Deciding on Weather Instruments

The Davis Vantage Pro is an example of a high quality instrument package at a reasonable price

One of the most frequent questions I get, particularly during the holiday season, is about purchasing weather instruments. Which are the good ones? How much should one pay?

The good news is that high quality weather instruments are available in all price ranges, with some amateur gear approaching professional quality. And the electronics of some are quite amazing.

There is no more entertaining and satisfying hobby than taking your own weather observations. You get tuned into the changing environment in a very different way than passively watching the TV weather segment. And it is for YOUR location, which is probably very different than Seattle-Tacoma Airport, Portland, or some other major city airport.

Did you know that the founding fathers--like Jefferson and Washington--were weather enthusiasts that took weather observations much of their lives? And look where it got them!George Washington took daily weather observations until the week before he died.

So lets say you are on a tight budget. Many of us are these days. No problem. My suggestion: get a really good rain gauge. A beautiful model used by a group of cooperative observers (CoCoRahs) is available for $25. plus shipping from http://www.weatheryourway.com/cocorahs/index.htmlVery accurate and durable. Or you could get a truly excellent cloud chart like this one for $5-10 dollars:Such charts are available from many online vendors and some local outlets and will help you learn the cloud types. And those inexpensive digital thermometers that are sold in many stores (e.g., Bartell's, Fred Meyer,Home Depot, etc.) for roughly $10-20 are really fairly accurate. Many are wireless .. making installation easy. I have three of them!
Remember, temperature sensors should be out of the rain on the northern side of your home or apartment. Temperature is ALWAYS measured in the shade. Rain gauges should be in the open AWAY from roofs and trees.

But what if you want to get a full-fledged weather station and even want to interface it to your computer and have the data available on the web? Systems that will give you wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, pressure and rainfall. No problem...you can have this at a steeper, but still reasonable price.

Lets start with the best. If you want to invest in the very best, instrumentation that is near professional in quality and that will last for years, you can't go wrong with the Davis Vantage Pro series (see top picture). My colleagues and I have been impressed with the quality of this instrumentation and its ability to interface to computers and the internet. The cost? $350-$700 depending whether you get wireless or wired and the instrumentation options. If you have the cash get an aspirated (internal fan) temperature shelter/enclosure.

Davis has just come out with a cheaper (though not as good) line..Davis Vantage Vue. And then there is cheaper, less accurate gear from firms like Oregon Scientific, La Crosse, and Ambient. Sometimes these weather stations are even available in COSTCO for under $100! These would be good starter sets and perfectly serviceable if you don't care if your pressure is off by a few mb and the wind speed is in error by a few knots. They may also lack the interfaces to connect to your computer.

This complete weather station only costs $60 from Ambient Weather!

A company, Ambient Weather, sells many of these units (as does Amazon), and has a nice website, with comparisons of the quality of the various units:

http://www.ambientweather.com/
http://ambientweather.wikispaces.com/Weather+Station+Comparison+Guide

Nautical supply houses also sell weather instruments, but prices tend to be high.

And, of course, any of these weather stations would be enhanced with a certain book on northwest Weather, noted in the upper right of this blog, but it would be inappropriate for me to discuss that any further!

Finally, I should note that the availability of these great weather systems and software allowing access via personal computers has been a revolution for my field. THOUSANDS of such stations are online in real time and can be viewed at sites such as www.weatherunderground.com. The biggest problem is poor siting...many people are not careful where they place the sensors, resulting in bad data.

PS: We are going to have absolutely boring, benign weather during the next five days. Not much precipitation. No lowland snow. Little wind. No heavy rain...even some sun! Dull! Good time to install a weather station!

My Thoughts on Mark Wahlberg being Cast in the Uncharted Movie

It's a movie based on a game. It was going to suck no matter what. I know Max Payne was horrible, but Mark Wahlberg was just the feces-based icing on that crap cake.

I know that a lot of people wanted Nathan Fillion to be Nathan Drake in this movie but really, it is better to be disappointed going into a movie like this rather than having high hopes. After all, it might not be as horrible as you think it will be.

Yes, it is going to be horrible, no doubt about it, but it might not be Battlefield Earth bad, and it certainly can't be as awful as Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li. A just god wouldn't allow that.

But really, I can't get excited about any movie based on a video game these days. I've been burned too often because they always screw them up. Then the people in your life who don't play games watch these movies and look at you funny because they can't contemplate how the source material for such wretched creations could be captivating on any level.

With Mark Wahlberg, at least we can all have an excuse and just blame him for how bad the movie is, because if you do end up seeing this movie, try to imagine Mr. Fillion having to wade through the ocean of crap that Wahlberg is going to have to swim through.

In the end, I am sure that he is going to be relieved he didn't get this role.

HTML5 Games, Jammed

(Updated 10 Dec 2010 -- corrected link to 3rd Place Hilversum developer Kornel Lesinski's Twitter page.)

Last month, more than 50 developers assembled in Hilversum, Netherlands, and San Francisco, California for an HTML5 game jam.

The idea of HTML5 gaming may seem unusual, but if the results from this event are anything to go by, there will be plenty more HTML5 games in the future. In just over 24 hours of coding, attendees were able to produce the seeds of great games, powered by standard web technologies. The games we saw were novel, visually appealing, and in many cases, already very playable.

