#Weather Geeks

[meteorologistaustenlonek]

#WeatherGeeks: "Science Behind Billion Dollar Disasters"

2023 set the record for the most billion dollar disasters in the United States in one calendar year. As the name suggests, a billion dollar disaster is a weather or climate disaster event with losses exceeding one billion dollars. Our next guest is the lead scientist for the National Centers for Environmental Information Billion-dollar Weather and Climate Disasters analysis. Welcome to the show Adam Smith… #WeatherGeeks

[final-girl96]

Killer Geek Masterlist

Ao3

Wattpad (23+ stories here)

Description/Trigger Warnings (please read)

Prologue

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

TwentyOne

TwentyTwo

TwentyThree

TwentyFour

TwentyFive

TwentySix

TwentySeven

TwentyEight

TwentyNine

Thirty

ThirtyOne

ThirtyTwo

ThirtyThree

ThirtyFour

ThirtyFive

ThirtySix

ThirtySeven

ThirtyEight

ThirtyNine

Forty

[jackwhitespankbank]

Wut?!

[gumnut-logic]

From Australian Bureau of Meteorology Seasonal Summary of Summer 2024

If anyone asks why Australians tend to live on the coast instead of the interior, the answer is pretty obvious and doesn’t require a YouTube video claiming its odd.

Also the above article discusses the raw data on exactly how hot this summer has been. Poor Western Australia was roasted, while the east coast drowned ::hugs all my fellow Aussies::

As for Adelaide, which sits in the yellow bit with the Island and gulfs to the east of the Great Australian Bight, we had a mild summer. We blew out our rain record, but honestly that was two days in December and not much else, nothing like the east and north that had the fun of at least two cyclones. Adelaide has only had a few hot days and no major heat waves (I say that as the next few days are going to be 34, 33, 36, 39, 36 and 36 celcius, so technically there is a four day heatwave in that at least, yay for autumn).

Where I live is very dry - my car is desperate for rain to get all the bird shit and outback dust off it as we haven’t really seen any for two months. But this summer it felt like one side of the country was baking and the other drowning while we sat quite lucky with mild weather in the middle ::hugs all the Aussies::

Of course, it may be Autumn and the days are getting shorter (damnit), but we will still have some summery weather, so it isn’t finished yet. Not really until the first April rains.

I am counting my blessings, though.

Nutty

I love a sunburnt country

A land of sweeping plains

Of ragged mountain ranges

Of droughts and flooding rains

- Dorothea MacKellar

[greensparty]

Remembering Carl Weathers 1948-2024

Sad news today that actor, director and former NFL player Carl Weathers has died at 76. His most famous role was as Apollo Creed in the legendary underdog sports epic Rocky! The opponent of Rocky later became a close friend and he returned in Rocky II, Rocky III, and Rocky IV. He was such a great character! Weathers even appeared in the documentary John G. Avildsen: King of the Underdogs about the Rocky director (I included the doc in my Best Documentaries of the 2010s list).

Sly Stallone and Weathers in Rocky

In the 80s he co-starred in Predator. After co-stars Jesse Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger became governors, many asked Weathers if he'd go into politics. Unfortunately it never happened, but he did appear in an SNL sketch where he did a fake election ad!

Weathers and the future Governator in Predator

Other notable films he appeared in included Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the 80s action movie Action Jackson ("now I'm pissed off!"), as the golf mentor to Adam Sandler in Happy Gilmore, and the voice of Combat Carls in Toy Story 4 (which I included on my Best Movies of 2019 list).

Weathers and Grogu on The Mandalorian

But his biggest role in recent years was a Greef Karga on the Star Wars spin-off series The Mandalorian. Earlier this week I named it my #3 TV Show of 2023. As the ally to Din Dijarin he stole many scenes and was nominated for an Emmy for his performance. He even directed two great episodes of the show in 2020 and 2023. It also needs to be said that he directed a lot of other TV shows too!

