Here Comes Juicy Tuesday

The buzz about the approaching return of Winter-Style weather is beginning to come into focus. Most forecasters have the front arriving Tuesday, five days hence. Of course the TV Weatherguys have been the most chirpy...is it Spring Sweeps time already?

Here's a tidbit from Friday afternoon's 3PM AFD from the Reno NWS Office:

.LONG TERM...TUESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY...
MODELS ARE IN EXCELLENT AGREEMENT CONCERNING THE FIRST PART OF THE
EXTENDED PERIOD WITH HIGH CONFIDENCE IN DEVELOPING A WEST COAST
TROUGH BY THE MIDDLE OF NEXT WEEK. THIS WILL BRING A RETURN OF MORE
TYPICAL WINTER WEATHER WITH WELL ABOVE NORMAL PRECIPITATION...
ESPECIALLY IN THE SIERRA...AND MUCH COLDER TEMPERATURES. CONFIDENCE
IS HIGH WITH REGARD TO THE PATTERN CHANGE...ALTHOUGH DETAILS STILL
REMAIN TO BE IRONED OUT. THEREFORE...HAVE CONTINUED TREND OF RAISING
POPS...BUT KEPT THE DETAILS MORE BROAD-BRUSHED FOR THE THURSDAY INTO
FRIDAY TIME FRAME. IN ADDITION IT IS LOOKING MORE LIKELY THAT A WIND
EVENT WILL CONTINUE FROM THE SHORT TERM INTO TUESDAY AND POSSIBLY
EVEN WEDNESDAY MORNING.

Meanwhile, in advance of the Big Change, temperatures in the Tahoe Sierra are warming again into the high 40's Friday afternoon...

I'm not exactly bored with these weeks of nice weather...more like I'm lusting for some storm thrills (and hours!)

I have a three day weekend on tap, and I'll miss Day One of the storm if the models stay put. This thing has been trending later over the past few days, so I may not miss much after all. I'll do my part, traveling into the High Sierra on the first day of a storm works better than the old "wash the car brings the rain" gambit.

I'll gladly take one for the team...

Night and Day

That was the difference between Tuesday night and Wednesday night! Tuesday was my Monday, and my tractor was down for the count...My old cat has 8200 hours on her clock now...I figure 55-60% are My Hours...lets just say we're joined at the heart chakra...

Saturday, my tractor showed an Idiot Light and threw a Flash Code at the same time that her exhaust note went from sweet to awful. I radioed the Graveyard Wrench and spun my tale of woe...Tuesday, my tractor was on Injured Reserve...the Board said: Missing In Action, use only as a last resort...

I ran our two year old Bison with the X Package...conditions stank, and it really was my Monday! The conditions were interminably slow...Thank God I watched my tractor getting moved into the shop as I was fueling up at the end of my shift...The Reno Caterpillar Shop was coming out to replace a faulty fuel injector!

Tonight, my trusty steed was parked with the rest of the fleet, ready for battle. She ran like a Rolex...good as new. After four years, my cat and I are very simpatico...she fits me like a glove.

Everyone was on time, and nobody wanted to over-think the list. We rumbled off into the night, and started kicking it. Conditions were good...the ferocious Northeast winds had been keeping a lid on the temps, so the piste was drying fast.

Swing shift was half buried with a big To-Do List, so I had a bunch of ramps to do in addition to my usual workload. Not to worry, conditions were perfect, relatively speaking, so we could Rock It! Everyone rumbled through their list in a most workmanlike manner, so we were on top of our game when the sunrise lit up our mountain.

After it was all over, all my guys agreed...tonight was 100 times better than last night!

Niche Sports Nirvana Ahead!

Lookie here what I found on Facebook taday!

Yes, Stage 2 of the 2011 AMGEN Tour of California is gonna roll right by the DaveCave! The ToC put up a YouTube Video for your enjoyment (or enticement!) Truckee's newspaper has the story today as well.

The best bicycle racers in the world will be going at it hammer and tong right through Truckee, and up Old Highway 40 over Donner Summit, down through Nevada City and finish in Sacramento with two laps in front of the State Capitol.

The 1000 ft climb up Donner Summit is a grinder...I know, I've done it a half a dozen times over the years. Even though I'm a Local and acclimated to the 7100ft air, it's a genuine Lung Burner...who am I kidding, it's tough on a Motorcycle!

Looking East from atop Donner Summit, Donner Lake w/ Old Hwy 40 in foreground.
That's the Transcontinental Railroad roadbed on the right

It's not quite the fabled Alpine climbs of Le Tour de France like L'Alpe d'Huez, but it's right in my backyard, and it'll do just fine, thank you very much!

