Sprouse Weather Blog

Lightning Video

2011-06-05T21:39:00.008-04:00

Eddie wanted a hamburger for supper tonight, and I realized that I better do it quick because storms were bearing down on us pretty rapidly from the Northwest. In our nearly nine years in Charlotte Storms that come from the Northwest tend to be the nastiest. The bulk of this storm went mostly to the West of us and did some damage in the Belmont area and eventually into the Southwest corner of Mecklenburg County, but not until it gave us a little show and eventually a quarter of an inch of rain:

Tornado Warning Tonight

2011-05-26T22:57:00.001-04:00

Well we had a little bit of a scare late this evening. The local weather stations were reporting a bow echo or a hook in a strong line of thunderstorms that were heading right for us. Thank God the storm lost a lot of its power as it approached Charlotte. Our weather station recorded a high gust of 25.1 and that was the worst of it. I was outside during most of this watching and videoing the gusts trying to determine what if any action we needed to take to get to safety. But like I said it did not last very long and was not as strong as expected. At least not for us. Below is the image that the NEXTRAD Radar produced as the storm approached. You can clearly see the hook in the storm that is almost lined up perfectly with the word Charlotte on the map. Well enough excitement for one night. Time for bed. Gonna say my prayers and thank God for watching out of us tonight.

Another Stormy Night in April

2011-04-27T22:26:00.001-04:00

As many of you know April 2011 has been a particularly stormy month in the southeastern United States. With these storms has come lots of rain, hail stones, and tornadoes. Today is no exception. The weather forecast for the greater Charlotte area is for a very strong storm system to sweep over us in the early morning hours. With the worst of it predicted to hit us around 5:30 AM (EST). A quick look at the radar shot below tells the story of a strong system that is leaving much misery and tragedy in its path.

Now don't get me wrong. I am not excited about a strong and possibly life threating storm hitting our area, but the weather bug in me is interested in seeing what kind of data we will gather tonight on our weather station in its new location. I am also hoping the weather station can withstand the winds that might just try to rip it off the side of the house or carry the house away with weather station and all.

Already this storm system has claimed at least two dozen lives in Tuscaloosa Alabama and smacked the University of Alabama and took out a Doppler Weather Radar station. A student at UA caught some amazing footage of a twister as it tore through the center of the university earlier today.

If you are in the path of this killer storm system please stay safe tonight. If you have a weather radio you need to make sure it has fresh batteries and that you keep it near you till the threat is over. Also make sure your cell phone is charged so you can call for emergency assistance if need be. Don't be a hero and try to go storm chasing tonight. Have an evacuation plan in place and be ready to move at a moments notice. If you are near the Charlotte area keep an eye on our weather station as it might help you gain some insight about the the strength of the winds headed our way. So far the wind gusts have toped 25+ MPH, but I expect to see some pretty amazing wind data by the time the sun rises in the morning.

Moving the Weather Station Part 2 Continued.

2011-04-19T21:21:00.002-04:00

Well as you might have seen in the first part of this post the weather station is up and running in the new location. Finishing it took a little extra planning and about two hours longer than I had hoped.

The first thing I had to do was to go up to the attic and see what kind of extra supports I was going to need for the two bolts on the right and the one a the bottom of the mast that was not hitting wood. I had to actually go up into the attic three time as the first time was more of a fact finding trip to see what type of supports I needed. I forgot my tape measure so I had to make another trip up to measure out for the support beams. I then cut three different boards to the length of 19" (long enough to cover the vertical support horizontally) and three shorter boards to the length of 12" (the space between the vertical supports). The shorter boards were then centered on the longer ones and they were screwed together. Then it was back up to the attic I went. I had pre-drilled holes in the ends of the longer boards and put one screw on the left and right side of each long board. It did not take long to attach the boards the the vertical supports.

After finishing in the attic it was time to climb the ladder and drill holes in the shorter board from the outside. I used the holes that I had drilled on Friday as a guide. This too did not take long. Next, it was back down the ladder to put the drill away and get my ratchet to attach the final three lag bolts and check the mast for level. I used a ratchet to attach the lag bolts as I discovered on Friday that trying to use a drill to put them in place was not easy to do and a little frustrating, especially as I only had two hands to work with. Working with a ratchet was not easy either, was slow, but at least I felt safer doing it that way.

