first

Welcome new visitors and to our loyal followers from the old site. We're excited to have all of you aboard!

Wow! Pretty slick new look for the site.

Hello CapWx crew and new visitors. Reading this site from my Blackberry (load easier) and first reviews are great. The fact that I can read and post are different than the old site!

Keep up the great content.

Greg

I meant to say the fact that I can post from my bb and read the comments section is different. Now when I am out and about I can read the thoughts of people like Blue Ridge Mike, El Bombo, McLean Ned, etc.

this blog is awesome. ive been reading it for 2 years

Nice job fellas......Cap Wx 2.0

....and the problems have started....I did not make that first comment....so, imposters are among us.....anyhow, the new address looks nice guys, really sweet! Looks like it will take me all day to go through all the links and FAQ! Congrats Team...just remember us little people! ;)

I for one am wondering whether the SLCB design has been changed. I kind of am attached to the current sketch but open to change(!) Nice job with the new site.

Welcome all!

Any chance you guys can set this up to have the Capital Weather crew comments in a different color font like on the old site? I'm missing the SLCB, too!! Is it time?

Already miss the local radar and satellite links, so with a quick glance you can see what is out there. Otherwise, looks nice.
Wondered about that 1st post, since it said "Mike IN Blue Ridge".

What happened to all the old posts? :-(

Mike from the Blue Ridge: Welcome. You're right: "Mike in Blue Ridge" is a different poster (per IP address). Sorry that happened (unless there's actually another Blue Ridge Mike out there). We'll keep on an eye this.

So far, So good. The new site and format at first glance seems to be fine. Busy morning, but will explore in depth later today.

Are we about to receive our first significant snowstorm of the season Sunday night and Monday??

Will many of us receive 4-8 inches??

The latest GFS (06z) seems to think so!!

36 degrees and fog in the central Shenandoah Valley at 7:30.

Wade: Welcome. We're starting fresh.

Missy: Welcome. Our comments will be in the same color for now. In the longer run, we'll look into the possibility of highlighting our comments. We're still assessing the snow prospects for late in the weekend/early next week and deciding if/when the Snow Lover's Crystal Ball (SLCB) will make its Capital Weather Gang debut..

Um, where is my weekly graphic. I mean I love to read a tomb as much as the next guy but this was my home page so I could scan the forecast graphic for the day/week. Sorry but the newspaper editorial style is only of use after I get your great predictions, ugh.

All: Encourage you to read and comment on Matt's "Where's All the Snow?": http://blog.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2008/01/wheres_all_the_snow.html

It's a great read.

Discussion and commenting, in general, encouraged in different posts The new format is advantageous for keeping multiple posts active, in addition to the top one.

Dono-- Thanks for the feedback. The "Latest Forecast" Button at the top of the sidebar will always give you our latest forecast. In time, we plan to develop more snapshot/graphical forecast content.

where did winter go?

This is different, new, strange, exciting, and depressing all at once. I miss what I was used to...

I also miss the week-at-a-glance graphics at the top of the old site, but I'm glad for people like Greg who can now access everything on their blackberries. Great content as always; I'm sure we'll all get used to it.

What an unfortunate surprise. I've come to your blog almost daily for two years for a quick forcast and look at the radar and, along the way, have gotten a pretty good weather education. Now, no more forcast or radar and, to top it off, WaPo continues to serve only the Internet Explorer browser properly so I see only banner adds until I scroll down to the first post.

You obviously put a lot of love and effort into the old site and I guess you had some reason to change from that award winning formula. I'll not be having the "New Coke." Thanks for your past work and best of luck.

how can you reach the model sites that were on the old website

Just a note that everything you see now is not all you will get. A blog roll will be up soon, and in time, links by category. This blog will evolve. We'll consider suggestions and do our best to incorporate.

I have the same problem as Alan Willis. Using Firefox, I don't see the posts until I scroll way down the page. The first couple of times I hit the link, I thought the page wasn't loading completely.

Looking forward to the new features! Of course there will be growing pains, but it'll be a better site as a result.

Responses to some other comments:

Model links: Not available now, but before long.

Firefox users: I'm using it and all seems well. Try to reloading once or twice. If problems persist, let us know.

To all who are struggling with the changes: Stick with us. The community is here, the content is here. We'll do our best to add new features and incorporate suggestions to make this blog as useful as possible. In time, I'm confident the change will be for the better.

