The lightning storm in Cincinnati on Friday night was pretty impressive.  I saw lots of people hanging out on their porches watching it. 

 

Yeah, the storm was just south and west of downtown and never really hit the city itself. The view was amazing, though, and thunder literally shook my house a few times. In hindsight, I should have gotten my camera out.

 

Well we somehow had huge thunderstorms with huge lighting shows two nights in a row.  I don't remember thunder and lightning like that for years and then it happened two nights in a row. Saturday had just under 2" of rain in one hour.  I don't recall the Ohio River ever being high and muddy like this in July.  Sometimes there is so little rain this time of year that the river becomes...clear.  I have photos of people knee-deep in the water with their toes visible. 

 

 

^Yeah, usually around late July and August the river is a really pretty blue/green color.  I have a western facing balcony in Mt. Adams and it was incredible to watch the lightning over OTR and the Western hills.  The muggy and rainy weather has been incredibly annoying, and has me wishing for fall despite usually loving summer and warm weather. 

I didn't catch any lighting last night, but there was one hell of a cloud over northern Kentucky:

 

Stunning!!!

Great shot, although it does resemble a nuclear test in the Pacific!

Grasswire ‏@grasswire  57s57 seconds ago

The most powerful storm on Earth this year (so far) is headed to Asia

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/04/earths-most-powerful-storm-of-the-year-roars-across-pacific.html

 

The next "most powerful" storm! Holy sh!t!!

 

Mark Johnson ‏@MarkJWeather  16m16 minutes ago

STRONGEST EVER! Cat 5 Hurricane Patricia will slam into Mexico today. Winds 200mph/Gusts to 245mph! @WEWS

 

Today, Nov. 18, 2015 in Cleveland it was sunny and 70 degrees with rain moving in during the evening.

 

But, one year ago today we were freezing our butts off in the teens while Buffalo was getting five feet of lake-effect snow! Oh the fickle weather of the Great Lakes region...

 

Literally the snow is crashing through homes in Buffalo! @10weather @ABC @AriWeather @Ken_Brewer pic.twitter.com/rzUl4GR5Qf

 

Today, Nov. 18, 2015 in Cleveland it was sunny and 70 degrees with rain moving in during the evening.

 

But, one year ago today we were freezing our butts off in the teens while Buffalo was getting five feet of lake-effect snow! Oh the fickle weather of the Great Lakes region...

 

Literally the snow is crashing through homes in Buffalo! @10weather @ABC @AriWeather @Ken_Brewer pic.twitter.com/rzUl4GR5Qf

 

 

And on December 12 it was 70 degrees in spots, with sporadic rain moving in later that evening.

Tom Schmidlin in #KentState’s Department of Geology revisits the blizzard of '78 in this video via @clevelanddotcom: https://t.co/AqUtdarIym

That was my parents' first winter after having moved to Cleveland from the south. Did a mental number on them.

Waiting for the RTA Cleveland State Line BRT-lite on Clifton Boulevard in Cove Avenue in Lakewood on Dec. 24. Yes, that's a guy wearing shorts and sandals. Why not -- it's freakin' 60 degrees!

 

Short-sandals-CliftonCove-busstop-122215 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

Meanwhile, here in Dallas...the day after Christmas...

 

Global warming.

 

After a brief mild spell this weekend the GFS weather model is consistently showing the coldest air of the year for the Central and Eastern US will arrive next week and hang around. Contrary to all the El Nino weather hype winter has arrived after all. :)

I'm in Cleveland currently, visiting for a week. After four days of near complete dreariness the sun came out yesterday around 3:30 pm, so I walked across the street into the park just to have ten minutes of sun on my face. Totally worth it.

 

Now today is really sunny, and it seems like it's positively affected everyone's mood a great deal. I personally feel so much more awake and energetic. I have lived in Akron, Cleveland and Columbus before moving and I'd rank their "dreariness index" in that order, with Columbus being the least dreary. I've put my time in in Ohio, and now I gotta say it's very rough for me coming back here. I"m just so used to the sunny weather that I'm positive that it would negatively affect my health to move back. My friend from Florida is ready to leave Cleveland asap because of that very reason. While friends who grew up here don't seem to be anywhere near as bothered.

 

Anybody here ever suffer from S.A.D.? If yes/no, are you originally from Ohio or did you grow up elsewhere?

I remember hating Feb-April when I was a kid, but Cincinnati almost never has a "bad" winter.  I don't get depressed from the weather anymore.  Part of that is because when you're an adult you get to do what you want and you know when you need to eat healthy food and get outside and do some mild exercise. 