The link above is the obit from Hollywood Reporter.

[battybaddie13]

❄️🥶

[ambafaerie]

The application of Storm’s powers in universe and the scientific explanation behind them out of universe will always have me geeking out.

[clobberbox]

“Dunder Mifflin - the people person's paper people!”

Stay cozy during your annual rewatch of The Office with our cozy sweaters inspired by the show!

Great Christmas gifts for fans of The Office!

Buy online here.

[autumnal-thunder]

I’m currently watching a tornado documentary and legit thought of your blog’s description as was inspired to send you some hints of what state I’m in based on some weather facts

While my state is outside of traditional Tornado Alley, a tornado struck it during the later 1900s that was so destructive that Dr Fujita himself contemplated rating it an F6

It's funny that I got this ask while sitting in the dark waiting for the power to come back on after a near miss from a high-end EF2 tornado.

But hey, I see you from Ohio. I love how Fujita considered a rating from his own scale inconceivable lol

I love some weather trivia. Thanks for the ask!

[skyward-floored]

Oooh tornado watch

[meteorologistaustenlonek]

"As the sun set over the Magnolia state on Friday April 24th, Mississippian lives were changed forever. A charged supercell cut across the midsection of the state, spawning a tornado that caused EF4 damage in the towns of Rolling Fork and Silver City and then EF3 damage in Amory, all over the course of a few hours while many slept. While the event was well forecasted by meteorologists across the country, NOTHING could prepare a person for the severity of what the victims experienced and what we all saw at first light the next morning. We want to take this episode of Weather Geeks to break it all down and look ahead to the tornado potential of the next event."

[final-girl96]

Killer Geek Chapter Sixteen

Authors Note: Please remember that Randy is very, very, very out of character. Also, yn is 17.

Randy

It was all too easy for Randy to call up yn and pretend to be the killer. When he saw her leaving school he ditched his classes, unusual for him, but he couldn't help himself. He ran to his car, moved in, and followed her.to the mall. Then he followed her around the mall, making sure to stay hidden and not get too close. It wasn't the first time he's followed her or peeped through her window at night.

He followed her home, watching Billy pull into the driveway only to leave shortly after. He watched yn getting changed, her bedroom curtains were open, it's jot like she had to worry, the back of their house led into the woods. He had climbed a tree just to see into her bedroom window. He sat on a thick branch, binoculars in hand. He was the typical Peeping Tom.

He grew hard watching as she slowly lifted her shirt over head revealing a light blue lacy bra. He watched as her hands reached around to unclip the bra, releasing her perfect tits. He was straining against his pants, his cock begging to be let out. His hand ran over the bulge in his pants, applying pressure. It was all too much he needed a release.

So he unbuttoned his pants and pulled his cock out, sighing as the pressure let up. His hand wrapped around his shaft, giving a few long strokes. His movements got fast when she turned around, back facing the window. Yn was bending over taking her pants off. A matching pair of panties covered her ass. He would do anything to grip that ass in his hands.

What pushed him over the edge was when she pushed those light blue panties down, once more bending at the waist. Her pretty pussy was on full display now. He felt his balls tighten as he thought about walking up behind her and pushing his cock into her tight walls, feeling her squeeze around his cock while he pounded into her over and over.

He let out a strangled groan as he hit his high. His own release covering his hand. After he came down from said high, he wiped his hand on his pants, tucked himself back in and climbed down the tree. He snuck around to where the living room window was and waited.

Yn walked in, night shorts and a tank top on. He could see she had no bra on. He groaned when he felt his cock hardening again. “Come on,” he whispered. He was going to need to release himself again before going home. This girl did things to him. Made him feel ways he knew were wrong.

He knew it was wrong to be peeping through her windows. He would have never done something like this before. But as his feelings or rather his obsession for yn grew, the more he found himself doing whatever he could to be near her.

