Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog

Earth Day photo selections; severe weather outbreak for TX/OK
Posted by: Dr. Jeff Masters, 1:26 PM GMT en Abril 22, 2010 +11
Today is Earth Day, a day to celebrate the beauty of the atmosphere, oceans, and biosphere of the planet that sustains us. As is my tradition on Earth Day, I'll present my five favorite wunderphotos uploaded to our web site over the past year. I want to thank everyone who has participated in making this the best weather photo gallery on the Internet--your photos are truly an inspiration! If you take a great image, I encourage you to upload your photo at higher resolution, so it can be considered for our new Worldview Gallery, updated weekly with the top wunderphotos of the week.

Of special note today is a photo posted by wunderground user Trigirl, who has posted some fantastic wunderphotos over the years. Her wunderphoto of eight young Mennonite women standing in the fog and light rain of the Smoky Mountains was posted on June 9 of last year. She entered the photo in the Smithsonian Magazine's photo contest in the Americana category, and won first prize out of 60,000 entries. Congratulations, Debra!


Figure 1. Eight young Mennonite women stand in the fog and light rain of the Smoky Mountains, on the scenic overlook wall.

Severe weather today for Texas and Oklahoma
The Storm Prediction Center has outlined a "Slight Risk" region of concern for severe weather over Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Colorado today. Tomorrow, the action moves eastwards into the Mississippi Valley, and we could get one of the larger severe weather events of this quiet severe weather season. Our severe weather expert Dr. Rob Carver will blog on the action, if it cranks up.

Jeff Masters

weather (kachi)
weather
Happy New Year!!! (AlaskaMatt)
-25 degrees in Fairbanks, Alaska on the side of the road looking to the north.
Happy New Year!!!
Icy winter bloom (PnDspgs)
Icy winter bloom
ST David's Moon (sandiquiz)
There was a wonderful halo around the moon last night.
ST David's Moon
Micro Frost Art (katy99780)
Tiny frost jewels on the patio door glass, about a half inch across, looking toward the northern horizon at mid-day. We could get -50 F tonight. There has been a 100 degree variance in the state of Alaska yesterday and today, with +50 near Ketchikan on the southern panhandle and -50 in the far northern interior of Alaska.
Micro Frost Art
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501. MiamiHurricanes09 11:54 AM GMT en Abril 23, 2010    
Quoting wunderkidcayman:
Hey I think that should be a sub tropical storm the NHC is sleeping
Good Morning. This AOI was an area of low pressure that emerged off of South Carolina several days ago while attached to a trough. This AOI has just been skirting the coast. If it were August and more to the south the NHC would go ahead and call this a subtropical storm, but its April 23, 2010, unless it were by the Georgia coast and still spinning strong than maybe the NHC might consider. Remember it's April.
Member Since: Septiembre 2, 2009 Posts: 129 Comments: 19976
502. MiamiHurricanes09 12:00 PM GMT en Abril 23, 2010    
(06z) NAM 84 hours out is showing a lot of activity around central America, our first invest might take place there.

Member Since: Septiembre 2, 2009 Posts: 129 Comments: 19976
504. KEEPEROFTHEGATE (Mod) 12:04 PM GMT en Abril 23, 2010    
ya jeff today looks like a high impact widespread event
Member Since: Julio 15, 2006 Posts: 143 Comments: 40596
506. weathermanwannabe 12:07 PM GMT en Abril 23, 2010    
Good Morning.......In lurk mode waiting to see how severe weather events unfold for the US between now and Sunday.....Here is part of the discussion this morning from Tallahassee NWS. Looks like the Panhandle region could have a rough ride on Saturday evening going into Sunday....Hate it when threatening weather unfolds in the overnight hours....All the more reason to have your weather radios handy and in play in the Panhandle this weekend:

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TALLAHASSEE FL
555 AM EDT FRI APR 23 2010

