It looks like a major snowstorm is going to hit DC starting tonight, dumping up to 16″ of snow in the capital. As Webster can attest, DC siezes up with even an inch of snow, and at times in the 90s, rolled over and played dead for a week during a snowstorm of this one’s predected size (16″ total).

This is directly in the face of the Senates attempt at a 2:00 minute offense to pass the wreck of a healthcare bill before the Christmas recess. To have the party of global warming torpedoed by a snowstorm on their Marquee entitlement is just too funny.

From Accuweather:

Up to a foot of heavy snowfall this weekend for the Washington, D.C., metro area has the potential to impact President Obama’s health care initiative, which is set to be voted on by Christmas.

The snow could delay travel for many senators, who will need to be in the nation’s capital for what is expected to be a weekend full of several late-night and early-morning votes. The Senate may vote on health care as soon as Christmas Eve.

AccuWeather.com meteorologists are forecasting 6-10 inches of snow for the region, with potential for a foot or more as the storm continues to develop. The snow is set to begin late this evening and continue through the day on Saturday.

AccuWeather.com Chief Meteorologist and Expert Long-Range Forecaster Joe Bastardi said that the snowfall will be “paralyzing” from the Interstate-95 corridor and southeastward.

He also added the the eastern side of the Capital District will see blizzard conditions.

A spokesman for Congressman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) said, “Washington [D.C.] is known as a place that gets three snowflakes and falls apart.”

Senator Reed needed every minute between now and Christmas eve to try and get their vote in. Now, he gets a snowstorm instead. Merry Christmas you goofballs! Do us all a favor and go home instead.

Guess I'm not using the BBQ grill today....

It started snowing here about 9 pm on Tuesday evening and hasn’t stopped since. The wind has been blowing constantly, pretty much between 10 and 20 mph (I can’t tell for sure — my outside anemometer appears to have frozen up). The local news station is reporting 14″ of snow so far here in Parker as of about 8 am this morning, with another 4″-8″ due to fall today before this storm finally moves out.  The constant wind from the north, combined with the position of our house on a slight rise, makes for some interesting snow deposits. At the side of the house, there are patches where the lawn still shows through — and a dozen feet away are some drifts that I suspect are 3′ to 4′ deep.

As noted, the snow is supposed to stop late this afternoon, and it’s supposed to be sunny and in the 40s tomorrow (and in the 60s by Monday). But our grandkids coming out for a visit are more likely to be sledding for Halloween rather than trick-or-treating.

More photos:

Here's the deck from the other end.

It's hard to tell, but the lawn is sloping away -- those drifts are at least 3' deep.

I’ve got to clear the driveway this afternoon so that Salem (our daughter) can get to work. Even with a motorized snow-blower, I’m not looking forward to it.  ..bruce w..

And the ride won't even be this much fun

Does the phrase “going to Hell in a handbasket” mean anything to you?

I’m starting this post on Tuesday evening, with “American Idol” on the background. I can hardly keep up with the gaffes, mendacity, and sheer idiocy coming from the Obama Administration and the Democratic Congress on a daily basis. And trust me when I tell you that it’s not (just) my partisan point of view (after all, I was a registered Democrat for 37 years until last fall).

ITEM: ACORN, a criminal enterprise (voter fraud) in many states, is going to be involved in the 2010 US Census (more information at Gateway Pundit). Can you imagine if the (hypothetical) McCain Adminstration had proposed using, say, the Blackwater Corporation for the 2010 Census?

ITEM: Another “can you imagine if Bush/McCain did this?” item: the White House may be using the Situation Room for politicial strategizing.

ITEM: Obama’s proposed health care reform may cost $1.5 trillion over the next decade. Cha-ching!

ITEM: And while we’re at it, Obama’s proposed climate change plan may cost $2 trillion over the next eight years. Cha-cha-ching!

ITEM: The White House claims that they didn’t know about the AIG bonuses until this month. However, Glenn Greenwald claims that (contra my post yesterday) it was actually Tim Geithner and Larry Summers who insisted that the bailout bill not affect existing payouts but only future payouts, and that Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) fought against it.  He also claims that it was the White House that leaked the idea that Dodd (a big AIG recipient) put this clause in on his own. (Hat tip to Instapundit for that item.) Meanwhile, the Associated Press (!) calls bull$#!+ on both sides. Oh, and guess who else got lots of money from AIG? (Hint: his initials are BHO.)

