Below The Beltway

Triple digits in early June, not something you see often around here

There was some wild weather in the Northern Virginia area last night:
Two major local school systems are closed today because of power outages from last night’s swift-moving and violent thunderstorms, which left a Fairfax County man dead, scores of trees and power lines toppled and more than 200,000 homes and businesses without electricity.
The Annandale-area man [...]

As the tragedy in Burma becomes worse by the day, with new estimates that as many as 100,000 people may have died when the cyclone hit, it’s becoming evident that the situation on the ground is being made worse by a military dictatorship that doesn’t want to accept help from the outside:

BANGKOK, May 7 — [...]

That, apparently, is the only conclusion that can be drawn from a report in today’s Washington Post:
The task of cutting greenhouse gas emissions enough to avert a dangerous rise in global temperatures may be far more difficult than previous research suggested, say scientists who have just published studies indicating that it would require the world [...]

Yep, another winter storm is head to the D.C. area:
Tonight: Light snow is likely to move into the region around or before midnight and temperatures below freezing area wide will allow whatever falls to accumulate. By sunrise, 1-3 inches of snow may be on the ground across much of the area, with possibly a little [...]

A rare sight, a total lunar eclipse, will be visible in most of North America Wednesday night:
Feb. 13, 2008: On Wednesday evening, February 20th, the full Moon over the Americas will turn a delightful shade of red and possibly turquoise, too. It’s a total lunar eclipse—the last one until Dec. 2010.
The Sun goes down. The [...]

Northern Virginia is getting it’s first major snow storm of the season:
A winter storm moving into the region prompted school closings in several rural Virginia counties this morning, and some private schools in northern Virginia also canceled classes in anticipation of the bad weather.
Snow began falling in downtown Washington shortly after 10 a.m. Forecasters predicted [...]

It’s snowing here in Western Prince William County, Virginia.
These two pictures were taken about ten minutes apart.

When I lived in New Jersey a snow storm like this was brushed off as nothing to worry about. In Northern Virginia in 2007, it’s enough to bring the region to it’s knees:
Most area schools were opening two hours late this morning as the region coped with the season’s first snowfall and braced for [...]

It’s still snowing lightly outside here in Western Prince William County, but I can also still see the strands of grass in the yard.
Apparently, that counts as a pile:
As snow began to envelop the region, local schools scrambled to announce cancellations of evening activities on Wednesday. Fairfax County Public Schools announced on their web site [...]