Well, the much talked about solar flare turned out to be a bust. We were lucky enough to have clearing skies after midnight last night but I did not see any northern lights. I even turned our skycam to the north and recorded the sky but to no avail. It there were some faint northern lights, I probably would not have been able to see them anyway because the full moon was out. I mentioned a couple of different times for people to not get their hopes up too high and I am glad I did. The space weather forecasting biz is in its infancy. The energy from a solar eruption/flare streaming toward the earth morphs and changes before it reaches us so even some of the biggest flares that seem to be pointed right at the earth end up fizzling out or only delivering a glancing blow.

Something that I would really like to see fizzle out is the clock change this weekend. Yes, you guessed it, Daylight Saving Time (DST) is this weekend, although it doesn’t “save” anything. In fact, every year, we find out more bad things about this dumb archaic practice. Check some of my past blog posts about the subject here and here. This year, research shows that heart attacks increase by 10% after the clock change and it leads to less productivity at work. So now, other than being a pain in the you-know-what, causing us to waste a lot more energy, creating more traffic accidents, and increasing depression, it ruins productivity and kills people (heart attacks). What more do we need to know before ending the madness. About the only remaining reason to move the clocks forward in the Spring is so that more people can enjoy more daylight after a typical work-day during the Summer. I get up in the morning to enjoy the outdoors in the Summer so I would rather not change the clocks. Other countries around the world are dropping DST because it is dumb. When will the U.S. drop it? I don’t know. 

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When discussing alternative energy and a more efficient energy future, most people focus on the big things like transportation and manufacturing, but where energy usage is growing the fastest is in computing. Data centers that hold all of our online information are huge energy “hogs”, and growth in the industry is likely to continue. It is good to know, then, that even in the smallest of places, energy efficiency is increasing.

The electronic chips that power our computers and gadgets are not only getting more efficient but are starting to use light instead of electrons for many of the computational and data transmission tasks. Light signals use a lot less energy and create a lot less heat. The key invention that will help continue this trend is miniature lasers. APIC corporation recently announced a germanium based laser that could fit well into the conventional silicon computer chip manufacturing process, Altera is using fiber optics instead of copper interconnects to transmit information between chips, and IBM has recently created the most efficient terabit per second optical transceiver. The computer servers sitting in huge data centers are getting smaller and more efficient as well. Just think of how much more efficient the computing centers will be once they are running on light instead of electricity.

The New Apple Data Center

Producing energy for the data centers has been a big concern but we have seen some progress in this arena as well. Many big computer and Internet companies are turning toward alternative energy and even locating their data centers near alternative sources like hydroelectric dams. In Apple’s case, they are planning to build a big solar array at their new North Carolina data center. I am not a big fan of Apple products (even though I know they are good) because I can’t tinker with them, but I will give the company kudos for planning some solar power for their data center. Now we just need to convince them to spend more than a little spec of their $100 billion cash hoard on alternative energy.

So if you hear depressing news stories about how we are wasting energy and burning fossil fuels like there is no tomorrow and that we are destroying that “tomorrow”, just remember that progress continues.

Have a pleasant weekend! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Alternative Energy, Space, Technology

The reports keep coming in,the three day outbreak that lasted from Thursday to Sunday will likely go down in record books.  Atleast 43 have been killed, 21 along in North Carolina.  The destruction is endless, and the stories of survival and blessing to be alive heard from Mississippi to the Carolina’s.  Although it is great to see pictures and video I urge people to please use caution and be SAFE. 

This is one video with great coverage but the man shooting is lucky to be alive! It was taken in Wilson, NC.  This was a city that was in my viewing area when I worked in NC.  It’s crazy to see so many areas that I am familiar with hit by the storms. For those of you who don’t know my job before coming here was a Meteorologist is Greenville, NC.

Here is just one article taking about the destruction including a Loews, I saw video from the store yesterday and I am amazed that a building so massive can be torn apart.

Here is a slide show,make sure to check out number 7 with a picture of the once Loews store.

Here is another article with several survival stories. 

There are so many articles out there if you want to read more.  It is sure a heartbreaking story.

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On a little more happy note… have you ever read Timeline by Michael Creighton or watched Star Trek? Ever dreamed of being transported to another place or time by just a flick of a finger or a machine? Well if you have we may be one step closer to getting there.

Although teleporting is still way in the future some scientists transported light.  Even though that sounds small it is a big step in qquantum physics and mechanics.  In theory this has been possible but to actually take advantage of a piece of physics called entanglement is pretty significant step. 

The easiest way to explain what happens is that you basically copy a person and then recreate them in a different place.  There have been several books written about this including my favorite Timeline ( very entertaining but also informative on the subject!).  So far we have only been able to teleport light but this is little magic would mean that the theories are actually possible on a very small scale. 

I am by no means an expert in this type of science but this article is worth a read. It goes into more detail for the everyday person.  What a ride it would be if we could all be teleported!

Have a great night! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Natural Disasters, Nature, Science, Severe Weather, Storms, Tornadoes, Travel, Uncategorized, Viewer pictures, Weather History, Weather NEws, Weather Safety

Severe storms ripped through the Mid Atlantic today causing a tornadoes to be widespread.  There are already 2 deaths being reported today in North Carolina from a twister.  This is the same line of storms that yesterday ripped through the Southeast yesterday and cause death and destruction across several states.

So far from this massive storm we have seen 26 deaths and it is possible that number will climb when all is said and done.  In three days we have seen over 150 reports of tornadoes from Mississippi to Washington D.C! This is what is considered a high risk day, only a handful of these come every year.  The tornadoes were large and lasted for a lengthy period of time through several states. 

Today will likely break records especially in North Carolina, one of the hardest hit states.  The record day tornado outbreak in Carolina’s history was March 28, 1984, with 22 Tornadoes, 57 deaths, and injured 800 people.

With advanced warnings and new equipment I am positive the death toll will not exceed that day but it is likely they will break the record of tornadoes or come close.  Check out all the reports with this website.

Here is an article that continues to be updated with the latest findings.

Btw, the storm causing all the havoc across the south is the same storm bringing snow to our area.  Unfortunately there is still more snow in that forecast this week.  I am pretty sure Mother Nature needs to check the calender.  Today I was already thinking about Christmas becauseof big wet heavy flakes.  Yesterday I was thinking about carving pumpkins because it felt like fall! I know one thing, I am ready for spring or summer to be here and not this unseasonable weather!

A special thanks to @wxbrad for all his tweets today in North Carolina.

Have a great night! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Severe Weather, Spring, Storms, Tornadoes, Weather History, Weather NEws, Weather Safety