ALERT NEWSLETTER – April 2014

Hi Everyone, I hope this finds you well and enjoying the spring weather and the flowers that are greeting you, reminding you that no matter how hard the winter may be, the spring always comes. With spring come our April Showers and storms of spring, which is Prime Time for ALERT and the Skywarn Community. I hope you have taken advantage of the training sessions that the NWS has provided for potential storm spotters and have brushed up on your emergency preparedness skills. There are a few reminders that should be pointed out. First, being that while the NWS endorses and encourages Storm SPOTTING, they do not endorse or encourage Storm CHASING. Now, I will be the first one to admit that the dividing line between the two can be blurry. Spotting with binoculars from the front porch in your bathrobe and bunny slippers is clearly spotting. Prepositioning oneself on a ridge ahead of a storm to report the conditions is spotting. Rushing 95 MPH to reach that ridge is borderline, and running folk off the road in an SUV with blinking lights, a roof sprouting a dozen antennae, anemometers and the sides covered with homemade bogus “National Weather Service Official Storm Chase Vehicle” stickers is definitely over the edge. There are many valid reasons why the NWS discourages storm chasing. It’s just too dangerous in Alabama to try. Even for those with experience, let alone the eager souls who know just enough to be on the dumb side. A measure of the danger involved is the fact that neither Jefferson County nor Shelby County “dispatch” storm spotters. This is due to liability reasons. Those who do deploy are doing so “at their own risk”. The terrain, the roads and the environment all work against storm chasing. Especially in the city, as you have to fight traffic, traffic lights and weirdly shaped streets. Add to this the fact that most of our tornadoes are rain wrapped, and you run the risk of having to answer the question “Ok I’ve just caught one, now what do I do with it?” Here are a few Golden Nuggets Of Wisdom to chew on if you intend to get up close and personal with a storm. 1. The best viewing angle for spotting a tornado, assuming the storm is moving in the usual SW to NE axis is from the SE looking NW. AT A SAFE DISTANCE. 2. Studies indicate that 80% of a tornado’s debris falls on the left side of the storm’s path. That’s not limited to old report cards and record albums either. If you are watching a storm vacuuming up 6th Ave South and you are sitting at 3rd Avenue South, you could be greeted by flying Fridgidaires, sailing Steinways or get hit by a Trane – air conditioner that is.     3. You don’t want to approach a storm from the North, as you will be guilty of “Core Punching” and will drive through the heart of the storm. Unless you like slipping and sliding in blinding rain, being pelted by hail or perhaps being caught by the storm you are chasing, I would avoid doing this. Take it from someone who has done so. (Innocently trying to get to the NWS and managing to have perfect location and speed to have to cut through the heart of every storm in a 30-mile long squall line.) 4. If the streets are flooded don’t assume that there is actually a street still there. Also, don’t assume that just because the Volkswagen in front of you made it across, that you can also. Sitting there three hours waiting for a tow truck to arrive is not fun, especially if you have just come from the NWS & the radio is still spurting “don’t cross waters of unknown depth. Of course, this I learned the hard way. 5. Beware of straight-line winds. Straight-line winds can blow siding, arcing power lines and all sorts of various crap and crud at you in an uncomfortable fashion, if you are in the wrong place at the right time. Yes, I did that too. “A wise man learns from observation, a fool from experience” – Olde Goat 6. Never be on the right side of a right turning thunderstorm. 7. If you on the road beware that you may encounter a debris field. In addition to nails, broken glass, lumber & siding, there may be live power lines down. 8. If you happen upon a community that has been struck, you will not be prepared for what you will encounter. Remember that all of the pictures you see on TV of tornado damage are taken AFTER the coroner has done his work. At the risk of being completely gross, they don’t show bodies and body parts scattered all over creation. Again, you will not be prepared for the gore you could see. Also, unless you are a trained First Responder and know how to deal with the injured, you may be hurting rather than helping. So you will do all involved a favor by just staying out of the area. 9. If you do enter a disaster zone, remember that the people there have been traumatized. There are certain things you should not be saying, innocent though it may seem. “I know how you feel”. Unless your barn was once blown to Bogalusa, no you don’t. “Whoa dude! Look at the devastation! Dude this is TOTALLY EPIC!!! Gotta get this on YouTube!!!” Some beefy guy whose house was