ALERT NEWSLETTER – March 2020

Hi Everyone,

The Birminghamfest is almost here, and I hope you can attend.

The Birminghamfest will occur Friday and Saturday March 6 & 7 at the Trussville Civic Center.

Four Saturday forums of particular interest will be:

9 – 10 AM Shelby County ARES by Terry Rowe KK4DLV EC Fireside Room 3
11 – 12 PM Weather Preparation by FOX-6 Meteorologist Wes Wyatt Fireside Room 3
12 – 1 PM ALERT by Johnny Knobloch KJ4OPX President Fireside Room 2
3 – 4 PM Jefferson County ARES by Ron King WX4RON EC Fireside Room 2

Amateur radio exams will be administered on Saturday from 9 AM to Noon in Fireside Room 1,

For more information go to http://birminghamfest.org/

Our next ALERT meeting will be on Tuesday, March 10 at 7PM at the National Weather Service Forecast office at the Shelby County Airport.

Hope to see you there!

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

10 Ways To Extend Cellphone Battery Life During An Emergency

Cellphones are society’s primary means of communications. We all have them, use them, cuss them and depend on them. They are a lifeline and a vital link to the outside world. They are also fragile and are only usable as long as their batteries last.

The following are hints for cellphone care and usage during emergencies.

1. Try to keep it charged and carry a charger both with you and in your car. Frequently check the battery level.

2. If you have a weak connection, sometimes you can get a better connection by momentarily going to airplane mode, waiting a few seconds and then going back to normal. The phone will seek out and lock onto strongest signal.

3. Unless you are using WIFI for access, turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modes, as they will drain your battery. Sometimes however WIFI will connect when other means fail. For example, after the Moore Oklahoma tornado of 2013 my nieces house phone was out, but, the internet was still working, so WIFI was the lifeline.

4. Once your location, either by address, street / cross street, via map or your longitude & latitude has been determined, cut off location services, as this drains the battery.

5. Don’t play games, look at photos, listen to music or play videos.

6. Texting uses much less battery power than voice. Texting can also sometimes penetrate the “all circuits are busy” situations or make their way through faint connections, as they have such narrow bandwidth and data usage.

7. In an emergency, have one designated offsite contact person and talk to them only.

8. If there are others with phones, give the numbers of those phones to the contact person, so they will recognize the numbers if they see them and then completely power down all phones except for one. It will be the primary and the others are backups, with the batteries being conserved. “Completely” means “turned off”, not airplane mode.

9. Set a specific time when you will contact the contact person, “I’ll call you at 6:00 PM” for instance and then completely power down the phone. Turn it on again a couple of minutes before the designated time. You initiate the call; they are not the ones with the dying battery.

10. Keep calls as brief as possible.

Using these steps, assuming the battery is not old as dirt and worn out to begin with, this could lengthen the battery life for days beyond the norm.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Birmingham NWS Spring 2020 Storm Spotter Courses

The Birmingham NWS office will present several online Basic Spotter Courses and a single online Advanced Spotter Course this Spring. These online classes allow individuals to complete the courses in the comfort of their own home or office with the use of https://www.join.me/
meeting site.

By attending any course, which runs about 1.5 – 2 hours, individuals or a group of individuals will become SKYWARN Storm Spotters.

Unless you are in need of or just want to attend a refresher Course, you do not need to attend more than one Basic SKYWARN Course, as the material covered is the same; however it is required you to attend at least one Basic SKYWARN Course before taking the Advanced SKYWARN Course.

These courses are two-way, meaning you will be able to interact with the meteorologist leading the training. You will be muted while training is in-progress, and unmuted when applicable (e.g., for questions); or, you can use the built-in chat feature.