Now that the bolts were in place it was back down the ladder to get a box wrench and a screwdriver. If you asking yourself "Why didn't he put that in his pocket or a tool apron?" you thinking like someone that is used to working 30' above the ground. Well anyway It was back up the ladder. The reason for the wrench and the screwdriver was because the pole on the new mast was too tall for me to safely reach from the top wrung of the ladder. I had to reach the top of the mast because the weather station pole fit inside of the mast and had to be dropped down from the top of the mast. So I was going to loosen the bolts that held the mast pole and pull it down about two feet then lock it into place until the weather station was in place then I would loosen it again and put it back into place. I marked the place where the pole was to line up on the mast with a sharpie so that when I put it back the weather station would be facing the right direction.

My other hand.

I quickly came to realize once again I was one hand short. Each time I tried to loosen one of the bolts the nut on the other side would turn. So it was back down the ladder and into the garage where I found my other hand. My other hand was actually several woodworking clamps. I used one clamp on each bolt to hold the box wrench in place. I used one to act as a block for the wrench so it would not spin free when I turned the bolt. I also used one to hold the mast pole to keep it from dropping to the ground after the bolts were loose. As it turned out I did not need to worry with the last clamp.

When all the bolts were loose I was really expecting the pole to just drop, but it didn't. As a matter of fact it stayed put. I thought surely all I have to do it tug on it and it will slip right down where I needed it to go. Oh no, it was staying put. I checked and doubled checked all the bolts. They were all loose. By this time my hands were both getting sweaty from the heat and the height. So pulling on the pole did not work very well. I finally managed to work it free but it did not want to just slide down. It was a lot of work to get it to move even just a few inches. But finally I got it as low as I could and tightened it back up and when back down the ladder to get the weather station.

Every carpenter needs a tool chick

My fear was that when I got to the top of the ladder (yeah, I was climbing it with one free hand. What can I say? I'm a wild man and you can't stop me) that I would either drop the weather station or lose my balance and fall down and die some kind of horrible slow painful death. But I prevailed and made it back up one more time, and like Jordan in his prime I slam dunked that weather station pole into the mast (and the crowd goes wild)! Putting the mast pole back to it's original position was much easier that bringing it down. My only complication was that I had sweat so much when I pulled it down that I had inadvertently rubbed the sharpie mark off of the pole. With the help of my wife (AKA tool chick) that was a non-issue as she ran back into the house and checked the weather station reading to confirm that I need to spin the pole around 180 degrees, and that was that.

I tightened everything up and put a final bolt in that went through the pole on the mast and then through the weather station pole to keep the weather station from spinning freely.

I am glad to report that our data so far seems have been worth the effort. We are getting much better wind readings as the station now clears the top of the house, and so far we are not seeing any dramatic effects from heat coming off of the roof of the house. See the pictures below of the finished project.

Moving the Weather Station Part 2

2011-04-17T20:06:00.001-04:00

The weather station is now up and running in its new location. Pictures and the rest of the story to come soon...

Moving the Weather Station Part 1

2011-04-16T15:04:00.001-04:00

Well last night I started the task of relocating our weather station. Boy it really was not the night to start such a task. We are moving the weather station from the top of a 30' tall 6" round PVC pipe tower in our backyard to the side of our house to hopefully accomplish two things. First, get the station out of the "hole" it is in to a location where it can more accurately measure the winds, and second, to a more stable surface. The PVC tower tened to shake a little.

