Mardi Gras Madness

Saturday night at Fat Tuesday's in Fairfax, right by George Mason University and my friend and colleague Mike Walter was hosting a fundraiser for a charity. He's a member of The Dart Society. "The Dart Society is a cohort of journalists who have received fellowships and awards from the Dart Center. We are dedicated to promoting sensitive coverage of victims of violence and providing support for journalists who are affected by their work."

One of the projects that members of The Dart Society have been working on is New Orleans. Members have gone down and helped rebuild homes and have helped those that still live there.

Mike and his colleagues are working on a documentary about the city and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

As part of their efforts, they held this fundraiser on Saturday night. Mike invited me a few weeks ago with one of his cheery e-mails.

"Howard, you used to live in New Orleans, I think that this is something that you'd like to attend." How could I say "no"?

It's tough doing lots of things. I try to balance work with family and I'm pretty careful about doing too many things so that I have consistent family time. But, this was a Saturday night and it was for a good cause. Also, Helaine loves any excuse to get dressed up to go out. Andrea Roane, Kim Martucci and quite a few of our behind the scenes colleagues were also at the event. That's Mike's wife Kate in the picture with him.

The turnout was great and the auction was fun. Mike has another career as an auction caller if this TV thing doesn't work out.

The music was also top notch. Our Creative Services Director, Steve Houk, is lead singer and "chief nut job" for Second Wind. These guys were very good. Steve really gets into what he's doing and all I can say is go see these guys. Go to the Second Wind website for a listen.

I was going to get a picture of Kim Martucci and her boyfriend Ben, but they were no where to be found when I started taking pictures. It was the first time I had met Ben and he's a very likable guy. Just go to Kim's blog if you want to see a picture or two.

Don and Mike Show

I finally made it. Friday afternoon I made my debut on the Don and Mike Show. 7+ years in DC and our paths had never crossed.

It was a fun and fascinating time. The place smells like the repository for 1000 ash trays. That's Don on the left and Mike on the right. Notice how Mike is trying to choke me.

Their web site says,
"WUSA Channel 9's Back Up Weather Guy Howard Bernstein drops by with pizza and dirt on all his co-workers at Channel 9."

I did dop by with pizza, that part is true, but I had nothing but great things to say about everybody. They tried and tried, but I didn't crack under the pressure.

The guys had me on for a good 30 to 40 minutes. You can listen to it here . Other than dancing around the usual mind fields.....it was a great way to end the week.

After the show, I actually heard from some people in other parts of the country. 2 of my friends in Rochester along with e-mails from DC (of course), Burlington, VT and Bakersfield, CA.

One more thing, the guys are big fans of JC Heyward and she was gracious enough to sign a couple of autographs. Mike even posted his on the bulletin board.

Happy Friday!

Hello, Hello! It's been a week since my last post, but a busy week at that.

Last Saturday, after working 9 NEWS NOW from 6 to 8 AM, I flew down to Birmingham, Alabama to see my mom and sister. You might recall an earlier post about my mom that I wrote on January 12th. I'm happy to say that she is doing better. It's amazing what a difference an elderly person can show if they are getting proper nutrition and enough fluids. Let's hope that continues.

I've probably been to Birmingham about 20 times since 2001, and I have to admit, I like the place. It's easy to get around and has plenty of shopping and restaurants and a decent economy.

On the way home, I was waiting in the airport and I had a chance to meet US Senator Richard Shelby. We spoke about Alabama and Washington and just a few things political. I like the Senator. He was jovial and humble. And I also liked him flying a commercial airline just like the rest of us. He stood on line and boarded with everyone. No special privileges here. At one point in our conversation he did point out that Alabama's unemployment rate is 1% below the national average.

I grew up on Long Island, and yes, I had stereotypes of Alabama as this backward place. Look at the movie My Cousin Vinny. The movie portrays the locals as a bunch of hicks who got it all wrong and this wise-guy from New Yawk is able to fix everything, with the help from the lovely and talented Miss Vito. I love this movie and Marisa Tomei won an Academy Award for this role. I also was surprised that this movie had an "R" rating when it was released, language was the excuse. Today it would probably be a PG-13. I imagine that there may be a few towns in Alabama that could be like this, but my experiences in Birmingham and Huntsville have been good ones.

As for the weekend, I'll be celebrating Mardi Gras on Saturday night and if you're at the Washington Auto Show this Sunday afternoon, maybe we'll run into each other.

Have a GREAT Weekend!

Don and Mike Show and me!

I got an invitation to be an in studio guest with Don and Mike. If you don't know who they are, you probably don't own a radio. I was asked to be a guest celebrity on their version of Match Game. Having been a big fan of the show when Gene Rayburn was the host back in the 70s, I was really looking forward to playing.

