Thirteen Below

I opened my browser minutes ago and my home page opened up.  It’s the Borealis Webcam Multiview of their web cams scattered about Anchorage, Alaska.  The current temperature at 3:53 a.m. local time just happened to be -13 F, which is also the coldest temperature I have had the pleasure to enjoy.

Enjoy?  Well sure.  I was a teenager and it was a great adventure.  You may disagree if you have lived where it’s regularly colder.  Especially if you’ve had to endure plugging in your car to keep the oil a semi liquid, or shoveling snow for an hour just so you can get out of the driveway only to have the snowplow come by and block your drive again.  That does sound frustrating.

But my story is different.  I was 16 years old and we took a Winter road trip to Grandpa Jones’ ranch in John Day, Oregon.  Shoveling snow was not part of my life.  We were visiting from the Willamette Valley were the rare snow doesn’t stick around long and temperatures rarely fall below the teens above zero.

It was already cold when we left Canby.  In the 20s maybe and so my brothers and sisters and I were dressed warmly as we piled into the van.  It was an evening/night drive to eastern Oregon.  My first clue that this trip was going to be different was when we got into the mountains and ice started forming on the inside of the van windows!  Yes, Dad had the heat on, but it was near zero outside.  We stopped to go to the bathroom in the woods (you can do that in Oregon.  Lots of trees :-) and the wind blew through my jeans like I wasn’t wearing any!  First lesson.  Wear thermals when it’s nothing degrees outside.

We arrived in John Day and went to bed.  The next morning it was get out of bed and feed the cows.  No shower or breakfast first.  The cows get fed at daybreak, which also happens to be the coldest time of the day, even in John Day.  It was perfectly calm and clear and thermometer read -13 F.  A personal best for me that stands to this day.

I bundled up the best I could and I was made to wear a handkerchief over my mouth and nose so I wouldn’t “frost my lungs.”  I doubted then (and now) that that was a real danger at that temperature, but I don’t remember arguing.  Maybe I rolled my eyes.  You know how teenagers are.

I stepped outside into the squeaky snow and man it was cold!  I just gotten up, so there was not much blood circulating in my body yet.  Thankfully it was perfectly still so the wind chill was also -13 (unless you started walking fast).

We got to work.  We loaded the trailer with hay and Grandpa drove the tractor while we peeled flakes off for the cows to enjoy.  The cold was making my nose run and as I inhaled my snot (sorry about the visual) froze in my nose!  It’s like someone crammed cardboard up there!  The condensation from my breath turned the handkerchief into ice.  It was also forcing moisture to exit near my eyes and one of my eyes actually froze shut!  I had to take off a glove and melt the ice off of my eyelashes so I could open my eye again.  (I knew that handkerchief was a silly idea)  Crazy.

We were done before I knew it.  The cows were fed and we went inside to warm up and have a hearty breakfast our own selves.  That afternoon it got up to a toasty 10 degrees.  With sunshine icicles were growing and we went sledding and sliding into, and through, one of the frozen ditches.  FUN!  The whole visit was fun.  Later that Winter I got to return and my Uncle and I hiked up into the John Day Mountains and surprised a bunch of deer.  We also almost got lost in a snow squall, but that’s another story.

I love cold and snow.  Always have.  It’s beautiful and fun.  Of course, I’ve never had to plug in my car or shovel my way to work either…

We all Need a Hero

At least I know I’d like one.  The GoPro Hero2 is an amazing HD camera that comes with a waterproof case and all kinds of mounts.  It would be an amazing camera for time lapse video captured from my deck!

Here is my first UStream broadcast from my phone:

November 20, 2011 Pusch Peak Sunrise Time Lapse

Originally posted at TonightsSunset.com

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Not as much color in this one as we often get, but I like they way the cloud were moving and forming and unforming. 45 minutes around sunrise condensed into about a minute and 45 seconds

Weather, Man!