Any World That I'm Welcome To

Damn, Blogger just ate my almost completed bleat!

I'm up past bedtime, so, in a nutshell:

I left work Sunday morning feeling under the weather, and decided to forgo my grocery shopping, in favor of sleep.

I enjoyed the Super Bowl, sans chips n' dip, and went back to bed...my nose had taken to running like Jim Thorpe.

Monday AM I luxuriated in bed until 0800 (the alarm roused me at 0600)

I went shopping for a new Alternator for the Pickup, and nixed the rest of Monday's To-Do List in favor of yet more shuteye.

Tuesday I R&R-ed the alternator, and returned the core to the Auto Parts Store...I did a rudimentary shopping trip...I'm going to Reno Wednesday after work for reprovisioning.

Thankfully, the weather's taken a cold turn today!

I'll fill in all the colorful bits that Blogger has half digested tomorrow...Good Night, and Good Luck

The Big Blow

Friday night was a good one on my Mountain, though it could have been colder for my taste. It got pretty warm Friday afternoon, and our squeaky Hero Snow took a pretty good beating...especially on our west facing trails. My guys definitely earned their keep on these grinders. Surprisingly, the East Wind wasn't at all ferocious overnight. Walking down the shop road to my pickup after work, there was an almost Tropical feel to the breeze.

Once home in the embrace of the DaveCave, my body started telling me that yes I did work my ass off last night...I think I was asleep before 11AM

Some noise in the neighborhood woke me up at 5PM, I reached for the remote and fired up the local News. To a man, all lead with the Record High Temperature With Plenty of Wind stories.

Napa 79°F
San Francisco 73°F
Sacramento 74°F
Truckee weighed in at 46°F out at the airport

I went to the internet to find some cooling relief. All my weather websites are touting continued wind from the Northeast in the near term, but they all are beginning to buzz about a pattern change coming up around St Valentine's Day

Reno's AFD plays it down:

RIDGE REBUILDS INTO THE RGN THURSDAY WITH WARMING TEMPS...BUT BETTER
WARM UP TAKES PLACE FRIDAY AS RIDGE AXIS STARTS TO SHIFT EAST.
MODELS BEGIN TO DIVERGE A BIT MORE BY FRIDAY WITH GEM MUCH FASTER TO
BREAK DOWN RIDGE AND PUSH A TROF ON SHORE. MEANWHILE BOTH ECMWF AND
GFS KEEP RIDGE IN PLACE BEFORE STARTING TO BREAK IT DOWN AFTER THE
EXTENDED PERIOD. WITH BETTER MIXING THINK FRIDAY WILL BE THE WARMEST
DAY OF THE EXTENDED PERIOD. STARTED INCREASING WINDS FRIDAY AS
WELL...BUT THESE WILL LIKELY NEED TO GO HIGHER BASED ON HOW PATTERN
EVOLVES. MODELS ALL HINTING AT A SLIGHTLY WETTER PATTERN BY LATE IN
THE WEEKEND WITH SOME COOLING. THIS CAN BE ADDRESSED BY LATER SHIFTS
AS IT IS BEYOND THE EXTENDED PERIOD RIGHT NOW.

Even Sacramento's forecasters are uncharacteristically conservative:

.EXTENDED DISCUSSION (WEDNESDAY THROUGH SATURDAY)...HIGH PRESSURE
WILL REMAIN IN CONTROL ACROSS NORTHERN CALIFORNIA THROUGH THE END OF
THE WORK WEEK. WITH THE TUESDAY TROUGH SLIDING EASTWARD...EXPECT A
SLIGHT WARMING TREND WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY WITH LIGHTER WINDS. THE
SYNOPTIC PATTERN FINALLY BEGINS TO SHIFT BEGINNING FRIDAY...AS A
HIGH AMPLITUDE GULF OF ALASKA TROUGH DROPS SOUTHWARD...FLATTENING
THE EASTERN PACIFIC RIDGE. MEDIUM RANGE MODELS DO DIFFER ON
TIMING...WITH THE ECMWF BEING MORE PROGRESSIVE AND THE GFS MUCH
SLOWER. FOR THE TIME BEING THE ECMWF HAS BEEN MORE CONSISTENT AND IS
THE PREFERRED MODEL. AS SUCH...HAVE INTRODUCED A SLIGHT CHANCE OF
PRECIPITATION ALONG THE INTERIOR NORCAL MOUNTAINS SATURDAY

Well I'm more than ready for Winter to make an Encore Performance!

The Big Blow Hard
I can't believe it! Today's post is my 400th since I first took the name CorduroyPlanet, way back in August 2009! That's an awful lot of hot air...

Maybe there is a human component to Global Warming, after all?

Nahhh, Just Kiddin'!