ALERT NEWSLETTER – July 2015

Hi everyone, I hope you are staying cool in this summer heat. Our next meeting will occur July 14, as our new officers begin their new terms. Dues are now due, so break open the piggy bank, and renew your ALERT membership at our next meeting. See you there! ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… As we are entering the hottest weeks of the year, it’s a good time to talk about… HEAT & Its Dangers Heat and heat related illnesses are not something to be shrugged off. About 237 Americans die each year due to heat related illnesses. In arid regions such as the desert southwest, the heat lacks humidity, and though it will be blazing hot, the evaporation helps the body combat the heat, as evaporating sweat helps cool to body down. A “dry heat” is not as uncomfortable as the “humid heat” which we endure. In our semitropical climate, humidity from the Gulf works against our bodies cooling mechanisms – internal blood circulation adjustments, sweating and evaporation, not allowing the body to combat the heat, and we are in placed in a seriously dangerous situation. Though you are rapidly losing your body’s water reserves, up to 1.5 liters or 1.6 quarts per hour through sweating, the sweat cannot evaporate fast enough to dissipate the heat in the high humidity. We are familiar with the term “heat index”. This index was developed to help identify the danger zone, and express how the combined temperature and humidity “feels” or affects the human body. The Shaded Heat Index can be determined using this chart. I picked this version because it uses the Dewpoint. Some charts use Relative Humidity, which is fine, except the humidity is constantly varying with temperature fluctuations, while the Dewpoint usually remains fairly steady. Heat Index Chart (Temperature & Dewpoint) Dewpoint (° F) Temperature (° F) 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 65 94 95 96 97 98 100 101 102 103 104 106 107 108 109 110 112 66 94 95 97 98 99 100 101 103 104 105 106 108 109 110 111 112 67 95 96 97 98 100 101 102 103 105 106 107 108 110 111 112 113 68 95 97 98 99 100 102 103 104 105 107 108 109 110 112 113 114 69 96 97 99 100 101 103 104 105 106 108 109 110 111 113 114 115 70 97 98 99 101 102 103 105 106 107 109 110 111 112 114 115 116 71 98 99 100 102 103 104 106 107 108 109 111 112 113 115 116 117 72 98 100 101 103 104 105 107 108 109 111 112 113 114 116 117 118 73 99 101 102 103 105 106 108 109 110 112 113 114 116 117 118 119 74 100 102 103 104 106 107 109 110 111 113 114 115 117 118 119 121 75 101 103 104 106 107 108 110 111 113 114 115 117 118 119 121 122 76 102 104 105 107 108 110 111 112 114 115 117 118 119 121 122 123 77 103 105 106 108 109 111 112 114 115 117 118 119 121 122 124 125 78 105 106 108 109 111 112 114 115 117 118 119 121 122 124 125 126 79 106 107 109 111 112 114 115 117 118 120 121 122 124 125 127 128 80 107 109 110 112 114 115 117 118 120 121 123 124 126 127 128 130 81 109 110 112 114 115 117 118 120 121 123 124 126 127 129 130 132 82 110 112 114 115 117 118 120 122 123 125 126 128 129 131 132 133 Note: Exposure to full sunshine can increase HI values by up to 15° F HEAT INDEX EFFECTS 80 to 90 degrees – Fatigue possible with prolonged exposure and/or physical activity. 90 to 105 degrees – Sunstroke, heat cramps, or heat exhaustion are possible with prolonged exposure and/or physical activity. 105 to 130 degrees – Sunstroke, heat cramps, or heat exhaustion are likely, and heatstroke is possible, with prolonged exposure and/or physical activity. 130 degrees and higher – Heatstroke or sunstroke are highly likely with continued exposure. I hope you noticed the line stating that if you are in full sunlight the heat index can be up to 15 degrees higher than the indicated values. Be exceedingly careful with your exposure to the heat and sunlight. To help combat the heat danger, stay indoors as much as possible, hugging the air conditioner. Avoid strenuous activity. Wear loose, lightweight, light colored clothing made from cotton or linen, as they absorb your sweat and help with cooling. Your clothing is a vital defense. That’s why the age old habit of guys trying to act macho by stripping off as much as is legally possible, to show off their abs, pecs and biceps, isn’t the most intelligent move that one can make. You want to dress more like Sheik Omar, and less like a Krispy Critter. Wear a good sunscreen of SPF 15 or higher. Drink lots & lots of water. Avoid alcohol and caffeine, as they dehydrate the body. Sports drinks are ok for a once one-jug drink to help replenish your electrolytes, but the body absorbs water much more quickly. Sports