This is too cool. A tornado in space! Okay, if it's not on the ground, technically it should be called a funnel. Of course, since this Herbig-Haro object is almost 2 trillion miles long, maybe it should be classified as an F5 to the 10th power on the Fujita scale! :-)
For details and a picture, check out: SPACE.com -- Space Tornado! Cosmic Front Packs a Punch
The team that made the discovery was headed by John Bally of Colorado State University. Way to go, John! Go Rams!
I immediately subscribed to Mike Nelson's weather blog from thedenverchannel.com when he started it earlier this month for cool and interesting weather facts.
Today, Bloglines has made available a feed to get your local forecast, with preferences for US or Metric!
I also use the WeatherFox, er sorry, ForecastFox extension in the Firefox browser, as well as the WeatherChannel.com Desktop Weather application. You can never get too much weather information! :-)
See also: Weather
The 7th Annual National Storm Chasers Convention is coming to Denver from February 18-20th!
Speakers include: Dr. Al Bedard, Dr. Erik Rasmussen, Dr. Howie Bluestein, Dr. Josh Wurman, Dr. Greg Forbes, Tim Marshall, Tim Vasquez, Scott Blair, Jim Reed, Jim Edds, John Davies, and more.
Complete details and registration is available at: http://chaserconvention.com/site/
Last year, I attended Tim Vasquez's Severe Weather Forecasting class after the convention. While it was very informative, it's definitely NOT for the uninitiated! I have taken the Meteorology and Climatology undergrad courses at Colorado State University, and was a little rusty in the class. If you want to go, definitely bone up on your map skills (identifying and drawing front lines from isobar readings, etc.)
Not sure if I'll be able to go at all this year, as I'm starting a new job on the 21st, but more on that later...
If you want some local involvement with weather reporting, you should also check out CoCoRAHS! There is also a great article on CoCoRAHS at: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/weather/4157645/detail.html
See also: Weather
Nick O'Kelly from 9 News in Denver requested kids send in audition tapes for a chance to be on a morning weathercast with the Weather Whiz Kids contest.
My oldest son, Connor, and I went to work gathering the latest weather data from Denver/Boulder Severe Weather at the National Weather Service.
We put together a script, and he drew up a map of Colorado with a few significant current temps from the viewing area.
Next we did a practice run (we only had a week to get a tape/DVD in for the studio deadline), and then filmed it on our new Sony digital camcorder.
We took the camera up to the iMac and captured the clips in iMovie, put together a quick intro image in iDVD, dragged the iMovie over, and burned the DVD!
I sent it in, and we waited, and waited. Yesterday, during the morning show, they featured Connor's audition! We didn't tape it, unfortunately, but lots of friends and family saw the segment and called or emailed in to our new TV star!
We still don't know if he's won a spot on site at the studio, but his clip is featured on the 9 News website at: http://www.9news.com/
I'm so proud of my little weatherman!!!
See also: Weather
I posted on this subject several months ago, but it looks like Wired has picked up the story: Weather Data for the Masses
Unfortunately, I haven't had enough time to play with the web service, though I keep trying to find a way to make it a job task to learn web services. :-)
More information on the National Digital Forecast Database XML Web Service is available at: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/forecasts/xml/.
More information on the Digital Weather Markup Language Specification is available at: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/mdl/XML/Design/MDL_XML_Design.doc.
Happy Wx hacking!
See also: Weather
Colorado can be a very unique place, especially when it comes to weather!
Take a look at today's weather:
TORNADO WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER CO 440 PM MDT MON OCT 4 2004 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN DENVER HAS ISSUED A * TORNADO WARNING FOR... SOUTHWESTERN WELD COUNTY IN NORTHEAST COLORADO THIS INCLUDES THE CITY OF GREELEY * UNTIL 530 PM MDT MULTIPLE TORNADOES HAVE BEEN REPORTED ASSOCIATED WITH A LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS EXTENDING FROM WEST OF GREELEY TO NORTHEAST OF PLATTEVILLE. THE STORMS ARE MOVING TO THE NORTH AT 5 MPH.
Details on the storm are at: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/weather/3782575/detail.html
The NWS reported 11 tornadoes in Weld and Adams counties today!
This kind of weather always makes for beautiful sunsets, though too:
See also: Weather
Slashdot had a cool article on storm predictions with supercomputers today.
