A tad chilly

 Thanks Joseph! That guy's done a really good job documenting the development of the problem over the past few days, with great photos and diagrams along the way.

Here's one link I'm monitoring now that has been doing real-time updates 2 or 3 times an hour this evening:

http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article132332499.html

an example of how many don't think about infrastructure until a tipping point. 

pols use it as a talking point. everyone nods in agreement but little is ever done. it's very sad that the u.s. has not learned to be proactive instead of reactive. 

there's a dam in tennessee, that, if it goes, will create havoc. we'll get to it later. our budget is on the table!

bridges need restructuring and/or, reinforcement. it's not in the budget!

clean water has been compromised due to antiquated ways to provide it and our so-called leaders focusing on their poll numbers, and, the budget!

the saying, "it's the economy, stupid" is past due. governments have a responsibility far beyond our bank accounts. The irony is that a sitting potus has little or no influence on your 401k. 

February has been pretty snowy here. The normal snowfall in the Soo for the first 15 days of February is 11.1 inches, but this year there has been 32.7 inches since the end of January. The surplus for this month accounts for most of the surplus for the season, as the season total was only 3.3 inches above normal at the end of January.

Bottom line? As of an hour ago 117.6 inches of snow has fallen so far this year in the Soo. The average season total for this date is 92.7 inches.

The current snowfall total is less than three inches below the average snowfall for an entire winter in the Soo, so the total for this winter could end up substantially above normal simply based on another 6 to 8 weeks of potential snowfall, and on top of that there is essentially zero ice cover in Lake Superior aside from Whitefish Bay. The second half of winter generally has much less lake effect snow than the first half, but this year there won't be much difference, at least not due to lack of open water.

Here's a look at the ice coverage on Lake Superior on February 15 for the past 4 years (February 14 for 2014), with this year on the bottom.

  The new Toyota Flagship?  The Lexus Sport Yacht!  Well, I guess they figure if Honda can start building business jets, nothing says they can't go into the yacht business.     

their spokesman could be this guy!

I wonder how long it took to train the cow and the dolphin to synchronize their leaps?

This is day 3 of a major February thaw here. It's been up to 44°F in the Soo today, after 49° yesterday (a record high for the date) and 37° the day before. The next 4 days are also forecast to be well above freezing, with two of them in the mid to upper 40s and all nights staying above freezing. It's going to be extremely sloppy by the second half of the week.

That SpaceX rocket that took off 2 days ago, is sapose to hook up with the ISS tomorrow mourning.  In New England the temp is high 50's. For February that's un-heard of. 

Michigan's radar image is colorful this morning.

     NASA,  or somebody, found some "new" eco-planets!  The're way the hell out there. Someone on CNN was explaining that if you traveled at the speed of light,  it would take 40 years to get there. It didn't dawn on me but then he said, it would take the signal 40 years to  get back to earth.   Brings a whole new definition to the phrase,   ROAD  TRIP!

  Still a ways to go before April 24th.  (Average last day of snow, there abouts.)

  A good game between these two.  I don't think Harika had many more moves to go before the 50 move rule would have been called on her.

 Muzychuk's on fire, too.

that's way past opening day.

Speaking of opening day, this afternoon I listened to the last couple innings of the Nats' first game of spring training. They went through 10 pitchers. Their plan had been to use a different pitcher for each inning, but Austin Adams couldn't get himself out of the 8th inning and they finally yanked him with another out still remaining. After giving up 3 runs on zero hits and 4 walks, he's now the proud owner of an ERA of 40.50.

A couple Soo stats for the meteorologic winter (December 01 through February 28): this year was the 3rd warmest winter on record (average T was 6.2°F above normal) and the 5th wettest winter on record (total precipitation was 3.89 inches above normal). That precipitation value is the total liquid-equivalent precipitation, and is a little over 60% above the normal precipitation value for the three-month period.