour later when I left for work... spectacular!

Glory and praise to our God,
who alone gives light to our days.
Many are the blessings He bears
to those who trust in his ways.
~Dan Shutte, "Glory and Praise to Our God"

Unfortunately, the death toll from the horrendous winter ice storm has risen to 23, and with power still out for hundreds of thousands of people and a fear that the status won't change soon, the likelihood that the number may rise is frightening. Inches of ice piled up on everything is created traffic nightmares, tree breakage, and power line breakage and failure. It's a nightmare to many. May God bless them. Unfortunately here, today, the temperatures have capped out in the 50's... I can't really complain though...

I never did talk about the US Airways Flight 1549 that made an emergency landing on January 15th in the Hudson River. That day was in the middle of that horrible Arctic blast, where New York saw some of the coldest temps of the season. The water of the Hudson at the time of the crash was in the high 30's, and the air temperature was in the 20's! Despite that, all 155 passengers and crew were safely evacuated within 5 minutes of the crash, which was an amazing landing by the veteran pilot and co-pilot. Well, a cartoonist Rex Babin drew this image to capture the "miracle on Hudson River":[Rex Babin]
WOW! Thanks to my dear friend for sharing that.

Have a GLORIOUS day!
~Dewdrop

Hot and cold...

A winter storm that has left more than 600,000 customers without electricity is barreling into the Northeast... ~source

Some of the reports coming in from this devastating ice storm are shocking. It's so hard to imagine what it must be like for the people enduring this disastrous ice storm event.

Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry declared a statewide emergency Monday. Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear did the same Tuesday in his state, where ice up to 1.5 inches thick weighed down tree limbs Tuesday and caused them to crash onto roadways... ice in some places was 3 inches thick... ~source

"You hear the popping - it sounded like gunfire - and it's limbs from trees breaking," said Hopkins County, Ky., Judge-Executive Donald Carroll, who was among those with no power. ~source

... and that is so true. My blog-friend, Tricia posted some videos on her blog, where the eerie sound of the tree branches crumbling under the weight of all that ice comes as loud bangs. How scary! Here are some shots Tricia took of the ice from the storm around her house...This second one is a branch that has fallen onto her house. Transformers have blown.Thanks, Tricia! When all is said and done, I am wondering how this ice storm will be compared with the North American Ice Storm of 1998.

Aside from all that, here we have nice spring-like temps again. It really is beautiful. We are expecting rain as things push eastward, and temperatures will creep down, but with quick recovery. We are blessed. My heart goes out to all those suffering through the storm.

I heard this on TWC this morning. It was a car commercial of all things...

If severe weather happens and you're not there, did it really happen?

Well, sounds typical to me. I am never there for severe weather, and I'm sure it happens. The good news is that my area will be having spotter training next month!! Woohoo! So, if there is weather, we'll be prepared.

Have a great day!
Dewdrop

Cold as ice...

With each weather event being dubbed "The Worst Winter Weather Event of the Season", it's hard to buy this cock-and-bull story about global warming... Now, we see that this ferocious, deadly ice storm is dropping inches of ice in some areas... inches of ice?! Yes. Crazy. Winter weather warnings and advisories span from parts of southern Texas to northern Maine.The current radar is showing an ongoing assault of these treacherous conditions, with the event having start in the central US yesterday afternoon. No rest for the weary as power outages due to the weight of the ice on trees and power lines cause breakage, so for those without generators, heat vanishes. It's really a horrific storm of sleet and freezing rain. My thoughts and prayers are with those being impacted. We are blessed to be back in the 70's, so it's hard to relate to the situation, but to know it's terrible. We once again had a sheet of thick fog that offered measurable precipitation. The cool part is that while I was waiting on the doggone dogs groomer to come back from taking her son to school, I spied some moisture coated spider webs in the trees in her yard. She pulled up with me shooting pictures, you know, just me looking like my typical lunatic self.
While I was searching through information about the winter weather, I stumbled upon these tornado statistics... wow. Man, 2008 was a doozy!Be safe if you're in the target zone for the ice storm; stay warm, and try not to go out.