The actual article explaining this was on CNN, and can be found here: http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/09/16/hurricane.supercomputers.ap/index.html. What I found interesting is that most of these models are written in Fortran! I wonder if it's Fortran 77 or Fortran 90? I learned Fortran 77 during my short tenure at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
One of the slashdot commenters explained:
Brief answer :
i) because most numerical weather codes are already written in Fortran. This means that people with the right scientific knowledge tend to be Fortran programmers, and makes porting a whole lot easier.
ii) Fortran compilers are the ones where the most work has gone into optimising the hardcore mathematical routines. Thus, the compiled code has traditionally been faster. This may no longer be true.
Current predictions can be found here:
http://www.weatherunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at200406_model.html.
The National Hurricane Center discussion of the models can be found here:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/.
The Slashdot comments also provided an interesting link to a presentation on modeling tornadic supercell thunderstorms. It's in StarOffice/OpenOffice and can be found here (warning 20mb size, but worth it): http://research.orf.cx/uw2004/uwtalk.sxi
Pretty cool stuff. It'd be cool to see this stuff modeled on some of Sun's big iron (E25K anyone?) or a V60x Compute Grid with the Solaris(TM) 10 Operating System!
If you are interested in modeling weather and climate, you should also check out kpearson's site: http://www.aspenleaf.com/distributed/ap-science.html#cpdn.
See also: Weather
I'd give anything to be Astronaut Mike Fincke (Ham call sign: KE5AIT) right now.
Check out some of his amazing photos of Hurricane Frances and Ivan from the International Space Station at: http://www1.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/frances_ISS.html.
This one is particularly amazing: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-9/html/iss009e22187.html
Studying weather from space has got to be my ultimate dream job!
See also: Space
I'm blessed to have a few friends in high places. My friend Blaine had some extra tickets to the Colorado State University vs. University of Colorado, also known as the Rocky Mountain Showdown! He and I took our sons to the game (46 yardline!)
What a game! It started out as a blow-out, but the Rams hung in there and overcame a 17 point deficit in the 2nd half. Unfortunately, Holland's interception earlier in the game and being unable to stop Bobby Purify's runs really hurt us. It went all the way down to 8 seconds, 3rd and goal at the 1 yard line. Instead of spiking the ball and coming up with a plan, Holland took a gamble and tried a handoff to Houston, that failed. Still, we gave it the good old college try, and we really should have won that one. Details here.
Thankfully the weather held out this year. I got soaked at last year's Rocky Mountain Showdown, when my wife surprised me with tickets for my birthday. It was freezing!
Speaking of freezing, we had planned to go to Waterworld on Aug. 28, but a strong cold front came through, and dropped temps to 58 F. Thankfully we had good weather on Labor Day, so we took my son as a reward for learning to swim this summer. I've never officially learned how to swim (I only dog-paddle), and still regret. We had a blast, though my wife and I got pretty good sunburns.
All in all, a great weekend to end the summer, and the sunburn hurts worse than the Rams defeat!
See also: General
Here are a few pics of my first storm chase vehicle, and several important lessons learned:
I bought the '87 Chrysler Lebaron from my granddad when I graduated from CSU. I used it for a few storm chases in El Paso County before Sun moved me to Broomfield. It got me within 3 miles of a tornado at Ramah, which is the closest I've been to a tornado so far.
The important lessons learned came on a storm chase a year or two after my move to the Denver area.
So those are my lessons learned, and here's the story:
There was a pretty good storm forming over Brighton after dinner, so I got clearance from my wife, and was off! I followed the storm right up Hwy 76 to about Hudson. It was a pretty major road, so I was pretty comfortable, but then I heard on the weather radio that it was getting severe near Pleasant Valley. I just happened to see the sign, and took the turn.
It was getting dark, but I was so close, I could taste it. It was kind of cool to watch the lightning and look for tornadoes between the lightning strikes. Unfortunately, the fields had taken all the water they could hold, and started spilling over the roadway, and I didn't notice until I plowed through it, just before entering the town of Pleasant Valley.
The Lebaron plowed through OK, since it was only about 5 inches of water, and I made it into town. I passed a Fire Engine that was directing traffic because of a power outage, and then my car promptly died at the side of the road.
This was a Very Good Thing, because if I had picked up the pace and kept going, I would have wound up in another flooded roadway, this time under 2 feet of water!
At this point, I called my wife with a Ham Radio/Phone patch, and told her I was stranded. She said, "Well, you better find a way to get here then, because the kids are in bed and I can't come get you."
