KOLD Climate Community Blog

Easy as 1,2,3...

OK, so rain in early October, it does not really happen all that often, but there are three reasons why we are getting it this time.

1.) A storm in the Pacific is bringing much needed rain to Oregon and Washington. Very cold air is behind this storm and much of the Pacific Northwest is expecting well over an inch of rain in most spots with this storm. Snow levels in the Cascade Mountains will drop to around 4000 feet! Fresh powder for most of the ski resorts! Ahead of this strong storm, winds are moving from the Southwest to the Northeast. We will revisit this later.

2.) A tropical storm has formed in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. It is the 10th named storm in the Eastern Pacific, and is called Juliette. This tropical storm is about 300 miles away from the tip of the Baja, but will still affect our weather. The upper level moisture from Juliette is being stripped off of this storm by strong winds (from the large Pac NW storm). This moisture is riding Northeast into Mexico, but will move into Southern Arizona also

3.) A high pressure system over the lower Rocky Mountains will shift just to the East of Southern Arizona. The flow around a high pressure is Clockwise, and this would help to draw up some of the moisture from Mexico.

The flow will generally be out of the South and plenty of moisture will be available to trigger strong heavy storms, watch for possible flooding and strong gusts of wind! Stay safe!

-First Alert Meteorologist Aaron Pickering

Morning in the West

My favorite way to look at the weather is through the visible satellite. You are able to see the detail in the tops of the clouds and see all of the different types of cloud formations. It is almost like riding in an airplane and watching the clouds from your window.

This satellite picture (which you can click on to make bigger) was taken Friday morning (September 28th, 2007). In it you can see there are several different types of clouds and formations. Plus, the sun is still coming up on the far left of the picture, that is why it appears dark. If you look at the San Francisco bay area and the Los Angles area, you can see the clouds over the land, but hugging the low-land areas, but those clouds stop at the high mountain ranges. If you look closely, you will also see these clouds look very smooth. These stratus clouds (fog) are very common in the early morning up and down the coastline of California during the summer. It is fun to watch the fog "burn off" as the morning wears on by watching a satellite loop. What you see are the clouds retreating back to the ocean as the land warms during the day.

This satellite image is also showing some storm clouds moving into the Pacific Northwest. These clouds are almost North-to-South and are being formed by a cold front dropping down from the Gulf of Alaska. The air behind this front is unstable, and it is easy to pick out the cold air on this picture. Focus your eyes just off the coast of Oregon/Washington, notice the small "popcorn-like" clouds, it just seems like a scattering of spotty clouds, but these clouds are cumulus clouds being formed by unstable air (air moving up-and-down). Usually, behind a cold front you can spot these types of clouds.

If you study visible images, you can see the difference between low-level and high level clouds, sometimes this is not as easy as it sounds. Take a look at Northern Baja, in  Mexico. There are both types of these clouds here, some upper-level clouds (which actually are moving over us today) and some lower-level stratus clouds.

I love to look at satellite imagery, but it is by no means the only data I use. Satellites have great limitations, the most obvious of which is you can not see under the clouds! This can be critical during events during the monsoon, so we still have to rely on balloons and surface measurements and spotters on the ground.

Do you have a favorite type of weather tool? let us know about it!

Here is a good link for different types of satellite pictures Click Here

Here is a visible satellite picture focused on Arizona, for the same day and time. Enjoy the weekend!

-First Alert Meteorologist Aaron Pickering

EARTH IS AMAZING!

Photo 1 is from NASA's Terra Satellite, as is #2.  Photo #3 is from the Messenger Spacecraft as it heads to Mercury.

HARVEST MOON

We'll have two nights to enjoy this year's full moon, because it will officially be just after noon on Wednesday.  Officially, the full moon is Wednesday.  But, get a great view both nights!

From Spaceweather.com:  "HARVEST MOON: There's a full moon tomorrow night and it has a special name--the Harvest Moon. In the days before electric lights, farmers relied on moonlight to help them gather ripening autumn crops. The "Harvest Moon" rising brightly in the east at sunset allowed work to continue late into the night.

Post-Edison, we appreciate the Harvest Moon mainly for its beauty."

SEND YOUR HARVEST MOON PHOTOS TO US FOR THE SLIDE SHOW!  CLICK VIEWER VIEWS ON THE WEATHER PAGE.

VENUS CASTING SHADOWS!

Many of you have emailed and posted about the brightness of Venus, in the eastern sky pre-dawn.  It is quite extraordinary!  Check an article out on Spaceweather.com about it. 

SHADOWS OF VENUS: Venus is so bright, it actually casts shadows. You just have to stare a while to see them. This 6-minute exposure at ISO 800 comes from Tenho Tuomi of Lucky Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Want to track the stars and planets?  Try this free one!  Stellarium.org (it works for Windows, Mac and Lynix!)

Meteor in Peru?

New info on the Meteor that struck in Peru...  from Spaceweather.com

ARSENIC FUMES: What made Peruvian villagers sick on Sept 16th when a meteorite struck near Lake Titicaca? Arsenic fumes. According to Peru's Mining, Metallurgy, and Geology Institute, the crash site coincides with a natural underground deposit of arsenic. Visitors to the crater inhaled fumes resulting in headaches and nausea. Sensational reports attributing the crater and the illnesses to a downed radioactive spy satellite were unfounded.