Any thoughts on the 00z GFS? Shows 3-6" or so, and more further South (Richmond-ish?), all snow. Personally, I've always believed the GFS to be overly optimistic this far out, and it seems it's pushing the coastal low out pretty quick. I would have expected more warmth coming in off the coast I guess.

My previous comments were directed at the "potential" storm on Sunday/Monday.

This is truly sad. A one paragraph forecast summary minus all the supporting features that gave the forecast perspective and made this site unique. I can get this anywhere.

Live cam to make its way into the new format?

Can the temp range for the days to come be in bold in the blog text? Kind of missing the image blocks of days ahead offering a quick weather-pattern overview, but just placing them in bold might help.

Otherwise, best wishes!

Hobbes-- No thoughts other than don't make too much out of one model run. Watch the trends, see how the other models compare, etc. I'm sure you know from experience it's REALLY tough for a favorable snow scenario towards Richmond.

Sunday/Monday still a long way off. We'll have more commentary on this developing situation in future posts...

Jason - I think the parallel blogs are a great idea. I really like the "Where's all the snow" blog and can see how different blogs can reflect different traits and commenters.

Tom - Fairfax:

I really don't see a difference in the forecast. Especially considering we are having some pretty boring weather right now, that doesn't lend itself to much discussion. And Matt's snow post is a very good one - an excellent intro for budding snow weenies.

To the Gang:

I like the new look overall. Yeah, some things are different, and to a degree I miss the old site, but overall its pretty similar, and it seems like the affiliation with WaPo has already served to bring in some new, quality, posters.

I am interested in the possibility of thunderstorms late tonight. TWC has been consistently mentioning them in our forecast, as is NWS. I guess Blacksburg is closer to the main energy of the front going through tonight?

+1 for the Firefox problems. No content shows up until below the final sidebar (the part with the links to millions of RSS services). Running latest Firefox (2.0.0.11) on XP.

When you say "if/when" the SLCB will appear, I assume you mean in reference to the next storm. PLEASE don't get rid of it completely, or the apples- it adds a little bit of fun to the site.
This is an exciting day for The Team - congratulations.

Good to see the blog. Looks like the Post in going through a major web re-design so maybe we will see some old features we loved (like live radar) and new ones soon.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003692950

Keep up the good writing. :)

Kinda with my souther friend Jim on the whole site issues....and no problems using Firefox either.....try this (hope I don't get banned! )--A copy/paste from a post in the last haloscan comment box from last night:
Don't tell anybody, but in Firefox, click:
Tools
Options . . .
Content
check box "Block pop-up windows"
OK
There are other things in tools to "adjust your viewing also"

Oh....and Joe Gibbs just resigned

Here's what I miss: Comments from CapWx crew had a pale yellow background on the old site. I appreciate being able to know at a glance that one of the capwx dudes is posting a reply. This is not a big deal...until we get a storm with the potential for significant snow accumulations approaching. :-)

here i am. this will take digesting time. but i'm happy for all of you.

i understand the want to have posts split with a jump so you can have more active on the front page, but can you make an exception for the most current post, keeping all of that one on the front page?

i'm in firefox on OS 10.4.11, and have no problems viewing things...

Folks -- Radar is on the left sidebar. And we have the same full text forecast -- with confidence bars -- we've always had. You need to click "Continue reading this post" after the "Today" portion of the forecast.

Good look to the site!

a few comments i'd like to echo:
1 - capital weather gang posts in another color!! it was nice to *easily* distinguish and find comments by you guys....
2 - nws forecast at the top of the page. so easy to get a quick look at the upcoming week (even if it differed slightly from your forecasts)

and a suggestion: try the opera browser. the site works fine. and no pop ups.

and an opinion: i will miss the one comment thread rolling at a time. keeping track of multiple ones will take a lot more effort.

happy warm tuesday!!!

I believe the record high for today at BWI is 69, not 67.

Gonna take awhile to get used to this site.

Hey Everyone -- Should be a little more obvious now that we have more than just the "Today" forecast in our forecast post. And you'll see we still have confidence grapics. And to those asking about the SLCB (Snow Lover's Crystal Ball). We still have it. It has a new and improved look. You can read about it in our Frequent Questions. The real question is, will it make an appearance in the next day or so??

.....change is good....change is good...just need to figure out my way around the new digs.....

As for the weather, though I want to see some snow, going to take advantage of the warm streak. Brought the running clothes to work, ducking out early!

