Hi Everyone,

The Birmingham Hamfest http://birminghamfest.org/ is at the end of this week, March 4 & 5 at the Zamora Shrine Temple.

This will be a Friday & Saturday affair, Friday 4 – 7 PM and Saturday 8:30 AM to 4 PM.

ALERT will have a table Saturday and an ALERT forum 12 – 1 PM Saturday in the mystical Knights Of Mecca Room.

This month’s ALERT meeting on March 8th will feature the selection of the two person Nominating Committee for the upcoming elections in May.

Please plan on attending this meeting & don’t be shy about volunteering to serve on the Committee or to make yourself available for a leadership role. We need some of our newer members to step up and become active members of ALERT’s leadership. All it takes is a willing heart and once elected a commitment to faithfully fulfill your duties of office to the best of your abilities.

We need you to be actively involved in ALERT’s leadership and to help us build a strong ALERT organization for the future.

Your time has arrived.

Your ALERT needs you.

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10 Popular Tornado Myths

1. “A mountain will protect you from a tornado.”

This is a common myth in the Jefferson / Shelby County areas, as most major tornadoes do seem to prefer the areas northwest of the foothills of Appalachians, of which Red Mountain and Shades Mountain are. But, this is a false assumption.

The tornado will go up the side of a mountain, shorten and widen, and then go down the other side and lengthen and tighten in size, often with a higher wind speed, similar to an ice skater increasing her speed by pulling her arms in. This is called “vortex stretching.”

Why does Jefferson County get visited by more severe tornadoes and Shelby County seems to have been largely spared?

The best theory is that the Jefferson County is closer to the core of the Dixie Tornado alley, while Shelby on the eastern edge. The other theory is Shelby County has plain “lucked out” and that that lucky streak will end, either due to odds or the Dixie Alley shifting eastward.

2. “A river will protect you from a tornado.”

On May 7, 1840, a tornado touched down in Louisiana 20 miles Southwest of Natchez Mississippi, which lay on the opposite shore. The storm moved on an odd path paralleling the Mississippi, defoliating trees on both shores. The three to four hundred yard wide funnel followed the Mississippi, reached Natchez and Vidalia Louisiana, destroying the central and norther portions of Natchez.

A contemporary report stated “the air was black with whirling eddies of walls, roofs, chimneys and huge timbers from distant ruins…all shot through the air as if thrown from a mighty catapult.” “Reports have come in from plantations 20 miles distant in Louisiana, and the rage of the tempest was terrible. Hundreds of (slaves) killed, dwellings swept like chaff from their foundations, the forest uprooted, and the crops beaten down and destroyed. Never, never, never, was there such desolation and ruin.”[

The “official” death toll was 317, with 269 being killed on 60 flatboats on the Mississippi. But, the unofficial toll was believed to be much higher.

If the Mississippi could not deflect a (post review) F5 tornado, the Warrior River won’t either.

3. “A Tornado is more likely to hit a mobile home park.”

It isn’t that mobile homes magnetically attract tornadoes. It is the same tornado hitting the same neighborhoods would find that fixed structures are anchored better and are more
aerodynamically stable that their mobile counterparts. So the houses, may survive while the tumble trailers tumble away.

One oddity I saw with the damage from 2004’s Hurricane Charley was that it flattened a well-constructed subdivision, but, left the trailer park next door untouched.

4. “You should open a window to balance the pressure inside your house so it won’t explode due to the low pressure.”

Tornadoes are quite adept at opening the windows on their own, with limbs and 2×4’s, forget the windows, and take shelter instead.

Houses are not air tight, and don’t explode, rather are blown away from the outside.

One oddity with the Pratt City 1998 F5 tornado is that there were two houses sitting a couple of dozen feet apart. The house one the left had roof and walls blown away, but, the dishes and napkins on the dining room table were untouched. The house on the right had the roof and walls undamaged, but, every stick of furniture was sucked out of the barred windows.

5. “Tornadoes never strike the same place twice.”

McDonalds Chapel was struck by an F4 tornado April 15, 1956 & and an F5 April 8, 1998.
Smithfield was struck by an F5 tornado April 4, 1977 and by an F4 tornado April 27, 2011.
Cordell Kansas was hit three times on May 20 three years in a row in 1916, 1917 & 1918.
Guy Arkansas had the same church hit by three tornadoes in the same day.

6. “Overpasses are safe tornado shelters.”

The wind flow under an overpass is much greater than the open field. There is a wind tunnel effect, which concentrates the wind, and one can be easily blown away like a pea being shot from a straw, on impaled by debris as small as a pine straw.

A far safer move is to lay in a depression or ditch, assuming it doesn’t flash flood.

Another idea that makes sense is something my Mom’s Grandma told her when she was a little girl in the 1930’s. “If you are caught in a cyclone, grab hold of a small bush like a hedge bush. A cyclone will knock over trees, but, they won’t rip up bushes.”

Based on damage I’ve seen in tornado debris fields, there is some basis for this.

Though it has nothing to do with tornadoes, she also said “If a bear gets after you don’t climb a tree, it can out climb you. Don’t run uphill, it can outrun you. Run downhill at an angle, the bear’s short legs will cause it to stumble and roll downhill and you can escape.”

7. “A tornado always has a visible funnel.”

A visible tornado vortex is composed of two parts, the “condensation funnel” cause by water droplets condensing near the base of the parent cloud and a “dust or debris funnel” caused by dust being stirred up carried by the wind circulation on the ground. If there is no dust available to to be picked up, for instance in a parking lot, there will be no visible funnel touching the ground, even though the wind circulation is in full contact with the ground. This is why concentrated “green lightning” or power flashes are a valuable clue which should be reported to the NWS. They indicate a circulation on the ground.

8. “You can outrun a tornado.”

In the panhandle of Texas perhaps this is true, but not in a metropolitan area or an area with few road options.

On May 20, 2013, Oklahoma City’s KFOR Meteorologist Mike Morgan told his viewers at least eight times to get in their cars and drive south of the city as a large rain wrapped EF5 tornado rapidly bore down on the city. Though admitting that the interstate was already a “parking lot”, since it was rush hour, he later advised people twice to “abandon your cars” as the storm reached the city.

