ALERT NEWSLETTER – August 2021

Hi everyone,

I hope this finds you safe and well as we enter these midsummer days. As you bake and broil in the sun, remember that fall is just a little over a month away, and eventually the heat and humidity will retreat towards the tropical realms from whence it came and in about 6 months we will be griping and wishing we could borrow one of these days for a welcomed winter thaw.

Until then hug an air conditioner and remember to stay hydrated.

As mentioned in last month’s newsletter ALERT dues are due.

For information on where to send the dues and also for the form if you are not a member and would like to join, visit our blog at https://alert-alabama.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/Documents/alertapp.pdf

Our next ALERT meeting will be on August 10.

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New Thunderstorm NWS Warning Category For Wireless Emergency Alerts

Thunderstorms can be one of the most dramatic sights of nature, with hail, high winds, torrential rains, and lightning crisscrossing the sky or striking things uncomfortably nearby.

All thunderstorms are dangerous, but not all are severe. Thunderstorms must meet certain criteria to qualify for the “severe” rating and warrant a warning.

Also, not all severe thunderstorms are the same, for different storms may pose differing threats. Some storms may present hail threats, while others have greater wind damage potential. Flooding is the primary concern with all.

To help better convey the severity and potential impacts from warned storms, the NWS will, effective August 2, begin adding a “damage threat” tag to Severe Thunderstorm Warnings, similar to those used with Tornado and Flash Flood Warnings.

There will be three categories of damage threat for Severe Thunderstorm Warnings.

The categories, in order of highest to lowest damage threat, are “Destructive”, Considerable”, and base.

The criteria for a “Destructive” damage threat are hail at least 2.75 inches in diameter (baseball-sized) and/or 80 mph thunderstorm winds. Warnings with this tag will automatically activate a Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) on smartphones within the warned area.

The criteria for a “Considerable” damage threat are hail at least 1.75 inches in diameter (golf ball-sized) and/or 70 mph thunderstorm winds. These warnings will not activate a WEA.

The criteria for a baseline or “base” severe thunderstorm warning remain unchanged and is hail 1.00 inch (quarter-sized) and/or 58 mph thunderstorm winds. This also will not activate a WEA. When no damage threat tag is present, damage is expected to be at the base level.

One item that may seem conspicuously missing is the word “lightning”.

Lightning output is not a basis for determining storm severity. As a forecaster once jokingly said after an overly excited, hopefully well-intentioned operator tried to pass a report of lightning “it lightnings during thunderstorms, that’s why they are called thunderstorms.”

There are only two types of lightning reports that are particularly useful from a storm spotter point of view.

1. If a storms lightning output suddenly spikes with continuous lightning like a bad florescent lightbulb, then it is a clear indication of the storm rapidly intensifying. That report is worth passing down the line.
2. “Green Lightning” is not lightning at all but is the power grid being damaged. Random transformers blowing isn’t overly significant. IF is continuous, widespread or seems to be displaying movement, then it is a clear indication that high winds are tearing at the power grid and with a definitive, concentrated movement, that a possible tornado is on the ground. This should be passed along also.

Skywarn Net Control stations, which in my opinion should have NWS Basic & Advanced Storm Spotter training so they can better understand the reports they are receiving, should understand the significance of these scenarios so that they don’t over filter reports. Filtering useless reports is an obvious necessity, over filtering valid reports is not.

Random lightning strikes, unless a structure had been hit, are not significant reports.

The new destructive category is designed to alert the public to the dangers and to urge them to take cover, just as you would during a tornado. Remembering that straight line winds can easily cause tornado type damage, even if not carrying the same strange mystique as the word “tornado” does.

Since I mentioned the word “tornado”, I’ll mention the new Tornado Terminology, in case
you need to explain the differences in meaning to others.

A TORNADO WATCH means “Weather conditions could lead to the formation of severe storms and tornadoes. BE PREDARED: Know your safe location. Be ready to act quickly if a Warning is issued or you suspect that a tornado is approaching.”

