Hello and happy Tuesday everyone. Well, it looks like we’ve got another quiet day on tap around the nation. Nothing too exciting to talk about. No major hurricanes, no major severe weather outbreaks and no weather related hiccups to spoil your favorite summer activity. Just a few showers and storms bubbling up during the PM hours from the Great Lakes to the Great Basin. We also have a few T-storms blossoming across the Florida Peninsula, which in fact, scrubbed the Shuttle Discovery launch earlier today. They will make another attempt at it again tomorrow, but the forecast for Cape Canaveral calls for a 20% to 30% of storms, so we’ll see. By the way, do you know why space shuttles launch in Florida vs. Alaska? Good Question. It has a lot to do with physics, think like a bicycle wheel!
Here’s a good explanation from Northwestern University:
http://www.qrg.northwestern.edu/projects/vss/docs/navigation/2-why-launch-from-equator.html
Simply put, as the earth rotates, the equator is moving faster than the points near the poles, therefore it takes less energy, less force, to propel a rocket into space. Neat huh!
Don’t forget to check back here daily for the latest and greatest weather and science related tidbits/factoids. We enjoy this stuff and don’t hesitate to ask questions or perhaps even send us a photo that you’d like to share. You can send them to me at: tnelson@weathernation.net
In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your Tuesday, ok!
Hello and happy Monday everyone, I hope you enjoyed your weekend. Can you believe that this is the last full week of August? It seems like the summer just got started and we’re already talking about football… Maybe it’s just the Brett Favre talk that has me thinking fall.
Weather Headlines over the weekend included heavy surf along the East Coast from Hurricane Bill, which proved to be deadly along the Maine coastline. Unfortunately a family of three lost their lives as a large wave washed them out to sea while they were spectating. Mother nature can be quite a spectacle, but there’s something to be said about the power of nature… we should always respect it.
This picture was taken by Will Wilkens (severestudios.com) in the Mojave Desert
The weather maps are fairly quiet around the nation today. Noteworthy storms may fire up across extreme northwestern Minnesota this afternoon, but should only affect a tiny percentage of the people within the SLIGHT RISK issued by the Storm Prediction Center and if anything develops, it will only last a short while. Here’s the latest Watches and Warnings from SPC: www.spc.noaa.gov
One last note – Wildfires have been raging in Athens Greece, prompting massive evacuations for certain areas of the city. Reports on Sunday stated that these were the worst wildfires in the area since 2007, when 70 people were killed. Take a look at this amazing (high resolution satellite NOAA image from 22,500 miles above the earth’s surface):
I’ve added red dots (the larger one depicts Athens) to show where the fires are and I’ve added yellow lines to define the smoke plumes.
OK, that’s it for now. Don’t forget to check back daily for more interesting weather tidbits and factoids. We’ll be here everyday, blogging with the latest and greatest from around the world and in your backyard. If you have a weather photo that you’d like to see featured here, send it to one of the team members at WeatherNation, we’d love to share it with the world!
See you soon,
Todd Nelson
you can send me your weather photos here: (tnelson@weathernation.net)
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Hurricane Bill is topping the weather headlines today. This afternoon, he was “demoted” to a Category 1 hurricane. While he will remain off the east coast, he certainly is churning things up along the beaches of the East. Waves exceeding 12 feet were common-place. Rip current risks were high from the along the east coast… from Florida to Maine. You better believe the waters will still be choppy tomorrow (mainly along the northeast coastal waters). This all goes to show that even off-coast hurricanes can still have a profound effect on public safety.
The United States Lifesaving Association claims that over 100 lives are claimed each year by rip currents on American beaches. 80% of rescues performed by surf beach lifeguards are driven by rip currents. So what do you do if you’re caught in a rip current? It can be difficult not to panic, but that’s the #1 rule when in a life-or-death situation and especially one that includes large bodies of water. If caught in a rip current, don’t fight the current! Think of it as a treadmill that you can’t shut off. This can be a little counter intuitive, but you should swim in a direction FOLLOWING the shoreline, NOT toward the shoreline. Once you’re out of the current, swim at an angle toward the shore. If you’re simply unable to get out of the current, just float or calmly tread water. You will eventually get out of the current. Certainly draw attention to yourself if you’re unable to reach the shore. Wave and yell if you see people on shore.