This proved to be terrible advice.

“Unfortunately there are hundreds and hundreds of cars on the road……a lot of people are panicking trying to leave their house…..you really can’t move very much.” – Chase Thomason KFOR.

24 people were killed. If the tornado had turned to the right, even just a little bit, it would have struck the gridlocked interstate, the death toll would have been unbelievably higher.

9. “Tornadoes don’t strike cities.”

One mistaken theory I have heard is that perhaps the heat island effect of the city deflects the storms circulation somehow. But, that is not true

Downtown St. Louis has taken a direct hit four times in less than a century.
Brooklyn New York was hit by an EF2 in 2001.
Atlanta was hit by an EF2 in 2008
Fort Worth was hit by an EF3 in 2000
Nashville was hit by an EF3 in 1998

My grandfather always said “the day will come when a big tornado will go right up Jones Valley into downtown Birmingham.” Though it hasn’t happened yet, there really in no reason to think it won’t happen someday.

10. “The news media always seek out Bubba Jo, Donnie Ray or Cooter for interviews.”

Invariably you will see this interview or something similar:

“Ah was sittin on the porch getting burrs out of Old Duke’s fur an I seed it. I hollered ‘Doreen,
DOREEN thars a cyclone in tha thar cloud.’ I grabbed the goat an Doreen grabbed some cheekens an we went to the root cellar. When we wuz come out, one of the cheekins was nekkid as a Jay Bird, with no feathers, the trailer was gone and old man Johnsons trailer wuz sittin whar ours was sposed to be sittin. I told the old fool he had 24 hours to get his junk off mah propity, but, he didn say much too, being in a amboolance an all. Ah told him time and agin pullin’ fer the Volunteers would git him in trouble, but, listen, no, no, no…”

I’m sure the news media doesn’t purposely seek out the Bubba Joes and Cooters of the world, and it’s just a coincidence.

Or it it?

I’l just have to ask Old Duke some time….

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Mark’s Almanac

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 19 at 4:30 UTC or 10:30 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 equinox.
Daylight Savings Time begins at 2 AM on March 13. 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 towards the sky, Mercury is disappearing into the glow of sunrise..

Brilliant Venus, shining at magnitude -3.9, is just above the east-southeast horizon 20 to 30 minutes before sunrise, 7 to 9 degrees upper right of Mercury.

Mars lies in Libra, shining at magnitude +0.03 rises about midnight and glows yellow orange in the south before dawn..

Jupiter, behind the hind foot of Leo the Lion rises in the east at twilight and shines highest in the south at magnitude -2.5 at midnight. He will make his closest approach to Earth on March 8.

Saturn shining at magnitude +0.5 in the feet of Ophiuchus around 1 or 2 A.M., and is in the east-southeast at dawn.

Uranus shines at magnitude +5.9, and sinks in the West in Pisces soon after dark.

Neptune is hidden behind the Sun

Planet Nine, if it exists, is shining dimly at a magnitude fainter than 22 and at an oblique 30 degree angle to the ecliptical plane of the solar system where the other eight planets orbit.

New Moon will occur March 8 at 1:54 UTC or 7:54 PM 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.

There will be a Total Solar Eclipse March 9, if you want to go to Australia or Vietnam to watch it. It will be in the middle of the night and totally invisible to North America.
Be assured you will see someone posting about it happening in Alabama on social media, but, unless you want to go to Brisbane, you are bloomin’ out of luck.

Full Moon will occur on March 23 at 12:02 UTC or 6:02 AM 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

There will be a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse; an eclipse where the moon is only slightly darkened by the fringes of Earth’s shadow, on March 23. This will be visible from Eastern Australia eastward to the West Coast of North America.

Elsewhere, 1955 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of February 25, per NASA’s Exoplanet Archive http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/

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This month’s meeting will be on March 8 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.

Hope to see you there!

Mark / WD4NYL
Editor
ALERT Newsletter

www.freewebs.com/weatherlynx/

Mark’s Weatherlynx
Weather Resource Database

Hi Everyone

It is practically certain that our resident groundhog Birmingham Bill will not see his shadow this Groundhog Day. If true, and if the folklore were true, then we would have an early spring.

Also, we would have the storms of that early spring.

Are you ready for the storms of spring and for the callouts that will come?

There will be, barring unforeseen circumstances, an ALERT training session Saturday February 20 from noon till 2 PM. This will be an excellent chance to train or refresh your training before the spring severe weather season begins.

Now is also the time to take the time to review your personal emergency preparedness plans and to brush up on your skills. Don’t wait until the sirens sound. For by then it may be too late.

In preparing, you should ask yourselves these questions:

Is my family shelter (and everyone should have one) ready?
Is my equipment, both antennae & radios working?
Are the batteries charged?
Are my communications channels still functional? Including RF, Internet & telephone resources.
Can I reliably receive weather watches and warnings?

Are you prepared both at home and at work?

Remember, keeping yourself and your family alive and intact during and after the storms is your number one priority.

Stay safe.

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Potent PDF’s & Other Ready Resources

The primary key to emergency preparedness, regardless of the type of emergency is education.
It would not be inappropriate to quote Hosea 6:4 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
The less you know, the more vulnerable you are. Likewise the more you know, the less vulnerable you are. The more you learn, the more mental tools you have at your disposal, and the better prepared you will be to act and react to rapidly changing emergency scenarios.

The following are resources, which deal with a wide range of scenarios, I have found useful.

Read them & learn them and you will be better suited to help yourselves, your families and your community.

WEATHER RELATED RESOURCES

First we will present storm spotter courses. The training material is available online, but, I strongly recommend you attend the classes, whether in person or one of the online presentations. Books are good. I eat them up, but nothing beats the “live performance”.