HTML5 is making it easy to develop games for standard web browsers, and it also provides a way for developers to reach mobiles and tablets with a single code base. Watch for other initiatives, like Mozilla's current HTML5 gaming competition, to take HTML5 gaming to the next level.

Here’s a look at the winners from both venues. You can see a detailed list of all the entries here.

First Place, San Francisco: Ninja Leap

A novel 8-bit style game where you “leap” over the bad guys. A good demo of the Canvas element and a complete game with levels and scoring. Congratulations David Ganzhorn and Mike Rotondo on winning the HTML5 Game Jam in the USA.

First Place, Hilversum: Monkey Fortress

A puzzle game where you build a fortress to protect the monkey, demonstrating a physics engine in Canvas. Congratulations Tom Hastjarjanto on winning the HTML5 Game Jam in Europe.

Second Place, San Francisco: Shell Shock

A platform shooter involving turtle-like creatures on wheels, using Canvas. By Wolff Dobson, Charles Lee, Nicolas Coderre, Dan Fessler, Sara Asher. (No online demo at present.)

Second Place, Hilversum: Snakes

A refresh on the classic “Snake” game, demonstrating multiplayer powered by NodeJS and WebSocket, and 3D transforms of the canvas element. By David Durman & Ales Sturala. (No online demo at present, but code repository available.)

Third Place, San Francisco: Fruit Link

A casual puzzle game by Bruno Garcia, where you link up adjacent matching fruit.

Third Place, Hilversum: Enterprise

A stunning 3D game inspired by the classic Syndicate series showcasing just how far we’ve come with Canvas-based graphics. Observe the collision detection and be sure to hit the “Flying Carpet” button as well as the space bar to fire! This game was also shown in the “Web or Native for Mobile Development?” session at the recent Google Developer Days conferences in Europe. Created by Kornel Lesinski, Peter van der Zee, and Edwin Martin.

A few other readily playable games you might enjoy are:

• Atome by Pierre-Louc Doulcet
• Tablet Tennis (multitouch) by Michiel van den Anker
• Scubed by David Gregory, Estelle Weyl, Gabe Hernandez, Perry Chow, Stacie Hibino
• Smiley vs. the Gumballs by Michael Yorg

We were also honoured to have keynotes by two pioneers of web-based gaming. In Hilversum, the speaker was Tino Zijdel, creator of DHTML Lemmings back in 2004. Tino, coincidentally a Hilversum local, explained the tricks he used to make the game playable on the browsers of the day. He has subsequently written his account of the Game Jam. It’s in Dutch, so here’s an English translation. There were additional presentations from from Yu Jianrong, who covered ten tips for HTML5 Game Development and Paul Irish on HTML5.

The San Francisco keynote was given by Marcin Wichary, who gave a keynote on games and HTML5. Marcin is the creator of the Pac-Man doodle and also the first version of the popular HTML5Rocks slides. Marcin talked about his experiences in recreating Pac-Man and the timeless aspects of videogaming in modern age, shared some behind-the-scenes trivia, and shared the technology used to write the doodle and debug it.

We thank SPIL Games for hosting and co-organising the Netherlands event, and we also thank Samsung for contributing a Galaxy Tab for the Game Jam at that venue. Developers working on touch apps were able to use the Tab for testing, and we later gave the device away as a prize. Congratulations all who took part!

You can find more details about the event, including links to code repositories and further demos, at HTML5GameJam.com.

By Michael Mahemoff, Chrome Developer Relations

Google’s sample OpenID relying party site

More and more websites are enhancing their login systems to include buttons for identity providers such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, etc. Users generally prefer this approach because it makes it easier for them to sign up for a new site that they visit. However if a user already has an account at a website, and they are used to logging in with their email and password, then it is hard to get them to switch to using an identity provider.

Google has recently released a sample site that shows how a website can migrate users away from password based logins, and instead have them leverage an identity provider. This sample site incorporates many of the ideas of the Internet Identity community, as well as feedback from numerous websites who have been on the cutting edge of applying these techniques. The following video provides highlights of some elements of the user experience.

The sample site is at openidsamplestore.com, but we suggest first reading this FAQ which describes the site and has links to additional videos of some of the features. We hope website developers will use these techniques to reduce the need for passwords on their site.

By Eric Sachs, Internet Identity Team

TSA Screening: A Pop Cultural Perspective

Now there has been a lot of discussion as of late about the Transportation Security Administration's (and by extension, the security personnel at airports around the world) use of backscatter security scanners and "enhanced" patdown procedures.

I thought it would be interesting to look at these real world events through the lens of pop culture by asking what if you had seen what is going on today in movies and on television in the past... how would it have been painted?

For instance, if you were watching a movie from the the mid-1990's and these kind of procedures were featured during any part of the movie, you would instantly know you were watching a dystopian science fiction film. Think about it.

I mean, think about even Total Recall and its computerized x-ray machine that only showed a person's bones. That wasn't a very pleasant society, was it?

If you were watching an episode of 24 or a movie and what the TSA is doing today was shown happening at the airport in a foreign country, you might be inclined to believe that you were watching the actions of a repressive regime, and the not so subtle odor of corruption would also likely be involved. If it was from a movie in the late 1980's, they may have made it something that the Warsaw Pact countries were doing, or dictatorship in Africa or South America, and in the 1990's, it would have likely been a Middle Eastern country doing such things.

If you were watching a fictional movie about the American Political system and the events leading up to the deployment of the Backscatter Security System were recounted, by the end of that film, the people who did that would be under indictment or have taken their own life.

