My parents sent me a few pictures of the damage around the cottage up at Golden Lake. Fortunately, our cottage was fine, but our neighbours’ properties have a lot of downed trees. Apparently, the neighbours saw a waterspout on the other side of the lake and there are unconfirmed reports of a tornado touching down in the area.

These are on our neighbour’s property:

Some poor U-Haul trailers at the storage place across the highway:

If you look closely, you’ll be able to make out the branches caught on the power lines that caught fire when the power was restored. A few seconds after my mom took this picture the line breaker on one of the poles blew with an impressive “bang!”. The firemen then put the flames out and stuck around to make sure that the fire didn’t flare up again.

A tip o’ the hat to my mom who took these photos.

I’ve been keeping an eye on the Franktown radar this afternoon. The storm that has been making its way down the Ottawa Valley has been tracking in the direction of the magenta arrow in this image:

If you’re in the path of the storm, you should probably take cover. Environment Canada has issued a number of tornado warnings for places in Eastern Ontario this afternoon.

My parents are at the cottage on Golden Lake (the lake immediately above the tail of the arrow) and they told me that they’ve never seen a storm like this one. Lots of trees and branches are down, the power’s out and so are the land lines. And apparently they can see “round 2” approaching. They’re in one of the places where a tornado warning has been issued, so hopefully they’re be ok!

It’s shaping up to be an interesting afternoon weather-wise. I took a look at the Franktown radar a few minutes ago and saw a large purple blog making its way towards Ottawa. The snapshot to the right is the most recent radar image (as of about 12:55) and the purple blob has spread out a bit and become a red and yellow blog that covers a slightly larger area. The track of the incoming weather suggests that the strongest part of the storm is going to pass just to the south of Ottawa, but that could change, of course, or the rain north of the blob could pick up some energy and develop into more exciting weather.

Looking at the weather trends for the last 24 hours, you can see the pressure had dropped since noon yesterday:

The aviation forecast suggests that we’ll see thunderstorms, possible including hail, from 3pm:

TAF AMD CYOW 231635Z 2316/2412 21010KT P6SM SCT060
FM231900 21015G25KT P6SM -TSRA BKN050CB TEMPO 2319/2320 VRB25G50KT 1/2SM +TSRAGR OVC040CB
FM232000 21015G25KT P6SM BKN050 TEMPO 2322/2401 VRB15G30KT 2SM TSRA OVC040CB
PROB30 2323/2401 VRB25G50KT 1/2SM +TSRAGR OVC040CB
FM240100 24010KT P6SM BKN040 TEMPO 2401/2408 6SM -SHRA BR BKN020
BECMG 2402/2404 28008KT
RMK NXT FCST BY 231800Z=

Fun stuff, eh?

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, so I thought it was time for a mid-summer update.

Like many people who work for the federal government, I’ve had to go through a selection for retention or layoff process where I work. Happily, I made it through the process successfully so I haven’t been laid off, but sadly, some people I knowhave been laid off. I’m glad it’s over because it’s a huge amount of stress that has been lifted off my shoulders. Let us speak of it no more.

Last fall, I acquired my fireworks display assistant certification, which means that, legally, I can work at a fireworks display. However, simply having the card doesn’t imbue you with the knowledge and experience needed to work at a fireworks display — you get that through hands-on training with experienced display supervisors. Fortunately, I met one of the best in Canada last summer and had the opportunity to work on two shows for him this past Canada Day weekend: one show in Pakenham on June 30th and the other in Almonte on July 1st. Both days saw between seven and nine hours of setup in the blazing sun, followed by about fifteen minutes of fireworks and then an hour or two of cleanup. And I loved it! I can’t wait for the next opportunity.

I haven’t spent much time at the cottage this summer, but I’m hoping to get up there for a while at the beginning of August. I’ll have to come back to Ottawa a few times because I’m going to be one of the volunteer photographers at Les Grands Feux du Casino du Lac Leamy again this year.

I haven’t been cycling as much as I’d like because it’s been face of the sun hot here in Ottawa. It looks like it might be a little cooler in the middle of next week so maybe I’ll be able to get out then.

Saw this story on CBC’s website earlier. It looks like Bev Oda found this sticky note on her most recent pay stub…

First, @TheBrazman (aka Senator Patrick Brazeau) disappears off the face of Twitter shortly after behaving in a most un-senator-like manner to a reporter. Now, the Minister of $16 Glasses of Orange Juice is “stepping down”.

I wonder who’s next?