Dry Slot

Turning the Crank

Posted by: Bogon, 2:24 PM GMT on August 20, 2009

This has been an interesting week for weather in my part of the world. The Atlantic hurricane season cranked up with a sudden flurry of three tropical systems. That's what drew me to Weather Underground this week, and being drawn in is what led me to create this blog.

Now what? To be honest, I had not really thought this through. It was pretty much a spur of the moment thing. So in these first entries I'm dealing with birth pangs, trying to decide how I want this to work and how it will fit into my life.

The advent of hurricane season only happens once a year. I want to keep my blog interesting all the time, uh, weather permitting...

I'm going to start off with a few introductory items. I need to introduce myself to you, and I need to arrange a gradual introduction for myself to the joys of blogging. Gotta bone up on HTML. I have worked as a computer geek, but I was writing programs, not rigging web sites.

As for what you can expect to see here, it's going to be my own idiosyncratic mix updated at irregular intervals. That's the best I can do. I believe it's my best chance of adding value to this web site. I don't want to compete will all the folks who do daily weather reporting. Smarter people than me are getting paid to do that. If you're reading this hoping for a detailed local forecast, I suggest you click on the National Weather Service link, enter your zip code, and they'll tell you what the weather will be like on your front porch. If you live outside the United States and don't have a zip code, leave a comment below and maybe I can google something for you. !o\

Or look elsewhere on Weather Underground. There are a lot of resources here. There are well over a hundred active bloggers. For instance, WU blogger Synthman lives an hour down the road from me, and he already offers current observations and a forecast for my area. Chances are that somebody is blogging near you.

Curiosity motivates my interest in meteorology, curiosity and awe. Hurricane Bill is churning the Atlantic as I type these words. Bill exemplifies the power and beauty of nature. I would like to understand what makes Bill go. That storm is not expected to impact the part of the world where I live, but even if it were, that would not be my principal interest. For one thing, I live 160 miles inland (more than 250 kilometers) from the nearest beach at 650 feet (~200 meters) of altitude. That location confers a certain amount of immunity from hurricanes. A tropical storm might blow down a tree on my house, but I don't have to sweat the waves and storm surge.

Anyway, I have a couple of rants on tap which I don't mind airing here, when I can get around to them. Eventually this blog should settle down to a routine of random observations. When it snows I'll get all excited like a school kid. In summer I'll fret about the drought. In spring and fall it can be beautiful here; chances are I'll have some pictures to upload. I'll keep a lookout for unusual weather stories from around the world. If I run across any good information related to the science of meteorology, I'll try to pass it along. I hope you'll find something you like.

First Entry

Categories: Forecasting

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1. aquak9 11:26 PM GMT on August 20, 2009
FIRST!!!!! Oh my...it's been so long since I've been FIRST!!! Welcome once again to WU, as I had previously welcomed you in Skye's blog. What a pleasant surprise to have a new blogger with such enjoyable posts. We always enjoy pics! Esp if you are working on a project, like a garden, or house redecorating, or building an awesome low-rider truck. You can find just about anything here on WU. Many people help each other too, with comments and suggestions. Skye and Gamma helped me a lot with my garden last spring, so did many others, even SBKaren in Washington state. Thanks for joining and I hope you enjoy your time here as much as we enjoy having you here. Member Since: August 13, 2005 Posts: 163 Comments: 25007

2. Bogon 5:54 AM GMT on August 27, 2009
Aqua, Congratulations on first post! Maybe one of these days there will be enough traffic here to make that feat more challenging. Wasn't able to reply until now. I had access to a computer, but it wasn't mine, so it didn't know how to log Bogon onto WU. I couldn't remember the magic number to enable it. I thought I remembered my password, but you have to have a cookie, too. Sorta seems more complicated than necessary. Anyhow, thanks for dropping by. I read about your rain gauge. I don't have one. It wouldn't have seen much action around here lately anyhow. That's why I call my blog "Dry Slot". I plan to post a rant about that one of these days. My wife has been running an experimental square foot garden this summer. She's had good results, but it took a lot of watering to get the plants through July. There were casualties. Member Since: June 26, 2008 Posts: 72 Comments: 2762

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