Hi everyone,
This month’s newsletter will be shorter than usual as well as being little tardy.
The ALERT website has been moved to a new more advanced and secure server at Cahaba Internet. This required a new callout and general email list, which are now operational.
The new website https://alert-alabama.org/blog/ is operational, but, “under construction”. Russell, KV4S, is working on the website features, and on transferring some of the old “relevant” content from the old site to the new site. Russell is looking for some images, preferably weather related, for the site. If you have any decent to high quality images, with a width of 1000 pixels and a height of 288 pixels please send them to Russell.
Congratulations are in order for the National Weather Service forecast offices in Birmingham, Huntsville, and Jackson, Mississippi, which have been awarded the Department of Commerce Silver Medals for their efforts during the tornado outbreak of April 27, 2011.
The
recognition specifies:
“The level of customer service and decision support leading up to and during the event certainly saved many lives while the follow-up storm surveys, analyses, and documentation were critical to local, state, and federal planning. The offices were widely praised for their accurate and life-saving warning messages that warned for catastrophic tornadoes with an average of more than 22 minutes advanced notice.”
TheSilver Medal is the second highest honorary award granted by the Department of Commerce.
In other news, the NWS will hold a Basic Spotter class in Hoover on Thursday January 31 at 6 PM, at the Hoover Public Safety Center, 2020 Valleydale Road, Hoover.
The NWS Office will have an open house Saturday February 16, 2013. The public is invited to attend from 11 AM to 5 PM. The Red Cross, Fire Department, ALERT and other groups will be represented.
More details will be given at our next ALERT meeting on Tuesday February 12.
An online NWS Graduate Spotter Webinar will be held on Tuesday February 26, at 6:30 PM. You can register by going to https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/519507641 Thanks to Teresa KQ4JC for this information.
Last but not least, the Birmingham Hamfest will take place Saturday and Sunday March 2 & 3. ALERT, HCARC and the NWS will have a table, and there will be a Skywarn forum, with a special guest speaker.
For further details, make sure to attend the February meeting!
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Mark’s Almanac
January is named for the Roman god Janus, the god of gates and doors, and so openings and beginnings.
January receives more sunlight than December, but the equilibrium between incoming solar heat and the heat radiated into space by the northern snowfields does not peak until late January and early February, six weeks after winter solstice. So the weather continues to cool, with January 8 – 20 being the coldest part of the year.
Typically in January there is a 53% chance of up to one inch of snow & a 25% chance of over one inch of snow.
With the exception of the southern tip of Nova Scotia, all of Canada and one half of the Continental US, or “CONUS”, are now covered with snow. Canada’s Hudson’s Bay is frozen, as is the ocean water between Baffin Island and Greenland. http://www.natice.noaa.gov/pub/ims/ims_gif/DATA/cursnow_usa.gif
Barometric pressure is highest in January.
In the night sky, Mercury is now hidden, lost in the Sun’s glare.
Venus, is getting lower each morning. Look for it above the southeast horizon about 30 minutes before sunrise.
Mars lies very low in the west-southwest in the fading glow of sunset.
Jupiter, in Taurus, is the first object visible in the east after sunset, and reach it’s highest in the south around 8 or 9 PM.
Saturn, in Libra, rises in the east-southeast around 1 or 2 a.m. As dawn begins to break, it’s fairly high in the southeast. This is a good time to grab a coat and telescope and take a look at Saturn’s rings. The rings are tilted 19
