Minor things that bother you

[kkt]

When has anyone been able to accurately predict precipitation?  This is not new.

Eh, prediction methods have improved over the last half-century, despite the still-less-than-satsifactory results.

Oh, for sure.  But precipitation still seems to be the hardest thing to predict:  when it will start, how much will fall, when it will end.  Such predictions have never been worth trusting too much, even with recent advances.

Here whether it will be snowing at sea level in winter is the most difficult forecast.  First, the models have to tell you whether there will be precipitation at all. Then, in the clouds it's always snow or ice, so the models have made the hard call of whether it's warm enough for the snow or hail to melt before it hits the ground or not.  In winter we're usually right on the border for both those forecasts.  It's amazing they get it right even a majority of the time.

[Plutonic Panda]

When has anyone been able to accurately predict precipitation?  This is not new.

There's a difference between getting exact timing/amounts right and not even knowing whether it's going to rain or snow at all until 24 hours in advance.

As I said, when has that ever not been the case?  Unless there's a huge-ass system moving toward your area, they're not going to know with 100% certainty that it's going to rain or snow until things develop more.  And even then, I always assume the system might slow down or speed up substantially more than they expeted.

You seem to put a lot more stock in weather forecasts than I ever have.

When half the city is currently being drenched in rain, it makes no sense to me that there can be a <100% chance of rain at the same time.

[reasons]

Say what you like, but it's still silly to be in the middle of a huge rainstorm, with the forecast showing <100% chance of rain.  I didn't doubt that there were reasons, but that doesn't make it not silly.

You know the doctors have actually literally declared me clinically insane. I don't wanna say exactly what I've been diagnosed with, but maybe this is that part talking from me, but I rarely check the weather. I mean, even if I'm going out on the lake if something happens, it happens. I just try to be prepared. And sometimes getting caught into a storm is pretty fun unless you're in a slot canyon in Utah and you get caught in a flash flood. That's not too much fun. I don't ever want that to happen again. But so far that's the only weather event that I can say that's ever caused a major threat to my life other than perhaps say being on the lake during a bad lightning storm, but none of those things really bothered me too much cause I thought to myself you know if I die I die it's whatever. And when I say they didn't bother me I don't mean to say there wasn't times where I didn't get scared or nervous. But that's only natural.

As an example, I wouldn't mind being in a boat in a category five hurricane we're going through the Drake passage and having my boat capsized but it wouldn't be very fun swimming afterwards. But still, I guess it could be cool if you ended up getting rescued.

[Rothman]

When has anyone been able to accurately predict precipitation?  This is not new.

There's a difference between getting exact timing/amounts right and not even knowing whether it's going to rain or snow at all until 24 hours in advance.

As I said, when has that ever not been the case?  Unless there's a huge-ass system moving toward your area, they're not going to know with 100% certainty that it's going to rain or snow until things develop more.  And even then, I always assume the system might slow down or speed up substantially more than they expeted.

You seem to put a lot more stock in weather forecasts than I ever have.

When half the city is currently being drenched in rain, it makes no sense to me that there can be a <100% chance of rain at the same time.

[reasons]

Say what you like, but it's still silly to be in the middle of a huge rainstorm, with the forecast showing <100% chance of rain.  I didn't doubt that there were reasons, but that doesn't make it not silly.

You know the doctors have actually literally declared me clinically insane. I don't wanna say exactly what I've been diagnosed with, but maybe this is that part talking from me, but I rarely check the weather. I mean, even if I'm going out on the lake if something happens, it happens. I just try to be prepared. And sometimes getting caught into a storm is pretty fun unless you're in a slot canyon in Utah and you get caught in a flash flood. That's not too much fun. I don't ever want that to happen again. But so far that's the only weather event that I can say that's ever caused a major threat to my life other than perhaps say being on the lake during a bad lightning storm, but none of those things really bothered me too much cause I thought to myself you know if I die I die it's whatever. And when I say they didn't bother me I don't mean to say there wasn't times where I didn't get scared or nervous. But that's only natural.

As an example, I wouldn't mind being in a boat in a category five hurricane we're going through the Drake passage and having my boat capsized but it wouldn't be very fun swimming afterwards. But still, I guess it could be cool if you ended up getting rescued.