But wow, last night as the winds picked up things got increasingly more dangerous. I knew the winds might be an issue as storms were quickly approaching us from the South West. Those storms were bringing with then lots of wind. These same winds had caused damage to structures from the gulf states up through Atlanta. We were bracing for the worst. I took extra precautions in using my 24' ladder. I put stabilizer legs on the top of it and used two cargo straps attached to rebar that I had driven into the ground to help keep it in place as I worked. I was doing my best to beat the rain so I worked as fast as I could. Still the winds were stronger than I had hoped. I was on the NE side of the house and the house blocked the majority of the winds but when a strong gust came at me it was enough to make me come down the ladder and wait. My legs were burning as I am not used to all that climbing, and I guess all the stress I was putting on them as I tried to brace against the wind really took its toll.

With any project like this I try my best to think ahead. But in most cases there are things that come up that you just can't prepare for. In this case it was trying to hold the new mast up with one hand while trying to mark the holes that I would drill with the other hand and check with a small torpedo level that the mast was level all at the same time. It was difficult but some how I did it all without falling. Then it was back down the ladder to get the drill. (Note before you drill holes in your house it is a good idea to make sure of what you are drilling into) Wish I had known that the holes I was about to drill were not going to go into wood. I made it up the ladder and began to drill. Now I was in such a hurry to get this done I was not using logic. The drilling went very easy...too easy. It was no wonder as I was not hitting wood. I realized (only after drilling four holes) that all I had done is put 4 holes in my siding and the house wrap (foam board) underneath it. Grrrrrrrrr! This meant a trip down the ladder and then up the steps to our second floor and then up the attic ladder to check out what I had done from the inside. As it turns out I missed the only close support beam by only 6". So back up the ladder I went to drill more holes in my house. Now only two of the five holes hit wood at all. This might be an issue later if the two that are in wood are not enough.

Finally I got the hole done and decided to try mounting the new mast and the attached weather station. I knew this was not going to be fun as it would require me to hold the entire mast and weather station conglomeration with one hand while I attempted to use the drill with the other hand to secure then entire thing. When I reached the top of the ladder and got the weather station in place with my left hand (have I mentioned I am left handed) and I picked up the drill (with the screw driver bit already installed) in the other hand. It was about this time I realized I was one hand short. How in the world was I going to get the lag bolt into place? Que buzzer sound! The answer is I couldn't. So I put the drill down wrapping it's power cord around the top of the ladder so I would not have to hoist it up again. Then I laid the mast/weather station down across the ladder's stabilizer bar while I fished a couple of lag bolts out of my pocket. By this time my legs were about the revolt on me. I could feel my muscles cramping up on me something fierce. I put the two lag bolts into my mouth (always a good thing to do when you perched on top of a ladder, NOT) and moved the mast/weather station back into place.

I took one of the lag bolts out of my mouth with my right hand while holding the weather station with my other hand. I was just about the screw the first lag bolts into place as far as I could by hand when a huge gust of wind roared around the side of the house. The gust was so strong that it pushed the weather station away from the house. I felt my self being pushed backwards away from the house and the ladder as I tried to keep the weather station vertical. But the weather station was now falling away from the house and I had to hold on to it and the ladder with all my might. My wife was watching all of this and was becoming quite unnerved. I was too. That is when I decided to stop and come down the ladder and get something to eat. It was 9:00 PM and I had nothing to eat since noon. I figured after I had some food in my belly I could attempt this again.

After taking about an hour's break it was back out I went to try to finish this up. The first thing I did when I got back outside was to separate the weather station from the mast. The thought was to get the mast into place and then re-attach the weather station. I managed to get the mast into place. But not all the blots. It was getting late and the wind was really picking up and I decided to call it a night. Hopefully some time this weekend I can get this finished up. I still have to address the issue that only two of the stations five support bolts are going into wood (the two on the left side). I am hoping this will hold well enough, but I may have to add more support beams in the attic. This is not something I am looking forward to. See the pictures below of each step in this process so far. I will write a follow up post once this is finished. By the way the weather station is on the ground so don't look for accurate wind speed just yet. Soon hopefully this will no longer be an issue.

The weather station in its old location.

A closer shot of the weather station on it's old mast.

The old mast with the weather station still attached.

The new mast.

A fuzzy pic of the weather station attached to the new mast.

The location on the East side of our house where the station will be moved to.

The ladder all secured and waiting for me to climb.

