There are numerous shows on TV, like on Discover Channel or the Weather Channel, that glorify storm chasing.  They make it look so fun and cool to be out racing down the highway trying to get right up next to a monster tornado.   Despite being pelted with hail stones, flying branches, torrential rain, and lighting, the vehicles press on with a sense of immortality.  As we all know, TV shows don’t always portray the whole story.  Certainly when it comes to tornado safety, these chasers often push the limits way beyond comprehension.

 Be that as it may, there is an ongoing debate and uncertainty about what is the best course of action if you are in a vehicle with an approaching tornado to deal with.  The conventional wisdom when I was growing up and even during the first decade of my weather forecasting career was that one should always leave the vehicle and go lie flat in a ditch or ravine and cover your head.  Over the past 15 years there have been some high profile cases where people were actually severely injured or killed by leaving their vehicles and going under overpasses or just going out in the open.  Now there is more of a recommendation to use your best judgement based on a number of factors whether to leave your car or not.  Below is a statement from Roger Edwards of the Storm Prediction Center that goes into more depth on this subject.

In a car or truck: Vehicles are extremely risky in a tornado. There is no safe option when caught in a tornado in a car, just slightly less-dangerous ones. If the tornado is visible, far away, and the traffic is light, you may be able to drive out of its path by moving at right angles to the tornado. Seek shelter in a sturdy building, or underground  if possible. If you are caught by extreme winds or flying debris, park the car as quickly and safely as possible — out of the traffic lanes. Stay in the car with the seat belt on. Put your head down below the windows; cover your head with your hands and a blanket, coat, or other cushion if possible. If you can safely get noticeably lower than the level of the roadway,leave your car and lie in that area, covering your head with your hands. Avoid seeking shelter under bridges, which can create deadly traffic hazards while offering little protection against flying debris.

We’ve all seen the horrific images of vehicles twisted around tree trunks 20 feet in the air, or turned upside down and crushed.  Or how about the photos of beams or lumber jabbed straight through a car window or door.  What a horrible thing if someone was in that vehicle in such cases.  I wish I had a hard and fast rule for you when it comes to automobiles and tornadoes.  I hope you never have to make such a tough decision but if you do, try not to panic.  Take care.

Posted under Education, Natural Disasters, Seasonal Items, Severe Weather, Tornadoes, Travel, Weather Safety

Though the bulk of the heavy snow from this weekend’s storm system is tracking north of the major metro areas in Central Wisconsin, other communities are bracing for snow.  And a lot of it!

 Given current forecast projections, the arrowhead region of Minnesota will “take it on the chin” so to speak.  Areas there are expecting 5 to 8” by the end of the weekend with stretches along the western shores of Lake Superior preparing for around 10”.

If you are doing any traveling Sunday or Monday into northern Minnesota, northwestern Wisconsin or portions of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan you could be greeted with some brutal driving conditions. 

Before you hit the road this weekend, check out this website: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=dlh&storyid=59787&source=0.  It shows you a map of the major roadways in Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky.  The map also overlays current advisories, watches and warnings issued by the National Weather Service.  You’ll also notice that some roads are green, others yellow, and some red.  Linking information provided by each state’s department of transportation that will tell you where travel conditions are good, fair or hazardous. 

The page also includes a mobile link so you can take it on the road. 

Stay safe if you’re traveling this weekend!

Posted under Community, Environment, Seasonal Items, Storms, Travel, Weather Safety, Winter Weather

On January 19th, the last ship crossed through the Soo Locks to end the 2011 shipping season as ice is building on the Great Lakes.

Below you can find a nice article written by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District, regarding the Soo Locks.  It’s quite an operation.  Hope you enjoy.  You can also see a bunch of cool ship and lock pictures from their flicker site.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/detroit_district/

DETROIT – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District announces the seasonal closing of the Soo Locks in Sault Ste.Marie,Mich. The Corps operates and maintains the locks as part of theGreat Lakes navigation system and will use this time to perform critical maintenance on the lock structures.

The season’s final vessel, the Saginaw, a 639-foot long self-unloading bulk carrier, cleared the Poe Lock just at midnight January 19.

During the 2011 navigation season, 4,040 cargo vessels passed through the Soo Locks carrying almost 75 million tons of iron ore, coal, grain and other commodities.  In addition to cargo vessels, a total of 3,175 tour boats, private boats and other ‘recreational’ vessels used the locks this past year.

