Update on Various Stuff …

Doing some major end of year restructuring, with the ending of one era and the beginning of another and major changes in my funding and work environment coming to a head. Some announcements on that coming with the new year. While I think 2021 will present a lot of challenges for us all, and with the caveat to be careful what you wish for, a new year presents new opportunities …

Meanwhile, if you’re on twitter and not following #TarmacTheWeatherCat, you really can’t call yourself well informed about the weather.

#TarmacTheWeatherCat, resident supervisor at the Little Rock Weather Service Forecast Office (WSFO).

Funny, all of the chairs in my office look like that too … now Nicholas wants his own hashtag.

#CATastropheCatNicholas? Resident Deity at Enki Research …

In the TC world, there is a weak cyclone impacting Madagascar today, and there have been a few minor earthquakes around the globe, including a whole series of quakes along the south coast of Puerto Rico, causing some minor damage and a lot of stress in that hard hit area. Watching this carefully.

Stormwatch 1 Sept 2020

TD15 still isn’t a problem as it heads out towards the open Atlantic and hostile conditions – it is no longer forecast to become a tropical storm. As of 11am, we now have Potential Tropical Cyclone (PTC) 16, just south of Jamaica. As a reminder, a PTC is a system that technically isn’t a tropical cyclone, but the National Hurricane Center has started public advisories on it because it has the potential to become one, and they (or other governments they support) need to start watches and warnings. PTC 16 is headed for Central America … here’s the quick look map:

There is a wave off of Africa, but you guys know better than to worry about tropical waves that don’t have tracking ID’s. Elsewhere, two typhoons in the West Pacific, both headed towards southern Japan and Korea …

Swaths of doom in the West Pacific

Finally, those of you who follow the blog will have seen (and heard more than likely) Schroeder. Schroeder was one of a family of feral kittens and their mom who appeared at the office doorstep in the Spring of 2004. Despite health problems and literally hiding under the false floor for almost a year and only coming out at night (I installed an IR camera to keep an eye on them), they eventually decided that at least one human wasn’t completely obnoxious. While never really friendly to outsiders, Maggie (the mom), Jackie and Schroeder (the two surviving kittens) took over the Enki Research office. Maggie passed away in 2017, and Jackie in 2018. Schroeder died Friday, the end of an era. Will miss them.

Jackie and Schroeder

Cats and Supercomputers

There is probably a reason most facilities that host Beowulf class cluster computers or supercomputers don’t also host cats.  One week of cat hair, especially during the Spring Shed, can be a real problem … also, vacuuming out the fan intakes can cause fan speed changes that sets off all kinds of interesting and entertaining alarms.

While keeping an eye on Kilauea and other geophysical hazards, tropics are quiet at the moment although some potential areas in the West Pacific …