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Mr T’s Perfect Weekend & Farmer’s Market Tent

Tommy
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Updated Saturday evening: 4.21.07 5:45 PM EDT

Looks like the approaching system for next week has slowed a bit and the rain may not get in here until Wednesday night. Temps will stay nice and warm until then as well. Wednesday high temps could make the low and mid 80’s pretty easily until the rain cools us back to the 70’s for the remainder of the week to the weekend. Again showers won’t be widespread, but we could have scattered thunderstorms during the period. Rest of this weekend looks great. Sunny and warm with temps near 80 degrees again valley – around 70 mountains.

More in the Sunday post.

Have a good Saturday night.
-T-

Previous posts below

Good Saturday morning!

Wow, two days starting with sunshine. Sat outside this morning on the deck and had coffee watching the sun come up. Perfect start to the day!

Don’t believe this is the perfect day, check out the folks down at the Farmer’s Market next to Wintergreen Real Estate in Nellysford. This morning they started putting up the tent for this year’s Farmer’s Market starting the first Saturday in May. The guys at Wintergreen Real Estate sprung for the new tent after the wind from Ernesto took it down late last summer.

Photos by: Tommy Stafford – Nelson County Life Magazine
Tent-1

Inside Tent

tent-3

You know we’re headed to warmer days when you see the tent at the Farmer’s market going up. Yippie!

Weather Wise
This weekend will be as perfect as it gets weather wise. High pressure (that means good weather generally speaking) is to our north and will keep us sunny for the weekend and the start of the work week. We’ll be around the 80 degree mark both Saturday & Sunday valley, around low 70’s mountains. The frost advisory for areas north and west of BRP has been cancelled. I suspect there were some areas of frost, but this wasn’t nearly as bad as those five nights of freezing temps earlier in the month. Overnight lows for the remainder of the weekend will be generally in the 40’s above and below, just in the lower 40’s mountains.

There are some changes to the extended forecast since my last post yesterday. Temperature wise we continue to be mild. On Monday we’ll see lower 80’s valley with sunny skies. Mountains slightly cooler around 70. Tuesday we’ll see more clouds move in – in advance of the next system impacting our weather.

By Tuesday evening we’ll see clouds increasing and showers a possibility. We’re switching more of what’s called a zonal flow in our weather patterns by mid week next week. That means weather systems tend to move straight from the west to east bringing with it mild pacific air, but that also lets the systems kinds of move right at us one after another. Temps will hold up into the 70’s next week, but so will our chances for rain off and on as we get into mid-week. Clouds hang in there as well, though we will se some sunshine from time to time. There are no heavy rains headed our way at this time, but showery conditions. By next weekend we could see more organized weather having a greater impact. I’ll be keeping an eye on that system and talk more about it as we get closer. Remember what I say about those long range forecasts, might as well roll the dice!

By the way, if any of you have a neat weather pic, send it to us. I want to start displaying the weather pic of the day as I forecast. Just e-mail it to: weather@nelsoncountylife.com Just tell me a little about where it was shot, what we’re looking, at who you are, etc.

Have a great weekend and don’t forget about the Pharsalia Folk Festival this weekend, both Saturday and Sunday.

-T-

Remembering VT

Tommy
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There’s not much more I can add to this. What a great bunch of folks and what class.
We do remember, and thanks to Helene out at Saunders Brothers for sending this our way.
Saunders Bro - VT

Mr. T’s Weekend Forecast – Nelson County, VA – including Wintergreen

Tommy
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Updated: 4.20.07 3:25PM EDT – for mention of frost advisory west of BRP

Good Friday evening. Not much change in the forecast, however, as I mentioned in the post Friday morning, with clear skies we will have excellent radiational cooling tonight especially when the winds die down.(without clouds the heat of the day escapes upward) Here in the immediate Nelson area a little less of a problem, but still could see some spotty frost in areas, especially in those low spots. It won’t take much on a night like tonight.