Thankfully I found another storm chaser, who had stopped because of the flooded roadway, and found out he lived in Boulder. He was willing to drop me home, since it was on his way, and chat about chasing all the way home! He had a snorkle on his Toyota, and the first flash flood I had driven through had now turned into 3 feet of water. He plowed through to my amazement, and we headed home.
His vehicle had been struck by lightning a few weeks earlier, and he caught it on tape! Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find the link to the video...
The next day, my wife took me out to pick up my car. It was the quietest 90 minutes of my life...
Following that adventure, I agreed to take a chase partner, never chase at night, and get a vehicle that could handle it.
Stay tuned for my next post about my new chase vehicle!
See also: Weather
Today's hazardous outlook held true. As I left work, and got clearance from home, I began my 3rd chase of the summer.
The winds were very strong in Broomfield, and it was quite dark out East. I joined the Northern Colorado weather net on 145.115 and headed out towards Denver International Airport.
I stopped at 104th and Tower, which has a great vantage point. I reported heavy rain and scud, but no organized formations. Since it looked like nothing more than the rain, I decided to head north.
There were reports of heavy storms in Ft. Collins and Greeley, so I headed up Hwy 85. There was more heavy rain around Lasalle and Evans, but only light rain when I got to Greeley.
I decided to hit Hwy 34 to I-25 and then head home. There was a promising storm forming near Lyons, moving toward Longmont, which would work well for me on my way home. Heavy rains brought traffic near a standstill when I got to the Dacono exit, and I called in a report.
With no tornadoes, I should have stayed home. Especially since my wife and kids experienced this at the house!
See also: Weather
Yesterday was a great day for severe storms in Colorado. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go chasing any of it (okay, I confess, I was watching the Broncos lose).
Nine tornadoes touched down Monday night including a multiple-vortex tornado (with four funnels!) 10 miles north of Simla.
Hail stones up to 4.5 inches in diameter were reported west of Agate in Elbert County. In eastern El Paso county, they had a tornado (near Truckton) and baseball sized hail.
9News has some pictures and the story. I haven't checked Stormtracker.com yet.
Today's hazardous outlook:
ANOTHER ROUND OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS IS POSSIBLE ACROSS NORTHEAST COLORADO THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF SEVERE WEATHER IS LARGELY DEPENDENT ON TEMPERATURES THIS AFTERNOON. AT THIS TIME...ENOUGH SUNSHINE IS EXPECTED TO WARM TEMPERATURES INTO THE MID AND UPPER 70S ACROSS THE PLAINS BY MID TO LATE AFTERNOON. THIS SHOULD BE JUST WARM ENOUGH TO SPARK STORM ACTIVITY. ONCE STORMS DEVELOP...THEY WILL QUICKLY BECOME SEVERE. ABUNDANT INSTABILITY AND STRONG WIND SHEAR IN THE ATMOSPHERE WILL PROMOTE THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUPERCELL THUNDERSTORMS WHICH WILL BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING VERY LARGE AND DESTRUCTIVE HAIL...HIGH WINDS...AND TORNADOES.
THE GREATEST RISK OF SEVERE WEATHER WILL BE FROM THE FRONT RANGE METRO AREAS AND I-25 CORRIDOR EASTWARD TO FORT MORGAN AND AKRON.
Zooming out, it looks like twin trouble with Tropical Storm Bonnie and Tropical Storm Charlie working their way toward the U.S.!
See also: Weather
Looks like we are finally getting some relief from the drought that has plagued Colorado for the last several years. It also rained out my oldest son's Tee-Ball game last night...
I've been participating in the Community Collaborative Rain and Hail Study (CoCoRaHS) for the last year or so.It has a terrific benefit for the public, scientists and the National Weather Service. It's also hosted at my Alma Mater: Colorado State University!
Here's my data for June 2004:
CoCo RaHS Summary of Precipitation
Station BO87 Erie 3.1 SW 40.0193 105.2911
Station
Station
DATE PRECIPITATION
Station Station Station
BO87
------------------------------------------------------------
6/1 /2004
6/2 /2004
6/3 /2004
6/4 /2004
6/5 /2004
6/6 /2004
6/7 /2004
6/8 /2004
6/9 /2004 0.25
6/10 /2004
6/11 /2004
6/12 /2004
6/13 /2004
6/14 /2004
6/15 /2004
6/16 /2004
6/17 /2004 0.35
6/18 /2004 0.81
6/19 /2004 0.30
6/20 /2004
6/21 /2004 0.05
6/22 /2004 0.34
6/23 /2004
6/24 /2004
6/25 /2004
6/26 /2004 0.10
6/27 /2004
6/28 /2004 0.36
6/29 /2004
6/30 /2004 0.28
------------------------------------------------------------
Total 2.84 0 0
* indicates multi-day accumulation data
See also: Weather
Some of you may have heard of WxML in the past. This is a different approach.