The current online schedule is as follows:

Basic Class Tuesday, March 3 at 1:00 PM Use Session Code 412-237-985
Basic Class Thursday, March 5 at 6:30 PM Use Session Code 583-754-755
Basic Class Tuesday, March 10 at 6:30 PM Use Session Code 801-555-076
Basic Class Thursday, March 19 at 1:00 PM Use Session Code 726-373-081
Advanced Class Thursday April 2 at 6:30 PM Use Session Code 746-697-002
Enter the session code at https://www.join.me/

These classes will help you provide the NWS the vital “ground truth” information they need to verify radar indications, target their attention and help you relay reports in a clear manner to the NWS, either directly via the 1-800-856-0758 Storm Reporting Hotline, online at http://www.weather.gov/bmx/submit_storm_report or amateur radio.

This knowledge helps SKYWARN Net Control stations filter reports, by giving them knowledge of what reporting stations are trying to describe. This way they can tell if the report is a valid report, an invalid report by an overly excited operator or a valid, but, poorly described report, which without this knowledge would be mistakenly dismissed.

For further information on these classes visit: http://www.weather.gov/bmx/skywarnschedule

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

The 21st Century Marquess of Queensbury Rules For Arguing On Social Media

Let’s discuss social media arguments. Whether we admit it or not, people love following social media arguments. Somehow it’s strangely addictive, watching random people ranting, raving and acting like lunatics towards each other, calling each other every name in the book, and a few that haven’t even been written yet over some topic, more times than not of absolutely zero importance, since the powers that be will never see their sage wisdom and fierce defense.

But, it is also an art that many have yet to perfect or at least understand. So, I thought I would do society a favor by enlightening them with the following guidelines.

As a side note, before we begin, the British are the undisputed champions of social media warfare. Seeing a chap replying to an insult with “a thousand pardons, Me Lord, for having dared to express an opinion” somehow makes our attempts at cat calling seem totally lame. Aussies on the other hand have ways of insulting each other that just leaves one shaking their head asking “why can’t I think of stuff like this bloke?”

But, though our version of warfare is mediocre, here are some hints that will help you in this less than chivalrous task.

1. First a serious word of caution. Be careful when sharing personal information, opinions, biases or jokes that, just twenty years ago may have been perfectly acceptable. Remember that what you post online never really disappears from cyberspace and that we are all leaving a digital footprint the size of Greenland. So don’t post things that will haunt you five years from now. Or will cause a riot at work today.

2. When commenting “you’re an idiot” or “I wholeheartedly agree” please be sure to indicate which person you are agreeing with or who you are insulting. You may be commenting on the third comment posted in the thread, but, your comment may end up being the forty fifth comment posted. No one will know who you are referring to or who you are agreeing with, and so you may end up looking like a nut or agreeing with one, which puts you in league with nuts, or nutty cause.

Example:

“Steve – Ed you, like your opinion are utter rubbish.”
“Ed – Steve you, my dear fellow, are a complete waste of skin.”
“Doris – it’s such a pretty day!”
“Wilbur – that’s the absolute truth!”

Which one is Wilbur agreeing with, Steve, Ed or Doris?

Another example:

In the middle of a heated argument, Joe writes a lengthy reply specifically to Bob calling Bob every name in the book, saying he’s the reason his kids are ugly and that he is a miserable lout.

Bob replies “why are you attacking me? I agreed with you.”

Bob was telling the truth, he did post in agreement, but, he did not specify who he was replying to and Joe just assumed the worst.

This was a true story, by the way.

3. Check the dates on the conversation. You make be joining an argument that faded into disinterest in 2006, and no one will ever see your comment or care. The person who made the post you are arguing with will never see your reply if 14,230 comments have already been made. Your posting the 14,231st comment is just a waste of your time.

4. If you can’t defend a point without using every foul word known to man, then you need to be quiet and just let someone who is capable of communicating on an educated adult level handle the debate.

5. Though it’s hard to admit it, sometimes the other guy is actually right. Admitting so doesn’t make you look bad either, at least to reasonable folk. Who cares what the unreasonable ones think?

6. “Never argue with an idiot, they will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.”

7. Some arguments and people just aren’t worth the trouble. Don’t wear yourself out “swatting at gnats”. Just scroll on by.

