But Churchill only had to defeat the Nazis
On days when I grow tired of tilting at windmills (trying to find a literary agent)–i.e., everyday–I paw through the debris in my office in search of one of the many inspirational quotes I’ve left semi-buried for quick resurrection. Unfortunately, while I’m good at the burial part, I’m not very good at the unearthing part.…
Read MoreFor Entertainment Purposes Only–Part IV
Below is Part IV of my series on extended-range weather forecasting taken from my unpublished manuscript INSIDE THE WEATHER CHANNEL. FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY–Part IV Extended-range Forecasts ADVENTURES IN EXTENDED-RANGE FORECASTING Let’s go back to Super Bowl week 2006. On January 30, I wrote in my weekly outlook narrative: Well, it must be Monday because…
Read MoreBeware the Deuce of March
It’s been a nasty winter for much of the eastern U.S. No reason for it to end now. And this time it looks as though parts of the Southeast will get their turn in the barrel as an early March snowstorm comes roaring in (see picture above). For what it’s worth (and remember, you get…
Read MoreEyewall
After writing a novel, EYEWALL, about an Air Force Hurricane Hunter that becomes trapped in the eye of a hurricane, I feel as though that I, too, have become trapped in one. As an unpublished (read unproven) novelist, I need a literary agent to get my manuscript through the front door of a major publishing…
Read MoreFor Entertainment Purposes Only–Part III
What a winter! Enough snow to make Western ski areas envious has blanketed the Mid- Atlantic region. The U.S. government was shut down–not that anybody noticed–for several days. And there is undoubtedly more nastiness to come. It is, after all, only mid-February. So what better time to press on with my series on extended-range weather…
Read MoreThe Frigidness of February
In my blog last week I talked about why there is typically so much uncertainty in extended-range weather forecasting. It’s ironic then that currently there is an unusual amount of agreement among the tools (models) used for peering over the meteorological horizon. In fact, The National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center, for its outlook covering…
Read MoreFor Entertainment Purposes Only–Part II
There are times when general weather trends can be predicted with a relatively high degree of confidence a number of days into the future. But by and large, extended-range forecasting is fraught with peril. Below is part two of my series on longer range weather prediction. Part I appeared on January 11. The material is…
Read MoreGroundhog Day
It’s almost time for the annual Groundhog Day foolishness in which some unsuspecting woodchuck is yanked from his warm bed and forced to look for his shadow on frozen ground, thereby foretelling of six more weeks of winter… or not. For crying out loud. It’s early February. Of course there’s going to be six more…
Read MoreDo they make you do it?
As I write this, bitter cold arctic air is slashing eastward and southward across the eastern two-thirds of the nation, and a pugnacious winter storm is aborning over the Southwest. Thus, the stage is set for a blitzkrieg of ice and snow from New Mexico to North Carolina over the next 48 hours. Curiously enough,…
Read MoreHope? Forgedaboutit
Just when I thought it was safe to start swinging my golf clubs again (it climbed over 60F here in Atlanta this week), just as soon as the birdbath outside my front window had thawed, and just as soon as the city street sweeper had finished brushing away the sand and gravel deployed to combat…
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