Weather Weenie Of The Week

01/25/05 Dr. Bob Conzemius csu-atmos

No one reasonably expects a chase report to appear on the CSU chasers forum in the midst of January. Nonetheless, it proves valuable to check the chase reports section as it turns out people are actually interested in chasing inversions. It just so happens that Bob Conzemius took a chase in the vertical and left us a rather detailed and quality report that would put some tornado chase reports to shame. Luckily, in Colorado, chasing in the vertical is afforded by climbing mountains. Here's Bob's summary:

Subject: Jan 15th Inversion Chase Summary
Jan 20th, 2005, 6:10pm
 
I had tried, and failed, to chase the inversion on Friday the 14th.  Longing 
for temperatures somewhere just above freezing rather than in the teens and 
single digits, and disappointed by the busted chase (to the top of the "A") 
the day before, I decided a more distant target area was in order: 
Horsetooth Rock.
 
I awoke to my alarm clock Saturday morning before sunrise and checked the DEN 
sounding.  Unfortunately, the arctic layer was a little deeper than the day 
before, so I was somewhat uncertain that I would find success, even though I 
was adding 1600 feet elevation with my new target.  Checking the text version 
of the sounding, I saw I had about 300 feet to spare (z_inv ~ 6900 ft MSL), 
so off I went.
 
As I arrived at Horsetooth Mountain park, I could see the top of Horsetooth 
Rock looming above me.  I knew that I'd be at least able to see something, 
even if I was not able to climb above the inversion.
 
By the time I was halfway up, I was rewarded!  I continued to the top, where 
I took some photography and time lapse video of the clouds below:

http://bconzemi2004.home.att.net/2005/0115/20050115.html

 
-Bob Conzemius

Definitely a great way for all of us to start out 2005!!!

Comments on this entry

02/05/05 Prof. Wayne Schubert csu-atmos

The new topic to be discussed in at602 was 'Vertical normal modes of a continuously stratified fluid', so a discussion of generalized vertical coordinates was in order. After covering the possible options, Prof. Wayne Schubert returned to our system of equations with the choice of z*=ln(p_o /p) for the psuedo height coordinate. Last, after transforming the system to contain defined psuedo quantities, their indicating asterisks were dropped. Prof. Wayne Schubert cautioned however, not to forget that these were still psuedo quantities. And that z was now not physical height, but instead "the vertical coordinate formerly known as z-star." It seemed that he did intend it to be like the Prince name... he paused a bit after saying it, kind of waiting for a little response, chuckled a bit, then carried on.

Comments on this entry

02/14/05 Jill Schaefer Fort Collins, CO

As Chris Rozoff's wife-to-be, Jill has endured many instances of weenie-dom from Chris and his friends. So the story goes, Jill and Chris were cooking for Valentine's Day together. Jill was preparing a desert of banana bread pudding, which initially involved mixing milk, eggs, and other relevant liquid ingredients. Well, Jill aims to please her S.O., and so out of no where, Jill exclaimed: "Hey Chris! Check out this convection!" She was so proud to show Chris that the milk she had poured into her recipe was dense enough to cause rapid overturning of the ingredients. Actually, the convection was atypically marked and Chris was quite pleased! So let this be a lesson to other people who happen to have a weather weenie S.O. If you really want to please your weather-obsessed partner, remember fluid dynamics surrounds your everyday life.

Comments on this entry

02/16/05 NWS-Honolulu and David Wolfson Phoenix, AZ

Cat. 5 hurricane Olaf was threatening to pass over American Samoa and the Independent State of Samoa, so the National Weather Service Honolulu, HI included within their "Narrative Synoptic Discussion" the following warning:

 TONIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY...
EXTREMELY POWERFUL TROPICAL CYCLONE OLAF IS CURRENTLY 94 MILES NORTH  OF
TUTUILA AND MOVING TOWARDS THE EAST-SOUTHEAST. ON ITS CURRENT
TRACK...OLAF WILL PASS NEARBY NORTH OF TUTUILA BUT PASS MUCH NEARER  OR
OVER THE MANUA ISLAND GROUP. AS THE WINDS NEAR THE CENTER OF OLAF  ARE
ESTIMATED TO BE NEAR 150 MPH...WIDESPREAD DAMAGE WILL OCCUR
WHEREVER THE EYEWALL IS EXPERIENCED. IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT  WINDS
THIS STRONG WILL HEAVILY DAMAGE OR DESTROY WELL-BUILT WOODEN  STRUCTURES
AND WILL CAUSE MEDIUM SIZED OBJECTS...SUCH AS WASHING
MACHINES...TO BECOME AIRBORNE.

