July 16, 2008 at 10:20 pm
[rant]
There are only three things we all need to know when watching the weather report on local TV news:
- How hot/cold did it get today
- What’s going on right now
- What’s it going to be like tomorrow and over the next couple days
That’s it. Three things. Heck, you could remove #2 from that because you can look outside and figure out what’s going on right now with the weather. (“…sun is shining, sky is blue, don’t see any cows sailing across the sky — nice day!”)
In my hometown, the weather guy/gal usually gets between three and four minutes out of the 30-minute newscast. I trust that’s the same pretty much anywhere in the U.S. On the station we watch most often, the weather guy fills his time with “tower cam” video shots that show absolutely nothing, satellite doppler-type stuff, water vapor outlook, jet stream data, cloud cover (even on sunny days), the three things I listed above, and then he ends by spending 30-45 seconds showing “weather photos” sent in by viewers and then chit-chatting about how nice the photos are (even when they’re not) with the chatty news anchors.
Oh, and he’s shown in a small box on the screen so that all this “weather plus” data (like temperatures of cities in Idaho and Oregon that I’ve never heard of) can scroll and rotate on the screen like CNN on steroids.
It sucks! For every 10 seconds of useful weather information, there’s 20 seconds of crap. And then they wrap it up with a nice smile and a corny joke.
Just give me the #%@%$# weather!!!!!!!
[/rant]
February 9, 2008 at 8:29 pm
I know Chicago is the official “windy city,” but I doubt Chicago has very much on West Richland, Washington. We just finished a string of three days straight with winds ranging from 15-50 mph — just non-stop, no breaks, rocks-in-your-pockets wind.
I hate wind.
Our house is on a corner, and the open side of the house faces west. That, of course, is where the wind usually comes from. So when it’s windy, our house gets pounded. Here are three photos I took in 2006 of the wind damage we suffer whenever West Richland turns into the really windy city:
January 2006
November 2006
December 2006
At the risk of completely jinxing us, I’ll admit this: We haven’t had any fences knocked out so far this winter. But there’s still plenty of time. And plenty of wind, no doubt.
[where:99353]
January 28, 2008 at 4:52 pm
I like Seattle. I like visiting Seattle. I just don’t like getting stuck in Seattle and spending an extra day in Seattle when I should be home.
After the Big Ice and Snow Storm of 2008 shut down Tri-Cities Airport on Sunday, I finally made it home today, just 26 hours later than normal.
This photo is my water bottle sitting in the snow on top of my car at the airport parking lot. I had about 8 inches of snow and a 1/2-inch sheet of ice covering my car when I reached the parking lot.
Three other car-in-snow-and-ice photos:
Toyota Snowmobile
Inside the Igloo
Digging Out
It took me about an hour overall to get the car dug out, but that included about 10-15 minutes helping an older lady nearby who was in the same predicament as me.
So good to be home….
