Davis & his daughter, Amanda fresh from the Japanese hot baths!

As I have told you before, my father-in-law always wants to bring me somewhere special when I visit Japan.  This year he showed me the “Japan Alps” a series of three mountain ranges that bisect the main island of Honshu.  These mountains are a popular tourist destination.  Check out the picture below taken from the west coast city of Toyama:

The small lines above each peak are showing elevation.  The highest point is 3,015 meters (9,892 ft.)  We actually rode in a bus through a tunnel dug below that mountain’s peak, as well as another that is 2,678 meters (8,786 ft.).  Notice the jet in the left side of the picture.

There is a main road through the mountains that is literally buried in snow during the winter.  It is closed during winter, but re opened during the spring after a snow plow digs through an average of 17 meters (56 ft.) of snow to uncover it.

That’s quite a sight for the tourists in the bus!

Compare that to what it looked like when we were there:

Anyway, sayonara for now!  I will have another post soon about a mirage of a west coast city seen out at sea from a different city.

Lacy Jones sent this picture from Robertson County of some cloud to cloud lightning.

Jennifer Hamblen sent this picture from N. Greenhill Road in Mt. Juliet.

Bob Layland in Goodlettsville saw quite a few trees down.

This canopy went into the trees and power lines in Clarksville in the Pembroke Subdivision.

Sarah Upchurch in Smyrna had large limbs down in the backyard.

Jeff Maynard sent this picture of the boats running for cover on Dale Hollow Lake taken by the Sunset Marina web cam.

This was in Lebanon at the intersection of Main St. and Castle Heights Ave. right before trees fell on two cars coming down the street.

A stationary front continues to meander across Middle Tennessee. The front divides mild air to the south from chilly air up north. The front slid through Nashville last hour and dropped temperatures dramatically. At 1:00 pm it was 70 degrees with a breeze from the south at 7 mph. By 2:00 pm, the wind was northwest at 10 mph and dropped the temperature to 61 degrees!

To illustrate how dramatic the temperature contrast is along the front, consider the following. At 2:00 pm, the stationary front was right along the southern border of Davidson County. In Forest Hills (north of the front) it was a chilly 58 degrees with a northeast breeze. A mere 4 miles to the south in Brentwood, it was a balmy 69 degrees with a south wind. What a difference a few miles can make!

Noboday want to lose to North Dakota, especially when the stakes are this high.

I’ll continue to watch the weather with two feet planted firmly on the ground…

Paraglider caught in thunderstorm, whisked to 32,612 feet, lives to tell about it.

Latest StormTracker image.

Yesterday John Dwyer blogged about what the morning show is like now that we start at 4:00 am. When visitors stop by the station during the show, we joke that they’re “watching the sausage being made”. Links or patties?

Dawn of New Era (Before Dawn!)

Jeff’s morning forecast post is below.

Mild weather is expected this afternoon through Tuesday morning as our next weather system takes shape in the Southern Plains. A southeast breeze will bring afternoon temperatures in the 50s, despite some cloud cover. Overnight temperatures should stay in the upper 40s, with low 50s on Tuesday morning as the heavy rain moves through. A solid shot of cold air returns by Tuesday night and lasts through the week. A little more on today’s short-lived “warm-up”…

The large-scale weather pattern has been a cold one for the Eastern United States the past couple of weeks. In Nashville 10 of the past 11 days brought below-average high temperatures. It’s usually in the middle to upper 40s this time of year, but we’ve been 10 to 20 degrees colder on a routine basis. The biggest deviation was Monday (February 5th) when Nashville’s high of 28 degrees measured a full 21 degrees below the thirty-year average.

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