Hey! Its all connected!

Here is a snapshot of the visible satellite from Monday Morning. Arizona is clear, most of the clouds are located over the upper Rocky Mountain range, upper Great Plains and parts of the Deep South. These clouds are a direct result of the storm system which brought us rain Thursday - Sunday. A Large upper-level low pressure system moved from Southern California to it's current position over Wyoming. This upper Low has a counter clock-wise spin, and out ahead of it, air is being drawn up from the South. Severe weather is likely to set up between Minnesota and Louisiana today. Behind this system we are watching cold air jump into the Western states. Temperatures in Reno, NV today dipped into the mid-30s, and the South Rim of the Grand Canyon dipped to just below freezing this morning.

This cold air will be eroded away, and eventually warmed back to near normal levels, but it will take a few days, I am sure this is welcome news to most of you, since we just finished a VERY warm summer.

The tropical system "Ivo" has virtually fallen apart. Over the weekend we saw the Hurricane turn into a tropical storm, and finally it was downgraded to a tropical depression on Sunday. Most of the moisture with this storm was stripped away and only the weak circulation was left. Even if this tropical system makes it into the Gulf of California, it should not affect our weather too much, we might see a slight increase in clouds, but I think that is all we will see.

The latest Long range models give us mostly clear skies with some increase in clouds Friday, and Saturday. Temperatures will remain near average after we warm up the cool air in place, so a very pleasant week is on tap.

If you would like to talk about any computer models, long-range, or another part of the country, just leave us a comment! Have a great Monday!

-First Alert Meteorologist Aaron Pickering

It's International Polar Day!

Let's celebrate!  Any reason to celebrate a lovely September day right? 

So what is International Polar Day?  Well, it's a day dedicated to educate people about issues in the Arctic and Antarctic.  The focus of this day is sea ice.  Sea ice has been in the news quite a bit lately because warmer ocean temperatures at the poles is changing seasonal sea ice patterns.  In fact the famed Northwest Passage may soon open in the summer months.  Sea ice coverage seems to be lessoning in the Arctic which could open a natural route around the globe at the top of the world. 

To learn more about sea ice just check out the International Polar Year.  This massive research project is taken on by scientists all over the world. 

Have a good weekend. - First Alert Meteorologist Erin Jordan

The Drought Really Is That Bad!

I wanted to compare the Drought Monitor from last week versus this weeks.  There hasn't been much change in weather in the west so significant change wasn't expected.  But a hurricane hit the western Gulf coast last week and soaked much of the southeast.  However, there hasn't been much change in the drought conditions if you compare the two maps.  That goes to show how bad the drought is in the southeast. 

It's probably worst in southern Kentucky and Tennessee.  Many farmers are applying for goverment assitance because their crops are failing.  And the spring where Jack Daniel's draws it's water from was running so low that production was temporarily halted!  Nashville is 15 inches of rain below where they should be for this time of year.  Huntsville, Alambama in the nothern part of the state is almost 21 inches below average!  It's a dire sitation. 

Some relief is on the way.  A low spinning over Florida the past couple of days will move through the Gulf of Mexico and up towards the LA/MS/AL coast.  This will bring some much needed rain to the southeast.  And just behind that a front moves through. That will help bring even more moisture to this parched area.  But they are going to need a lot of wet weather to recover fully!  My mother lives in Cincinnati, and she says the ground is cracking and everyone has just given up on their lawns.  Good news is...you don't have to mow as often!  On the flip side, my father lives in Dallas.  Much of Texas has doubled their average rain for the year.  It's been a record setting wet summer for many of the cities in Texas and my dad says the everything is so green it looks like the midwest! 

Have a good day! - First Alert Meteorologist Erin Jordan

COOL TYPHOON PHOTO

From NASA:

Super Typhoon Wipha

Super Typhoon Wipha was approaching the coast of China on the afternoon of September 18, 2007, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this photo-like image. At the time (12:40 p.m. local time, 4:40 UTC), Wipha had winds between 250 kilometers per hour (155 miles per hour or 135 knots) and 240 km/hr (150 mph or 130 knots), making it a strong Category 4 storm and a Super Typhoon (a typhoon with winds of at least 130 knots). The storm weakened shortly after this image was taken and was forecast to weaken further before making landfall over the densely populated East China coast late on September 18 or early on September 19.

Though the storm was weakening, it was anticipated to be the strongest storm to hit China in a decade, reported Xinhua, China’s news agency. In preparation for the storm, the government evacuated about two million people in three provinces, said Xinhua. The storm had already started to soak Taiwan with heavy rains by the time this image was taken. The spiraling bands of rain clouds cover the island in this image, though the dark, well-defined eye remains offshore to the north. The image also reveals just how large Wipha was. Including its outer bands, which stretch from the Philippines (visible in the large image) in the south to the East China coast in the north, Wipha sprawls over several hundred kilometers.

The high-resolution image provided above is at MODIS’ full spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at additional resolutions.

You can also download a 250-meter-resolution KMZ file of Super Typhoon Wipia suitable for use with Google Earth.

NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center.