| Thursday - March 18, 2010
Good Morning All,
Here is today's Severe Weather Outlook from the National
Weather Service:
...NO SVR TSTM AREAS FORECAST...
News and Comments....
Today is a Safety Standown...
Part One:
It's almost the start of the Spring Season. For
those that live on the
Great Plains of North America it also signals the
start of the strongest
severe weather potential of the year. From now
through early summer the
weather can really get interesting. For example,
here is the current
(current at the time I'm working of these Chronicles:
9:15 PM on Wednesday,
March 17th) forecast for Wichita over this coming
weekend:
Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 64. South Southwest
wind between 6 and 13
mph.
Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 42.
South wind between 10
and 13 mph.
Friday: A 20 percent chance of showers after 1PM.
Increasing clouds, with a
high near 68. South wind 11 to 17 mph becoming West.
Winds could gust as
high as 26 mph.
Friday Night: Rain showers likely before 1AM, then
rain and snow showers
likely. Cloudy, with a low around 32. Breezy, with
a North Northwest wind
between 18 and 23 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph.
Chance of precipitation
is 60%.
Saturday: A chance of snow before 10AM, then a chance
of rain and snow
between 10AM and 1PM, then a chance of rain after
1PM. Cloudy, with a high
near 40. Chance of precipitation is 50%.
Saturday Night: A slight chance of snow. Mostly cloudy,
with a low around
25. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 49.
Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 32.
Monday: Sunny, with a high near 59.
There you go, beautiful weather then cold and snow
and back to beautiful
weather (ah, springtime on the Plains).
So what's all this carefully crafted intro mean?
It's storm season for you
North American Readers (Except in Northwest Louisiana
where it always seems
to be severe weather. They have an area that
has been in continuous Flood
Warning since last October!)
Do you have a means to determine if severe weather
is approaching? The
sirens are designed to alert people outside, not in
buildings or homes.
Have you figured out where you are going to take shelter?
Putting as much
structure between you and the storm is good, below
ground level is even
better.
How are you going to communicate with family, friends
and/or the authorities
after things settle back down? Check in and
let people know you're OK
(Thanks David!).
OK, there you go and there will be a written test later.
And hopefully no
practical one!
Part Two:
On Tuesday I had an driving experience that I thought
I would share with
you. I was nearing home after running a couple
of errands on the way home
from work and was stopped at a stoplight less than
a block from the house
waiting to make a left turn. When the light
turned green something said
"Stay Put". So I delayed moving into the intersection
to make my turn.
It was a good thing. While the traffic in the
curb lane came to a stop, a
car traveling in the inside lane didn't even slow
down and sped through the
intersection against the light. The woman drive
never slowed or even looked
around.
If I had not delayed I would have been hit in the driver's
door by a car
moving approximately 40 mph.
So, what's the story here? Don't be I hurry to
blast out into an
intersection when the lights changes. Take a
second or two look to see if
side traffic is actually slowing to a stop.
That extra second may save your
life or the life of someone that has trusted you to
transport them safely.
The Light Thought of The Day...
DO YOU THINK ENGLISH IS EASY?.... To help with
planting, the farmer taught
his sow to sow.
Closing Thoughts...
Pedantry and mastery are opposite attitudes toward
rules. To apply a rule to
the letter, rigidly, unquestioningly, in cases where
it fits and in cases
where it does not fit, is pedantry... To apply a rule
with natural ease,
with judgment, noticing the cases where it fits, and
without ever letting
the words of the rule obscure the purpose of the action
or the opportunities
of the situation, is mastery. -George Polya, professor
of mathematics
(1887-1985)
That's it for today, remember tomorrow starts the weekend,
and be careful
out there,
Roger
Copyright 2010 by Roger M. Tener,
with individual rights reverting back
to contributors after this one
time use. All opinions and versions of
events expressed by contributors
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