And if you were watching a movie or television show where the patdown experience was so extreme that sexual abuse and rape survivors were literally breaking down and crying, or those with physical infirmities were made to perform outrageous acts or humiliated, like being forced to show their hidden prostheses or covered in their own urine just so they could fly, those heaping those indignities would not be sympathetic, would they, even if they were just following orders.

In all the cases I've mentioned, the societies that are doing these things end up on the wrong side of things every time and are evil. If this is the case in fiction, why would it not be so when these very same things are happening in real life.

I know that terrorism is a threat, but no matter what measures someone dreams up, there are those who are determined to destroy, and they will come up with creative ways to do so. Ironically, sometimes they seemingly get their ideas from fiction as well.

So putting a bunch of money in a former political appointees pocket and making everyone else miserable is not the answer. Because this all ends with the flying public having to show up to the airport 3 days early and naked just because someone took an Ellen Degeneres joke and ran with it.

Sunday Video: French Disko

I love Stereolab, but I laugh every time I watch this video.

Why?

The people dancing in the audience.

It is like they scooped up every young adult subcultural stereotype from the early 1990's, threw them in an audience with cameras and told (or paid) them to dance.

And I am especially amused by the idea that while the band was performing, they were getting to see how silly some of those people looked out in front of the stage unfiltered. I would have loved to have heard the conversation backstage after that.

Especially about this dude:

Seriously man, what were you thinking? I know it isn't nice to mock the fashion choices of the past, but come on. I can't think of any time this would be a hip look.

New Web Weather Applications

Now that the weather has calmed down a bit and nothing serious is on the weather horizon (except for some good snowfalls in the mountains), its a good time to talk about some new powerful local weather websites.

New UW Weather Radar Interface

The first is a new weather radar website hosted by the UW. Created by Harry Edmon (the atmospheric sciences dept computer guru) with lots of input from Dale Durran, the department chair, this new local radar website combines all the local weather radars...both U.S. National Weather Service and the Canadian Environment Canada radars...into one seamless package (see sample below):

And when the new Washington coast radar becomes available, it will be added. You have nice control of the loop length and the opacity of the radar echos, as well as the loop speed. And an online tutorial about radar imagery! This site, with some coffee and donuts, would make an entertaining diversion!

How to get to it? Here is the link (or click on the image above)

http://www.atmos.washington.edu/weather/radar.shtml

WINDWATCH

How about a site that accesses the latest UW high resolution model and National Weather Service local forecasts, looking for high wind situations and displaying the information with a nice interface. This is WINDWATCH. WINDWATCH was sponsored by Seattle City Light (SCL), who is interested in accurate high-wind guidance for obvious reason, and the idea came out of discussions with SCL staff (the now retired Wing Cheng played a major role, as did Karyn Grob). Take a look at the front page of WINDWATCH

Windwatch looks out 72 h. You can view a look of sustained winds or wind gusts, with the winds indicated by wind vectors and shading (for winds exceeding 30 mph). A close in city or larger regional view are available. The initial loops is for the UW high-res model, but you can easily change to the NWS human-based forecasts by using the tab. But the fund doesn't stop there...if there is a NWS wind warning a warning tab turns red...select it and you see what the warnings are. Or you can view the NWS local (zone) forecasts or the NWS discussion where you can understand the lead forecaster's thought process. Or try the alert tab, which will lay out all the periods...color-coded...for which the winds are predicted to exceed 30 mph.

Windwatch has another capability...when the forecast winds are predicted to be strong the software sends emails to Seattle City Light staff (or anyone else we want).

Finally, this site shows the winds above Seattle (the Profiler Tab). Although this site was designed with Seattle City Light staff in mind, it should be very useful for anyone worried about strong winds. We have considered adding a module that it will email local TV stations about the locations of the absolutely strongest winds so they can position their staff for maximum weather-hype effect.

Anyway, here is the link (or click on the windwatch image):
http://www.atmos.washington.edu/SCL/

Week 29: Pageant of the Transmundane

For the weird news opener of the week, do I need to go further than stating the following: Sarah Palin. North Korea. Allies.

Anyway, this week's winning entry comes to us from The Droid You're Looking For.

In this case, it is a series of Failed Ghostbusters Product Endorsements, my favorite of which is the Chocolate Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

And since this week's winning entry has to do with the Ghostbusters, I thought Homer playing that role would be the most approriate image.

Congrats. Here is your badge.

The rules of this little contest: Every week I will be selecting one blog post that I have seen from the vast reaches of the blogging village to bestow with the Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award for being one of the freakiest(in a funny way) things I've seen or read during a 7 day period. It doesn't necessarily have to have been written during the week, I just had to have encountered it. That means that if you find something interesting and repost it like a movie or whatever, if I saw it at your blog first, you get the prize. Of course, creating your own content is also a very good way to win.

This is not a meme. This is an award that I give out, and thus, I am not "tagging" you.

Now, if you see a post that you think is worthy of this illustrious prize, just drop me a line at campybeaver@gmail.com and we'll see if we can't get your suggestion up and award-ready while giving you some credit and a link to your own blog.

Awesome Webgame: GunBlood

I've played a lot of web-based flash games, but yesterday I stumbled upon one which is both simple in concept, but still incredibly compelling.

The game is called GunBlood, and it simulates in a slightly cartoonish fashion the gun duels of the Old West.