You okay, bro?  Your level of unhinge has increased a notch and it minorly bothers me.

[Plutonic Panda]

When has anyone been able to accurately predict precipitation?  This is not new.

There's a difference between getting exact timing/amounts right and not even knowing whether it's going to rain or snow at all until 24 hours in advance.

As I said, when has that ever not been the case?  Unless there's a huge-ass system moving toward your area, they're not going to know with 100% certainty that it's going to rain or snow until things develop more.  And even then, I always assume the system might slow down or speed up substantially more than they expeted.

You seem to put a lot more stock in weather forecasts than I ever have.

When half the city is currently being drenched in rain, it makes no sense to me that there can be a <100% chance of rain at the same time.

[reasons]

Say what you like, but it's still silly to be in the middle of a huge rainstorm, with the forecast showing <100% chance of rain.  I didn't doubt that there were reasons, but that doesn't make it not silly.

You know the doctors have actually literally declared me clinically insane. I don't wanna say exactly what I've been diagnosed with, but maybe this is that part talking from me, but I rarely check the weather. I mean, even if I'm going out on the lake if something happens, it happens. I just try to be prepared. And sometimes getting caught into a storm is pretty fun unless you're in a slot canyon in Utah and you get caught in a flash flood. That's not too much fun. I don't ever want that to happen again. But so far that's the only weather event that I can say that's ever caused a major threat to my life other than perhaps say being on the lake during a bad lightning storm, but none of those things really bothered me too much cause I thought to myself you know if I die I die it's whatever. And when I say they didn't bother me I don't mean to say there wasn't times where I didn't get scared or nervous. But that's only natural.

As an example, I wouldn't mind being in a boat in a category five hurricane we're going through the Drake passage and having my boat capsized but it wouldn't be very fun swimming afterwards. But still, I guess it could be cool if you ended up getting rescued.

You okay, bro?  Your level of unhinge has increased a notch and it minorly bothers me.

Sorry man, I'll send you a PM

[bugo]

Plus you really should be using a lossless format like .flac
 

FLAC files take up a hell of a lot more space than MP3 files do. And they're not playable on a lot of media players.

[vdeane]

Anyone getting the sense that kphoger's local meteorologist is Karen Smith?

As I said, when has that ever not been the case?  Unless there's a huge-ass system moving toward your area, they're not going to know with 100% certainty that it's going to rain or snow until things develop more.  And even then, I always assume the system might slow down or speed up substantially more than they expeted.

You seem to put a lot more stock in weather forecasts than I ever have.

That's pretty much where our rain/snow comes from in the Northeast - big systems that move across the country or up the coast.  Sometimes lake effect, but the lake effect has to be quite extreme and blowing at just the right angle to hit Albany (this is when we're in "more than a foot hitting Syracuse" territory).  The meteorologists around here are generally pretty good at dealing with all that.  However, I wonder if there's some Northeastern bias in my expectations of being able to predict these things 5 days in advance.  There have been times when our local meteorologists have said things along the lines of "we're watching this storm, it will affect the area in the coming days, we don't know quite when or how yet, we're waiting for it to get in range of the NWS radar in Seattle to get more data".  I'd always wonder "how does Seattle get its long-range forecasts?".  From your posts, it seems like the answer likely is "they don't".

And while those systems do slide from initial predictions more often than not, they usually do so in a predictable way - so if I'm monitoring Weather Underground every morning (as I do) and I'm looking at the rain/snow chances and amounts, I can see how they're sliding earlier/later and get a feel for when it will likely actually hit before the meteorologists officially call it.  This weekend didn't follow the pattern.  It had snow Sunday, clear Saturday for a day or two, then clear both days for a couple days, and then last second it became snow Saturday clear Sunday, and now even Sunday is looking like it will be a judgement call on my part (nor'easters are usually much easier to predict than this).

[Scott5114]

The fact that weather forecasting seems to have gotten really unreliable this winter.  Saturday is less than 48 hours away and the meteorologists still have no clue what the weather is going to be, or whether a coastal system is going to affect Sunday.  This is the type of reliability that I expect from a five day forecast, not a 2-3 day forecast!  I swear we've even had a day where there was a dusting of snow on the ground when no possibility of such had been mentioned the night before, just to illustrate how bad it's gotten.  How is anyone supposed to plan for the weekend when the weather is still such an unknown on Thursday evening?