Basic Stormspotter Guide PDF – http://www.crh.noaa.gov/images/pah/pdf/basicspotterguide.pdf

Basic Stormspotter Presentation by John De Block PDF- http://www.srh.noaa.gov/images/bmx/outreach/skywarn/WebBasicSpotter2009.pdf

Advanced Stormspotter Guide PDF – http://www.srh.noaa.gov/images/fwd/pdf/broch_adv_spotter.pdf

Graduate Stormspotter Presentation by Scott Unger – PDF – http://www.srh.noaa.gov/images/bmx/outreach/skywarn/GraduateSpotterPresentation.pdf

Weather Spotter’s Field Guide http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/pqr/Skywarn/SpotterGuide-2011.pdf

Role Of The Skywarn Spotter https://www.meted.ucar.edu/training_module.php?id=817#.VrAErcvnbIU

Skywarn Spotter Convective Basics
https://www.meted.ucar.edu/training_module.php?id=816#.VrAFFcvnbIU

NWS Spotter Training Presentation Power Point Presentation

“Click on the link and choose to Open the Zip file as it’s downloaded to your computer.
Once the download is complete, extract to a location of your choosing, e.g. “My Documents”.
A new subdirectory will be made in the location you specified, e.g. C:My DocumentsNWS_Spotter_Training.
Within this new directory, use Internet Explorer to Open NWS_Spotter_Training.htm and then view the presentation.”

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/images/dmx/NWS_Spotter_Training.zip

NWS Preparedness & Storm Spotter Information Catalog
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/fwd/?n=skywarn

Large Minicourse In Meteorology
http://www.theweatherprediction.com/

GENERAL DISASTER PREPARDNESS COURSES & BOOKS

Our first item may, at one time, have been out of place in a disaster preparedness discussion, however in the 2016 world in which we live, it is very appropriate.

The first course is FEMA’s course IS-907: “Active Shooter: What You Can Do” http://training.fema.gov/is/courseoverview.aspx?code=IS-907

This is the current training for what to do if you find yourself in a mass shooting incident.

It is somewhat “dated” in that focuses more on workplace violence than on terrorist activity.
And, even if it did focus on terrorist activity, the aims and motives of the current generation of terrorists is different than those of the past.

Terrorists of the past would target “symbolic” targets, namely military, governmental and economic targets. In some cases, such as the Irish Republican Army, and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, they justified their actions on a desire to establish independence or a homeland.

Others would strike because of hatred of the west, Israel, and especially the United States for our once strong support of Israel and our hindering terrorist expansion in the region.

ISIS is different. While they want to establish a nation for an operations base, their ideology is primarily based on the idea that by acting as they are acting they will usher in an Apocalyptic Age, which will lead to their version of Armageddon. They believe that the few surviving remnants of humanity from that battle will be followers of ISIS ideology.

They have a very skillful multimedia recruitment campaign which is working, capturing young imaginations, and capitalizing on the fact that the hardest thing to defeat is an idea.

All that said, regardless of whether a mass shooting incident is triggered by terrorists, disgruntled workers and some random loon, IS-907 should be required reading.

People should not walk in fear, but, should be aware of what is going on, both nationally and in their immediate surroundings, and not walk around in a daze.

Recently I saw a lady walking through a Walmart parking lot happily texting away, oblivious to everything and walking smack into the middle of a parked Cadillac. She suddenly looked up and looked amazed that a car could suddenly materialize out of nowhere, moved five feet left, and resumed walking and texting.

Terrorists aside, this, and tuning out the world with earbuds is making oneself a muggers dream.

IS-907, is from the same site where you take the FEMA ICS & NIMS courses:

http://www.training.fema.gov/is/courseoverview.aspx?code=IS-100.b Introduction the Incident Command System

http://www.training.fema.gov/is/courseoverview.aspx?code=IS-200.b ICS For Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents

http://www.training.fema.gov/is/courseoverview.aspx?code=IS-700.a National Incident Management System, an Introduction

http://www.training.fema.gov/is/courseoverview.aspx?code=IS-800.b National Response Framework, An Introduction.

These FEMA Incident Command System courses are not required for ALERT members, since ALERT does not use the Incident Command System.

Why not, you may ask?

Our served agency, the National Weather Service, and its parent organization NOAA does not utilize it nor require its use, so we follow their lead. Plus, in my opinion, the ICS structure is cumbersome for small organizations and two man callouts.

If the day should come that we were to implement this system, the probable structure would be as follows:

INCIDENT COMMANDER:

The senior NWS Official on scene, i.e. Meteorologist In Charge, Warning Coordination Meteorologist, Lead Forecaster or whoever they designated as Incident Commander.

ALERT’s operations would fall under the Logistics Section of the NWS ICS.

The ICS is still worth being familiar with, however for use with ARES, EMA and other operations and to have a broader knowledge of how and why things are done as they are done.

Another worthwhile course is the CERT Course “Introduction To Community Emergency Response Teams”

http://training.fema.gov/is/courseoverview.aspx?code=IS-317 and Appendix http://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/downloads/training/CERTPMAppendix1-APDF.zip

This is the same material you receive when local CERT classes are held. However, if you actually intend to be a CERT responder you SHOULD & MUST attend a CERT class to be certified and to lessen the likelihood of getting yourself killed in the field.

If those interest you, IS-22 Are You Ready? An In-depth Guide to Citizen Preparedness http://www.training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is22.asp will be good for you also.

For good measure here are the old Civil Defense Manuals from the “Good Old Days”:

H-14 In time of EMERGENCY a citizen’s handbook on … Nuclear Attack … Natural Disasters (1968)
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15158/15158-h/15158-h.htm

SM-3-11 Personal And Family Survival (1966) http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~ina22/+301/$301-text-Personal_and_Family_Survival.html

The ARES ARECC books and courses are goldmines of information. Order all three books, read them and read them again. When a local course is offered, take it. http://www.arrl.org/courses-training.

I hope you find these resources useful, will read them and then read them again.

Remember that knowledge is a perishable commodity, so you want to stay fresh in your preparations.

As it is said “If you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready” – Dianna ‘Miss D’ Williams

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Mark’s Almanac

February, or Februarius, as the Romans called it is named after the Latin term februum, which means “purification”. Ancient Rome celebrated the Februa purification ritual on February 15, which was Full Moon on the old lunar based Latin calendar.

February was not originally included in the Roman calendar, which began in March, but was added, along with January by Numa Pompilius around 713 BC, and until 450 BC was considered the last month of the year.

February was originally 29 days long, but one day was taken and added to August, so the that Emperor Augustus’s month would be equal to Julius Caesar’s month of July. Now only Leap Year has 29 days, the next of which will occur in 2016.