You begin by selecting your character. I haven't found any profound differences in how they behave, so it is more about finding one whose look you like the best.

You then face your first opponent. You play by rolling over the chamber of your gun at the bottom of the screen, wait for the countdown to finish before aiming at your opponent with your gun. If you are quick and accurate, your opponent will be killed before they even get a shot off, but if you aren't, well, things can get dicey. Depending on where you and your opponent get hit, either or both of you can end up on one knee or on your back and stomach, but if you still have ammo and some life left, you can continue the fight.

What I found especially thrilling was the fact that even the earliest opponents can beat you if you screw up, so each fight is tense in the best possible way. And since the gunfights generally last only a few seconds, you end up in some situations where you have to react very quickly if you want to survive.

For a game based on such a simple concept and execution, it works amazingly well.

I started a group there too if anyone wants to compare scores and such.

Thanksgiving and getting

Thanksgiving is an almost uniquely American holiday. (I know there is a Canadian version but this weekend I will follow US tradition by putting that aside.) It celebrates a time in the 1620s when this country's immigration policy was not only one of open borders but of active assistance to immigrants. This is just as well because the immigrants to the US from Europe during that time would have been stuffed without help from local inhabitants. Thanksgiving celebrates that help although it is not lost on anyone that US immigration policy is now considerably different, I suspect for historical reasons, perhaps recalling that open immigration perhaps didn't work out so well for past inhabitants.

Nonetheless, it was clear that in the 1620s, it was food that was a core issue for new settlers. For that reason, every year, US families gather together to prove to everyone that food is no longer an issue. And yesterday we joined one such family for what we understand to have been a dinner combining every single tradition within a modern suit as is humanly possible.

Like Halloween, Thanksgiving had received some hype for our kids. Our respective children had played together for a year. They had been told that their grandparents house, where our event would take place, was a house of wonder where there was candy and toys literally in every corner. Our children were sceptical and given some Halloween disappointments, expected a good meal, but nothing to write home about. In this case, the myth turned out to be the reality.

This was a house that did not like taxes and one tax that had been identified as evil was my health tax -- re-dubbed the 'candy tax.' Soon upon entering our kids were told that in this house the candy tax had been repealed. Not only that but candy was freely available. It was everywhere. Lollipop displays, bowls of M&M's and some Swedish red fish that now rates in their eyes as one of the greatest culinary creations in human history. To wit, when a discussion turned to what people might have as a last meal my daughter resolutely stated her menu of "chocolate, Ben and Jerry's ice cream and those red fish." I could see my son looking around in wonder and then feeling the walls to see if they were made of gingerbread. 

But it wasn't only that, there was also the toys. There were toys everywhere. These were grandparents who in no uncertain terms were going all out. (And not just in toys but in attire. The grandmother was dressed as a pilgrim and the grandfather had a roast turkey adorning his head). Months of investment going around yard sales and discount shops had paid off. The toys were stacked many feet high. Our kids didn't know what to do next. They could do no more than frolic around with the distinct impressions that dreams can indeed come true. "I can't believe it. It is exactly what they said it would be."

And the house itself was a pure delight. The walls were covered with memorabilia. It could have been a museum to well, museum shops. Every room had a theme. From the revolution to broadway to a hunting lodge and then a bathroom where every wall was a mirror, including the ceiling and right down to the light switches (see photo). You could see yourself drifting a thousand times over in all directions. Going there is quite an experience.

Suffice it to say, this was one situation in which engaging in any type of what might be called parenting was futile. So we didn't. As it turned out, the children were not the only ones who would be saved from starvation. We too were seduced by the red fish but then the adults were presented a meal that actively sought to destroy any pretense for restrained living with course after course of mash potatoes, assortments of pies and a turkey whose size would have required a trained game hunter to have brought down. It is just as well we didn't have to attend to the children as it was not really possible to move. It was quite a feast and then they brought out dessert.

Eventually, much to our surprise, it was one of the native grandchildren who succumbed first to the unrestrained consumption. He knew it was coming and, with full cheeks, was ushered into the bathroom by one of his parents. One can only imagine that scene as several thousand kids simultaneously 'tossed their cookies.' By the look of his parent upon exiting, this is a dream-like fantasy that could have been spared reality.

My children eventually collapsed from exhaustion but kept their load. Our fears that they might not fall asleep were unfounded. And then next morning, much to our amazement they wanted to eat breakfast. On time and as usual. We offered them vege sticks. They didn't eat.

It is interesting to speculate why Thanksgiving has grown in popularity over the years. These days it has been combined with another past time, shopping, although for the life of my I can't understand how and why people would rise themselves today to get to the shops by 4am. If there is a greater example of market unraveling I haven't seen it.

But in looking around this family gathered all in one place from afar with the knowledge that half of them were away from their families, I think the holiday may be a negotiated consequence of duality. In the US, where so many families live in different cities, Thanksgiving allows one family gathering to be allocated while I guess at Christmas or another occasion, the other side of the family gets together. It provides the extra holiday so that in each family both sides can have their piece of the action. It is a market response to a fundamental scarcity of allocating members to large, annual family gatherings. We were happy on this occasion to be part of this one.

How My PS2 Collection Stacks Up To The Critics Best-Of Lists

If you read my entry for the Coalition of Awesomeness's Geek Obsession theme (or if you've been reading Culture Kills for a significant amount of time), you know that I have, how shall I put this... a healthy collection of Playstation 2 games.

