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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)! …
6 June 2011
Landsat 5 Image of Massachusets Tornado Track And Chile Volcano
What a year it’s been for tornadoes. Look at the track of the deadly tornado that hit near Springfield, Mass. last week. This is from the folks at NASA Earth Observatory. Also… The view of the Chile volcano eruption from the AQUA MODIS sensor
Pictures From Space-Tornadoes and Their Aftermath
I’m just back from 9 days in Europe touring the World War One Battlefields of Flanders. I will share some of that soon, but in case you have not seen it yet-the before and after of the deadliest tornado on record since 1950. These were in the Hartford Courant Newspaper. Joplin Before: The tornado that hit near Springfield Mass. (while I was in Europe) has also produced some interesting …
24 May 2011
Deadliest Tornado Season in 60 Years Continues As Oklahoma Prepares for Violent Tornado Outbreak
A rare HIGH RISK outlook was issued today by the Storm Prediction Center (NOAA) in Norman, OK. The last high risk was on 27 April when the tornado swarm hit Alabama and Mississippi. Without doubt, this will be the deadliest tornado season in at least 60 years and it is frankly amazing in the modern warning era. The death toll in April was over 350 and this week in Joplin …
23 May 2011
Deadly Tornado Wrecks Joplin Missouri (UPDATED)
An intense supercell storm spawned a violent tornado that tore through Joplin Missouri around 5:30 PM Sunday evening. The local paper is reporting 24 fatalities and the main hospital in the city took a direct hit. The hospital is being evacuated and patients transferred to nearby facilities. A friend of mine who is a storm chaser pulled 30 people from the rubble near the high school which appears to be …
19 May 2011
EF 5 Tornado Carries Large Sign Over 200 Kilometers
A viewer, who lives in Lincoln County, TN. brought me this sign that she found in her pasture after the April 27 swarm of tornadoes. As you can see, it is a large campaign sign, and it is made of a fairly light plastic. All in all, I would guess it weighs around 1 kg. The sign is over a meter high and around 2 meters in length. So who …
17 May 2011
New NASA Image Shows Tuscaloosa Tornado Path
NASA’s Terra satellite has an instrument called ASTER, which stands for Advanced Space-borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer. In non-geek that means it can sense infrared and visible light (this allows areas of vegetation to show up very well). Using multiple wavelengths, and even adding and subtracting one from another has allowed some incredible remote sensing images. The shot below has to be the top of the heap up to …
15 May 2011
The Great Mississippi Flood Rolls South
The image below is the Miss. River on 10 May, 2010 from NASA’s Aqua satellite. The image below is 6 May, 2011 Now the reason why; the image below is the rainfall departure from normal over the past 30 days. Click the image for the full resolution. Late word (this evening), that the Morganza spillway has been opened to reduce the threat of massive flooding in the cities along the river. …
8 May 2011
Violent Twisters in A Warmer World
In eighty years, most of us will be long gone (except for a lucky few who will be soiling adult diapers in an assisted living facility). However, our great-grandchildren will be in their prime and looking forward to a new century where Microsoft Windows no longer produces the blue screen of death. After the Super Swarm of tornadoes on April 27th, it’s worth asking if our descendants will be dealing …
Mississippi Tornado Upgraded to EF 5. Takes Road With It.
The supercell responsible for this, killed three people and was the first EF 5 in Mississippi since 1966. The fatalities happened when a strapped down double wide mobile home was thrown 300 yards in the air and into a line of trees, and obliterated. You can read the storm survey from the NWS here.
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.