The glow of the tv being turned on brought him back to reality. Yn flipped through channels until she decided to put a movie in. Of course she chose a horror movie. She was so fascinating to Randy, she liked horror movies, the blood and gore, the suspense, but she also got scared easily. There were a few times that the whole group went to the movies. He always made sure to sit beside her. He loved the way she would cling to him and bury her head in his shoulder at jump scares.

Before he knew what he was doing he grabbed the cell phone he had in his pocket and then the voice changer he was going to use for Halloween. He wanted to scare her, his hope was you would run into his arms, call him to come over. He only got the cell phone for that very reason. So if he was out and she called, he wouldn't miss it. She could page him, too. But now he has a cell phone he wouldn't have to find a payphone and worry about having change on him.

His finger glided over the numbers of the Nokia Cellphone, typing in her phone number. He heard the ringing from inside the house. He watched while she got up and answered the phone. His cock grew harder when he heard her voice, when he saw the scared look on her face. He watched all the way up until she was off the phone with he dick of a brother. That's when he went back to his car and waited.

Ten minutes passed with no call. His mind ran in circles. Should he call her again? Should he maybe knock on the door or a couple windows to scare her even more? That sounded like a good plan. Maybe call her and knock on her door. Tell her he was right outside. He could go around the house, knock on the windows, make it seem like he was everywhere. That would surely scare her into calling him.

His hand reached for the door handle of his car when his paper went off. He looked down to see it was yn paging him. The code he was looking at was 424 * 911. Call me back. Emergency. He waited a few minutes, then called her.

“Randy?”

“Hey, what's wrong? I got your page.”

“Can you come over?”

Those four simple words had a smirk growing across his face. His cock twitched in his pants. “Yeah, sure. I'll be there in a little.”

He hung up with her and pulled his cock out one more time. He needed to come. He had to before knocking on her door. It shouldn't take long, he was so built up that he thought he was going to come in his pants just hearing her voice.

He stroked himself, closing his eyes and thinking about Yn mouth around him. How she would look on her knees, his cock deep in her throat, the tears from gagging on him running down her face. He thought about her perfect cunt and how that would feel around his cock. The way her voice trembled on the other end of the phone when she asked for him to come over.

His balls tightened, his hips thrust up into his hand. “Fuck, yn!” White hot spurts shot out from the tip, coating his hand and his steering wheel. This girl was going to be the death of him. He was going to make her his no matter the cost. He'll kill anyone who gets in his way. She was his. Her pussy, her mouth, everything was his. Nobody but him will be touching her.

Soon. She'll be his soon. And when she is, she'll be crying out his name as he fills her full, marking her as his territory. And be damned to whoever gets in his way.

[labcampkill]

Do they check the weather forecast before leaving the house or chance it?

For Brad

Brad smiles " If your a helicopter pilot.. you gotta know the weather. . A lot of STARS just assumed that you can fly whenever.. " he chuckled

[codenamehazard]

InFAMOUS Theories: Tornado Trouble

Mother Nature’s fury, few things can both inspire fear and awe like when Nature bares her teeth and strikes the Earth with her wrath. Blistering heatwaves, bone-biting cold, roaring infernos or rushing floods.

However, there are few things more breathtaking than the sight of a tornado. From graceful, swirling white ropes or cones that dance across the open plains to thick, black, monster wedges that can tear up sound buildings and destroy whole towns as if they were nothing more than cardboard toys. No matter what forms they take or where you see them, these twisters will leave you in a state of awe.

There’s no denying the power of Nature, but what happens when a man gains the power to summon these twisting cyclones of air and destruction?

How powerful is Cole MacGrath’s Ionic Vortex?

—---

I’ll come out of the gate with this, I am by no means a meteorologist, I am just someone who loves science and ESPECIALLY loves weather, so take my little musing here with a grain of salt.