With today being the American Thanksgiving and last month being that console's 10th anniversary, I thought it would be interesting to look through a couple of best of lists for it to see how my collection stands up. I think I did very well.

Let's begin with Gamepro's most recent list of the 36 Best Games for the PS2. I've put the game I own in bold, and the ones I used to own in bold italic.

1. God of War 2
2. Resident Evil 4
3. Shadow of the Colossus
4. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
5. Okami
6. Final Fantasy XII
7. God of War
8. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater / Subsistence
9. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
10. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty / Substance
11. Gran Turismo 4
12. Hitman: Blood Money
13. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
14. Ico
15. Guitar Hero 2
16. Kingdom Hearts 2
17. Final Fantasy X-2
18. Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
19. Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy
20. Tekken 5
21. Devil May Cry
22. Twisted Metal Black
23. Burnout 3: Takedown
24. Bully
25. Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening
26. Silent Hill 2
27. TimeSplitters: Future Perfect
28. Onimusha: Warlords
29. Lego Star Wars: The Video Game / Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
30. We Love Katamari
31. Black
32. SOCOM 2: U.S. Navy SEALs
33. Marvel vs. Capcom 2
34. Escape from Monkey Island
35. SSX 3
36. Fight Night Round 3 

Then there is IGN's list of the Top 100 PS2 Games.

1. Shadow of the Colossus
2. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
3. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
4. God of War II
5. ICO
6. Okami
7. Kingdom Hearts
8. Grand Theft Auto III
9. Gran Turismo 4
10. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
11. Burnout 3: Takedown
12. Guitar Hero II
13. Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution
14. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
15. Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
16. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
17. Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner
18. Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening
19. Rez
20. Resident Evil 4
21. God of War
22. Katamari Damacy
23. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
24. Final Fantasy X
25. Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus
26. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES
27. Frequency
28. Guilty Gear X2
29. Soulcalibur II
30. Guitar Hero
31. Dark Cloud 2
32. Black
33. Ridge Racer V
34. Beyond Good & Evil
35. GrimGrimoire
36. Amplitude
37. Viewtiful Joe
38. TimeSplitters 2
39. Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
40. Jak 3
41. Ratchet & Clank
42. Devil May Cry
43. Bully
44. Odin Sphere
45. Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny
46. ESPN NFL 2K5
47. Suikoden III
48. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness
49. Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec
50. Gitaroo-Man
51. Twisted Metal: Black
52. NBA Street Vol. 2
53. Rogue Galaxy
54. Silent Hill 2
55. Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy
56. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2
57. Tomb Raider Anniversary
58. Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
59. Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly
60. Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves
61. The Warriors
62. Mercenaries
63. Primal
64. Aggressive Inline
65. WWE SmackDown! Here Comes the Pain
66. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance
67. Psychonauts
68. Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love
69. Star Wars: Battlefront
70. Tourist Trophy: The Real Riding Simulator
71. X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse
72. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory
73. Kingdom Hearts II
74. Maximo: Ghosts to Glory
75. Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando
76. Ar Tonelico 2: Melody of MetaFalica
77. The Mark of Kri
78. MVP Baseball 2005
79. Final Fantasy XII
80. Spider-Man 2
81. SSX 3
82. Burnout 2: Point of Impact
83. Transformers
84. Gungrave
85. Manhunt
86. Battle Engine Aquila
87. Project Eden
88. Monster Rancher 4
89. Viewtiful Joe 2
90. Dead to Rights
91. Colin McRae Rally 3
92. Kingdom Hearts RE: Chain of Memories
93. Fight Night 2004
94. Killer 7
95. SSX Tricky
96. Max Payne
97. SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs
98. Madden NFL 2005
99. Karaoke Revolution
100. God Hand

And there is Complex's list of their Top 25 PS2 Games. In addition to the other demarcations, I have also italicized games I have a version of.

1. Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (2005) (I have Snake Eater)
2. God of War (2005)
3. Ico (2001)
4. Final Fantasy X (2001)
5. Devil May Cry (2001)
6. Tekken 5 (2005)
7. Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal (2004)
8. Shadow of the Colossus (2005)
9. Silent Hill 2 (2001)
10. Jak 3 (2004)
11. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002)
12. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001)
13. SOCOM II: U. S. Navy SEALs (2007)
14. God of War 2 (2007)
15. Gran Turismo 4 (2006)
16. Okami (2006)
17. Zone of the Enders: The Second Runner (2003)
18. Kingdom Hearts (2002)
19. Katamari Damacy (2004)
20. Persona 3 (2006) (I have Persona 3: FES)
21. Virtua Fighter 4 (2002) (I have Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution)
22. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (2003)
23. Guitar Hero II (2006)
24. Final Fantasy XII (2007)
25. Burnout 3: Takedown (2004)

So yeah... it's official. I am a freak.

Its Snowing

Sitting in Seattle right now, its 30F and big aggregate snow flakes are slowly drifting down outside of my window. That plus a nice cup of tea and a successful forecast--life doesn't get much better than that.

But it won't last unfortunately.