ITEM: The White House and Congressional chest-beating outrage over AIG is scaring away private investors from taking a stake in other financial institutions that the US is bailing out. After all, if the White House and Congress can seek to reverse valid contracts and payment agreements after the fact, then what guarantees do investors have? It also appears that this outrage is scaring away the people the government needs to run these firms.  In the meantime, Larry Kudrow sees this all as evidence why the government shouldn’t run anything, and it’s hard to argue with him, while the Economist – no right-wing, free market publication, that — views the Obama outrage as ineffective (if politically necessary) grandstanding.

ITEM: Obama appears to be losing Atrios, who asks the question, “Which senator will be the first to ask Timmeh [i.e., Tim Geithner] to resign?” Plus, when Atrios and Steve Forbes agree on something, you know there’s a profound problem. Finally, here’s a sign that Geithner is in real trouble: “White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama had confidence in Geithner and the Treasury Department’s oversight.” When they bring out the C-word, you know your days are numbered.

ITEM: Obama is losing Maureen Dowd: “Barack Obama even needs a teleprompter to get mad.” Ouch, ouch, and ouch. That’s gotta leave a mark. And speaking of leaving a mark — these comments by Andrew Malcolm over at the excellent “Top of the Ticket” political blog about Obama skipping out on the Gridiron Club roast probably raised a welt or two, particularly since they are about Obama’s thin skin.

ITEM: Meanwhile, speaking of Obama’s ubiquitous teleprompter:  “Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen was just a few paragraphs into an address at a St. Patrick’s Day celebration at the White House when he realized something sounded way too familiar. Turns out, he was repeating the speech President Barack Obama had just given.” Heh.

ITEM: It was amateur hour again at the State Department, this time in advance of Obama’s meeting with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva this weekend (hat tip to Drew at Ace of Spades):

. . . the White House made several moves interpreted as snubs by the Brazilian media.

Silva aides said the trip was pushed forward from Tuesday because of the St. Patrick’s Day holiday — making Latin America once again look like an afterthought. Then, the White House announcement misspelled his name as “Luis Ignacio” and put “Lula” — a nickname that decades ago became a legal part of the Brazilian leader’s name — in quotes.

ITEM: It’s also amateur hour at the White House with regards to provocations from China:

. . . we have emboldened our adversaries. The Obama administration has filed a protest over the Impeccable incident, but the Chinese know the United States is not serious. If we were, we would have canceled the meeting with Yang Jiechi or even sent the Chinese ambassador in Washington packing, putting him on the first flight from Dulles to Beijing.

ITEM: I lived through (and entered the workforce during) the Carter Administration.  The parallels between Carter and Obama are not at all comforting.

ITEM: The Obama Administration and the Democrats want to use the ‘nuclear option’ and eliminate the filibuster in the Senate. When the Republicans threaten to do this a few years back, due to Democratic blocking of judicial nominees, the Democrats screamed that it was unholy, unethical, and wrong. Now that the shoe’s on the other foot, there’s nothing wrong with doing this at all. Of course. In the meantime, and contrary to campaign promises, the Obama Administration is proving to be vastly more partisan than its predecessor.

ITEM: The Obama Administration has ended the program that allows pilots to carry guns on planes that they’re flying.  Oh, and they did so secretly. (Hat tip to Ace of Spades again.)

ITEM: The US National Debt just hit a record $11 trillion, and the Obama Adminstration and Congress have trillions in debt that they plan to add over the next several years.  Remember this diagram from last week? Each column shows how much the National Debt will grow from now until 2019 — and this is the official White House projection, which means that’s it’s probably optimistic.

Here a trillion, there a trillion...