drinks are so loaded with minerals that the body misidentifies the juice as food and waits for it to be digested before sending it on to the lower innards to be absorbed into the body. Your dehydration worsens though your stomach is full of liquid. So make water your primary drink. Drink. Drink even if you aren’t thirsty. If you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated. A rough guide to the minimum water intake needed to maintain body fluid while at rest in the shade is as follows: At 68 degrees drink 1.2 liters or 1.3 quarts At 77 degrees drink 1.4 liters or 1.5 quarts At 86 degrees drink 2.5 liters or 2.6 quarts At 95 degrees drink 5.1 liters or 5.4 quarts Note that just walking may double these requirements. It is better to drink small amounts of water, such as 250 – 350 liters or ¼ to 1/3 quarts every 20 minutes, rather than try to gulp large amounts of water every hour. To get down and earthy with the subject, if your urine is clear and there is a lot of it, you are properly hydrated, if this is not the case, if the urine dark or there is little or none being produced, you are in serious danger. Dehydration has been found to compromise mental function by dropping our brainpower by 25%. This keeps you from thinking straight & doing the smart things you need to do to help keep you above the daisies. Now let’s talk “pets” for a moment. One thing you should realize is that “official” temperature readings are taken 6 feet above ground level. It’s much, much hotter on the ground where Fido & Puss have to walk. I once conducted an experiment by placing thermometers at different places on the ground to see what the critters & their footpads were having to endure. Some places, particularly the sidewalks and pavement the temperature easily reached 150 degrees. So, if you think, as was advocated on a local news program, that you are doing Old Shep a favor by taking him for a walk during the heat to keep him from being bored and flabby, I would suggest that you go barefoot with him. He can’t tell you the misery he is suffering, but I bet by your hopping, jumping and cussing that you will be able to decipher the message he has been sending more clearly – “Bubba, I told you this was a bad idea`.” You are not doing him a favor by forcing him to walk barefoot/bear paw on 140 degree pavement. Remember that dogs cannot tolerate too much heat. Their fur, which covers their entire bodies, prevents them from sweating. The only external surface not covered with fur is their paw pads — which explains the damp paw prints you might find on the sidewalk on hot summer days. They can have a heatstroke just as easily if not more so than you can. You don’t want to shave outdoor pets, by the way. If you remove their fur, you are removing the only protection they from getting a serious sunburn. Before taking Muttley for a walk, place your hand on the pavement and see how hot it is. If it’s miserable to you, it will be miserable to him also. Just walk him in the morning or wait until the sun is setting and it cools off to a tolerable level and try to stick to grassy areas. Then go have a good time together. Cats usually have enough sense to find a shady cool spot. Make sure their water bowl is full. Or better yet, keep them inside. If you can, make them a permanent indoor feature, as they live much longer indoors. That way dogs can’t get them and cars can’t squish them. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Mark’s Almanac Originally called “Quintilis”, the fifth Roman month, Quintilis was renamed “July” in 44 BC in honor of Julius Caesar. July is miserably hot, as land temperatures reach their peaks in late July through early August – the Dog Days of Summer. The Old Farmer’s Almanac lists the traditional period of the Dog Days as the 40 days beginning July 3 and ending August 11. The Romans on the other hand said that the Dog Days ran from July 24 through August 24, or, alternatively, from July 23 through August 23, coinciding with the Sun and the Dog Star Sirius rising at the same time & their combined heat supposedly adding to the summer misery. As you endure this heat, as mentioned in the preceding article, remember to drink lots of fluids, hug the shade & avoid the afternoon sun. The last week of July is usually the hottest week of the year. Tropical conditions are dominant, with conditions similar to that of the Amazon Valley. This is the time to test the “Brown Grass Theory”. According to this theory, if the grass remains green the temperature will probably not reach 100, but, if the grass turns brown, get set for triple digits. This is a local Birmingham