Could we please get the 7 day snapshot back at the top?

Congratulations on the move to WaPo guys! Site looks good.

The only other comment I have is please resurrect the "week at a glance" or some similar type of easy to spot long-range forecast.

Thanks!

Sara in Oakton:

Good call on the run! I took the bike out yesterday evening, after dark, and I didn't even have to wear the underarmour cold gear! It was close, a bit chilly on a bike in the upper 50s, but nice to get a short ride in.

I figure, if its going to "blowtorch," might as well use it for something. I actually don't mind a torch that lasts only a few days too much. What I dislike is something like last year, where it goes on and on and on.

Congrats, guys! Lookin' good!

Uhh, I am pretty much completely panicked!! My comfort zone for the last three years is now on wapo... and looks so different.

I will adjust. slowly. congrats on the promotion gentlemen!

Dan - the updated SLCB looks very nice but I must admit nostalgia for the old black and white stick figure one. Speaking of nostalgia, it wasn't too long ago that you guys started to highlight the team's comments, although I'm glad to hear you're working on that because that was a real nice feature, especially, as one commenter noted, during frenzied commenting due to an approaching snow storm.

Is there any way to subscribe to the blog comments like you could with Haloscan?

Been visiting your site for five years and like the new look. Something to get use to. I'm jealous that we do not have anything like this in the Baltimore Sun. So, will you guys be able to mention your neighbors to the north in your forecast? Thanks!!

Looks great so far! I was never very fond of the old Haloscan commenting system.

Any thoughts on the latest model depictions of this weekend's possible storm? Looks like the dreaded NW trend is showing it's ugly face again. Apps/lakes cutter again?

Wonder if Ken (weather modifications) will make his way over here from the old site...

Oh yeah, I am also having to scroll all the way down in firefox to get any content. it looks like the pages won't load at first.

Yawn..... {Finally waking up from my 3 hour nap after a LOOONG night}. Good morning all, welcome (back?).

So, not exactly the old site, is it? Give it some time, I think you will get used to it.

Trust Jason (and Dan) when they talk about more features and work. We are just started. I was meeting with the technology crew from the post just last week talking about "comment coloring", and some of the other items you raise.

As you get oriented with the new site, I think you will find some new, neat features, and over time, we will see the return of many of the "missing" features. To all that have been with us for a while, we appreciate you continuing to use us as your source for local weather. Now, let's hope we can continue this conversation in a SLCB post here soon.

Echo comments that the week at a glance needs to return.

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but the old site in its more rudimentary form seemed more authoritative to me. My first reaction to this new site was a doubt about the value of the forecast - strange. Guess it'll take some time to get used to it. Best of luck.

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Curmudgeon, glad to see you are giving us a chance (see, it isn't THAT bad, is it?).

For your question about BWI, and anyone curious about records, please have a look at our FAQ, which explains alot of what we are doing:
FAQ: Records

Congrats to CapWx. New site looks good, I particularly like being able to read comments on my bberry. Cheers.

I feel like a monkey in the zoo who just got his cage rearragned...it stimulates the brain, but causes some confusion. Things I miss - live camera feed, NWS forecast bar at the top, radar and sat. at the top, Cap Wx comments in a different color. You can't stop progress and I will get used to it. Nice mug shot Jason!

Jason, yeah I've been keeping tabs on the GFS for a few days now, but I know anything over a week out is little more than mildly educated guesswork. The runs on the 00z and 12z have been waffling back and forth between nothing, rain, and snow. Here's hoping for the snow, and I'm looking forward to your input on the situation. Do you believe that the GFS has been the better model this season as opposed to the NAM?

So, new site, huh...we'll see! The best advice I can give to the capwx gang is to listen to us! You may find a gem of an idea out here in peanut gallery!

Baby ARC is having her first real long walk today in the stroller...she says that 71 out here in LoCo is the way to go in January! Of course I told her all about what a coastal low off of Hatteras can do to her 70 degree January days...as far as she's concerned, Monday is five days away - and thats about 30% of her lifetime away, so fugeddaboudit she says. I can't plan that far in advance!

Babies...they think they know everything!

It may not be realistic to have the NWS weather forecasts posted on this page since the Washington Post people may not like that.

How about adding the Washington Post extended forecast at the top of the page? I know they have a weather section here! :)

Oh, and "interesting" new look! It will obviously take some getting-used-to, but hopefully everyone will adjust (and site views will go up).

