Fog Bank, April 2, 2012

Hello, WeatherBrains listeners, welcome to the Fog Bank, keeping Weatherbrains fog horn free for JB.
Send me your picks here, or on Twitter, where I'm @Skydaver.

Last year, the National Hurricane Center published a proposal on a minor change in wind speeds for various categories of hurricanes.  For this season, that proposal has been put in place.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/news/20120301_pis_sshws.php

The second pick is an amateur photo of the plumes from the ATREX jetstream experiment
http://spaceweather.com/submissions/pics/j/Jack-Fusco-jackfuscoatrexFacebook_1332845787.jpg

Third is an amazing depiction, in real time, of the winds in the US.  It takes a while to load, so be patient.  It probably should be viewed in Chrome.
http://hint.fm/wind/

Brad Panovich sent out a twit pic of an interesting visible satellite image on March 28
http://twitpic.com/92gysf


The CoCoRaHS March Madness outcome has been released, with North Carolina  & North Dakota being the winners.

In the "traditional count" category (sheer number of new observers), North Carolina (138) wins a close one over Texas (134) to take the cup for the second consecutive year. They are followed by Michigan (46), South Carolina (45) and Tennessee (41).

In the "population weighted-per capita" category, North Dakota (55.01) wins the CoCoRaHS Cup. The Peace Garden State is followed by South Dakota (31.93), North Carolina (14.47), South Carolina (9.73) and Oklahoma (9.33) in the standings.

To view the final standings for all the states and learn more about our contest, visit our March Madness webpage by clicking here: "http://cocorahs.org/Content.aspx?page=marchmadness".

Thanks to all of you who have mentioned the network to a family member or friend! With your help we have recruited a new March Madness record 859 new volunteer observers in March!

Thanks for listening, Skydaver out!

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Spanning the Globe:

This one is especially for James:

Aubie, the Auburn Tiger mascot, spanning:

http://t.co/ZQ0tbSsL

A Spann fan, spanning from atop the Empire State Building

pic.twitter.com/PTqpUbEN

James Proctor, Spanning

https://twitter.com/#!/Proctard/status/185194518113558528/photo/1

A young Spanner, Andrew 

pic.twitter.com/VF9ltbh3

Fog Bank, March 26, 2012

Hello, WeatherBrains listeners, welcome to the Fog Bank, keeping Weatherbrains fog horn free for JB.

Jesse Ferrell of Accuweather has interesting stuff in his blog, weathermatrix.  On March 15, he shows radar ducting picking up echoes off the Chesapeake Bay Bridge tunnel.
http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-blogs/weathermatrix/radar-ducting-catches-chesapeake-bridge/62811

If you ever get tired of Aurora pictures, stop listening to the Fog Bank.  Astronomy Picture of the Day has a very nice one, from Iceland, taken March 17, 2012
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120321.html

An explanation of the marine layer, from the NWS Jetstream website
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/ocean/marine.htm

From the National Severe Storms Laboratory, a background report on the Warn on Forecast project
http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/backgrounders/WoF%202011.pdf

NASA has an upcoming mission to study very high level jet stream winds.  They will be launching 5 rockets, 5 minutes apart, from Wallops Island, with camera sites watching the plumes from North Carolina and New Jersey.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/missions/atrex-nightlight.html

Send me your picks for the Fog Bank, and send me your pictures of you Spanning, I'll post them in the blog.  We can call it Spanning the Globe.  Here's mine:

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Fogbank, March 19, 2012

Sorry for the delay in getting this issue of the Fog Bank uploaded.


Hello, WeatherBrains listeners, welcome to the Fog Bank, keeping Weatherbrains fog horn free for JB.
Follow me on Twitter, @skydaver, and circle me on Google+ (profile is over on the right, I think)

Accuweather Folks have tweeted & retreated a link to James Spann's entry on the alabamawx.com blog, about the 10 Deadly Sins of TV Severe Weather Coverage.  Great job, James.
http://www.alabamawx.com/?p=58352

Earth Observatory pictures of the recent eruption of volcano in Kamchatka, Russia
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=77388


From King5 TV in Seattle, a video of an ominous cloud moving over Bellevue, Washington
http://www.king5.com/video/featured-videos/Creepy-wall-of-clouds-closes-in-on-Bellevue-142574705.html?clmob=y&

A video from CNN of an ice shove coming up on shore of a lake
http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_t3#/video/us/2012/03/12/dnt-ice-shove-damages-property.wluk

NWS Chat from the Anchorage office; will Anchorage break their all time snowfall record? I haven't checked to see whether that did happen.
https://nwschat.weather.gov/p.php?pid=201203150001-PAFC-NOAK48-PNSAFC

Thanks for listening, Skydaver out!