Hello and happy Friday everyone, I hope you’ve enjoyed your week so far. If you haven’t heard by now, Hurricane Bill (the first hurricane of the Atlantic Basin in 2009) developed earlier this week and quickly ramped up into a category 3 hurricane with sustained winds nearly 130mph, gusts were nearly 150mph. Here’s a look at the latest satellite image of Bill as rain bands cross the island of Bermuda on this early Friday afternoon.
The good news and the bad news about Bill:
*Good News* Bill should pass west of the island by 200 miles, keeping extreme conditions in open, oceanic, territory.
*Bad News* Heavy waves and surf will still be felt on the island of Bermuda (Perhaps 30′ to 40′ waves on Saturday)
The other *Bad News* about Bill: heavy surf will be felt across the entire eastern seaboard at some point this weekend with the heaviest of the waves on Saturday (16′ to 22′) occurring near Cape Hatteras, NC and (18′ to 24′) possible near Cape Cod and Nantucket, MA on Sunday.
Keep in mind that rip currents will be a big problem this weekend as well. If you’re planning on heading to the beach and into the water, know how to identify a rip current when you are in one. It will be hard to swim against the strong tide, so swimming parallel to the shore is the best way to get of the current. When you feel that you are out of the current, you can then swim back to shore. Here’s more info from NOAA on Rip Current Safety
If you’d like to track Bill yourself with HamWeather Click Here:
In the meantime, we’ll keep actively looking for any other tropical development. We encourage you to check back daily and often for additional weather headlines and fun weather factoids. Enjoy your Friday and have a happy weekend
Yesterday was one of the most exciting days of my life. I witnessed my very first tornado…literally, just one mile away from where I was standing. I’m still in shock.
Funnel Cloud Spotted, Uptown, MN
I worked the early morning yesterday, here, at WeatherNation. The morning was very cloudy and cool with temperatures in the 60′s….not your typical severe weather setup. We were forecasting the possibility of a few strong storm in extreme southern MN where the sun had been out periodically throughout the afternoon. Even, the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) had central and southern MN in a ‘Slight Risk’ for severe weather. But, BUT…I don’t think anyone was expecting what unfolded that afternoon.
I drove back to my apartment in a torrential downpour at around 12:30 p.m. I have my parents visiting this week from Pennsylvania. We are a family of meteorologists. Mom and Dad work for WNEP-TV, an ABC affiliate in northeastern PA. Therefore, when the weather turned from bad to ugly we started to take notice. From our vantage point we had a perfect 180 degree view facing east. All the sudden, without warning, almost completely out of the blue, we started to see fast low level counterclockwise rotation. I had to pinch myself and do a double take. “Was this really a funnel cloud forming before my eyes?” Small debris was lofted high above tree level. This was an indication to all three meteorologists that this was indeed a funnel cloud and, in fact, a possible tornado!
We watched in amasement as the funnel continued it’s track quickly toward downtown Minneapolis. Wait, downtown Minneapolis?! Oh geeze. Now, the apparent tornado looked to be on the weaker end but any tornado EF0 or EF1 can be significant in a downtown metropolitan area. I called the guys/gals back at WeatherNation for a quick Doppler update. “What does the radar look like?!” Indeed, it showed a classic “couplet” signifying rotation in the lower levels of the atmosphere.
Storm Relative Velocity (Green=moving left, Red=moving right)
You can watch the full video here.
The NWS office in Chanhassen, MN will be surveying the damage today and will be updating the public as the information comes in.
Check here for NWS updates.
Seeing that unfold yesterday was quite a surreal experience. Just thank goodness no one was serisouly injured.
Kristin Clark
Meteorologist, WeatherNation
