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 Yesterday's winter storm brought with it only minor difficulties as accumulations stayed in the 2-3 inch range, rather than the 6-inch range that had been forecast.

One reason for the lower total was that dry air began moving in behind the storm, breaking up the momentum it may otherwise have had. At times yesterday evening, there were breaks of an hour or more during which little or no precipitation fell.

Also, the snow started in the afternoon, and this time of year, most of what falls will usually melt during daylight hours. Even while snow is falling, there is enough sun energy now to keep accumulations low unless the storm is very intense.

This week, more seasonable temperatures are following in the storm's wake, so unlike the February 14th storm, this one will not leave hard-packed ice that's difficult to remove.

 Making blog entry a daily habit (just like bathing, one would hope) is suggested by those in the blogging know for two reasons mainly:

1. Your readers can come to count on regular updates, enhancing interest and demonstrating your own interest in your blog.

2. Sites that provide blog searches will update your blog more often, which again enhances visitor interest (unless you have a crappy blog).

Some suggest updating even more often - making new entries up to three times daily. One successful blogger that I have linked here does just that, and he's been at it for years. Pretty amazing.

Personally, once per day is about enough for me. Posting more often is great, if you can avoid posting garbage just to say that you made a new entry.

So I agree wholeheartedly with the suggestion to post daily. If you can post more often, more power to you. If you can't manage to post daily, no one's coming to arrest you, though in the long run it might cost you a few page hits. And the hits are what we're in it for, after all. That, plus the satisfaction of creating something that, hopefully, somebody out there will find interesting.

 A large winter storm that hit the upper Midwest yesterday has been moving eastward and will begin affecting our weather this afternoon.

The forecast currently is for 2-4 inches of snow and sleet, with some freezing rain possible as well. Temperatures may reach the mid 30s before the storm arrives but then turn colder as the precipitation falls.

The storm system is weakening as it comes east, so a repeat of the storm on February 14 is not expected. However, the system will gain some strength as a new low pressure system forms off the eastern seaboard.

Ah, the Magnitude system for quantifying the apparent brightness of stars...a case of tradition trumping simple logic.

Usually, a higher number is assigned to something that's bigger, brighter, faster - whatever. But in the case of the system of magnitude, it's the opposite. The lower the number, the brighter the star (or planet).

I understand the idea of a hat-tip to the ancients, in this case Greek astronomer Hipparchus, who devised a system of noting brightness. Originally, the idea was that a brighter star was a "class one" object, a less-bright star a "class three" and so on. Fine and dandy.

But 19th century astronomers took this ball and ran the the wrong way with it. They expanded and refined it, but based it on the odd notion that smaller numbers should represent greater magnitude. Nice work, geniuses.

If you have a 40-watt bulb and a 60-watt bulb, which is brighter? So why couldn't scientists base magnitude on a scale that, logically, would assign a higher number to a brighter object?

Maybe they were afraid to offend a few dead astronomers.

 More than a full week has elapsed since the snow and ice storm last Wednesday that stranded hundreds of motorists on Interstate-78, and finally those commuters received an apology from PennDot chief Allen Biehler.

As hearings opened this week, what has become apparent is the lack of coordination and communication among various agencies. For example, motorists began calling 911 as early as 12:26 PM Wednesday afternoon. Such calls are routed to the Consolidated Dispatch Center in Norristown. And yet it was not until 4:33 PM, an astounding four hours later, that the Dispatch Center filed a report of a backup on I-78.

Almost as astounding is that Governor Rendell did not find out about the potential disaster until 8:00 PM. And as Brian Gottschall, Berks County Emergency Management Director pointed out in his report, there was no one taking charge while traffic continued to back up.

One can only wonder what may have happened, or what could yet happen, should there be a need for a major evacuation in the case of some natural or man-made disaster.

Morning Call columnist Bill White is following the hearings and reporting via his live blog.

 I'm undertaking a new study of astronomy, thanks to a college textbook, and of course there's the required measurements in metric units.

Sure, metric is easy, if everything is expressed that way and you're used to it. But I think in terms of the system used in the U.S., and trying to mentally picture metric units is difficult.

One thing about astronomy is that the distances usually discussed are so great that terms such as kilometers become rather insufficient anyway. Quite often, even an Astronomical Unit (the mean distance between the Earth and the Sun, 93,000,000 miles) is small potatoes in this big universe of ours.

Oh and by the way, that's 93,000,000 miles, not kilometers.

 This is Interstate-78 as seen from Upper Macungie Township. I-78 was re-opened yesterday after being closed since late Wednesday due the winter storm that hit the area and stranded motorists on the roadway for up to 20 hours or more. Portions of I-80 and I-81 were also closed.

Embarrassed governor Ed "Cheese Steak" Rendell*, who called the state's response "unacceptable", has apologized to motorists and also has promised to investigate why PennDOT crews failed to keep the highway clear and why the state's response was so slow. Many stuck commuters also noted that in all the time they spent stranded, they saw no National Guardsmen despite the fact that the Guard was deployed to provide supplies and aid.

* The term "Cheese Steak" is my own nickname for Rendell, who really does look like he's had a few too many of the signature Philadelphia sandwiches.

Gregg Easterbrook puts fears about a possible Avian Flu pandemic into perspective in this article.

Easterbrook points out that while we cringe in fear of a possible outbreak, 6 million of died from various diarrheal diseases, and we barely bat an eyelash. Rotovirus alone has killed an estimated 1.5 million people.

While it is better to overreact than underestimate any potential threat, we need to realize that comparisons to the Spanish Influenza outbreak in 1918 are not really accurate. In those days, as Easterbrook points out, the world was ravaged by several years of warfare. And of course, medical technology is not as advanced as it is today. In addition, subsequent large-scale flu outbreaks (1957, 1968) came during times of relative peace and prosperity and hence were far less virulent. Better health and nutrition also contributed to curb the effects of those pandemics, and would factor in muting any devastation wrought by a possible Avian Flu pandemic.