Sunday, January 01, 2006
New Year's Day Edition: CapitalWeather.com's Greatest Hits of 2005
Jason Samenow @ 12:30 PM
Happy New Year! We ring in the New Year with a pretty nice day. With a Pacific airmass overhead, the milder than average conditions will continue (for the tenth straight day), with highs around 50. Skies will be partly cloudy and we'll have a light westerly wind at about 5-10mph.Coming up tomorrow: a complete look at the week ahead. Colder weather is on the way.
CapitalWeather.com's Greatest Hits of 2005
The Week of December 4, 2005: Two 2-4" snow events strike the area, which CapitalWeather.com correctly forecasts. The first on December 5 and 6, the second on December 8 and 9. CapitalWeather.com provides wall to wall coverage, and hundreds of comments pour in. The latest addition to the CapitalWeather.com team, Camden Walker, stays up all-night answering questions from visitors on December 8 and thundersnow strikes. The Camden Crazies are born. CapitalWeather.com receives close to 25,000 visits that week.
February 28 and 29, 2005: CapitalWeather.com forecasts 6-10" of snow, before lowering its forecast to 4-8". 4-6" ultimately fall. Mayhem erupts in the comment area (unfortunately the comments are no longer there, although a few excerpts can be found in my editorial of March 1), particularly early in the storm, as it becomes clear the storm is going to "underperform." One user, named Rocker, accuses CapitalWeather.com of purposely overhyping the storm to try to get the government to shutdown.
Katrina Coverage, August 27-30. CapitalWeather.com was among the earlier information sources to sound the alarm bell about Katrina. On the morning of August 27 I wrote: "...if New Orleans gets a direct hit from a Category 4 or higher storm (and Katrina may reach these levels), the potential is there for one of the worst weather catastrophes or catastrophes of any sort on U.S. soil in decades." Then, on August 28, in my post entitled the "The Sum of All Fears", I wrote: "It's possible there has never been a storm as threatening in modern U.S. history in terms of its potential toll on life, property and the environment." Our Katrina posts included commentary from WUSA's Howard Bernstein (who worked for years in New Orleans), and EPA's Jim Titus, a coastal expert.
Week of January 16, 2005: Several snow events affect the area, and CapitalWeather.com debuts probabilistic forecasts, and in depth winter storm coverage.
Media Hits: The Washington Post Express quoted CapitalWeather.com a couple times in its blog log, and MSNBC contacted us for an interview during hurricane season, which CapitalWeather.com's Dan Stillman took on.Lightning Strikes, July 1: CapitalWeather.com photographer Kevin Ambrose, who has provided stunning DC weather photography to the site througout the year, captured the Washington Monument being struck by lightning on July 1. The photo, pictured to the right, was shown on WUSA Channel 9 News in addition to CapitalWeather.com.
It's been an exciting year at CapitalWeather.com. Our team has grown, and I think our content has become stronger and more diverse. Special thanks to the entire CapitalWeather.com team who volunteer their time to contribute to the site. And thanks to everyone who visits the site -- especially those of you who contribute with thoughtful and interesting comments.
Some significant improvements to the site will be coming on board in 2006. As we like to say, stay tuned....
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