ShowMeBlog

Rain in Miami July 3, 2007

  This is a video I made July 3, 2007 when I was in Miami FL. 
I wish we had some rain here in Texas.  I have almost forgot what rain is like.  I had to hunt up  this video and watch it to remember rain.

Texas may get some rain

  It is 91 degrees right now here in Fort Worth (TX).  It is 8 PM.
  We may get some rain for the next few days.  Any rain will be welcome.  If we get rain I will get naked and run around outside in the rain.  Yes, I will post the videos on YouTube.
  OK OK.. I am not going out and get nude and make people sick from seeing a fat old man nude.  Plus I do not want to be arrested. 
  But I am going to enjoy the rain, if we get it, and I may borrow my son’s water proof camera and go out and stand in the rain.

  It has been so hot this summer and no rain…  I hope we get some good rain.
I hope we get some cool weather for a few months.

  Russell has been sick and he missed three days of work.  He missed two days and then worked a day and then missed another day.  They are going to have him work tomorrow which should have been his day off and that way he will end up only missing two days.

Weather Channel Streaker

“Weather Channel reporter Eric Fisher was giving a live report about Hurricane Irene on Saturday when a streaker disrupted his coverage.

Fisher said he was "pretty much speechless" about the swarms of people he saw reveling in the streets of Virginia Beach, even as Hurricane Irene whipped about all around him. Fisher clearly thought people were being foolish and reckless, but said he would "bite his tongue" to avoid being too frank about the situation. As if to prove his point, a group of young men in bathing suits ran past him during the live report he was giving, and one of them even flashed the camera--from behind and in front…”    Huffington Post

Melting Ice Cream Truck

Who needs a thermometer when you have a molten ice cream truck? By that point you don't need an exact reading; it's simply "too damn hot."

This sculpture in Australia won the artist the $30,000 Sulpture by the Sea prize in 2006. [via The Last Appetite]

Monument to Labor under water

  Republicans are trying to drown labor unions and the working man and it looks like they are getting some help from the Missouri River.

  Omaha’s Monument to Labor is under water from the Missouri River.

 

  The photo above on the left is before the water came and the photo on right above is now from the flooding.
  I am sure they will recover the Monument to Labor but the Republicans are doing more damage to real working men and women. 

300 Minutes with a virgin

  I use Virgin Mobile for my cell phone service.  I pay $25.00 a month and I get 300 minutes.  it has been rare for me to use even 30 minutes a month because I use Skype service for my home phone service.
  Well this month I did not have Skype running as much and my ex-wife has had a lot of medical stuff going on and she has been calling me a lot to talk about her medical problems… Well this is the 24th of the month and my service date is the 2nd of the month with Virgin Mobile and I have used 295 of my 300 minutes.
  I refuse to go over 300 minutes this month …
 
  I am not even sure how much Virgin Mobile charges in a month if you go over your minutes.

  I plan to buy a new ham radio in a few days and I do not want to be giving extra money to Virgin Mobile.
  I do know that they have a $40.00 a month plan and you get 1200 minutes.  But I love this $25.00 a month plan.
  They do allow you to “restart your plan” so I could today pay the $25.00 and my minutes should go to 300. That might be an option except, I think, that it would have my payment be do on the 24th of each month instead of the 2nd.  I like the 2nd as the payment day but I might restart on the 1st of the month.

  I installed WeatherBug on my computer a few hours ago and I see that the NWS has issued a Tornado Watch for me until 10:00 PM CDT.

  If we do have bad weather and some sort of problems I would go ahead and restart my Virgin Mobile minutes.
  I wish I had that new ham radio that I want to get incase we have severe weather problems.

Tornado–more on the way

“…The nightmare may not be over for Joplin or other parts of the United States, with the weather service predicting another tornado outbreak Tuesday.

The National Weather Service warned there was a 45% chance of another tornado outbreak -- with the peak time between 4 p.m. and midnight Tuesday -- over a wide swath, including parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri and Nebraska. The Storm Prediction Center placed several large cities in the most high-risk area, along with other cities including Kansas City, Missouri; Dallas, Texas; Topeka and Wichita, Kansas; and Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma…”   CNN

 

  I think the weather people are getting better at all of this …. It does not seem to me that years ago they could tell you that tomorrow there is a 45% chance of a tornado outbreak but I could be wrong.