just blown away may not appreciate the enthusiasm and might “thump” you. “The Finger of God has moved mightily through this community, Praise Be”. Folk don’t appreciate having their 5 year old daughter asking “Daddy dat funny looking man said Jesus blowed Grandma away. Daddy, what for to did Jesus blow Grandma away?” It may sound silly, I know, but these things do actually happen. For more information on do’s and don’ts see: Storm Chaser Ethics by Alan Moller http://www.cimms.ou.edu/~stumpf/cethics.html Storm Chasing With Safety, Courtesy, And Responsibility by Charles A Doswell III, National Severe Storms Laboratory http://www.cimms.ou.edu/~doswell/Chasing2.html   All this said and done, remember that ALERT’s main contribution to the Skywarn community is done at K4NWS and with the Spotterchat system. When you respond to callouts, you are helping save lives. Lives you may never know. But, by you’re having been there a family may be saved, children will still have parents and a parent will still have their child. What you do makes a difference. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. The Evolution Of The FAA Phonetic Alphabet Special Thanks To Roger KK4UDU For This Submission! A phonetic alphabet is a list of words used to identify letters in a message transmitted by radio or telephone. Spoken words from an approved list are substituted for letters. For example, the word “Army” would be “Alfa Romeo Mike Yankee” when spelled in the phonetic alphabet. This practice helps to prevent confusion between similar sounding letters, such as “m” and “n”, and to clarify communications that may be garbled during transmission. An early version of the phonetic alphabet appears in the 1913 edition of The Bluejackets’ Manual. Found in the Signals section, it was paired with the Alphabetical Code Flags defined in the International Code. Both the meanings of the flags (the letter which they represent) and their names (which make up the phonetic alphabet) were selected by international agreement. Later editions included the Morse code signal as well. The words chosen to represent some letters have changed since the phonetic alphabet was introduced. When these changes occur, they are made by international agreement. The current phonetic alphabet was adopted in 1957. Military Phonetic Alphabet Letter 1957-Present Morse Code 1913 1927 1938 World War II A Alfa (or Alpha) . _ Able Affirmative Afirm Afirm (Able) B Bravo _ . . . Boy Baker Baker Baker C Charlie _ . _ . Cast Cast Cast Charlie D Delta _ . . Dog Dog Dog Dog E Echo . Easy Easy Easy Easy F Foxtrot . . _ . Fox Fox Fox Fox G Golf _ _ . George George George George H Hotel . . . . Have Hypo Hypo How I India . . Item Interrogatory Int Int (Item) J Juliett . _ _ _ Jig Jig Jig Jig K Kilo _ . _ King King King King L Lima . _ . . Love Love Love Love M Mike _ _ Mike Mike Mike Mike N November _ . Nan Negative Negat Negat (Nan) O Oscar _ _ _ Oboe Option Option Option (Oboe) P Papa . _ _ . Pup Preparatory Prep Prep (Peter) Q Quebec _ _ . _ Quack Quack Queen Queen R Romeo . _ . Rush Roger Roger Roger S Sierra . . . Sail Sail Sail Sugar T Tango _ Tare Tare Tare Tare U Uniform . . _ Unit Unit Unit Uncle V Victor . . . _ Vice Vice Victor Victor W Whiskey . _ _ Watch William William William X X-ray _ . . _ X-ray X-ray X-ray X-ray Y Yankee _ . _ _ Yoke Yoke Yoke Yoke Z Zulu _ _ . . Zed Zed Zed Zebra Two other Alphabets of note are: The ARRL alphabet per the ARRL – The Radio Amateur’s Handbook 25th edition (1948), (which Cost $2.00): Adam, Baker, Charlie, David. Edward, Frank, George, Henry, Ida, John, King, Lewis, Mary, Nancy, Otto, Peter, Queen, Robert, Susan, Thomas, Union, Victor, William, X-ray, Young, Zebra And the similar Police Phonetic Alphabet from California: Adam, Boy, Charles, David, Edward, Frank, George, Henry, Ida, John, King, Lincoln, Mary, Nora, Ocean, Paul, Queen, Robert, Sam, Tom, Unit, Victor, William, X-ray, Yellow, Zebra Of course, we use the ITU Phonetic Alphabet, which is also the 1957 military alphabet given in the table above. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Mark’s Almanac The Romans called April “Aprilis”, probably from the word “aperire”, which means, “to open”. This time of year being when buds open. It was originally the second month of the Roman calendar, before Roman King Numa Pompilius added January & February in 700 BC. Freezing weather comes to an end as Birmingham’s average last freeze is April 1, while Tuscaloosa’s was March 26. The record for the latest freeze date is April 21, 1953 for Tuscaloosa and April 23, 1986 for Birmingham. April is less wet than March & rain becomes more localized and less widespread in nature. The sun heats the lower atmosphere near the ground and since the upper atmosphere is still cold, the warm air rises, reaches the dew point line, forms clouds & then it may rain. April is the first time in the spring season that favors local convective activity, which is why you have “April Showers”. April is peak tornado month, with wide scale outbreaks possible. There are 2