 

The thing nobody talks about that you notice if you're a photographer is that in southern Ohio the sunlight is generally more orange (lower degrees kelvin) from June-Dec and then more blue (higher degrees kelvin) from Jan-May.  There seems to be some sort of shift that causes the character of the light to change that doesn't really correlate directly with the actual weather.  A cool cloudy day in the fall has a very different feel than a "warm" cloudy day in March or April.  There seems to be more wind and more violent weather from Jan-June.  But my perception could possibly be refuted by statistics. 

 

Far and away the best weather of any place I've lived was Knoxville, TN, which had brilliant color and spectacular sunsets regularly.  Cloudy or rainy days were almost never "depressing", and gray periods were usually just 2-3 days, not 2-3 weeks. 

 

I know San Diego is supposed to be beautiful year round but I've been there three times in the last 5 years and it rained the whole time each time I was there.

Anyone here from DC? Blizzard warning. Calling for 18-30 inches of snow.

 

I've already abandoned my car on 66 and bought 200 rolls of toilet paper.

Anyone here from DC? Blizzard warning. Calling for 18-30 inches of snow.

 

I've already abandoned my car on 66 and bought 200 rolls of toilet paper.

 

Always thought it would be sweet to watch an NYC blizzard from the upper floors of one of the skyscrapers.  Well stocked, with the power holding out of course.  And nowhere else to be until things cleared up.  :)

Anyone here from DC? Blizzard warning. Calling for 18-30 inches of snow.

 

I've already abandoned my car on 66 and bought 200 rolls of toilet paper.

 

I survived Snowmageddon parts 1 & 2 in '09/'10. With the Metro not running above ground, we couldn't go anywhere. I never thought I would get tired of drinking and watching movies, but it didn't take long...

 

Best of luck down there. I'm kind of jealous

 

This has been making the rounds on DC social media. It's from yesterday's evening commute...due to 1 inch of snow

Anyone here from DC? Blizzard warning. Calling for 18-30 inches of snow.

 

I've already abandoned my car on 66 and bought 200 rolls of toilet paper.

 

I survived Snowmageddon parts 1 & 2 in '09/'10. With the Metro not running above ground, we couldn't go anywhere. I never thought I would get tired of drinking and watching movies, but it didn't take long...

 

Best of luck down there. I'm kind of jealous

 

This has been making the rounds on DC social media. It's from yesterday's evening commute...due to 1 inch of snow

 

Despite the fact that there was a Winter Weather Advisory issued yesterday afternoon, VDOT, MDOT and DDOT all sat on their hands and didn't salt a thing. At least DC Mayor Bowser apologized. Some VDOT folks are defending their lousy response saying people should have sheltered in place.....over a 1/2" of snow. My God.

 

Despite the fact that there was a Winter Weather Advisory issued yesterday afternoon, VDOT, MDOT and DDOT all sat on their hands and didn't salt a thing. At least DC Mayor Bowser apologized. Some VDOT folks are defending their lousy response saying people should have sheltered in place.....over a 1/2" of snow. My God.

 

That's pretty crazy. I've seen a lot of talk making fun of DC drivers and how they can't handle the snow (which isn't untrue btw), but in this case it sounds like the roads were really awful and the conditions would have probably even caused havoc in Buffalo

And there's no snow or any highs below 8C forecast until the end of next week....

 

Is this the winter when Cleveland escapes any real amount of snow?

http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2016/01/is_this_the_winter_when_clevel.html

And there's no snow or any highs below 8C forecast until the end of next week....

 

Is this the winter when Cleveland escapes any real amount of snow?

http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2016/01/is_this_the_winter_when_clevel.html

 

Let's hope they didn't jinx us!

 

I recall 2011-12 as having very little s*** and was surprised to see it was that high.  March was more like May.

Will never forget playing cards out on the deck in shorts and no shoes that March.

Major weather event this week.....

If there was any cold air over Canada, we'd be having a major blizzard in the Great Lakes region this week. This storm is coming up from the Mississippi delta region and bombing out as it moves north-northeast, just like the Blizzard of '78 did. The only difference this time is there's no cold front coming down from Alberta to meet it over Ohio.