In response to this bizarre prognosis, David Wolfson came up with the following useful explanation:

It's the Sudsy-Soapy Scale of Cyclone Intensity:

Cat 0: washcloths become airborne
Cat 1: wet bathtowels become airborne
Cat 2: clotheslines become airborne
Cat 3: clothes closets become airborne
Cat 4: clothes washers become airborne
Cat 5: washeterias become airborne

Comments on this entry

02/21/05 Stephanie Cotilla Baltimore, MD

The veteran weenie Zach Eitzen reports that he had mentioned "the seminal rap group NWA" to his girlfriend Stephanie (who works in a non-atmospheric science field), who responded with:

> Seminal gangsta rap group NWA? I didn't know there was a National Weather 
> Association gangsta rap group:)

For more information regarding the important connections concerning meteorology and the history of rap, the reader is referred to following the link:

Comments on this entry

02/28/05 Jonathan Vigh csu-atmos

Kate Musgrave (csu-atmos) writes:

	  
I arrived on campus [a recent] morning to be rewarded with the sight of a 
car entering the parking lot at rather high speeds.  This car zoomed 
across the bottom of the parking lot, performed a complete tight loop 
about a car already parked at the bottom of the lot, before widening the 
curve and parking.  Out of the car hops Jonathan Vigh, looking far too 
sprightly for that hour of morning.  When asked what that 'stunt' was 
about, his response went something like this.

The angle the sunlight hit the windshield with had created a very strong 
inversion in the car.  So, Jonathan decided to perform an experiment.  He 
decided to use centrifugal force to shift the cold air at his feet to the 
other side of the car.  Upon executing his experiment, he declared it a 
partial success.  Although topographic effects in the car interfered, he 
did feel some air motion.

All I could picture was him explaining this to some police officer with 
that completely straight face...

Please folks, remember not to mix and drive. Mix responsibly. This message brought to you by Vorticity Brew, Inc.

03/07/05 Prof. Michael Montgomery and AT707 csu-atmos

Yep, Prof. Montgomery and a geophysical fluid dynamics class at the ski hill. While most people would consider such a trip care-free, thought-free, outdoor recreation, the Montgomery group does not go thought-free. Here is a list of events that occurred at Copper Mountain on an undisclosed, yet recent date:

Nonstop talk about atmospheric dynamics with occasional diversions into other topics in physics and kinematics.

Uncoordinated, several students brought instrumentation along. Measurements of temperature were gathered and put into an ensemble average. Apparently the ensemble error of the group consensus was within a half degree.

The vorticity equation was presented both on the ski lift and at lunch:

"Excuse me while I whip this out"

3D kinematic plots of the skiing motion based on GPS were constructed. Click here for plots (Scroll down).

A laptop was brought along and in full use in the Montgomery vehicle at all times-for data analysis, journal article preparation, and other scientific purposes.

Bob Conzemius played the NWS weather radio for a good portion of the car ride. Jonathan Vigh said it seemed to soothe Bob.

Several people studied their aerodynamical potential in the presence of a gravitational potential gradient and compared their actual ground-truth speed to the theoretical values. Several people reached speeds of 43, 56, and 64 mph. Spurious data points were carefully discarded.

03/14/05 Ben Pringle KAKE, Witchita, KS

KAKE-TV meteorologist Ben Pringle remarked he belonged to the Church of the Seventh-Day Forecasters.

Comments on this entry

03/21/05 John Fausett nws-el paso

Warning coordinator meteorologist John Fausett of NWS-El Paso previously won an award in 1999 for a musical Skywarn composition. Evidently since then, his songwriting career has been quite prolific. As a lifetime achievement award and recognition of his current writing and future musical endeavors, we once again recognize his great works. According to the NWS disclaimer, John has created the following songs in his free time for the NWS. They are instant classics:

Click here and enjoy!

03/28/05 Mark Branson csu-atmos

Regarding a recent inspirational dream, the weather weenie legend Mark sends an e-mail of his dream to a friend, blissfully unaware his friend is one of our shrewdly-placed WWWWWW super-network spies:

i had a dream last night that my brother and i were living back at the north 
college mobile plaza (i couldn't be more proud), and chris excitedly asked me 
to come outside, and when i did i saw that baseball-sized hail had fallen, and 
i couldn't figure out why that had occurred out of a stratiform cloud with no 
lightning and thunder.  then ray zehr drove up in his big truck as it was 
still pouring down rain, and we were trying to flag him down.