Have a dewrific day!
~Dewdrop

My fog blog

Well, it was a nice and relaxing weekend, with icky weather (icky weather is defined us non-sunny, yet non-chaseable, rainy drizzle)... which means that I did not have any outdoor adventures. Today, we are covered in a blanket of fog (we were in heavy fog on Friday too. In fact, these pics are from Friday, but it looks about the same out there now.)

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TALLAHASSEE FL
248 AM EST MON JAN 26 2009

...DENSE FOG ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM EST THIS MORNING FOR SOUTH CENTRAL GEORGIA AND THE FLORIDA BIG BEND...

A QUASI-STATIONARY FRONT REMAINS DRAPED ACROSS THE FORECAST AREA. ALONG AND AHEAD OF THIS BOUNDARY...SURFACE OBSERVATIONS AND SATELLITE IMAGERY INDICATED THAT AREAS OF DENSE FOG HAVE SPREAD AND ARE LIKELY TO BECOME WIDESPREAD WITH VISIBILITIES REDUCED TO ONE QUARTER MILE OR LESS DURING THE REST OF THE OVERNIGHT HOURS. DENSE FOG WILL LIKELY REMAIN UNTIL AROUND 10 AM EST BEFORE LIFTING.

Since it's almost 10AM now, and the fog is still ridiculously dense out there, they missed their mark. The good news is the the temperatures have rebounded! We are no longer freezing. This morning, temperatures were in the high 50's, and we are expected to approach 70° during the day and mid-70's later in the week. As I type this, I am sad for those in the central US and Ohio River Valley Area. They are on the brink of a ferocious ice storm... (yes, the worst of the season). The Little Rock, Arkansas National Weather Service office has posted a comprehensive report discussing the upcoming ice storm.

Arctic high pressure in the upper Midwest and mid-Mississippi Valley will provide the cold air, and not much warming will occur until the high shifts to the east (and winds become southerly). That may not happen until the 28th, so the ice event could be prolonged.

The Springfield, Missouri Weather Service office also put together a site covering this icy snowy event. I have heard reports of 7-10" of s#@w accumulation. Better them than me! In fact, we shouldn't get anything off of this system, but the Atlanta area can expect some rain.

Have a great day!
~Dewdrop

Mammatus Memories...

It's that time again! Please visit Klaus, Sandy, Ivar, Wren, Louise and Fishing Guy's SKY WATCH BLOG to participate in Sky Watch Fridays, which is WELL WORTH YOUR WHILE!! Thanks to Dot, the mother of this fabulous blogging event, and to the "retired" Tom, who brought it to full blossom. I, personally, love visiting the skies all over the world!!! You should definitely come fly with us! This week, I have chosen to post a picture from my wonderful and awesomely special mammatus sunrise.This sky was a special gift from God. It gave me hope. It made my inner spirit smile with pure joy. It was a truly uplifting blessing to experience my absolute favorite cloud structure in such a majestically magnificent way. That 14th day of November in 2008 was an extremely special day.

Mammatus (also known as mammatocumulus, meaning "bumpy clouds") is a meteorological term applied to a cellular pattern of pouches hanging underneath the base of a cloud. The name "mammatus" is derived from the Latin mamma (breast), due to the resemblance between the shape of these clouds and human female breasts.
~source

On Wikipedia, I counted ten hypothesized theories as to the process by which mammatus are formed, meaning, the scientists don't really know what causes these awesome phenomena... A note on Wikipedia actually suggests that observations of these spectacular clouds has "been meager and usually occur only by chance" and "mammatus do not pose a meteorological threat to society". This, in my opinion, reinforces my theory, that it was just as it appeared, a blessed gift from God.

Early in the morning,
I will celebrate the light.
When I stumble in the darkness,
I will call your name by night.

Precious lord reveal your love to me....

~Third Day, God of Wonders

This morning... we crept close to (if not breaching) the teens in temperatures. BRRR!!! As I was leaving my neighborhood, I noticed that one of my neighbors happened to have left their sprinklers on overnight, and I was thrilled to be able to capture some icicles dangling from a budding tree in their yard. Also, while I was out before dawn, I was dazzled by the twinkling of the diamond-like drops of frozen Dew, as the light from my house bounced off and caused them to sparkle in my yard. Yep, another day of hard freeze. I'm about done with this whole winter thing.