8. Remember some folk post garbage because they are having a garbagy day. On other days they aren’t “that way” at all.

9. Sometimes the best way to win an argument is to say nothing in reply, and just leave the other guy hanging, waiting and waiting for a reply that never comes, while continuing to comment to others, indicating that neither he nor his comment is worthy of acknowledgement.

10. A quick “to the point” comment is the best, while long drawn out “sermons” like the one you are reading, are seldom read.

11. By not retaliating, but, “killing them with kindness” instead, you can make the other guy look like dumb, while you look like the smartest, kindest guy on the planet. It’s called the “bless his heart, he can’t help it” maneuver.

12. Don’t be surprised if you find out that the “know it all” opponent you have been arguing with for three solid hours is really a 13 year old up past his bedtime.

13. Even the most educated person on the planet is ignorant on some subjects. Instead of insulting them, explain it to them instead. If they reject it you’ve lost nothing, if they accept it, you have gained an ally and friend.

14. Don’t feed the trolls by acknowledging them, it only encourages them. The same is true of people interfering on the air. Ignore them.
15. Whether you are winning or losing, know when it’s time to leave the argument.

16. Anything you say, no matter how truthful or carefully worded, WILL be declared wrong and you an “idiot” if the majority is against you to begin with. For example conservatives will be pounced on on liberal sites and liberals pounced on on conservative sites. Wisely pick your field of battle or don’t whine when you receive the hail of negative, insulting comments. In other words, don’t step in an anthill and not expect to be bit.

17. You can “play” with or “gaslight” folk by publicly thanking all those people who are private messaging you with their encouragement, support and humor. Your opponent won’t know that you are lying like a dog and will either feel outnumbered or at least confused, which is good at any rate.

18. Criticizing spelling or grammar while ignoring the substance of the debate usually just succeeds in making you look bad, especially if you misssspell a wurd while sarcastically “educating” the other person and pointing out their “ignorance”.

19. Keeping your emotions under control usually makes the other guy look like the nitwit.

20. Not everyone knows that typing in ALL CAPS means YOU ARE SHOUTING!!! So don’t be too touchy if they do.

21. Finally, if you know that by replying you are going to end up in an argument, but, don’t want the pain, then just don’t reply. As the old saying goes “cabbages don’t get hit by lightning”.
Just lay low.

So there you have it.

In the British Parliament chamber the room is divided down the middle by two red lines running the length of the hall which members are not allowed to cross during debates. The lines are exactly two sword lengths apart. A throwback to when debates were not always conducted in a “gentlemanly manner.”

Today we can just whale away at each other on a keyboard.

Oh, as an added bonus, I’ll throw this in. If the situation should occur, be aware that the lady you might be flirting with online could really be a guy in a pool hall in Jersey City named Gus, who just won a bet with the guys by stringing you on.

It happens.

Have fun!

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

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 freezing level is higher and near surface level temperatures are higher melting the hail into liquid before impact.

North Atlantic Tropical activity remains at a minimum. From 1851 to 2019 there has been only one Hurricane to occur. A 100 MPH unnamed Hurricane which affected the Lesser Antilles in March 6- 9, 1908. Some sources also cite a pre-Civil War Tropical Storm also occurring, but others do not.

South Atlantic Tropical activity doesn’t have a sharp peak as the North Atlantic season does in September, however currently March has a thin lead in activity, as from 1957 – 2019 there have been 11 identified Tropical Systems, including the only known South Atlantic Hurricane – Hurricane Catarina which struck Brazil March 28, 2004.

Brazilian authorities at first were unwilling to admit that Catarina was a hurricane, for up until that time is was considered impossible for the South Atlantic to generate a tropical system, due to wind shear, cold sea surface temperatures and the lack of storm systems from which a storm could develop. With extensive damage from an impossible storm looking at them, they finally reluctantly agreed that maybe NOAA’s opinion was right.

Meanwhile, back in Alabama…

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 21:50 UTC or 4:50 P.M. CDT.

