Fogbank for August 29, 2011

Tonight's Fogbank is wall to wall hurricane, in honor of Hurricane Irene, which passed up the East Coast over the weekend of August 27

The National Hurricane Center has an interactive KML (google maps) link. I like it a lot, as it shows the error cone & consensus track, but wish it had time stamps for predicted position.  Go to the NHC Main Page, click on one of the active systems, then look for Warning Cone (Interactive)

NHC also has an interactive map with the forecasting breakpoints, or the geographic locations for the various watches & warnings.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/breakpoints.shtml?gm

My third pick is an article on the predictability and uncertainty in hurricane forecasting
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/08/unpredictable_hurricane_paths.html

From the US editor for London's Daily Telegraph, I have, "Perfect Storm of Hype: Politicians, the media, and the Hurricane Irene apocalypse that never was
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyharnden/100102355/perfect-storm-of-hype-politicians-the-media-and-the-hurricane-irene-apocalypse-that-never-was/
I especially liked the youtube clip of one reporter in Ocean City, Maryland.


Some of the draft NHC discussion bulletins that never got released
http://blog.xkcd.com/2011/08/29/for-the-small-handful-of-hurricane-geeks-out-there/

2005 Hurricane Epsilon, the hurricane that wouldn't die. This page is a listing of all of the NHC releases for that storm.  From the previous link, I'm guessing that some of those releases had notes of frustration in them.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/2005/EPSILON.shtml?

Fogbank audio

Fogbank for August 22, 2011

Hello WeatherBrains Listeners, this is the Fogbank, listener supplied picks of the week, keeping Weatherbrains foghorn free for JB.

I'm Dave Phillips, from Winston Salem, NC, skydaver on twitter. Send me your picks for the Fogbank.

You can find all my picks, and a link for this audio, at my blog, skydaver.blogspot.com

My first pick is from Universe Today, a photo of a solar pillar
http://www.universetoday.com/88234/astrophoto-solar-pillar-by-rick-stankiewicz/

Second, the COMET program at MetEd has another new module in the Volcanic Ash series
 "Impacts to Aviation, Climate, Maritime Operations and Society".
You do have to create a login at MetEd, but that's free.
http://www.meted.ucar.edu/volcanic_ash/impacts

Third, a New York Times article on Forensic Meteorology
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/17/nyregion/forensic-meteorologists-provide-expert-testimony.html?_r=2

Finally, two articles on the Indiana State Fair stage collapse
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/The-312/August-2011/The-Indiana-State-Fair-Stage-Collapse-Why-Regulations-and-Meteorology-Matter/
http://www.fox59.com/news/wxin-meteorologist-author-says-indiana-state-fair-stage-collapse-was-a-needless-tragedy-20110816,0,3336799.column

Thanks for listening,
Skydaver out!

The audio for this Fogbank

p.s. I don't sneak picks to JB, I email them, and include the Weatherbrains on the email.
p.p.s I think this will take you to my Google+ page

Fogbank for August 15, 2011

Hello WeatherBrains Listeners, this is the Fogbank, listener supplied picks of the week, keeping Weatherbrains foghorn free for JB.

I'm Dave Phillips, from Winston Salem, NC, skydaver on twitter. Send me your picks for the Fogbank.


My first pick is a weather quiz from Davis, the weather instrument people, sent by Chuck Prevatte, @chuck006
http://www.davisnet.com/weather/cool/take_quiz.asp

The second pick is a set of NEXRAD radar grabs of the Indiana storm that blew down the stage at the Indiana State Fair. They were sent to Brad Panovich, who posted them on his google plus page.
https://plus.google.com/photos/115333506137843021021/albums/5640758723034711937

The third pick is a Weather.com story on the stage collapse, and how the story came out via social media
http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/indiana-stage-fair-stage-collapse_2011-08-13

My fourth pick is the Rolex Fastnet Race Weather Report - This race is a biennial race of 608 miles from The Isle of Wight to Fastnet Rock, Ireland & back to Plymouth England.
I have a youtube video of the forecast for this year's running of the race.  Several boats in the Volvo Ocean 70 class participated in the race this year, as practice for the Volvo Ocean Race starting this November. The Volvo Ocean Race goes around the world, in some of the fastest monohull sailboats ever made.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kTO3vNCsX8

Finally, I have  Tropical Atlantic Overlays for Google Earth. Thanks to Dan Goff for sending this pick in.
http://tropicalatlantic.com/satellite/#taoverlays



Fogbank Audio

August 8 Fogbank

First up.
Do we need the NWS? A blog post from Cliff Mass
Do We Need the NWS

Justin Kinney, the Director of Communications and External Affairs at NOAA, is on Twitter
@JustinNOAA
I haven't notice a lot of activity from him, yet.

Jonas Gray, a WeatherBrains listener from Alabama, has started his own weather blog
http://wxgeek01.blogspot.com/
Let's give him some visits, and encourage him to keep it up. Jonas is a 5th grader, and hopes to be a storm chaser.

I'll close out with two picks from a couple of widely separated NWS locations.
I've got the Facebook page from
NWS Caribou Maine

and the official page from West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center
http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/

Here's the recording for this Fogbank

August 1 Fog Bank

Looking for some cool weather? Here's the New Zealand Meteorological Service

Satellite photos from Earth Observatory of heavy snowfall in Chile

An article about a Prey & Predator Model of Clouds, from the Weizmann Institute of Science, in Rehovot, Israel

The NHC is proposing a minor change to the Saffir-Simpson scale. Conversion of speeds from knots to miles per hour can make a hurricane that is a Category 4 in knots be a category 3 in miles per hour.  This also happens near the 4/5 boundary.  The proposed change will make it so that a hurricane will be in the proper category regardless of the expression of speed.
Proposed Saffir-Simpson scale change

Chuck Prevatte sends Dr. Strangeweather

Special Heat Advisory