Supposedly the NWS is outsourcing a lot of their forecasting to AI these days, so that might account for it.

Last night, when I finally went to bed around midnight, the Weather Channel said the snow was going to end over the next couple of hours.

Woke up to it still snowing...

How do you know it didn't stop snowing while you were asleep and then start again?

[Scott5114]

My favorite times are when there's an 85% chance of rain, but it's pouring outside.

That means the forecast was accurate.  The percentage relates only to the likelihood, not to the amount.  In Thunderstormland, it isn't uncommon to have heavy rain in one place and none in a place nearby.  There can be a low probability, but the rain that falls is heavy.  The probability is for measurable precipitation (at least 0.01 inch of rain or 0.1 inch of snow).

When half the city is currently being drenched in rain, it makes no sense to me that there can be a <100% chance of rain at the same time.

Sure it does. The forecast is valid as of the time it was issued. If you see an 85% chance of rain, that means that the universe is going to roll a d20 and you need an 18, 19, or 20 to not get rain that day. If it's pouring down, that just means you rolled 17 or lower.

[Rothman]

The fact that weather forecasting seems to have gotten really unreliable this winter.  Saturday is less than 48 hours away and the meteorologists still have no clue what the weather is going to be, or whether a coastal system is going to affect Sunday.  This is the type of reliability that I expect from a five day forecast, not a 2-3 day forecast!  I swear we've even had a day where there was a dusting of snow on the ground when no possibility of such had been mentioned the night before, just to illustrate how bad it's gotten.  How is anyone supposed to plan for the weekend when the weather is still such an unknown on Thursday evening?

Supposedly the NWS is outsourcing a lot of their forecasting to AI these days, so that might account for it.

Last night, when I finally went to bed around midnight, the Weather Channel said the snow was going to end over the next couple of hours.

Woke up to it still snowing...

How do you know it didn't stop snowing while you were asleep and then start again?

That's just crazytalk.

[kkt]

Plus you really should be using a lossless format like .flac
 

FLAC files take up a hell of a lot more space than MP3 files do. And they're not playable on a lot of media players.

More space, but not that much more.  Depending on what resolution your .mp3 files are they seem to save about 30% of a .flac file.  You could save them lower resolution... but if you don't care how they sound you could just delete them and save 100%.  Hard drives are cheap.

My computer and my car have no problem playing .flac files, and that was luck, I didn't pick them based on that.

[kphoger]

it makes no sense to me

Sure it does.

fail

[vdeane]

I think Facebook has become close to useless to me.  It's developed a habit of hiding post from me, even when I switch to "feeds" view.  What typically happens is that I'll get nothing between a couple hours earlier and whenever I saw when I last checked Facebook, meaning that most posts from friends and pages I follow do not appear.  I've tried clearing my cache/cookies, I've disabled all ad/tracking blocking, I've disabled FBPurity, nothing works.  The only way I can see the posts is to open Facebook on my phone, which is slow and a PITA.  I'm strongly considering just deleting my account over this, but I'm not sure what to do to account for the fact that some content I follow isn't available elsewhere (in particular, Canadian roadgeek discussions seem to happen there and not here, and if there's anywhere else, I haven't found it).

[Max Rockatansky]

Conversely, if I need to search through something that we posted Facebook makes it incredibly easy to filter.  I just have to use a key phrase and filter it with "by you."  I use the search feature a ton when scheduling vintage highways photos.

[PColumbus73]

I think Facebook has become close to useless to me.  It's developed a habit of hiding post from me, even when I switch to "feeds" view.  What typically happens is that I'll get nothing between a couple hours earlier and whenever I saw when I last checked Facebook, meaning that most posts from friends and pages I follow do not appear.  I've tried clearing my cache/cookies, I've disabled all ad/tracking blocking, I've disabled FBPurity, nothing works.  The only way I can see the posts is to open Facebook on my phone, which is slow and a PITA.  I'm strongly considering just deleting my account over this, but I'm not sure what to do to account for the fact that some content I follow isn't available elsewhere (in particular, Canadian roadgeek discussions seem to happen there and not here, and if there's anywhere else, I haven't found it).

