Hey everyone.  Before I leave, I wanted to post a few pictures of previous Chicken Infernos…(just because you all seem rather interested!!)    Have a great weekend!

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Here’s what he wrote:

This is my view from the drift boat on the Kenai River on Monday. We floated the river in the hopes of catching a king salmon but no luck. At least we tried…

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G’day everyone!

I’ve been trying to chime in on some of your comments this morning, but WordPress is once again being a pain in the you-know-what!  I’ll try again later this afternoon.

Don from Richmond posted a great link though to a story about Bill Gates and Hurricanes.    Mr. Gates certainly has some interesting ideas about how to fight Mother Nature.  You can read all about it here

In other weather news, we could get some thunderstorms across the Northeast, the Great Lakes, the Ohio Valley and back into the plains as a cold front drags over the Central U.S.  Some hail, damaging winds, heavy downpours and even isolated tornadoes not out of the question.

The heat hangs on across the southern Plains and back into the Southwest with advisories up for the same areas that have been enduring the scorching temperatures for days and even weeks now.

This weekend I’m heading upstate to attend an event my husband and his friends call “The Chicken Inferno”.    It’s a little hard to describe this event — since it is a little strange, but it does brings all of Sean’s friends and family together every year around this time.  If you’ve heard of the “Burning Man”, you’ll get the drift of the “Chicken”.  Basically a bunch of my husbands friends get together on a big open property and build a “Chicken” out of wood, hay, straw – or whatever they can find to make a giant structure that resembles a chicken.  After about 2 days of work (as well as eating, drinking and socializing) everyone gets together and burns the Chicken to the ground.   I’ll have to post some pictures so you can get the full “drift” of what I’m talking about.  My husband is so excited to introduce my son to this strange custom he and his buddies have been doing for over a decade now.    It is pretty funny to see all of these guys build this huge chicken structure.  They take it seriously, and try to outdo themselves every year.  I think they even have a website.  I’ll try to get the link and post it here before I leave tomorrow.  So that’s where me and my family will be tomorrow through Monday.  Don’t worry I’ll have lots of photos to demonstrate what I’m trying to describe early next week!  So have a great weekend everyone!

JD

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Hi everyone.

Well, it looks like we’re back to some regular programming…and I was able to talk about Shuttle weather tonight in Florida on Happening Now.   Unfortunately, scattered thunderstorms are back in the forecast tonight for the 6:03 liftoff time.    If they scrub this launch, they can try again tomorrow…after that, the next window of opportunity is at the end of the month.    This will be the 6th attempt to get Endeavor in the air.

The possibility for severe weather could pop up today across the Great Lakes and Ohio River Valley while the front associated with the storm will stall out and bring the chance for some heavy rain and unsettled storminess across the central U.S.

Still scorching hot over the Southern Plains with temperatures again reaching up to and past the century mark.  The southwest is also into some extreme heat today for southeast California, southern Nevada and Arizona.

In other news, my sister-in-law Donna sent me this  picture taken by Staten Island’s own John Rocco Raimonda who is 6 years old.  He noticed this cloud looked like a big fluffy white heart!    I definitely see the resemblance.  Don’t you? 

And one other important link I wanted to pass along when you have the time…September is National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, and my sister-in-law Donna is helping to organize a walk taking place in Brooklyn called the TEAL WALK  (which stands for Tell Every Amazing Lady!).  It’s in honor of cancer survivor Louisa McGregor who was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer in 2007 and is helping to raise awareness of the disease.  Donna is registered with the Brooklyn Burger Babes, and I think I may also join in on the fun Saturday September 12th.  Anyhow, you can click here to read all about the event and support the cause!

www.tealwalk.org

Talk to you soon!

JD

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Good morning everyone!

Well, it’s official.  El Nino is back, and there’s good news and bad news when it comes to this weather phenomenon.   El Nino is basically the warming of the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean waters that can affect weather patterns across the world.   This happens every two to five years, and can last up to 12 months.    What does that mean for us here in the U.S.?   Well, in the summertime, El Nino can bring damaging winter storms in California, increased storms over the southern U.S.    When the water is warming in this region, that can lead to a decrease in ocean “productivity” meaning weather patterns that can decrease the amount of nutrients in the ocean that get “churned up” and help the marine food chain…the fishing industry can be greately affected during an El Nino Year.

The good news is El Nino can help suppress the intensity and number of hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin as well as bringing much needed rain to desert southwest, less wintry weather over the north and a reduced risk of Florida Wildfires. 

If you want to read more about El Nino, you can click on here.

And of course, something many of us cannot forget when we hear the phrase “EL NINO” is the hilarious Chris Farley sketch a few years back on Saturday Night Live which I’ve found courtesy of UTUBE!

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Hey everyone

Hope you’re having a great week so far.  I wasn’t off yesterday – I worked the “late shift”  (Prime Time), and due to the MJ coverage, I had a pretty easy evening.  I did watch the Memorial Service which I thought was very well organized and just the right length.  There was a lot of speculation that it might turn into a “circus”, but it was just the opposite, and tastefully done.

A pretty quiet weather week, which I am thankful for!  (Especially here in the northeast where we’ve been enjoying spectacular weather aside from a few hit or miss showers yesterday).  It’s still hot across the south, and thanks to a stubborn frontal boundary draped across the southeast from the Carolinas back into the Central Gulf States, strong to severe storms will continue to bring heavy rain, the possibility for hail, damaging winds and or isolated tornadoes.   There’s also the risk for nasty storms from the Intermountain West into the Northern Plains this afternoon.  Wet weather is also keeping the umbrellas in business over the Upper Midwest, Ohio River Valley and the Northern Plains.

I’ll check in a little later to see what you guys are chatting about.  I tried to respond to your comments the other day, but WordPress was cranky, and not letting me in!

JD

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One of our faithful bloggers Cathy sent in some pretty impressive cloud formations out of Iowa taken by her Mom, Ruth back in 2006.  Awesome stuff!

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