In the Southern Hemisphere February is the equivalent of August. But, for us, February is a cold month with more snow falling in February than in any other month.

Statistically speaking, there is a 70% chance of snow flurries, and a 57% chance of snow up to one inch. There is a 13% chance of over one inch, and a 3% chance of 4 inches or more.

There is hope on the horizon though, as the worst of winter weather is usually over by February 15.

Ground Hog Day is on February 2 & believers will watch Punxsutawney Phil and Birmingham Bill, to see if they saw their shadows.

Looking towards the sky, Mercury and Venus are low in the southeast. Look 40 to 60 minutes before sunrise.

Mercury will reach his greatest western elongation rising 25.6 degrees above the Sun. This is the best time to view Mercury, since it is at his highest point above the morning horizon. Look in the eastern sky just before sunrise.

Brilliant Venus, sometimes confused as a UFO, is easy to spot shining at magnitude -3.9. Look lower left of it for fainter Mercury.

To the upper right of Venus is Saturn shining much fainter at magnitude +0.5 in Ophiuchus.

Mars lies in Libra, shining at magnitude +1.0 high in the south in early dawn.

Jupiter, between Leo and Virgo, rises in the east around 9 PM and shines highest in the south at magnitude -2.3 around 3 AM.

Uranus shines high in the Southwest in Pisces at sunset at magnitude +5.8.

Neptune shines at magnitude +7.9 in Aquarius and is sinking low in the west after dark.

Planet Nine, if it exists, is shining dimly at a magnitude fainter than 22 and at an oblique 30 degree angle to the ecliptical plane of the solar system where the other eight planets orbit.

Planet Nine’s probable existence was announced on January 20 by Konstantin Batygin & Huntsville’s Mike Brown, of the California Institute of Technology. Brown’s team discovered dwarf planets Eris, Haumea and Makemake and he was the lead proponent of Pluto’s demotion. They cited computer modeling of gravitational effects on the strange orbits of objects near the edge of the solar system including probable dwarf planets Sedna, also discovered by Brown’s team, and 2012 VP133 which was discovered in 2014.

If Planet Nine does exist, it is a Neptune type world, 10 times the size of Earth, in an orbit 20 times distant form the sun as Neptune.

Personally, I think poor old Pluto is still #9 and this, if it does actually exist, should be #10, but, the International Astronomical Union which demoted the old boy in 2006 forgot to ask me.

So pooh…

An interesting article, for those who might be interested is “Hypothetical Planets” which deals with planets, moons and the Sun’s “companion star Nemisis”. All proposed or “discovered” through the years only to be “undiscovered” when better data became available. See: http://nineplanets.org/hypo.html

Elsewhere, 1935 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of January 21, per NASA’s Exoplanet Archive http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/

New Moon will occur at 8:39 AM on Monday, February 8, as the Moon will be located on the same side of the Earth as the Sun and will not be visible in the night sky.

Full Moon will occur Monday, February 22, 12:20 PM CST.

February’s Full Moon is “Full Snow Moon” in Native American folklore, since the heaviest snows usually fell at this time of year. Since the harsh weather made hunting difficult, some tribes called it “Full Hunger Moon”.

The February sky is alit with bright stars. With Orion the Hunter overhead, along with his faithful hunting dogs, Canis Major & Canis Minor, the Large & Lesser Dogs. In Canis Major is the blue star Sirius, The Dog Star, which 8.6 light years away, is the brightest star in the night sky.

February and March are the best times of the year for seeing the Zodiacal Light. In the evening away from city lights and after twilight has faded you might see a faint, roughly triangular, whitish glow near the sunset point. This is Zodiacal Light, which is formed by the sunlight reflecting off millions of minute particles of cosmic dust aligned with the Earth’s orbital plane.

Another sight, much more common is the Earth Shadow. At sunset, on very clear days, as the sun goes farther below the horizon, you will see what appears to be a layer of gray cloud rising along the eastern horizon. This is actually the silhouette of the earth’s shadow being cast against darkening sky, sometimes with a pinkish glow along the edge. It fades as twilight fades into darkness.

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The Birmingham Hamfest http://birminghamfest.org/ is now only five weeks away, March 4 & 5.
As mentioned in last month’s newsletter, this it will be a Friday & Saturday affair; instead of the Saturday Sunday dates of years past.

This month’s meeting will be on February 9 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.

Hope to see you there!

Mark / WD4NYL
Editor
ALERT Newsletter

www.freewebs.com/weatherlynx/

Mark’s Weatherlynx
Weather Resource Database

Hi Everyone & Happy New Year.

I hope that Santa treated you well and that Father Time will do likewise and that you have a
blessed and prosperous 2016.

As we unwind from the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, remember that our next ALERT meeting on the 12th.

The Birmingham Hamfest http://birminghamfest.org/ is only nine weeks away, March 4 & 5.
There has been a date change, as it will, at least this year, be a Friday & Saturday affair.
This Birminghamfest is not to be confused with the Birmingham Fest, in Birmingham UK which will run July 15 through 21, http://birminghamfest.co.uk/
I wouldn’t mind going to that one either, but, I guess I had better concentrate on the local one instead.
I hope to see you there!

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Hints, Kinks and Hacks For Net Control Stations
&
Those Checking In To Nets