NWS Sterliing has issued a Frost Advisory in neighboring Augusta County on the west side of the mountain, but not east:

URGENT – WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC
243 PM EDT FRI APR 20 2007

MDZ003>007-VAZ025>031-WVZ050>053-055-210400-
/O.NEW.KLWX.FR.Y.0001.070421T0600Z-070421T1500Z/
WASHINGTON-FREDERICK MD-CARROLL-NORTHERN BALTIMORE-HARFORD-
AUGUSTA-ROCKINGHAM-SHENANDOAH-FREDERICK VA-PAGE-WARREN-CLARKE-
HAMPSHIRE-MORGAN-BERKELEY-JEFFERSON-HARDY-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF…HAGERSTOWN…FREDERICK…WESTMINSTER…
STAUNTON…WAYNESBORO…HARRISONBURG…WINCHESTER…FRONT ROYAL…
MARTINSBURG…CHARLES TOWN
243 PM EDT FRI APR 20 2007

…FROST ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 2 AM TO 11 AM EDT SATURDAY…

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN STERLING VIRGINIA HAS ISSUED A
FROST ADVISORY…WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 2 AM TO 11 AM EDT
SATURDAY.

CLEAR SKIES AND CALM WINDS WILL PREVAIL ACROSS THE REGION TONIGHT
AS HIGH PRESSURE SETTLES OVER THE EASTERN UNITED STATES.
TEMPERATURES WILL QUICKLY FALL TONIGHT AS WINDS DIMINISH. MANY
LOCATIONS IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY AND NORTH CENTRAL MARYLAND
TONIGHT WILL SEE LOW TEMPERATURES IN THE LOWER TO MID 30S. THIS
WILL LIKELY LEAD TO AREAS OF FROST BY EARLY SATURDAY MORNING.

A FROST ADVISORY MEANS THAT FROST IS EXPECTED. SENSITIVE OUTDOOR
PLANTS MAY BE DAMAGED IF LEFT UNCOVERED.

Though we aren’t under an official advisory here at Wintergreen, Lovingston, Faber, Afton, etc – it’s still possible to see some frost. Dewpoints right now are running around the lower 40’s here at our NCL office in Greenfield but are in the upper 30’s on the other side of the mountain. Think we’ll see those temps lower enough tonight to have the frost mentioned.

Just be aware of that and remember we aren’t really out of the “frosting” woods until late this month / early May so keep an eye on those plants.

Have a great weekend!
-T-

Good Friday morning! TGIF!

Wow what a week it has been. It’s been a tough week here in Virginia, weather wise and more. First let’s remember all of the families at VT today at noon. That’s the time set aside for folks to remember the people who lost their lives in the tragedy earlier this week, and the families left behind. It’s been a hell of a week for them.

Weather wise it was a pretty grim start to the week as well. Cold, high winds, snow, power outages, you name it we had a little of everything. Fortunately today marks the beginning of a change in the weather patterns over the next 7-10 days. Finally we are working back toward more seasonal normals which should be around 70 degrees average for daytime highs. We’ll easily make that in the coming days and then some!

Today look for mostly sunny skies and temps near 70 valley and 63 or so mountains. Winds will be around 5-8 MPH from the north. Tonight skies remain clear and with those clear skies we cool pretty easily to around 40 degrees valley – mountains 35 to 37 degrees.

Weekend Outlook

Saturday – Sunny & 75 below upper 60’s mountains
Sunday – Sunny & 79 valley – 73 mountains

Lows both of those nights will be generally in the 40’s – lower 40’s mountains.

By next week look for 80 degrees on Monday and Tuesday – Tuesday we see slight chances for rain – Wednesday, Thurs & Friday look a tad cooler but still miid with temps cooling to the low and mid 70’s. Don’t see any freezing temps in the extended period.

