Weather & Space News Blog
 since Feb. 2003
 WX - Telegraph abbreviation for weather often used with Morse code
 The Wire - Name once given to the telegraph

Rain has left the City of Angels after dumping four inches or more in places.

By the way, I’m a few days late posting this update to an earlier entry in the weblog, but Lake Superior has completely frozen over, along with Lake Huron and Lake Erie.

A rain storm continues in Central and Northern California overnight … Aurora Warning posted Friday night at SpaceWeather.com…

Well, the weekend is here, and I wish you a great one! For me it should be really nice … not only great weather in Dallas/Fort Worth, but it also marks a return for me to a M-F workweek. I think I’ll try to catch some exhibition baseball on TV today.

After a year of working Saturdays for TV station websites in California, Alabama (remotely) and here in DFW, I can happily say that I am still a full step away from insanity (though some of my co-workers would probably disagree).

Speaking of insanity, I encourage you to take the test by staring at this picture of a race car for two minutes without laughing. The site states, “If you start laughing, you’re obviously insane!”

In weather news: A winter storm pounding the San Francisco Bay Area has delayed the search for Laci Peterson. In Alaska, winds above 100 mph injured two people.

OK, a couple of updates on this TGIF: Those who have peered out the window of WXnation’s headquarters (haha, there’s really only one location) via the Arlington, TX webcam may have noticed the view has changed. The sun had begun to move into the visual range of the cam, so it was moved slightly from WNW (towards downtown Fort Worth) to SW (towards the suburbs Burleson and Mansfield). As always, some great archived shots of the cam’s old view are in the archive pages. The zoomed-in (and nice on clear, non-hazy days) Fort Worth cam remains fixed on the city’s skyline, and it too has nice archived images. Both cams will continue to provide these current shots, updated every 60 seconds, until July (at the latest) when WXnation moves to north Fort Worth, near Keller. Expect an entirely new view then!

David Letterman fans know he is recovering from an eye infection caused by shingles, and guest hosts such as Vince Vaughn (funny) and Elvis Costello (also funny) have taken his place. Miss Dave? I had mentioned earlier in this blog that classic NBC Dave could be seen weeknights at 10 p.m./1 a.m. EST on Trio Network, but — FYI — movies have replaced the airings until Mar. 31, according to Trio’s schedule.

Snow keeps falling in the Northeast, but it won’t last long. Freezing precip. was expected to plague Cleveland and Detroit this morning.

In California, the Bay Area can expect 2 to 4 inches of rain as another winter storm moves in there.

SpaceWeather.com has posted its March aurora picture gallery, and suggests that geomagnetic activity may spark Northern Lights by this Saturday. More details at SpaceWeather.com.

In other news, Here’s an update to the freezing of Lake Superior mentioned last week in the weblog.

Severe weather has moved into parts of Kansas City and parts of Kansas and Missouri as of 8 p.m. CST. Here is NWS text of the latest warnings, and a map.

Intellicast has a good regional radar loop for the area. Plenty of radar images are in the Kansas City, Springfield, and St. Louis pages. Severe weather is also moving into Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

Also, check out:
Weather.com Precipitation Forecast Map, Weather.com Thunderstorm Forecast Map, and LightningStorm.com US Map for lightning strikes.

Yesterday’s entry may leave you longing for more audio/video clips. After all, many of us are in our offices with no TV’s in sight. I have some great (but less humorous and melodic) recommendations, such as the Feedroom for news, but since this is a weather (and webcam) site, I will point you to streaming media weather forecasts from AccuWeather.com, where you will find specialty clips, regional reports, video forecasts for US cities and global cities.

Some of the larger-market TV stations are providing streaming video forecasts as well. The best way to hunt these down is to check your nearest city on WXnation and click on the TV station links in the “Current Conditions & Forecasts” section.

You may have seen this already. If not, check out this link to an MPEG of George W. Bush and Tony Blair, which is available at various sites on the Net. Here’s a Quicktime version (if it still works, I couldn’t find any others). Now, being a good (and fairly new) Catholic, I will leave George W. alone for a while … unless another good MPEG is released.

A regular visitor to the site from Atlanta, TX e-mailed me an interesting link: Astronomy Picture of the Day. The Archive goes back to 1995 and has incredible shots from NASA and others.

