Heat & smog alert!

It was very fine on the weekend, but for the last few days, it has been getting hotter and a little more humid each day. Today we had both an extreme heat alert and a smog alert. It’s going to be slightly hotter on Thursday with a chance of thunderstorms, and the same on Friday. We might even have a funnel cloud! On Saturday it might cool off a bit with more thunderstorms.

I’m not going to bike to work unless I can get out early and find a place to lock my bike in the underground parking. Currently we have more bikes than racks.

I was going swimming this morning but I read until late and decided not to get up early. Then I planned to go to Pilates tonight but I cut the travel time fine and then took the underground streetcar the wrong way after letting two go by in what turned out to be the right way. So I just came home.

My documentation is shaping up and yesterday we got access to our wiki where the documentation will be stored. We had a meeting to hash out the standard page format.

The weather report just came on. It’s going down to 19 tonight but right back up to 30 again tomorrow. Today it was 30 but felt like 38. The tornado watches and warnings in Western Canada have been called off. Oh-oh! They had about three inches of rain in Dunneville. I wonder how the Guide Camp is doing?

Now I need to go and hang the laundry that I started this morning. And then I can write my science blog posts for tomorrow and schedule them to appear throughout the day.

Road trip: Victoria’s Duathlon

Some people were seriously underdressed.

LotStreetWiz signed up for Victoria’s Duathlon on observed Victoria Day. The duathlon takes place at the north edge of Waterloo. It comprises a 4-km run, a 24-km bike ride, and another 4-km run over hilly ground. It’s the start of the summer racing season in Ontario.

We got on our way at 7:45. The drive was just over an hour and a half in duration, but we were still early for registration. We got a good place to park, close to the building, whence where we could see the starting line of the race. The headquarters of the race was at a church beside a small river, with a pond out front. The pond was graced with floating, artificial alligator heads. I don’t know if they were supposed to keep birds away or small children out of the pond.

The weather was harsh: I spent a fair amount of time cheering the departing runners, the fast runners coming in, the bike racers taking off. There was a strong, cold, damp wind blowing the whole time, with spatters of rain. Then I wandered off and bought a hotdog from the one hardy vendor on site. Then I cheered in the slow bikers coming in, the slow runners going out, and the slow runners coming in. Meanwhile, the racers were running and biking into the wind and at times almost being blown off the course. We spectators even saw showers of small ice pellets a couple of times. I think that a lot of slower, recreational runners decided not to start. One tall runner came determined to have fun and ran dressed in a business suit, shirt, tie, dark glasses, and fedora to liven thing up.

LotStretWiz made a valiant effort to go out hard and keep going hard. He made up 30 places over the course of the race, all of them in younger age-groups.

After the race, we didn’t wait for the prizes and draws. We got into the car, he had his pre-packed lunch and warmed up. Then what he wanted most of all was coffee, so we drove off to the nearest coffeee shop.

When we were warm, fed, and caffeinated, we drove to Hamilton and delivered a couple of small birthday presents. I tried my best to ignore the GPS navigation system, which told us to go onto Highway 401 and down Highway 6 to Burlington, then take a long, elevated bridge back to Hamilton. That would take us along two legs of a triangle, when we were ready to zoom down Highway 8, the hypoteneuse of the triangle, which took us straight to our destination.

More snow and c-c-c-cold

It was thawing a little bit today but the temperature is falling to -9 C tonight and the wind chill will be ferocious.

Snow, glorious snow!

We were lucky near Toronto. North of Hamilton, there was little freezing rain and we had a major snowfall in two convenient episodes so we could shovel out during the lull. It’s reassuring to have real snow protecting the fields from the damage of deep cold and building our water supply for next summer.

Further storm warning

Winter storm warning for City of Toronto, issued at 11:18 a.m. EST Wednesday 6 February 2008: snow with some ice pellets and freezing rain today and tonight.

This is a warning that dangerous winter weather conditions are imminent or occurring in these regions. Monitor weather conditions. Listen for updated statements.

A moisture-laden winter storm continues to affect Southern Ontario. This storm is particularly complex since it has two centres, the leading centre which has now pulled east of the province and the second centre which is currently over northern Illinois.

Storm spotters reported significant icing from freezing rain in the Brantford and Paris areas earlier this morning from the first wave of precipitation. In addition, snowfall amounts varied considerably across small regions from about 5 centimetres to 25
centimetres.

During the break some freezing drizzle and patchy freezing rain or light snow will improve visibilities but may cause icy conditions to persist.

After the current relative break in the storm, heavier snow currently over southern Wisconsin is on track to affect Southern Ontario this evening. The afternoon and evening commute home is likely to be very slow, with potentially hazardous winter driving conditions.