As we enter the New Year, I have just passed a milestone of completing my 38th year in ham radio.
My first exposure to Ham Radio was in 1973 listening to the Alabama Emergency Net X-ray or AENX, now known as The Jefferson County Ares Net, on the old 146.940 repeater with an old “police radio”.
I vividly remember the night of “The Day of 100 Tornadoes” back in April of 1974, as wave after wave of storms passed through. I remember the power going out at the house just as the NCS began shouting, “someone kill the auto patch”, which had activated itself just as the line hit, jamming the desperate reports that were flooding in, adding to the drama & chaos of that night.
Listening to this and other storms inspired me to get my ham license.
“Can I get a ham license?” a teenage Mark asked his Mom.
“You can, as long as you promise me not to chase tornadoes”, Mom replied.
I agreed.
I lied.
One of the first things I did as a new ham was become active in the 3.965 Net. In the course of time I was an NCS on the AENX which is now the Jefferson County Emergency Net, the AENN which is now the Shelby County Net, the AENB also called the Alabama Section Net, which is a fast speed CW traffic Net and the now defunct AEND, the slow speed CW traffic Net, of which I was also Net Manager. I was Net Manager of now defunct West Jefferson County Emergency Net and the 440 Frontier Net, years, and years ago, and have been Net Manager of the ALERT Sunday Night Net for 15 years.
It is on this experience and knowledge base and consulting with others that I base this article.
Nets are interesting creatures. They are one of the best ways to learn and meet the ham community. If you are shy about rag chewing, they give you a chance to “ham it up”. They also give you an excuse to blow the dust off the radio and remind everyone that contrary to the rumors, you really aren’t Silent Key.
And, they are fun.
So, what are Mark’s suggestions about nets?
First I’ll say this to Net Managers. Especially “old” Net Mangers and to older hams in general.
Don’t despise youth. If a younger operator wants to try their hand at task, let them. Mozart’s 1st Symphony was written when he was 8 years old. I’m turning 58 and haven’t written one yet.
Maturity is not defined by age, license class, call sign design, FCC test requirements or even mistakes of youth. People grow. People Learn.
No, new hams didn’t pass the same test that you did. But, then you didn’t pass the same test as of those from the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s or 80’s who called you a “dummy” when you first got started either, did you? And, truth be told, you probably would have trouble passing a 2016 vintage test, and you know it. They’ve invented wire since then. Just take a practice test sometime and then fess up.
New operators want to learn and they want to learn how to “do it right”.
It is up to the older operators to guide them, coach them and encourage them. We should be leading and inspiring, not tearing down and damning. The experience we have is experience learned by “trial & error”, steps and missteps, not because we were prettier or smarter anyone else. We learned by trying, goofing up and trying again and again until we “got it right”.
We should be shepherding” and teaching the younger operators in the right ways of doing things, both technically and operationally.
And as I said previously, they want to learn and want to “do it right”.
Dogging them out is not the right way of teaching. Leading by example is. Giving them a chance is.
We older operators should also be willing to listen and learn from the younger operators. They have much to teach us. They have grown up with and are comfortable with technology that we are still trying to figure out. Listen to them. They can tell you more than a thing or two.
Likewise younger operators should be willing to learn from the experiences of the older operators. Some things are “tried and true” because the “old goats” tried the umpteen “new and improved” methods and gizmos and they old ways just worked better. Fancy looks and names do not guarantee fancy results. There is a reason why we still commonly use antennae designed for World War One zeppelins on HF. It’s because they work.
I believe we potentially have the best generation of hams that has ever been.
Do you want them to be that best generation? Lead by good example
Do you want the next generation of hams to be crotchety, grumpy, condescending old goats that cause people to groan and reach for a knob the second they hear them come on the air? Then lead by bad example.
You see, we all lead by example. Whether you lead by a good example or a bad example is entirely up to you.
Now, let’s get back on topic.
To start, be knowledgeable of net procedures and protocols. Preferably listen to the net a time or two to learn the ebb and flow of the net, and then check in and after some time consider volunteering as NCS.
If you wish to be an NCS, have a decent radio and antenna so you can consistently hit and hear the repeater. While a handi-talkie & rubber duck may suffice for checking into a net, for an NCS it doesn’t qualify unless you can actually see the repeater tower and sometimes not even then, as you may have what I call a “mushy repeater”.
Have a pad of paper and a couple of pens or pencils.
Begin the Net on time and use the issued preamble. Everyone has their own style and rhythm as NCS and on the ALERT Sunday Night Net (Sunday 7PM 146.880 MHz) occasionally the NCS will stray from the preamble, as I am also guilty of doing. On a formal emergency net, however, stick to the script as closely as you can, and as the situation allows.
When checking in (or calling the net) speak clearly and use standard ITU phonetics. “Witch Doctor Four Nice Yellow Lemons” may sound cute, but, it makes life hard on an NCS because they have to change gears and figure out what in the world you are saying. It slows the entire process down.
When checking in, check in at your appointed times and “don’t break the line” except for emergencies and high priority messages. “Could you check me in, my chili is getting cold” doesn’t fit those criteria.
Likewise if one is trying to check in to a net and fails five times, do the net a favor and give up for now. It isn’t working. But, do try again later.
The NCS should pay attention to what is going on. During long lulls it is easy for your mind and concentration to drift. This is especially true if there is a computer nearby. If someone calls you on the radio, quit texting, gaming, Facebooking, Instagramming, semaphoring, smoke signaling and answer the call.
On the other hand, remember to leave enough pause between transmissions so that a station can break in in the event of an emergency. Don’t time the repeater out.
Remember to identify fairly frequently so that stations will know what net they are listening to, and to keep the FCC happy.
Other hints are:
Have some knowledge of weather and what the needs of the National Weather Service are. That way you can better filter out useless “leaf debris” reports from good reports and those reports that sound goofy but, are actually valid, the operator just having a hard time describing what they are seeing. Or the opposite, a very valid, very detailed report, that is way “over the head” of the NCS and therefore not being understood is dismissed as garbage.
