Yesterday’s weather

I learned about this nice principle from agile software development. Basically, that when thinking about how much you’ll get done next week, what you got done this week is a good proxy. Sure this week was different because you had that external presentation and an offsite, a bug to fix on live and Amy was sick. But the reality is things will interrupt you next week too. Just like the weather, what happened before is a good first guess at what will happen next.

Published 8 Mar 2014

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Lake-effect snow

The Destiny Instinct

Rubberducking

Nature’s greatest snow machine, where crazy amounts of snow can fall in huge snowstorms on the downwind — leeward — side of a lake. Where the effect is pronounced, such as on the East of some of the Great Lakes in the US, it can generate regions known as snow belts because of the amount of snow they receive. It works kind of like this: cold air blows over a lake. As the cold air passes over the warmer lake it picks up water vapour from the lake and it warms. This causes it to rise and in turn cool, such that when it reaches the downwind side of the lake it is now a lot of cold moist air which can cause some incredible snowstorms, like 2–3 inches of snow per hour. Satellite pictures like these show it in action pretty clearly. If the land rises after the lake, the air can cool faster and increase the effect — and also cause a rain shadow — and if there’s a whole lot of convection and the air is rising fast, you can get what’s called thundersnow — a thunderstorm in a snowstorm. I know. Stay warm out there. Find the weather interesting? Me too. Also see: Dirty thunderstorms Thunderclouds Yesterday’s weather (applying weather forecasting to productivity forecasting) Rain shadow Lenticular clouds Know your cirrostratus from your altocumulus British weather Banner clouds…Nature’s greatest snow machine, where crazy amounts of snow can fall in huge snowstorms on the downwind — leeward — side of a lake. Where the effect is pronounced, such as on the East of some of the Great Lakes in the US, it can generate regions known as snow belts because of the amount of snow they receive. It works kind of like this: cold air blows over a lake. As the cold air passes over the warmer lake it picks up water vapour from the lake and it warms. This causes it to rise and in turn cool, such that when it reaches the downwind side of the lake it is now a lot of cold moist air which can cause some incredible snowstorms, like 2–3 inches of snow per hour. Satellite pictures like these show it in action pretty clearly. If the land rises after the lake, the air can cool faster and increase the effect — and also cause a rain shadow — and if there’s a whole lot of convection and the air is rising fast, you can get what’s called thundersnow — a thunderstorm in a snowstorm. I know. Stay warm out there. Find the weather interesting? Me too. Also see: Dirty thunderstorms Thunderclouds Yesterday’s weather (applying weather forecasting to productivity forecasting) Rain shadow Lenticular clouds Know your cirrostratus from your altocumulus British weather Banner clouds

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