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16 December 2010
How Meteorologists Know to Forecast Ice Instead of Snow
We had a significant ice storm in parts of Alabama and Tennessee on Wednesday. It started as sleet and then changed to freezing rain. Driving was a mess in many spots, and it was not an easy forecast. The easy part was the type of precipitation. I knew it would not be snow but mainly freezing rain. Take a look at the image below. It’s the weather balloon (rawinsonde) sounding …
21 September 2010
Is The Summer Heat Wave About To End At Last?
For those of you in the Midwestern and Southern parts of America you are likely wondering what the heck happened to fall! Temperatures here in Huntsville in Alabama are running 15 degrees above normal in the afternoon! This heat wave actually stretches from Oklahoma all the way into Illinois, into Virginia and deep into Old Dixie. It’s really the same heat wave that existed June through August and brought many …
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 …
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 …
11 June 2010
16 Dead in Arkansas Flash Flood (Updated)
There are many similarities to the flash flood that hit Montgomery County, Arkansas last night and the Big Thompson Canyon flood in Colorado in 1976. Both were National Forest campgrounds near streams. 145 campers died on 31 July in 1976 in the Colorado flood. The death toll now stands at 16 in Arkansas. Some are still missing. What Caused It The flood was caused by what meteorologists call an MCS. …
26 May 2010
Open Season On Hurricanes (and they may be in a fighting mood.)
Hurricane season begins June 1st and NOAA’s hurricane experts will release their 2010 season forecast Friday 28 May. It’s not much of a secret among meteorologists what it will be. Likely BAD. Forecasting the number of hurricanes we will see each year is a very tricky project. There is some skill but changes in the sea surface temperatures and in the upper level wind shear during the summer months make …
18 May 2010
Oil Slick Entering the Gulf Loop Current (Trust me, that's bad)
The Gulf Loop current may very well be picking up the oil slick in the Gulf. This would bring the oil down through the Florida Keys and into the Gulf Stream. Eventually passing between Florida and the Bahamas. Oil in this area could cause severe damage to ocean reefs in the Keys and near the Bahamas. The ocean current models show the path of the loop current very well. This …
8 May 2010
New Views of Iceland Ash Cloud & Gulf Oil Slick. Bad news on both.
The winds aloft are blowing the ash mainly over the Atlantic today. Some of it is rotating around an upper level low and causing problems in Spain. The wind flow in the mid levels of the atmosphere will blow it more toward the UK and Europe starting late Sunday. Heathrow and Gatwick could very well be affected. The ash is up to around 5,000 meters today. Transatlantic flights can get …
1 May 2010
Arkansas Tornados, Nashville Floods and Oil Slick Growing
Tornadoes hit Arkansas last night and today and have also done damage in Miss. and Tennessee. Incredible rainfall totals of near or over 10 inches have ben reported across a wide swath of Tennessee. I just saw a recent report of a destroyed mobile home seen FLOATING down I-24 near Nashville. A pass by one of NASA’s MODIS satellites at 11:40am (1640GMT) shows the oil slick in the Gulf has …
28 April 2010
Albertville Was Luckier Than Most- Here is why.
The EF 3 tornado that hit Albertville developed very rapidly. It first touched down just west of the city. It was on the ground for about 30 minutes and lifted near Geraldine in Dekalb County. We were able to give nearly 30 minutes warning for the folks in Geraldine. Albertville had 7 to 8 minutes. That may not sound like much, but for a town at the beginning of the …
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.