In short, we end the week much better than we started it. Enjoy this weather today and really enjoy it tomorrow. Yvette and I will be heading out to Pharsalia on Saturday for the Folk Festival. This is going to be great and perfect weather for it. Everyone in the Nelson Rotary and at Pharsalia have done an excellent job in getting ready for it.

We’ll see you there!

Have a great weekend!
-T-

Want some wine?

Tommy
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Was out at Wintergreen Winery yesterday. Jeff and the entire crew were bottling lots of their wines when I was over there. In the photos below they were bottling their Thomas Nelson White. Yummy!
TNW Line
Photos: Tommy Stafford – Nelson County Life Magazine

You might notice something a little different in the label too. Yep, they have come up with some really neat new label designs for their wines.

It’s a tough job bottling all of that wine, boxing it up, and getting it ready for the upcoming season.

Lisa line

Jeff truck

Makes you appreciate it much more when you are sitting out there at the table enjoying a bottle of wine on a sunny afternoon!

Mr. T’s Thursday weather forecast Nelson County, VA

Tommy
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Good Thursday morning!

A pretty uneventful day on tap for most of the area. If you think it’s been a cool or cold several weeks you are right. Was reading the discussion this morning from the NWS office in DC / Sterling:

Past 12 days balt (Baltimore) as cold as ever
recorded. District of Columbia is 2nd coldest. Another day of continue cool temperatures is on
tap for the area as the now distant upper low still has enough
influence to keep the flow out of the NE off the water.

Has been a pretty cool and damp month. Hang on that is about to change!

Days like this are a mere 24 hours away.

Photo by Paul Purpura for NCL Magazine – Lake MonacanLake Monacan April 2007

Thanks Paul for a great shot from earlier this week. Days like this are around the corner with a huge warm up headed our way next week. We’ll easily make it into the 70’s this coming weekend, again just in time for the Pharsalia Folk Festival. Know Foxie and Dick have been working hard out at Pharsalia to get it ready. Be sure you make it either Saturday or Sunday, or both!

Thursday look for mainly cloudy skies for pretty much the entire day. Temps without any sun will barely make it into the mid 50’s valley and mid to upper 40’s mountain. Light NE winds. We’ll see some light showers from time to time, but that’s about it. Tonight clouds remain with a passing shower. With clouds in place temps only fall to around 40 valley and upper 30’s mountains.

Here’s where it gets better. Friday we’ll start out with clouds moving to mostly sunny skies in the afternoon and temps in the upper 60’s valley, around 60 mountains. Friday night clear with temps generally around 40.

Saturday sunny temps low 70’s valley low 60’s mountain
Sunday sunny temps in the mid 70’s valley – mid 60’s mountain.

By next week we’re talking 80’s! – I am ready!

Everyone have a great Thursday,
-T-

Local Nelsonian & VT senior Jennie Tal on TV

Tommy
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Updated 12:33 pm

We got this from Jennie just moments ago:

Hello again from a very somber Blacksburg, Virginia.
I wrote yesterday as comments to the story about the shootings here at Virginia Tech. The things I wrote on the Nelson County Life site were apparently picked up by a website, cybersoc.com, that was picked up by website that was picked up by CNN. This will act as a continuation of that.
I wrote yesterday that I had heard rumors of a friend that had been shot. Unfortunately, the rumors were true. Ryan “Stack” Clark was killed yesterday in West Ambler Johnston, a dorm on the Virginia Tech Campus. He was an RA on the fourth floor where the first shooting happened just after 7 yesterday morning. He and I were in the Marching Virginians together and he was the first person I met on the Virginia Tech campus. There is a nice tribute to him on the MV website.

Jennie’s essay was first published on BickLickU.com. Read it here.