STRONG NEGATIVELY TILTED SHORTWAVE WILL PIVOT NE ACROSS THE LOWER MS VALLEY TOWARD THE WESTERN TN VALLEY THROUGH THE DAY. ASSOCIATED
SURFACE LOW WILL DEEPEN AS IT ACCELERATES FROM THE UPPER TEXAS COAST TO THE TN VALLEY. ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS SUPPORTIVE OF SEVERE
WEATHER INCREASE BY LATER SATURDAY OVER OUR WESTERN AND NORTHWESTERN ZONES AS LARGE SCALE LIFT INTENSIFIES AND MID/LLJ STRUCTURES MOVE
OVERHEAD. AT THIS TIME THE MOST WIDESPREAD THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY INTO EARLY SAT EVENING WILL BE FOCUSED NORTH AND WEST OF OUR REGION...HOWEVER THE MORE SCATTERED ACTIVITY IN OUR VICINITY WILL STILL ENCOUNTER A HIGHLY SHEARED ENVIRONMENT WITH DEEP LAYER BULK
SHEAR OF APPROX 60 KNOTS (PLENTY SUFFICIENT TO SUPPORT ORGANIZED CONVECTION AND SUPERCELLS). 30-35 KNOTS OF 0-1 KM SHEAR AND IMPRESSIVE HELICITY VALUES BY THE MID EVENING HOURS WILL INTRODUCE AN ENVIRONMENT FAVORABLE FOR TORNADIC SUPERCELLS.

SATURDAY NIGHT...COLD FRONT WILL BEGIN TO APPROACH FROM THE WEST WITH BETTER CHANCES FOR A MORE ORGANIZED AND PROGRESSIVE SQUALL
LINE. SEVERE WEATHER THREAT WILL SPREAD EASTWARD THROUGH THE NIGHT...BUT LIKELY NOT REACH AS FAR EAST AS THE SUWANNEE RIVER
VALLEY UNTIL EARLY SUNDAY. THE STORMS SATURDAY NIGHT WILL CONTINUE TO ENCOUNTER A HIGH SHEARED ENVIRONMENT WITH DAMAGING WINDS AND ISOLATED TORNADOES THE MAIN THREATS.

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507. xcool 12:08 PM GMT en Abril 23, 2010    
MiamiHurricanes09 invest huh ???
Member Since: Septiembre 26, 2009 Posts: 2 Comments: 15503
509. Stormchaser2007 12:13 PM GMT en Abril 23, 2010    
Y'all need to accept the fact that its merely extra-tropical. The convection is being enhanced by the SST gradient of the Gulf Stream.


Member Since: Junio 9, 2007 Posts: 4 Comments: 15248
510. xcool 12:22 PM GMT en Abril 23, 2010    
Member Since: Septiembre 26, 2009 Posts: 2 Comments: 15503
513. stoormfury 12:28 PM GMT en Abril 23, 2010    
this area of the northeast coast looks subtropical in nature. ASCAT shows winds near 40-45mph away from the centre


Link
Member Since: Agosto 22, 2006 Posts: 0 Comments: 2303
515. Stormchaser2007 12:32 PM GMT en Abril 23, 2010    
Quoting stoormfury:
this area of the northeast coast looks subtropical in nature. ASCAT shows winds near 40-45mph away from the centre


Link


It looks sub-tropical, but in its core its not.
Member Since: Junio 9, 2007 Posts: 4 Comments: 15248
517. stoormfury 12:35 PM GMT en Abril 23, 2010    
ASCAT pass of the area off the northeast coast which appears subtropical in nature

Link
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519. jlouisiana 12:57 PM GMT en Abril 23, 2010    
does anyone have a link to the weather terms and definitions that are commonly used during hurricane season. Thanks
Member Since: Agosto 12, 2009 Posts: 0 Comments: 9
520. pottery 1:06 PM GMT en Abril 23, 2010    
Good Morning.
A big change over the past week in the Tropical Atlantic.
The ITCZ has dropped south again and is now mostly on the Equator. And a new cloud of SAL with dust is coming off Africa.
There was a lot WV evident across the Atl and the Carib islands a week ago. Not much sign of that now.
So, this current dry season is still deeply entrenched and the temp yesterday peaked at 96.8F. Today will be similar.