New Mast, More Sky, New look

2011-04-12T19:06:00.000-04:00

Well our new mast for our weather station has arrived. It came via UPS yesterday and I have put it together. It is not as big as I had imagined but it looks to be very sturdy. I hope to have time to put it into place Saturday. I will snap some shots and post them here to document this grand occasion. I just hope that the signal from the station will be able to be picked up by the main monitor at my computer downstairs. Of course I will be installing a fresh set of batteries. I am amazed at how long those batteries last. They seem to loose some power during the colder months but since the temps have been climbing the signal is strong and clear.

You may have notice that I repositioned two of my weather cams on this page. My goal was to get better shots of the sky. I had originally used two of these camera for security but I have other cameras for that now so these are free to gaze into the heavens.

I hope you are enjoying our blog. I am going to try to do better to update it more often. I recently changed the template of the blog to try to make it more appealing. Later I hope to add more weather related content on the blog. What do you think about this blog? If you are enjoying it I would love to hear from you. It always excites me to get feed back and suggestions. If you have a blog that you would like us to follow just drop us a note. While your hear follow us.

Have a blessed rest of the day and may the good Lord send fair weather your way today!

Stormy Night and Bad Data

2011-04-05T10:27:00.009-04:00

Last night around 2:00 AM a very powerful storm system came through the Charlotte area. The winds from this storm were very intense reaching speeds of around 60 MPH if only for a short time. My wife, who had been awake from earlier winds around 12 AM, said it sounded like a jet plane trying to land on top of our house. We were very fortunate to not sustain any damage from these winds. A lot of others were not so lucky. Trees were down all over the greater Charlotte area and many reported damage to trees and structures. A lot of folks lost power. The morning commute for many was hindered by trees and other debris on the roads. The worst we saw was a few downed trees and a few traffic lights that were out. Here is a link to some video coverage from WBTV in Charlotte of the storms terrible power:

VIDEO

I was disappointed that our weather station did not accurately record these winds. A weather station to our North reported winds of 56 MPH but our station only showed a high of around 20 MPH. I believe this is due to the fact that our station is on a 25' pole in our back yard and that is still a few feet below our roof line. Also it is surrounded by trees that exceed this height. So our station is in a hole of sorts. I intended to remedy that soon. I just order an new mount that will allow me to mount the station on the side of out house and above the roof/tree line. This should help us to capture more accurate data on winds. This mount will also extend far enough away from the roof that we should not pick up any heat being reflected from the roof of the house.

Once the new mount is up I hope to upload some images of the new mount and hopefully we will be reporting better data from that point forward. I hope you and your have a wonderful weather day. Until next time...

A year without an update

2011-02-14T09:03:00.005-05:00

To anyone that might have visited this blog in the last year, you know we have not updated it in the last several months. I am so sorry about that. There have been some really great weather events to write about too and I must apologizes for not updating this more often.

Personally the last year has been a hard year for us. I suffered a major set back in early March of last year and was in the hospital for nearly a week after what should have been a very minor surgery. Once I was out of the hospital recovery took much longer than I had hopped.

After the surgery for some very personal reasons I felt like I needed to find myself again. I spent several weekends in the woods or at the beach camping and trying to sort through my life. So I guess in a way I really didn't want to go back to blogging about anything much less weather until this process had come full circle.

I just wanted to take a moment to let any of you know that might be checking this blog that we have not fell off the face of the Earth. We are still here and our weather station is periodically working.

I have recently changed the server that reports our weather to the Weather Underground site. The new server is running better than the old one but I am having some issues with the Virtual Weather Station software. So from time to time there maybe gaps in our reporting. I will try to address those as they come up.

We have also changed the name of the station location to better reflect the neighborhood we report from. We no longer call the location Mountain Island Lake. Now we call it Northwoods Forest Drive which better reflects our location.

I hope to give you more updates as the year progresses but until then I hope you have a wonderful year, weather wise at least.

The Rain Gauge Is Working Again!