Robb Spewak, who claims to be the producer of the Don and Mike show, sent me an e-mail with the invite. First they wanted to do it on Wednesday. My schedule just wasn't going to work, but Robb said they could do it on Thursday instead. Great! I was available and ready. Would I emulate Bill Daly or Richard Dawson or perhaps Charles Nelson Reilly? I'd just have to have some fun and hope I didn't do anything to get me in trouble.

Great that was, until it snowed on Thursday. Instead of playing Match Game, I was covering the snow in Frederick, Maryland. I love being out in the weather, so this was cool and the whole Match Game thing, or something else will come up again. But, I must admit to being a little disappointed.


The very first internship I ever did was at a top 40 radio station on Long Island when I was turning 18. WBLI 106.1 FM was the station. I've always enjoyed radio. TV has been great to me, but radio seems to have a freedom about it, a looseness, that I don't seem to duplicate but on rare occasions when I'm on TV. Perhaps it's the time constraints that we have with weather casts and hard outs for commercials, where radio has a freer schedule.



Anyway, back to Don and Mike....the guys had a lot of fun talking about me and Topper and some of the other weather and news people in DC on Thursday and you really should have a listen to the podcast. Go to their website and click on the link to "The Glory of Bernstein". I'm not making this up. That's the actual title.


One more tidbit, they have a picture of me and JC, morphed that is.

I'll try and let you know when I'll be on for real. Oh,and the beauty of all of this. I still, after being in DC for over 7 years, have never spoken to either Don and Mike in person or on the phone. That'll change soon enough!

Snow Today and Sleet and Freezing Rain and Rain....

We'll see just about everything fall from the skies across the region this Thursday. And I have to admit that it is a very tricky forecast. One that, even as the system is on our doorstep, still has me scratching my head.

The National Weather service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory around the DC Metro west of I-95 and a Winter Storm Warning for our western counties.

While I can see perhaps a couple of inches of accumulation, especially on grassy surfaces, I must admit that I'm struggling to reconcile some other forecasts that are calling for 3"-6" across the northern Shenandoah valley into northern Maryland. I see areas north and west of DC holding on to a mix or even freezing rain for a while on top of the snow and that could add .10"to .20" of ice on top of the 1"-2". I suppose I could even see locally 3" before the changeover, but it is a troubling thing when you are alone in your thinking. What am I "not" seeing that leads me to think this way? What can I learn about what I do from this storm? Temperatures during the day will be pretty close to freezing if not slightly above in many areas in the metro, If the snow is heavy enough, it can stick, even with temperatures above 32. But if it is light, then it will melt on the roads and only stick to grassy areas and remote lightly traveled roads.

I see that some schools in the warning area have closed for the day. As they will likely get some freezing rain for a while on top of the snow, I can't really argue that one.

Care for the Elderly

I got a call from my sister earlier this week. She told me that Mom wasn't doing so well and that I should come visit sooner than later.

Mom is 81 now and she is in a home for Alzheimer and dementia patients. She lost her vision due to macular degeneration and she really can't take care of herself. She was quite ill last year, but managed to pull out of it.

After my dad died just over 6 years ago, Mom moved to be near my sister. They now both live in Birmingham, Alabama.

The last few days have been a little anxious. Waiting for that "phone call" that you dread, but know is inevitable. So far, that call hasn't come, and I was somewhat surprised about the news that did come my way.

On Thursday night, my brother in-law answered when I called my sister. She was busy signing papers with the Hospice people. Thank God for Hospice, a good organization, but you just don't want to need them. They'll be able to offer some extra assistance than the home where my mother is.

On Friday, my sister went to visit Mom and she was able to get Mom to eat and drink some food. Because of the vision impairment, Mom can't really feed herself. But, if you give her finger foods or put food in her mouth, she eats. I know that she isn't the only person at this facility, but she still needs to eat. When my sister isn't there, they bring her to the dining room with the other residents. Mom may not eat much and is way too proud to ask for help, so they think she isn't hungry. She's probably lost 30 pounds in the last couple of years, no doubt to the lack of eating.

My brother in-law and I spoke today. He's a doctor. He went to visit and told me that he was able to get my mom to eat and drink a couple of those nutrition shakes. He got about 1000 calories in her and combined with my sister's efforts, he said that Mom looked better than she has in a year. He speculates that she was malnourished and dehydrated and that's why she looked like she did. He hopes that they can encourage the staff to be more aggressive when it comes to feeding my Mom.

We don't want to move her to a new place because any change at this stage is extra stress, but she does need to be fed better. Are there too many patients for the staff to adequately take care of them? Or are they just not trained well enough? Or do some care takers, doctors included, write off old people way too quickly? After seeing how my father deteriorated in the months before his death, I feel that some care takers do give up on the elderly way too easily.

It's easy for me to speculate since I'm 750 miles away, but when I hear from my family that is there, I start to wonder. I'm going to visit next weekend, but I don't know how much I can really do. I wish I could do more, but other than share this story and encourage you to make sure that your loved ones are being properly cared for, I still search for answers knowing that I may never find them.