  This week I am going to get $102.00 from Goggle AdSense and I wanted to spend it on some computer stuff but I have decided it is time for me to get around to buying that ham radio that I been planning on buying.
  If I got the ham radio I will not only have a better idea of what is going on but I could help out on reporting and if needed I could help out if we get hit with a tornado.
 
 

Transformers exploding in Fort Worth

CBS 11 Web Staff

“FORT WORTH — As storms rolled through the Metroplex Tuesday night amateur photographer Brian Luenser had his camera trained on the sky and captured some amazing photographs of lightning raining down on the city of Fort Worth.

Luenser, who lives in downtown Fort Worth's Tower building, went to his balcony with camera in hand as the storm rolled in. "I love taking pictures of storms and lightning," said the amateur photographer. And with his vantage point from the 34th floor he has a view of the world that few people get to see.

Link: See more of Brian Luenser's photos

Then at about 9:30 p.m. Luenser caught an amazing light show on the ground as power transformers began to explode. One by one the transformers lit-up in an unbelievable chain reaction that lasted about thirty minutes.

"It was definitely a right-place, right-time kind of moment" said Luenser as the sky glowed a brilliant blue, red and orange from the electrical flashes. "It looked like World War Three was going on below."

After the event was over about 5,000 people were briefly without power according to Oncor. Most of the power has since been restored…”

St. Louis Airport–Tornado or Microburst

  They are talking abut a tornado hitting the St. Louis airport.  I got a feeling it might have been a microburst and not a tornado.  The weather department will come out with a report soon.

 

“(CNN) -- Heavy winds from a severe storm caused significant damage, shattered windows and sent debris raining down on passengers at an airport in St. Louis Friday night.

The Lambert-St. Louis International Airport is closed indefinitely while officials investigate the damage, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay told reporters.

"There was a reported sighting of a tornado. Although that has not been confirmed, that storm caused significant damage to the airport," he said.

The reported tornado twisted metal and blew out plate-glass windows in the airport's main terminal, CNN affiliate KSDK reported.

Four people were transported to nearby hospitals with injuries, Slay said…”

 

  The weather people can look at the radar and their data and they can tell by looking at the damage if it was a tornado or not.  I have never seen a tornado but I have been on the edge or in a microburst.
  It seems like we are having a lot of bad weather around the world.  Is it just that the news reporting is better now?  Or is mother nature trying to teach us a lesson?

 

Update 04/23/2011 Here is a comment from Dick in Kansas City, MO

 "Did you see the chopper footage from STL - the homes near the airport? That might tilt more toward tonadic damage - some homes destroyed - none of the slabs wiped clean but walls down - not much remaining. Amazing no deaths - timely warnings and people heeded them apparently. Would be incredible to be in an airplace as some were when that hit.

I don't know of any cases where loaded aircraft on the ground has been hit by a tornado. The crew would feel helpless - they would be helpless. Nothing they could do other than maybe turn into the wind if they had time. It'd be a nightmare for a full scale hit by a tornado on a loaded aircraft on the ground or in the air. Terrible dilemma to see it coming - they probably did not since it's still not certain it was a tornado or if so if there was a visible funnel. In fact the lack of footage of a funnel is surprising at this point - thousands of cell phone cameras out there so if there was a visible funnel somebody has it on some device - or airport security cameras will have it."

The weather people hit it

  The alarm went off and I got up.  My room is cold.  I woke up Russell for work.  The rest of the house is warm.  It looks like my room is colder in the winter.  I am not sure about Russell’s room.  I will ask him later.

  Well it looks like the weather people nailed the weather just right.  It is 0600 and it is 21 degrees.  I do not hear any rain or see any snow out my window.  But it is dark out there.  I hope we do not have a coating of ice.

  I just saw Russell and he said his room was very cold.
  I looked outside and I see a thin coating of ice.
 

WFAA TV web site says school districts closing across North Texas.