If you’ve been obsessively watching the precipitation approach on radar like I have, you might have noticed that for a moment, as the snow began to wash over the DC area, an expanse of non-snow persisted over the District itself for a few minutes before the flakes began falling downtown. That’s likely an Urban Heat Island effect in action; the city’s greater propensity for heat-trapping and heat-generation affecting the local impact of passing weather systems. Urban heat has been implicated in increased summer thunderstorm activity, but in the case of today’s snow, it means that we get less accumulation here downtown, as more of it tends to melt as it falls or after hitting the ground.

A strong enough system can still beat the Heat Island effect and turn DC into a winter wonderland; so to today’s snow clouds I say, try harder. Bring it on.

A fire broke out in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building beside the White House this morning, apparently from bad wiring in a closet near the VP’s ceremonial office. The structure remains intact, firefighters have been on the scene, the fire is under control, and all building occupants have been evacuated. The EEOB has been undergoing some renovation work for “modernization” purposes; there’s no word on how this affects that process, but this may drive home how badly needed that modernization was.

More from DCist, WaPo, NBC4, WJLA, and WTOP. Predictably, comment threads on the news are full of Cheney conspiracy nuts/jokers. Spot the best ones.

From TIME Magazine, a history of White House fires.

(Photo courtesy jsmjr.)

I must point out that there was no emergency in progress, that no one was riding on the escalator in question, and that there was absolutely no reason for this girl to push that button and stop that escalator, thereby giving a hard time to everyone who had to go up to the Gallery Place Metro mezzanine from the next arriving train.

I looked sharply at the girls in annoyance, but they were already casually strolling down the still-moving escalators to the Green Line, tittering to themselves, no doubt congratulating one another on their ability to successfully push red buttons marked “EMERGENCY.”

It makes me wonder just how many of the numerous stopped escalators on Metro aren’t actually broken but are just waiting for a station manager to start them up again, thanks to dumb idiot button-pushing kids without any sense of common decency.

Afterward we’ve got high wind warnings! After the rain subsides tomorrow, expect wind gusts of up to 60mph, with possible power outages and a small chance of flying lobbyists.

Above: Capitol at night in rain, c. 1919, photo courtesy Library of Congress.

The blimp, though now nearing completion, has been delayed incessantly due to weather and logistics issues, originally slated for launch between Wednesday and Friday last week, then delayed to Monday this week, then delayed again to Friday. It normally takes months to prepare an airship for an ad campaign, but the volunteers behind the initiative have impressively thrown it together in just a couple of weeks, all the while managing to circumvent campaign finance law by incorporating as a political advertising firm — albeit one whose sole service is to advertise Ron Paul‘s name on an Airship Management Services blimp — from whom supporters can “purchase” advertising time beyond the regular individual or PAC donation limits. Whether this loophole is really valid remains up in the air. Like a blimp. Oh, the humanity.

Update: The Federal Reserve rally was “postponed indefinitely,” and the blimp is no longer going to Boston.

And who is this familiar face singing us up at the DC Democratic State Committee holiday party? Why, it’s none other than Mayor-for-Life Marion Barry, gracing us with his Karaoke prowess at The 18th Amendement! Note that as he croons, he grips two microphones with one hand. Yup, Marion is just so awesome that he comes to you in full stereo sound. Reports from the front say that he’s a pretty good singer. Keith Ivey has more photos, including Ward 7 councilmember Yvette Alexander doing what may be the hustle, and Shadow Senator ex-candidate Phil Pannell singing in a Santa hat.

I finally had a chance last weekend to visit the new “America By Air” exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum, just opened Nov. 17th. The exhibit chronicles the history and culture of commercial air travel, collecting in one place all manner of aircraft and artifacts from the dawn of civil aviation right up to the Airbus A380. The old walk through the nose section of American Airlines DC-7 “Flagship Vermont” is back, with a polished hull and a restored cabin. The display on the history of air mail is graced by a Curtiss JN-4D (popularly known as “Jenny”), in pristine condition for its age, and fully intact. Braniff gets special mention in a number of places for their designer planes and stewardesses in hot pants and dome helmets.

The most visible addition to the museum is the big honking forward section of a Northwest Airlines Boeing 747-151 sticking out of the wall. A walkway lets you enter the upper deck of the plane from the second floor so you can check out the cockpit and a display case, but sadly there are no first class seats to try out, and the spiral staircase down to the lower deck is blocked off, so the cockpit is all you get to see, and even that is behind plexiglass. Pity the whole plane couldn’t be included.

Airbus gets some airtime too, with an A320 cockpit simulator that visitors can huddle around to watch a takeoff from National Airport. The “Safety Wherever You Fly” display on air traffic control is also interesting, cycling between various visualizations of air traffic over the USA on a given day.

For civil aviation planefans like myself and casual museum-browsers alike, “America By Air” is a fun, immersive gallery, and a worthy addition and update to the Air and Space Museum. Visit it anytime the museum’s open — just look for the big 747 nose. See my full photoset of “America By Air” here.

Here we see a team of AOC guys hard at work putting the finishing touches on the 2007 Capitol Christmas Tree, a balsam fir gifted to us from Green Mountain National Forest in the great state of Vermont.

Not to be confused with the National Christmas Tree by the White House, the Capitol Christmas Tree started out as a 24-foot Douglas fir from Birdsboro, PA, which stayed on the Capitol Lawn and was lit and decorated every Christmas from 1963 to 1967. Wind storm damage in 1967 caused the tree to die in 1968, so that the trees for Christmas of ’68 and ’69 were brought in from Maryland. From 1970 onwards, the Capitol Christmas Tree has been provided yearly by the USDA Forest Service, with trees gifted by a donor state. See the full list from 1970 to 2006 here.

There will be a Tree Lighting Ceremony on Wed, Dec 5th, 5PM, with Nancy Pelosi, Patrick Leahy, Bernie Sanders, and Peter Welch, followed by a Vermont-style reception at the Botanical Gardens.

The first Capitol tree I saw was from Idaho, and had potato decorations on it. What kind of stuff do you think should be hanging from a Vermont tree?

Whose bright idea was it to arrange these wheelchair access ramps diagonal to each other on the Mass Ave island near Union Station? This is not easy for the disabled in wheelchairs, as they must either negotiate the ramps in an “S” pattern, or cross the steep sides of the ramp at an angle, or as I have more often seen, just skip the island altogether and go around it, rocketing across Mass Ave against traffic coming up from 1st St NE. None of these options are safe, convenient, or sensible.

Is this the kind of thing for which I should be submitting a service request?

Of course, the whole idea of a restaurant serving Thanksgiving turkey dinners is a novelty to me, and I’m only posting this particular one because their sign caught my eye, but if there are other places doing the same tomorrow, do let our readers know in the comments so they know where to go. Me, I’ll be with the in-laws up north.