ITEM: For those of you feeling truly masochistic, here’s a slide show that demonstrates in painful visual clarity just how the White House and Congress have wreaked havoc with the future US economy (hat tip to Red State):

ITEM: The Obama nominee for Sec’y of Commerce, Gary Locke, has represented (as a lawyer) several China-owned corporations and “was forced to refund several political donations that he received in the 1990s from key figures in a Chinese influence-buying investigation.”  As Commerce Secretary, Locke’s duties will include — wait for it — approving sensitive exports to China. Nope, no conflict there.

ITEM: Remember the collapse of Citigroup?  Guess where Citigroup’s Chief Economist ended up? Yep, the Obama Commerce Department.

ITEM: Obama’s idiotic proposal to force veterans to use their private insurance to pay for medical treatment for combant injuries made the front page of the Washington Post. I predict that this proposal will be scuttled by Friday. The strip “Day by Day” weighs in:

ITEM: Some (rare) good news for the Obama Administration as Vivek Kundra is reinstated at White House CIO.

ITEM: Some reasons for economic optimism. It’s good to remember that unemployment is under 10% and there aren’t people selling apples on the street. Oh, wait — there are, at least over in England (clever lad, that; note the Depression-era photo on his sign).

ITEM: Some more economic good news: lobbyists are prospering in Washington DC. Wait? Weren’t lobbyists supposed to magically go away under the Obama Administration?

ITEM: The Democratic Stimulus Bill will reverse a decade’s progress in welfare reform by encouraging states to increase their welfare rolls.

ITEM: Former President George W. Bush demonstrates (again) why he has more class than the White House and Congress put together. Also, he demonstrates that he understands the current geopolitical situation better than the White House and Congress put together. And I’ll bet he spoke without a teleprompter.

ITEM: Unfortunately, Michelle Obama demonstrates a distinct lack of class by implying that military families are just now being noticed by the White House.

ITEM: Republicans take a small lead on the generic Congressional ballot. Only 20 months until the next Congressional elections!

ITEM: A few Democratic governors up for re-election next year are having problems of their own.

ITEM: Yet more positive fallout from the Obama debacles: fervent Obama supporters are, well, a little less fervent.

ITEM: Unions are pledging to register as Republicans and help Sen. Arlen Spector (R[allegedly]-PA) win his primary fight next year in exchange for voting for the Throw-Out-Secret-Ballots Act. Fortunately, Spector seems disinclined to play along. For now.

ITEM: Here’s one of the reasons why unions are working desperately with Democrats to implement unfair and unreasonable advantages. Here’s another (which  I linked to yesterday).

And now for some non-political items:

What it’s like to (almost) freeze to death.

Needle-free vaccines — why didn’t they have this when I was a kid?

Yet again, some real science and correlation shows that it’s the Sun that drives Earth’s climate, not man’s minimal CO2 contribution:

What part of this graph don't you understand?

In the meantime, some climate explorers trekking to the North Pole to measure how much the ice is melting have discovered, well, that it’s pretty cold up there.

Finally, to bright up your day (hat tip to the Borderline Sociopathic Blog for Boys):

That’s it for today; you’re on your own.  ..bruce w..

To hear the city’s spin, Seattle’s road crews are making “great progress” in clearing the ice-caked streets.

But it turns out “plowed streets” in Seattle actually means “snow-packed,” as in there’s snow and ice left on major arterials by design.

“We’re trying to create a hard-packed surface,” said Alex Wiggins, chief of staff for the Seattle Department of Transportation. “It doesn’t look like anything you’d find in Chicago or New York.”

The city’s approach means crews clear the roads enough for all-wheel and four-wheel-drive vehicles, or those with front-wheel drive cars as long as they are using chains, Wiggins said.

The icy streets are the result of Seattle’s refusal to use salt, an effective ice-buster used by the state Department of Transportation and cities accustomed to dealing with heavy winter snows.

“If we were using salt, you’d see patches of bare road because salt is very effective,” Wiggins said. “We decided not to utilize salt because it’s not a healthy addition to Puget Sound.”

By ruling out salt and some of the chemicals routinely used by snowbound cities, Seattle has embraced a less-effective strategy for clearing roads, namely sand sprinkled on top of snowpack along major arterials, and a chemical de-icer that is effective when temperatures are below 32 degrees.

