First Big Chill To Finally Hit.

There are a number of amazing things going on this weekend in Dallas. The State Fair just ended its first week of a 3-week run. The auto show is going on at the KBH Convention Center. Pumpkins at Dallas Arboretum number 50,000.  FC Dallas, Ranger Baseball, Football, both college and pro-teams, and other things around the metroplex and the big OU/Texas Cotton Bowl Game was a big hit already. Top Celebs on stage. Basically, something for every one.

And, of course, there is food to be had around every corner.

On scouting missions, the train tracks for TEX rail has now entered in restricted parts of DFW property south of Airfield Drive West.The work on the Cotton belt coming to DFW from Plano track along Belt Line Road is showing signs of work getting underway. Orange Barrels come in here and go up over there. It's not going to be just a summer project, either. At the old Texas Stadium site, Irving has started work on "their bridge" project to bridge across the Carpenter  to connect the two properties that will be developed. Dallas Metroplex IS a bridge Metroplex. No, that isn't a typo. And while Tex DOT has been counting and logging bridges, they added  a few hundred more with the 183, Horseshoe, 35 Express Lanes and 35 to Denton projects.

If you can't have fun with one of these somehow, somewhere here in Dallas, then you must be an alien from another planet. Unless,you are the original, ALF. In that case, we already know you are here by the jokes. Did I mention the Petite Palace in Tent at The Cultural Bath House at White Rock Lake? Check it out. It's funny.

Clouds Mimic roof shapes. 

Awesome clouds over Dallas the past three days with more to come.

Big puffy billowing type clouds

Even the birds know something is up. After the heavy rain due Tuesday, the real feel of fall is on the way for next two weekends. It's going to get interesting. My thermometer on the porch will not read 80/95. According to the weather man, it's gonna say 52/70!!!! Bring it on!!! This stretch has lasted for six solid months and I'm tired of

Remember The Old Barometers

No one talks about the old barometers that we grew up with hanging on a wall or on a mantel. Some had a thermometer and a clock. It was the barometer that was the most interesting. It had little pointers that you could mark the setting and see if it went up or down. If it went down and sometimes really down, you knew that a bad storm was on the way. In the wintertime, that usually meant snow!

While they are still used today and the weathermen still report the readings daily on the weather forecast not much attention is paid to them. Even the Weather Channel reports in millibars rather than in inches of mercury. I suppose that is in part because millibars are metric and uniform worldwide

The point here is this: The lowest reading recorded in the East was during the Hurricane of 1938 in New England and Long Island  at 946 MB of mercury. This storm (Sandy) is now at 952MB. While it is low--very low-- I still relate to what a low reading did to us that grew up with old barometers recording in inches. Anything that got close to the 28.00 inches was a deep low pressure or major storm. It was a reading that got people excited and started making plans. [Us kids] didn't know exactly what was going on but we knew something was brewing and we took notice.
 

The blizzard of January 26,1978 over Lake Erie saw 20 foot snow drifts and of course blizzard condition winds. As the low pressure  moved out over Lake Erie the lowest pressure reading was 953MB or 28.05 Inches of HG(Mercury). That was only 34 years ago. Less than the once in 50 years or only a third of once in a 100 years type storms, This will be #4 of once in a hundred or 250 years that I have lived through to date.

The 952 MB being reported for Sandy now is only 1 MB off from the Blizzard of 1978 and that was 28.05 inches. If it hits the projected 946 as some experts forecast, then the readings will be down in the 27.90 range. A normal for good weather is 30.00 inches and 31.00 is super blue skies.

 The conversion forMB is the mb reading times 0.0295301 to convert to inches. Since some of you most likely still have that old barometer handing on the wall or siting on your desk or siting on your mantel go set the pointers and see how much more it drops. Don't feel bad if you do still have an old barometer,it's one of those things that we know about the weather that the younger generations have no clue about!  Don't it make you feel good to know these things!