***

You’ve heard us refer to Jennie Tal a lot over the past several days. Jennie is special to us. She’s the transcriptionist for Nelson County Life Magazine. That means when we go out and interview someone, she’s the person that takes that audio file, types it out word for word, then returns it to us. We then write the stories you see in NCL from that. We call that verbatim in the biz! She’s also the daughter of Leslie and Rafael Tal, owners of The Mark Addy Inn B & B in Nellysford. We saw them Tuesday night, and like any parent with a youngster at VT, they have been very concerned over the past several days, but thankful their daughter is unharmed.

Jennie is also a senior communications major at VT. If you’ve been reading this blog over the past several days, Jennie broke the story reagrding the number of fatalities at VT. Early on was she was live blogging here on NCL and alerted us and you that it could be much worse than originally thought. Here’s the line that got everyone’s attention worldwide.

“Unconfirmed, I have heard that at triage there were more than 30 “black tags” at triage. That means body bags. I hope that’s not true.”

We get no joy out of the fact she was right or the fact she beat all of the major media, but it does show Jennie has a promising career in journalism should she choose to head that direction. In a day when media gets the facts wrong, often, Jennie got it right. Excellent job!

Tuesday night she was interviewed on News Hour with Jim Lehrer.

This is a screen grab of her from Tuesday’s interview: Courtest of PBS – News Hour with Jim Lehrer:
Jennie NHWJL
Great job Jennie!

Unfortunately the recent string of events is all too familiar to Yvette and me. Back in the fall of 2003 a few months before we moved here to Virginia, one of the last stories we covered on television news in Tennessee was a similar event. Though nothing as tragic as VT, it was a 12 hour ordeal that was just as nail biting.

Tommy covering event for CNN from the Dyersburg, TN hostage standoff in 2003. Screen grab courtesy of CNN and WPTY television Memphis.

Tommy CNN

The above shot is one of many live shots I did that day for networks from the scene. In this case a man with a gun took an entire math class hostage for the day. As luck would have it, Yvette and I were the only reporters nearby. We were off and on our way to a favorite Mexican restaurant when we got the info from a police contact of mine that the place had been put on lockdown and a man with a gun was inside. For hours we did live coverage by ourselves from the scene. Other media arrived late in the day.

Eventually the gunman inside began shooting students, the police rushed the building and shot him dead, rightfully so. That day ended 12 hours later. Three student were shot and airlifted out, but thankfully they survived. No others were injured. It’s a day we will never forget and when something like VT happens you are reminded even more…..
-T-

Mr T’s Forecast – Warmer temps on the way

Tommy
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Good Wednesday to everyone,

Did you hear that last night? Yea, me too, nothing! For the first time in days the wind wasn’t howling. Yea, we still had some breezes, but nothing terrible. Wednesday look for partly cloudy skies and temps working toward near 60 degrees valley – around 50 mountains. A stray shower in particular on the mountain is possible, but nothing major. Clouds are across the area as shown on local satellite view. But you can see some breaks working in, think the afternoon will have plenty of sun mixed with clouds from time to time in most areas.

Wed night lows fall to around 43 degress valley and around 35 mountains. It will be mostly cloudy with again slight chances of a shower. Thursday mostly cloudy skies continue with a roughly 50/50 chance that someone will see a shower. Regardless it will be light rain and mainly confined to the west of the Blue Ridge vs east. Highs Thurs upper 50’s with light easterly winds.

After clouds Thursday the rest of the extended period look tremendous! Friday highs in the low 60’s with partly cloudy skies, Sat upper 60’s and Sunday 70+ ! Finally will feel more like it should for this time of year. Looks like a great weekend for the Pharsalia Folk Festival on Saturday and Sunday!

Have a great Wednesday!
Tommy

The May issue will be powered by Coleman & yes, the weather!

Tommy
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Updated: 4.17.07 1:54 PM EDT
We’re back on! CVEC just restored power to this area of Greenfield.

The latest from CVEC’s website as of 11:30 AM E

Tuesday – April 17, 2007

11:30 AM

Crews have made good progress and appear to be closing in on the goal of restoring power to all CVEC members.

