ALERT Newsletter – August 2012

Hi Everyone,

I hope this newsletter finds you doing well.

As I type this I am watching the Summer Olympic games.

I’ve always enjoyed the Olympics. I toyed with the idea of participating myself this year, still being a prime specimen, but, I thought I would sit it out this time. After all, a storm might arise and I certainly wouldn’t want to miss that.

One of my favorite moments was watching Queen Elizabeth parachute in with James Bond during the opening ceremonies.

Please resist the temptation to say there are a few politicians that you wish would also take a flying leap. Don’t do it. Resist the urge.

Take a deep breath as we continue.

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Dual Pole Radar Sources

During last month’s meeting we were treated to a very interesting presentation by Kevin Laws on the new Dual Pole Radar system and it’s data interpretation.

Dual pole radar, which by the way, Bing says is available at Walmart.Com (go to http://www.bing.com/ type in “dual pole radar” and see) is new technology which everyone interested in meteorology should familiarize themselves.

The best source I’ve found for basic training is the NWS training sitehttp://www.wdtb.noaa.gov/courses/dualpol/outreach/.

I won’t go into the details of interpretation of dual pole data, as this is all still very new to me. Currently I’m practicing and learning with every storm I can grab. A major challenge I ran into was finding a source for dual pole radar, which I could use for practice and learning.

I knew Gibson Ridge had this information available for a fee, but I’m a tightwad, and wanted a free source. After searching endlessly I finally found two sources.

The first source is the experimental NWS site http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ridge2/ridgenew2/?rid=BMX&pid=N0Q&lat=33&lon=-87&zoom=8

This site gives you access to the following features:

Digital Hydrometeor Classification

High Resolution Base Reflectivity

Base Reflectivity

Storm Relative Mean Radial Velocity

High Resolution Radial Velocity

Differential Reflectivity

1 hr. Accumulation

Composite Reflectivity

Echo Tops

Storm Total Accumulation

Vertical Integrated Liquid

Storm Total Accumulation (dual pole)

This site refreshes every 300 seconds and you can permanently set the default location to Birmingham. The display is zoomable and features street level mapping.

It is a good site, but is still experimental. Sometimes it is down, the resolution seems a little low and there are some features it currently doesn’t include, such as Correlation Coefficient.

The next source I found, AWeather, fills in these gaps, but lacks some of the features of the preceding site. So they complement each other hand in glove.

AWeather http://lug.rose-hulman.edu/proj/aweather is a free real time weather program, which features detailed Level-II NEXRAD radar.

This site has the following features:

Reflectivity

Velocity

Spectrum Width

Differential Reflectivity

Correlation Coefficient

Differential Phase

Selectable Isosurface for 3-D storm displays.

Up to 10 radar tilts

This program automatically updates, has warning overlays and zoom features.

It doesn’t have street level mapping. In fact its map is very detail deficient. However it makes up for these drawbacks with very sharp resolution

I’m using both of these sources along with my old standby College of Dupage Radar http://weather.cod.edu/analysis_old/paulradar.pl?BMX

I use College of Dupage instead of pulling the radar directly off the NWS site. This site has more features than the NWS site and when the NWS site jams up due to everyone in Central Alabama trying to view the radar at once, COD radar will still be up, operational and FAST.

Try these sources out and practice using them now, and when the severe weather season resumes you will be ahead of the curve in storm tracking.

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The Indian Chief

It was autumn, and the Indians on the remote reservation asked their new Chief if the winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was a new Indian Chief in a modern society, he had never been taught the old secrets, and when he looked at the sky, he couldn’t tell what the weather was going to be. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he replied to his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect wood to be prepared. But also being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked,

“Is the coming winter going to be cold?”

“It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold indeed,” the meteorologist at the weather service responded.

So the Chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more wood in order to be prepared. A week later he called the National Weather Service again.

“Is it going to be a very cold winter?”

“Yes,” the man at National Weather Service again replied, “it’s going to be a very cold winter.”

The Chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of wood they could find. Two weeks later he called the National Weather Service again.

“Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?”

“Absolutely,” the man replied. “It’s going to be one of the coldest winters ever.”

“How can you be so sure?” the Chief asked.

The weatherman replied, “The Indians are collecting wood like crazy!”

From Teresa KQ4JC

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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 & was lengthened to 31 days, to equal Julius Caesars month of July.

August is hot and humid & 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 storms forming off of 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.

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

Looking skyward, Mercury has now disappeared into the glare of the Sun.

Venus and Jupiter shine brilliantly in the East before and during dawn. They are now moving away from each other. As with last month, the best time to view them is an hour before local sunrise. Venus is the lower of the pair.

A small telescope will reveal the four largest of Jupiter’s 66 known moons changing position nightly as they follow their orbits around the gas giant.

Mars and Saturn are low in the West-Southwest at dusk. Saturn is sitting very near the bright star Spica and Mars will pass between the pair on August 13th and 14th.

Earthlings’ eyes will be looking toward Mars on August 5th as the US space probe Curiosity is schedule to land inside Gale Crater among the dunes of the Red Planet at 12:31 AM CDT.

Uranus lies at the Cetus-Pisces border, while Neptune is in Aquarius high in the Southern sky before the first light of dawn.

Once in a Blue Moon we can actually have a Blue Moon and in August 2012 we have this treat.

What is a Blue Moon? There are actually two definitions of a “Blue Moon”. The traditional Farmers’ Almanac definition is “the third full moon in a season of four full moons”. In a 1946 Sky & Telescope Magazine article, Blue Moon was misidentified this as “a second full moon occurring in a single month.” Fifty years later the magazine discovered the error and published a correction, but by then the definition had stuck. NASA still defines a Blue Moon as “a second full moon occurring in a single month.”

Why it as called “Blue” is not exactly carved in stone either. Some say it is because the moon actually did turn blue due to the volcanic ash in the atmosphere after the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883.

Others say the name was used because the extra full moon interfered with the calculation of the dates of Lent & Easter, which are based on the full moon. The extra moon was called a “Belewe Moon”. “Belewe” is an Old English word that can mean either “betrayer” or “blue”. The clergy would have to tell the people not to include the second “Belewe Moon, or they might mistakenly continue fasting for another month in accordance with the season of Lent.

It was probably intended to be called the “betrayer moon”, but, it became corrupted into the name “Blue” which is used today.

August’s first full moon is “Fruit Moon” in Cherokee Folklore & “Women’s Moon” among the Choctaw. This will occur August 1 at 10:27 PM CDT.

August’s second full moon or the “Blue Moon” will occur August 31 at 8:58 AM CDT.

Nameless New Moon will occur at 10:54 AM CDT on August 17.

If you want to see meteors, August is your month, as the Perseid Meteor Shower peaks on August 12, with 50 to 60 meteors per hour. This shower ranks as the best of the best and if you can get away from city lights you should have a good show.

Last but certainly not the least; don’t forget that August is National Goat Cheese Month.

This Olde Goat told you so.

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When you get a chance, “talk up ALERT”. Let people know who we are, what we do & why they should be involved. For YOU are the best recruitment tool we have.

This month’s meeting will be on August 14 at 7PM at the National Weather Service

Forecast office at the Shelby County Airport. Dues are still due, so if you didn’t pay your dues last month, bring that bag of money with you and keep your membership current.

I hope to see you there.

Mark / WD4NYL

Training Officer

ALERT

www.freewebs.com/weatherlynx