Man do I love weather.  It has been a passion and an obsession since I can remember.  It truly is how God made me.  Of course I have a very strong political and “religious” bent too.  I joke that my favorite subjects to discuss are politics and religion and that’s why God gave me such a passion for weather.  So I can relate to people with without offending them.  :-)

My weather fascination started very early.  My folks tell me that I was always talking about it even as a very young child.  I have early memories of unusual weather events when I was a wee lad in Los Angeles.  Severe Thunderstorms one afternoon and ice in the puddles at school one morning.  I was born in L.A. but we moved to Oregon when I was 8.

Growing up in Oregon was great for a weather freak like me.  Numerous storms coming off the ocean and in the 70s that meant lots of surprises in the actual weather compared to the forecast.  Fluctuating snow levels in the Cascades, east winds into Portland combining with overrunning warm air bringing epic ice storms, but not to our house :-( and I could go on about the different weather phenomenon I got to witness first hand.

I had the TV weather down.  KOIN would have the weather on first so I would watch that.  Then I’d switch over to KGW and catch most of their forecast.  Then it was over to KATU to watch the tail end of their weather.  This was especially important on the rare nights when the snow level had a chance to come down to the Willamette Valley Floor.  I remember many a frustrating evening watching it rain while I would stare at the thermometer stuck at 36 degrees trying to will it to come down.

So obviously I was going to go to school to study Meteorology.  I had it all planned out.  Go to the University of Alaska at Fairbanks and get a BS in Meteorology and minor in Communications.  They had a TV station on campus.  I had a great score on my ACT and was even accepted into their advanced math program.  I was set.  One big problem.  My drug problem.  I still had some growing up to do and I blew my chance to go to school.

The story doesn’t end there however!  I ended up moving to Roswell, NM a few years later.  At 21 years old I took what I could carry and bought a bus ticket and started re-pursuing my dream to be on Radio and TV.  Math and Science were always my favorite subjects in school so naturally I went into broadcasting.

I got a part time radio gig in the early Summer of 1984.  That turned into a full time radio gig.  First overnights and then evenings and then Music Director.  After two years I jumped over to TV as a Master Control Operator, directing news cut-ins and also voicing, shooting and editing commercials.  From there it was into the News Department at another station as a news photog, then a reporter who shot his own stuff and also backing up the weatherman and then finally the weatherman!

Lots of detail left out in the above story, but God helped make a way for me when I had messed up and didn’t choose the easier way.  After another 8 or 9 years on the morning show in Lubbock, Texas as a weatherman, news anchor and feature reporter my life took another turn.  Through it all I have never ever never stopped loving and studying the weather.

Now here I am in Tucson, Arizona.  I have a web site and morning weather web show dedicated to my weather passion.  I just can’t help but share whether the audience is big or small.  When you have a chance, check out the site.  TucsonWeather.us and tune in to “Coffee and a Forecast” every morning (yes, weekends too) at 5:50 Tucson time for the live recording.  Or you can just catch up with it later when I post it on the site and in the Facebook group Tucson Weather.

Whether it is mud in the Pacific Northwest, Baseball sized hail in Lubbock, or Monsoon storms with amazing lightning in Tucson, I love weather.  I especially love snow and cold!  But that is another blog entry (or two).

Of course I have other passions and other web sites that support those.  There is also a lot of detail left out of the above story.  All fodder for future blog entries.  I better post this and get to work.  “Coffee and a Forecast” airs in less then an hour. :-)

Fall No Matter How You Slice It

This post originally posted at my TucsonWeather.us site

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I could also subtitle this post, “Fixin’ to be Fall.”

The Autumnal Equinox is upon us.  Striking just after midnight here in Tucson.  Specifically at 2:04 a.m.  This marks the moment that the Sun will be directly over the Equator on it’s journey south.  Of course it’s not the Sun that is doing the journeying so much as the tilt of the Earth as it goes around the Sun etc., etc. etc.  You know.  Stuff you learned in grade school science.  I will mention that “Equinox” is Latin or Greek (I can never remember which.) for “Equal Night.”  Presumably the entire globe has a 12 hour night tomorrow night.  I think it’ll be close.  Your individual equinox may vary however.