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Fog Bank, March 12, 2012

Hello, WeatherBrains listeners, welcome to the Fog Bank, keeping Weatherbrains fog horn free for JB.
You can follow me on Twitter, @skydaver

From Earth Science Picture of the day, Twin Waterspouts
http://epod.usra.edu/blog/2012/03/twin-waterspouts.html

Not really atmospheric, but this is really cool. Ice Fingers underwater.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/02/29/natures-icy-finger-death-caught-on-tape-for-first-time/?intcmp=features

CoCoRaHS has their own March Madness, a drive to get more participants.  They get the third pick this week. If you're not in CoCoRaHS, sign up. If you're in, recruit someone new!
www.cocorahs.net

From Accuweather & livescience.com, an article on tornado shelters
http://www.livescience.com/18981-tornado-storm-shelters-safety.html

I'll close with a blog entry from Jesse Ferrell of Accuweather, about a big Pacific storm approaching the US
http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-blogs/weathermatrix/pacific-northwest-storm-waves-over-30-feet/62677

Thanks for listening, Skydaver out!

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Fog Bank for March 7, 2012

WeatherBrains (www.weatherbrains.com) was recorded on Wednesday this week, rather than Monday as normal.


Hello, WeatherBrains listeners, welcome to the Fog Bank, keeping Weatherbrains fog horn free for JB.
Send me your picks on Twitter, @skydaver, or on Google+

Starting off, from the Washington Post, an article about dual-pol going in at the Baltimore-Washington forecast office
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/local-forecasters-get-a-new-crystal-ball/2012/02/15/gIQAEZKZTR_story.html

Jaclyn Whittal, a previous WeatherBrains guest, sent out a tweet with a writeup about Canada's winter
http://www.globaltoronto.com/pages/blogs.aspx?id=6442587143&blogid=6442451469&utm_source=facebook-twitter&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=community

My third pick is Accuweather.com article on 5 tornado myths
http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/top-five-tornado-myths-debunke/61918

Angela Butera tweeted a link to Chad Cowan's vimeo account, with a great wall cloud video
http://vimeo.com/24779493

I'll close out this week with an
Earth Science Picture of the day for leap day was a great roll cloud, at sea, off the coast of Brazil
http://epod.usra.edu/blog/2012/02/roll-cloud-off-coast-of-brazil.html

Thanks for listening, Skydaver out.

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Fog Bank for Feb. 27, 2012

Hello Weatherbrains listeners, this week's Fog Bank is in memory of Will Murray.

From Chuck Prevatte, a page from the 21st Operational Weather Squadron.  This is in response to the email question about European weather sources
http://131.54.120.150/index.cfm?section=region5day

South Brisbane Storms, on Facebook, posted a great photo of a supercell storm in Australia
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150640442762505&set=a.279133602504.146166.261100802504&type=1&theater

Two different user pictures sent to the Weather Channel, first, an anvil cloud in the Gulf of Mexico, second a lenticular cloud in Wyoming.  Thanks to Angela Butera for retweeting those pictures
http://iwitness.weather.com/_nice-morning-anvil-in-the-gulf/photo/16018907/148597.html
http://iwitness.weather.com/_Standing-Lenticular-clouds/photo/16015845/148597.html

The Capital Weather Gang had a post on measuring snowfall
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/accurately-measuring-snow-a-critical-winter-weather-challenge/2012/02/17/gIQA0C6lJR_blog.html

The Environmental Visualization Center had a great picture from GOES 15, of ship tracks in the atmosphere
http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/MediaDetail2.php?MediaID=990&MediaTypeID=1

Thanks for listening.  See you next week.


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Fog Bank for February 20, 2012

Hello, WeatherBrains listeners, welcome to the Fog Bank, keeping Weatherbrains fog horn free for JB.
Follow me on Twitter, @skydaver.  My Google+ profile should be over on the right.

Christopher Waits, @lostweatherguy, sent me the link to
NOAA Central Library US Daily Weather Maps Project
http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/dwm/data_rescue_daily_weather_maps.html

The February 16 Earth Science picture of the day has a great picture and explanation of the science behind a split sunset
http://epod.usra.edu/blog/2012/02/split-sunset.html

Space Weather.com had an interesting picture of the Feb. 14-15 Aurora, from a US Dept. of Defense Meteorological Program satellite
http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=17&month=02&year=2012

Space.com has an article on a great Aurora display that wasn't expected
http://www.space.com/14603-photos-strange-northern-lights-display.html

From the USGS Water Science for Schools page, an article on raindrop shape.  While falling, the shape depends upon the size.  I can tell you from personal experience though, that when you're skydiving, and falling at 120mph, and you fall through raindrops, they FEEL like they have a pointy end, and they hurt!
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/raindropshape.html

Thanks for listening, Skydaver out!

The link I sent to JB
Here's another great picture of the Aurora, this one from Sweden
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35972709@N03/6831950559

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