Update, they’re here! 4.17.07 12:42 EDT

The heros have arrived!
TMN Turtle

Oh yea, Kim, think one of your boys dropped his toy in the driveway the other day!

Updating everyone. The Coleman is about to get a chance to take a well deserved break. CVEC crews are working on lines in this part of Greenfield. Shouldn’t be long.

Bucket truck
Here they are working from a bucket truck replacing fuses on this pole, just before stretching new wire across 151 below.


Traffic is stopped along 151 in Greenfield to string new wire across. A poplar tree took this down early Monday morning.
151 Wire Stretch

More updates later today.
-T-

Previous post thie morning:
Meet our Coleman generator. It is a Powermate 6250

Coleman Gen Vertical

Look at it go!
Coleman gen-1

If it weren’t for this little guy, we wouldn’t be able to keep up with the deadline for our May issue. CVEC still hasn’t got our power back on. We are waiting … waiting … waiting. A quick glance at the CVEC website this morning says this:

Tuesday – April 17, 2007

9:30 AM

Crews continue the work of clearing downed trees away from power lines. Look for continued progress as crews work toward complete restoration.


On to the weather. Overnight the winds continued to howl! But believe it or not, they were actually dying down a little. This morning you can see a dramatic decrease in the winds. Breezy, yes, but nothing like the past 24-36 hours. Today look for occasional clouds from time to time with temps in the lower 60’s valley – near 50 mountains. Tonight partly cloudy upper 30’s valley and around 30 mountains. By Wednesday we have partly sunny skies and temps around 60 valley a bit cooler above. The winds on Wednesday, get this… about 5 MPH! Thursday still shows a chance of showers. Temps generally in the 50’s.

By the weekend we warm to upper 60’s Sat & 70’s Sunday. Next week upper 70’s! Yes!

It’s a good thing we use HughesNet for internet. It’s not DSL but we can at least power it with the generator and it does the job. Thank you Coleman, thank you HughesNet, and thank you Ashley’s Market for being so close. If we’re not turned on soon, we’ll be coming by with an empty gas tank to fill up.

More to follow later today and keep your e-mails about outages coming.

Have a great Tues,
Tommy

A big thank you Jennie, high winds continue, power still out many areas

Tommy
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Good Monday evening,

What an interesting 24 hours this has been across Nelson and Central Virginia. Rather than just being a simple weather update I am including several items in this evening’s post. First we want to send out a big thank you to Jennie Tal. She knocked it out of the park today and it shows. Jennie is a senior at VT, graduating next month. She’s also the daughter of Raphael & Leslie Tal here in Nellysford. They also own The Mark Addy Inn Jennie has been doing all of the transcription for us at NCL since late last year. Jennie was live blogging for us during the tragic event at VT’s shooting. Jennie’s entries have already been picked up by CNN, and across the pond at BBC, and other assorted web sites internationally. Thank you Jennie and we are glad you are safe, stay that way and get graduated!

Power wise here in Nelson we are still without power at NCL. I just spoke to Kim Thompson in Beech Grove (664 toward Wintergreen) and they are without power as well. An entry on CVEC’s site says most of the power problems in the Martin’s Store substation have been resolved, but apparently not all of them, as we and others nearby still have had no power since 1AM Monday morning. We are hearing similar reports from others around the county. Though the CVEC website says much of the outages have been corrected. They posted an update regarding Appomattox customers at 3PM, but nothing Nelson thus far. Will let you know as we know, but I’d keep some firewood and a flashlight handy tonight.

