Remember Derecho?

On June 29th in 2012 Hazy, Hot and Humid bore a cluster of supercells unprecedented in the annals of US meteorological history. No hyperbole here; straight up epic proportions stuff.

For those of you who lived through what has become a “where were you when…” event, you remember Derecho. It was the denouement to a sweltering 104-degree day in the D.C. area. This wicked, wicked monster launched from Chicago, then etch-a-sketched 900 miles across 1/3 of mainland USA to rain down Hell right here, at my house. Well. Ok. Not only my house, but for thirty straight minutes, the frame shook, sparks flew, transformers blew, trees smashed earth and power lines, and by God, I felt sure the end was nigh.

On the night of Washington’s hottest June day ever recorded, 104 degrees, an unexpected and invisible “wall of wind” slammed into the western suburbs of D.C. around 10 p.m. Known officially as the “Ohio Valley-Mid-Atlantic Derecho,” during the next hour, a curtain of wind pushing 60 to 80 mph swept across the Mid-Atlantic. Lightning was nearly continuous, and sheets of rain were driven horizontally against homes and vehicles.

It was the damnable sound! That unrelenting freight train “zzzhhhhhhrrr!!!” Into the stairwell went my dogs and me, my cellphone and a flashlight.

The wall of wind appears razor-sharp on Doppler radar, and it strikes like an iron fist. One second it’s dead calm, the next second all hell breaks loose, amid the rapid ramp-up of wind and its deafening roar. It’s a sudden, swift blow that leaves behind a trail of devastation hundreds of miles long; and when this windy fist comes at night, the experience is terrifying.

Derecho came at night. It was sudden. It was unpredictable.

The June 29, 2012, storm was sneaky. For many years, the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center has provided advance notice of major convective outbreaks and events, out to three days (and now, most recently, out to eight). The day before this megastorm, the probability was low-end for any type of severe storm, with no mention of a derecho. The morning of June 29, there was still no heightened awareness for the D.C. region. This is not to fault the pros at the Storm Prediction Center, because we simply had no real indication that a massive convective storm was about to sprout up across the Ohio Valley.

Where were you when Derecho came to town?

A Flu shot for the squeamish

Sometime soon, flu vaccines may be delivered via snail mail and a Dora the Explorer fun sticker. Some really smart folks working with National Institute of Health (NIH) funds have devised a way to splinter a standard gauge hypodermic, then cluster the dissolvable microneedles onto a patch.

The patch comes with a hundred tiny hair-like microneedles located on its adhesive side. “If you zoom in under the microscope what you’ll see are microscopically small needles,” lead researcher Mark Prausnitz told the BBC. “They puncture painlessly into the skin.” Unlike regular injections that go all the way through the muscle, the microneedles puncture and dissolve into the upper layer of the skin, delivering the vaccine in about 20 minutes.

Even though I am one who prefaces every fraking “needle pinch” with, “Please don’t hurt me,” I’ll stick with a two-second owie.

Quotable Quote

Fox News anchor interrupts WH daily briefing to educate a toddler/President.

Trump apologist to Adult:

“Today, the president acted like a human, and he pushed back,” she [RNC Chair McDaniel]said.

Adult to Trump apologist:

“Listen,” she [Julie Banderas] replied, “you  don’t need to stoop to the level, obviously. I don’t care who you are. You don’t stoop to the level of that. I mean that’s like me scolding my 4-year-old for using a bad word and then me repeating it. That’s just not how you run a country or you parent a 4-year-old. I mean I have to be honest, you know, if you see this negative commentary on a show, change the channel. Ignore it. I mean that’s what I tell my kids: When somebody’s mean to you, don’t fight back. Just walk away.”

Welcome, RedStaters, to the Company WaterCooler! It’s RedState’s only Daily open thread. Enjoy!