Have a warm day!
~Dewdrop

I know what they mean by "hard" freeze... I can "hard"ly feel my fingers

If you're like me, you are growing just as tired of these freezing temperatures as I am... We are in the south, after all. We aren't supposed to be dealing with Hard Freeze Warnings day after day... after day after day. I am not supposed to get ready for work and watch as the temperature drops from a ridiculous 25°F to an unspeakable 21°F. Currently, things have come up to a toasty (HA!) 37°F (3°C!!!!) with a wind chill of a mere 29°F. That is just horrible. It's 11AM!!!! It's not supposed to feel below freezing at 11AM. Now, the worst of all of this is that it's not over, AND it will get worse before it gets better...

TEMPERATURES WILL DROP BELOW FREEZING WITHIN A FEW HOURS AFTER SUNSET...AND REMAIN BELOW FREEZING UNTIL MID MORNING THURSDAY. THE NORMALLY COLDEST INLAND LOCATIONS... LIKE THE TALLAHASSEE... VALDOSTA (EEEK!!!)... AND CROSS CITY AIRPORTS...COULD GET DOWN INTO THE UPPER TEENS BY DAWN THURSDAY. THESE SITES WILL BE AT OR BELOW FREEZING FOR UP TO 12 HOURS.

A HARD FREEZE WARNING MEANS TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED TO DROP TO 25 DEGREES OR LOWER FOR AT LEAST TWO HOURS. THESE CONDITIONS CAN DAMAGE CROPS AND OTHER SENSITIVE VEGETATION. TAKE PRECAUTIONS TO PROTECT PETS...EXPOSED PIPES...AND SENSITIVE VEGETATION.

Torturous... Dewdropcicle!

Since my fingers are currently frozen, I will keep this brief. I shot this pic on Friday after I noticed the scene while passing... it charmed me into turning around.Have a truly lovely day!
~Dewdrop

When will winter be over?!!?

I know I keep saying this, but we seem to be dealing once again with the coldest temperatures of the season... our mercury dipped below the freezing mark this morning, and then, it kept dipping, combined with the wind offering wind chills in the mid 20's, with the slap-you-in-the-face kind of cold. YUCK! There is currently a low pressure system, just off the east coast, which is dropping buckets of SNOW (yes, I said said it, SNOW!) on the Carolinas, where a winter storm warning is supported by a 100% chance of... snow. Parts of north Georgia have seen some flurries over the past couple of nights, but it looks like most of Georgia has been spared in this very snowy event. In fact, it looks to be headed north into Virginia and possibly into Washington, D.C., where the already freezing cold inauguration of our next president, Barack Obama, will be taking place this afternoon. I hope the thousands who have turned up for that historic event have thought to bundle up!! Layers, layers, layers. Locally, looks like we will be dealing with Dewdropcicle weather for a few days...Anyone else really tired of this winter weather??? Look, even Orlando, FL is facing freeze warnings!!!!Try to stay warm!
~Dewdrop

