ALERT NEWSLETTER — October 2007 Vol. 1 No. 4 http://www.alert-alabama.org

Hi everybody and welcome the October ALERT Newsletter.At last months meeting the proposed bylaws were read and then was posted on both the email list and website. They will be discussed and hopefully voted on during our next meeting. So far I have had very little comment or suggestions concerning the proposed bylaws. The suggestions that have been made will be discussed along with any from the floor at the meeting.

One feature of last months meeting was a teleconference concerning weather chat for ALERT and the Storm Spotting Community. I think this is a great opportunity for the ham and non-ham spotters to network together, feel and be involved and hopefully we can fill in the coverage holes that now exist.

More information & the free software can be obtained at http://www.wxspots.com/Speaking of teleconferencing, we are going to try and include this as a general feature during the October meeting as well, for those who are unable to attend the meeting.I’ll consider this an experimental feature for now, for there is an inherent danger in that its a lot more convenient to stay at home than to actually attend a meeting in person. And I don’t want out physical attendance to start dwindling because of this feature.Plus, it’s very easy for one to check in and then return to watching the Laverne & Shirley Marathon on the tube and not pay a lick of attention to what is going on in the meeting. In my minds eye I can see someone coming to a meeting and wondering why we are all wearing kilts and when asking why, he finds that he not only voted for the change during the teleconference, but records indicate that he actually made the proposal.Seeing, that I don’t have legs suitable for a kilt, if you do “tune in” try not to “tune out” after you do.So, we will see how the teleconferencing goes and if it has good results we will keep it, and if not, then we’ll not. <h1 align="left"style=”text-align: left”> …………………………………………………………………………………….

Mark’s Almanac

October, named after the eighth month on the Roman calendar, is a mild and dry month, the driest of the year, in fact. And, it is a sunny month with the amount of possible sunshine reaching the ground in the 60% or greater range.Weather shifts from autumn pattern to revisiting the summer pattern and back again. The Azores-Bermuda High shifts Eastward into the Atlantic, but, leaves weaken high pressure centers over the Virginias, which still try to block out approaching fronts.October is a very good month to check out you equipment and brush up on your emergency action plans and procedures and training for the upcoming Secondary Severe Weather Season, which looms ahead in November. One should check the NWS website http://www.srh.noaa.gov/bmx/skywarn/index.php for Storm Spotter classes and then attend them, for our training and knowledge fades with time, as the other things of life crowd in demanding our attention.October is usually a quite month for tornadoes, with a 40% decrease in activity. Nationwide an average of 28 tornadoes occur in October and those tornadoes are usually weak.Our Hurricane threat continues, with hurricane activity increasing during the first half of the month, concentrating in the Caribbean, both from formation in the Caribbean and from the long track Cape Verde hurricanes, which enter the Caribbean. And, we still have the little “gifts” that the Gulf of Mexico occasionally will provide. But after the second half of the month the activity will begin a steady decrease. 28% of the year’s hurricanes occur in October.Towards the end of the month fall is definitely here, with leaves approaching their peak fall colors and, we find ourselves needing to dig out a sweater, as a chill is in the evening air.And, just when you think the cool weather has arrived to stay, “Indian Summer” will try to appear and you will find yourself shedding that old mothball-smelling sweater again and wondering why the weather is acting so crazy. The exact date when Indian Summer arrives varies with latitude and attitude, and technically speaking doesn’t occur until “Squaw Winter” or the first frost arrives. The earliest frosts have occurred by October 17, but usually wait until November. October’s Full Moon is “Hunters Moon” in Native American folklore. …………………………………………………………………………………….

The Didjaknow Department

There are 2000 thunderstorms occurring somewhere in the world at any given moment.At any given time there are 100 lightning strokes occurring every second.If you take a general coverage receiver, take a yagi or quad and point it towards Jupiter & tune around the neighborhood of 10 MHz and you can hear the static crashes from thunderstorms occurring on Jupiter.Take an AM radio, tune it to 530 and by listening to the sferics or static crashes you can determine the type of thunderstorm (cellular or linear) and with practice, the approximate range or distance of the storm from you. Take an old portable TV, with rabbit ears, tune it to channel 2 or 3 and turn the brightness down until you can’t see the snow, and if a tornado draws near, the static discharge of the tornado will turn the screen white.That said and done, if a tornado is THAT close to you, you should have already hauled it to your shelter, instead of fiddling with a Philco, or, perhaps might I suggest, be at the NWS, having responded to the ALERT callout.……………………………………………………………………………………….This month’s meeting will be on October 9 at 7PM at the National Weather ServiceForecast office at the Shelby County AirportI hope to see you there.Until then,73 and take care.MarkWD4NYLPRESIDENTwww.freewebs.com/weatherlynx/