The leading edge of this second wave of precipitation is just about to reach Windsor around noon with a mixture of ice pellets freezing rain and snow expected.

This next batch of precipitation will reach the Toronto area by about 2 p.m. as mostly snow with a risk of freezing rain and then affect the Trenton to Kingston area by 4 p.m. as snow.

Over areas south of a line from Sarnia to Hamilton precipitation is expected to be mixed freezing rain ice pellets and snow. Over areas north of the line it will arrive as snow.

Later on this afternoon and into this evening the snow will become heavy at times as the most intense part of the storm passes right over our heads in Southern Ontario.

Snow, heavy at times, over an area comprising Sarnia to Kincardine to Barrie and Toronto is expected this evening with about 15 centimetres of snow by midnight likely.

This storm has the potential to produce snowfall rates in the 2 to 4 centimetres per hour rate with near zero visibilities.

The area of heavy snow will very gradually weaken as it moves eastward and the low pressure system starts to lose some of its steam giving eastern portions slightly lesser amounts.

Significant ice accretion over areas south of a line from Sarnia to Hamilton and total snowfall amounts of 15 to 30 centimetres north of this line may be expected before tapering off later tonight.

Travellers should be prepared to alter plans accordingly due to dangerous driving conditions from reduced visibility in snow and slippery roads.

Winter storm warning

Many cities around the Great Lakes have storm warnings like Toronto’s tonight:

Winter storm warning for: City of Toronto, issued at 6:46 p.m. EST Tuesday 5 February 2008: snow with ice pellets and freezing rain expected tonight and Wednesday. This is a warning that dangerous winter weather conditions are imminent or occurring in these regions. Monitor weather conditions.. Listen for updated statements.

Yet another moisture-laden winter storm is moving towards Southern Ontario. The low pressure centre has moved into Southern Missouri this evening and as it moves northeastward towards the Ohio Valley tonight it will tap into a lot of moisture and energy from the Gulf of Mexico. Thus it is likely that this low will intensify into a significant winter storm as it moves into Southern Ontario tonight and Wednesday. The leading edge of the large precipitation shield from this storm has arrived in Windsor near 6.17 p.m. this evening when a cold rain started to fall there.

Although this storm seems to be following the script of many previous winter storms this season, this one will be a little different. As the low tracks northeastwards tonight, strengthening northeast winds are forecast to tap colder air from a building Arctic high pressure ridge over Northern Ontario. This will set the stage for a band of potentially significant freezing rain south of a line from Sarnia to Hamilton and a mixture of snow and ice pellets from Goderich towards the greater Toronto area to just north of Lake Ontario. Regions farther north will likely receive some snow but below the warning threshold of 15 centimetres per 12 hours.

The precipitation will continue to advance quickly northeast this evening and envelop much of southern ontario by dawn, making for a potentially hazardous Wednesday morning commute.

A relative break in the precipitation lasting about 6 hours is expected to pass through southern Ontario during the late morning to early afternoon. during this break freezing drizzle and patchy freezing rain will improve visibilities but may cause icy conditions to persist.

During the late afternoon hours the precipitation will intensify again and switch over to snow heavy at times with about 5 to 10 centimetres on tap across most districts.

Significant ice accretion over areas south of a line from Sarnia to Hamilton and total snowfall amounts of 10 to 25 centimetres north of this line can be expected before this storm exits the region late Wednesday.

Travellers should be prepared to alter plans accordingly again as driving conditions once again will deteriorate significantly on Wednesday. Dangerous winter driving conditions from very low visibility in bursts of heavy snow are anticipated. Untreated surfaces may also be icy and very slippery as a result. Environment Canada continues to closely monitor this situation.

Windoc bridge accident, 2001

Linked from the Wikiepedia article about the Welland Canal, I found a YouTube video of a bridge accident. In 2001, the merchant vessel Windoc was passing under the Allanburg bridge on the Welland Canal when the bridge master carelessly lowered the bridge onto her. Talk about lowering the boom! Coincidentally, someone was filming the ship and caught the accident in progress.

A maze of maize

A farm near Mount Albert and Zephyr, Ontario, is advertising its annual corn maze, starting in August.

See the maze of maize near Cincinnati, Ohio.

Coyotes in the city, reprise

The Torontoist has a recent article about coyotes in Toronto (Hat tip to Donwatcher).

Trees: oak along highway

This is one of my favourite oak trees along the Queen Elizabeth Way, partly because it is so prominent. I imagine that many of you recognize it if you use the highway. I’ve never stopped to look closely but I think it’s a red oak or a black oak.

Several years ago, when the highway exit was rebuilt, the construction included a wall taking a chunk out of the new embankment to keep the tree’s roots from being smothered.

It’s looking a little battered these days but still rather noble.