Terminal area forecasts (TAFs) are aviation weather forecasts. They are very precise and typically cover the next 24 to 36 hours from the time they’re issued. Each period within the TAF provides information on the winds, clouds and precipitation expected to occur. There are also optional sections that may appear for temporarily occurring weather (less than an hour) and for weather than may occur (30% and 40% probability). The latter is usually only for “bad” weather that could impact flight safety.

Gordon’s Rule for TAFs is simple: The longer the forecast, the more unsettled (aka “crappy” (a highly technical term)) the weather is going to be.

Here’s the TAF for Ottawa that was issued over the lunch hour:

TAF CYOW 011738Z 0118/0218 26005KT P6SM BKN120 OVC220 
     FM012000 05005KT P6SM -SN OVC070 
      TEMPO 0120/0122 4SM -SN 
     FM012200 06010KT 2SM -SN VV015 
      TEMPO 0122/0124 4SM -SN OVC050 
     FM020000 06012KT 11/2SM -SN VV012 
      TEMPO 0200/0202 3/4SM -SN VV008 
     FM020200 06015G25KT 1/2SM SN BLSN VV005 
     FM020500 06020G30KT 1/4SM +SN BLSN VV002 
      BECMG 0208/0210 04015G25KT 
     FM021100 35015G25KT 3/4SM -SN BLSN VV008 
     FM021300 31018G28KT 2SM -SN BLSN OVC025 
     FM021700 29018G28KT 5SM BLSN BKN030 
      RMK NXT FCST BY 012100Z

Ick.

I can see no redeeming features in the forecast for the next day or so:

TAF CYOW 240238Z 2403/2424 05005KT P6SM OVC040 TEMPO 2406/2408 P6SM -SN BKN020 OVC040
FM240800 03005KT P6SM -SN FEW010 BKN020 OVC040 TEMPO 2408/2410 P6SM NSW BKN025 OVC040
FM241000 02005KT P6SM -SN SCT008 OVC020 TEMPO 2410/2414 3SM -SN BKN008 OVC020 PROB30 2410/2414 2SM -SN -FZDZ BR OVC004
FM241400 05010KT 11/2SM -SN OVC008 TEMPO 2414/2417 3SM -SN OVC020
FM241700 06015G25KT 1/2SM SN BLSN VV005
FM242000 07015G25KT 1SM -SNPL OVC006 PROB30 2420/2422 1/2SM SN BLSN
FM242300 07015G25KT 2SM -FZRA BR OVC006
RMK NXT FCST BY 240600Z=

Light snow. Light snow with light freezin drizzle. Moderate snow. Blowing snow. Snow pellets. Light freezing rain. And increasing amounts of wind as time marches on.

Nope, not a single redeeming feature.

So, a quick recap of this week:

• Bloody freezing cold
• Ludicrous amounts of snow
• A bit more snow
• Cold

And now this:

TAF AMD CYOW 200030Z 2000/2024 09015KT 3/4SM -TSSN OVC015
TEMPO 2000/2001 2SM -SN OVC020
FM200100 09014KT 2SM -SN OVC015
TEMPO 2001/2003 6SM -SN
FM200300 11015KT 11/2SM -SN VV012
TEMPO 2003/2011 1/2SM SN VV005 PROB30 2003/2007 3/8SM SHSN
FM201100 19015G25KT 2SM -RA BR SCT008 OVC015
FM201500 24020G30KT P6SM -SHRA OVC020
FM201900 24015G25KT P6SM -SHRA OVC030
RMK NXT FCST BY 200300Z

Essentially, light thundersnow (!) with periods of light snow followed by light snow with periods of moderate snow and possible snow showers. Then light rain and mist, silly amounts of wind with light rain showers. All between 7pm this evening and 2pm Saturday.

As anyone who has a blog knows, there’s a whole lot of spammers out there trying to promote their crap stuff via comments on other people’s blogs. Naturally, tools like Akismet have been developed to automatically identify likely spam and generally make life harder for the spammers.

Akismet is very good at what it does. Any comments it suspects are spam end up in a queue in WordPress for later review. That review usually consists on quickly skimming the list of comments and then hitting the “Empty Spam” button because Akismet rarely makes a mistake.

Lately, one persistent spammer trying to push vitamin C serum has been consistently hitting a post I wrote about graffiti and posting one single comment. And every time I see the notification on the backend “There’s 1 comment in your spam queue right now”, I check out the queue and  hit the “Empty Spam” button.

A little while later, the “There’s 1 comment in your spam queue right now” is back and sure enough, another vitamin C spam. It’s getting kind of monotonous. The least they could do is change it up a bit so I have something new to read before I delete it.

Oh look: “There’s 1 comment in your spam queue right now”. Again. (Seriously.)

The NCC recently announced the two development proposals for LeBreton Flats that are moving on to the next step in the process. I visited the open house at the Canadian War Museum last Wednesday to learn all about the proposals.

Both proposals are professionally put together, but in my opinion one of them is much better than the other.

First, the proposals (in alphabetical order):

• Canadensis: LeBreton Re-imagined by Devcore, Canderel and DLS Group
• Illumination LeBreton by RendezVous LeBreton Group

As you’ll see, the proposals share a number of common elements, but the one that’s attracting the most attention is a new arena to replace the aging Palladium Corel Centre ScotiaBank Place Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata. There are two main differences surrounding the arena: how it is used in the overall site proposal, and whether it will even be used by the Senators.

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Environment Canada just issued this:

Issued at 2016-01-31 20:32 UTC by Environment Canada:
Special weather statement issued for:
Gatineau, Que. (031100)
City of Ottawa, Ont. (045400)
Current details:
A winter storm is expected to develop over the United States central plains on Monday and track northeastward reaching the Great Lakes late Tuesday night. The storm is expected to bring periods of heavy snow over Central and Eastern Ontario Tuesday night before gradually transition to rain Wednesday morning. At this time, total snowfall amounts remain uncertain. The primary threat with this storm appears to be the risk of freezing rain and ice pellets which is expected to accompany the snow Tuesday night before transitioning over to rain especially over locations east of Georgian Bay to the Ottawa Valley. Gusty winds will accompany the approaching storm before gradually diminishing late Wednesday night as the storm moves out of the area and into Quebec.

From the sounds of it, it actually sounds like we’ll be ok compared to other parts of the province, but Wednesday could rate quite high on the suck-o-meter.

As I’ve mentioned in other posts, I joined the Camera Club of Ottawa in September and I’m really enjoying myself. The club meets every Tuesday and there’s usually a guest speaker, or workshop, or some sort of competition.

I’ve put a few images in the competitions since joining. I had my first honourable mention in November for one of my fireworks photos, which was a nice little ego boost. But the gold standard, an Award of Excellence, has so far eluded me.

Until tonight.

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