ALERT NEWSLETTER – March 2015

I hope all of you fared well during our recent snowstorm. While some areas received up to a foot of snow, I received a glorious half inch, which still made for a good snowball or two. Hopefully the next round, which is threatening ice, will prove to be a minor event or non-event. The good news is that warm weather is just around the corner. It’s just a matter of time. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Cooking Methods During Power Outages Recently as we were looking ahead toward our first round of winter weather problems I posted the following on Facebook: “If you are going to prep for the possible coming winter weather event, might I suggest you forget the bread and milk and instead get canned food requiring no cooking, such as chili, stew, soup, etc., and some “comfort food” like cookies and chips. Grab some extra batteries, toilet paper and food for the pets. And, remember this will be very short lived situation.” This message was well received and I obtained useful feedback both on online and off. One interesting comment I received was “you ever ate cold stew…yuck”, pointing out the value of sandwiches and milk to wash them down. This reminded me that, while I have ways to heat food and boil water during an emergency, many may not have the equipment or have no knowledge of how to cook “off the grid”. This being the case I wanted to make a few hints and suggestions which might prove useful for your emergency Two things I should point out. The first being that winter weather emergencies in Alabama are very short lived events, 72 hours after the event it may be 60 or 70 degrees outside. The second thing being that in a short term emergency (which I define as 72 hours or less), unless you have specific medical needs, food is really a minor consideration. Here I will quote a rule known as the “Rule Of Threes”: “During an emergency or survival situation, You can die within three seconds from hasty unwise decisions made during a panic. You will begin dying within three minutes without oxygen. You will begin dying within three hours without shelter. You will begin dying within three days without water. You will need food after three weeks”. Three days – 72 hours without food will not kill you. To roughly quote author J Wayne Fears, “just think this: ‘what a great opportunity to start that diet I’ve been thinking about.’” Everyone has gone without food for two or three days before and survived. When? You may ask. Do you remember that time when you were so sick that you were sure you were throwing up vital Everything, including air made you wretch – from both ends. You felt like you were dying, looked even worse, didn’t even want to hear the word “food” and yet you are alive and reading this. Consider you were in a physically compromised condition, feverish, probably dehydrated, could not eat, barely could drink and yet you survived. Why, should you expect to not be able to do the same thing again during an emergency? It is really the FEAR of lack of food, rather than the actual lack of food that people react to. Certainly you would feel miserable at first without your regular meals, and I’m not suggesting that you make no preparations, but, if you don’t, you won’t become skeletal after missing a few biscuits for a You absolutely should prepare and preferably do this well in advance of ANY potential problems, whether it is tornadoes, winter weather or common sicknesses and injuries that may temporarily disable you. And, you should certainly have extra food on hand for children. Before we look at a few ways to heat up your chow during a blackout, I’ll give a word of caution! Outdoor grills and stoves should not be used indoors. This is due to carbon monoxide dangers, and fire dangers, both from the actual fire or from spilled or leaking fuel. They can be used on the porch, or deck or other well ventilated areas, as long as you are careful not to set the deck on fire. Always think “safety first”. Now let’s look at some cooking options, starting with indoor solutions. PORTABLE BUTANE TABLETOP “BISTRO” STOVE These stoves, sold under the brand names Coleman, Camp Chef, Sterno and others are very portable, weighing only 3 1⁄2 pounds, produces 8000 BTUs of heat and are suitable for indoor or outdoor use. It is not uncommon to see these in use in grocery stores for cooking and food demonstrations. The stove operates using an 8.8oz butane cylinder, about the size of a small can of hair spray. These canisters will last over an hour at full continuous burn, around 3 hours at low to moderate continuous burn and even longer if used for shorter burn times. The stove will handle up to a 10 inch pot or skillet. The stove costs, depending on the brand and the store you choose, from $20-$30 and the cylinder prices vary widely from $3 per cylinder to 4 cylinders for $6. So for less than $40 you can have a reliable backup stove. My setup cost $26, fuel and everything. STERNO OR “CANNED HEAT” These canisters are basically a candle in a can. The candle is made from denatured alcohol and jellied alcohol. It is designed to be burned directly from the can and is widely used by restaurants for buffet heating and for heating chafing dishes. They are lit just like a candle and placed directly on the table under the chafing dishes, which are elevated a couple of inches to receive maximum heat. These are reusable, and I see these used at work almost daily during buffets. They come in small and large sizes, and an optional foldable “stove”, which is basically a frame to hold the candle and support a pot, is available. Prices vary with size and store, but, a typical price would be $20 for 12 pack of 6 hour cans. OUTDOOR SOLUTIONS When warm weather returns, outdoor solutions become viable. Some quick suggestions would be: These stoves, commonly called “Coleman stoves” have been used for generations by campers. The “traditional” stove has two burners and run off of “white gas”, also called “camp fuel” used for camp stoves and lanterns, usually consisting of naphtha. Regardless of brand, and there are many, these stoves can be a little messy when fueling, but, work well and can cook anything that a regular stove can cook. There are also “dual fuel” models, which can run off of camp fuel or gasoline, and there are propane models available also. Prices range widely up to $179 depending on store, brand and luck. Other warm weather options would be your trusty Charcoal BBQ Grill or a Fire Pit, which you probably are familiar with. Lastly I would give honorable mention to an old fashion Camp Fire. A couple of years ago I ran a short series of articles in this newsletter called “The 5 Main Ways To Push Up Daisies In A Disaster & How To Avoid Them” and I mentioned “Miss Julie”. “Miss Julie” is originally from the Philippines. She and her husband survived the April 27th, 2011 tornado. She told me that after three days without power she told her husband “when I was little girl, we used to cook by campfire in the back yard, so my husband built a fire and we had hot soup!” If it worked for “Miss Julie”, this will work for you also. Think about these solutions, and consider making these a part of your emergency equipment so you can have the comfort of warm food on a very dark stormy night. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Top Ten Amateur Radio Countries (From N0HR.com per IARU statistics) Rank Country Ham Population 1. Japan 1296059 2. United States 679854 3. Thailand 141241 4. South Korea 141000 5. Germany 79666 6. Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) 68692 7. Spain 58700 8. United Kingdom 58426 9. Canada 44024 10. Russia 38000 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… February ALERT Sunday Night Net Report Our net meets each Sunday at 7 PM local time on 146.88 MHz and all are invited to participate. If you haven’t checked in before or if has been a while, I invite you to join us! Date Net Control QNI QTC Feb 1 WD4NYL 38 0 Feb 8 KK4NGD 44 0 Feb 15 N4HEY 37 0 Feb 22 WD4NYL 51 0 ————————————————- MONTHLY TOTAL 170 0 ————————————————- YEARLY TOTAL 390 0 Note: QNI = Check-ins & QTC = National Traffic System formal radiogram traffic. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Originally called Martius, March is the third month & first month of the Roman calendar. March is named for Mars, the god of war, and was the start of the military campaign season. The beginning of “Meteorological Spring”, which is based on changes in temperature and precipitation, not the solar angle, is March 1 March is a wet month. Most floods occur in March and rainfall averages around 6 inches. Tornadic activity sharply increases in March with there being an increase of 2.2 times the number of tornadoes over the February amount. The focal point for this tornadic activity is the Gulf States. March is the hail maximum for the Deep South. This is due both to the number of thunderstorms & due to the freezing level still being near the surface. This allows hail to form at lower altitudes and reach the ground intact, as opposed to summer months, when the near surface level temperatures are higher and melts the hail into liquid before impact. Killing frosts are gone and the last average frost is on March 16. March is a snow month for Alabama & there is a 45% chance of snow up to one inch, and an 8% chance of one inch or more. The good news is that there is hope on the horizon as Spring will arrive at Vernal Equinox on March 20 at 22:45 UTC or 5:45 P.M. CDT. Remember to get the eggs out, as it is said that you can stand eggs on their ends at the hour of Daylight Savings Time begins at 2 AM on March 8. So remember to “spring forward” one hour. This, of course means I will lose one hour of “beauty sleep”, which is something I desperately need. Saint Patrick’s Day is March 17, and you better participate by wearing a Touch O’ The Green or you will be plagued by leprechauns and gnomes. Not a pleasant experience, I can assure you. Looking skyward, Mercury glimmers just above the east-southeast horizon in the early dawn. Venus and Mars appear very close together in the west-southwest at evening twilight. On March 20 a trio will be formed as the crescent moon joins them in the evening twilight. Mars and Venus will have their closest approach to each other on March 21, with Mars just to the upper right of brilliant Venus. Giant Jupiter rises in the east-northeast at twilight in western Leo and by 10 PM is near maximum Saturn at the head of Scorpius the Scorpion rises around 2 AM. Uranus in Pisces is getting low in the west just after dark, to the upper left of Venus and Mars. Neptune is hidden behind the sun. Full Moon will occur on March 5 at 18:06 UTC or 12:06 PM CST. This full moon was known by early Native American tribes “Worm Moon”. So called because the rains disturb the earthworms & they are seen wiggling around after the rains. They are edible by the way, but I think I’ll let you have my share. Incidentally slugs are edible also. Just think of them as snails without the shell New Moon will occur March 20 at 9:35 UTC or 4:35 AM CDT. This is the best time of the month to observe faint objects such as galaxies and star clusters because there is no moonlight to interfere. At that time, if you happen to be in the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans near Greenland, Iceland or the islands off Northern Russia you will have the opportunity to view a total solar eclipse. The greatest eclipse will occur around 9:46 UTC in the waters southeast of Iceland. This will of course occur at 4:46 AM in the dark here, which thrills me to no end. On March 6 the US space probe Dawn will arrive at Ceres. Ceres is the largest object located in the main asteroid belt between Mars & Jupiter. At 590 miles across, nicely rounded by gravity in a process known as “hydrostatic equilibrium” and having cleared most of its immediate area of other objects, it qualifies as a “Dwarf Planet”. Another probe, New Horizons, will reach Dwarf Planet Pluto on July 14, 2015. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) currently recognizes five Dwarf Planet in our solar system: Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake & Eris. Other probable Dwarf Planets are 2007OR, Quaoar, Sedna, Orcus, 200 MS4 and Salacia. There are probably hundreds, maybe thousands more lurking in the dark regions beyond Neptune and the distant edge of the solar system at the borders of Beyond our star system, 1819 planets have been confirmed as of February 26, per NASA’s Exoplanet Archive http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/ I don’t try to keep up with the 676,205 “minor planets” or asteroids floating around. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… This month’s meeting will be on February 10 at 7PM at the National Weather Service Forecast office at the Shelby County Airport. If for some reason you cannot attend the meeting in person, you can still participate via telephone. The teleconference number is 1-877-951-0997 & and the participant code is 741083. Remember the Birmingham Hamfest, March 7 & 8! Hope to see you there! www.freewebs.com/weatherlynx/ Weather Resource Database