Example One:
WD4NYL – “I see green lightning moving across the horizon to my northeast”.
NCS – “Geeze, please keep the frequency clear. It will lightning during thunderstorms, that’s why they are called ‘thunderstorms’ duh”.
Verdict: WD4NYL was seeing “power flashes” from transformers’ blowing up as the power grid was being shredded by some kind of wind concentrated circulation moving on the ground. A valid – but, dismissed report of a possible tornado.
Example Two :
WD4NYL – “I’m in Shelby County looking at the Jefferson County storm. There has been a sharp increase in lightning – almost continuous & the thunderstorm column appears to be twisting or ‘barberpolling’.”
NCS – “(frustrated) Sir we are looking for reports from Jefferson County – Jefferson County only. Please keep the frequency clear.”
Verdict: WD4NYL was seeing evidence that the thunderstorm was rapidly intensifying and seeing visible evidence of possible rotation. A valid – but, again dismissed report of possible severe storm.
Have some knowledge of local geography, and have a map handy so you can assist in relaying a valid location to the NWS. Yes you can track them on APRS if they are so equipped, but, can you track them quickly so as to not miss a vital report, instead of dinking with a computer during a tornado emergency?
Likewise the reporting station should know where they are located. Using street/cross street, house number or mile markers. The NWS does not know where “Old Miller’s Bait and Tackle used to be located”. And, saying I’m on I-65 is of no help, since it runs from Mobile to Chicago.
The reporting station should spell the name if it is a non-common name. A good example of a garbled RF report is the day Mark Rose of the NWS & I spent 30 minutes with an atlas trying to find “Del Ray Road by the Air Force base gate” in Montgomery where it was flooding. We couldn’t find the street and it didn’t help that Montgomery had two Air Force bases.
We called the reporting station back repeatedly and he kept saying “Del Ray Road” and I finally asked him to give the street name phonetically, which he did.
It was “Dalraida Road by Gunter AFB”.
Have more than one way of receiving NWS warning and updates. NOAA weather radio is great, but, not the end all of sources. The NWSBOT on BMXEMA Chat or the IEMBOT Monitor http://weather.im/iembot/ is the fastest method that I have found.
At this point in the life of an NCS you probably will be accused by one of the “Guardians Of Ham Purity” of “Broadcasting Media Reports”.
Those who like to complain I would say this – the reason the reports the NCS gives sounds like what is being reported via the broadcast media is that it comes from the SAME SOURCE – a Ouija Board and Magic Dust.
Or, maybe as rumor has it, the NWS.
All valid warnings will originate from the NWS, not the Weather Channel or a local TV station. And, all media outlets will receive it via the NWSBOT or the IEMBOT which simultaneously relays the same information in real time.
Using these same sources sometimes an NCS may give an NWS warning before the sirens have gone off, the weather radio sounds or the TV Meteorologist reads it. This is because of technical and time delays in the process. This is NOT as NCS “broadcasting” or “jumping the gun”. Once the NWS releases a product on the NWSBOT or IEMBOT it is meant for public distribution.
Time, being our worst enemy during an emergency would indicate we should relay the information as quickly as they receive it, for this will save lives.
Notice I used the term “distribution”, not the term “broadcasting”.
To say most hams are clueless as to what “broadcasting” from the FCC point of view really is may sound a little harsh, but, it is true. The FCC says nothing at all about relaying reports from the media. Just collecting information for the media, which is a big difference.
I beat this subject to death in the December 2010 ALERT Newsletter, and rather than repeat it I refer you to: https://alert-alabama.org/blog/?p=394
Suffice it to say that relaying NWS Watches, Warnings and Updates is NOT broadcasting according to the FCC Rules.
Passing media reports is not forbidden by the FCC either. The problem is that they are “unconfirmed reports” and can cause chaos and much confusion. If they are showing a tornado on their tower cam it is one thing, but, “Joe Blow reports cows being blown in the air around Sispey” is another matter completely.
We will say “let common sense rule”.
Now to all the critics out there I will say that the easiest job in the world is to sit back, do nothing and criticize everything. How about getting up, getting involved, trained and then picking up a mic and actually do something useful for a change?
To the NCSs I say DO expect to run into know it all’s and overly “helpful hands” appearing from time to time. It “goes with the territory”. But in the end YOU are the Net Control. So, Control The Net. In other words “when in command, command”.
Incidentally, there are two schools of thought at to how much information an NCS should pass on a net.
The NWS will issue a tornado warning, and reissue it with updated position reports.
One theory is to give the initial warning and nothing else, as the listeners will numb the updates out. Also, if there are multiple counties under warning, there may not be time to give these updates.
The other theory is that it helps localize spotter response, so that they are looking in the right location. “Where the storm is and not where it ain’t” so to speak. “Is it still in Bessemer or is it now in Forestdale?”, for instance.
Though I prefer the latter position, both, arguments have valid points. I’m a little biased, so I’ll not give judgement on this one.
Have multiple ways of reaching the NWS. The 1-800-856-0758 NWS Emergency Number is an excellent method. Even if you get a recording, be assured that the call is being listened to real-time. The BMXEMA Chat, if you are eligible for it, is another great way. Also there is an NWS online reporting form you can use. http://www.srh.noaa.gov/StormReport/SubmitReport.php?site=bmx
One thing I should mention is that if you are on the BMXEMA chat, the conversations being carried on there are private and NOT for public dissemination, only information released on the NWSBOT or IEMBOTs should be revealed.
That way needless rumormongering and misinformation is avoided.
Know how to relay emergency reports to other agencies, and utilities as well. This includes technical methods in case cell towers or landlines become overwhelmed with calls. Have a list of the direct fire and law enforcement numbers in case 911 should become unusable. Also, have a list of the utility emergency numbers – power, water, gas, etc. I keep one on the fridge and on a file cabinet by the radios.
Remain as calm and patient during emergencies as possible. Exercise diplomacy. Be respectful to operators. Remember people are eager to help and may not give best reports due to fear, excitement & inexperience. Remember when YOU first started and how you would have wanted to be treated and use this as your guide.
Finally, remember that you are doing, even on a practice net, may someday save a life. You may never know what positive impact you have made, but, you have made a difference.
And that is what it’s all about.

