Author: Doug

What a massive waste of time and productivity. Yes I said it and was suckered into working on social media crap today, er Yesterday, Friday 1/12/2019.

Yes it it just after midnight, I was suppose to be in bed and sleeping about an hour ago but nope, still working on the work I promised myself I would get done today with the website transfer. Yes, I started replying to people on CrackBook (Facebook) and that was at 8am this morning after I dropped off Laura to daycare and settled into the office after I made coffee and had breakfast. The next thing I knew it was 3:30pm and I did not confirm with Neva if she was picking up Laura after work of if I was and she was going to work later and get some overtime at work.

So I pretty much wasted most of the day dealing with social media crap and did not get a chance do the work I needed to do on this site transfer. The goal for this weekend is to have all the blogs moved over and the Hurricane pages also moved. Pretty much the whole site. I will be realistic and say by Tuesday at the latest.

After that massive part is completed, I will then take on the overwhelming task of reviewing a life time of work for the photo gallery pages on this site as I will be moving away from Smug Mug since in the several years, I have not made a fn dime off that service.

Still photography sales will be handled personally by me and the local lab here in Saint Cloud, MN that is one of the few professional processing and printing labs left in the country. Lucky me, it is only ten minutes away from the house.

So if you are following along with the temp dot net page here before I convert it back to the dot com, don’t worry, the work is being done, just slowly today.

Oh yeah, only 540 pages left to move 🙂

If you are reading this, I’m sitting in front of a lot of computer screens and on a Rush live CD Marathon while I’m still working on the blog transfers.

I pretty much have about 700 more blogs or pages to convert to this site setup. Yes. this time the working on the website is really happening and taking back my blogs and stories and (Anti) Social Media posts and bringing it back to MY page where I’m the one that is in charge of what can and can not be posted. Well, not going to post anything illegal or immoral, that would just be F-d Up but you get the point. Bringing the web back to what it was 15 years ago where my posts, my points of view and what I say and post is on MY PAGE!

Now that I’m about half way through the transfer of posts / pages I’m actually pretty excited about this and working to get it all done this week and then work on the photo gallery and missing blogs. Last month, hell last year this was a planned project but is was just like WTF, it will take forever and it will really suck to do. After working on it for days, it needed a major overhaul is all I can say and not be profane…

Another thing I’m looking forward too is the system now has a spell check and grammar review before I post new content. WHAT? No more messed up posts where I really mess up the spelling? Nope, not anymore and seeing some of the stuff I posted over a decade ago, I want to slap myself. God I looked like an idiot.

Things are going smoothly for the most part with moving stuff over from the old setup to the new setup.

The only major hiccups that I’m finding are the older Youtube content videos. A while back I paid someone a lot of money to help out with updating the content and descriptions on Youtube from the old BNVN self hosted video platform. Now that I’m going through all of my work, I’m finding a ton of stuff that was wrote off as completed that was never completed and just done wrong. I guess I know why companies outsource to cheap places over seas. At least when they screw up half the work, it only costs a fraction of the price.

If you Google the term, “what is the phoenix”? you come up with this answer.
phoe·nix/ˈfēniks/nounnoun: phoenix; plural noun: phoenixes

1. (in classical mythology) a unique bird that lived for five or six centuries in the Arabian desert, after this time burning itself on a funeral pyre and rising from the ashes with renewed youth to live through another cycle.
   • a person or thing regarded as uniquely remarkable in some respect.

Right now, I’m in the process of burning this site down and having it reborn.  The older blogs are going first and then it will be onto the hurricane blogs and how to pages.   Hope to have this done by next week. 1/8/2019.  If you are seeing this, you are on the new platform for the site.

Yes I could use an automated system to convert this form the outdated system but I have found so many damn spelling errors and just messed up stuff tied into the old BNVN system, burning it down and rebuilding is the only way to move forward.

Happy New Year and happy new chase season.

Here is an image from yesterdays chase of the winter storm system on the west side of Stearns County, MN.

Yesterday was pretty active for weather here in Minnesota that started almost as soon as the day began at midnight.

The first video I shot was this one where MNDot crews attacked this snow system with a vengeance and were on this like they were schooling the rest of the country with how to clean up the snow.

Freezing Rain & Heavy Snow cause slick roads in Saint Cloud, MN – 12/31/2018 https://youtu.be/eIADApbLrNU

Later on New Years Eve, I did not feel like driving to the South Dakota boarder for the really extreme conditions since it was New Years Eve and I knew most of the media was shut down and I did not want to get suck out in the middle of nowhere BFE on New Years and not be home with the family.

So I opted to stay somewhat local and got another Unicorn or Great White Buffalo on video which is a tow truck in a wreck or stuck or a snow plow crashed. I call them that since they are so rare up here. I know down south it happens a lot but I would like to think that the plow drivers and tow truck drivers in Minnesota have a little more experience and skill in the winter weather then their counter parts down south.

Sauk Centre, MN Crashes, High Winds And Blowing Snow – 12/31/2018

As I promised, in 2019 I will be more focused on posting and updating this page then ever before since I’m pretty much sick of the time I have wasted on the social media sites like Facebook that are nothing more then people bitching about political crap.

So over the next few days and weeks I will be migrating my old blog over here to the new platform if you are seeing this here on the temp WeatherPaparazzi.net page. If you are seeing this on the Weatherpaparazzi.com page, well that means everything worked.

