Where to Ride Thur 1/8/09

[Kenny]

It is a south wind, warm day with increasing clouds as a front approaches this evening.

Best bet today is PowMow with wind in the mid to upper teens on cut/blown powder conditions

Skyline looks like wind in the low to mid teens on packed snow with some powder stashes.

Evanston will have good wind in the mid to upper teens, not sure about the surface.

Park City and Rush should give up some rides today with wind in the low to mid teens

Tomorrow is looking like north clearing winds so our perennial favorite Strawberry should be good in the afternoon as well as Skyline. Rush and Park City will also give up some rides. You might be able to score in Herriman if you can find coverage.

Okay my editorial for the day - ClearPlay Rant

I have kids and I don't like them watching some of the crud in today's movies, so after the demise of Clean Flicks I was excited to hear about ClearPlay. I went out and bought a player. The problem with ClearPlay is that they try to edit every movie to the point that it is practically a G movie. The cuts are so obvious and frequent that it is annoying at best and makes some movies totally unwatchable because you can't even figure out what is going on. It seems to me that the best source of edited movies is the original studios.

The folks in Hollywood could add some incremental sales by making available the TV/Airline version of popular movies on DVD. I am not even aware of any studio trying the concept. The concept of uncensored or uncut movies has worked for studios, why not try the other direction with a clean version?

[RALPH SORBONNE]

Hey Kenny,

As always thanks for the forecast! I was riding yesterday up at Strawberry Creek and noticed that there is a portable weather station parked off of Highway 40 about 300 yards south east of the parking lot. Do you have a link to that station? It would be nice to have a more accurate reading instead of Daniels Summit, before making the drive!

As for Clear Play,

I'm not sure if you were aware but if you search the settings, and I believe under parental control you can adjust the settings in like 10 different categories. For example, blood and gore. You have the option of no filter, least filter, moderate filter, complete filter.

[kenclewis]

This is the link to the camera:
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/slc/camera/sing ... Summit.php
But I haven't been able to find the wind meter yet. I know there is a wind meter on the station but it doesn't seem to appear in the www.met.utah.edu site. If anyone else can find it, that would be great.

Ken L

[Kenny]

Ralph,

I was aware of the meter for looking at the landscape.

Believe it or not, the meter at Daniel's Summit has never failed me. I have stayed at Daniel's summit during the holidays for 5 Christmas Seasons. I discovered that if the flag is waving out front (especially on a north) that the conditions will be rideable. So, I look for a consistent north wind at Daniel's and it is usually rideable.

Thanks for the info on the Clearplay filters. I was not aware that you could customize the filters. I will definitely check into it.

Kenny

[whit]

I have also noticed the "new" portable wx station just east of the Strawberry River lot. Good job Ken, finding the camera link, I did not notice a camera, but apparently it has one, obviously. If anyone is at the U of U on a regular basis, they could go to the Dept of Meteorology and ask for that (probably UDOT) weather station to be added to their mesoswest internet site in Wasatch County. If you can find someone in charge of the website, ask them to also add the anemometer at the Snow Plow Buildings just east of Chicken Creek West. There is a permanent one there on their building. While we are on the subject, there is also an anemometer located at the "Ladders" parking area just east of there on US 40.

I remember seeing a UDOT anemometer up at Skyline the first few times I went in 2004. It is the same one that we now get a reading from at Skyline and camera also. It would be great if we could get much, much more of the UDOT weather info available to the public on the web, heck it is 2009 and it is much better than it used to be. We just need to get the different arms of the .gov to communicate with each other.

I just searched the commuterlink.utah.gov site and see no cameras listed on US 40 east of Heber (even though Ken L found the one). It is on the NWS SLC site (noaa.gov), how did you ever find it? I couldn't even find it just now when I looked at their list.

Kenny, Ralph S., Ken L. ...........who do we call?

[kenclewis]

Though I would love to take credit for the find, it was Jacob Buzianis who posted it back on Dec 22 on the main message board of the forum. It would be great if we could get the wind reading as well. Maybe someone can stick a flag up in front of the camera. Then we could at least look at the flag!

Ken L