Wacky Weather and Possible Late Weekend Storm

Wow! What a stretch of weather we've had. Temperatures have been running some 25 to 30 degrees above average since Monday with Records set on Monday and Tuesday. A cold front has pushed through the region and that will usher in some cooler weather for Thursday as highs only approach 50 and some rain moves in late.

The rain will be with us for part of the day on Friday as we once again approach 60.

Things change over the weekend though. Colder air moves in and late Sunday, a storm system approaches from the Gulf Coast. This track could provide some wintry weather around here as we go into Sunday night and Monday morning.

The GFS model from Wednesday morning shows an area of low pressure in the early hours of Monday, the 14th pulling away from the North Carolina Coast. (Click image to enlarge.). In this case, the storm would more than likely be too far south and east to do much around the DC region. But we are 100 hours away from this time frame and a shift of a couple of hundred miles, which isn't that much in the world of synoptic modeling, could have a big difference.

The ECMWF from Tuesday night has an area of low pressure along the North Carolina coast for Sunday evening. Again, just a tad too far south and East, but given how close it is, it certainly bears watching.

As for the type of precipitation, temperatures look cold enough Sunday night into Monday morning that I expect snow to be the predominant precipitation type.

January and it's going to get warm, and then it'll get cold

Get ready, we're in for a big time warm-up for early next week. It'll be a good opportunity to get outside, do some chores, take down the holiday the lights, get in some golf. Temperatures will be some 20 to 25 degrees above the average, which is in the low 40s this time of year.


This isn't "Global Warming", but just some of the natural variability that we see in the weather patterns, just like the arctic cold that visited the region.


I must say that the cheapskate in me likes when we're warmer because that means lower heating bills, but the meteorologist in me wants cold and snow. I've always loved when the weather extremes are occurring. That energy that the atmosphere can unleash is exhilarating.

I lived in New Orleans in the early 90s and we had some thunderstorms approaching my apartment. I was up on the 3rd floor and I had a bay window that faced west. I heard the tapping of hail on the glass and I immediately ran over to look. I cupped my hands around my eyes and I put my nose to the window. I had to see what was happening.

It might have been a few seconds, I'm not really sure how much time elapsed, but the voice in side my head told me to pull away from the window because hail could break the glass. Against my natural instinct, I pulled away. The hail never did get big enough to break the glass thankfully, but I have always rushed to see the weather, I guess that's why I decided to do what I do.

The warmth will only last a couple of days, then by Wednesday, we'll cool down into the 50s, still above average. We will get back to come colder weather by the middle of the month and one of our long range models is suggesting a chance for a winter storm here around the 16th. That's still a week and a half away, so I'll watch it, but experience tells me that the odds of that model being correct, this far out, aren't very high. (Click on the image to enlarge it.)

Oil Hits $100 a Barrel

I just paid my gas bill for December. It wasn't pretty, but sadly I've come to expect it. I live in a 3 year old house. You'd think it would be energy efficient, but think again. The company that got the contract from the builder to be their insulation subcontractor was probably the one that bid the lowest. So instead of using spray foam insulation, or at least giving the buyer the option for an extra charge, regular bat insulation was installed by whomever the subcontractor hired. In the attic, blown in insulation was applied there.

The windows also are a little leaky. This amazes me. A new house and we have cold spots. That's not right! The home builders were making money hand over fist a couple of years ago. They were happy to profit handsomely and to keep building like crazy. That, along with way too many risky loans have lead to the sharp downturn in housing. My dad told me that I should sell a stock when it had a nice profit and not get too greedy and that I should leave a little meat on the bone for the next guy because "pigs go hungry". This seems to be true of business as well.

I think if I am ever to have a house built again, that I will pay far greater attention to the insulation and windows.

I also, sadly have come to expect that I'll be paying $3.50 or more per gallon of gas for the foreseeable future, and possibly much higher. On Wednesday afternoon, the price of a barrel of oil hit $100. The wholesale price of a gallon of gas hit $2.56 . You can add anywhere from 55 cents to $1.00 for the pump price depending on where you live. Barring less use, greater domestic production or a stronger dollar, it looks like high oil prices will be the norm

I can imagine that these extra costs can be very troubling for many people where the added expenses can force them to have to make some tough choices. I know that I am lucky as I can still afford the increase, but my wife and I now choose to take my Honda Civic instead of the Honda Odyssey when we can because it gets about 70% better mileage. I hope that my next car,assuming it doesn't cost a fortune, will run on batteries or a fuel cell or something that isn't dependent on how much a barrel of oil costs.

I can't control the price of gas or the costs of electricity, but I can control how much I use and how well I use it. And I'll also see what I can do around my house to better seal it up against winter's cold.