What a BAMMER! Lighning throwing electrity away for free, and no way to capture and store it.
Leave town now.
If you scroll in just N.E. of Tampa you will see the bustling metropolis of Dade City.
When I first looked on the lightning map the lightning was northwest of Dade City, now it's hours later and the lightning is south east of Dade. Looks like it may have swept right over the Dade area.
There also appears to be a wicked lightning storm out in the Atlantic directly east of Florida.
Here in the midwaste, center of north america, we have 20-degrees, patchy ice and snow on the ground, chilly wind, and small radio stations wondering what's next?
Yes, the bottom dropped out here on the Ohio North Coast of the Homeland as predicted. Temperature is currently 21 and falling, expecting temps in the teens with wind chill of 2 degrees for the morning.
Antenna icing from the 4 inches of snow that fell shut down my LPFM. Details in another thread.
The cold temperatures are to continue for a few days.
I am happy to report that the Greater Metropolitan Dade City area survived the maelstrom. Temperatures now plunging like a neckline. http://weather.saintleo.edu/
Thanks to all Yankees who left the door open.
Ohio has faxed the Polar Vortex to Dade County. In it's place, northeast Ohio is enjoying a few days of 50 and 60 degree weather with heavy overcast and some occasional light.
I'll have to wait a while to try out the new Solar Panel...
ALERT 1 - High Wind Watch for Ohio
A HIGH WIND WATCH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 12:00AM EST TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25
Event Start: Monday, November 24, 2014 12:00 PM EST
Event End: Tuesday, November 25, 2014 12:00 AM EST
Current weather is dark with drizzle, temperature 59.
As predicted, high winds blew in around lunch time. By 15:00 I was up in the bucket truck replacing a 5-section traffic signal head. The wind had snapped the signal off at the mount point and fell to the pavement destroying it. It's interesting working overhead with 40 mph winds blowing you around and the equipment your hanging onto.
At 16:10 I was running a different traffic signal on generator as a fallen tree took down primary power lines. Power was out for over 2 hours.
No rain, just wind. Things have quieted down a bit, resting at home for the evening.
That sounds bouncy being up in the wind like that. What is the absolute limit to wind speed in which you would not risk going up?
For all that damage to city utilities, your LPFM antenna/tower are still standing. That's good.
Most wind we had over here was about 26 mph. Messed my hair up pretty bad.
Our department unlike our Electric Service department doesn't have a policy for wind speed. We've always sort of been the "Cowboys", all weather workers.
Our Electric Service department helped with a major upgrade project for our traffic signals. They didn't like working in traffic; said we're nuts! These are the guys that handle 7200 volt primaries.
I've only been hit by one semi in 25 years. Darn near tore the bucket off the truck.
That's the bucket hanging sideways from the arm with a hole in the bottom were the Fed Ex Semi hit it. 12 of 16 bolts that held it on sheard off and twisted the 1/4 inch steel bracket that holds it to the arm. Happend about 4 years ago.
The max gusts we had here yesterday were supposed to be around 55 mph. I don't think I experienced any yesterday but I have been up in worse. Probably didn't get above 50 and not sustained.
Blizzards are tough to work in. The wind is bad enough but when you add the snow and wind chill of -20; well you don't work well for very long and the stuff we work on is hard to do with gloves on.
The towers had no problem. LPFM stayed on-air.
Get ready Northeast Ohio, we're in for another wintery blast.
Expect several inches of snow and temps between 0 and 15 at night.
Wind chill will dip into the negative numbers with winds gusting to 35 mph.
Get the generators gased up.
While Ohio and the east suffer under a winter siege, we have been spared here at the Internet Building on the Missouri/Illinois border.
At first they predicted 2-feet of snow for Sunday, but forecasts were reduced at first to 2-inches and thjen 1/2-inch... but the final result is a very light dusting of white specks, no real snow.
Temperature now (Monday) is 10 (F) here at Worldround Radio, with NOAA reporting 21 (F), an expected high of 26.
Not a lot of snow but ohhhhh it's cold!
Interested in the current temp around the world? Here is a reference with thousands of live weather reporting stations:
Zoom in-Click on a bubble-Pick the station of interest then click on their link to open their page.