A TORNADO WARNING means “A tornado has been spotted or indicated by weather radar, meaning a tornado is occurring or is expected soon. TAKE ACTION: There is imminent danger to life and property. Immediately seek refuge in the safest location possible.”

A TORNADO EMERGENCY means “An exceedingly rare situation with a severe threat to human life and catastrophic damage due to a confirmed violent tornado. TAKE ACTION. There is imminent danger to life and property. Immediately seek refuge in the safest location possible”

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Alabama’s Hidden Treasure

Around 10,000 years ago the Earth was deep into the Ice Age. One of several, interspaced by periods of global warming in which all the polar ice melted away. We technically are still in the Ice Age because the polar ice caps still exist, though they are shrinking at a troubling rate.

Climate change is not a myth. Climate stability is the big myth, for the Earth, whether due to geological, astronomical, or biological processes or influences, has never had a stable climate, and never will, but, a climate that has always changed, sometimes very dramatically, if not traumatically.

10,000 years ago, glaciers covered much of North America and Europe. Alabama, though colder, and much windier than today, due to its southern latitude remained ice free. Species and lifeforms that perished during the glaciation elsewhere survived in Alabama. It is almost as if a natural wildlife refuge, reminiscent of a lost continent developed in Alabama. In fact, Alabama is what
what scientists call a “refugia”, defined as “an area where conditions have enabled a species or a community of species to survive after extinction in surrounding areas.”

One of the best kept secrets of Alabama is the Mobile River Basin. This basin which is composed of major rivers such as the Tombigbee, Warrior, Cahaba, Coosa, Tallapoosa & Alabama, and thousands of creeks feeding into it form the largest inland delta system in the United States, second only to the Mississippi in how much water it dumps into the Gulf of Mexico.

This river system, the fourth largest in the country in terms of water flow, stretches from the northern edge of Alabama to the Gulf, draining parts of four states, and encompassing hundreds of thousands of acres of forest, from Appalachian hardwood stands to haunted cypress swamps and has along with its wetlands, floodplain forests and estuary, survived with its biological community mostly intact.

It is one of the most biologically diverse spots on the planet, rivalling the Amazon Basin, and subject to the same oppressive heat, humidity, rainfall, and sunlight.

Alabama, which is still 77 percent forest covered, is home to 54 species of orchids, as many as 20 different kinds of carnivorous plants floating around in the swamps, more species of flesh-eating pitcher plants than can be found anywhere else on Earth and 20 different varieties of oak trees.

Alabama is home to more species of freshwater fish, mussels, snails, turtles, and crawfish than any other state. There are 350 species of freshwater fish in Alabama, about one-third of all species known in the entire nation.

The system’s delta, the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, has 18 turtle species. More than any other river system on Earth, including the Amazon, Nile, Mekong or Yangtze Rivers and their deltas.

The Cahaba River is home to 150 species of fish, more species than you find in the entire state of California. Roughly one-sixth of all the freshwater fish species known in the United States live this single Alabama river that is just 194 miles long.

Then there is the wildlife, from deer, bobcats, cougars, bears, wild boar, opossums, raccoons, alligators, and a paradise of birds, that can even be seen taking flight on radar as “bird rings”.

Some researchers believe that the Red Hills region, which surrounds the town of Monroeville in central Alabama, represents a biological oasis unlike anything remaining in North America, with perhaps dozens of unknown species ranging from ants and spiders to wasps, salamanders, and plants.
This region, which has been appropriately called “The American Amazon”, are the remnants of a world that existed before the Ice Age froze and starved species out of existence elsewhere.

 

 

 

Unfortunately, like the South American Amazon, it is slowly dying. This due to industrialization, land reclamation, pollution, and a host of other manmade ills.

Because of this nearly half of all extinctions in the continental United States since the 1800s have occurred in the Mobile River Basin, according to records maintained by Endangered Species International and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

There have been more extinctions in Alabama than in the surrounding states of Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee combined.

Part of the reason there have been so many extinctions is because there were so many rare species here to begin with.

What can be done to slow or halt this is for minds and wisdom greater than my own.

Taxes and fines have had limited effect elsewhere, and eventually become counterproductive sources of resentment as dollars eventually outweigh conservation in the value system of society.