Just got back from a quick 24 trip to Cleveland, and I could not believe the difference in weather and seasons between Cincy and Cle! I left a fairly warm and sunny Cincinnati, where the leaves are almost all out, flowers are in full bloom, and even the biggest/tallest trees have pretty substantial buds.  Got to Cleveland and temps were hovering around freezing.  Took an uber to Tremont for dinner, and it was literally blizzard conditions on the way there.  Snowing like crazy, wind howling-- couldn't even see downtown from Tremont it was so bad! Besides the fluke snow squall, it felt very solidly like winter in NEO.  Only saw a few bushes and small trees with flowers, and the air/sky/ground all felt very wintery.  So weird to see such a stark difference.  Still enjoyed my brief stay in Cleveland, though!

^ If you had come just a few days earlier you would have seen sunny skies and near 70° temps

^Yes, I heard that from many people. 70 and sunny on Easter Sunday, snowy and temps in the 20s a week later.

Just got back from a quick 24 trip to Cleveland, and I could not believe the difference in weather and seasons between Cincy and Cle! I left a fairly warm and sunny Cincinnati, where the leaves are almost all out, flowers are in full bloom, and even the biggest/tallest trees have pretty substantial buds.  Got to Cleveland and temps were hovering around freezing.  Took an uber to Tremont for dinner, and it was literally blizzard conditions on the way there.  Snowing like crazy, wind howling-- couldn't even see downtown from Tremont it was so bad! Besides the fluke snow squall, it felt very solidly like winter in NEO.  Only saw a few bushes and small trees with flowers, and the air/sky/ground all felt very wintery.  So weird to see such a stark difference.  Still enjoyed my brief stay in Cleveland, though!

 

Yeah, I laid down at about 730pm for a prework nap, woke up at 845 and it was ugly out.  The bulk of the difference was within 2-3 hours.  The s*** was gone yesterday evening though.

The weather couldn't decide what it wanted to do on Saturday.  It went from snowing, to sleeting, to hailing, to raining, back to snowing.  Very weird, but not unheard of for early April.  I recall it was 5 or so years ago when we got hit with a quick blizzard after all of the trees had bloomed.

^was it a month ago that I typed that. Ummmmm..... WTF?

^was it a month ago that I typed that. Ummmmm..... WTF?

 

Yeah, May 15th's Facebook feed was full of s*** pictures.

A possible tornado swept through Cincinnati, ripping off some rooftops, downing trees, and knocking power out all over the west side:

 

http://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/hamilton-county/cincinnati/storm-leaves-widespread-damage-power-outages-behind

 

 

My house is about a mile south of the major damage. It sits on what is basically a cliffside, facing to the south, with mostly glass on the south wall. I usually get exposed the brunt of storms as they tend to come from the southwest - this one came out of nowhere but wasn't all that bad (probably had 2 or 3 worse storms this year), so seeing this damage just a mile away was surprising.

Yeah, the storm last night was crazy intense, but it only lasted a very short time and passed as quickly as it came.  My lights flickered about 5 times, but thank god my power stayed on, because I was in the middle of cooking a ton of food, and I have an electric range! I, too, am basically on the side of a cliff, so I never really worry about tornados or wind damage, but the way the trees were swaying last night did have me a little concerned.

I was actually glad to see the strong storms roll through NEO last night.  It's been so dry around here that the only thing still green in my yard is the crabgrass.

Ram23, there were trees down over Clifton Ave. north of Skyline Chili.  I almost ran into one because it was so unexpected since there weren't any before or after. 

 

The storm was very strange.  A typical summer thunderstorm in this area appears suddenly, goes nuts for about 15 minutes, then slows to a drizzle that lasts another 30 minutes, then it's all over and we have a really nice sunset.  This one kept flickering between 100% intense and 30% intense for about 20 minutes.  I've never seen it do that before. 

It was a derecho.

I was actually glad to see the strong storms roll through NEO last night.  It's been so dry around here that the only thing still green in my yard is the crabgrass.

 

I was sitting on the cliff over the lake at Beulah when I saw a storm was brewing and decided to watch it come in until it started raining.    Which actually held off quite awhile even while the wind had arrived.

 

Pretty impressive stuff.

Some cool pics from tonight's storm.

^^Yep. I left work today and drove straight into this as I headed home to downtown from the Eastern burbs down I-90. Reminded me of my days living in south Florida, seeing an ominous black disc approaching like in the movie Independence Day.

Cincinnati had an odd storm Sunday evening - it was virtually stagnant over parts of the city and dropped 4+ inches of rain at rates over 4 inches per hour, causing flooding in places I've never seen flood before. I-71 and 75 were flooded in places and the Norwood Lateral was completely underwater (not my picture, saw it on Twitter):

 

 

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/weather/2016/08/28/flash-flood-warning-heavy-rain-predicted-sunday-night/89518972/

My friends' business in Hyde Park Square was flooded pretty badly. There were cars trapped out front on Edwards.