Right now a warm frontal zone is moving in overhead...that is producing the precipitation, but it is also producing warming aloft over the region. Here is the latest infrared satellite picture. You can see the main front offshore (band extending SW-NE) and the warm front is the stubby appendage extending NW-SE over us. It will only give us 3-6 hr of precipitation.
Here is the latest (6:42 AM) radar--in clear air mode, because the precipitation is light. You can see the precipitation (snow) and also an area just east of the Olympics is not getting anything. The reason--there is rainshadowing (really snowshadowing!) because the flow aloft is out of the northwest. So the folks on Kitsap with all the power outages are not getting much snow....there are balances to life evidently.
Temperatures are warming aloft. Here are the hourly temperatures soundings (temp plot in the vertical) here in Seattle from the profiler. These temperatures are really virtual temperatures (don't ask...just subtract about 1C for regular temperature, and yes they are in C). Height in meters. You are looking at plots starting at midnight (2508) to 6 AM (2514). The clear message is that temperatures are warming and we now have a layer near freezing in the lowest several hundred meters--this is a layer of precipitation melting. These are wet snowflakes.Here is a different view of the temperatures and winds above us from the profiler...called a time height cross section:You can see the warming southerly and southwesterly flow (look at the wind barbs) above us and warming is evident..yesterday above us the virtual temperature was -8C at 500 meters, now it is -1C (really -2C actual temperature). This snow is not going to last long..a few hours at most. Clearly, the warming is happening a few hours faster than expected by the models last night. So I would not give the snow much more time now...hour perhaps over Puget Sound. But it could hold in longer over NW Washington, where cooler flow exiting the gaps will maintain the snow for a few hours more.

This is good for DOTs and holiday travel around the west....temperatures are now climbing above freezing and wet snow will end in a few hours. Good for holiday travel. And the end to an early major cold snaps around here--one that will go into the record books like 1955 and 1985.

Snow Update

Yes..it looks like more snow..but only for a few hours...here is the latest WRF high resolution results for the 24-h snowfall ending 4 PM tomorrow. Snow over central Puget Sound (maybe an inch) and several inches over portions of NW Washington. The NWS concurs on this. Hopefully won't mess up this forecast! The mountains, particularly the north Cascades, will get lots of snow too. The lowland snow is mainly from roughly 6 AM through 10-11 AM and then it turns to rain. Could have transitional periods of sleet and freezing rain. If the latter, be really careful if you have to drive. The roads in Seattle are really much better now (I saw TWO SDOT trucks in short drive today, hitting the roads with lots of salt!)

Freezing rain occurs when rain falls into a subfreezing air level and cools below freezing. YES, you CAN have liquid water when temps get to freezing and below. It is called supercooled water. Clouds have lots of it! When freezing rain hits a cold surface it freezes on contact. By noon it all should be over....

Midweek Video: Charles Bronson's Killing Hipsters

I have a Death Wish against hipsters.

The George Lopez Divorce

I should begin by stating that I am not mocking this parting or the individuals involved.

And this post is an exception to a way of thinking I've been rather clear in demonstrating.

After all, I've been rather critical of celebrity relationship reporting in the past, but in this case, my morbid curiosity is getting the better of me because there is a rather unique issue in this particular split which is really making me wonder.

You see, about 5 years ago, George Lopez was suffering from a disease which caused his kidneys to shutdown and die, and his wife gave him one of hers.

And now they are divorcing.

You can sell a car or a house, you can share the custody of a child. But how do you quantify a body part that helps keep one party alive. Would it even come up in the discussions?

Because if it did, I could see it being used as a huge bargaining chip, the trump card in any disagreement.

Say George Lopez doesn't want to pay a particular amount of money per month for alimony... I could see his soon to be ex-wife or her lawyers stating that I guess the fact that she gave him a kidney isn't worth anything.

And apparently he was cheating. How do you cheat on someone who helped you stay alive? Infidelity is horrible, but that just takes it to a whole new level of dick moves.

Given that another famous victim of infidelity (Sandra Bullock) helped get his first sitcom off the ground, he is really burning some bridges too.

Now I am not a fan of Jay Leno, but somehow George Lopez has made himself less likable than him. That is a mean feat.

The Thanksgiving Forecast

Major changes are going to happen in the next day and the end of the cold temperatures and icy grip are in sight....but there is much to get through first.

You can see the changes in the sky. Clouds moved in overhead accompanying warming aloft.

An interesting observation...temperatures warmed a bit in the middle of the night as the cloud spread overhead. The temps at Seattle-Tacoma Airport show this:
Nothing changed at the surface. Why? The reason is that clouds emit infrared radiation better than the clear air, so when clouds came in aloft there was more infrared radiation directed down to the surface...and thus warming.

There has been some snow flurries with the clouds aloft (you can see the light stuff in the radar below)
Ok, lets talk about the forecast. This is a MUCH easier forecast than Monday--fairly straightforward system coming off the Pacific without the coastal troughing/low generation that made the Monday forecast so uncertain.

First, what we are SURE about? It will warm up tomorrow afternoon. The ice and snow will rapidly melt late tomorrow and Friday. And rain is coming back.

So lets talk it through, including where the uncertainties lie.

Today the temps will stay in the 20s, and with little sun roads will not improve much. Keep in mind that ice is much less slippery in the lower 20s than in the upper 20s or near freezing. So in some sense conditions are much better now than on late Monday or what will occur as melting starts. And here in Seattle most of the major streets are in good condition.

Tonight the air will begin warming more rapidly aloft, but it will take time to scour out the cold dense air near the surface. Our computer models tend to mix the cool air out to quickly...and we know that. Anyway, warm- frontal precipitation should enter the region between 6 AM and 10 AM. It could well start as light snow. But by noon or early afternoon it should switch to rain and decrease in intensity. Good chance the precip will stop in the later afternoon and early evening. The main cold front comes in Friday morning.