2010-02-02T15:18:00.002-05:00

After almost a year of being out of commission the rain gauge on our weather station is working again! This is not because we fixed it. It mysteriously began working on its own again this weekend. Our theory is that the freezing/thawing effect of this weekend's storm loosened a particle that was stuck in on the sensor of the gauge. We had cleaned and cleared the gauge numerous times by hand, but it evidently took Mother Nature's touch to make it happy again. Hopefully, it will be happy from now on, but with temperamental electronics, who knows? I have always found digital rain gauges to be to most temperamental weather station tools.

Since we're talking rain/snow/sleet and precipitation...I have always been told that 1 inch of rain would equal approximately 12 inches of snow. It was interesting to note that once all of the snow/sleet that had accumulated in the cup of my manual rain gauge from this weekend's storm melted it read a total of 1/4 of an inch of precipitation. On Saturday I had measured 4 inches of snow/sleet on the ground. So that corresponds perfectly with the 1 inch of rain = 1 foot of snow theory.

Hurricane/Nor'Easter

2009-11-12T20:35:00.003-05:00

This week's weather has been kind of weird. Rain in and of itself isn't weird, but the way it came (and it's reluctance to leave) has been. The system that brought us 4.2 inches of rain over the last three days started as a hurricane and morphed into a good ole Nor'Easter. The Carolinas is the spot where it did it's morphing. First the moisture was coming out of the Gulf. Then it switched to coming out of the Atlantic, and it was like a switch was flipped and it was instantly Wintertime with almost-icy gales. Even though the rain has mostly left at this moment the wind is still howling outside!

If this system had occurred in mid Winter we could've seen a snowstorm like we've never seen! It might have been the Blizzard of '93 all over again, but with 50+ inches of snowfall! As much as I like snow 50 inches of snow around here would've been quite the natural disaster and quite inconvenient.

Am I the only that sits around imagining perfect storms?

Anyway, I think we can now safely say the drought is over.

October Weather Recap

2009-11-02T13:01:00.003-05:00

To say that it's been a rainy summer and fall would almost be an understatement, although it's been decidedly less rainy in the Charlotte area than it has been in Western North Carolina. In October it seemed we had some measurable precipitation every week...most weeks averaging a half an inch to an inch of precipitation. I was so busy in October that I didn't give due diligence to documenting rainfall as I usually do; however, during the last week of October into Nov. 1 we had a cumulative total of around three inches of rain.

If I had to describe the climate of October 2009 I would have to say it resembled the climate of England as we had many days that were socked in, drizzly, and cool. This weather observer is not complaining. We really needed the rain after the dry years of 2007 and 2008.

The first week of November promises to be dry, but it remains to be seen if November will prove to be the beginning of a drying trend.

A Gray, Drizzly Monday

2009-10-05T15:22:00.003-04:00

The rain began last night (Sunday) shortly before 11 p.m. By 7:00 a.m. this morning we measured approximately a 1/2 inch in the rain gauge. It rained pretty much the whole morning (on and off), and the afternoon has remained gray and drizzly as the system slowly moves off the East Coast. I know the mountains didn't need anymore rain, but here in the Piedmont we were happy to see the gentle, steady rainfall. For the next two days we have about a 30-40% chance of showers each day, but last night and today was the most substantial rainfall predicted until next weekend.

Gosh, I Hope that Head Doesn't move Eastward

2009-09-29T18:26:00.003-04:00

Title Clarification Backed Up By a Video

2009-09-23T13:54:00.002-04:00

For those of you who did not spend inordinate amounts of time in Sunday School/Bible School as a kid drinking Kool-Aid, eating stale store-brand Oreo knock-off cookies and singing nonsensical songs about Bible stories this video will clue you in to the meaning behind the title of the post about flooding yesterday.

I'm really shocked that my husband did not know this song as I know he spent inordinate amounts of time as a child doing all the above.

Now, I can't get the song out of my head.

In Brevard They Should Consider Building an Arky, Arky

2009-09-22T17:59:00.011-04:00

Here's an excerpt of an e-mail I sent to my co-worker's today concerning flooding in my Hometown of Brevard, North Carolina. Photos are compliments of Melissa Dill Wells (My old high school buddy and Facebook friend):

Farmland flooded. It’s called “Lake Brevard” when it floods ;-) The mountains in the background are about three miles away and the majority of that whole area is covered in flood water.