The National Weather Service is providing weather data now as an XML-based web service! Check it out: http://weather.gov/xml/
The service provides the data using the National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD)'s Digital Weather Markup Language (DWML)
NDFD XML contains forecasts for any combination of the following meteorological parameters:
See also: Weather
I grew up on a ranch in southeastern Colorado. Not many people know or have heard about Trinchera, but it looks like the weather service does!
308 PM MDT MON JUN 21 2004 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN PUEBLO HAS ISSUED A * SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR... LAS ANIMAS COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST COLORADO * UNTIL 415 PM MDT * AT 306 PM MDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR SHOWED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING PENNY SIZE HAIL. THIS STORM WAS LOCATED 22 MILES WEST OF TRINCHERA...AND WAS MOVING EAST AT 15 MPH. * SOME LOCATIONS AFFECTED WILL BE... 7 MILES SOUTHWEST OF TRINCHERA BY 415 PM MDT AT 306 PM A NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SPOTTER SAW PENNY SIZE HAIL 3 MILES 11 MILES SOUTH OF TRINIDAD.
In case you would like to visit, there is a post office (zip=81081), and about 12 residents. I used to have to ride a bus 18 miles to Kindergarten in Branson, Colorado (Go Bearcats!)
Truth be told, I was born in Raton, New Mexico, as it was a shorter drive from the ranch than going to Trinidad! I only spent those first two days in Raton, so I still consider myself a Colorado native.
See also: Weather
A brisk 50 degrees F, and a lovely, misting fog envelopes the Denver metro area today. As a storm chaser, I love the big lightning storms, but the mist and fog we tend to get during spring and fall in Colorado have to be my second favorite weather type.
The mist and fog makes me feel contemplative, not depressed. It also prompts me to visit Scotland all the more. Hopefully for my 10th anniversary!
I have experienced Thundersnow here in Colorado, and I wonder if there isn't such a thing as Thunderfog?
I'm glad God likes variety, too.
See also: Weather
Yesterday was quite the active weather day. I couldn't break away to go chasing though, because of meetings and my son's tee-ball game.
Here's a few links to tornado pics from yesterday's storms:
See also: Weather
I have been a member of CAST for a while, no not a Persona Dramatis on Broadway (though I had a cousin in the original Chorus Line...) or working for the Walt Disney company.
CAST is the Colorado All-season Spotter Team. I've been to several training sessions, and ventured out on several storm chases as part of this team.
I have been a member of SKYWARN since I originally started at Sun back in 1995. SKYWARN performs a similar public service, as far as watching the skies and reporting severe weather back to the National Weather Service offices.
CAST, however, also takes into account our severe winter weather here in Colorado.
My soul reason for getting my HAM license (KC0BAX) was to have a means of reporting severe weather as part of SKYWARN and CAST.
Now that I've lived outside of Boulder for the last 5 years, I have noticed that the Pikes Peak SKYWARN group seemed to be more active than the Denver group. It is really a shame, since there are so many weather experts in the Denver/Boulder area.
Recently on a storm chase out to Sterling, CO, I met storm chaser Tony Laubach (KCØONL). Even though we both struck out on that chase, it was nice to meet another chaser and swap information!
Categories: Weather
I've just taken my first foray into the blogosphere. Feels pretty good.
I've been surfing blogs for quite a while, mostly Norm Walsh's excellent blog, Slashdot, XML.COM, and more recently Wil Wheaton Dot Net.
My professional interests lie primarily in DocBook, XML, XSLT and Storm Chasing , though not necessarily in that order.
My wife always comments that I have too many hobbies, which include: weather photography, aircraft modeling, HO-gauge railroading, 25mm miniature painting, French Horn, Bass guitar, Playstation2, Star Wars Lego.
This in addition to time with my kids, wife and Church.
I'll be categorizing a lot of my posts based on the professional interests, but will throw in some hobby posts from time to time.
Categories: General
