How I spent Spring Break

I awoke Monday morning to a bright blue sky.
Turning on the computer, I pulled up the aviationweather.gov site.
Prog charts looked good.
TAF's looked good.
Then I looked at the winds aloft. WHOA!!!
Surface winds were less than 10 knots.
3000 foot winds were thumping along at 30-40 knots.
6000 foot winds were 40-50 knots.
A look at the SIGMET/AIRMET page showed turblence SRFC to 8000.
We were directly under the jetstream core.
Not a good ride for a family that has gotten airsick on past trips.

Then it was on to the long range forecast.
Tuesday, high temperature forecast to be 80F, clouds increasing during
the day, severe thunderstorms early evening and throughout the night.
Temperatures dropping into the low 30's overnight following cold front
passage.
Wednesday through Sunday, lows in the mid-20's, highs in the
low/mid-30's. Snow showers. Ceilings 1500-3500. Winds 15-25, gusting 50.

Oh well, it was a nice idea planning the trip the previous week.
I had suspected the worst after reading Jay Honeck's post about the
conditons in Iowa. Ohio is usually a day behind.
While I may have been able to get out on Monday, getting back for a
soccer game this morning would have been problematic.

As it turned out, I spent the week rescheduling our games for this
Thursday and Saturday for next week due to the unseasonable cold and
wind.

We drove to central Michigan on Tuesday morning to do some work on the
family cottage on Lake Huron. We spent from 2-3Pm there. During that
time the cold front came through and the temperature dropped 20 degrees
F. Driving back to central Ohio, we past back through the cold front and
into the rain.
That night, the wind blew the gutter off my garage.

We drove to central Michigan on Tuesday morning to do some work on the
family cottage on Lake Huron. We spent from 2-3Pm there. During that
time the cold front came through and the temperature dropped 20 degrees
F. Driving back to central Ohio, we past back through the cold front and
into the rain.
That night, the wind blew the gutter off my garage.

Sorry to hear it. For once, I'm really glad that our Spring Break
happens so much earlier in the year than the rest of the country.

The weather here has been total crap, although we're now under a big
bubble of clear high pressure. We set the record for cold here last
night -- 18 degrees! -- but at least the sun is warm and the wind has
died down.

Of course all the flowers that bloomed have been killed.

Still, I'll take this over the wind/rain/hail/fog we've suffered
through up till now.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"