May Gray, June Gloom

Every area has its own weather quirks. They all follow the laws of physics, often through interaction too complex for humans to fully understand. Take this afternoons clouds.

Screenshot-2014-05-20-22.11

Even Californians complain about the weather. We should be ashamed of ourselves!

We have one of those potential kvetch times on-the-way. It’s the seasonal California May gray and June gloom. We’ll be waking to cloudy skies for most of the next week. They disappear by noon. This type of weather happens sporadically through summer.

In the case of coastal California, the offshore marine layer is typically propelled inland by a pressure gradient which develops as a result of intense heating inland, blanketing coastal communities in cooler air which, if saturated, also contains fog. The fog lingers until the heat of the sun becomes strong enough to evaporate it, often lasting into the afternoon during the “May gray” or “June gloom” period – Wikipedia

We’re over 10 miles inland. It’s not as bad as for coastal dwellers. Of course, they live on the California Coast. They’d better not complain. Ever. About anything.

This weather scenario wasn’t something we were looking for in Connecticut. Here, it shows up nicely on the forecast models. At the top is a BUFKIT readout from tonight’s 00Z GFS for KSNA, John Wayne Airport in nearby Santa Ana (Clicking the image will give you a much larger, much more readable look).

BUFKIT is an amazing program for visualizing weather data. It was developed at NOAA and is free, as is the data it uses.

With maps you see a large area for one specific time. With BUFKIT you see one specific place over a period of time. Go ahead–reread that.

There’s a lot going on, but what I’m looking at is at the bottom of the image. The lines are isohumes–lines of equal humidity. The cloud producing marine layer isn’t thick. On most days it only goes up 2,000 feet. It produces low, dense overcast. Sometimes there’s drizzle.

The marine layer forms in the evening and fades through the morning.

Every area has its own weather quirks. They all follow the laws of physics, often through interaction too complex for humans to fully understand. Take this afternoons clouds.

It’s Sunday And The Dog Is In A Bag

wpid-20130519_141538.jpg

We had an “Open House” today. Our real estate agent came by with additional signs and balloons so anyone driving down our quiet cul-de-sac would know. Home shoppers were encouraged to just drop in.

The last thing a home buyers wants to see is the home owner! We get it.

The “Open House” was 1-3 PM. We needed to evacuate. First we needed to clean.

Helaine and I are grown-ups. The place doesn’t get that dirty. Still, there’s a different standard for potential buyers. We want to show the house in its best possible light. Buyers expect no less.

Where to go? We needed to kill at least two hours with Doppler in tow. And the weather sucked!

“Moderate drizzle,” I said to Helaine as we pulled into the lot at Ikea on Long Wharf.

Drizzle has to do with drop size, not intensity. The automated observer at Tweed/New Haven reported it as Light Rain/Fog/Mist.

Doppler is quite an amazing dog. She rode on Helaine’s lap in the car, then transitioned into her stylish camo bag. She was not thrilled putting all four paws in, but she didn’t fight it. She was a quiet and passive observer as we walked through the store.

In situations like this, Doppler makes herself as close to invisible as a white dog in an over-the-shoulder camo bag can be. Most people walk by without knowing she’s there. Really.

Our trip today is another part of the moving process. We get a chance to redecorate. At the moment we’re just looking–trying to define our combined taste. No buying yet.

It’s easy to kill a few hours at Ikea. We waited for the all clear before returning home.

We’ve lived 23 years in this house. If we could only bring it with us. That would make things so much easier. We’re going to miss this house.