rule, which the Old Timers at the Birmingham NWS used for years. In July the least rainfall falls in the Northern Hemisphere. Tornado activity drops sharply, with a 47% decrease nationwide. July has an average of 103 tornadoes. Hurricane activity increases, but major hurricanes are not yet frequent. By months end, one hurricane will have occurred. Seven percent of a year’s hurricane total occurs in July. Long track hurricanes are possible, forming off the African coast and crossing the Atlantic, either to threaten the US East Coast, then eventually veering off towards Bermuda. Or in the case of “Low Latitude” storms, cross the Atlantic, strike the Leeward Islands; enter the Caribbean and then striking the Yucatan, or the Western or Northern Gulf coast. Looking towards the sky, Mercury is low in the glow of sunrise. Venus & Jupiter, the two bright “stars” you are seeing at sunset will be only 1/3 degrees apart on June 30 during and after evening twilight, in the west-northwest in Gemini. They will be only slightly more separated July 1. The Moon, Jupiter & Venus on June 20, 2015, by Mark Wells Mars is hidden deep in the glow of sunrise. Saturn, just above the head of Scorpius is highest in the South at sunset. To the lower left of Saturn twinkles the fiery orange star Antares. Uranus in Pisces is in the East before dawn begins to brighten. Neptune Aquarius is low in the Southeast before the first light of dawn. Overhead you will see the star Vega, one of the brightest stars in the heavens, which is located in the small constellation Lyra. Nearby is cross shaped Cygnus the swan. Binoculars reveal a sea of stars making up the Cygnus-Carina arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. Here the Kepler Space Telescope has found over 1000 planets, or more correctly “exoplanets” as they lie far beyond our solar system. July’s first Full Moon occurs July 1 at 9:19 PM CDT, and is called “Buck Moon” in Native American folklore. This moon gets its name because the male buck deer begin to grow their new antlers at this time of year. It has also been called “Full Thunder Moon” & “Hay Moon”. On July NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will arrive at Pluto after a nine and a half year journey. The probe, launched January 19, 2006 will be the first spacecraft to visit Pluto, and will give us our first close-up views of the dwarf planet and its moons. After passing Pluto, the probe will continue to the Kuiper Belt, a region of the Solar System extending from the orbit of Neptune to 50 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun. The doughnut shaped Kuiper Belt is similar to the asteroid belt, but 20 times as wide and 200 times as massive. It, like the asteroid belt consists of small bodies that are remnants of the Solar System’s formation, largely frozen material such as ammonia, methane and water. It is also the realm of three officially recognized dwarf planets – Pluto, Haumea & Makemake & probably several more yet to be detected. The moon will disappear from the sky, its night side facing Earth, when New Moon occurs July 15 at 8:24 PM CDT. The Delta-Aquariad Meteor shower peaks on the night of July 28th into the morning of the 29th. This shower annually occurs from July 12 through August 23 is made up of debris from Comets Marsden Kracht and produces a ZHR or Zenith Hourly Rate of 20 meteors per hour. Unfortunately a nearly Full Moon will wash out all but the brightest meteors. Still, it’s worth a peek. Also, though it won’t peak until the night and morning of August 12 & 13, the Perseid Meteor Shower begins July 17, and lasts until August 24. This shower, associated with comet Swift-Tuttle will peak at 60 meteors per hour in August. July will have a second Full Moon which will occur July 31 at 5:43 AM CDT. This, being a second Full Moon within the same month is often called, by modern definition, a “Blue Moon”. The older definition is “the third of four Full Moons in a single season. Sky and Telescope Magazine calls the modern definition “trendy” but, a “mistake”. This is interesting, since it was the March 1946 issue of Sky and Telescope which misinterpreted the definition and gave the current definition as “a second Full Moon in a single calendar month”, with no connection to the season. The next “old definition” Blue Moon will be May 21, 2016. 1854 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of June 25, per NASA’s Exoplanet Archive http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/ ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… This month’s meeting will be on July 14 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