KOLD Climate Community Blog

Tropical Storm Fay Makes Landfall...Twice

Well...twice in the U.S.  The storm also made landfall over the weekend in Hispaniola and Cuba.  Late Monday afternoon Tropical Storm Fay passed over the Florida Keys.  Tuesday morning, at around 5 AM Florida time, it made a second landfall just south of Naples.  The storm never became a hurricane before landfall.  It is not the wind, but the rain that poses the greatest threat with this storm.  Heavy rains quickly flood this relative flat state.  Drainage is a problem in many areas.  Another threat is tornadoes.  As the storm interacts with land, the friction may create small torndadoes.  The photo above is possible tornado damage at a horse stable in Palm each.  Mark Randall from the Sun Sentinel took this photo. 

The storm will slowly move to the northwest today, crossing the state and possibly exiting into the Atlantic Ocean near the Space Coast by midnight.  The remnants of the tropical storm is expected to linger in this area for a few days. By the weekend the circulation may be pushed back over north Florida and into the Gulf of Mexico.  If this happens it may regain strength because the warm water is the energy source for the storm. 

For the latest updates from the National Hurricane Center click here. 

First Alert Meteorologist Erin Jordan

Tuesday's L.A. Earthquake

Click here for details on this earthquake. 

At 11:42 AM a 5.4 magnitude earthquake hit about 30 miles east-southeast of Los Angeles.  The trembler was felt in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Las Vegas. 

Lavender Sun

Residents of some northern California towns are seeing quite a site in the sky. There are hundreds of fires blazing in northern California which are throwing smoke and ash into the atmosphere. All of this smoke and ash is producing a beautiful lavender sun.

This rare occurrence is caused when the air is filled with particles the size of 1 micron (10^-6 meters). Smoke and ash are relatively the size of 1 micron. 1 micron is a little larger than the wavelength of red light. If there is enough smoke and ash in the air then those particles will scatter the red light, but allow shades of blue to pass through. The passing blue causes the sun to appear lavender. It is an amazing view of the sun that does not happen often.

If you would like to see more pictures click here.   Dustin Pittman - First Alert Intern

Big Sur Wildfire in California

After seeing some needed rain in the Tucson area, we have to think we are lucky compared to some northern California residents. People living in Big Sur, California (south of San Francisco) are dealing with two wildfires that combined recently and another wildfire east of the city. The two combined fires are the Galley and Basin fires.

The Galley and Basin fires (now called the Basin Complex) have destroyed 16 homes and 26,763 acres. This fire is about 5 percent contained and officials believe it was caused by lightning. Another fire farther east of Big Sur is called the Indians Fire. This fire has burned 59,700 acres of land and has destroyed 10 homes so far. It is about seven miles east of the Basin Complex and threatens to combine as one massive fire. If this happens it will be the largest fire in the area's history.

So far 22 miles of Highway 1 have been evacuated. The two fires have threatened to burn nearly 1,000 structures. The fires have destroyed approximately 85,000 acres which is about 133 square miles of land. It is a very dangerous situation for all residence around the Big Sur area.

The image above shows all of northern California.  At the very bottom is the Basin Complex and Indians Fires.

Dustin Pittman - First Alert Intern

Trouble for the Outer Banks

One of the most beautiful places to visit in North Carolina, the Outer Banks is being affected by nature's wrath. There are several wildfires burning west of the Outer Banks and causing smoke to flow east into the Outer Bank region.

The northern most wildfire is called the South 1 Fire in the Great Dismal Swamp. So far this fire has destroyed nearly 1,500 acres near the North Carolina and Virginia border. The fire was started by machines removing trees that were downed during Hurricane Isabel. Smoke from the South 1 Fire is affecting the following tourist areas: Corolla and Sanders Bay.

The other fire affecting a larger portion of the Outer Banks is known as the Evans Road Fire. As of June 15^th this fire has burned 41,000 acres of the Pocosin National Wildlife Refuge. The fire was started June 2^nd by lightning. Smoke from the Evans Road Fire is affecting the following tourist areas: Roanoke Island, Manteo, Nags Head, and Kill Devil Hills.

Both of the fires are currently burning in swampland. I was surprised to learn that swamps cause wildfires to produce more smoke than a typical wildfire. Interestingly, on the ground level of swamps there is a thick layer of peat, partially decayed vegetation that builds up in soggy environments. When peat dries out and catches on fire it can provide fuel to a fire for months. A wildfire in a swamp can last for months because of the enormous amount of fuel that can be present in peat.