In fact, here it is!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/weather/index.html

Oh god, THEY USE ACCUWEATHER!!!!!!!!111111

I am horrified!

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For those asking about longer range forecasts, we thought (and worked) long and hard to figure out what and how we should deal with this. One of our long term goals is to produce our "own" 7day, but that's a heavy task for deep in the future. How many days did we have to explain why NWS was showing Snow in July? Or that we felt that the high on Wed would be 31 and snow, and NWS said 43 and rain? So, for simplicity sake, we left it off for now.

However, you may notice that we now include more detail and length in our daily forecasts (Jason above mentions weather as far as out as Sunday), and that is the new norm. We actually have been doing this for the past month or so (to prepare for the new format).

NWS long-range discussion leaning more towards a rain event for Sunday.

@Jamie (bug alert): When you click on the "see radar image bigger" link on the blog main page, it opens the window in the wrong frame.

Just in case no one has mentioned it yet.

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Thanks jtf, let's see if that fix will handle it.

Works fine now. :)

OK I have isolated the Firefox issues and they appear to be related to the Adblock plugin. I generally love Adblock since it removes most of the overwhelming advertising on WaPo but in this case removing those elements breaks the blog's layout, and the left sidebar shows up on the right. I'm guessing it's something to do with the way the layout is designed since this type of thing rarely happens on other Adblocked sites, but on the other hand I guess I can't complain since I'm modifying the site with a plugin

Like everyone, I'm having to take a beat to adjust to the new format...

It makes me a little sad that y'all are now blending in with all the thousands of blogs out there - I never thought of capwx as "just another blog", but now that's what it looks like.

But I became (and stayed) a fan because of the quality of the forecasting and the writing, and that's still here. So...I'll adjust. {sigh}

Best wishes to the capwx team!
-dcsnowbaby@yahoo.com

Nice new house, fellas. I'll be sitting on the deck enjoying the record warmth while y'all carry the boxes in.

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DC Snow Baby, don't think of us as just another blog,as we are same ol same ol.

The difference is we now have the world class organization of the Washington Post here to back us up. We are already seeing benefits of added support, increased opportunities, and the sort of technology access that we could only dream about at the old site. There will be growing pains, but I think in the long run, I think even the most tenured readers will be pleasantly surprised with the new site.

interesting digs gang. A little modern...but I guess I'll get used to it. (I miss being able to pick out the Teams posts in "tan/beige/orange/yellow/camel"....whatever that color was. LOL.

So...will the SLCB make an appearance in the next few days? I am getting antsy about this system coming up the coast.

in other news...how about the January twisters in MO and WI. Yikes!

And anyone else sorry that Coach is turning in his cap a year early??? ;-) (OK...I know that is not Wx related...)

BTW: Bob Ryan just said "Snow Storm" on the mid day news....but it was combined with "Possibility of" and "Rain or Snow storm". LOL. Talking about hedging your bets. ;-)

Kim, if he did, he must not have seen the 12Z GFS ;)

Welcome, Posties! This is the best weather site around, bar none.

All we ask (insist on/demand) is, PLEASE help us keep "our" blog civil. We are a little wary of being so corporate...

thanks in advance, and again welcome.

Does anyone else not like the new format?

I like the new format. I can read it on my handheld, and I think it's less confusing. Obviously, as has been mentioned several times, it would be nice if the postings by our 'hosts' were highlighted somehow, but that's the only thing that bothers me and it appears it will be remedied. I don't miss the NWS stuff.

I think, being here, we might pick up a few new knowledgeable weather buffs... seems like we already have. Always good to get some additional voices.

We definitely need a good snowstorm to test this out, though!

No complaints about the new look. In fact, it's actually quite nice. But I'm going to chime in with what many have been saying:

- Capital Weather Gang posts with a different colored background, or font...

- NWS forecast at the top of the page.

Reading matt's Snow blog, I am encouraged. I remember January 22-23, 2000, we had a decent snow storm that dropped several inches (I think actually about half a foot or so) in Arlington (Which is where I lived at the time). I played morning hookie and went sledding with my friend for a few hours (As good native Floridians are want to do in their first real snow as adults). I am keeping my fingers crossed we get the same this year. :-)

Still hoping Bob was right about the "Snow Storm" version of his forecast......

Yo, congrats on the move but why Capital Weather Gang instead of just Capital Weather? Just curious!

DCA has tied a record high set in 1998 with 69 through 2pm.

