Category Archives: Weather

May 8, 2017 · 23:32

Blue Sky, Pink Clouds, White Moon

The moon was two days shy of being full tonight, which has it rising above the house into a twilight blue sky.

Above was a layer of clouds turning pink in the sunset.

Behind me, out of the west, I could hear a big jet on the way into Burbank, swinging way around to the west over Ventura County before heading straight in to Runway 8.

As the clouds began to fade to grey, the UPS Cargo 757 lined up and vanished into the east.

In minutes, the pink and blue faded, leaving only the cold, white reflected light from the lunar surface.

2 Comments

Filed under Astronomy, Flying, Photography, Weather

May 7, 2017 · 23:13

Spring Thunderstorm 

We had a couple of lines of fairly strong thunderstorms move though SoCal today, which is fine…

…except we don’t get spring thunderstorms in Southern California. Let alone a couple of inches of snow up at Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear.

The problem, of course, being that reality doesn’t give a shit about what we expect or what hasn’t ever happened in the past.

If you choose to believe that climate change isn’t real or that human activity isn’t causing it or that it isn’t nearly as serious as “the left-wing fear mongers” make it out to be or that it’s a conspiracy to cripple American industry or whatever, and you choose to believe that for political and ideological reasons in the face of an overwhelming avalanche of evidence, that’s your right.

It’s my right to point out that you probably are either A) a cult member (i.e., a Republican), B) a freaking idiot, or C) both. “C” is the most likely. It’s also my right to ask you to take a long hike off of a short pier. Go away.

I will not debate reality with you. This does not mean that I’ve got a problem with free speech, nor does it mean that I’m somehow afraid to “debate” the facts with you. It means that you’re trying to argue that 2+2=328,281.54 which means you’re mentally ill. Life’s too short for me to put up with that sort of bullshit. Your pursuit of status in your psychotic cult is not something for which I owe you my time.

Would you like me to tell you how I REALLY feel about it?

Meanwhile, I’ll be out watching the rain and listening to the thunder. I do like thunderstorms. Even the ones that are thinly veiled harbingers of doom.

Leave a comment

Filed under Freakin' Idiots!, Moral Outrage, Panorama, Photography, Weather

May 5, 2017 · 23:43

Whisp O’ Blue Moon

The first edges of a storm were moving in this afternoon, drifting through the bluest of blue skies and fighting with the quarter-full daytime moon.

Moments like this are why I love having a high-quality digital camera in my pocket just about 24/7. The fact that it can also be used as a supercomputer and a phone are just gravy.

3 Comments

Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Space, Weather

April 28, 2017 · 23:08

Wind & Moon

We’ve been dealing with some high winds in SoCal today. In our area, it’s been pretty steady 15-20 knots, with gusts to 30, 35, even 40 knots. There have been moments with some real blasts.

Lots of leaves, branches, palm fronds, and debris blowing about. The power was out for a while last night.  There were plenty of stop lights dead and fouling traffic on the morning commute.

It was a good day to not be flying into or out of Van Nuys, Burbank, or Whiteman. But the winds sure left the sky clear at sunset!

​

​

Listen to those wind chimes go! We’ll be hearing them all night.

Leave a comment

Filed under Photography, Weather

April 24, 2017 · 23:20

Too Soon Coming

That’s a view to the east…

There’s a reason I don’t see many of these. When you’re almost always up until after midnight, and often until almost 01:00, one of these is way too soon coming.

I need my beauty sleep!

Leave a comment

Filed under Photography, Weather

March 24, 2017 · 23:34

Off At A Con

I’ll have to tell you more about it tomorrow or Sunday. I flew up to San Jose this evening and saw the most AMAZING sunset between two layers of clouds.

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Flying, Photography, Travel, Weather

March 13, 2017 · 23:33

Sleeping With The Window Open

It’s that time here in SoCal. It’s probably a coincidence that it also happened as the shift to Daylight Saving Time started, but last night it was warm enough to sleep with the window open

I understand that from Kansas City to the Carolinas to Chicago to Maine it’s snowing like hell. New York City was expecting 14″ to 18″ in the last NWS bulletin I saw this morning.

Chicago’s getting a good blast of snow also – after having the least amount of snow ever recorded in the months of January and February. Starting December 18th, O’Hare got 0.7 inches of snow total until March 11th. Normally they would have well over 24″ in that time period.

After five years of drought in California, the worst in over a hundred years, this year out of nowhere we got the wettest winter on record.

If climate change is a Chinese hoax (as our Idiot-In-Chief has stated), they’re doing a great job. If only there were a more simple theory, perhaps backed up by decades of scientific research…

Meanwhile, a week after I had the furnace going to only be a little bit frozen, it hit 90° today and we’ll be sleeping with the windows open again.

It’s so much more special that way when the raccoons howl and the skunks get spooked in the neighbor’s yard.

3 Comments

Filed under Weather

February 17, 2017 · 22:08

Deluge

I’ve seen worse. I grew up in the midwest where we had thunderstorms and tornadoes that would turn your world upside down in an instant. I’ve been in Vermont, Vrigina, Illinois, and New York where it rained harder. With lightning and thunder to boot.

We even got caught in the remnants of a hurricane once, driving from Maine to Boston at night. We literally couldn’t see twenty feet and there was so much water we wouldn’t have been able to tell if we had gone off the road into a river. That’s how you take a two hour drive and turn it into a six hour nightmare.

But for LA, this was the worst in many, many years.

I had the iPhone up against the glass to minimize any reflections from inside the office. The sound year hear is the rain hitting the window sideways in the 50 to 70 knot wind gusts.

The “best” part was feeling the big plate glass window flex with every gust. I’m sure it wasn’t really moving a couple of centimeters in each direction, but it felt like it.

You gotta love rain in LA.

2 Comments

Filed under Los Angeles, Video, Weather

February 11, 2017 · 23:07

Convective Activity

After a morning of low clouds and a bit of drizzle, it cleared out nicely at Camarillo Airport. To the north of in a band from Santa Barbara east across Ohai, Santa Paula, Santa Clarita, and down into the San Fernando Valley, the unstable air got heated, rose, started condensing into clouds, which in turn released energy, which in turn caused more condensation and clouds, which…

img_3119

Nice flying at CMA – but don’t fly to the north or east in that little plane!

img_3126

Santa Paula Airport (KSPZ) was over under this thunderstorm, which pretty much just parked there for several hours. NOT a good day to be flying in to or out of KSPZ!

img_3144

Just before sunset, with the sun at our back setting in a clear blue sky while it was still raining over Santa Paula, physics and the optical properties of water droplets in the atmosphere took their natural course.

img_3136

Someone was nice enough to leave our F6F-5 Hellcat sitting out there to look gorgeous in the sunset light along with that colorful optical illusion.

1 Comment

Filed under CAF, Flying, Photography, Weather

February 1, 2017 · 22:53

High Flying Ice

There was a stream of high-altitude ice passing by when I went out for a walk at lunch today.

img_2512

The sundog was clearly visible on the right (west) side as I went out.

img_2514

There was no sign of anything on the left (east) side.

img_2521

But by the time I had walked around the block, the sundog to the left of the sun could be seen.

img_2522

But now there was nothing to be seen on the right.

Maybe next time we’ll get to see both of them together.

2 Comments

Filed under Photography, Weather