The Sun will shine directly on the equator and there will be nearly equal amounts of day and night throughout the world. This is also the first day of fall, or Autumnal Equinox, in the Southern Hemisphere.

Remember to get the eggs out, as it is said that you can stand eggs on their ends at the hour of equinox.

Days grow longer as the Sun’s angle above the noonday horizon rapidly increases from 49.0 degrees at the beginning of the month to 60.7 degrees at the end. Daylight increases from 11 hours 28 minutes on March 1 to 12 hours 30 minutes on March 31.

Sunrise and sunset times for Birmingham are:

March 1 Sunrise 6:16 AM Sunset 5:44 PM
March 15 Sunrise 6:58 AM Sunset 6:55 PM
March 31 Sunrise 6:36 AM Sunset 7:07 PM *Daylight Savings Time

Why the sunrise is later midmonth as opposed to the first and the last of the month is due to a combination of the quirks in the Earth’s orbit, it’s axial tilt and it being near equinox affecting the length of day based on sunlight as opposed to the measurement of time based on the Earth’s rotation.

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.

I don’t particularly care for Daylight Savings Time. I share the same opinion I found on the “Republic Of Lakotah” website:

When told the reason for daylight saving time the old Native American said…
“Only a white man would believe that you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket and sew it to the bottom of a blanket and have a longer blanket.”

Saint Patrick’s Day is Tuesday 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, at the beginning of the month Mercury is hidden deep in the sunrise.

He will emerge into the morning sky and by March 23 will reach his highest point in the sky in 2020 or Greatest Western Elongation, when he will be 27, 8 degrees above the eastern horizon,

There will be other Elongations as the year progresses, but, this will be the highest one.

He will reach his furthest distance from the Sun, or Aphelion on March 26, when he will be 43.4 million miles from our parent star.

Venus, magnitude –4.3, is moving from Pisces into Aries and is the big, bright “Evening Star” shining in the west during and after twilight.

She doesn’t set until more than two hours after the end of twilight.

Venus will reach her furthest distance from the Sun, or Perihelion, on March 19, when she will be 66.7 million miles from the Sun,

On March 24 she will reach her highest point in the sky or Greatest Eastern Elongation, when she will be 46.1 degrees above the western horizon,

In a telescope, Venus is growing larger and appears gibbous, being about 61% sunlit. She will continue to enlarge in size and wane in phase for the next three months — passing through “dichotomy”, or the half-lit phase, in late March and becoming a dramatic thin crescent in May.

Earth, magnitude -4.0, as viewed from the Sun, is in the Constellation Leo.

Mars, magnitude +1.1, above the handle of the Sagittarius Teapot, glows in the southeast before and during early dawn, He is located to the upper right of bright Jupiter.

Mars is slowly creeping toward Jupiter, by about half a degree per day.

Jupiter, magnitude –2.0, in Sagittarius, shines much brighter and whiter to the lower left of Mar in and during the early dawn.

Saturn, magnitude +0.7, in Sagittarius, is low in early dawn, lower left of Jupiter.

Uranus, magnitude 5.8, in southwestern Aries, hides in the vicinity of Venus right after dark.

Neptune is lost in the sunset and will pass behind the Sun on March 8.

4126 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of February 13, per NASA’s Exoplanet Archive http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/

March’s Full Moon will occur on March 9 at 6:48 AM CDT or 11:48 UTC. This full moon was known by early Native American tribes as “Worm Moon”. So called because the rains disturb the earthworms & they are seen wiggling around after the rains.

This moon has also been known as the Full Crow Moon, the Full Crust Moon, the Full Sap Moon, and the Lenten Moon.

The Moon will be at her closest distance from Earth or perigee at 221,906 miles on March 10.

New Moon will occur on March 23 at 10:28 AM CDT or 3:28 UTC March 24. The Moon will be located on the same side of the Earth as the Sun and will not be visible in the night sky. 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.

The Moon will be at her greatest distance from Earth or apogee at 252,705 miles on March 24.

