Am I glad I live in Florida...

[seabob4]

Looks like our Hillsborough/Pinellas/Manatee/Sarasota county friends are getting it today...

[dburr]

It was clear and 8F this AM after one whacking great blow last night.. High today of 23.  That is a tad cold for this time of year. We still have over 24 inches of ice one the lake and the snow is higher then the fenders on the trailer... Any minute now I am gonna start fussing on it not warming up...

The sun is high enough that the ground will thaw and the mud is nuts while in full sun, then re freeze when it gets shaded.. The frost heaves on the roads are bad enough that I could build a Ford Pickup Jitterbug with all the parts I see laying roadside on the way to work.. The buggy'd be a tad hard to get lined up but all that is needed now is a back left tail light!    

Otherwise, all is well....  On a different note, this is NOT the time of year to house break a puppy. The dadblag thing will not go outside 'cause her feet get too cold... I guess that is what "puppy pads" are for..

[seabob4]

Smart dog...

Dave, we MAY see a couple nights in the 40s tomorrow and Wednesday...MAY...

Y'know, they need Med-ivac pilots down here too...  

[dburr]

Bob it has been on my mind ALOT this year for a variety of reasons.. Oddly enough, none of them have to do with the longa$$ winter.  I just wish our Canadian Brethren would put a damn stick in the wood stove if'n they insist on sending this weather south..

[icemanbryan]

Dave, I really do not know how you do it.
I would be frozen solid like the Tin-man in Wizard Of Oz.
We hit the hight 50's here and think we are freezing.

[GoneFission]

Offshore weather forecast later this week off the NC/Virginia coast is a true noreaster - gale force winds with 40-50 foot seas.     Maybe I will stay inshore - or home...  

[seabob4]

40 to 50 ft seas...oh boy oh boy oh boy!!!

[GoneFission]

The weather guy was saying 40-50, but here's what the NWS says - 45 to 48 hour forecast looks rough - 28.3 inches of mercury is VERY low pressure:

HURRICANE FORCE WIND WARNING:

.24 HOUR FORECAST RAPIDLY INTENSIFYING LOW 31N74W 1002 MB.
WITHIN 240 NM N SEMICIRCLE WINDS 25 TO 35 KT. SEAS TO 12 FT.

.36 HOUR FORECAST LOW 36N70W 980 MB. WITHIN 240 NM N SEMICIRCLE
WINDS 35 TO 50 KT. SEAS 14 TO 24 FT.

.42 HOUR FORECAST LOW 38N69W 965 MB. WITHIN 240 NM N SEMICIRCLE
AND SW QUADRANT WINDS 55 TO 65 KT. SEAS 22 TO 30 FT.

.45 HOUR FORECAST LOW 39N68W 959 MB. WITHIN 240 NM N SEMICIRCLE
AND SW QUADRANT WINDS 65 TO 80 KT. SEAS 26 TO 36 FT.

.48 HOUR FORECAST LOW 40N66W 955 MB. WITHIN 180 NM W SEMICIRCLE
WINDS 60 TO 80 KT. SEAS 28 TO 44 FT. ELSEWHERE WITHIN 240 NM OF
THE LOW CENTER...EXCEPT WITHIN 360 NM NE QUADRANT...WINDS 50 TO
65 KT. SEAS 22 TO 34 FT. ALSO WITHIN 420 NM OF THE LOW CENTER...
EXCEPT 600 NM E QUADRANT...WINDS 35 TO 50 KT. SEAS 18 TO 25 FT.
ELSEWHERE FROM 31N TO 47N W OF 42W WINDS 25 TO 40 KT. SEAS 10 TO
20 FT.

[gran398]

John,  reminds me of the "Perfect Storm" which was close to the same date, 20 plus years back. 85 mph gusts here on the coast.  Wasn't forecast.

Technology now is night and day what it was then. At least we know its coming. This winter has been the worst in a lifetime for most of the nation. And it doesn't want to go away.

Dave, thinking of you folks up there. You're used to hard winters....but that much ice....may be June before the water hits 50....

[GoneFission]

 

A friend of mine used to drive oil tankers from Alaska down to San Diego, etc.  They got in a storm off British Columbia one time coming south that he said was amazing.  Waves were 90-100 feet!  They had full tanks on a 1100 foot long, 200,000 ton ship and the bow would go into the wave - then he said all you would see was green water over the deck until the wave broke in front of the aftcastle.  The bow would then come up out of the other end of the swell.  He said about every 2-3 swells the aft would come up and the props would surface, so they had to cut power due to vibration of the half-submerged props.  Like some of us small boat guys do when in gets really rough, they just put the nose into the wind and tried to power through the waves.  He said it went on for most of a shift, with the 32,000 HP engines running at about half throttle against the wind and waves.  He also said you could see the big ship bend and flex as it went through the waves, so they did constant inspections for damage/leaks.  After the wind died down, they checked the GPS and found they had made less that 1 mile over the bottom for the entire shift.  He said the ship held up beautifully with no real damage.  When they got to San Diego, the crew nicknamed the ship "Timex" - cuz she took a licking and kept on ticking.    

I asked him if he took any pictures or video during the storm.  He said the whole crew talked about that when they got to San Diego - nobody thought to take pictures or video - maybe they were busy or just too sphincter-tight to get a camera out...  

[seabob4]

Hell, less than 1 mile...in a storm like that, I wouldn't care if I went backwards, just as long as the crew and ship made it through...  

[slvrlng]

Blowing 25 gusting to 40 right now and 42 degrees. i went through some snow flurries an hour ago north of ATL. Supposed to be 27 in the morning.