“The Locks are the linchpin of theGreat Lakesnavigation system, facilitating the transport of important commodities,” said Lt. Col. Michael Derosier, district engineer. “We are proud of our responsibilities to operate and maintain the locks.”

While closed to navigation for the next two months, crews will be busy with a variety of maintenance projects on both the Poe and MacArthur Locks in preparation for another busy season.

The Poe stayed open three days past the traditional closing date of the navigation season, at the request of the shipping industry, allowing the movement of over 400,000 tons of additional cargo. The locks are scheduled to re-open March 25.

The Detroit District, maintains a navigation system that includes 95 harbors and the Great Lakes Connecting Channels that join lakes Superior,Michigan, Huron and Erie. For more details, contact Lynn Rose, public affairs officer, 313-226-4680.

Posted under Travel, Weather NEws, Winter Weather

The very dense fog Wednesday sure was a pain to drive through.  Visibilities dropped to a few hundred feet at times.  It was caused by mild and very moist air riding over the top of the cold ground and melting snow pack.  The air was extremely saturated.  I for one am glad that we don’t have fog that thick on a weekly basis around here.  

Did you know that the foggiest place in the world is the Grand Banks off Newfoundland?  It is  the meeting place of the cold Labrador ocean current and the much warmer Gulf Stream ocean current coming up from the south.  The fog that forms there, just as the type that formed around Wisconsin Wednesday is called advection fog.  Other times we have what is called radiation fog.  It forms on clear and calm nights when the temperature drops rapidly down to the dew point.  The air becomes saturated and fog forms.  It is especially common if the ground is moist from recent rains or a wet snow.

Check out the map below.  It shows the average number of fog days per year acrosss the United States.  You probably won’t be suprised to see the highest frequency of fog is along the seaboards, near the Great Lakes, and in mountainous areas of the eastern U.S.   The areas in red average over 40 days per year with fog.  Northern Wisconsin averages around 30 while southern Wisconsin is closer to 20 days per year.  I noticed that the Rocky Mountain States have a pretty low number of fog days per year compared to the Appalachians.  I assume that is because in general the air is much drier in the Rocky Mountain area than out east.

AVERAGE NUMBER OF DAYS WITH FOG PER YEAR

Posted under Travel, Winter Weather, World Weather

Photo courtest Danny Lawson/PA Wire

Northern parts of the United Kingdom have seen some rough weather in the past week, causing over £100 million (approximately $156 million) in estimated economic damage. 

Scotland was slammed with wind gust speeds near 165 miles an hour—that’s less than 10 miles an hour under the strongest wind gust ever recorded on British soil, according to The Telegraph.

For comparison sake, a category five hurricane sees sustained winds of at least 155 miles an hour.  An EF 3 tornado sees 3-second wind gusts between 136 and 165 miles an hour.    

Included in the damage is a 328-foot tall wind turbine that reportedly exploded when overloaded by the storm.  Industrial wind turbines are designed to withstand strong gusts, and designed to automatically turn off when wind speeds reach a certain point. 

No one was injured in the turbine explosion. 

The images and video coming from the British Isles, particularly fromScotland, have been absolutely incredible.  To see some of the damage and to learn more about this historic storm check out these links:

http://www.3news.co.nz/Video-Scotland-hammered-by-severe-wind-storm/tabid/313/articleID/235883/Default.aspx

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8948310/Britain-likely-to-suffer-from-a-double-dose-of-severe-weather-next-week.html

http://peakoil.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=63744

Posted under International Weather, Natural Disasters, Nature, Oceans, Records, Seasonal Items, Severe Weather, Storms, Travel, Weather History, Weather NEws, Weather Safety, World Weather

The healthy wet snow event Saturday evening definitely went a long way in getting the turf covered and white in a good chunk of the Upper Midwest.  Of course it is still not enough in most areas for things like skiing and snowmobiling but you have to start somewhere, right?   The weekend storm put down a decent swath of snow all the way from the Southern Rockies to Lake Superior.  Check out the latest national snow depth map below.  As to be expected early in the season, the greatest depths, over 1 foot, are generally confined to the mountainous states out west, with some near 1 foot amounts in some lake effect locations of Upper Michigan as well.

Snow Depth, Dec. 5th, 2011

The areas from Texas northeast through the Ohio Valley and eastward have been unseasonably warm the past few weeks being on the eastern side of the storm tracks.  That’s why their ground is brown.  They have had inches of rain in some of those areas.  Just imagine how much snow that would have been had it been colder out!