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Mark’s Almanac

January is named for the Roman god Janus, the god of gates and doors, and so openings and beginnings.

January receives more sunlight than December, but the equilibrium between incoming solar heat and the heat radiated into space by the northern snowfields does not peak until late January and early February, six weeks after winter solstice. So the weather continues to cool, with January 8 – 20 being the coldest part of the year.

Typically in January there is a 53% chance of up to one inch of snow and a 25% chance of over one inch of snow.

With the exception of the southern tip of Nova Scotia, all of Canada and roughly one half of the Continental US, or “CONUS”, are now covered with snow. Canada’s Hudson’s Bay is frozen, as is the ocean water between Baffin Island and Greenland.

http://www.natice.noaa.gov/pub/ims/ims_gif/DATA/cursnow_usa.gif
Barometric pressure is highest in January.
Looking towards the sky, Mercury remains low in the Southwest as twilight fades. Look for him thirty minutes to an hour after sunset.

Saturn, Venus, Mars and Jupiter form a large diagonal line in the early dawn, running from low in the Southeast to high in the Southwest, in that order.

Brilliant Venus, sometimes confused as a UFO, is easy to spot shining at magnitude -4.1.

To the lower left of Venus is Saturn shining much fainter at magnitude +0.5. Saturn and Venus are closing with each other and will be closest, or in conjunction on January 9th.

Bright Jupiter shines high in the predawn sky at magnitude -2.1, widely separated from Venus, with much fainter Mars in between them, shining at magnitude +1.3.

At borderline naked eye brightness, Uranus shines high in the South in Pisces at sunset at magnitude +5.8.

Faint Neptune shines at magnitude +7.0 in Aquarius and is getting lower in the Southwest at sunset.

1919 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of December 17, per NASA’s Exoplanet Archive http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/

The Quadrantid Meteor Shower will occur overnight Sunday-Monday, January 3 & 4. This is an above average shower producing between 40 to 100 meteors per hour radiating from the constellation Bootes, in the area near the end of the handle of the Big Dipper and the head of Draco the Dragon.

This shower is a quirky shower in that it has a very narrow particle stream. Therefore, the peak time is only a couple of hours, and that peak varies each year. According the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada’s “Observer’s Handbook 2016” and the International Meteor Organization, the 2016 peak will occur around 2 AM CST on January 4, which will, unlike last year, put the stream above the northeast horizon. But, as with all things astronomical, one should look before the predicted time in case the timing should slip. That way even if the stream arrives before the predicted time, you will see them as, they would still be zipping overhead and will appear longer in the cold sky.

This shower favors the Northern Hemisphere because its radiant point, or the point where the meteors appear to originated in the sky, is so far north on the sky’s dome.

This shower is believed to be produced by dust grains from burnt out comet 2003 EH1, which may also be the remainder of comet c/1490 Y1, which was lost to history after a prominent meteor shower was observed in 1490, possibly due to the breakup of the comet.

The Quadrantid meteors take their name from an obsolete constellation, Quadrans Muralis, found in early 19th-century star atlases between Draco, Hercules, and Bootes.

The constellation Quadrans Muralis was removed, along with a few other constellations, from crowded sky maps in 1922 when the International Astronomical Union adopted the modern list of 88 officially-recognized constellations.

New Moon will occur at 7:30 PM on Saturday, January 9, as the Moon will be located on the same side of the Earth as the Sun and will not be visible in the night sky.

Full Moon will occur Saturday January 23, 7:36 PM CST.

January’s Full Moon is “Wolf Moon” in Native American folklore. This was also called “Wulf-Monath” or “Wolf Month” by the Saxons, because at this full Moon packs of wolves howled in hunger outside of the villages.

It has also been called “Old Moon” and “Moon After Yule”.

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This month’s meeting will be on January 12 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.

Hope to see you there!

Mark / WD4NYL
Editor
ALERT Newsletter

www.freewebs.com/weatherlynx/

Mark’s Weatherlynx
Weather Resource Database

Hi Everyone,

December is here and you know what that means don’t you? Yes you’re right; it’s time for the ALERT Christmas party!

You are all cordially invited to the ALERT Christmas party Tuesday, December 15 at the NWS Forecast Office.

Please note that this will be the THIRD Tuesday, not the second Tuesday in December.

ALERT will provide “the meat and fine china”. We ask that everyone bring a side item – side dish, dessert or drink – non-alcoholic please, to share.

Stephanie Honeycutt is coordinating this event, so please contact her and let her know what you are bringing, how many people will be in your party.

Stephanie can be reached at stephhoneycutt@outlook.com

Bring your spouse, kids, and perspective members and be prepared to have Christmas fun!

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“The Night Before Christmas”, Ham Radio-style
Author Unknown
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the town,
The snowstorm was raging, the phone lines were down;
The wind it did howl, the tree limbs did crack,
I hope that St. Nick isn’t forced to turn back.
The wife making cookies, the kids making noise,
While away in the shack, by my rig I was poised.
The finals were glowing, the mike gain was set,
I was chasing DX to see what I could get.
The bands were all empty, the frequencies clear,
Except one lone station that sounded quite near.
He was calling CQ and my interest did pique,
When he ended transmission with the words,
“Old St. Nick”.
I answered back quickly, I used great dispatch,
If this were St. Nicholas, good God, what a catch!
We exchanged information, it was really quite graphic,
Then he came back and said,
“I’ve emergency traffic!”
His reindeer were tired, his elves in a grump,
If he didn’t land soon, then his sleigh he would dump.
I thought very carefully, I thought very hard,
Then I gave him directions to my snow covered yard.
As he flew past my window, his hair like a mane,
He reined in his chargers and called them by name:
“Whoa, Anode! Whoa, Cathode! Whoa, Zener! Whoa, Diode!
Stop, Heater! Stop, Grid leak! Stop, Bias! Stop, Triode!
You’re flying too low! you’re flying too fast!
Look out, you dumb reindeer, his antenna mast!”
So into the backyard the reindeer did drop,
St. Nick, the elves, and the sleigh went kerplop!
Then at the back door, I heard this loud knocking,
“Open up in there, or I won’t fill your stocking!”
As I turned off the light and was leaving the shack,
Into the house Saint Nicholas came from the back.
His two-meter rig held to his hip with a strap,
“Hams do it in the shack” on the front of his cap.
The sack that he carried made his aged brow furrow,
And he handed me a card that read,
“QSL Via Bureau”.
His clothes were all sooty, from his shoes to his vest;
I felt like a novice taking his test.
His fingers were calloused and from what I could tell,
This came from a straight key that I’ll bet he used well.
I offered him coffee, I offered him smokes,
I tried easing the tension by telling ham jokes.
Then he nodded his head and raised up his thumb,
He smiled like an Elmer, did I ever feel dumb.
He grabbed up his sack and went straight for the tree,
And placed in it a large present for me.
When he finished his work, he stood up, took a bow,
Then out the back door to his team he did plow.
But I heard him exclaim as he flew o’er the land,
“Beware the FCC, friend, we were both out of band!”
Merry Christmas from my house to yours!