Seattle also equips its plows with rubber blades. That minimizes the damage to roads and manhole covers, but it doesn’t scrape off the ice, Wiggins said.

I predict this policy will last until there’s an accident causing death, injury, or major property damage. The resulting lawsuit will likely force Seattle to actually put public safety ahead of environmental concerns.  ..bruce w..

http://view.break.com/487339 – Watch more free videos

Wowza. That looks like “ten steps and die” weather. ..bruce w..

It’s May Day, nearly halfway through spring, almost halfway to summer. As I type this, snow is falling outside and has been for an hour or so; it’s actually sticking on the ground (we have at least 1/2″ already). And it’s supposed to fall through the day and into the evening. The current temperature (it’s about 9:15 in the morning) is just under 32 degrees F.

All this, of course, can be passed off as a late-spring fluke; anecdotes do not equal data (something the global warming advocacy media should get through their heads). What is significant is that it has been so cool this spring that none of our trees, bushes, or shrubs have started leafing out or blossoming yet (though we do have some buds starting up on the trees). This is in stark contrast to last year, when we had much greater snowfall (more photos here), yet everything greened up and blossomed on time.

I thought I might be imagining all this, until I read this passage from an article in the Denver Post about the anticipated runoff from the above-average snowfall the Rockies have received this year :

Temperature and precipitation carry the most impact in spring, when the two work to either steadily or suddenly lessen snowpack levels in the Colorado mountains. For the past four months, Colorado’s temperatures have been uncommonly cold, setting 15-year records for chilliness. That makes weather researcher Klaus Wolter think May could be warm and dry, a common trait of this winter’s surprisingly snowy La Niña. (emphasis mine)

Well, it’s May 1st, and I can only see as far as the end of our driveway, due to the snow falling. I’m going to go build a fire (we used up our usual 2 cords of firewood weeks ago, and I’ve been supplementing it by buying bundles at the local supermarket), and then finish reading this interview with Don Easterbrook [PDF] posted over at ICECAP (hat tip to Jerry Pournelle, though ICECAP is on my daily reading list anyway — as is Climate Feedback, btw).

Did I mention that it was 80 degrees yesterday? Must be all those sunspots.

I blame Bush. ..bruce w..

==============

There was no snow on the ground at all when I went to bed late last night. Here’s what things look like right now:

The wind had been steadily blowing between 10 and 25 mph all day, pushing the wind chill down to single digits (6.7 deg F right now). I would guess that 4-6 inches of snow have fallen so far, and it’s supposed to keep snowing until late this evening.

Personally, I blame Bush. ..bruce w..

P.S. The good news is that it’s supposed to hit 70 by Monday.

Right now, at 7 am on Sunday morning, it’s 25 degrees out with 30-40 MPH winds (wind chill is down around -6) and snow blowing — we’re expecting anywhere from 3″ to 8″ today.

The good news is that it gives us an excuse to build one more fire in the woodburning stove.   ..bruce w..

Unlike today.

As late as yesterday morning, the local weatherpeople were calling for “flurries” here in the front range (the plains and foothills east of the Rockies), and even that they were giving only a 50% chance of happening.

As I type this on Christmas afternoon, the wind chill outside is -14 deg F. Snow has been falling and blowing ever since I woke up at 7 am this morning. I’ve had to use the snow blower on the driveway twice; first on just the upper portion this morning to let our daughter, son-in-law, and kids make it up the rest of the driveway; second on the entire driveway this afternoon to let the same daughter and son-in-law leave. This is easily the single largest snowstorm we’ve had this fall/winter to date, though of course still nothing like the blizzard we had just before Christmas last year. My guess is that we’ll have gotten about 6″ of snow by the time this ends late tonight.

A bit more than a flurry, I’d say. But we’re safe, warm, and full of food (in spite of my burning all three of my pies). Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! ..bruce w..

[UPDATED 12/27/07 - 2148 MST] As it turned out, Denver broke the all-time record for snowfall on Christmas Day — 7.8″.  And we got another several inches today (in fact, snow is still falling as I type this). It’ll be a busy morning with the snow blower tomorrow.  ..bfw..