JamesCaruso
Staff member
Thoughts on clouds in eastern WY / NEB panhandle?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
After witnessing the continued decrease of involvement in the SpotterNetwork staff in serving SN members with troubleshooting issues recently, I have unilaterally decided to terminate the relationship between SpotterNetwork's support and Stormtrack. I have witnessed multiple users unable to receive support weeks after initiating help threads on the forum. I find this lack of response from SpotterNetwork officials disappointing and a failure to hold up their end of the agreement that was made years ago, before I took over management of this site. In my opinion, having Stormtrack users sit and wait for so long to receive help on SpotterNetwork issues on the Stormtrack forums reflects poorly not only on SpotterNetwork, but on Stormtrack and (by association) me as well. Since the issue has not been satisfactorily addressed, I no longer wish for the Stormtrack forum to be associated with SpotterNetwork.
I apologize to those who continue to have issues with the service and continue to see their issues left unaddressed. Please understand that the connection between ST and SN was put in place long before I had any say over it. But now that I am the "captain of this ship," it is within my right (nay, duty) to make adjustments as I see necessary. Ending this relationship is such an adjustment.
For those who continue to need help, I recommend navigating a web browswer to SpotterNetwork's About page, and seeking the individuals listed on that page for all further inquiries about SpotterNetwork.
From this moment forward, the SpotterNetwork sub-forum has been hidden/deleted and there will be no assurance that any SpotterNetwork issues brought up in any of Stormtrack's other sub-forums will be addressed. Do not rely on Stormtrack for help with SpotterNetwork issues.
Sincerely, Jeff D.
My main concern is clouds. While models are adept at forecasting large areas of clouds associated with weather systems, they are less adept at forecasting fair weather cumulus which could be equally fatal to the 2 minutes of totality. I have some tricks which are helpful: 850mb mixing ratios and mesoscale areas of lift and subsidence, none are foolproof. What is everyone doing for cloud forecasting?
Less than 2 weeks out, still tons of hotel availability in the STL metro, mostly along I-70 to the north and west to Wentzville:
https://www.hotels.com/search/searchmap.html?resolved-location=CITY:1426966:UNKNOWN:UNKNOWN&destination-id=1426966&q-destination=St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America&q-check-in=2017-08-20&q-check-out=2017-08-22&q-rooms=1&q-room-0-adults=2&q-room-0-children=0
Looking at that, coupled with the widespread indifference about the event among friends and coworkers (very few are going or even seem to care much), makes the apocalyptic traffic scenario, at least in the Midwest, seem less and less likely.
The exception would be Missouri. I-70 gets gridlocked during post-Thanksgiving just with returning Mizzou students, the eclipse is going to shut everything down between KC and STL.
Kansas City is similar to STL, slightly higher percentage of booked hotels:
https://www.hotels.com/search/searchmap.html?resolved-location=CITY:1406838:UNKNOWN:UNKNOWN&destination-id=1406838&q-destination=Kansas City, Missouri, United States Of America&q-check-in=2017-08-20&q-check-out=2017-08-22&q-rooms=1&q-room-0-adults=2&q-room-0-children=0
Nashville, on the other hand, is nearly completely booked solid:
https://www.hotels.com/search/searchmap.html?resolved-location=CITY:1489624:UNKNOWN:UNKNOWN&destination-id=1489624&q-destination=Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America&q-check-in=2017-08-20&q-check-out=2017-08-22&q-rooms=1&q-room-0-adults=2&q-room-0-children=0
<snip>
Looking at that, coupled with the widespread indifference about the event among friends and coworkers (very few are going or even seem to care much), makes the apocalyptic traffic scenario, at least in the Midwest, seem less and less likely.
<snip>
]
I'm still a little worried about traffic out of Denver heading up to WY/NE, but the path is further from that city than it is from STL or KC so hopefully won't be too bad. I mean it's not as if the whole city is getting evacuated, how bad could it be??