The Sandy Effect

Hurricane Sandy, the real reason behind an Obama victory on Tuesday, at least, according to Karl Rove and pals.

Money quote:

Days ago Dick Morris predicted a 400+ EV Romney landslide. Now he thinks Sandy may undo Romney.

Read the rest on TPM.

Fresh Snow on Cherry Creek

There is easily a foot of snow along the creek. Due to the wind, sometimes more and sometimes less, but this morning was a great opportunity to go out and do some shooting because the snow wasn't spoiled by our feet, wheels, or the ubiquitous yellow patch. Shooting in snow is hard. For all the pictures I took there aren't that many of them. It's very hard to deal with the glare even when the sky is clouded over, but it was fun and beautiful by the creek. 

Our building.

One of the Best

I know. No post in the last two weeks and I come back with some sunset pictures. Lame, I'll admit it. However, given that I've seen a lot of beautiful sunsets from my good vantage point, I have sort of turned into a sunset snob and have become very selective of the sunsets that call for me to bust out the SLR. But last night was the most beautiful one I've seen from my apartment. The interior of my place was glowing orange and the scene just kept getting better and better. It's quite a different scene now, a white wall of snow. I can barely see Colorado Blvd, but 16 hours ago I could see forever up and down the front range and I got sort of sad thinking about not living here at some point. There will be beauty wherever I live next and probably more living space, but I already miss the sunsets.

First Snow

Some pictures of our the first snowstorm this winter from twelve floors up.

Surf's Up, Milwaukee

Missing Milwaukee right now, not the weather, but that Milwaukee is on the shores of a lake you can surf on, and they were this week. From jsonline.com.

The Banana Belt

As Denver’s first snow swirls outside my window, Milwaukee is experiencing a heat wave, the only time since late July that it has been warmer there than in Denver. I wintered in Milwaukee for the last three years and during that time I forgot how much easier the winters in Colorado are than in the upper Midwest. Of America’s 50 largest cities, Minneapolis is the only one that has a colder average annual temperature than Milwaukee.

Although average annual snowfall is higher in Denver, the first winter I spent in Milwaukee it snowed over 112 inches, an all-time record (pictured above, just one of many blizzards that winter). The winter of 2006-2007, the last winter I spent in Colorado, was record-setting in terms of snow. There was enough of it to cover not only the shadowed corners of your yard but the entire street and neighboring field for over a month. To have snow on the ground for over a month; that was a big deal to some Front Range residents and it was the first time I could remember having snow on the ground for that long. But in Milwaukee, if the snow only stays for a month you are in good cheer. It’s not unusual for there to be snow on the ground for three months straight. It’s not that they get more than Denver—I already covered that—it’s that the cold takes your breath away and they get slightly less daylight than Colorado in the winter.

When it comes to average annual temperatures, there is no competition. Among the places I’ve lived, only Laramie, Wyoming can compete with Milwaukee’s frostbite-inducing cold. Denver has its days, but I can’t honestly say the winters in Colorado are tough.

It’s amazing what a few years in a much colder environment can do to the way you respond to weather elsewhere. After just a few months of college in Laramie, I felt like I was going to the tropics when I drove south for an hour. Fort Collins was consistently 10-15 degrees warmer than Laramie. It was good I had that training, because without it I couldn’t have weathered the winters in Milwaukee with as much good cheer as I did.

2-3 Inches Of Rain An Hour

Milwaukee just got seven inches of rain in two and a half hours and multiple tornado warnings. This is something I will miss about the Midwest...it sure does know how to throw a thunderstorm. It was a good send-off.

36 Seconds of Lightning

On Monday a tornado touched down just east of Oak Creek, causing up to $20 million in damage. The worst of the storm passed right over us, but by then the rotation in the clouds had died down. I went to the basement for the height of it, but I stayed on our deck as long as possible. Craziness. The noise in the background is the TV.

Volcano Video

Pretty amazing footage of the volcano in Iceland via The Guardian's blog on travel disruptions.

Same Old Snow

We haven’t really had snow this winter in Milwaukee and today it is supposed to snow 6 to 7 inches with another 7 tomorrow.

I’m always sort of annoyed by big snowstorms on the east coast. I know those storms affect more people, but it is always the end of the world if they get anything more than ten inches. Our snow total over the next two days will likely be 14 inches in some areas of Milwaukee, but I suspect you won’t here a word about it on the nightly news unless they decide to focus on Chicago, which may or may not be getting this storm. The worst though is the story that makes an annual appearance in television broadcasts and newspapers across the country. It is always about a huge snowstorm hitting the mid-Atlantic states. The snowfall total varies, but you’ll have a couple paragraphs about each of the following:

The snow paralyzed the city and made commutes horrible. Sue left for work this morning an hour earlier than normal.

People have been so willing to help out. A man towed Sue’s car out of a ditch this morning. Or Cathy, who already had the day off, devoted it to shoveling snow off neighbor’s sidewalks. Snowstorms always bring out the best in people.

The grocery stores were raided a day ahead of the snowstorm. Now, the trouble is keeping them stalked.

Hundreds of flights have been cancelled. (This is probably the most painful part of the stories for me.) There will be interviews of stranded travelers complaining about how many hours they’ve been waiting, or been on hold. Blah, blah, blah.

