monsoonmartin

#makeamericasuckit

The song being played by G.E. Smith and the RNC band (fronted by a big bearded guy) just contained the lyrics, "We got cable, beer, and Jesus."

Jesus.

My fellow humans,

I have decided I am going to live-blog the Donald Trump acceptance speech because I feel like I am witnessing history - not in a "wow, look at that" way, but in a "these are the end times" way.  This may be an exercise in masochism.

Who am I kidding?  It definitely is.

To make things orderly and make it easy to find all of my posts, I will use the hashtag #makeamericasuckit, which I think is the slogan that communicates Trump's tone every time he speaks.

Enjoy!  And of course, I welcome your comments.

Monsoon

Yes, I named it after photographer and motion picture pioneer Eadweard Muybridge, who was born on April 9, 1830.  (An animated series of his photographs appears in this post.)

Anyway, snow on April 9th.  What in the name of Old Man Winter's frosty nostrils is going on?

So Friday 4/8: Breezy and cooler with times of clouds and sun.  High of 50, or just a hair above, but it's going to feel no warmer than the low 40s.

Saturday 4/9 will start out right around freezing and won't get out of the 30s all day.  Expect scattered snow showers between about 6am and noon, which will mix with (then turn to) rain.  We may see a bit more snow as the precipitation moves out, around 6pm to 8pm.  (Winds will increase late Saturday as well.)  Fortunately, this is April and it would need to snow furiously for a good long while to accumulate on paved surfaces.  So aside from slightly reduced visibility during snowfall and about a coating to an inch of accumulation on grass and whatnot, the Eadweard Muybridge's birthday storm will have little impact.

Hi.

Let me address one of my weather peeves: the notion that temperatures are going to be "10 degrees above normal" or "15 degrees below normal for this time of year."  When forecasters talk about "normal" temperatures, they're talking about the average, or mean.  Averages often reflect huge range differentials.

For example: the average high for today's date (March 30th) in Reading, PA is 56 degrees.  The actual high today (3/30/16) was 59 degrees.  On the same date in 2015, it was 56.  On 3/30/14, it was 47.  2013, 53.  2012, 61.  The average of those five years is 55.2 degrees.  When calculated using all the years available (that is, going back to 1943), it would come out to 56.

So when the temperature was 61 on 3/30/12, we were not "5 degrees above normal" ... it was just 61 degrees.  When it was 47 on 3/30/14, we weren't "9 degrees below normal" ... it was just 47 degrees.

Which brings me to the next six days.

Historically, the average high temperature for the period from March 31st to April 5th is 57 degrees.

Let's look at what to expect in the coming six days:

Thursday 3/31: sunny to start, but increasing clouds and wind by late afternoon.  Some showers in the evening and maybe even a thunderstorm.  High of 71.

Friday 4/1: breezy and quite warm with a shower (and widely scattered thunderstorms) in the morning and early afternoon.  High 74.

Saturday 4/2: partly sunny and quite windy with cooler temperatures.  Watch for a stray shower.  High 60.

Sunday 4/3: colder still with a few snow showers (!) possible early Sunday morning.  Still windy.  High 43.

Monday 4/4: overcast with a few rain showers in the afternoon.  High 51.

Tuesday 4/5: overcast with snow showers (maybe even enough to coat grassy surfaces and whatnot, but not enough to cause travel disruptions) turning to rain.  High 44.

So that's a wide range of temperatures.  Highs ranging from 45 to 75.  (Lows, accordingly, ranging from the 20s to the 50s.)

The average of all of the widely variant high temperatures is ...............

Wait for it.........

57 degrees.

BOO YA!!!!!

Stay tuned for updates.

And happy 68th birthday to Rhea Perlman on March 31st.

And happy 44th birthday to Jill Scott on April 4th.

Monsoon

P.S. If there any errors in my use of the maths or math terminology, please tell me, math teacher friends.  But be gentle.