sky
Lake Erie – MODIS Aqua February 4, 2026
Maybe hell won't freeze over this weekend, but Lake Erie might freeze over for the first time in 30 years.
Lake Erie ice coverage has increased to ~95%, placing the lake very close to a complete freeze over — an event that has occurred only three times since the 1970s (1978, 1979, 1996). Persistent Arctic air intrusions and a prolonged period of 10–20° below-average temperatures since mid-January have driven rapid ice growth. Ice coverage expanded from ~2% to over 85% in approximately one week, with coverage holding near 95% since late January. At this stage, further ice growth is becoming increasingly sensitive to wind forcing rather than temperature alone. Strong synoptic-scale wind events can induce ice divergence, fracturing, and redistribution, temporarily reopening areas of open water even under sustained subfreezing conditions. The remaining window for a 100% freeze is narrowing. Model guidance suggests a potential mid-February moderation, which would increase ice mobility and inhibit complete consolidation if full coverage is not achieved within the next several days.
Are blown engines really that bad? 🧨🛻
Lately I’ve totally been on a rant about how bad new pickup trucks are with their downsized, turbo-charged or super-charged engines. How the fucking EPA has ruined everything in America. Maybe it’s because I’ve gotten enthralled with big pickup trucks, I want an HD truck to replace my lifted Silverado half-ton. But also I agree with a lot of mechanics criticism of the downscaled turbo-charged engines, you’re putting a lot of stress on a small little block with all that boost for a vehicle that’s designed both to tow and provide reliable transportation for the next decade and a half. Naturally aspirated engines, especially big block, overbuilt engines, are much more reliable then blown small-block engines.
We were warned a decade ago that tightening fuel economy standards would require pickup truck manufacturers to go to these downscaled, blown engines. But maybe I had too much faith in technology and clever engines – and that blown engines wouldn’t be so bad. Yet, I fear they are as bad critics says they are. People said the 5.3L displacement on demand engine in my old Silverado would develop a lifter tick and a premature death but besides it’s on and off oil drinking problem, it was fine. And the problem with large displacement engines is they require a lot more gas, even under light demand, especially in city driving when the throttle is either closed or mostly closed, causing engine vacuum to increase, slowing the vehicle down more then desired in city driving. At highway speeds, this is far less of an issue because usually the throttle is at least partially open to overcome wind resistance.
It seems odd that as an environmentalist, I would be shitting on the EPA and fuel economy standards. But it’s obvious they’ve made life worse and more costly for Americans without getting us closer to electrification of transportation. Electricity is the ultimate of transportation fuel, especially as we get better at storing and managing it. You can generate it by virtually any fuel source, and most homeowners and rural residents can generate it on-site. It’s both the ultimate climate and air pollution solution – it’s a lot easier to clean up one big tailpipe then a million other ones. But instead, we are stuck with a lot of shitty EPA-mandated engine designs and air pollution equipment that only half works and is expensive and unreliable.
Don’t’ get me started on EPA and clean air people ruined diesel …
Someday soon ⏳
If I was remotely responsible, I would have gone to the store last night after work and stocked up my pantry. But maybe I’ll do that tonight as the weekend looks like it will be another bitterly cold one, not good for riding my bike down to grocery store, as a poor desperate individual who rides his mountain bike to work and store without a big-assed Ford SuperDuty truck.
It just looks to be so bitterly cold again for the weekend, 🌨️ maybe even some more snow on Friday night. Go figure, I guess it’s not impeding as much on my riding to work, which feels so good, 😀 but now the snow just needs to melt down on the rail trail so I can start riding that way in and avoiding that NY 32 and US 9W merge on my bike which yesterday was kind of a bitch with all the traffic. 🚘 It may have just been the timing, but I miss the serenity of riding the bike trail. 🌷 I guess spring with all it’s tangy smells of manure and wildflowers will be with us before you know it. Chilli 🌶️ contest tomorrow at work, I don’t know I might just get a jug of milk or maybe actually make a stack of the cornmeal pancakes 🥞 I make for breakfast, as they would be good in chilli. Most of the people in my division aren’t going, but that’s fine.
Finally the last few parts of the system upgrade we were working on in office 🖥️ came together after months of asking and probing, though we still haven’t started the database update. 💾 I now know what government speed is like, slow and deliberate like watching paint dry. But you could buy a plastic house in suburbs, and never have to paint it again! Just throw away the vinyl siding when it gets too discolored or dirty. But it felt good to get that done, as did it feel good finishing up my taxes last night, 📄 and realizing this year I wouldn’t get fine for underpayment of taxes but instead I overpaid them. Maybe I can convert more IRAs over to Roth this year, though I got to be careful if I get extra income from one of my side hustles. It is good, it will pay for the truck cap on SuperDuty, and then I’m hoping I can sell Big Red and get some money for that trip out to Michigan, the biggest cost being fuel for said F-350 truck. Maybe do I want the STX with the bigger cowel and less aggressive tires for better gas milage, ⛽ not that a SuperDuty is going to have much milage but a lot of gas. I heard they raised taxes on weed on Michigan, and it’s no longer as cheap as it once was. 🌿
I tell myself I will ride my bike 🚲 and actually go shopping tonight after work, but yesterday I was kind of tired 😴 and made excuses, plus it’s so dark to be riding a bike down Delaware Avenue, and I can’t really go the back way because there is snow, or maybe I can, just push it over the snow bank. I don’t know why yesterday was such an exhausting day, I mean did sleep well 🛏️ by winter standards, but whatever. But I need to shower, and ride my bike to work and fight the traffic at the NY 32 and US 9W merge. Need to grease up my chain 🔗 good this morning as it was skipping a bit especially before it got warmed up from rust. I don’t think the cassette is too worn, it’s the chain gets rusty quickly when parked from all the road salt.
After installing Fedora 43, I ended up having to reload all my Post GIS databases. 
It’s fine, it’s good to reload and optimize them. But I got the emojis working and newer versions of my software 
installed when I did the upgrade, though I fully admit Fedora 44 will be out in a few months, but I’ll upgrade in summer when the bugs are worked out. One of the thing annoying about Fedora is you can’t upgrade in the background like most Linux distros, it requires a reboot like MS Windows. I am like WTF?! 
