I had this idea last year, but too late in the lower midwest’s spring tornado season to implement it. That and the tornadoes that were happening were killing people – if I did start it last year, it’d be “too soon.” Ah, who am I kidding, it’s probably still “too soon”, but this is meant to lift spirits and incite laughter, not to poke fun at anyone’s grievous losses.
Tomorrow is my immediate area’s first day of 2014 in the cross-hatched bubble. Actually, back up – let me explain.
The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center issues “day 1”, “day 2” and “day 3” probability maps, “day 1” always meaning “today” and “day 2” always meaning “tomorrow” (I’m sure you can work the rest out from there). Much like the post-9/11 terror alert levels allowed us to color-code our collecitve sense of dread and foreboding, the bubbles are multicolored. Green is very mild risk. Yellow, you might want to be on the lookout and keep your weather radio handy. Red… how are the batteries looking in your weather radio? Purple… um… you’ve got the steps into the storm cellar cleared… right?
And if there’s a bubble of black cross-hatched pattern on top of any of that… you’ve actually gone out and checked the storm cellar steps… right? I mean… today?
This year, for SCIENCE!… and mainly for laughs… whenever my part of the country’s in a big multicolored cross-hatched bubble in the Storm Prediction Center’s day 2 weather outlooks, one of those outlook maps that looks like My Little Pony engaged in a controlled flight into terrain, I’m going to – very scientifically, of course – determine which internet meme rage face corresponds to the shape of that bubble. Then on an event-by-event basis, we’ll find out if the “intended use” of each face matches the severity of the storm in any way. You know. For science.
Trigger warning:
My area of the country is close enough to Oklahoma City and Joplin that they may be in the bubble with me. If this disturbs you, you may well be advised to avoid the RageCast posts. The map will always be “after the jump” on my blog, but visible if linked directly.
Or I might get bored with the idea and forget to do it through the whole storm season. You never know.
Anyway, here it is: 2014’s first RageCast. You’ll only find it here. Unless some thieving bastard right-clicks-and-saves the animation and posts it on their own site.
April 3rd, 2014:
P.S. If a tornado eats me alive this year, someone else must pick up the experiment and carry on. For science …but mainly for laughs.
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