Our trip to WeatherFest

(I did not take the above pic.) It was such a pleasure to have the opportunity to visit the first (of many, I'm sure) WeatherFest event, hosted by the National Weather Service in Tallahassee. Due to my other commitment, my wonderful gtb and I were only able to come for the last hour and a half of the event, but during that time we were able to see that Kelly Godsey and Mark Wool (two of the Tally mets) did a fantastic job coordinating this event. Upon arrival, I met up with Tim Barry (another Tally guy) to find out where my Cuckoo for CoCoRaHS friend, Melissa Griffin was having balloons thrown at her... yes, in freezing temps... got the cuckoo part right... I had never met her in person, but she recognized me immediately after having seen me on dewdropweather.com so much. We only spoke briefly because we were just in time for the last weather balloon launch of the event, so we wanted to race up to the roof for a first hand glance at (yet another) launch. Walking through the Weather Service office, my wonderful gtb noticed this sign... ... which we both chuckled at. We popped into the forecasting area and said hello to Kelly, who was under a certain level of stress, dealing with situations that arise when you host about 600-700 people in a place that usually only has about 4 or 5 people working at a time. He did marvelously. Check him out announcing the details of the upcoming launch.I can't imagine they have ever seen that many folks on the roof of the Weather Service. Of course, gtb was cracking geek jokes left and right and psyching them out by saying "Oh, there it is!" ...when of course, it wasn't. lol. Look how jam packed the roof was! What a turn out! Actually, at the 1pm launch, there were so many spectators that they actually sent a second balloon up without a radiosonde (they cost about $300 each). I captured the launch in typical Dew fashion.Then we raced down to participate in the NWS WEATHER CHALLENGE GAME, with our host, Bob Goree! My wonderful gtb and I teamed up in this Jeopardy-styled game about weather. Of course, we stomped our competition, big time. I think it's important to note that only Tornadoes separate Dewdrop's team from the "Dooms Day X-press". Yikes. We had great fun answering great questions relating to tropical weather. I think I would have done better at a severe weather version, but I think we did well... thank goodness Jeff wasn't there. lol In the end though, like I said, we stomped them.Was there any doubt???

After the game, Yolanda Amadeo, a WALB on-air meteorologist, walked into the room, and gtb and I got Bob to snap a shot of us with her. She was very nice, even though I don't call my storm reports into her. I only call the weather service, so far. After our celebrity shot, we met back up with Melissa and my wonderful gtb helped by loading up her car, while we chatted. She had a successful afternoon, recruiting many folks to CoCoRaHS. If you haven't already, follow the link in my sidebar. In celebration, we all went to eat at Olive Garden. Yum!

Anyways, that was our great experience at WeatherFest! We had a terrific time, and I am hopeful that next year, I will be able to participate more! I want to get up close to their mobile weather unit, a Doppler on Wheels.

Have a great Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!
~Dewdrop

We had a blast at WeatherFest!!!

I only have a few seconds, but I will give you a preview shot. My wonderful gtb and I had a terrific time at WeatherFest yesterday. I'll give a complete report when I have more time.

Got a note from my dear Winder friend last night, reporting that it was s#@wing. Apparently, north Georgia got it. Better them than us...

Have a great day!
~Dewdrop

I'm going to WeatherFest!!!!

I posted my official Sky Watch Friday post below, but I wanted to share a few things today, including sky shots, so I am sure that people might stop here anyhow... oh well, enjoy. Yesterday, as I was walking out to the parking lot, I was struck by this view.This unbearably cold weather may be torturous, but the skies have been astoundingly awesome! This sunset got better, but I could not get to a better position in time to shoot it more pleasingly... Then, on my way to work this morning, I came across a swirly pattern in the sky... it was really cool, like a barber pole on its side.
I am excited because tomorrow, the National Weather Service in Tally is hosting WeatherFest, and guess who gets to go??? You guessed it. It just happened to work out that I was going to be on the FSU campus for another thing tomorrow, and wouldn't you know it, same day as a whole entire expo dedicated to all things weather. I don't know how much I will be able to enjoy given the other I have going on, but I certainly plan on visiting my dear Cuckoo for CoCoRaHS friend, and of course, the Tally guys. I want to try to see one of the special weather balloon launches (1 and 4PM). I hope to come back with some great pics. We'll see.

I wanted to share this photo that I stumbled on while visiting one of the SWF folks, Ida... who captured a series of dew shots with the sky reflected in them. Awesomeness!! Great work, Ida. Thanks for letting me share!

I want to share one more thing... from the book I am reading, The Shack... here's a link:

"If anything matters, then everything matters. Because you are important, everything you do is important; every time you forgive, the universe changes; every time you reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes; with every kindness and service, seen or unseen, [His] purposes are accomplished, and nothing will ever be the same again."

A beautiful statement about the importance of you and me. I felt compelled to share. I still very much encourage reading the book!

Have a wonderful weekend, y'all! Try to stay warm!!!
~Dewdrop