Posts

The Danger of Flock and Flock-Type Cameras

Image
Why is everyone complaining about the Flock cameras?! Shoutout to the @Citizens_Idaho production team for helping me film this! 🥳 #satire #idaho #conservative pic.twitter.com/39fDoC8AnB — In the Know Idaho (@intheknowidaho) August 6, 2026 This is a brilliant satire that I hope you'll enjoy. BTW, the license plate readers are wrong  71% of the time and a number of false arrests have already been documented. More than arrests, it seems dozens of police have already been caught tracking ex-wives, lovers, etc., etc., illegally.  Last week, all eight Flock cameras in Winona, Minn. were cut down. Here's the response from the police department. The police are going to reinstall the spy cameras without a second thought. What the citizens may want (note the cameras are never put up for a vote) doesn't figure in. And, if Flock gets run out of business, there are two other companies that do the same thing.  These are violations of our 4th Amendment rights ("secure in the...

More on The Incorrect Tornado Warnings Near Baltimore Monday Afternoon

Image
You may have heard about the people celebrating because there was a tornado in Baltimore starting at 4:39pm Monday afternoon. They are saying things like "gotcha!" for those of us who criticized the warnings.  There's only one problem: The tornado warning for Baltimore was cancelled at 4:31pm, eight minutes before the tornado developed!    The official cancellation of the warning for Baltimore is below.  To reiterate the point: The National Weather Service had no valid tornado warning when the tornado occurred and the two original tornado warnings should not have been issued as there was no threat at that time. -- The Original Post is Below -- A pair of obviously false tornado warnings were issued by the National Weather Service (NWS) yesterday afternoon near Baltimore. I'd like to explain what went wrong and how it might be repaired going forward. The first issue Monday was the Sterling NWS radar was being operated at 4-minute intervals. Four minutes is too infreque...

Noon (Hawaiian Time) Tropical Storm Forecast

Image
Low Pressure Center One-C is at tropical storm strength. I believe it will be named Hernan when the National Hurricane Center officially names it.  NHC has forecast peak sustained winds of 70 mph which seems reasonable. However.... because of the mountains, gusts as strong as 115 mph may occur those areas. I wish to emphasize that the potential exists that the potential Hernan could reach hurricane force just before reaching the islands.  Some of the computer models are bringing as much as 2 feet  of rain to the mountains of the Island of Hawaii (a/k/a "the Big Island") with lesser but still flood-producing rains on the islands farther to the northwest. The storm will begin to affect Hawaii on Friday.  Storm surge and high surf will be lift-threatening, especially on the east and south sides of the islands based on the current forecast path.  I'll have more tomorrow. 

Hawaii Hurricane Threat

Image
-- This is a Preliminary Forecast -- The graphic is an "envelope" of solutions from the best models in the world regarding the potential track of a tropical storm or hurricane. The highest resolution forecasts are the thick blue, red and yellow lines. The green is just showers between now and the storm's arrival on the Island of Hawaii. The ECMWF model shows the current area of low pressure reaching hurricane force as it reaches the islands. In this case, the stronger winds will be on the north side of the storm's center. There will also be a significant storm surge.  We have a strong El Nino and climatology shows that is when the Hawaiian Islands are most likely to be hit.  I expect the National Hurricane Center will begin official advisories later today. I just wanted to give m my readers a "heads up."

Heads Up: Hawaii

There is a good chance that a tropical storm, or possibly a hurricane, will be approaching the Islands toward the weekend.  I will begin advisories tomorrow (August 12). 

It Just Gets Worse and Worse: Tornado Warnings Delayed By 30 Minutes!! - Updated Wednesday Afternoon

Image
--- Scroll Down for an Update From CNN --- The National Weather Service, again, has serious communications issues. Local NWS offices are having to resort to messages like these: The NWS has had 13   30-minute delays on the Weather Wire (the pipeline for tornado, flash flood and other urgent warnings) this afternoon. *Update*  The delays reached 30 minutes at one point!   [8:49pm] [resume original text] The issues with this agency are overwhelming and, as far as I can tell, there is little urgency to fix them. Instead, they are talking about what they will do with AI in 2-5 years.  CNN's Andrew Freedman has more on the outage. {2:38pm Wednesday}

Damaging Wind Threat Into This Evening

Image
Light hatching = wind gusts stronger than 75 mph possible into this evening. The thick hatching is a forecast of wind gusts above 85 mph between now and 1pm.  If you live in the hatched area and it is safe to do so, please put your car and lawn furniture inside. There is a great deal of lightning with these storms and it is a higher than average threat.