Comments on this entry

04/11/05 Prof. Matt Parker and Dr. Jason Knievel ncsu and ncar

The latest issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society includes a peer-reviewed publication examining the truth value to meteorologist-induced weather holes. The article is entitled: "Do Meteorologists Suppress Thunderstorms?: Radar-Derived Statistics and the Behavior of Moist Convection." Through statistical tests, Parker and Knievel find that despite most meteorologists' beliefs meteorologists do not induce weather holes (except those living in Grand Forks, ND). Folks, this is a true weather weenie achievement. The fact that this is a refereed publication shows the existence of a much wider-scale phenomenon of weather weenism. Further, this article is found widely conterintuitive, yet highly intriguing, to the rest of us. If you have access to AMS web site, you may download a print version of this article by Clicking Here.

Comments on this entry

04/25/05 Don Dazlich csu-atmos

In an e-mail to tech support, Don meant to say there was a pbs (portable batch system) problem, but slipped in his subject line. NOTE: For security reasons, the computer machine names and messages have been slightly modified.

From: don dazlich
Date: April 26, 2005 4:13:07 PM MDT
To: {tech support}
Subject: pbl problem on caprock

[caprock:~/C314159265/coupler_driver/run_coupler] dazlich% qsub job10.pbs
pbs_iff: cannot connect to host
No Permission.
qsub: cannot connect to server caprock (err="lo d.p.")
[caprock:~/C314159265/coupler_driver/run_coupler] dazlich%

Comments on this entry

05/02/05 Dyson Vacuum Cleaner with Root Cyclone TM CR's closet, fort collins

Quotes in advertisements (Oh baby!)

"How the Root Cyclone gives higher suction power.  Spinning air
creates centrifugal force.  By making the air stream spin, 
dirt and debris are subjected to centrifugal force.  The dirt 
and debris are thrown out of the air."

"Higher speed gives higher centrifugal force.  A cone shape 
speeds up the spinning air ...."

"More cyclones give even higher suction power.  High volumes 
of air are spread simultaneously through many cyclones to give 
higher suction power - which means you pick up even more dust"

Comments on this entry

05/09/05 Aaron Kennedy ou

For Aaron's site: Lego Storm Chasing Kits

Although Aaron's site has now deservedly earned historical noteriety among weather weenies, it would be a tragic mishap for us to permanently exclude its recognition among the ranks of great weather weenies.

Comments on this entry

05/16/05 Wes Terwey csu-atmos

Posted by Wes recently:

 Let's Get It Started (Convective Remix)
(music: "Let's Get It Started - Spike Mix": The Black Eyed Peas)
 
Let's get it started, out here...
 
And the Cu keep risin' risin', and risin' risin', and risin' risin', and 
risin' risin', and risin' risin', and risin' risin', and risin' risin', and 
risin' risin', and...
 
In this cloud field, there's no disrespect, so, when I bust my cap, 
      you break your necks.
We got five minutes for us to start convect, from warm air advect, 
      collect the warm transect.
Lose your inhibition, follow your adiabat,
      free your latent heat and break away from dry thermo.
'Cause when we heat up, we are all going up.
You wouldn't believe how we beat you up.
Raise it till it's rained out.
Spin it till it's spinned out.
Converge it up from north, west, east, south.
 
[Chorus:]
Everybody, everybody, let's get into it.
Go convective.
Get it started, get it started, get it started.
Let's get it started (ha), let's get it started out here.
Let's get it started (ha), let's get it started out here.
Let's get it started (ha), let's get it started out here.
Let's get it started (ha), let's get it started out here.
Yeah.
 
Lose control, an explosive growth.
You move too fast, parcels, don't take it slow.
Bust the cap, just jump right through it.
Ya'll make a storm, two pieces to it.
Get started, get convective.
You'll want us chaser people to watch you do it.
Step by step, like you're on a dry line.
Inch by inch with the moist solution.
Air goes up, with no dilution.
The heating's irresistible and that's how we movin'.
 
[Chorus:]
Everybody, everybody, let's get into it.
Go convective.
Get it started, get it started, get it started.
Let's get it started (ha), let's get it started out here.
Let's get it started (ha), let's get it started out here.
Let's get it started (ha), let's get it started out here.
Let's get it started (ha), let's get it started out here.
Yeah.
 
risin' risin', and risin' risin', and risin' risin', and risin risin' and...
 
C'mon y'all, lets get woohoo!
Let's get woohoo! (out here)
Let's get woohoo!
Let's get woohoo! (out here)
Let's get woohoo!
Let's get woohoo! (out here) Ow, ow, ow!
Ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya...
 