Highway flooding…this is what is causing a lot of people to be homebound this week. Transylvania County is the home of the headwaters of the French Broad River which is why flooding is a big problem there. Fortunately, since there is plenty of higher land in the area most peoples’ homes are out of the flood plain. Sod farms are the big business in farming now, so they get hit the worst…in the short term…by flooding.

My Father has recorded nearly 12 inches of rain in eight days…9 ½ of which (approximately) fell between Saturday night and Monday night. They’re just happy they didn’t get 20 inches like the folks in Atlanta! The rain has stopped…for now.

On the homefront...we were gone to Brevard over the weekend, and experienced some of the torrential rain firsthand. It pretty much started raining heavily on Saturday evening and did not let up very much until late Sunday afternoon. It was still raining moderately when we left to return to Charlotte and it rained hard again on Monday in Brevard exacerbating the flooding problem.

Upon our return to Charlotte I noted an inch and three-quarters in our rain gauge which fell during some evening storms on Saturday evening. It's been dry ever since with intermittent clouds and sunshine for the past two days.

Note: You can see more of Melissa's Photos below:

Cloudy Week

2009-09-17T18:38:00.002-04:00

Well, so far this week it's been cloudy but not much rain. Between last night and 7:00 a.m. this morning we got a quarter of an inch in the rain gauge. Today has been relatively dry except for a few sprinkles here and there. We have a slightly higher chance of rain tomorrow (60%) and it drops down to a 40% chance over the weekend. With the cloud cover it's been cooler of course, and that's refreshing. I do hope we see more substantial rain over the next few days. It will help the Fall leaf color and lessen the chance of wildfire which is always a concern this time of year.

We hope you have a great weekend!

"Woke This Morning to the Sound of Thunder...

2009-09-09T08:50:00.004-04:00

...how far off I sat and wondered."

Okay...enough of misquoting Bob Seger lyrics, but I did awake this morning to the sound of thunder at exactly 5:51 a.m...nine minutes before my alarm was to go off. It seemed to be coming from the north, and indeed it was. Evidently the "Nor-Easter" type of system that is moving up the East Coast is pumping some moisture and unstable air back over over us as it moves Northward. This has triggered a few storms in the area in the last 12 hours. This morning there was a concentrated cluster of thunderstorms that moved Southeast out out Kentucky and West Virginia and moved through the Charlotte Metro around around dawn. Nothing severe, and we really didn't get that much rain out of it...maybe an 1/8 of an inch at MIL. Evidently, the storms picked up some steam as they moved South, because South Charlotte and Rock Hill reported heavier downpours. The day is supposed to remain a little unsettled, and we could see a few more showers later this afternoon.

Fall like weather is here at last!

2009-09-03T10:02:00.003-04:00

It has been nice to wake up these last few mornings and almost need a jacket. I love it. That means fall is just around the corner. Fall is one of my favorite seasons. I love everything about it. The return of Football, the beautiful colors of the leaves, and of course the cooler temps. It just makes me want to get out side and do stuff. Much the same way I am raring to fire up the mower in the spring after being held hostage by the winter weather. Also fall is one of my favorite times to get outside and fly a kite. The wind tends to pick up this time of year and it makes for some wonderful flying weather before old man winter settles in.
Speaking of flying, I want to remind you, yet again, that there is a kite festival in Beech Mountain this weekend. Please come check it out. Click Here for more details.

Rainy Days and Mondays...

2009-08-31T17:36:00.002-04:00

...don't necessarily get me down. At the end of the Summer cool rainy days are quite refreshing hinting that Fall is almost upon us.

Talk to me in January and you'll get a different viewpoint.

We logged a 1/4 of an inch of rain overnight Sunday into Monday morning. Between approximately 7:30 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. this morning we logged another 1/4 of an inch of nice gentle rain. It has remained cloudy the remainder of the day as the front slowly moves off the East Coast. Tuesday should see a return of sunshine.

