Tom Spinker photo of a Texas rattler, via Accuweather, which picked up Earth & Sky’s warning of a suburban invasion of “very hungry” snakes this month due to the drought.
We’ll be watching.
Fortunately, rattlers generally aren’t killers, unlike, say, Texas coral snakes, which are relatives of the King Cobra. But the rattler’s bite is painful and everybody reacts differently.
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Posted in Blogosphere, Scribbles, Texana, Weather/Climate
Tagged Accuweather, Earth & Sky, photographer Tom Spinker, Texas rattlesnakes
Somehow, in all my other distractions, I managed to miss Joe Bastardi’s February departure from Accuweather. Part of it was letting my Pro subscription lapse last summer when I had to get a new credit card and forgot to update my account. When they finally got around to asking for the update, I decided to let it go.
Bastardi was fun to read (and to listen to his brief video forecasts) but his focus wandered and I could have a hard time understanding him. I also got a little tired (despite agreeing with him) of his anti-AGW rants. But I always figured I could resume my sub if I got to missing him.
Then I got busy with the three (yes!) books I’m writing, and my spring trip to Israel. Only noticed the other day that old JB had gone missing because I always liked to hear his latest hurricane forecast and we’re coming up on the active part of that season right now.
Well, turns out he’s the new chief meteor of a start-up called Weatherbell, frequently appears on Fox, does guest shots on WUWT, and still Tweets (though how he can compress his natural verbosity into a Tweet is beyond me). My only question is does he still end his forecasts with the famous (and funny) line that’s the title of this post? Or does Accuweather claim to own it? I may have to subscribe to his new gig to find out.
Comments Off on Enjoy the weather, it’s the only weather you’ve got
Posted in Blogosphere, Israel, Science/Engineering, Scribbles, Weather/Climate
Tagged Accuweather, Joe Bastardi, Weatherbell
By the end of the week, we could have the first one entering the Gulf of Mexico, says Accuweather’s Joe Bastardi. The western Caribbean sure is warm enough. Where will it head after that? Somewhere from northern Florida west around the coast to Tampico.
Unfortunately for the Texas coast, hurricanes spin counterclockwise which might bring some of the oil spill to our beaches, relieving the northern coast beaches that have gotten it so far. Might just disperse it. Or not. We’ll have to wait and see. But JB is calling for three storms to hit the spill.
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Posted in Texana, Weather/Climate
Tagged Accuweather, Gulf Coast, Gulf of Mexico, hurricanes, Joe Bastardi, oil spill
Why does it matter? If she arrives early, say mid- to late-summer, we could have another dry scorcher. Then, as she strengthens in the fall into the winter, a warmer and drier winter. Or not.
The LCRA’s Bob Rose is on board for her early arrival, along with NOAA and Accuweather’s Joe Bastardi. But Anthony Watts at WUWT has a neat nay-saying article we might cross our fingers on. Because, among other things, La Nina would bring a stronger hurricane season. Which, this year, could mean pushing much more of that Gulf crude oil much farther ashore into Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Maybe even turn it the other way and push some of it into Texas.
Comments Off on La Nina or no?
Posted in Blogosphere, Weather/Climate
Tagged Accuweather, Bob Rose, El Nino, Joe Bastardi, La Nina, LCRA, Watts Up With That
Could be. After Sunday’s high in the low 80s (yep), the temp fell to 40 by midnight at the rancho. Supposed to be colder tonight and then up to an inch is in our forecast for Tuesday. And Accuweather’s Joe Bastardi says:
“By the way, this looks like the worst last week of Feb weather I can remember in Texas since I have been studying maps. It is interesting how late snowfalls are getting more common there, and earlier snowfalls too. If Dallas misses Tuesday IT’S CAUSE WACO AND COLLEGE STATION GET IT! In other words they miss to the south.”
Just not this far south, if you please. Although Mr. B. would be thrilled..
UPDATE: The forecast changed this morning to a ninety percent chance of snow Tuesday and the amount was upped to between two and four inches. Then, this afternoon, it was back to one-half to one inch.
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Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, Weather/Climate
Tagged Accuweather, Central Texas, Joe Bastardi, late February weather, snow
Accuweather meteorologist Jesse Ferrell has a neat series of augmented radar-capture pix, plus a radar video from the NEXRAD of the Austin-San Antonio weather service office in New Braunfels, showing a cloud of bats exiting Bracken Cave, southwest of Austin. Even if some of them are radar echoes clutter (also called radar bloom), the cloud is pretty impressive.
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Posted in Texana, Weather/Climate
Tagged 20 million bats on radar, Accuweather, Bracken Cave, Jesse Farrell, National Weather Service, NEXRAD
It’s the surge that will get the tourist beaches and fishing villages in Baja California, since the near-Category Five hurricane will lose some of its now-155 mph winds by the time it comes ashore tomorrow.
But, as the meteorologists say, a hurricane is not a point, and Baja is already getting plenty of wind, rain and waves. Meanwhile, we wait to see if we’ll get any of Jimena’s endgame, i.e. good rain. Benefiting from someone else’s tragedy, as usual with these things. Accuweather is still calling for thunderstorms for us, but has pushed them out to Saturday night now. Jim Spencer at KXAN sees a better chance Friday night than Saturday.
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Posted in South of the Border, Texana, Weather/Climate
Tagged Accuweather, Hurricane Jimena, Jim Spencer, KXAN
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 