On to the weather, we will begin to see a decrease in the winds slowly over the next 24 hours. We won’t see a whole lot of improvement early tonight, and it will still be gusty even after midnight, but as the low pressure area moves toward the sea we will see winds diminish a lot by Tuesday afternoon. The High Wind Warning continues tonight until 2AM EDT Tuesday morning. I still see some gusts of up to 60 MPH possible early tonight, but the average speeds are working down in the 25-30 MPH range. Tonight temps will drop to the low 30’s valley and mtns, some snow showers possible in the mountains. Tuesday winds continue but not as bad as as Monday. Temps moderate with highs around 60 valley, mountains 40’s. It will be mostly cloudy. Tuesday night mountain lows upper 20’s – valley mid-30’s. By Wed we have partly cloudy skies and temps near 60. Chance of showers on Thursday.

Just to show you how low the low is producing this wind, our barometer at NCL-Nelson County LIfe Magazine droped to a low 29.27 (991.1 MB) around 1AM this morning. That is low folks, very intense. Hat tip to Paul Luke in DC for noticing this and e-mailing us. Good catch Paul!

The warmer temps return by the weekend and for the first time in two weeks it looks like a nice weekend shaping up!

More updates later tonight as conditions change.

Have a warm and “non-windy” evening!
Tommy

Power outages, trees down, power lines down – STATUS

Tommy
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Update on status oif CVEC repairs countywide.
4/16/07 1:30 PM EDT

Additional update for power outage status via CVEC. Just got an e-mail from Greg Kelly at CVEC. Here is their link to show exactly the status of their outages and repairs.

Thanks Greg for the info!


Previous posts:
Updated 4.16.07 12:55 PM EDT
Know there is lots going on with the VT shooting, but wanted to update here photos of damage around the county. As of this post we understand there are power outages widespread across the county. Some other areas in addition to the ones we have been talking about earlier. Beech Grove, parts of New Stoney Creek & Old Stoney Creek have reported no power. We can”t get through to CVEC to confirm if any of this has been restored so we’re guessing on lots of this.

151 in Greenfield Tree on house
Photo by Yvette Stafford – NCL Magazine
This is a photo of some of the wind damage. This house is just north of Ashley’s Market on 151.

Below is roof damage at Rockfish Gap Country Store at 250 and 151 at the foot of Afton Mountain.
Photo by: Tommy Stafford – NCL Magazine

Rockfish Gap Country Store roof damage

This is just a sample of the damage across the county and nearby. Jim Gates tells us the roof was literally peeled back from the extremely high winds early Monday morning. We understand there are lots of trees down everywhere, but are slowly being cleared by crews.

Update: 4.16.07 9:45 AM EDT

Do know there are areas of power out in Greenfield, Paul’s Creek (very damaged from what we know) Montebello, & have heard in Albermarle that Crozet has lots of power outages and it may be a long while before it is restored. Pictures of damage to follow shortly. Yvette is out now.

We are trying to get solid reliable info from CVEC but, for obvious reasons, can’t get through. All we get is a circuits busy. I have e-mailed Greg Kelly there in hopes he can update on the status and I will post here as soon as we know.

If anyone reading knows more or has solid info post it here, or e-mail us at : info@nelsoncountylife.com

We want to update as much as possible until all power is restored.

Also if you have any digital pics of storm damage you can send them to the same e-mail above.

Tommy

Previous post:
Good Monday morning,

If you are reading this post locally in Nelson then you are one of the lucky ones that didn’t lose power overnight or you are fortunate enough to have a backup generator like we do here at the office in Greenfield.
We lost power around 1 AM this morning. I heard the explosion then darkness. Think those gusty winds shorted and popped a nearby transformer.

I have seen some gusts on the mountain around 55 MPH and near that below. We lost some reporting data here as we didn’t bring the backup generator online until this morning.

We don’t have lots of solid information, but I do know that trees are down widespread across Nelson County and crew are busy trying to restore power and clear trees from the roads.

As discussed in my post last night
look for the gusty winds to continue today, they will eventually begin decreasing Tuesday morning, still brisk at 15-20 MPH but much better than this.

More later today but for now we are up and running on backup power!

Have a great and windy Monday!
Tommy

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