Morning Cup Of Coffee And Weather

I'm sure that's it, but they sure dono't hesitate to push it when collecting fees and taxes to residents 'Scuse me, pulling my pants up to my chest...

I'd probably be less cranky about, except for two things

1] Like Florida, the "no vacancy" sign goes up very soon at most parks. Certainly, more Hoosiers are camping, that is everywhere. I'd just love a system where as a tax payer who is paying the lions share of the parks upkeep that I get a slight advantage when booking. Florida is doing this now, giving residents a greater window.

2] When the great unpleasantness occurred, Indiana opened its sites up early compared to Michigan and Illinois. When I got to a park, the majority of license plates were from those neighboring states.

I'm probably at the core of this lamenting a decade ago when on a Monday you could probably find a site for the next weekend. Maybe not at the park you wanted, nor a particularly good site but you could find something.

 

Nice to have seasons. Here its green for a couple months then wildfires after...

 

It is, but it sure would be nice if they all enjoyed equal billing, instead of 6 months of winter, 1 of spring, 3 of summer and 2 of fall. Oh well, until that happens I guess we'll just have to keep heading south to equal out the seasons.

 

Close to 90 today in SC & it was hot at Track practice. Another week of that & about 3 weeks of school & then we can camp some. At least it will only be in the 70s through the weekend.

 

We've been lucky --- around us there have been severe storms. But in our area we've just had rain -- some heavy, mostly kind of light. I was expecting a lot worse. South of me by about 30-45 minutes they got hit pretty hard, as did far north of us. The new infamous Fedex building which took a direct hit.

I hoped to sneak in another trip this weekend, but it just isn't going to work. I have a marketing seminar on Saturday, and the timing just isn't working out. Maybe in 2 weeks --- we've got a couple gathering coming up. But starting a new job, it isn't very feasible to take a Saturday off...

My camping schedule is going to be very different going forward. Luckily, on days when there are less people camping...

 

Another interesting evening camping at Stephen Foster State Park near Lake City Florida.

 

7 on the pucker factor scale?

 

Space weather promises sparkles?

SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

Carrington Event, anyone?
Mebbe a Good time to fire up the ole genny and then put back in faraday cage?

I wonder how many modern sogens would do?

 

Not any better this morning.

 

WHOH! Whats eyes on the ground look like? Radar never really tells the whole story....

One of the coolest and most frightening nights was at the highest elevation this side of the Rockies—near Custer, South Dakota. We were "in" the storm—the clouds were around us. The elevation there is 6,145 feet. If you remember the thunderstorm in Tombstone (obviously Hollywood-created), the flash and immediate thunder, with horizontal rain... That was our campsite.

We SHOULD have gone to the bath house; stupidly, we "rode it out." But it was the most amazingly beautiful experience—flash, crack, bang—all at once.

 

Winds were 40 to 50 mph. Forecast was up to 70 mph with large hail. The initial gust front has passed. Watching the tall pine trees sway was unsettling to say the least. Now we will have rain most of the day. At least I got the coffee made before it arrived!

 

Lose any tents? Hail damage and blowing tents are always my biggest worry. Maybe that's another use case for pool noodles --- raft tying them together ot put on the roof

 

Only two tents are here with it being midweek and hotter temperatures this week. One abandoned camp early today. The other had no idea of the impending weather until 10 minutes before it hit. I did hear one spouse talking rather loudly to the other about the necessity of checking the weather.

 

Sporty!

How do others feel about sitting out big thunderstorms in the CI vs in a tent?
Personally I sleep like a baby with rain on the roof of the tent, popup tent trailer, oand now CampInn...so well I haveta remind myself; Self better check the weather before bed...

But...I feel much safer tucked in my mini-land yacht in some piney woods than up above the treeline hiding in the rocks...when the lightning is crackling, and the wind is moaning, or in tent on the playa getting peppered with gravel gusting to 50kts...


PS: no worries on the Cannibal sun storm...genny still needs a check, so I'll do that, and rotate out a jug of stored gas with new with STA-BIL.

"SEVERE GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH: Giant sunspot AR3664 has now hurled at least four CMEs directly toward Earth. Their combined arrival this weekend could spark severe (G4-class) geomagnetic storms with mid- to low-latitude auroras. Although this is a potentially significant space weather event, it is not going to be the next Carrington Event. If the coming storm were a hurricane, it would be ranked category 4, not category 5. Full story @ Spaceweather.com."

 

Lol!
But srsly, Reminds me of that thread where Mike and Lisa told the story of the flood that local weather alerts were late on...campground washed out...

Monitoring NOAA band on a survival radio seems like the best...if you are in range.
Friday Find: Listen to these tornado safety announcements from the 1960s

Or, Sweeney- a hand held ham? Any of those have NOAA bands on them?

but now there's so much good info if you have good cell data or better wifi...

The Weather Channel and WU apps now incorporate (and are faster on cell) real time lightning strikes from overhead you can find here...use wifi and download 150sec of the animated loops to see the movement, in near RT.
GOES-East - Sector view: Southeast - Geostationary Lightning Mapper - NOAA / NESDIS / STAR

Or here, works on a browser but slowwwww to no download on cell only.
ZSE Weather Loop

As Mr Spock said...Fascinating!

 

I got to the point where I usually check. But at least up here, there is a 20% chance of thunderstorms from about April 1 to November 15'th. Then from Dec 15 to Feb 28th there's a 20% chance of blizzards.

Joking aside, when doing primary flight plans in the summer in indiana...there's almost ALWAYS a 20% chance of TS/CB (Thunderstorm / Cumulonimbus) Way back in 2000 when I was training, I got a lot of simulator time because of those darned things.

I watch for big things now, but 9 times out of 10, if storms are predicted, I'll stay home. If it looks serious while I'm there, I'll evaluate, and likely pull down my expensive tents, and sometimes abandon the campsite. This is where my "minimal tent" mindset developed. I'm more apt to stay home over drizzle and protracted rain. There's no way to enjoy those days.

I've gotten more camping in the last 60 days than I thought I would. But still not enough. On Monday, I officially start a new career. We'll see how this impacts my camping long term --- I suspect mostly in some good ways as I'll have weekdays free, where there is less competition for sites AND less people there.

 

Did anyone get to see the Northern Lights last night? They were as bright as I’ve ever seen them.

 

Oh No! Ken & Peggy, You'll be in my prayers....get well!!!