Another 'quake in Chile. 6.1.
A 5.0 in the Gulf of Paria on Wed. (between Trinidad and Venezuela).
Member Since: Octubre 24, 2005 Posts: 0 Comments: 20708
521. MiamiHurricanes09 1:10 PM GMT en Abril 23, 2010    
Stormchaser2007 hit it on the nose. This AOI is extra-tropical and the flare-up of convection is being enhanced by the gulf stream (which is a more north than usual).
Member Since: Septiembre 2, 2009 Posts: 129 Comments: 19976
522. SevereHurricane 1:12 PM GMT en Abril 23, 2010    
Member Since: Septiembre 7, 2008 Posts: 17 Comments: 1604
523. hurricane23 1:29 PM GMT en Abril 23, 2010    
sst's are never an issue come august. You can have the warmest sea surface temps in the world but if the upper levels aren't supportive no t.c.

Member Since: Mayo 14, 2006 Posts: 8 Comments: 13276
524. IKE 1:51 PM GMT en Abril 23, 2010    
NEW BLOG!
Member Since: Junio 9, 2005 Posts: 23 Comments: 37044
525. dutchessweather 9:56 PM GMT en Abril 26, 2010    
For those of you who are wondering if there has been an increase in the number of global earthquakes, the answer is definitely yes! I gathered quake data from the USGS site, and plotted total quakes per year for two magnitudes; equal to or greater than 2.5 (strong enough for humans to sense), and equal to or greater than 4.5 (strong enough to cause damage). Both categories show an increase since the 1970's. The reason for the increase? Your guess is as good as anyone elses. (going short on insurance companies that cover earthquakes is probably a good investment)
Member Since: Octubre 3, 2005 Posts: 0 Comments: 11
526. dutchessweather 10:02 PM GMT en Abril 26, 2010    
Quoting Levi32:
I'd just like some simple things answered about CO2. Such as....why it responds to significant global temperature changes. For instance, increases flattened dramatically at Mauna Loa after the Mount Pinatubo eruption in 1991, and then resumed their climb a few years later. Then they spiked upwards at a faster rate during the 1997-1998 El Nino, when the global temperature reached its highest ever recorded with satellites. A similar spike upwards is observed around the 1972 El Nino, and then a flattening afterwards during the 1973 La Nina. All of these events were associated with dramatic changes in global temperature. The CO2 was obviously not the driver, and yet it changed along with the temp....why? I'm not saying this proves anything, except that there are still some questions to be answered.



Rising air temperature causes sea surface temperatures to rise, releasing CO2 from seawater (and vice versa). What is more signficant is that despite the logarithmic increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration, global mean sea level continues to rise at the same rate it has during the past century.
Member Since: Octubre 3, 2005 Posts: 0 Comments: 11
527. cottonhoe 9:56 PM GMT en Mayo 23, 2010    
Are any satellites tracking the oil slick in the Gulf? any images on line?
528. W4NOV 1:35 AM GMT en Mayo 31, 2010    
Take a look at http://gaiaisangry.com for a compilation of the increasing Earthquakes, Volcanos, etc. - An attempt to pull together some of these interesting parameters. Tom
529. Mushuweasel 1:58 AM GMT en Junio 11, 2010    
What passes for "Severe" weather in my neck of northern California:

Current Severe Weather

Record Report

Statement as of 01:35 am PDT on June 10, 2010

... Record daily maximum rainfall set at Santa Rosa Airport...

A record rainfall of 0.02 inch(es) was set at Santa Rosa Airport
yesterday. This breaks the old record of 0.01 set in 2005.




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About JeffMasters
Jeff co-founded the Weather Underground in 1995 while working on his Ph.D. He flew with the NOAA Hurricane Hunters from 1986-1990.

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