Bomb Cyclone

Ukecaster

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Yes, the powerful winter storm working its way up the east coast of the US has been called a "bomb cyclone" because of its potential for very low barometric presssure, making it a powerful storm. Whoopee.

https://www.popsci.com/bomb-cyclone

Once again, they try to whip everyone into a frenzy. Folks...it's winter...strong winter storms happen! Deal with it! It was so bad, they were showing a huge local supermarket in MA yesterday on TV news, they had all 36 registers open, with long lines at each. Wow, bread & milk are running out! Shopping carts had run out, people were out in the parking lot, competing with each other for shopping carts from shoppers who were finished. I was just LMAO, ridiculous! Yes, we will get 12-16" of snow, yes, the wind will blow. My advice is to stay indoors. When it's over, shovel. When done, have a drink!

Don't even get me started on the stupid Weather Channel and their campaign to give winter storms names...this one they call Winter Storm Grayson. Ugh...
 
It's all about the ratings, and the more sensational the story, the better! Gotta love it.

The storm makes me glad I quit cold climates in 1977, and the coverage makes me glad I quit TV sixteen years ago. :)

bratsche
 
yea, I have little patience for TV, especially when for a supposed 1 hr program there are commercial breaks every 8 mins that LAST for 3-4 mins and the ads have NOTHING AT ALL to do with my lifestyle nor anything I'd ever care about...

hence, I get my entertainment mostly from YouTube in video podcasts, vlogs and how-to videos...

I used to check the weather on tv when making/eating breakfast, but as of late, the hysterically excited 'weather team' that regurgitates the same info, with progressively more granular detail over a 12 min period, has really gotten on my nerves.

So instead, I rely on the following for weather info:

1. NOAA weather app on iPad, which is set to give me a notification for any severe weather alerts, and this works well.

2. On my computer, running Xubuntu Linux, there is a weather 'applet' that sits in the toolbar next to the clock that I have set to cycle showing temp vs. humidity, and if I hover the mouse it gives me a nice summary in a popup that goes away when the mouse is not on it

3. If I want more details, I go to darksy.net, and I have it bookmarked with my zipcode. I like this site due to the uncluttered display, and showing both the hourly span of 'today' as well as showing the next 7 days forcast if you just scroll down. They have apps for iOS/Android as well, but I have not used them.

TV in the USA has become a conduit for selling life insurance, car insurance, dangerous prescription drugs, and elderly incontinence products, with the occasional 'tv program' sprinkled in here and there as bait to make sure that you watch the advertising.

Cable TV was originally designed to be AD FREE, but they quickly gave up on that, and now you pay ~$40/month to WATCH primarily advertising.

This is a BIG reason why Netflix streaming has always been popular - it's ad free. :)
 
oh, yea, forgot to say, we got about 6" of snow here in Northwest NJ, and there are 40mph winds howling around outside.

East of me and in NYC / Long Island, and Southern NJ got much more snow (Toms River got 12") but compared to previous snow storms, I think that the way it's being shown on TV right now is greatly exaggerated and folks are responding to hype out of fear.

Fear from what happened a few years ago when Hurricane Sandy rocked and ruined lots of the East Coast USA.

We just went big grocery shopping yesterday and had home heating oil delivery this morning, so we are prepared to stay in for as long as it takes. :)
 
Hello, its 6.30Am in the morning here and close to 20C already. I am watching the photos and information from North America, well out of the way of the problems and amazed at the photos. Irrespective of what your think about the TV channels or climate change politics. 6' of snow and -40F is very dangerous, if you are stuck in the middle you of it you can get dangerously blasé and forget how dangerous it actually is. Don't become complacent and forget to make sure you are ready.
People who are getting in some extra food and who are getting ready are very sensible in my view. You never know what is going to happen when the design extremes of your house and city are tested by ice and snow and wind.

Some good points Bill. :)

Hurricane Sandy had 150mph winds and over 3 ft of rain in 48 hrs, and other than a few downed tree branches and power outage for 10 days (no cable/internet/telephone either) all was well. We lost no food at all and cooked with sterno or on propane BBQ. Freezer and fridge are packed with 1 gal ziplock bags frozen now, just like before, even if power goes out, food will be safe.

Solar battery chargers and extra car battery in garage as backup to keep cel phones and tablets charged did well too.

Biggest danger right now at home is if a tree gets uprooted and falls over onto the roof of the house. From Sandy, we had 3 trees in the yard come down, all uprooted, and about 2 ft thick each, but luckily, none fell on nor near the house.

Tonight it is going down to 2.0 deg F by 7am, with persistent winds. See this link for darksky info for my area (note this is not my address shown, but it chose that when I put in postal zip code):

https://darksky.net/forecast/40.8445,-74.4823/us12/en
 
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