Tornados are things of awe and beauty, but also of fear and terror. Able to clear buildings in one go if powerful enough. This destructive power is measured with something called the Enhanced Fujita or EF scale, a rating from EF0 to EF5 is given based on the damage left behind in the tornado’s path, with EF0 doing little more than blowing out windows, knocking over stuff and ripping shingles out of the roof and EF5 with strong buildings swept away, clean off the foundation, and sending debris hundreds of miles away.

Here are some links to help with understanding the EF scale. It’s a little more complicated than what I have described, so I hope these links will help if you’re interested in seeing them for yourself.

With that being said, sometimes as I would play InFAMOUS 2 and have an absolute riot watching Cole summon the Ionic Vortex and send people, cars and debris flying and tumbling, sometimes my mind would wonder. If somebody surveyed the damage left behind after one of these twisters tore through the area, what rating would they get? How strong are they?

Is Cole capable of producing stronger vortexes?

I started to wonder and think… Probably overthink a little bit, but think I do. I know I have a few things gameplay-wise I have to take into consideration when it comes to figuring out where the Ionic Vortex falls on the EF scale. The EF scale looks at all damage done by a tornado, plants, trees, vehicles, but the main indicator of damage is buildings. From rinky-dink shacks to well built homes and everything in between. The speed of the winds matter not.

Now, obviously Sucker Punch isn’t gonna turn the player loose with something that can obliterate buildings on a whim. The software on the PS3 wouldn’t be able to handle it and it would kinda… Render a lot of the fun aspects of InFAMOUS 2 moot, can’t really enjoy a parkour romp or try and play a rousing game of “the floor is lava” while zipping across power lines when everything has been turned to rubble. With this in mind, I can’t use the buildings as indicators of damage for the Vortex, as the buildings are impervious to the shenaniganry of mutated monsters, icy madmen and a man who can shoot lightning from his hands.

What I do have… Are cars.

Cars can be a great indicator of how damaging a tornado was when it was on the ground, seeing as these are one of the few things that the Ionic Vortex can interact with.

Here is the video I’m gonna be using as it shows a great example of the Ionic Vortex in action, make note of the cars. See how they’re just… Tossed around?

Now, a tornado as low as an EF1 can push cars aside and roll them, but with how these vehicles are being lifted up and dropped, the Vortex is stronger than EF1, but seeing as the cars weren’t chucked miles away, it isn’t into the more violent sections of tornados. So most likely, the Ionic Vortex would most likely be rated an EF2 based on what it does to those cars. I know an EF2 doesn’t sound too impressive, but bear in mind that EF2 twisters are classified as both “strong” and “significant” in EF classifications. So those tornados are nothing to sneeze at and if the buildings didn’t have plot armor… There would be a pretty good chance that Zeke might find a car “parked” on his sofa or see a few buildings that have suddenly lost their roofs.

So the most likely rating for the Ionic Vortex would be EF2, but with one question answered, another comes up. Could it be stronger? Why stop at EF2? To this question, I have three possible theories.

EF2 is the strongest Cole can create at the time of InFAMOUS 2

Cole can produce stronger vortexes, but chooses not to.

The strength of the Vortex is affected by the climate of the area Cole is currently in.

With theory one, it’s simple. The strength cap of the Ionic Vortex is as EF2 rating and at the current moment, Cole is unable to produce anything stronger, even if he wanted to. Tornadoes are hard to produce even for supercell thunderstorms. The ingredients have to be just right and even then that’s no guarantee the storm will produce an EF0 tornado, the most common rating, let alone anything higher and that’s Mother Nature we’re talking about.

I can only imagine how much of a drain it would be on Cole, it’s probably why he has to use an Ionic charge to perform the feat as forcing a storm to form is a task in itself, let alone forcing that storm to produce a tornado at all. With the effort shown through Cole tossing out the Vortex like he was participating in a Hammer Throw competition, you can tell it takes a lot of power from the Conduit. So perhaps for the time being, that’s as strong as he can go with a single charge without overdoing it. Could he produce a stronger vortex if given enough time to train himself up? Maybe, but we will never know.

