Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal

James Paul dice, my former work partner and now Chief Meteorologist for WBRC in Birmingham, was archiving the radar data from Oklahoma City when the tornado struck Edmond on Tuesday afternoon. No matter where in the world you read my journal from, you will likely see the video shot from KFOR TV’s helicopter of the tornado tearing up houses and lives. 

What you will not see is what a Meteorologist looking at a radar display saw. Unless you open your browser to this post.  For giant twisters near the radar, you do not need doppler wind data to see the tornado. The old 1940′s reflectivity will do just fine. 

Yes, in case you are wondering. This IS a hook echo.

Seeing this for the first time, as a forecaster, when people are  depending on you for severe weather warnings, is not something one forgets. 

  Later, Dan

I love Science and History. So a weekend to do both is not something I would pass up easily.

Living here in Huntsville, in North Alabama, means that I am surrounded by some of the top Earth Scientists in the World. The International Space Station was  at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. My next door neighbor was one of the German rocket scientists brought over by Werner Von Braun. He was trapped in rubble at Peenemunde during the Allied bombing in WW2. He has passed away now, but there are still a few of the Von Braun team living here.

Huntsville is probably best known for Space Camp and having the preserved Saturn 5 Moon Rocket. We have the only vertical mock up of a Saturn 5 in existence.

So, when I got a call inviting me to a media version of Space Camp. I immediately said yes.

I grew up as a space fanatic.  When I did weather in Florida, I had the chance to cover at least 9 Shuttle launches. Being at the press site, right across from the firing room, is a unique experience. One that most people will never get. You should see the book that details the shuttle launch weather rules. Let’s just say it is very thick! It’s not nearly as simple as one might think.

It was the space program in the 1960′s that led me into a career in Science. Something I have never regretted. Doing science on TV can be a real pain, but it does give me an opportunity to inject a little of my enthusiasm for scientific discovery into the vast waste land. (Google Newton Minnow if that line does not make sense!)

Every time there is  a launch, my wife asks me what the meaning of the things said on the air to ground communications are. I usually know it, and if not, I make it a point to find out.

So for two busy days, I got to crawl around a Shuttle mock up, and do a simulated launch and EVA. I strapped into a 1/6th G trainer, and a trainer that spins one in all possible directions at once. (You don’t get dizzy-really!). Riding a neutral buoyancy chair on the EVA simulation was a real eye opener to the difficulty faced by space walkers. Even though you are weightless, you still have the same mass! Saying it, and experiencing it are two totally separate things!

Saturn 5 Moon Rocket in Huntsville Alabama

I remember clearly, sitting in my 5th grade class in the Fall of 1969 as Apollo 12 blasted off to the moon. The Saturn 5 rocket was hit by lightning just after launch and there were some scary moments. At the graduation lunch on Saturday, I sat by Dick Gordon. One of the Astronauts, riding at the top of that very Saturn 5 when the lightning bolt struck. At the next table was Mercury Astronaut Scott Carpenter and Apollo 7 Astronaut Walt Cunningham.

What an honor to meet one of the few people on the planet who rode a Saturn 5 moon rocket to the moon!

At graduation, I was doubly shocked when I was awarded the “Right Stuff” award. (Given to the space camper who exemplified the qualities of the original 7.)

WOW!

In another decade or two, these people, who wrote a page in History that will be talked about for a thousand years, will be gone. It was a real pleasure to rub shoulders with it for a couple of days!

Later,

Dan

Ask most Meteorologists (including me) what their favorite cloud is, and you will probably get the same answer

Lennys.

That’s slang term for ALTO CUMULUS  STANDING LENTICULARIS

Imagine a blob of air riding along in the wind. Suddenly, you run into a big mountain. As the air stream you are in, rides over the  mountain, the pressure drops and so does the temperature. If it gets cold enough, the moisture in the blob of air can no longer stay in vapor form, and will condense to tiny water droplets. Cloud droplets to be exact.

A cloud forms!

As the air descends the mountain, it warms,  and the pressure increases. The cloud droplets can now go back to invisible vapor, and the cloud disappears. If you think about it, this will lead to a cloud forming near a mountain range that just sits there! Even if the wind is blowing 80 knots across the mountain range, the cloud does not move.

Lenny clouds can develop far away from mountains too.

If you throw a rock into a pond, ripples will will move out in concentric rings far from where the rock fell. The same thing happens in the atmosphere. Wind blowing over a mountain range will start an up and down oscillation. Each time the air rises to the top of the wave, a cloud will form. These “Gravity Waves” can cause lenticularis clouds to form thousands of miles from a mountain range. I once observed lennys in Florida, caused by strong winds across the mountains of Central Mexico!

A very rare type of Lenny that develops only when conditions are just right is called a Flying Saucer Lenticularis. I’ve never seen of these, but I sure hope to someday! There was a SPECTACULAR display of them last Fall in Seattle. One of these shots made the Astronomy Picture of the Day!

You have to see it, and you can RIGHT HERE.

Isn’t that GREAT?

Dan

A new report, released by the United Nations Environmental Program, has some more alarming climate news in it. The glaciers of the world are monitored by the WGM. Take a guess….yup. It’s the World Glacier Monitoring service. Funded by the WMO and others.

The big news in this report is not so much that the galciers worldwide are in retreat. The real news, is that the rate of retreat in most areas has increased dramatically. I think of the statement by Lonnie Thompson (Tropical glacier expert at Ohio State-perhaps THE world expert on tropical glaciers). He said “These glaciers are remnants of another (past) climate.”

While there are still a few extremists, in the political world, who still think the Earth is not warming, most non scientists now understand that the evidence is overwhelming. (Surprisingly, I still get a few emails from this crowd). What most of the public does not understand, is that the rate of change is itself increasing. This is also true of the current sea level rise.

Scientists making predictions, are by their very nature, prone to be very conservative. This is true for synoptic forecasters like myself, (Sometimes much to the frustration of the promo folks) and it’s very true for the Climate Scientists who write the IPCC reports. There has actually been frustration among some politicians about the Arctic Ice. It’s disappearing much faster than the IPCC projections. The Climate folks point out (correctly) that they gave a range, and that the rise is in the upper limit.

A lot of climate projections are turning out to be in that category. In other words, the IPCC report, derided by skeptics, is indeed wrong. It’s worse.

So, back to the ice. I am attaching a few graphics. Something to keep in mind here.

The glaciers in the Himalayas are the source of water for about one Billion people.

Reports like this are the place to get Climate info from. Anything on a politically slanted web site, is likely to be nearly worthless. You should always ask yourself about the credentials of the person making a claim. Have they published recently about Climate in a peer reviewed journal.

(Yes, there are those who believe that people  who disagree are being blocked from publishing. That kind of conspiracy stuff is just laughable. We really landed on the Moon too.)

The images here are from the WGM report released by UNEP. The report is here.

Later,

Dan