Closer to home, about the northwest two-thirds of Wisconsin has snow on the ground.  It’s generally from 1 to 5″ deep in most spots.   There is also a strip of an inch or less from around Wautoma down to Madison and Whitewater, mainly from what fell early Monday morning.  You can get a closer look at it on the map below.

Snow Depth, Dec. 5th, 2011

Posted under forecast, Recreation & Sports, Snow Totals, Travel, Winter Weather

Australian researchers discover an animal that's been there all along!

“We’re very pleased to announce that yes it is a new dolphin species and I have called it Tersiops Australis and with the common name of the Boanan following Aboriginal narrative meaning large fish of the porpoise kind.”

That’s the word from Dr. Kate Charlton-Robb, researcher at Monash University who discovered the new species of dolphin in the waters off Australia. 

According to Radio Australia it’s just the third new type of dolphin found anywhere on Earth since the 1800s. 

The dolphins frequent the waters between Tasmania and the Aussie State of Victoria.

“We had a look at their genetics quite some years back and started to see that they were very different from the two formally recognized bottlenose dolphins” Charlton-Robb said during a radio interview. 

“We’ve now had a look at the skull morphology and the external characteristics of the animal and feeding ecologies and things like that … and in every case we’ve found that they are very much differentiated from the other two bottlenose [dolphins], so hence the new species.”

To learn more, follow this link to Radio Australia’s transcripts of their interview, where you can listen to Dr. Charlton-Robb talk about her newest discovery.

Posted under Ecology, Environment, Nature, Oceans, Science, Travel, Uncategorized

It’s nice to be back in lush, green Wisconsin after spending several days on vacation in Nevada and Arizona.  I had a good time and enjoyed seeing some much different landscapes.   Ironically I hit Las Vegas on the hottest days of the season.  It was record high territory up around 110 to 112 degrees.  At night, the temperature never dropped below 85 while I was there.   Oh it was a dry heat, but still overwhelming in my opinion.  I could see how you could be in a world of hurt in a hurry if you were trapped out in the hot desert without water or shade.

Besides air conditioning, I found it interesting some of the other coping mechanisms they use.  Various spots, where one might spend standing in line waiting outside of buildings, had misters.  It definitely cooled it a few degrees in those areas through evaporation and offered some relief.    We watched the fountain show outside the Bellagio Hotel.  The spraying fountains also had a noticeable cooling effect which made me want to linger there a bit longer.  Many of the buildings and homes were white or a light tan color to absorb less of the sun’s heat.  And of course there are a lot of swimming pools.  Out at Grand Canyon west rim the visitor center had some large permanent shades installed outside to sit under to eat lunch and rest.  They were high enough up to allow a decent breeze to blow under as well.  I saw a road construction worker with a wet towel stuffed under his hard hat and draped down his neck.  That’s pretty clever.

On our bus tour to the Grand Canyon, we drove by Lake Mead and Hoover Dam.  The tour guide pointed out that the lake level is about 100 feet below what it used to be.  It was interesting to see the color line on the canyon walls to where the water used to be.  The calcium in the water had turned the walls white up to the level where the water used to be.  It is a sobering thing to think about how many millions of people rely on the water in that lake.   I did not realize it was originally built for the people of Los Angels and San Diego.  Las Vegas began using it later on. 

Seeing the vast miles of sand, rock, and dry barren mountains speckled with scrubby brush and cactus was really something for me.  Living in Wisconsin, I guess it’s easy to take for granted lush green trees, grass, and crops everywhere you look.  We saw some rough looking cattle out grazing.  Apparently it takes about 6 acres out there to support just one cow, since there is so very little nutritional vegetation.  I must say we did go by some very beautiful  joshua tree stands.   It’s pretty cool to think they can live up to 4000 years.  They are some tough critters for sure as they survive on just the 3 inches of precipitation the area averages per year.

I saw a few dust devils swirling out in the desert as well, below some weak high based showers that popped up in the afternoons.  Seeing the desert firsthand, I’m left with a greater sense of amazement at all the variety of climates this Earth has.   I don’t think I would ever feel comfortable living in that area permanently.  I suppose that is how hot desert residents would feel coming up to Wisconsin in the winter.  They probably can’t understand how we deal with the discomfort and harshness of it for such extended periods of time.

