You are browsing the archive for August 2010 - Page 2 of 2 - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.
9 August 2010
Russia Chokes While Moscow Melts
The death toll from the heat and smoke in Moscow is climbing rapidly. BBC Radio reported today that the death rate in Moscow is running 2-5 times normal. This is not an ordinary heat wave. It’s actually almost unbelievable meteorologically. It’s not unusual to set a record high. It’s very rare to set an all time high temperature, but it happens from time to time in extreme situations. What IS …
8 August 2010
Heat South and Smoke North. (Europe is just the opposite!)
Smoke from forest fires in Western Canada has spread across much of the Canadian Prairies and well south into the U.S. British Columbia is tracking over 400 forest fires and other fires are reported in Alberta. The smoke is not only visible on satellite images across Canada but it has reached as far south as Kentucky. The smoke has pushed up air quality indexes across much of the Midwest. Those …
6 August 2010
La Nina is Brewing – It May Be A Strong One
One of the reasons for the forecasts of a an active hurricane season is the predictions that La Nina would develop this summer. Remember that La Nina is an ocean circulation phase that brings unusually cold water to the surface of the Tropical Pacific. Well, it has started and most of the ocean atmosphere models are predicting a moderate to strong event. This has more impact than just the number …
4 August 2010
Arctic Ocean Ice cover drops to 2nd lowest July level on Record.
The Arctic sea ice level dropped to the second lowest July levels on record last month. The data record goes back to about 1978. That’s when reliable satellite based measurements began. The lowest amount on record was on 16 September in 2007. Will we set an all time low record this year. Scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado are thinking that we likely will not. …
3 August 2010
Vivian, South Dakota Hailtone breaks U.S. Record!
If you are a weather nut there are certain records that you know off the top of your head. No need to look them up. So I knew the record books listed the largest hailstone ever measured as the one from Coffeyville, Kansas that fell in 1970. That stone weighed in at a whopping 757 grams (That’s 1.67 pounds for you metrically challenged folks). Then came the severe thunderstorm that …
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.