GrillSgt's Firepit

The Mega Crystals of Naica Mine

I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology, so this story piqued my interest. These gypsum and selenite crystals and huge!

The Mega Crystals of Naica Mine: Big Pics : Discovery News.

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49 of 50 US States Have Snow on the Ground

After last Friday’s deep south snowstorm, for a brief period, 49 of 50 US states had snow on the ground. Only Hawaii, which occasionally does see snow on mountain tops, had no snow on the ground. Read the story below for all the details. No one knows if this has ever happened before, though it seems to me that it probably has at some point, but maybe it was never recorded for posterity.

49 States Dusted with Snow; Hawaii’s the Holdout – Yahoo! News.

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Snowmapalooza 2010

We had another major winter storm roll through Central Virginia Friday and Saturday. We got about 2 feet of snow this time. We already had about 4 inches on the ground from a snowstorm that came through last Tuesday.We didn’t lose power during the storm, though it went out for about 30 minutes early Saturday evening after the snow stopped.
Continue reading Snowmapalooza 2010…

The Big Snow

Here are the photos I took during and after the big snowstorm we had that dumped almost 2 feet of snow on us in Virginia. It took me two days to clear the driveway of all the snow. I figured that I cleared 2250 cubic feet, or 45,000 pounds, of snow from the driveway. I probably could have done it all in one day, but we didn’t have a need to go anywhere; besides, the main roads were barely passable anyway. Because of the storm, I had to postpone my Christmas travel plans, visiting my parents, aunt, uncle and multitudes of cousins in Mississippi. Instead, I’ll visit them sometime in early 2010.

Winter Wonderland

A few photos of the snow left behind by the mega-snowstorm that barreled through the Southeast and up the Atlantic Coast on Mar 1-2, 2009. Wasn’t much of a storm where I live. The weather forecasters were predicting 4 to 6 inches in my neck of the woods, but we only got about 2 inches, and most of it melted by nightfall.

Still, it’s pretty. Here are a few photos I snapped this morning from the lake (east) side of our house.

Winter 2009

These are posted on Facebook, but for those of you resisting Facebook, here are some photo I took around our house in January 2009 after a winter storm passed through.

Autumn 2008

These are posted on Facebook, but for those of you resisting Facebook, here are the photos I took around our house in early November 2008.

Severe Weather

Yesterday afternoon a severe thunderstorm rumbled through the area. I took a few pictures of a funnel cloud that formed north of where I work. Fortunately, there was no rotation associated with it, so a tornado didn’t spawn. It was rather cool watching the clouds, but also a little creepy. The photos of the clouds were taken with the camera on my phone. Not bad for a 3 megapixel phone camera, eh?

There used to be a large oak tree on the right side of the driveway as you approached the house. The very strong winds from the thunderstorm uprooted it. The rest of the photos show the tree, which is blocking the driveway. It fell on top of a small weeping willow tree. I pulled out my small chainsaw this morning to go cut the branches and unblock the driveway, only to find that chain oil didn’t come in the box, which is rather stupid considering engine oil did come with it. So, I’ll have to make a trip to Lowe’s. Our landlord is supposed to be sending someone out to take care of it, but he hasn’t gotten here yet.

Enjoy the photos.

Interesting Weather

Well, we’ve had some interesting weather this evening. We’re under a flood watch until Friday morning. Not much of a concern where we live as we’re up on a slight rise. We were under a severe thunderstorm warning most of the night, as well as a tornado watch. There was a tornado warning for our county earlier this evening, but the actual “event” was west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. According to the warning, doppler radar indicated a thunderstorm with rotation, which is one of the criteria for tornado formation. However, I don’t think a tornado ever did form, so that was good. It’s raining as I write this, but most of the severe weather has moved east. There is some severe weather in south central Virginia, but that’s about 200 miles away and it’s moving east. It looks like the severe weather has died down for the night.

Looks like we’ll have more rain with occasional thunderstorms tomorrow and probably throughout the weekend.

Autumn Photos

One of my co-workers took some pictures of the autumn foliage around work a few weeks ago and shared them with us. Unfortunately, he turned out to be a real creep, so I had to remove the link to his photos. Next year, I’ll take some of my own.