I could save an article about this storm and place it next to an article next year about the next big snowstorm and the wording would be the same. The formula will be the same. But it is sort of a catch 22. There is a need to report on these big storms, but there is no need for overly sentimental tie-ins. Just give me a list of closures, the road conditions, and the weather report. Thanks.

Deep Freeze Pictures

Actually, it is pretty warm in Milwaukee right now, at least for January. The highs are in the mid to upper-30s. There was a heavy frost over Saturday night and Kate and I ventured out to try to get some good shots. Here are some of them.

That's Hott

81 in Milwaukee today. Weird.

Hot, with one 't'

73 degrees in Milwaukee and rising. I think there is going to be a record broken today. 

New Meaning

You know it is cold outside when school is cancelled two days in a row, not because of the snow, but because of the cold.

You know it is cold outside when you check the temperature and see that it is -2 degrees and you get excited because that’s ten degrees warmer than it was this morning, the last time you were outside. 

Setting the Bar

I don’t make it a habit to put pictures of myself on this blog, but I post this one because I was trying to capture the upper part of my beard, which was frozen after my walk this morning. That’s right. I took a walk this morning. Kate was at work and I needed to get a slow leak in one of my tires fixed today before I go to work. The car place is about ¾ of a mile away and I had to walk back. It  was -12 degrees outside with a wind chill of -27. I’ve never felt cold like that. 

Blizzard

I really enjoy blizzards. They make me feel young. I feel a little more alive when I have to speed everywhere to keep the car from getting stuck. The snow makes you do things like walking through snowdrifts instead of taking the cleared path.

Today, all I had on the agenda was to get my haircut and I couldn't even do that. The place was closed, along with every other business in that strip mall. 

The snow looks to be 10-12 inches deep with drifts getting quite deeper than that. 

I'm new to Wisconsin, but since I've been here there has never really been any doubt about having a white Christmas.

Milwaukee's Weather in November

Milwaukee is reaching 60 degrees today. Monday is supposed to be 71. Tuesday 72. Wednesday 62. This is very nice weather for Milwaukee in November, but there is something looming on the horizon and the weatherman was so kind to remind me what that is this morning:

…High temperatures will be above average through Wednesday, with many high temperatures in the 60s in southern Wisconsin.

This is the second month in the early cold season in Milwaukee that has average monthly snowfall, and it jumps from four-tenths of an inch in October to 3.6 inches in November. Most of the snow comes in the last week of the month, generally after Thanksgiving. The average high temperature for Nov. 1 is 53 degrees and drops to 39 degrees by month’s end. We can still get warm temperatures during this month, as evidenced by the recorded warmest, 77 degrees on Nov. 2 in 1938. And it can get quite chilly during this month. The coldest temperature on record for Milwaukee in November was 14 degrees below zero, set on the 29^th in 1875.

The average total precipitation for November is 2.70 inches and there are plenty of clouds on average. During this month, around 18 days of overcast skies are recorded on average each year in Milwaukee.

Well, sweet. We have an average of 3.6 inches of snow to look forward to this month. This number isn’t bad at all. I know Colorado and Wyoming both get more snow than this in November. The numbers that are really depressing are average temperature and cloudy days. I am not looking forward to the average temperature decreasing by 14 degrees from yesterday to the last day of November. And, to be reminded that an average of 18 overcast days in this month, today being one of them, makes me wish Milwaukee were somewhere else in this great country.

Obama 08! Do it.

Let It Rain!

Here is a quick video of the rain last weekend that caused extreme flooding throughout the Midwest. I took this right off our deck.

Today at Work

We dodged a tornado. A number of customers pointed out that there was a funnel cloud right above us. Indeed, there was, but nothing came of it. I was a bit disappointed. I had been hoping to dive under one of our very sturdy counters at the last minute as a huge tornado rolled over us. It wasn't so. Maybe next week?

More and more people at work are finding out by word of mouth that my unofficial last day is next Thursday. I haven't put in my two week notice or anything like that. I'm holding off on officially hanging up the apron. Anyway, I mention this because it is fun to gauge their reactions when they hear what I will be doing and then tell them I will be doing it for free. I understand their shock though. I realize I am in an extremely fortunate position to leave my job and go work for free for something I feel much more passionate about than coffee.

A customer came through the drive through and reminded me to "fill up" my gas tank because "oil is up 11 bucks a barrel today." I didn't really have a response, but he went on to tell me that "it is all China's fault" and that if I "see a China-men give him a hug" while he did a punching motion. He drove off chuckling. It was all very disturbing, I guess because he was very casual and open about his racism, which is always disturbing, but even more so when you encounter someone who is willing to say such absurd things out loud as opposed to silently harboring such things in a quiet, tucked-away part of their mind.

And that's it. Hillary endorses tomorrow at 12 ET. There is speculation that she will once again bring up the popular vote and how she is winning it. Let's hope not. Those calculations are misleading and if she brings up the numbers then, she will not earn back the dignity, that she stripped herself of on Tuesday night, for a very long time.

New Kids In The Vault

It is nearly pointless posting this, but it even made Wisconsin television.