A tad chilly

as far as weather, i just realized that i have a heat pump at this apartment. i hadn't turned on the heat until this weekend!

Time to switch from pool to hot tub?

I never use it.  :(

I've mentioned several times the incredible domestic and international travel and appearance schedule maintained by my hero Buzz Aldrin. The guy is 86 now and still pops up everywhere, week after week, year after year.

Today Buzz had to be airlifted to a medical center. You gotta figure with Buzz that this wouldn't be a simple 5-minute Medi-chopper ride from the side of a road to a nearby city, and it wasn't. He was at the Amundsen-Scott Research Station, right on the South Pole. The NSF arranged for Buzz to be airlifted from Amundsen-Scott Station to McMurdo Station on the Antarctic coast (about a 3-hour flight), and then on to Christchurch, New Zealand (another 5 hours of flying).

No specific updates on Buzz's condition yet, though a picture was posted of him grinning for a photographer from his hospital bed in NZ. The woman in both pics is Christina Korp, who is the manager (her official title is Mission Control Director) of Buzz Aldrin Enterprises. I'd like to think it's a good sign that she looks much happier and less concerned in the second photo in NZ.

I wonder if that's still listed in Guinness? Supposedly there are specific numbers used in proofs since Graham's number was named that are larger than Graham's number, but they don't have names.

So Graham's is the current named champ, anyway.

I propose that the distance equal to a Graham's number of smoots be called a phailure.

The NSF confirmed today that Buzz is now the oldest person who has been at the south pole. Upon learning that, Christina Korp tweeted "He'll be insufferable now."

 CP, it looks like you're getting a little more than one snowflake now.

 Bout time those snowplow drivers got back to work.

A few inches of accumulation is finally on the ground, but the bigger trend is the first appearance of legitimate winter temps. Right now (5:30 a.m.) it's 13°F , but by the middle of this coming week the daily highs won't even make it to +13° and the lows may be below zero. The snow on the ground now isn't going anywhere soon.

They nailed the forecast, the one I mentioned 4 days ago in the previous comment. Currently the temperature is 0°F  (-18°C), and snowfall should be starting up in an hour or so. By tomorrow morning portions of the county are expected to have up to 18 inches of new snow, with lots of blowing and drifting. The detailed map forecasts 8 to 12 inches at my location and 12 to 18 inches for the Soo. With the accompanying high winds moving the new snow around the actual depth on the ground from one spot to another spot just a few yards away can vary from zero to 10 feet depending on how the drifting develops.

In the past 3 or 4 hours several locations in the northern lower peninsula have had wind speeds of 55-60 mph. The wind shouldn't be that bad here-- we're expecting a steady 20 mph or so for the next 24-36 hours, gusts maybe up to 30 or 40 mph. Hopefully the wind won't bring down any trees. This is the potential nightmare scenario for an extended power outage-- wind chills of -25 to -30°F that suck the residual heat out of a house in just a couple hours, and impassable roads that keep crews from being able to restore power, though they might not be able to do anything in literal blizzard conditions anyway, even if they could get to trouble spots.

And my daughter keeps asking me if this year will be the one we finally have a chance of seeing some snow...

If it gets deep enough, she may be able to see our snow from your house!

Make some snowmen, she loves them!

Heh-- here's a phrase I don't think I've seen before in a weather synopsis. The current Gaylord summary warns of "tremendously poor visibility" on highways.

The winter storm warning has a few more hours remaining, having now run about 36 hours or so, but the bulk of the expected new snow has already been deposited. Bad visibility, wind chills, and continued blowing and drifting are still a problem. All schools were closed today, including Lake Superior State Univeristy (it's fairly unusual for LSSU to close).

I'd guess somewhere around a foot of new snow here at the Phailure Ranch. The Soo recorded 11 inches by late morning, and Paradise, out near the tip of Whitefish Point, recorded 24 inches at one site and 20 inches at another.

Only another 4 to 8 inches is expected for the rest of today and tonight, so this is starting to wind down.

only?!?

Yesterday was fairly cold everywhere across the lower 48 except in Al-ville.

it's why i'm here. sure, i get the occasional hurricane...

glad to see the Phailure Ranch made it through the first winter storm.

"Supposed" to be? Did someone pass a law that temperatures should be 15 to 30 degrees F below normal in more than 40 states on the same day?

It was actually quite an impressive cold air mass for it's expanse.

while i'm no expert on sun cycles (even though i play one on tv), a cold front that is quick and large still seems like an anomaly. i'd wager that an 11 year cycle has little day to day impact.