Let's get moist, that's the deal.
At the top, we'll bang the stratosphere. (Just)
Lose your warmth this is the time,
Ya'll cool this drop, Just detrain your air. (Just)
Bob your temp like me Parcel D, up inside your draft or in your downie.
Get messy, line and cell.
Ya'll move past freezing in another round trip. (So)
Come then now do not correct it, let's get hailing, go tornadic.
 
[Chorus:]
Everybody, everybody, let's get into it.
Go convective. (Come on)
Get it started (come on), get it started (yeah), get it started.
Let's get it started (ha), let's get it started out here.
Let's get it started (ha), let's get it started out here.
Let's get it started (ha), let's get it started out here.
Let's get it started (ha), let's get it started (woah, woah, woah) out here.
Yeah.
 
Let's get woohoo!
Let's get woohoo! (out here)
Let's get woohoo!
Let's get woohoo! (out here)
Let's get woohoo!
Let's get woohoo! (out here) Ow, ow, ow!
Ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya...
 
risin' risin', and risin' risin', and risin' risin', and risin' risin'

Comments on this entry

06/18/05 Jonathan Vigh csu-atmos

At Jill and Chris' outdoor wedding, Jonathan wielded his Kestrel during the ceremony and captured the met. obs. to be recorded forever in the memories of the newly-weds.

07/26/05 Tim Vasquez Weather Graphics, Stormtrack

Tim Vasquez, once again, wins the Weather Weenie of the Week Award^TM for his brilliant research paper covering the "Correlation of thunderstorms and haunted houses". His original work can be found by clicking here. This article is well worth your time! Thanks to Tim's successful efforts, much more public (including the undead) interest should increase in the dark arts of land-surface variability and resultant thunderstorm initiation. Now time to get to work in incorporating this work into mesoscale models.

Comments on this entry

08/01/05 Steve and Lisa Hodanish nws-pub

For the wedding of Steve and Lisa Hodanish, wedding favors included a gourmet candy bar, one package of Colorado's state flower seeds for planting a wonderful memory, and one lightning safety card. Note that one of Steve's ("Hodo's") areas of expertese lies in lightning safety.

DISCLAIMER: The fashionable couch backdrop in this image is solely the responsibility of CSU graduate students.

08/08/05 Donna and Chris Landsea hrd/miami

Donna (1960), Mitch (1998), NOW Elena (1985)!, and Chris (yet to be retired). Wow!

09/19/05 Prof. Bill Gray csu-atmos

During CIRA's tropical weather briefing, Prof. Bill Gray iterated how important climatology is when making a hurricane track forecast, which countered numerical models, and Prof. Mike Montgomery retorted that "I've checked all the dynamics texts and I can't find any term in the vorticity equation that is proportional to climatology!" Then, Prof. Gray sang this song to Mike (Sung to the tune of Pistol-Packin' Mama by Bing Crosby in 1943):

Lay that matrix down, Mike
Lay that matrix down
Equation-pushing mama
Lay that matrix down

09/26/05 The Cloud Appreciation Society London, UK

This week's award goes to the Cloud Appreciation Society. From wonderful photographs, to intriguing articles that cover soaring through morning glory, to humor that identifies too well with us cloud fanatics, this society has something worth investigating for every weather weenie. In particular, their manisfesto really speaks of the calibre of this organization. An example quote from this manifesto:

 "We pledge to fight ‘blue-sky thinking’ wheresoever we find it. Life
 would be dull if we had to look up at monotonous blue every day. The
 clouds are Nature’s poetry – sometimes spoken in a whisper,
 sometimes roared with all her might"

Well said. With their exemplary work, these folks have achieved truly ultimate weather weenie status in our eyes.

Also, some examples of their humor include:

Margaret Thatcher in clouds

Their Venn diagrams in their cloud stamps section

Comments on this entry

10/19/05 Zach Eitzen nasa-langley, va

After deepening 95 hPa in 24 hours, hurricane Wilma became an 882 hPa, Cat 5, historical monument the morning of 19 October 2005. After rubbing our eyes in disbelief, Zach Eitzen had already written this rendition of the Flintstones theme song for Wilma:

Cyclone, it's a cyclone!
With loads of vorticity,
In the Caribbean
the most intense in history

Someday, the storm will pass over land,
Maybe in the eastern Yucatan.

When you're in the cyclone,
have a kiss your ass good bye time,
an "I'm gonna die" time,
we'll have a frightful time!

Here's a picture of the potential highway evacuation scenes in Florida (courtesy JH):