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You are browsing the archive for Meteorology Archives - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.

13 September 2016

The Colors You Can Get from Sunlight and Air/Water Molecules

I have a rule about great sunsets, which I want to pass on to my fellow sunset fanatics. The most colorful sunsets happen when you have ALL of the ingredients below: 1. A dewpoint below 60. (Below 50 is better) 2. Cirrus in the western sky. 3. Cirrcocumulus in the western sky. 4. Altocumulus and some altostratus in the western sky. 5. Few low level clouds, but some scattered about …

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24 August 2016

30 Deaths from Lightning in the U.S. So Far This Year. 12 From Tornadoes

Meteorologist John Jensenius at NOAA keeps track of the deaths from lightning each year, and I asked him to send me a list of the deaths each month, so that I could share. We are now up to 30, and it is worth noting that 80% of the deaths are male and 20% female, a fact that is not unusual, with far more males rather than females becoming victims each …

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9 November 2011

Tornado Hits Oklahoma Mesonet Stations

  This is the kind of thing that makes meteorologists go running through the room, and all the while jumping up and down. A tornado passed very close to the Tipton station on Monday afternoon. So close, that it knocked it out, but not before measuring and incredible pressure drop, and some amazing wind gusts. Here is what the Okla. Mesonet Facebook page has: “Here’s a plot of the 1-minute …

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27 September 2011

How Salty Is Your Ocean?

  The Aquarius satellite was recently launched to learn more about the oceans and answer some very nagging questions in a variety of fields (especially climate science). Notice how much saltier the Atlantic is than the Pacific, and if you have ever gotten a mouthful of ocean off of Miami Beach, you know it’s true. The Pacific is less salty and having swam in both, I can attest that the …

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25 September 2011

La Nina Is Back- What it means for the upcoming winter.

Colder Than Normal The temperature anomalies in the equatorial Pacific have reached -0.7C in the Nina 3.4 region, and anything below -0.5 C is considered La Nina conditions. There seems little doubt now that La Nina conditions will prevail over the upcoming NH winter, and the signature of La Nina is very evident in the weekly sea surface temp. anomalies. The large area of cooler than normal water stretching westward …

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19 August 2011

Supercell Thunderstorm East of Brussels Kills 4

  The red arrow is pointing at the overshooting top on the thunderstorm, indicating a very strong updraft. The BBC says 4 were killed when a stage collapsed at a music festival. Surface weather obs (from just before the storm developed) indicated temps near 27℃ (80℉) and dew-points near 18℃ (64℉). A surface front was moving into Belgium as a strong upper level trough pushed through the UK, and this set the stage …

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18 July 2011

The Lake Breeze Around Lake Erie

  My fellow AGU blogger John Freeland (over at Terra Central) spotted this gorgeous pic of the lake breeze around Lake Erie and sent it my way. I love images like this because they illustrate an atmospheric circulation that many people are familiar with, especially those who live near the coast, or around the Great Lakes. It was one of the first pieces of atmospheric science I understood well (as …

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18 June 2011

An MCC Is The Farmers Friend

We just ended a pretty serious drought here in the Tennessee Valley, with no rain from late May until Friday June 17. Normally, we would have had about 2.5 inches in this period, and this long without rain in the unusually high heat was especially hard on crops. Twenty days with no rain is not a big deal in winter (when it is cold and evaporation rates are very low), …

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9 June 2011

Rare Heat Burst in Wichita

A rare heat burst was recorded last night in Wichita, Kansas! The temperature at midnight was 84F but an hour later, as a thunderstorm nearby died out, the temperature hit 102F! The winds gusted to over 45 mph at the same time. Needless to say it was not a night to be a lineman for the county (If you don’t get that you should really buy a Glen Campbell record)! …

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20 May 2011

Our Very Thin Atmosphere

Click to see all the ones and zeroes as they were meant to be seen. From NASA today.

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