SMBC Comics Forum

Bad storm swept through our area early this evening. We got a few funnel clouds and tornadoes:





including a couple wedge tornadoes:



*


I've seen some pictures of flattened buildings, but no reports of anyone being hurt.

*This one wasn't technically in the area because it was just south of the border. So about an hour from where I live. Same storm though.

I can not imagine living in an area where that is the norm. We get hurricanes*, but still.

*Including the 2006 Stanley Cup winning team eyoooo!

We never used to be. I remember my first Brandon tornado when I was in high school.* But something to do with changes in El Nino, tornadoes are starting to form more often further north than they used to.

This summer it seems like we've had tornado warnings every couple weeks since late spring. But the prairies are so sparsely populated, even really big/dangerous tornadoes rarely actually do more than structural damage. Like there was an F5** a few years ago about an hour and a half from here (near Elie MB), along with 7 more confirmed tornadoes from the same storm, and not a single person was hurt.

Plus I live in a valley, so unless a really particularly bad one forms, I'm pretty safe.


Video of that first wedge tornado.


*Not my first tornado. I'd been through a couple in Saskatchewan and one when I lived in Edmonton. Though I was admittedly really young for that one.
**Only one ever reported in Canadia!

The eastern part of my state is still recovering from pretty devastating flooding from Hurricane Matthew, while the western part is in a state of emergency because of numerous, very large wildfires.


I've eaten lunch here on numerous occasions on my way to, or back from, camping - the most recent was just a couple months ago. This is a backfire, fortunately, but it was done just in time. It's at the Nantahala Outdoor Center, which is pretty famous for its location on the Appalachian Trail, as a stopping point for travelers, and for its kayaking and canoeing (it was also founded by the parents of one of my dad's friends).


Here's a satellite image. The most concentrated smoke is at the western corner of my state (you can see faint map outlines) right where the first image was taken.

And here's the flooding, which has now receded, at the other end.

The last Red Cross shelter closed just a day or two ago, a month after the hurricane came through. My family goes canoe-camping here occasionally. The total damage just in NC is at $2 billion now.

It is just about 5am and the temperature is right around freezing with some nice winds. And this is the warmest it will be for the next 30 hours or so. It is going to continue to get colder, even after the sun rises, until it hits a low of around -10 C some time tonight.

And I get to be outside all day. Yay

It went down to -9C last night. I'm quite displeased. Especially because I have projects to work on but nothing is urgent so it's very tempting to decline to bike in.

It was pretty brutal on Thursday. I had on a medium weight wool base layer, canvas pants, a regular long sleeve shirt, a hoodie, insulated overalls, a work coat and a wool beanie. I was still freezing. It would have been reasonably okay with all those layers at those temperatures, but the wind was gusting up to to about 65 to 70 km/hr and just cut through everything. I didn't have my balaclava, so my face was frozen.

That stinks. For my bike ride, I have a shirt, long-sleeve shirt, sweater, jacket, and rain jacket. The wind cut right through my gloves though and my fingers were numb by the time I got to work. And face was covered in snot.

This past weekend, it snowed and went down to 6F Sunday night. Today, it's 75F. There's even still a little snow on the ground.

We are supposed to get about 2-3cm of snow and a bit of ice at some point today. Many things have already closed. I don't know if it because of the ice storm we had the weekend before Christmas that resulted in a lot of really bad accidents including a fuel tanker going off an overpass and exploding* or just the usual Maryland freak out.

*There is a video, it is terrifying.

I've been melting. The entire weather has been hot. Just hot.

Tonight the temperature has dropped and I am in blessed relief. The 38 day is now 21. I even have a little blanket and a kitty snuggled up next to me. Which is ridiculous.

It's snowy and frosty but I don't care. I am at gym now. It was a busy day. I want to lose some weight till April. I even started to take steroids gain some muscles. Hope it helps me to lose at least 15 pounds.

Eat more SPAM, Munticore. It's what the body needs.

The sun is shining, the temp is 79F and it's breezy.

I would be more than content if there wasn't the niggling thought that it's February, not June.

Bit of a blizzard today. 98 km/h winds that I wish would die down already. :/

Little bit of blowing snow too: