Our CoCoRaHS friends in the center of the nation are starting to thaw out -- what an ice storm!
I have to tell you, growing up in Arkansas and living through many ice storms, well -- it really stinks. You are literally trapped. Life stops.
It can also be downright creepy once you lose power. There are so many sounds -- trees creaking, limbs snapping, power lines popping and transformers blowing -- it makes it hard to sleep.
I was home for Christmas about 5 or 6 years ago when an ice storm hit. A pine tree fell on our house and we had to evacuate to another relative's home. It took over an hour to drive less than 3 miles on country roads.
I hope you are all safe and as life gets back to normal and you can file a CoCoRaHS report again -- when you do so, feel free to leave a detailed comment in your first report about your experience during the storm, damage in your area, etc..
The information will be great to archive for your station.
In a recent comment, an observer from Kansas asked about reporting a trace or zero when you have dew.
Dew is not precipitation because it forms at the surface and does not fall from the sky. It is a completely different process than precipitation.
Therefore you would report zero when you have dew in the morning. If you like, you can definitely note that there was dew in your comments.
A simple comment like "heavy dew this morning" tells a meteorologist something about the weather at your location. I would conclude it was moist, the temperature and dewpoint were very close together if not equal -- and perhaps something was on the weather map in your location such as a warm front.
Hope that helps -- keep the comments coming. I do my very best to read each and every one, and try to answer them too. I remain very busy with work right now so bare with me on my response time.
Hi Chris - I remembered ice storms from my childhood in the midwest...they seemed so much more dangerous in many ways than some of the other severe weather there.
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy to find that CoCoRaHS has a weblog! I wrote about CoCoRaHS on the CitizenSci.com weblog this morning.
Chris, I enjoyed reading yur comments as I live in Oklahoma City and the ice storm was very damaging, both in loss of power, but also in property and tree damage. I drove through an older, upscale neighborhood with magnificent, large trees, most now mangled from the heavy ice load which has snapped limbs, making many of them hardly salvageable.
ReplyDeleteAnd I must admit living in a virtually all electric home with no power is horrible. Not only is it dark, increasingly colder by the hour, but also mentally stressful. I lasted only one day at home before giving up and going to a motel. Unfortunately, many residents have not had power in 4 days and still don't have any. We really appreciate electical crews from other states coming to our rescue. Yes, severe weather does heavily impact our daily lives.
Ice Storms, Hummmmm
ReplyDeleteWell, N.E. Oklahoma (where I live is, pretty much, ground zero for this ice event. I have been without power or water since Monday.
Read my blog for more http://360.yahoo.com/dubcross
Dub
Wow I'm glad I missed that one! The rest of my family is up in CT and not happy I'm in flipflops still! I don't miss the cold weather but I do miss the RAIN!
ReplyDeleteDriving to St. Louis, MO from Oshkosh, WI this evening. The current forecast for this new storm is set to bring snow to the STL area thankfully. I've driven in those nasty ice-storms that take place in MO and it is not fun. Driving in snow is less stressful, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteGo Nor' Easter!