Theory two is also pretty simple. Cole is an intelligent and logical man as he’s shown us throughout the games, so even if he wasn’t big into the study of weather, he knows just how devastating a tornado can be, how much damage they can do and how much he’d be shooting himself in the foot if he let loose the hounds of hell in the form of a massive cyclone with the power to flatten buildings.

He’s a ranged fighter, so buildings are his best friends when it comes to getting the edge in combat. The higher up he is, the better he can get in those sweet, sweet headshocks. Zeke also likes to make the hideouts for the two of them up on the rooftops, so not only will being a one-man demolition team be destroying vantage points that are valuable in combat, he’d possibly put Zeke in great danger and lose both him and a place to hunker down. So the best course of action is to reign in the twisters and keep the collateral at… Acceptable levels. That… And it’s no fun trying to parkour in a flat city.

Theory 3 is more complicated, but still fun to think about. What if creating a Vortex was less of a hard shove, but more like a gentle nudge? Like the beating of a wing to give just enough push to form a storm. What do I mean by this? What if the strength of an Ionic Vortex is helped by the climate around Cole?

For example, let’s say Cole could create vortexes in InFAMOUS 1, but he opted not to. Why?

Well, New York’s climate isn’t known for tornados. Hurricanes yes, but not tornadoes and especially not particularly violent ones. So maybe Cole tried his hand at making a tornado in Empire City, but it took a lot of power to do so and all he could get was an EF0, maybe an EF1 if he was lucky. The output was not worth the input in Cole’s opinion, so instead, lightning storms were the way to go. It still took a lot of power, but the output was worth it.

Now, we venture into New Marais in InFAMOUS 2. New place, new climate, new powers to be had. Now Louisiana is much more of a tornado hotspot than New York is, the climate is closer to having the ingredients for creating tornadic supercells.

Compare the tornado data between New York, New York and New Orleans, Louisiana. Quite the difference isn’t there? More tornadoes and stronger ones too. Since Empire City and New Marais are analogs for the two aforementioned cities, I’d say it’s safe to assume that their climates would be no different than their real world counterparts.

Cole might be able to sense this difference, he might not, but either way, Cole will experiment. He will monkey around with his powers and soon find that the same amount of energy he had to put in to produce a dinky EF0 in Empire City now produces a significantly stronger EF2! He probably thought to himself ���now we’re cooking with gas” when the Ionic Vortex tore through the street and started to do some more meaningful damage to targets. With that, tornadoes were now a more viable option in combat thanks to the more instability-prone climate of Louisiana.

Now… Let’s take this theory and kick it up one more notch. Let’s place Cole somewhere in the infamous (heh) Tornado Alley. Let’s say… Oklahoma?

Look at all those twisters! A good chunk of those being EF4-EF5s! This was even the state where the monster 2 mile wide EF3 El Reno tornado spun up! Truly this state produces some devastating meteorological progeny. Outside of a major city, this would be a playground for the Demon of Empire City. The unstable atmosphere possibly making storm generation an absolute breeze for Cole and with it, supercells and the tornadoes they can produce.

Now to create an EF2 Ionic Vortex is less taxing energy wise and depending on Karma will determine how likely Cole would be willing to dabble in the higher rankings, Good Cole would probably prefer to keep his twisters in the EF2 range while Evil Cole would be less hesitant to call forth an EF3 or even an EF4 if he’s feeling particularly malicious and destructive that day, but both aren’t likely to use the full amount of energy that was needed to produce EF2s in New Marais, as that was basically giving it all he got. Why expend all that energy when you can use less to get the results you need. Going whole hog is just a tad bit overkill.

That is… Unless you’re Kessler. Or some unlucky son of a female dog that absolutely and utterly enraged Cole to the point where they might as well be Kessler. At that point, they better pray to their pantheon for forgiveness and make peace with their life, because the Demon of Empire City sure as hell won’t.