Back on Earth, a drought in the American West continues. In suburban Denver, it will soon be illegal to plant trees, flowers or grass since nine reservoirs in the area are only 20 percent full. It’s already illegal to wash your car there.

As for the forecast for the week ahead, winter and spring duke it out, but I mostly enjoy this article because, as of early Saturday, it contained the phrase: “… Old man winter will spike a frigid stake of arctic air into the heart of the warmth by Sunday as contrasting seasons begin their annual battle for control.”

It’s been a cold one. Just ask Lake Superior … Well, I guess you wouldn’t get much of a reply since it’s only a body of water, or is it? The giant lake may soon be a body of ice! Indeed, colder-than-usual temperatures this winter may cause the largest of the Great Lakes to freeze completely for the first time since 1979. Right now, more than 90% of the Great Lakes is covered in ice. Read more about the chilly details in this USA Today article.

In other weather news, climate experts say El Nino is weakening.

Winter is days away from officially going into the record books, but it won’t give up without a few late-season blasts. Chicago and Detroit got a few inches of snow, and NYC and Philadelphia may be wishing it was only snow in the forecast when Thursday’s storm is over.

Following mixed precipitation, up to 6 inches of snow may fall on New York City, Thursday, with 2 to 4 inches of snowfall ending up in parts of the mid-Atlantic and southern New England. There are lots of great streaming cams in NYC, the best of which are in Super Sites.

In Philly, it could begin as rain, turn to sleet and then snow. Best cams? Great live streams from Philadelphia International Airport. Others include: Ben Franklin Bridge, and EarthCam. More in the Philly page.

Chicago may see one of its biggest snowfalls of the season with 6 to 9 inches possible by Wednesday morning. Here are bird’s eye views of the Windy (soon to be snowy) City: Alder Planetarium Controlled Skyline Cam (opens in new window), Loyola U, Northern Illinois U Live Stream, WGN-TV 9 Cam and WMAQ-TV 5 Cams (down middle column). As always, others are in the Chicago page.

Chicago is not alone. Detroit may see 3 to 8 inches of snow by Wednesday morning. A list of good cams for the Motor City are in this weblog’s Feb. 22 entry.

This joke may apply for both cities this morning: What would snow say if it worked for the media?

“We’ve got you covered.”

It’s Fat Tuesday and the biggest party night in New Orleans is under way. Check out WDSU-TV 6′s Mardi Gras Cam/Special Section for plenty of coverage. Also, Nola.com is webcasting live (Warning: This one’s uncensored). As many try to collect beads, those in the Chicago and Detroit area are collecting something entirely different in the early morning hours of Wednesday…

Early this morning, this is what your clock or watch read: 03:03:03 a.m. on 03/03/03

Speaking of time, want to know exactly what time it is where you live (assuming you live in North America) accurate to within 0.2 seconds? Visit time.gov. And why not keep your PC on perfect time with the Atomic Clock Sync Download? You likely know your time, but what time is it elsewhere? Here you go: World Clock.

Statistical gurus might want to check in on how many people are now in the US or the planet on this magical day of 3′s.

Bad things happen in 3′s. God works in 3′s. I can’t think of a third thing to say about 3′s, so I will end this silly portion of the post.

In more important news, brrr! … it’s cold in the northern and central Plains. Weather seems to be crazier than ever in recent years, and a report suggests extreme weather is on the rise.

This weekend, I took a break from the WXnation site, and my wife and I went shopping for a home for the second weekend in a row. We found ourselves a magnificent one in north Fort Worth, and we’re building, so the WXnation cams will likely stay in Arlington until at least July. So, it appears we will live within the city limits of Cowtown itself, just minutes away from the Stockyards and Sundance Square located in Fort Worth’s superb downtown, which is showcased nicely in FortWorthArchitecture.com. Now, back to work!

One month ago, the space shuttle Columbia broke up over North Texas. It was also a Saturday. The only real difference here in Dallas/Fort Worth is that it was perfectly clear on Feb. 1, and today it’s overcast and some snow still lingers on some rooftops and grassy areas. Yesterday, NASA released an approximately 13 minute video of the crew taken just minutes before contact was lost. That video and more on the investigation is available at a special page from NASA. You can also see the video in the Feedroom. Our prayers remain with the victims’ families and friends.

On a lighter note, WXnation.com officially launched one year ago today. Details of its three-day pre-launch are in this weblog’s Feb. 26 entry.