Perhaps educating the public as to what they still possess and what they are losing so that they
actually, care is the key.

Let’s hope that some will take notice and will “have the will to make a way”, for this is a rich heritage that is very much worth saving.

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Mark’s Almanac

August was originally named “Sextilis”, the sixth Roman month. It was renamed August in honor of Caesar Augustus and lengthened to 31 days, to equal Julius Caesar’s month of July.

August is hot and humid and summer temperatures remain at or near their summer peak.

The rapid vegetation growth of spring is over, and, since conditions are now perfect for the growth of mold, fungi & germs, plants have a “used” look, which is enhanced if rainfall is scarce.

In August the choir of cicadas whine in the afternoon & towards the end of the month the big Yellow Sulphur Butterflies will begin heading to the South-Southeast, giving hints of their soon upcoming fall migration & cats will begin to hint of growing their winter coats.

Hurricane breeding grounds in August are the Atlantic, with Low Latitude “Cape Verde” storms forming off Africa crossing the Ocean and either threatening the Eastern Seaboard or striking the Leeward Islands, entering the Caribbean and then striking the Yucatan, or the Western or Northern Gulf coast. Breeding grounds also include the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.

August is second only to September in the number of Tropical Storms and Hurricanes. From 1851 to 2020 there have been 399 Tropical Storms and 247 Hurricanes, 79 of which made landfall in the United States, the most notable storms being Hurricanes Camille and Katrina in 1969 and 2005, which devastated Mississippi and Louisiana and Hurricane Andrew which ravaged South Florida in 1992.

21% of a year’s Hurricanes occur in August, however, 85 to 95% of land falling Hurricanes have not occurred by August 15.

Days grow shorter as the Sun’s angle above the noonday horizon steadily decreases from 74.4 degrees at the beginning of the month to 65.0 degrees at the month’s end. Daylight decreases from 13 hours 48 minutes on August 1 to 12 hours 54 minutes on August 31.

Sunrise and sunset times for Birmingham are:

August 1 Sunrise 6:00 AM Sunset 7:47 PM
August 15 Sunrise 6:09 AM Sunset 7:34 PM
August 31 Sunrise 6:20 AM Sunset 7:14 PM

Looking skyward, at the beginning of the month, the Sun, magnitude -26.7 is in Cancer.

Mercury is hidden by the glare of the Sun and will pass behind the Sun on August 1.

Venus, magnitude –3.9, in Leo, shines brightly low due west during twilight. She sets around twilight’s end.

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

Mars is hidden deep in the sunset.

Dwarf Planet Ceres, magnitude 9.1, in Taurus The Bull.

Jupiter, magnitude –2.8, in Aquarius, shines in the east-southeast after dark. He is approaching his closest approach to the Earth or “opposition” which he will reach on August 19.

The giant planet’s face will be fully illuminated by the Sun. It will be brighter than any other time of the year and will be visible all night long. This is the best time to view and photograph Jupiter and its moons. A good pair of binoculars should allow you to see Jupiter’s four largest moons, appearing as bright dots on either side of the planet. A medium-sized telescope should be able to show you some of the details in Jupiter’s cloud bands. A 4-inch telescope will reveal the Great Red Spot, if the atmospheric seeing is sharp and steady, and using a light blue or green filter helps the visibility a bit.

Located at 22 degrees south latitude. The Great Red Spot is persistent high-pressure center that has producing a gigantic storm, which has been trapped between two jet streams for at least 365 years. The storm, which is twice the size of Earth and sports winds peaking at 400 mph, is an anticyclone swirling around a center of high atmospheric pressure that makes it rotate in the opposite sense of hurricanes on Earth, but, not unlike tropical cyclones of the southern hemisphere. It crosses the Earth side of the planet about every 9 hours 56 minutes. But, since it drifts east or west in Jupiter’s atmosphere somewhat irregularly, the timing can vary.

Why the Great Red Spot is red, is a mystery still to be solved.

