It has been a while since I grumbled about the weather, so here goes:

TAF CYOW 081738Z 0818/0918 31012G22KT P6SM OVC030 TEMPO 0818/0902 3SM -SHGSSNRA OVC020
BECMG 0821/0823 30008KT
FM090200 31008KT P6SM BKN030 OVC050
FM090600 31006KT P6SM SCT030 BKN050
RMK NXT FCST BY 082100Z=

-SHGSSNRA ??? Seriously? I had to go to the magic decoder to find out what that was:

LIGHT SNOW PELLET SHOWER
LIGHT SNOW SHOWER
LIGHT RAIN SHOWER

Geez… that’s piling a lot of crap into one element in a TAF. And we need exactly none of it.

The City of Ottawa has set up a registry for people who want to volunteer to help out during the floods. You can go to the page here.

I arrived in Jupiter, Florida earlier today. This evening, there was a launch of a military communications satellite, known as WGS-9, from the Kennedy Space Center. My parents and I headed out onto the balcony in front of the place they’re renting to see if we could see it.

Happily, we could…

For those wondering about the technical details of the photos: Canon 70D, Tamron SP 500mm, 1/160s, f/8, ISO 12800.

Early Sunday morning, at 2AM, we move our clocks forward an hour in a futile attempt to save energy. As I’ve mentioned in previous years’ versions of this post, daylight save time hasn’t been shown to actually save energy.

Instead of saving energy, there will be an increase in accidents because people are discombobulated by the change in their sleep pattern. As an added “bonus”, there’s a 10% increase the likelihood that you’ll experience a heart attack during the days immediately following the time change. Is it worth it? Not in my opinion. Read the rest of this entry →

About six years ago, I wrote about having writer’s block. Well, I think it’s back.

There are many things I could, in theory, write about — photography, the weather (no end of things there), drivers in Ottawa (grr!), to name a few — but when I try to start writing the block rears its ugly head and words die a lonely death. Maybe this entry will break the block, or at least chip away at its corners.

I think part of this is probably because of a need for sunshine and warmth, something Ottawa has been severely lacking of late.

Basically, I need a vacation.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen for at least 5 weeks. Still, that’s better than nothing, I guess.

I just looked at the radar…

And the aviation forecast:

TAF CYOW 101738Z 1018/1118 12010KT P6SM -SN OVC040 TEMPO 1018/1019 2SM -SN OVC030
FM101900 13012G22KT 3SM -SN OVC030 TEMPO 1019/1020 1SM -SN VV007
PROB40 1019/1020 3/4SM -SN
FM102000 13012G22KT 1/2SM SN VV005 TEMPO 1020/1022 1SM -SN
PROB30 1022/1103 1/4SM +SN VV003
FM110300 14018G28KT 3/4SM -SN BLSN VV007 TEMPO 1103/1107 2SM -SNPL OVC012
PROB30 1104/1107 3SM -FZRA BR OVC015
FM110700 17020G30KT 3SM -SNRA OVC012
FM111100 22020G35KT P6SM BKN030
FM111400 23015G25KT P6SM FEW030
RMK NXT FCST BY 102100Z=

The likelihood that this is going to suck is very high.