Well maybe my next trip I’ll have to go to northern Alaska or the North Pole to check out a truly polar location.    How about you?  Have you gone to places where the climate is so different that it changed your perspective on your home or life?

Posted under Heat, Travel, World Weather

I enjoyed Tony’s most recent post about “making hay when the sun shines”. I grew up on a dairy farm as well and had similar experiences in the Summer heat. Interestingly, while some farmers might have hoped for warm dry weather this past weekend, I was hoping for some rain. Instead of making hay, I was out watering the garden. One of our larger garden plots is out in the country with no irrigation system and no water hose long enough to reach the it, therefore, we have to haul the water in jugs and it is a decent amount of exercise.

I engaged in another “old time” activity this past weekend. Something that became quite famous during the 1800s in America, and is still practiced a bit today – panning for gold. Instead of buying a few shares of GLD, my wife and I took a trip down the river in our canoe and stopped at a couple of spots to see if we could find any of the real shiny stuff. We chose an area that is under active investigation by mining companies and known to have at least low grade ore. The odds of finding anything in Northcentral Wisconsin are pretty slim, but it was a fun time out on the water, soaking up some sun, and seeing if we could find any treasure. Just like making hay, panning depends on the weather to at least a small extent. Without any sunshine it is much tougher to see shiny metals that might be in the river. Thankfully, it was a nice sunny day. We didn’t find any easily identifiable gold or silver but we did find some interesting small rocks with some sort-of shiny ore. One thing I found interesting is that there are a great variety of rocks/stones in rivers around here. While fishing or boating, you tend to pass over the rocks without noticing the differences. Panning the stream bed focuses your attention on the smaller pieces of material that are hard to find otherwise. We found it is easier to discover old human-made “treasures” in the river than natural ones like gold and silver.

Have a good Tuesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Geology, Nature, Travel

Happy 4th of July!

The 4^th of July means celebrating our country’s history, enjoying the outdoors with family and of course, fireworks.  As we approach the 4^th of July holiday millions of Americans will be grabbing a lawn chair to take in the sights and sounds of a nearby fireworks display.  When it comes to the weather, for many people all they care about when going to a fireworks show is if it will rain or not. 

Though rain can hinder a show from the spectator perspective, it’s not the biggest player when it comes to a successful fireworks show.  According to the reports I’ve seen by people who organize firework demonstrations, rain doesn’t impact a firecracker’s explosion.  So I got to thinking, if rain doesn’t mess things up, what kind of atmospheric conditions can make a good fireworks show a great one?  So I cruised around the web to see what manufacturers had to say and boiled it down to four main areas.     

Wind: You’re looking for the happy medium.  Too much wind (20-30 mph range) is dangerous—remember you’re lighting something on fire that can travel!  But having no wind isn’t best either.  Without the wind clearing the smoke, your view will begin to cloud up rather quickly.   Plus you can’t forget about direction.  You want winds blowing in the opposite direction of your spectators!  I remember as a kid watching a fireworks display in Pennsylvania where the winds changed mid-show blowing hot particles towards the spectators instead of away.  Let’s just say that it caused more than one person to scramble out of the way.

 Humidity: This apparently plays a big role in how we perceive a show.  Conditions that are quite humid are not the best for going to see fireworks.  A saturated atmosphere tends to cut back on the colors we see when the firework goes off.  The less muggy it is, the more vivid the colors become when the firework explodes. 

 Rain: Though from the spectator point of view rain makes or breaks a show, from the technical standpoint rain can’t extinguish or stop a firework.  Sparklers burn at the temperature of nearly 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit so keeping them away from your skin is more important than dodging a rain drop. 

 Prevailing Conditions:  The reason so many 4^th of July firework celebrations have been cancelled around the country this year is the risk of fire!  Dry, ready-to-burn wooded areas are a bad combination when mixed with fireworks for all the obvious reasons.

 This weekend we’ve had some excellent weather for getting outside, and weather that is also fairly conducive to putting on a good fireworks show.  Humidity levels have been down this weekend, there’s no rain expected until Tuesday, winds have been fairly light and there’s no severe fire risk conditions posted.  So get outside and enjoy this nice stretch of weather and celebrate the 4^th of July!   

For a list of local firework demonstrations, check the WAOW Community Calendar.

Posted under Community, Environment, Fire, Nature, Science, Seasonal Items, Summer, Travel