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For those looking to keep track of the temperatures and record tracking at home, the *NEW* Almanac on the sidebar not only includes past records and climatology, but a handy tracker to see what the High temperature is so far. Just refresh your page to see the latest data.

Bummer. As with everything WaPo related the site does not render worth a damn on Firefox. Hopefully we are not also soon in for the hyper-annoying registration box that I see w/ most WaPo content.

I also miss the week/10 day summary graphics at the top of the old site. Back to weather.com, I suppose.

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rockstarkz, we wanted to be a unit within WashingtonPost.com, so we worked with the Post to become something analogous to "Gurus" or other easily-identifiable moniker just for our group of bloggers. We wanted to work for the Post, so we had to integrate as a team into their naming convention system :)

I don't know if anyone has said this, but with the new format one thing kind of irks me. This is the fact that no the main page it does not show the whole post, you have to click on the link to keep on reading. Would it be possible for the team to make it so the whole thing is on the page, that way I can know whats there. For example today, I couldn't find "A Look Ahead" for the longest time, because I didn't know which post it was in. Otherwise, the site looks great!

Jesse

73 @ the airport last hour, sizeable break to the old record. Amazing anomolies as you head further north into NY... some places are +30 or more on the day.

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theJesse{Insert Numbers}, thanks for the feedback. Over the next days and weeks, this should hopefully become less of an issue.

The Capital Weather Gang (or CWG as we are known on the streets) is striving to have the forecast post up each day by 5am (for you early travelers from areas such as the "Blue Ridge"). You will be able to find the latest forecast each day by clicking the "Latest Forecast" button in the top portion of the sidebar. This will always provide you an indepth view of the next few days with an outlook extending out towards the weekend.

Also, this forecast post is being prefixed by "Forecast" (Such as this point).

Of course, Steve's afternoon update will similar traits as well.

By not having full posts on the front page, it allows us to bring attention to more content at one time. Such as today, we were confident we could present a forecast, a nice writeup by matt, and a photo from Kevin without worrying they would get lost (which did happen on the previous site).

Also, you will always be able to tell the forecast posts by having a sunny day stamp, a forecast confidence bar, or something similar in it's first few paragraphs.

Thanks for the feedback, and keep em coming (and coming back!)

Hi Jesse -- We're confident everyone will get used to the format after a few days. "A Look Ahead" will always be the last item in the forecast post, which you should be able to recognize quickly via "Forecast:" in the headline, as well as forecaster headshot, confidence graphic, etc. And can always jump to that full post using the Latest Forecast button on the left side.

So, how's that for quick service and response?

Maybe it's because I don't use IE but... yuck!

The web 2.0 blog interface seems like a radical departure from what was a simple and useful interface/user experience - almost a step back (but my own use case assumption may be wrong, old...). The old site was weather first, blog second. While I've always enjoyed the weather geek backstories, the weather, data and weather/forecast commentary was always the secret sauce. I miss being able to click "Capital Weather" and "see" - didn't have to get stuck scrolling and filtering excess data... but, change is well, change...

WaPo doesn't mean that you're heading to a subscription basis does it?

Talk about anomalies/records, Wisconsin recorded only its second tornado in the month of January in 144 years of record keeping!! Did anyone see the video...no snow cover and green grass!

Winds are really starting to kick up...DCA's showing gusts up to 24kt! Anybody got a measure of higher gusts?

Congrats on the new move. Probably been mentioned above (sorry) but is there any way we could get a 5 day or so forecast at the top of the page? Keep up the good work!

Just wanted to be the 1st 100th post in any comment on the new site.....I'd upload a cool emoticon or pic....if only I could :(

It would be great to have the "at-a-glance" forecast at the top of the page back.

I feel like I met the Borg - you have been assimilated into the Washington Post. Now this would not be bad if we could have some of the features from the old site - quick look at the extended forecast, easy link to wx radar, but most of all, being able to just scroll down to see the whole post and then the previous posts. Technology is wonderful and the site looks very pretty now but I want info not pretty...

The only thing I miss is the graphical forecast, but I'm sure it'll make a reappearance in some form or another.

As for the people saying they are having problems viewing it in other browsers I am using Firefox and safari on both the PC and the Mac plus on my iphone and it looks great!

Thanks for all the comments, folks. We are listening.

Good night! An overall good first day for the CapWx " Gang! Radio is next for you all. WJFK on Saturdays??????

zdIL29 U cool ))