When the radar starts to look all colorful

KGAN radar image at around 7 p.m. Friday.  No, it was not really raining yet in Cedar Rapids, but it looks out west like something wicked this way comes.

When you see colors on the radar image, then it’s time to be careful.  One of the changes of modern life that has crept up slowly on us is how much better local radar is.  I can still recall TV radar of the 1960s, looking very much like old images form WWII, with a line sweeping in a circle and white dots appearing on a black background, which could be clouds or birds or invading Russian bombers …

Today, when a storm is coming, we have several choices of sites to watch and see colorful, accurate and easy to interpret radar.  When there’s that dangerous little hook in a thunderstorm where a twister is twitching, we can watch and know when it’s a mile, ½ mile, next door, or will pass us by.

Today’s radar was a bit colorful, for a biker.  I often check the radar on KGAN, channel 2, because I’m used to it.  KCRG has good radar, too, but I tend to check KGAN out of habit.

Today, the sky was alternatively partly sunny, then grey and white and colorful in a way that doesn’t look that good for a biker.

I had no trouble biking in this morning, but when I checked the radar at 3, there was way too much green.

Green may mean rain.  But the radar picks up rain that doesn’t reach the ground, too, so sometimes it’s just “ghost rain,” water changing levels in the sky up high.

That seemed to be the case today.  I had too much to do and couldn’t lead campus until 4—my usual leaving time on Friday, although today I had hoped to leave much earlier to avoid forecast thunderstorms.

Despite the menacing radar, I lucked out.  The sky kept looking worse and worse, but despite darkeining hues of grey, raindrops never fell on my head.

Lucky me.  I’m sure it will rain, but despite the interesting colors of radar, I didn’t get dampened (or electrocuted) today—and I’m all in favor of that trend.  So the song is just an ear worm:

"Some By Bicycle, When They Can ...."

The city of Cedar Rapids--and the nearby cities of Robins, Hiawatha and Marion--is planning for a 4-lane Tower Terrace Road to link Highway 13 and Interstate 380.

I have mixed feelings--as a lover of nature, I'm not that sanguine about our urban area taking over more fields and trees. But on the other hand, if the growth is going to occur, there will increasingly be a need for an alternate east-west road so that Collins and Boyson and Blair's Ferry don't continue to grow more congested. Tower Terrace as a "big" road makes more sense to me than Boyson. (Planners, figure out pedestrian and bike routes over this big road as part of the planning stage--otherwise, like Collins and Blair's Ferry, the road becomes a giant river of autos that is more daunting to ford to a biker than an actual river would be.)

Anyway, regardless of the merits of the plan, one line in the Gazette story caught my eye. It noted that 40,000 residents will soon call the area home, and that most of them will commute by autos or "some by bicycle when they can."

Trust me, they can most days, year round. I know it's been a pretty mild winter, so this season isn't a good test--I lost of most of January 2011 due to persistent snow cover, for instance--but I've been commuting by bicycle most days this winter. And by the end of February, even in years with harsher winters, the bike commuting season is usually underway.

Nice to see the Gazette mention the possibility that some of the new residents in these north regions of the metroplex might ride bikes. Cedar Rapids has a policy of trying to be a bike-friendly community, and figuring out how to incorporate bike routes in a way that won't be too expensive nor interfere with car traffic would be nice.