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Mark’s Almanac

December, the tenth Roman Month, is the cloudiest month of the year, with only 40 to 60% of possible sunshine poking through the clouds. It is also the stormiest month of the year for the Continental US & the Gulf of Mexico. By “stormy” meaning large-scale storms, not necessarily the tornadic storms that they bring, even though we are still in the Second Tornado Season.

A region of heavy rainfall usually forms from Texas to Northwest Florida to Tennessee and Arkansas. Cold waves bringing rain, snow, ice and occasionally tornadoes, sweep across the region.

December can be cloudy and cold, and, then it can swing into spring like warmth, luring plants to bloom early, only to have the frosts and freezes return and the plants are “nipped in the bud”.

Hurricane season is now “officially” over, however Mother Nature sometimes throws a surprise in to make life interesting. In 124 years of records, from 1885 to 2011 there have been 5 December hurricanes. The last December hurricane being Hurricane Epsilon during the 2005 season, the year in which we ran out of hurricane names. That year also featured Tropical Storm Zeta, the latest forming Tropical Storm which formed on December 30, 2005 and lasted until January 7, 2006.

Looking towards the sky, Mercury is hidden behind the Sun at the beginning of the month, but, gradually emerges into the evening sky. On the 29th Mercury reaches greatest eastern elongation of 19.7 degrees from the Sun. This is the best time to view Mercury since it will be at its highest point above the horizon in the evening sky. Look for the planet low in the western sky just after sunset.

Venus, Mars and Jupiter are gathered together in the Eastern predawn sky with Venus closest to the horizon, Mars above and Jupiter hovering over the pair.

Venus will pass by the moon on the morning of December 7. Also on December 7 Comet Catalina joins Venus and the waning crescent Moon. Venus shines 4° southwest and the Moon 5° southwest of the comet.

Technically, Comet Catalina is currently a 6th magnitude object visible to the unaided eye. In practice, however, the morning twilight overwhelms the comet’s faint glow. So for now you will need a telescope to see it.

It will become easier to see as it recedes from the sun, possibly brightening to 5th magnitude later in December.

This is Comet Catalina’s first visit to the inner solar system–and its last. The comet’s close encounter with the sun in mid-November has placed it on a slingshot trajectory toward interstellar space.

Saturn, at the Libra/Scorpius border is lost in the glow of sunset.

Uranus in Pisces and Neptune in Aquarius are high in the souther sky in the early evening.

1911 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of November 19, per NASA’s Exoplanet Archive http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/

New Moon occurs December 11 at 4:29 AM CST when the Moon will on the same side of the Earth as the Sun and will not be visible in the night sky.

The Geminid Meteor Shower peaks on December 13-14. Geminids are one of the year’s best meteor showers. It’s a consistent and prolific shower, and usually the most satisfying of all the annual showers, even surpassing the more widely recognized Perseids of August. This shower typically produces 50 or more multicolored meteors an hour, or about one every minute.

As a general rule, the dazzling Geminid meteor shower starts around mid-evening and tends to pick up steam as evening deepens into late night. No matter where you live worldwide, the greatest number of meteors usually fall in the wee hours after midnight, or for a few hours centered around 2 a.m. local time. If you’re game, you can watch the Geminid shower all the way from mid-evening until dawn.

The Geminids is produced by debris left behind by an asteroid known as 3200 Phaethon, which was discovered in 1982. The shower runs annually from December 7-17. It peaks this year on the night of the 13th and morning of the 14th. The crescent moon will set early in the evening leaving dark skies for what should be an excellent show.

Best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Gemini, but can appear anywhere in the sky.

The Ursid meteor shower, a minor meteor shower, will peak on the night and morning of December 21 – 22 producing about 5-10 meteors per hour. It is produced by dust grains left behind by comet Tuttle, which was first discovered in 1790.

The shower runs annually from December 17-25. This year the waxing gibbous moon will be bright enough to hide most of the fainter meteors. If you are patient, you might still be able to catch some of the brighter ones. Best viewing will be just after midnight from a dark location far away from city lights. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Ursa Minor, but can appear anywhere in the sky.

Looking towards the sky, the star of Winter have begun drifting into the night sky. Low in the southern sky is the bright star Fomalhaut.

Whenever Fomalhaut is “southing” (crossing the meridian due south, which it does around 7 p.m. now depending on your location), the first stars of Orion are just about to rise in the east, and the Pointers of the Big Dipper stand vertical straight below Polaris, towards The North Star.

Orion is also valuable as a rough navigation aid as the two left stars forming the elongated square forming Orion always lie on a general north / south line, and the bottom two stars of the square lie on a rough east / west line.

Winter Solstice will be December 21 at 10:48 PM CST. The South Pole of the earth will be tilted toward the Sun, which will have reached its southernmost position in the sky and will be directly over the Tropic of Capricorn at 23.44 degrees south latitude. This is the first day of winter (winter solstice) in the Northern Hemisphere and the first day of summer (summer solstice) in the Southern Hemisphere.

We will have a Christmas Full Moon as Full Moon this year occurs on December 25 5:11 AM CST. This full moon was known by early Native American tribes as the Full Cold Moon because this is the time of year when the cold winter air settles in and the nights become long and dark. This moon has also been known as the Moon Before Yule and the Full Long Nights Moon.

Christmas is my favorite time of the year.

Christmastime is a time of wonder & mystery. A time of bright lights, shining trees and the time of hide and seek, as presents are hid from inquiring minds and fingers.

A time one’s mind and memories drift back to days of childhood, and Christmases now long gone by. Remembering friends and family, some here, some now gone & longing that they were near once again, as it was once upon a time not so long ago. And, it is a time when, if we allow ourselves and don’t choose to “Grinch out” and be sour pusses, we can become kids once again.

Most importantly though, it’s a time to remember that the true “reason for the season” occurred in a manger, long ago on that first cold and chilly “Silent Night.”

So as you go about your Christmas preparations remember the magic that was there when you were a child & don’t let that magic die. Make it magic once again

For Christmas truly is “the most wonderful time of the year”.

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This month’s meeting will be on December 15 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.
Hope to see you there!
Mark / WD4NYL
Editor
ALERT Newsletter

www.freewebs.com/weatherlynx/

Mark’s Weatherlynx
Weather Resource Database