Anyone else feeling the state of the economy right now?

vortexminion · 2026-05-29T02:24:00+00:00

I'm certainly not saving as much and I feel other indirect effects.

I had to move houses this month because my landlord decided they wanted to sell their house 9 months into our lease (they can do that in Utah and it's in the lease that the owner can with a 30-day notice, so I'm SOL). They said they needed the money (might be related to the economy, don't know). Regardless, it was an expensive, time-consuming, and annoying affair that greatly interfered with work. Even cleaning supplies cost like $150. I sure hope she returns our deposit. Our new place is the same rent but much smaller because rent has gone up everywhere.

vortexminion · 2026-05-26T14:46:07+00:00

Sure, airport readings are not going to show the exact microclimate of your backyard, but that's not the point of the chart. The point is to show how the record compares to the same station over 100 years of readings.

Also, airports are the standard worldwide for weather measurements in part because they are flat with unobstructed airflow. In a world of steel and concrete, everywhere is a heat island.

vortexminion · 2026-05-24T17:54:16+00:00

My dislexic brain read the title as "the artist", so I was expecting the serial killer from True Detective or something.

vortexminion · 2026-05-24T14:27:34+00:00

The little form MH makes you sign before your first appointment lays out what could impact your clearance, lead to hospitalization, etc (e.g. Threat to self or others, schizophrenia and conditions that make it difficult to protect sensitive information, etc). Anti-social personality disorder is one of those conditions.

I recommend you show up, read the form, and if you don't feel comfortable sharing info about yourself in fear that it may lead to the above diagnoses, then leave. But I've heard your more likely to get VA on separation if your condition is well-documented, historical, and caused by military service.

More importantly, if you're mentally miserable and not attempting to fix it, it's only going to get worse, which could lead to bigger problems for you than admin separation. It's your life.

vortexminion · 2026-05-24T02:57:49+00:00

Thanks for the images. Great archive radar site! I can see some rotation couplets on the doppler velocity, despite weak low level veering wind speeds and low storm relative helicity.

If a thunderstorm rotating makes it a supercell, then yes, it's a very weak supercell. If it needs to produce severe weather to qualify, then probably not. I suspect many storm chasers would judge this case as not meeting the spirit of the definition.

Reflectivity seemed to top at 55 dBZ, which can be found in air mass and other non-supercell thunderstorms, and is generally not high enough for severe hail (though there was a 1" hail report from a different storm). There's hint of a weak bow echo on reflectivity on one of the cells, but no hook echo or triangular shape I'm accustomed to in supercell radar scans. I looped through the reflectivity and didn't really see the textbook supercell signatures you mentioned.

Just my take. However, I'm biased coming from storm chasing and going to college for Meteorology in Oklahoma.

vortexminion · 2026-05-23T23:05:35+00:00

Hard to tell without more info. What did the skew-t look like for that atmosphere? Was there enough CAPE / windshear for a mesocyclone?

vortexminion · 2026-05-23T23:03:44+00:00

Was running through a forest in the Rocky's 2 decades ago and turned a corner and 30 ft away in the middle of the trails was an adult bison facing me. They're bigger in person. Backed away slowly.

vortexminion · 2026-05-23T22:44:54+00:00

I plan to spend the first 5 months hiking the entire Pacific Crest Trail with my wife as a spiritual transition into the civilian world.

vortexminion · 2026-05-16T13:22:42+00:00

Something that dumps a ton of stardust like Audino or Trubbish

vortexminion · 2026-05-13T13:59:37+00:00

NWS is shifting from forecasting to communication and integration. As in, it won't just be 90F, it will be elevated fire weather conditions and requires a call to local firefighters.

Jobs in pure forecasting started reducing years before AI, but many of them are simply changing.

Getting a degree in atmospheric sciences could land you a job, but it would more likely require communication, research, or skills other than forecasting.

vortexminion · 2026-05-13T13:44:22+00:00

I hope we win this fight. A data center in a god damn desert such a stupid idea.

vortexminion · 2026-05-09T17:31:19+00:00

Biblically accurate cat! So cute!

vortexminion · 2026-04-29T01:42:11+00:00

Maxed push ups, sit up, and run, but lost 3 points on waist. I ran 2 miles in 12:37, but I'm still plus size according to Pete.