If you are traveling to the Outer Banks anytime soon there should be no direct threat from the wildfires, but be sure to listen to emergency management officials in the region you are traveling.

Dustin Pittman – First Alert Intern

Landing 101

Check out what needs to happen for the landing of Shuttle Discovery with NASA's Landing 101. 

NASA Shuttle Discovery Launch Blog

The Shuttle Discovery is set to launch on Saturday at 5:02 PM east coast time, which is 2:02 PM Arizona time.  The NASA Launch Blog that follows all the preparations for lift-off will open about 6 hours before launch.  Click here for the blog. 

On a side note, Mark Kelly, the Commander of this mission, is Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford's husband.  The couple married last fall in at Agua Linda Farm in Amado, AZ. 

Spring Flooding Along Mississippi Leads To Historic Event

The image to the left is a photo taken from the space station.  That is New Orleans bordered by Lake Pontchartrain.  The muddy ribbon of water is the Mississippi River.  Heavy spring rains threatened flooding in the city.  On April 19th, the Corps of Engineers opened a spillway to relieve the high water in the river.  This is only the 8th time the spillway has been opened since 1937.  You can see the brown, muddy waters effect on the lake which is usually green in color as seen from space.  For more information on this event check out the NASA Earth Observatory.   

Wind Energy Could Significantly Increase in U.S.

The article below is by H. Josef Hebert from the Associated Press. 

Two decades from now Americans could get as much electricity from windmills as from nuclear power plants, according to a government report that lays out a possible plan for wind energy growth.  The report, a collaboration between the Energy Department research labs and industry, concludes wind energy could generate 20 percent of the nation's electricity by 2030, about the same share now produced by nuclear reactors.  Such growth would pose a number of major challenges, but is achievable without the need of major new technological breakthroughs, said the report released Monday.

"The report indicates that we can do this nationally for less than half a cent per kilowatt hour if we have the vision," said Andrew Karsner, the Energy Department's assistant secretary for efficiency and renewable energy.

If achieved, it would be an astounding leap.  Wind energy today accounts for only about 1 percent of the nation's electricity, although the industry has been on a growth binge with a 45 percent jump in production last year.  To reach the 20 percent production level, wind turbines would have to produce 300,000 megawatts of power, compared to about 16,000 megawatts generated today. Such growth would envision more than 75,000 new wind turbines, many of them larger than those operating today. About 54,000 megawatts would be produced by turbines in offshore waters.  And it would require a major expansion of the electricity grid system to move power from high-wind areas to other parts of the country, the report said.

But the report cautioned that its findings were not meant to predict that such growth would, in fact, be achieved, but only that it is technically possible. And it acknowledged "there are significant costs, challenges and impacts" associated with such rapid growth.  It would require improved turbine technology, "significant changes" and expansion of power line systems and a major expansion of markets for wind energy to accommodate an annual growth rate of 16,000 megawatts of electricity a year beginning in 2018, more than five times today's annual growth.

"It's time for America to change the way we think about wind power," said Bob Lukefahr of BP Alternative Energy North America. The oil company is a leading wind developer, said Lukefahr.

If wind energy's share of power production grows to 20 percent, natural gas consumption is expected to decline by 11 percent and coal consumption by 18 percent in 2030, said the report. As a result carbon emissions linked would be reduced by 825 million metric tons a year.  That is the equivalent of taking 140 million cars off the road.

Weekend Tornadoes Creeping Towards Record Books

Over the weekend the Storm Prediction Center had 63 reports of tornadoes.  This is all preliminary data that will be analyzed but as you can tell from the initial reports, it was an active severe weather weekend.  KOLD News 13 partners with The Weather Channel to give you the latest information on severe weather across the country.  In fact the data crunchers at The Weather Channel say that through January 1st to May 11th, 636 tornadoes have been reported.  (Again this is preliminary data that will likely change a little once all is said and done.)  Since record keeping began in 1950, this is a close second to the most active year for this time period which was 1999 with 669 tornadoes reported.  As of May 11th the death toll is 98 people.  This is the highest it was been since 1998 and the 7th deadliest since 1950.  One town in Oklahoma, hit hard by the weekend storms, may not rebuild.  Check out this Associated Press article for details.