 

I messaged my old office (a couple blocks from Hyde Park Square) and they were spared any flooding.

 

It's crazy how much water there was. I keep seeing images of flooding in spots that you'd never expect flooding since it just came down so quickly.

It was total chaos.  I saw people being rescued off the roofs of their cars on the I-71 Eden Park/Dorchester ramps.  Eden Park Drive was flooded in the park and I had to back out.  Also, the pond uphill from the Krohn Conservatory was overflowing into the drive that encircles it. 

 

There had to have been at least a few people on their bikes out on the Loveland trail who got caught in this and were miles from any cross-street or any kind of shelter.  I have been caught in storms out there (nothing like this) and have said for year that they need to have shelters every mile so that people can get the hell out of this kind of situation. 

I know a few people who got trapped while out and about because the forecast didn't predict this and they were caught off guard. Some crazy videos from people taking shelter anywhere they could just to get out of the rain.

No kidding.  Last Friday there was no forecast for rain on Saturday or Sunday.  Yet there I was out caught in a storm on my bike on Saturday and then on Sunday we had the most rain on this date in recorded history.  Luckily on Sunday I got back from riding at about 5:30.  I turned back a little early on Sunday because of the heat...if I had gone a bit further out I wouldn't have gotten back to civilization in time.  I would have found somewhere, but who knows. 

 

One time about 10 years ago I was biking in Kentucky and came upon an old 1950s Ford pickup carcass with no doors.  Luckily it had its windshield, but there was a pit bull chained up about 100 feet away to barked at me furiously during the whole storm, which lasted about 45 minutes.  He was able to get within about 20 feet of the truck and obviously I would have had my throat ripped out if he had broken the chain! 

 

Cincinnati had an odd storm Sunday evening - it was virtually stagnant over parts of the city and dropped 4+ inches of rain at rates over 4 inches per hour, causing flooding in places I've never seen flood before. I-71 and 75 were flooded in places and the Norwood Lateral was completely underwater (not my picture, saw it on Twitter):

 

(image snip)

 

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/weather/2016/08/28/flash-flood-warning-heavy-rain-predicted-sunday-night/89518972/

 

Holy cow.  How tall are the Jersey barriers there?  That's got to be, what, 3-4 FEET of water right there.

 

Also, people are idiots sometimes.  There was some flooding near my house at the site of the flood walls they built along Duck Creek.  The police had parked at either end, but you could go around if you cut through a neighborhood.  Problem was, you popped out right in the deepest part of the water.  And so people were going around a police barricade in order to drive through flood waters - while abandoned cars continued to float nearby.

I was out and about in NoKY taking my son to an audition. 275 between CVG and Crestview was a wall of water. Dozens of vehicles were pulled of because of the blinding rain. Although not as bad as some areas in Cincy, Dixie Highway in Erlanger, Crestview, and Lakeside flowed like a river. Been a while since I've seen one like that.

 

As and aside, what ever Mike's Carwash puts on my windshield is magic. I barely had to use my wipers in what was surely some of the most blinding rain.

Cincinnati had an odd storm Sunday evening - it was virtually stagnant over parts of the city and dropped 4+ inches of rain at rates over 4 inches per hour, causing flooding in places I've never seen flood before. I-71 and 75 were flooded in places and the Norwood Lateral was completely underwater (not my picture, saw it on Twitter):

 

(image snip)

 

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/weather/2016/08/28/flash-flood-warning-heavy-rain-predicted-sunday-night/89518972/

 

Holy cow.  How tall are the Jersey barriers there?  That's got to be, what, 3-4 FEET of water right there.

 

Also, people are idiots sometimes.  There was some flooding near my house at the site of the flood walls they built along Duck Creek.  The police had parked at either end, but you could go around if you cut through a neighborhood.  Problem was, you popped out right in the deepest part of the water.  And so people were going around a police barricade in order to drive through flood waters - while abandoned cars continued to float nearby.

 

Here's the Google Streetview from that spot: https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1655431,-84.4584013,3a,41.5y,273.01h,85.63t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sN_4LTFrLm__7zp1haNujlQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

I think the barriers are typically 42" high, so you're probably looking at at least 4'-0" of water pooled on the highway. Looking at topo maps, this is just a small "dip" - about 1000' to the west of this point there's a business park that's about 30'-0" lower elevation. So this was a huge and sudden flood in a spot that really didn't seem susceptible to flooding.