To follow up the "Monsoon" post from Friday...we logged an inch of rain from that frog strangler most of which fell in about an hour's time.

The rest of the week is forecasted to be cool and mostly dry. The Labor Day weekend looks promising which is good, because we're looking forward to the Mile High Kite Fly at Beech Mountain this weekend. So, if you're looking for something to do come on up to Beech Mountain this next Sunday. The Festival runs from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Can You Say Monsoon?

2009-08-28T17:37:00.005-04:00

This is what it looks like at our house right now! We are definitely in a mini-monsoon season at the moment. I'm not complaining though! After a couple of years of drought this is a welcome sight!

I Love a Rainy Night...

2009-08-27T19:30:00.002-04:00

Looks like we may get some rain tonight. A system is moving in from the West which is setting the stage for a few storms. Hopefully, they won't be sleep-disturbing storms.

Looks like Tropical Storm Danny may graze our beloved Outer Banks, and we pray it's only a love tap! Right now it looks like Boston might see the brunt of it. We'll know more as the weekend unfolds!

An Unsettled Week

2009-08-22T22:30:00.004-04:00

Weather in Charlotte this week has been unsettled which is pretty typical for August. On Thursday there were numerous showers and thunderstorms around, but instead of being in Charlotte on Thursday we spent most of the day up at Grandfather Mountain.

That was a weather experience in and of itself. The weather really changes fast up there. On our way up the mountains from the Piedmont we ran into quite a gully-washer around the Linville area. By the time we arrived at MacCrae Meadows (The site of the famous Highland Games, and the site of our annual picnic) the rain had mostly stopped. We took the shuttle up to the top of Grandfather and once we got up there it was sunny and actually quite hot. About 15 minutes later a fog rolled in. Then the fog got much more dark and omnious. I told Eddie that we better get off the rock. Sure enough, as soon as stepped off the last step into the parking lot here came the rain again; however, we had to wait for a shuttle bus which took about fifteen minutes to arrive. Fortunately, we had an umbrella, and even more fortunately, there was no lightning close by even though the cloud looked like it could drop a bolt at any moment.

We finally hopped a shuttle bus back down the mountain...it was standing room only. There's nothing like coming down the hairpin cruves of Grandfather while standing in a bus. We arrived back at McCrae Meadows unscathed. We were grateful that B.G.E.A. had a tent about three-quarters the size of football field because it rained for about the next thirty minutes.

Around the time we left lightning started striking up around the peak of Grandfather (glad we weren't up there then!). So, that urged everybody to get back on the buses and go home. We had a great time even with the off and on rainshowers. The barbecue was quite tasty!

It's been pretty dry here in the MIL lake area since Thursday up until this afternoon. There was just enough humidity left in the air to fire a few late-day showers, and we received a half inch right around sundown. There was absolutely no thunder with that shower even though the cell looked pretty impressive on radar.

The last half of the weekend looks pretty dry as a more dry air mass is moving in overnight. According to the Weather Channel our next best chance of rain will be next weekend.

Tropical Wave

2009-08-17T18:08:00.006-04:00

Evidently there's a tropical wave in the Gulf of Mexico. The way the news and the Weather Channel are covering it you'd think it was Hurricane Katrina all over again. The WC sent Jim Cantore down there, so it MUST be serious....not in this case. Don't get me wrong I love me some Jim Cantore...he's like the Steve Irwin of the Weather World, but when you send your lead guy to cover what is basically a cluster of thunderstorms it shows that you're very desperate for a hurricane story to cover. I mean, just like it was super-bizarre that Steve Irwin died from a manta ray's barb given that he had agitated the most dangerous and poisonous creatures in the world wouldn't it be weird if Jim Cantore died of a hailstone to the head during a thunderstorm? Jim really knows how to taunt a Cat. 5 and come out alive. Save his amazing talent for that, please.

For the record I don't wish any harm to Jim Cantore (I sort of had a mild crush on him back in the '90s), and I miss Steve Irwin like the dickens! (Bows head in a moment of silence).