There should be very strong winds over NW Washington and along the coast later on Thursday and Friday morning.

So the bottom line:

today...what you see is what you get.
tomorrow morning will have the potential for some light am snow and increasingly slippery conditions of melting ice.
By late Thursday the warming should improve conditions substantially.
Friday we will transition back to normal with rain,typical conditions, and wind in the normal locations.

Just in time to go shopping for black Friday. Hopefully METRO will turn its bus-tracker website back on (much more that in a future blog!)

Amazing Videos and the Latest Snow Totals

Last night there was blizzard-like conditions around our area...with the Hood Canal and environs being particularly hard hit. Check out this video from Silverdale on the Kitsap Peninsula courtesy of Dale Ireland. Their power is still out...

http://www.drdale.com/lapse/snow101122canon.mov

The conditions were treacherous last night on the city hills...and it didn't take a lot of snow/ice to make the roads impassable. This is one of the most amazing videos I have seen on this topic and the music really works:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhZCyQ3emQg

Multiply this by all the incidents across the city and the state for the entire winter and it is clear that roadway ice is the most serious meteorological threat of all!

I can help myself..this is from an earlier Portland storm and is beyond belief (provided by natchrl8r):
http://www.youtube.com/user/SuperVid4u#p/a/u/2/YmVh56_lz7w

Perhaps what we need is a law making it ILLEGAL to drive on inclined streets in dangerous conditions.

Tonight the temperatures will head down to the lower teens and even single digits in the western side of the state. And tomorrow will be sunny, but cold.

Thursday will be the transition day to warmer temperatures...but will we get snow as the warm air comes in? Will examine that tomorrow.

And finally, the NWS has released the latest snow totals from the storm. It really hard on the north side of the Olympics:

..SNOWFALL TOTALS THROUGH TUESDAY MORNING...

SNOWFALL TOTALS LESS THAN 1 INCH WERE GENERALLY NOT LISTED.
COCORAHS OBSERVATIONS ARE TAKEN ONCE A DAY...GENERALLY BETWEEN
5 AND 8 AM.

SNOWFALL DEPTH OBSERVATION
(IN) (IN) TYPE

CLALLAM COUNTY

SEQUIM 5.4 SW 13.0 15 CO
ELWHA 1 ENE 11.0 SP
PORT ANGELES 2.5 SSW 9.7 14 CO
SEQUIM 5.5 NNW 8.7 CO
MOUNT PLEASANT 4 WNW 7.6 SP
N COVILLE (THRU 12PM) 7.0 SP
FORKS 6.9 WSW 1.0 2 CO
_______________________________________________

KING COUNTY

NORTH BEND 3 ESE 13.0 SP
NORTH BEND 2.8 SE 9.5 12 CO
ENUMCLAW 4 WNW 7.0 SP
RENTON 3.2 E 7.0 7 CO
NORTH BEND 5.4 ESE 6.3 11 CO
ISSAQUAH (EL 300 FT) 6.0 7 CO
AUBURN 8.2 SE 5.5 8 CO
LAKEKLAND NORTH 5.1 CO
COVINGTON 1.1 NE 5.0 CO
NEWPORT HILLS 1.9SSE 5.0 CO
RENTON 3.6 SSE 4.7 CO
KENT 1.7 SSE 4.5 CO
ISSAQUAH 3 SSW (EL 1375 FT) 4.5 NW
AUBURN 1 S 3.5 4 SP
SEATTLE 3.0 WNW 3.0 CO
SEATTLE 5.1 SE 3.2 CO
BELLEVUE 0.8 S 3.0 CO
SEATTLE-TACOMA AIRPORT 2.7 MT
SAMMAMISH 1.7 NNE 2.5 CO
KIRKLAND 0.8 SW 2.4 CO
ISSAQUAH 3.6 NW 2.3 CO
FEDERAL WAY 2.5 NNE 2.3 CO
KENMORE 2.0 NW
MADISON PARK ( SEATTLE ) 2.0 NW
NWS SEATTLE 2.0 MT
SHORELINE 1.7 NW 1.5 CO
_______________________________________________

SNOHOMISH COUNTY

MARYSVILLE 4 N 5.0 SP
LYNNWOOD 3.0
CLEARVIEW 0.8 SW 3.0 CO
STANWOOD 0.7 N 2.5 CO
LAKE STEVENS 0.9 NW 2.3 CO
BOTHELL 4.9 NNW 2.0 CO
EVERETT 3.6 S 2.0 CO
ARLINGTON 1.7 NNE 2.0 CO
MILL CREEK 2.0 NW
EDMONDS 2.0
BOTHELL 4.9 NNW 2.0 NW
MONROE 1.8
BRIER 0.8 NE 1.5 CO
_______________________________________________

PIERCE COUNTY

EATONVILLE (EL 800 FT) 13.0 17 SP
EATONVILLE 7.4 NNW 9.8 12 CO
PUYALLUP 5 E 6.5 SP
FREDERICKSON 5 SE 6.0 SP
PUYALLUP 2.1 NW 4.0 CO
SUMMIT 1.1 WSW 4.0 CO
PARKLAND 0.9 NE 3.9 CO
STEILACOOM 0.4 NW 2.5 CO
PUYALLUP 2.1 ESE 2.5 4 CO
TACOMA 3.1 NW 1.0
_______________________________________________

