The Northeast Weather Blog...

They have the Waymart wind farm in Wayne County which I believe is right near Carbondale.

From the top of my road on a clear day I could see the turbines, about 50 miles away from here.

the rain barrels do work. i had one at my last house and it filled up fast. the power coming out of the barrel isn't much to talk about. gravity provides the power of the stream. make sure you keep a mosqutio screen on it.
that is a great picture of a water spout. i vacation not too far from there often.

Honestly I am not really on the bandwagon like many people about global warming. I have done quite a bit of research on the subject with both arguments have I am satisfied with my solution of only cycles. Now I know it is impossible to ignore the facts that recently it has been overall getting warmer. But I believe that the Earth goes through several cycles such as ice ages and warm periods.

Well yes it is that time of year again. The time where many people who abuse the Earth's resources throughout the year decide to go out and conserve and plant a tree. Though that is great, but Earth Day should be every day.


I agree. I posted a bit on my thoughts of biofuel and this Green movement. Some of my friends have been shocked that I'm so against it being nature girl and all. We live in a culture of quick fixes, if we are depressed cause our loved one dies, instead of allowing the the healing process to occur, we are given drugs to make us feel better. Same with the green movement. They make these commercials to look like they care, but they really are only selling a product that will make people think they are doing something good cause why? Because they say it's good for the environment. I'm all for coming up with innovative ideas and understand that there will trials and errors in figuring out how to better this world. However I am not for having an idea that was thought to be good but discovered it's not and because everyone jumped on the bandwagon and so much have been invested they won't put the halt on things, look the other way and tell the public that it's good for you. Blah.

Anyways, getting off base here. Mainly wanted to say thanks for the blog and the good key points.

As for the rain barrels, I have them and use a rain garden to collect more water that normally would run off and go down the street into the sewer. It's a great idea for a normal sized yard and personal use. On a larger scale, I know of some companies who have tried it and have many problems. Mainly cause sometimes the ideal location is not where the business wants to have water collecting and etc.

Of course if you live downstream from nuclear waste site....


Anyways, Happy E Day!

Nice post Dragonfly. I hope you keep posting on this blog. We like to post about everything here. Golf and the weather and gardening. I think most people on this blog have similar views as you on the fallacy of the green movement. I just can't wait until we get rid of our dependency on oil. I wish I government would put tons of $$$ into research of other forms of energy. Once we find a way to make Fusion reactions (back in the late 80's Princeton had a reactor, but it took more to put into it then what they got out) we would have cheap energy with no waste products. I wonder whatever happened to the research on superconductors. A shame that they stopped the construction of the Supercolliding Superconductor. A shame the contractors were milking the government, too.

Nice pictures Blizz...I have some in my ED Blog also

i bet the garden has come alive. i have noticed a lot of things outside have come alive with the recent rains and the warm weather. if you want to save some water the rain barrel is good. some municipalities offer them for free. get the 55 gal.

Hey Blizzard- great post.

Scary looking waterspout...if that were me, I'd haul it out of there.

Blizzard- a beautiful Earth Day...highs 70-72F around Northampton County, picked a big bowl full (the first one!) of lettuce out of the garden. This is near-perfect weather!

a great day here and even the golf course was a nice pleasant evening. hardly any wind. high of 71.9. this is the spring i was hoping for about 3 weeks ago. a little late Blizz. next time can you do better. : )

Good evening Blizzard. Excellent blog along with some beautiful pictures. Did you take all of them yourself?

Global warming. Is it fact? There is a really good chance it is. But whether it is or isn't, I prefer to take the stance that it is never a good idea to dump your garbage in your front yard. With something like eight billion people living on the planet, that's a lot of garbage being generated in solid, liquid or gas forms. The gas form will disperse the easiest and fastest, followed by the liquid form of garbage and finally the solid form. And all the garbage I generated and thought I was so cleverly dumping in someone else's back yard... will be sitting there one day in my front yard. All the earth's ecosystems are connected; it can't really be stopped.

For my part, I can take resposibility for myself and my family. We have been recycling, planting trees, growing a natural garden, replacing light bulbs... but you know, that's about the least I can do. I hate to admit it, but I have born and raised in a society that gobbles down resources and energy like there's no tomorrow and I am a prime example of my environment. I need to change. How can I expect anything or anyone else to change if I don't?

Sorry I'm on my soapbox here. I've been kind of irrate since attending an Earth Day festival last Saturday and encountering a let's-all-feel-good-we'll-amuse-your-kids-and-sell-you-some-hippie-trinkets-and-potted-plants market. Well, it wasn't all bad, I did pick up some info about solar and wind power.

But I don't see wind power being feasible for individuals on a large scale. Not only do you need a very large chunck of ground, it has to ideally situated from all angles. That excludes most everyone in PA. I would really like to get some solar panels. The prevailing wisdom says that PA is too cloudy for them to be cost effecient. We built and have lived in an earth-bermed passive solar house for the last fifteen years. You'd be surprised how much sun we get even with the lake effect clouds.

But the Pennsylvania government, in its infinite wisdom, has no rebate program available for alternative energy. Our neighboring states do. Hmmm... maybe that's why I've been rather irrate. I'm feeling let down by my government again.

Anyhow, I'm sorry to have rambled on so much here. I usually don't. Let's just say that I'm planning on assessing my energy uses and ways to conserve that energy. Not generating the garbage in the first place seems like the wisest choice.

Thanks for listening and have a good night!!

solar power is expensive. a shame we can't get it on everyone's house. but the real future is fusion energy. for those that don't know it is the same way the sun makes it energy by fusing hydrogen atoms into helium atoms. we need to find a way to get these reactors up and running. there is little to no waste. i couldn't even imagine the cost savings.

imagine if you could get a 1-to-2 hundred dollar solar panel that would cut your electric usage by 30-40%! Do you think we'd see a few houses with solar panels?

Yes, every little bit helps. I haven't converted all of light bulbs to compact fluorescent, but I have by about 30-40%. As the old style burn out, I replace them with the energy efficient ones. But man, if i could afford one good sized solar panel, I'd love to knock-off about a third or more of my electric bill! (plus help the environment)

Blizz - the last i heard and this was back in the late 80's Princeton had one up and running but it took more to put in then what they got out. I believe it is something we will see sometime this century. Just wish the feds would put a lot of resources to it. I looked up there are a lot of major science colleges and facilities looking into fusion. colleges like MIT, Los Alamos etc.
I have installed a few solar lights for outside. they have gotten so much better the last few years. don't know how much energy is needed but my weather station is solar powered.

Yeah, wouldn't be great if most everyone had a solar panel to cut their electric reliance by a third? or more? I think we have decided to build a solar pre-hot water tank heater in the greenhouse. In the greenhouse we don't have to worry about it freezing and the room is 80 and above eight months of the year. Our well water comes into the house at 45 - 50 degrees. For the small amount of time and money it would cost, it's worth a try.

We had thunderstorms move through the area around 4 pm. They were small and just touch us, but I saw my first lightening strike of the year!

another great weather day here in south central PA.
saw a lightning strike on sunday evening on the baltimore beltway. like i said before the storm i ran into on the beltway most of the way up 83 to the PA/MD line was intense.
grass is really growing. it looks like might have to cut every 5 days for a bit. i need to get my vegetable garden going soon.