There's too much ragebait on Facebook. I usually like looking for silly memes, but the tons of clickbait and deliberately provocative stuff gets on my nerves.

[Max Rockatansky]

I think Facebook has become close to useless to me.  It's developed a habit of hiding post from me, even when I switch to "feeds" view.  What typically happens is that I'll get nothing between a couple hours earlier and whenever I saw when I last checked Facebook, meaning that most posts from friends and pages I follow do not appear.  I've tried clearing my cache/cookies, I've disabled all ad/tracking blocking, I've disabled FBPurity, nothing works.  The only way I can see the posts is to open Facebook on my phone, which is slow and a PITA.  I'm strongly considering just deleting my account over this, but I'm not sure what to do to account for the fact that some content I follow isn't available elsewhere (in particular, Canadian roadgeek discussions seem to happen there and not here, and if there's anywhere else, I haven't found it).

There's too much ragebait on Facebook. I usually like looking for silly memes, but the tons of clickbait and deliberately provocative stuff gets on my nerves.

Rage bait in highway groups though?  Out aside of Crash_It trying to stir his usual BS there isn't a lot of that among road group pages.

[Rothman]

I think Facebook has become close to useless to me.  It's developed a habit of hiding post from me, even when I switch to "feeds" view.  What typically happens is that I'll get nothing between a couple hours earlier and whenever I saw when I last checked Facebook, meaning that most posts from friends and pages I follow do not appear.  I've tried clearing my cache/cookies, I've disabled all ad/tracking blocking, I've disabled FBPurity, nothing works.  The only way I can see the posts is to open Facebook on my phone, which is slow and a PITA.  I'm strongly considering just deleting my account over this, but I'm not sure what to do to account for the fact that some content I follow isn't available elsewhere (in particular, Canadian roadgeek discussions seem to happen there and not here, and if there's anywhere else, I haven't found it).

There's too much ragebait on Facebook. I usually like looking for silly memes, but the tons of clickbait and deliberately provocative stuff gets on my nerves.

Rage bait in highway groups though?  Out aside of Crash_It trying to stir his usual BS there isn't a lot of that among road group pages.

I haven't seen him around in a long time in the groups I frequent, thank goodness.

[PColumbus73]

I think Facebook has become close to useless to me.  It's developed a habit of hiding post from me, even when I switch to "feeds" view.  What typically happens is that I'll get nothing between a couple hours earlier and whenever I saw when I last checked Facebook, meaning that most posts from friends and pages I follow do not appear.  I've tried clearing my cache/cookies, I've disabled all ad/tracking blocking, I've disabled FBPurity, nothing works.  The only way I can see the posts is to open Facebook on my phone, which is slow and a PITA.  I'm strongly considering just deleting my account over this, but I'm not sure what to do to account for the fact that some content I follow isn't available elsewhere (in particular, Canadian roadgeek discussions seem to happen there and not here, and if there's anywhere else, I haven't found it).

There's too much ragebait on Facebook. I usually like looking for silly memes, but the tons of clickbait and deliberately provocative stuff gets on my nerves.

Rage bait in highway groups though?  Out aside of Crash_It trying to stir his usual BS there isn't a lot of that among road group pages.

I haven't seen him around in a long time in the groups I frequent, thank goodness.

I meant Facebook in general, I don't read too many of the comments on the AARoads Facebook posts, or the other road-related FB posts.

[Max Rockatansky]

I think Facebook has become close to useless to me.  It's developed a habit of hiding post from me, even when I switch to "feeds" view.  What typically happens is that I'll get nothing between a couple hours earlier and whenever I saw when I last checked Facebook, meaning that most posts from friends and pages I follow do not appear.  I've tried clearing my cache/cookies, I've disabled all ad/tracking blocking, I've disabled FBPurity, nothing works.  The only way I can see the posts is to open Facebook on my phone, which is slow and a PITA.  I'm strongly considering just deleting my account over this, but I'm not sure what to do to account for the fact that some content I follow isn't available elsewhere (in particular, Canadian roadgeek discussions seem to happen there and not here, and if there's anywhere else, I haven't found it).