LEWIS COUNTY

ELBE 5 SSE (MINERAL) 10.0 SP
CINEBAR 1.7 SW 5.5 8 CO
ONALASKA 2.8 NE 5.1 8 CO
WINLOCK 0.5 W 4.7 CO
MOSSYROCK 3 ESE 4.0 SP
_______________________________________________

MASON COUNTY

SHELTON 5.2 NNW 6.5 CO
SHELTON 6.1 E 5.0 CO
POTLATCH 2 N (THRU 1230) 4.0 SP
SHELTON 2.8 ESE 2.9 5 CO
_______________________________________________

KITSAP COUNTY

KINGSTON 2.7 SSE 6.0 CO
INDIANOLA 0.9 NNW 4.8 CO
BREMERTON 5 SSW (GOLD MTN) 5.0 SP
SUQUAMISH 4.0 CO
KINGSTON 1.7 WNW 3.7 CO
BETHEL 5 SSE 2.8 SP
BREMERTON 2.8 NE 2.5 CO
_______________________________________________

ISLAND COUNTY

LANGELY 4.1 NW 2.8 CO
COUPEVILLE 0.5 WNW 2.1 CO
FREELAND 1 WSW 2.0 SP
_______________________________________________

THURSTON COUNTY

ROCHESTER 1.3 NNE 4.0 5 CO
YELM 6.3 S 3.9 6 CO
OLYMPIA 1.3 S 3.2 CO
OLYMPIA 3.1 SSE 2.2 3 CO
OLYMPIA 7.0 NNE 1.8 CO
_______________________________________________

JEFFERSON COUNTY

CHIMACUM 1.8 SW 4.5 CO
PORT HADLOCK 0.7 NW 4.5 CO
PORT TOWNSEND NW 1(THRU 1PM) 4.5 SP
PORT TOWNSEND 2.2 W 4.1 CO
CHIMACUM 5.1 S 4.0 CO
PORT TOWNSEND 4.6 S 3.0 CO
_______________________________________________

SKAGIT COUNTY

ANACORTES 4.9 S 2.4 CO
CONCRETE 4.9 ESE 1.6 4 CO
MOUNT VERNON 1.1 E 0.8 CO
_______________________________________________

SAN JUAN COUNTY

LOPEZ ISLAND 2.2 WSW 1.0 CO
FRIDAY HARBOR 2.8 S 1.0 CO

_______________________________________________

GRAYS HARBOR COUNTY

ELMA 0.5 W 1.0 2 CO

MT = AUGMENTED ASOS OBSERVATION
CO = COCORAHS
SP = SKYWARN SPOTTER
NW = NWS EMPLOYEE

$$

DAMICO/FELTON
WEATHER.GOV/SEATTLE

A Pairing Full of Destiny

I would so watch this as a cartoon series or read it as a comic. Powdered Toastman and Deadpool... a pairing full of destiny.

via New Grounds.

Confession

I still haven't seen any of the Harry Potter movies since the first one (or read any of the novels).

Oh, the horror and the shame.

Random Hacks of Kindness #2 - Come hack for humanity!

On the weekend of December 4 and 5, hackers will gather in cities around the globe to create software solutions that make a difference.

Google, Microsoft, The World Bank and Yahoo! are inviting software developers, independent hackers and students to participate in Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK #2) next weekend.

RHoK brings together volunteer programmers and experts in disaster response for a two-day hackathon to create software solutions that focus on problems related to disaster risk and response. It is an opportunity to meet and work with top software developers and disaster experts, to create and improve open source applications that enable communities to recover from disasters, and to possibly win prizes.

Examples of previous hacks include the “I’m OK” app from RHoK #0 in November 2009, which was used during the response to recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, and the landslide prediction tool “Chasm,” winner of RHoK #1 in June 2010.

RHOK will be held simultaneously in many locations around the world. The five main stages will be in Chicago, Sao Paolo, Aarhus, Nairobi and Bangalore; and there will be over a dozen satellite events in other global cities. To find a location near you, see the latest list on the RHoK website.

Join us on December 4th and 5th, and visit www.rhok.org for more information.

By Christiaan Adams, Google Crisis Response Team

Winds

The snow is still going on..although generally light--and will end during the next 4-5 hrs. The reason is that the circulation aloft is right above us.

The winds tonight have been extraordinary...particularly over the NW portion of the state and over Puget Sound. Gust have been as high as 40-55 mph at Bellingham, Friday Harbor and the East Strait Buoy, and with temperatures in the lower 20s, the wind chills are below zero. Here is the latest gusts from Friday Harbor...just amazing...over 50 mph.



There have been substantial number of trees and branches knocked down by the strong northerlies and several power outages have been reported (see example below from city light)


I biked home today and it was an intense experience--rarely bicycle in blizzard, and sometimes whiteout, conditions.

The big issue now is cold, wind, and icing. The northerlies pushed down late this afternoon and the associated cold temperatures rapidly froze up bridges, since there is little conduction of heat from below. With temperatures in the mid to low 20s and dry air the slush, snow, water mixture at the surface will completely freeze tonight, except where sufficient deicer has been applied.

Tomorrow should be clear and sunny...but cold. However, if the snow is removed from roads then the sun will finish the melting and the highways will improve rapidly.