I am kind of glad that my Facebook was vandalized

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I am kind of glad that my Facebook was vandalized … 🦨

It really gave me a kick in ass to get off social media, delete old accounts and replace them with much locked down accounts that follow far fewer people. Probably 2/3rds of the people I was friends on Facebook I hadn’t seen in years, and there just was so much obnoxious politics. I really don’t care that the President went to the bathroom or what he tweeted today.

With my new, semi-secret and secure accounts I can follow what I want and not be bombard with ads or content that I don’t really care about. I might occasionally post pictures from camping trip on Facebook, but I don’t expect to post much on there, and none of the silly things or witty remarks I used so frequently place on there.

What is the Polar Vortex?

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What is the Polar Vortex?

The polar vortex is a large area of low pressure and cold air surrounding both of the Earth’s poles. It ALWAYS exists near the poles, but weakens in summer and strengthens in winter. The term "vortex" refers to the counter-clockwise flow of air that helps keep the colder air near the Poles. Many times during winter in the northern hemisphere, the polar vortex will expand, sending cold air southward with the jet stream (see graphic above). This occurs fairly regularly during wintertime and is often associated with large outbreaks of Arctic air in the United States. The one that occurred January 2014 is similar to many other cold outbreaks that have occurred in the past, including several notable colder outbreaks in 1977, 1982, 1985 and 1989.

Polar vortex shifting southward due to spiking temperatures around North Pole

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Polar vortex shifting southward due to spiking temperatures around North Pole

Rising temperatures in the North Pole are causing parts of the polar vortex to split off and move southward, leading to the possibility of a particularly harsh winter in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

The polar vortex, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) defines as "a large area of low pressure and cold air surrounding the Earth's North and South poles," generally remains strong and stable, as it did last winter.

As reported by The Washington Post, when it remains stable, cold air stays within the area over the Arctic, with snow chances much less in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions.

Sorry, Under Construction 🚧

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Sorry, Under Construction 🚧

If you are having problems with pages loading properly on the blog, I suggest you do a quick click of the reload button with the shift button held down. I just renamed and removed references to “Google Maps” on the blog in favor of “Interactive Maps” as this blog no longer uses Google Map Technology to display maps, in favor of the open source, and much more powerful leafletjs, combined with publicly available tile and web map services from government and not-for-profits.

Adirondack Forest Preserve

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Here is an updated interactive KMZ (Google) Map of the Adirondack Forest Preserve, with updates through November 2019, the last time the NYS DEC released this data.