There's too much ragebait on Facebook. I usually like looking for silly memes, but the tons of clickbait and deliberately provocative stuff gets on my nerves.

Rage bait in highway groups though?  Out aside of Crash_It trying to stir his usual BS there isn't a lot of that among road group pages.

I haven't seen him around in a long time in the groups I frequent, thank goodness.

He got into with Jim in the FWJ group and disappeared.  He just got made fun of in Roadgeekery and disappeared there also.  Once he thought it was okay to harass people on commentors Gribblenation regarding an Illinois post I blocked him.  If anyone deserved to be fully pushed out this hobby it was Crash_It. 

[hotdogPi]

I never created a Facebook account in the first place (or anything else except Discord and Reddit, and I never used Reddit much and don't use it all anymore). Most people have said I'm better off for it.

[Max Rockatansky]

I never created a Facebook account in the first place (or anything else except Discord and Reddit, and I never used Reddit much and don't use it all anymore). Most people have said I'm better off for it.

Several of you are saying you don't like Facebook and it has nothing to offer you in terms of roads.  That's fine, but a lot  of these comments include "I don't look at road posts on Facebook."  How can you claim Facebook has nothing to offer if you don't actually at least sample the road content? 

We aren't the only hobby page who has a page presence on Facebook.  Even AAroads has an account through which they post things almost daily.  A lot pages post things on Facebook that don't end up here.  Speaking just for myself on Gribblenation I post vintage highway photos on Facebook pretty much every other day. 

[Rothman]

I think Facebook has become close to useless to me.  It's developed a habit of hiding post from me, even when I switch to "feeds" view.  What typically happens is that I'll get nothing between a couple hours earlier and whenever I saw when I last checked Facebook, meaning that most posts from friends and pages I follow do not appear.  I've tried clearing my cache/cookies, I've disabled all ad/tracking blocking, I've disabled FBPurity, nothing works.  The only way I can see the posts is to open Facebook on my phone, which is slow and a PITA.  I'm strongly considering just deleting my account over this, but I'm not sure what to do to account for the fact that some content I follow isn't available elsewhere (in particular, Canadian roadgeek discussions seem to happen there and not here, and if there's anywhere else, I haven't found it).

There's too much ragebait on Facebook. I usually like looking for silly memes, but the tons of clickbait and deliberately provocative stuff gets on my nerves.

Rage bait in highway groups though?  Out aside of Crash_It trying to stir his usual BS there isn't a lot of that among road group pages.

I haven't seen him around in a long time in the groups I frequent, thank goodness.

He got into with Jim in the FWJ group and disappeared.  He just got made fun of in Roadgeekery and disappeared there also.  Once he thought it was okay to harass people on commentors Gribblenation regarding an Illinois post I blocked him.  If anyone deserved to be fully pushed out this hobby it was Crash_It.

Yeah, haven't seen him in either of those Facebook groups in a very long time.

[bugo]

Rage bait in highway groups though?  Out aside of Crash_It trying to stir his usual BS there isn't a lot of that among road group pages.

Who is that?

[LilianaUwU]

Rage bait in highway groups though?  Out aside of Crash_It trying to stir his usual BS there isn't a lot of that among road group pages.

Who is that?

Nature is healing.

[Max Rockatansky]

Rage bait in highway groups though?  Out aside of Crash_It trying to stir his usual BS there isn't a lot of that among road group pages.

Who is that?

An unhappy incel around the age of 40 better known as:

- Cra_sHIt
- Barf
- Lord Carhorn

His claims to fame include:

-  Cammer videos of nominal driving infractions.
-  Illinois isn't flat (it is).
-  Wallethub is the only way to analyze statistics (except when it isn't favorable towards Illinois).
-  He once claimed to be dating a 19 year old (never provided proof though). 
-  He would lob baseless accusations of racism despite being a confirmed uber transphobe. 

[Plutonic Panda]

So that's the guy that said Illinois isn't flat because I never quite understood where that came from but I remember seeing people go back-and-forth about it on this website so every once in a while on these highway groups on Facebook or Instagram I'll post Illinois as flat and one time I got a death threat from this dude who was named Blake farmer966 or some random numbers. I wonder if that was him.