I always joke that the moment the Sun is over the Equator that you may feel a little dizzy, dogs may start barking, if you are doing the dishes you may drop one.  Which is of course silly.  I mean, who does dishes at 2:04 a.m.?

Meteorologically (probably not a word) speaking the Northern Hemisphere of our planet (including Tucson presumably) have been in the Fall Season for three weeks now.  September, October and November make up the Meteorological Fall.  The Autumnal Equinox marks the beginning of Astronomical Fall.  So.  No matter how you slice it it’ll be Fall for sure starting tomorrow.  I just hope it’s cooler than 80 degrees at Thanksgiving!

Singing in the Rain

It was wonderful!  Rain all the way on my trip to Phoenix.  Here's some dashcam of my trip as I approached Picacho Peak.  Celine Dion, "Water from the Moon" on the iPod.  How appropriate.

April Foolin’

In general I'm not big into April Fool's Day.  Those that know me pretty well are usually surprised to hear that.  I tend to be a fun-loving guy who likes to laugh a lot.  I guess it can be surprising when I say that I have a tough time coming up with April Fool's pranks, or jokes, that are good.

Sure, stoopid April Fool's jokes are a dime a dozen.  Usually it's based on a lie that isn't hard to detect as a lie.  Everyone has an uncomfortable laugh and then gets on with the day.  Worse yet is a made up tragic story that causes wailing and sobbing only to be replaced by fists flying when the truth is revealed.

However, I do have one story of a joke that I actually planned out and pulled off that wasn't half bad.  This is that story.

It was years ago in Roswell, New Mexico.  I was the main Weather Anchor on the 6:00 and 10:00 news on KBIM-TV.  I brought my son and daughter to work with me on April Fool's Eve along with the suit and tie that I was going to wear the next night.  I used a photog to shoot the video.  By the 6:00 o'clock news on April Fool's night, I was ready.  I instructed my director to mess with the clipping on the weather wall shortly after I started my weather and then roll tape once I walked off camera.  It worked brilliantly.  Here's what the viewer saw that night in 1993: 

We came out of the commercial and I got 10 or 15 seconds into the weathercast when I started to fade in and out on the air.  I turned to the camera said, "something's not right, I'm gonna go check this out."  I then walked off camera and out the studio door with the camera following behind.  I walked into the control room and up to the "director" and it was my 4 year old son and 10 year old daughter.  My son had the headsets on and my daughter was at the controls of the switcher.  I looked at 'em and said, "I know it's your first time directing and all, but can you please try and get it right?"  They said in unison, "OK Dad.  NOT!"

I then walked back into the studio shaking my head and went on with the weather.

Fun times!  Great team work between a news photog, director, tape op and my kids.  My only regret is I didn't save a copy.

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my brother Chris!  Seriously.

How Cold is it?

COLD

New record low of 18 this morning which is also tied for the second coldest ever for a February Tucson morning.  There's a chance we tied the all-time record February low of 17.  We won't find out for sure for a few hours.  If we didn't reach it, no worries.  We have an even better chance tomorrow morning!

This could be the coldest February chill in Tucson's history.  I go through all of that plus take a look at the cold, snow and freezing rain forecast for Texas in this morning's "Coffee and a Forecast"

Video streaming by Ustream

Here is a comprehensive look at the cold start originally posted on my TucsonWeather.us site.

AMAZING Oro Valley Sunrise

Nice way to start the day.  I think God really likes Arizona:

Winter Storm Warning, 3pm – 11am

Rain and snow moving in from a vigorous storm that is tapping some tropical moisture.  How low will snow levels go?  3,500 feet, maybe lower.  Yuma getting soaked and rain and snow is likely for southeast Arizona this afternoon through tomorrow morning:

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