Saturn, magnitude +0.2, in Capricornus, shines in the east-southeast after dark, glowing yellowish 19° or about two fists at arm’s length to brighter Jupiter’s upper right.

Saturn reaches his closest approach to Earth or “opposition” on August 1st. The ringed planet will be at its closest approach to Earth and its face will be fully illuminated by the Sun. It will be brighter than any other time of the year and will be visible all night long. This is the best time to view and photograph Saturn and its moons. A medium-sized or larger telescope will allow you to see Saturn’s rings and a few of its brightest moons.

At opposition Saturn’s rings shine brighter as compared to Saturn’s globe than at other times of the year. This is due to the solid ring particles backscattering light towards the Earth like highway reflective markers since the Sun is almost directly behind the Earth. This is called the Seeliger Effect.

The dusty surfaces of the Moon and Mars also do this at Full Moon and the Martian opposition.

The tilt of Saturn’s rings continues to decrease and is currently 18° to our line of sight. From 2016 through 2018 they were at their maximum tilt of 26°. In four years, the rings will disappear from view as they will lie edge on as viewed from Earth.

Uranus, magnitude 5.7, in Aries, is high in the east-southeast before dawn begins.

Neptune, magnitude 7.8, at the Aquarius-Pisces border crosses high in the south in the early-morning hours.

Dwarf Planet Pluto, with his five moons shines at a dim 14.3 in Sagittarius.

Dwarf Planet 136108 Haumea, its ring, and moons Hiʻiaka and Namaka, shines at a faint magnitude of 17.4 in Bootes.

Dwarf Planet 136472 Makemake with his moon faintly shines at magnitude 17.3 in Coma Berenices.

Dwarf Planet 136199 Eris and her moon Dysnomia is barely visible in the most powerful telescopes at magnitude 18.8 in Cetus the Sea Monster.

The moon will be at Apogee or its farthest distance from Earth on August 1, when she will be 251,290 miles from Earth.

New Moon will occur at 8:51 AM CDT or 13:51 UTC on August 8. 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 Perseid Meteor Shower peaks on the night of August 12 & 13, with 50 to 60 meteors per hour. This shower, produce by debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle, which was discovered in 1862, ranks as the best of the best, famous for producing bright meteors. The shower runs annually from July 17 to August 24. It peaks this year on the night of August 12 and the morning of August 13.

The waxing crescent moon will set early in the evening, leaving dark skies for this year’s shower and even the fainter meteors should be visible if you are in a dark, non-light polluted area. Best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Perseus but can appear anywhere in the sky.

First Quarter Moon will occur August 15, with the visible portion of the Moon pointing West.

The moon will be at Perigee or her closest approach to Earth on August 17, when she will be 229,365 miles from Earth.

August’s Full Moon will occur August 22 at 12:02 UTC or 7:02 AM CDT. August’s Full Moon was called “Fruit Moon” in Cherokee Folklore, “Women’s Moon” among the Choctaw, “Sturgeon Moon” by the Algonquin because the large sturgeon fish of the Great Lakes and other major lakes were more easily caught at this time of year. This moon has also been known as the Green Corn Moon and the Grain Moon and at one time was called “Dog Days Moon” by the Colonial Americans.

This will be a “Blue Moon”.

There are two definitions of “Blue Moon”. One being when two Full Moons occur during the same month, the other being a “seasonal Blue Moon”, when four Full Moons occur during a solstice to equinox season instead of the usual three.

This August’s Full Moon is the third of four full moons in this season, so it is a “blue moon”. This rare calendar event only happens once every few years, giving rise to the term, “once in a blue moon.”

Blue moons occur on average once every 2.7 years.

The moon will be at Apogee or its farthest distance from Earth on August 29, when she will be 251,096 miles from Earth.

Last Quarter Moon will occur August 30, with the visible portion of the Moon pointing East.

4455 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of July 26, per NASA’s
Exoplanet Archive http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/

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This month’s meeting will be on August 10 at 7PM and will be done remotely as was last month’s meeting.

Hope to “see” you there!

Mark / WD4NYL
Editor
ALERT Newsletter
wd4nyl@bellsouth.net