Or perhaps I should be saying “Earth’s Primary Moon”, for the Earth’s gravitational field has temporarily captured Near-Earth Asteroid 2020 CD3, also known by the designation C26FED2, making it a temporary moon of the Earth.

2020 CD3 was discovered February 15, 2020 by astronomers Theodore Pruyne and Kacper Wierzchos as part of the Catalina Sky Survey, who spotted it and eliminated the possibility of it being a spent rocket booster, as proved to be the case with object J002E3, which discovered in September 2002, was thought to be an asteroid but proved to be Apollo 12’s third stage.

The Apollo-Saturn S-IVB third stages of Apollo 8, 10, and 11, passed by the Moon and are in solar orbits, while the third stage of Apollo 12 is in weird orbit that is sometimes a solar orbit and sometimes a distant Earth orbit.

The third stages of Apollo 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 were purposely crashed into the Moon to study the Moon’s interior using seismometers left by the previous missions.

Based on its preliminary orbit, 2020 CD3 may have been captured by the Earth around 2017–2018, and is expected to remain in Earth orbit until April 2020. It has a 47 day oval orbit that mostly is far outside the Moon’s orbit,

Don’t expect to see this second moon however, as the car sized rock is currently a faint 20th magnitude object, and heading away from the Earth.

This is the second temporary satellite of Earth to be discovered. Near-Earth Asteroid 2006-RH120, was discovered in 2006, and was in Earth orbit from September 2006 to June 2007.

It is possible for asteroids to be captured and enter a stable orbit and become a permanent moon, as is the case of the moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos.

Celestial carnivores are emerging from hibernation. After dinnertime at this time of year, five carnivore constellations are rising upright in a ragged row from the northeast to south. They’re all seen in profile with their noses pointed up and their feet (if any) to the right. These are The Great Bear, Ursa Major in the northeast, with the Big Dipper as its brightest part, Leo the Lion in the east, Hydra the Sea Serpent in the southeast, The Lesser Dog, Canis Minor higher in the south-southeast, and The Greater Dog, bright Canis Major in the south.

Sirius, shining at magnitude −1.46, the brightest night time star, blazes high in the south on the meridian, in Canis Major by about 8 or 9 p.m. Using binoculars, you will find a fuzzy spot 4 degrees south of Sirius, directly below it when the constellation is directly South. Four degrees is somewhat less than the width of a typical binocular’s field of view.

That dim little patch of gray haze is open star cluster Messier 41, a small gravitationally bound group of 100 stars about 2,200 light-years away, and moving away from us at 869 miles per second. Sirius, by comparison, is only 8.6 light-years away.

Canopus, shining at magnitude -0.72, making it the second-brightest star after Sirius, lies 36° almost due south of Sirius. That’s far enough south that it never appears above the horizon if you are above latitude 37° N, such as southern Virginia, southern Missouri and central California. Luckily we lie south of that latitude, with our horizon lying, in the case of Central Alabama, around latitude 33°.

Canopus is located in the southern constellation Carina, The Keel, part of the defunct constellation Argo Navis, the ship of Jason and the Argonauts who searched for the Golden Fleece.

The constellation of Argo was introduced in ancient Greece. However, due to the massive size of Argo Navis and the sheer number of stars that required separate designation, Nicolas Louis de Lacaille divided Argo into three sections in 1763, including Carina, the Hull or Keel, Puppis, the Poop Deck, and Vela the Sails.

In the 19th century, these three became established as separate constellations, and were formally included in the list of 88 modern IAU constellations in 1930.

Canopus, 313 light years away, crosses low above the horizon, due south just 21 minutes before Sirius and is worthy of a peak.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

This month’s ALERT meeting will be on March 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 NEW teleconference number is 1-866-231-8384 & and the conference code is
2056215645#.

Hope to see you there!

Mark / WD4NYL
Editor
ALERT Newsletter

Wd4nyl@bellsouth.net

Mark’s Weatherlynx
Weather Resource Database

www.freewebs.com/weatherlynx/