Or maybe Cole is put in a situation where he’s in a bind and he needs to unleash hell and fast and not hold back.

And so… He doesn’t.

With that, he creates a devastating EF5 Ionic Vortex, capable of flattening cities. A truly terrifying sight.

Sadly, we may never know what may have been as the story of Cole MacGrath has ended with his sacrifice at the good end of InFAMOUS 2, so we may never know how strong he could have become. How powerful he could have grown. All we can do is speculate, wonder and dream of what could have been.

Isn’t that part of the fun of being a fan, though?

When the clouds turn dark and the thunder starts to roar, watch the skies and keep your weather radio close, you never know when Nature’s teeth will be bearing down on you.

[crazydiscostu]

Radtel RT-890 Handheld Walkie Talkie

The Radtel RT-890 is a handheld ham radio designed for enthusiasts and professionals requiring reliable communication in diverse scenarios. This dual-band, full-band transceiver caters to amateur radio operators, outdoor adventurers, and emergency personnel seeking robust performance and advanced features. Join us for a review. (Product supplied for review purposes) Radtel Radtel, a respected…

[greensparty]

2024 Fan Expo Boston - Day 3

This past weekend was the 2024 Fan Expo Boston convention at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston from Fri. June 14 to Sun. June 16. Here at Green’s Party, I’ve been covering the convention! Read my coverage here.

On Sunday I returned with my son. Can't think of a better way to spend part of Father's Day then geeking out with my son. Much like the prior days of the con, there were loads of cosplayers, gamers and fans out in full force.

Some of the fun cosplayers out at Fan Expo Boston.

Gunn as Kraglin in GOTG

Actor Sean Gunn might not be the household name his director brother James Gunn is, but he has stolen many scenes in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies as Kraglin. He had a booth at Fan Expo Boston and we briefly talked before he signed an autograph for my son. Very cool guy! With the GOTG movies, the soundtrack has been very important going back to the mixtape on the walkman to the Zune player in the last movie. I asked him if he had a favorite song on the soundtracks? He said "Of the three movies it's tough because there's a lot of songs that I like. But I think if I had to pick one [pauses], well I'm going to pick two. One I'm going to say 'Lake Shore Drive', the Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah song. I remember growing up it was the local song we'd hear on the radio in the Midwest, so that's really cool to have such an obscure song reach such a big audience. It's such a great lost 70s tune. But also I gotta give a shout out to "Come and Get Your Love" [by Redbone], the opening credits music to the first movie. I've heard it a kajillion times and I still love it and have never gotten sick of that song."

ASL translator, Weintraub, and Howard

One of the biggest stars at this year's Fan Expo Boston was easily Bryce Dallas Howard. She has proven to be more than just Ron Howard's daughter since her breakout role in The Village (a disappointment, but no denying her performance in it). She is a self-proclaimed sci-fi geek and it shows in her filmography with Spider-Man 3, Terminator Salvation, and the Jurassic World movies. I've been more of a fan of her performances in The Help, 50/50, and Rocketman more than her big event movies. But I've been particularly impressed with her directing some standout episodes of The Mandalorian! She did a conversation in the main theater moderated by Collider's Steven Weintraub. One fan asked her since she followed her father in directing Star Wars, if she might follow her uncle [Clint Howard] in directing Star Trek. She said 'I'm a Trekkie, so I would love it. I mean wasn't the last season of Picard just brilliant?! So I can only hope!" At the end, she got a little choked up as she talked about the late great Carl Weathers of The Mandalorian. She said his family is having a private memorial for him and she'd love for the audience to give him a standing ovation as she filmed it. The entire audience (myself included) got up for Mr. Weathers!

This year's Fan Expo Boston was a blast and it was especially fun to have it at Hynes Convention Center after a number of years at the Seaport.

For info on Fan Expo Boston