In this video, we take a look at the extreme cold “Polar Vortex” sub zero weather where we freeze items that you would think should be safe from the cold weather.

Shot in Minnesota during the overnight hours where the outside air temp was -28F.

We did a time lapse of summer blend or non treated Diesel fuel in the extreme cold and you can see it freezing and jelling up into a thick sludge that looked like wax. Imagine that in your fuel tank and in your fuel system.

Also included along side the diesel freezing, we froze old antifreeze that was rated for -10F to show that if you do not have the properly rated antifreeze in your engine, you will be in big trouble as this expanded. In a sealed system, this could ruin your engine.

We also revisited the freezing 40 Proof Vodka and freezing 35 Proof Rum to show the time lapse of the alcohol freezing.

As a control, we did freeze a bottle of water and last but not least, we froze time. Ok not really time but a scuba diving watch / dive computer in a large glass where it became a huge block of ice.

Special thank you to the staff at GATR Truck Center in Sauk Rapids, MN for finding the impossible to find non treated summer blend of diesel fuel that I used in this video.
Check them out at their website and Twitter at :
https://www.gatr.net
https://twitter.com/gatrtruckcenter

Also check out our TeeSpring Merch below the video.

© www.stormchasingvideo.com

A quick but powerful winter weather system moved into central Minnesota and started out as freezing rain then transitioned into heavy snow in the Saint Cloud, MN metro area during the overnight hours.

Footage of MNDot crews hitting the roads hard to clear them before the morning rush, people driving around in the snow and a couple of cars spun out and crashed because of the slippery road conditions.
Shot Description

Clip 1 Saint Cloud sign with heavy snow falling.

Clip 2 MNDot Gang Plows on Highway 15 clearing the snow and ice.

Clip 3 MNDot Gang Plows on Highway 23 clearing the snow and ice.

Clip 4 Same shot as clip three but with fixed wide angle low view.

Clip 5 MNDot plow waiting at a stop light on Highway 23 in downtown Saint Cloud, MN.

Clip 6 Following MNDot plows on Highway 15.

Clip 7 Tight shot of plow blade clearing snow.

Clip 8 MNDot Plow on Highway 10 and Highway 15.

Clip 9 – 11 Car crashed in the ditch on the south side of town.

Clip 12 Driving in heavy snow on Interstate 94.

Clip 13 Car in the ditch on Interstate 94.

Clip 14 Tight shot of the front of a car in the snow.

Clip 15 Traffic on Highway 23

Clip 16 Car waiting at a stop light on Highway 23 in downtown Saint Cloud.

Clip 17 Flag blowing in the wind and snow falling.

Clip 18 Tight shot of street lights and the heavy snow falling.

SID: Your Mom

Very slipper road conditions continued throughout the evening for central Minnesota along Interstate 94 in Douglas County where numerous accidents were reported including several jack knifed semi trucks.

Clip 1 POV Drive past a Jack Knifed semi truck

Clip 2-3 Static shot from the side of the interstate looking down at the Jack Knifed Semi truck as crews worked to pull it back onto the road.

Clip 4 Tight shot of the crews pulling the semi truck out of the ditch

Clip 5 State Trooper SUV blocking traffic

Clip 6 Pulling the Semi onto the road

Clip 7 Snow plow passes the scene

Clip 8 American Flag blowing in the high winds

Clip 9 Passing a truck in the ditch

Clip 10 POV Passing a snow plow coming towards the camera

Clip 11 Driving in poor road conditions and blowing snow

Clip 12 SUV stuck in the ditch

Clip 13 Passing a crash scene with multiple vehicles being recovered (long clip)

Clip 14 Passing a crash scene on Interstate 94

Clip 15 SUV stuck in the ditch in the cable barrier

A powerful winter storm is hitting the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota during the overnight hours.

Footage shot around the Twin Cities metro area and in Saint Cloud, MN. See shot sheet for full details.

Footage shot in 4K
Shot Description

Clips 1-16 from the Twin Cities Metro area.
Clip 17-End from Saint Cloud, MN

Clip 01 Minneapolis skyline

Clip 02 Tow truck on highway 169 stuck in the ditch with a car on the back.

Clip 03 Tight shot of the tow truck spinning its wheels.

Clip 04 Wide shot of the tow truck stuck and cars driving by.

Clip 05 SUV stuck in the ditch

Clip 06 Car stuck in the ditch

Clip 07 Car trying to recover after spinning out and almost hitting the wall.

Clip 08 Car in the ditch with squad cars and tow truck.

Clip 09 Flags blowing in the snow

Clip 10 Crews clearing the snow off the runway at the Minneapolis Saint Paul international Airport

Clip 11 – 13 Snow plows on 494

Clip 14 Snow plow coming towards the camera

Clip 15 Car stuck in the snow.

Clip 16 Truck stuck in the cables on interstate 94.

** Following clips from Saint Cloud, MN **

Clip 17 Sign warning of the winter storm.

Clip 18 – 25 Various shots of snow plows on highway 23 in Saint Cloud, MN.

Real time 4k video of the Geminid Meteor shower along with Comet 46P-Wirtanen (fuzzy green glow)in Benton County, MN. Video shows numerous shooting stars in real time shooting through the frame along with the faint glow of the comet near the constellation Pleiades.