Tuesday, July 14, 2009 - 2:33AM   
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A post to fill in the gap
I've really been uncharacteristically slowing down with blog postings lately, so I felt like conjuring up something just to break the silence. I've been pretty busy the past couple of weeks with commercial web site work, so that coupled with the local weather being quiet for the better part of the last three weeks means that there is not much to talk about. The skies have been amazingly clear the past couple of days - but again, due to work obligations, I haven't been able to take advantage of those for my planned landscape photography projects. I browsed through my photo folders from the past 2 weeks or so looking for something at least marginally interesting to post here today, but there just isn't anything that meets that threshold. I don't even have a single July folder on the 2009 storm photography section of my hard drive, at least not yet.
So, it's been just the daily routine the past few weeks. Even though it's still 'storm season', summer can get stagnant like that around here from time to time. The summer 2009 storm season in the Appalachians has so far been fairly elusive, at least after the first few days of June. There have been a few spotty 'newsmaker' storms just outside of realistic 'chasing' reach (very transient unexpected events), but nothing really within easy range. We've also had a few nice setups since July 1 that were ruined by either bad timing (weak storms arriving in the morning) or cloud cover (hindering instability). Nothing like June of last year, that's for sure. Looking back through my chase logs, however, is a reminder that July and August can occasionally be very active periods - so the season is definitely not over yet. The GFS model wants to kick an upper trough down toward us by later this week, which may bring a few storm chances to 'home' territory starting late Wednesday.
As for future plans, it's been a long time since I've covered a hurricane (the last tropical system I did was TS Ernesto in 2006, the last hurricane was Rita in 2005), and I'm hoping to get to chase one this season, finances permitting of course. My range this year will likely be limited to the Carolinas unless a paying job comes along. The fall severe storm season also comes to the table starting in September, though this is more of a hit-and-miss prospect in any given year. Always worth paying attention to nonetheless. Other than that, not much to discuss.
Update 10:48AM: I snuck outside for a few minutes this morning to get a few frames with the perfect blue sky. So, today's post does end up geting some photos.
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