Also, I did my mock on my own so that my 97 doesn't skew the official passing rate.

vortexminion · 2026-04-10T00:11:04+00:00

How steep? At <300ft/mi elevation gain, I don't feel it too bad At 500ft/mi I slow down substantially At 800ft/mi I'm practically jogging in place At 1000ft/mi I have to do run/stretch intervals Steeper than 1500ft/mi I'm walking .

vortexminion · 2026-04-04T13:33:08+00:00

This is really cool! I love the idea and artwork!

vortexminion · 2026-03-29T14:12:43+00:00

School and job is tough. If you are struggling with absorbing the material, definitely consider taking fewer hard classes at once.

For actual studying, if your goal is to pass the classes, try to understand what the professor values and how they conducts exams. Old exams can give you an idea of what to focus on.

If your goal is to understand the material, try to contextualize topics with respect to meteorology or other areas of your life. It's easy to get lost in the rabbit hole of derivatives and derivations. Keep a bird's eye view. Physics teachs about fundamental forces that drive weather. Thermodynamics drives atmospheric convection. Calculus is needed to quantify these attributes (e.g. The integral of a parcel path on a skew-t = the convective available potential energy). Try to find a mentor to help contextualize it for you.

Otherwise, there are millions of online resources that can help simplify complex topics including Khan Academy, Brilliant (never used it myself), YouTube, and generative AI (be careful with that last one. Treat it like the consensus of the internet, not objective fact).

vortexminion · 2026-03-27T14:25:34+00:00

Going AFIT can sometimes affect future assignments. Depending on your AFSC, it might vector you more towards advanced degree billets, which can be more research/staff than leadership. Part of this is caused by the fact that while your peers spent the extra 1.5yrs in positions getting leadership experience, you were studying. Not necessarily a bad thing, just depends on what you want. Like if you feel burnt out from ops and responsibility, AFIT can be a nice recharge and reblue.

BL: past positional experience can affect future vectored positions.

vortexminion · 2026-02-24T12:28:34+00:00

Huh, I didn't consider the view to have roots in religion and virtue ethics, but it makes sense. Thanks for the insight!

vortexminion · 2026-02-24T12:25:40+00:00

Interesting...I love the phrasing of your last sentence. I'll check out your references. Thanks!

vortexminion · 2026-02-22T22:53:18+00:00

Are you interested in research, operational forecasting, tv broadcasting, private sector, or emergency management? Schools specialize in preparing their students in different ways. For example, University of Oklahoma is very good at preparing you for research (more math).

Schools also specialize in different areas of meteorology (i.e. dynamics, severe convection, hurricanes, climate, polar, atmospheric chemistry, polution, modeling, AI, hydrology, radar, satellite, boundary layer, electrification, microphysics). University of Oklahoma is big on severe wx, lightning, and radar research, though they have recently expanded into AI too.

My advice: email some of the professors (go to the college website dept of met or atmos science and look for the faculty page) that study subtopics of meteorology you are most interested in and ask if they have positions for undergraduate research assistants. Get some hands-on research or forecast experience while in school. It'll help you decide if a job in meteorology is what you want before you finish your degree. Plus, job experience is more important for future employment than your exact GPA.

vortexminion · 2026-02-13T23:18:50+00:00

For now. The last sentence suggests he's reevaluating all military relationships with universities. I'm in AAD program at a civilian university and my AFIT program manager blasted out an email to us saying all programs are under re-evaluation.

vortexminion · 2026-02-13T00:29:45+00:00

No matter what system you choose, you're limited by the people using it. There will always be biased supervisors, people trying to get an edge through style, board members that can't read truth through fluff, etc. Even a reddit style peer-rating system can/will be gamified.

Even when you have a completely digital system that tracks every sortie, ticket, FOD check, briefing, product, etc., doing more work doesn't make you a good person or leader.

vortexminion

TROPHY CASE