On the homefront the tropical wave has contributed to some pretty oppressive humidity here in the CLT, but it's August and humidity is norm rather than the exception. While some parts of Charlotte received 1 to 2 inches of rain yesterday (Sun.) during some pretty significant thunderstorms here in the Mountain Island Lake area (henceforth to be known as the MTL) we received around half an inch. Again, we have a rickety old manual gauge, so measurements are approximate. We also weren't at home during the storms, so I can't testify as to how fast it came down and how long it lasted.

Today (Mon.) , has been humid, but most of the storms have stayed to the North, West, and East. There's a low-moderate chance of storms for the rest of the week, but that could change depending on what those cluster of thunderstorms (a.k.a. tropical wave) decide to do in the Gulf.

A Gentle Rain

2009-08-12T17:29:00.003-04:00

Today we got a gentle rain that is more reminiscent of Fall than late Summer. The rain began around 7:30 a.m. this morning, and has just abated at our house (5:30 p.m.). We got approximately a 1/4 of an inch today. This is just a guesstimate because our weather station rain gauge has chronically been on the fritz since we got the station. I have an old standard "manual" rain gauge. However, I think the seal on it has dry rotted a bit. I also forgot to empty the water from the last batch of storms we had last week. So, when I say a 1/4 of an inch that is approximate. We may have gotten more than that.

I guess it's time to either pony up the dough to get a new rain gauge for our station and/or replace my manual gauge. While I love digital gadgetry I love being able to look out my back door and visually see how much rain we have gotten. I'm old-school that way...just like I prefer reading books instead of using a Kindle. My husband just can't grasp that side of me as he's a gadget boy all the way.

We're opposites, but it works for us.

Concerning Hurricanes and Typhoons

2009-08-10T17:54:00.010-04:00

The Atlantic Hurricane season so far has been a snoozer (thank God), but Asia, in turn is having one whopper of a typhoon season. Taiwan and the Eastern China Coast took a direct hit by Typhoon Morakot this weekend. What really blows my mind is that some areas in Taiwan received around 80 inches of rain in two days! They must have thought Noah's flood was coming again. I certainly would have! I just can't fathom that much rain in two days!

If you watch weather closely...and you don't have to be a metereologist to recognize this...there's almost always a balance in weather patterns. If one part of the world is having a drought then you can almost predict that the other side of the world will be having record flooding. It just seems to always work out that way. Some people swear that weather is nothing but chaotic and many times unpredictable, but really weather tends to fall into more of a pattern than not.

Happy weather watching!

Well It Was Hot and Will be Hotter Today

2009-08-10T08:49:00.004-04:00

Well this weekend was HOT HOT HOT as predicted. Not only that we had just enough rain to make things hot and sticky. It did not rain at our house but just up the street it poured Saturday evening and that was just enough moisture to really heat things up. It kind of felt like a sauna outside. Inside the AC did not stop running almost all weekend. To top this weekend off the local meteorologist are saying that today will be the hottest day this year (so far), but the long term forecast is for slightly cooler temps the rest of the week. Boy am I ready for cooler fall days, and how!

HOT HOT HOT

2009-08-07T09:11:00.000-04:00

Today will not be so bad with temps just reaching 90 degrees but Saturday is a different story. The temps are supposed to top out in the mid 90s with a heat index at over 100 degrees. All this means it is going to be a hot hot hot weekend. So no matter how much wind there may or may not be I will be staying inside. To be truthful we had already planed to be inside to do some work on our flooring job (that is taking all summer), but even if we had not planned that, this boy is not going to get out in this heat. I advise the same for all my fellow Charlotte are readers. Have a good weekend and keep safe.

2009 Mile High Kite Fly Beech Mountain, NC

2009-08-03T14:20:00.000-04:00

In just a few weeks on September 6th we will be heading up to the 2009 Beach Mountain Mike High Kite Fly. We always have a blast at this festival as we will once again be going with the W.A.C.K.O.S. kite club. The folks at Beech Mountain are always great hosts for this event. Here is a slide show from last years event (see below). I hope to see you there.