Good morning everyone!

Happy Friday…and to our friends along the coast, we’re hoping everyone is ok after this nasty nor-easter (formally Tropical Storm Ida) eventually moves outta here!   Some areas have picked up close to a foot of rain – especially along the border of coastal North Carolina and Virgina.  Strong winds gusting up to 50 mph will continue with a risk of power outages all along the Delmarva and into New Jersey.  Winds will move up the coast into Long Island and coastal New England tomorrow.  Coastal flooding, beach erosion and high waves will continue to impact the region over the next 24 hours especially during high tide. 

Meanwhile, I thought I would post Tony’s comment from this morning since his description is first hand!

Sorry, JD, I didn’t take any pictures. It was more of an experience than any dramatic pictures. Basically the trees were leaned to the sides blown by a perpetual wind for almost three days. The rain did not stop. Our car doors and front doors were blasted open when we cracked them even a little bit. You couldn’t use an umbrella because it would just break. We have some trees and tree limbs down around town though I didn’t see any of the trees. My friend works at Fort Monroe and waded to his car. When he opened the door, the water flooded into his car. Most of the flooding is on the south side in VA Beach, Norfolk, and surrounding towns and communities. Almost all the schools and military bases are closed today, though ironically there’s no reason for the kiddies not to go to school today because the storm has finally moved on. By the way, there were probably two dozen times when the gusts were so bad that the house creaked and shuddered, causing us to look at each other just a bit apprehensively. Quite frankly, I’m surprised one of our trees wasn’t knocked down. We clearly got hit by some very powerful gusts. Some water came in on the side of the house by the siding and windows, but not really much other damage. Roads are generally clear and we never lost power. I actually went to a meeting last night but we lost power at the building, and I just packed up, went home, and curled up with the family and a couple of books. Whew! That’s over.

Tony

Well written Tony!  You should write books on weather events ! LOL! 

jd

(Photo courtesy of AP: A couple of Oak Orchard, Del. , residents move through the flooded streets on Friday, Nov. 13, 2009. Remnants of Tropical Storm Ida pounded the East Coast on Friday, flooding coastal areas in New Jersey after slamming the Carolinas and Virginia.)

In other weather news,   we have a pair of storms will affect the northwest and Rockies heading into the weekend. Rain wind and snow will spread into much of the west with some of the higher elevations seeing a foot of snow or more.

If you have any pictures (hint hint Don and Tony!) of the weather in your area, you can email them to me at janicedean70@yahoo.com, and I’ll get them on the blog!

JD

Halloween wouldn’t be the same without a few doggie costumes, right?  Here’s a cute one of some flower-pugs!

AP Photo

Beautiful pictures from our friend Joni (from Blue Ridge) who went on a boating trip along San Juan Island last month…

Taken by Barbara Burr at a farm stand in Northern New York.  Love it!

Nice work, Margie!

(I’m not sure where Maria lives, though…Maria – let us know where this was taken.  It’s lovely!)

JD

From our friend, David (USAF WX) from Alaska!  These are beeeeee-autiful!

Hi everyone

My little man has his first cold and kept us up much of the night.  He didn’t want to sleep on the bed or in the crib and would only close his eyes on mom in the recliner chair.  Let’s just say I got a total of about 2 hours sleep, and my back is killing me!  The doctor says it’s just a cold, but to keep an eye on it.   Thankfully, he’s doing fine during the day.  It’s just at night when he has a hard time clearing the “crud”.  He also got a flu shot which I’m sure is going to make him even more uncomfortable, but apparently babies are being hit hard by the flu on the west coast, and the doctor is concerned it’s going to do the same here on the east coast.  I’m also pretty nervous about this H1N1 virus which we’re hearing more and more about every day.  We’ll see if she recommends giving him the shot at his 9 month visit at the end of October.   

Surprisingly, I’m holding up here at work.  I’m sure I’m going to crash at any point now.    A couple of weather stories we’re watching in the Fox Weather Center:   The wildfire in Southern California (boy have they had it rough this year!) has firefighters trying to save homes once again.  This time it’s in the San Gabriel Mountains.  Weather conditions are actually pretty good with much cooler temperatures and light winds.   Hopefully this should help the situation.

Several storm systems impacting the west this week will move across the U.S. and bring unsettled weather for much of the country.    Snow, rain and wind will be the cast across the Plains depending on where you live and the temperature outside, although a lot of folks are enjoying some early fall weather with below average temperatures for most. 

A frontal boundary continues to bring heavy rain to regions that don’t need anymore water over the southeast.  Flood watches and warnings will be something to watch for this week over places along the Gulf Coast into Georgia and the Carolinas.

And Tropical Storm Grace is way way out in the Atlantic and is no threat to land – Thank Goodness.  It’s hard to imagine a storm named “Grace” causing any kind of destruction!

I hope everyone had a good weekend.  We spent much of the day on Saturday at  Target.  I love that store!     You can never leave target without spending at least a few hundred dollars!  It never fails – even if you just go in there wanting to buy batteries or toilet paper…we still come out with bags and bags of stuff we forgot we needed!  HAHA!

P.S. – The viewer services folks haven’t gotten back to be about the photo link , so I may post an email address you can send directly to me to ensure your pictures get to me.  I’ll keep you posted.

JD