Weather Oddities 2

It's another wet and stormy June day today.  I couldn't have imagined just how wet this month would turn out with my first foray into summer rainfall amounts.  The pattern continues as the wet weather will push into July.  Philadelphia will surely pass the ten inch mark this month.  Great time to start keeping track of rain.  Southern areas are doing well themselves.

Speaking of rain, I think the majority of national news stories involving weather are flood related.  Alberta is taking a beating.  I was going to post videos but there are too many out there.  Do a search on Calgary to see the whole city under water or look into Canmore, a town I Goggle mapped my way through just a few weeks ago that sits in a picturesque part of the Canadian Rockies, if you choose.  But there has also been news about flooding in France and in India that has claimed over a thousand lives.  It's amazing the power and simplicity of water. 

I'm a little behind on my weekly weather oddity column so let's dive in.  The goal is to keep it around three each week.


1)  I don't want to keep going back to the same stories in this section but the Moore tornado was back in the news.  I bring it up because of something I never considered.  Residents who went through the process of cleaning up and beginning to rebuild are starting to experience medical issues caused by breathing in the bits of debris in the air.  Obviously when homes and businesses are demolished particles are inhaled that are normally avoided by people.  Hopefully people remember to use all the necessary protection when digging through the wreckage including face masks.

2)  The WASHINGTON POST article:

There is the headline from an article in the Washington Post.  I'm no longer taking sides on this, not that I really did before, as long as we can learn and understand both viewpoints.  And I for one do not want to be a part of any trend that includes the word warming.  The title perfectly encompasses the article by letting us know that while the rate of warming over the last 15 years has been slower than the 20 years prior, that doesn't mean we should get excited.  The article goes on to throw out questions as to why, in short summary, what should we make of it, is it random, or does it tell us something interesting about climate change?

The four selected answers are as follows.

1. THERE IS STILL GLOBAL WARMING -  That certainly answers it

2. ONE THEORY, OCEANS RESPONSIBLE - Cool, care to explore other theories?

3. EVEN IF YOU PLACE A LOT OF WEIGHT ON THE RECENT SLOWDOWN, IT DOESN'T CHANGE PROJECTIONS OF FUTURE WARMING TOO DRAMATICALLY
Okay so I took this one verbatim as written.  Good golly do I love it.  So much in here to play with.  It is clear the message we are going for in this piece after three apparent answers to predetermined questions is global warming is very much a threat.  I'm fine with that.  The wording is the great part.

Even If You = Go ahead, but you are really reaching
A Lot Of Weight = You are putting all of your eggs in one basket now

Doesn't Change Projections:  It might have if you didn't just say I placed A LOT of weight
Too Dramatically:  So there is a change?

You realize if I was on the other side of this issue I could have used the exact same basis of the sentence and written the following without being incorrect:  IF YOU PLACE WEIGHT ON THE RECENT SLOWDOWN, IT CHANGES PROJECTIONS OF FUTURE WARMING

4.  STILL ON PACE TO BLOW PAST 2 DEGREES CELSIUS TARGET 

Let me sum it up.  What should we make of this?  I don't know.  Is it random?  Maybe.  Does it tell us something interesting?  Not yet.

3)  A woman in Colorado who had her home destroyed by the Black Forest fire that swept through the northern area of Colorado Springs returned to her home to sift through whatever valuables could be salvaged.  Turns out the police were doing some searching of their own.  She was arrested on a traffic related warrant while trying to clean up. 

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Weekly Oddities

In reading various news throughout the week I started to realize that there is a variety of odd, bizarre and unique stories involving weather in some capacity.  The idea with this is to save those stories for a weekly roundup.  Let's begin.

I had seen this one a little over a week ago and wanted to touch base on it but never did.  It is the perfect opening for this new post.

1.)
Looting has always been commonplace after damaging storms.  Some people do it out of necessity, others see it as an opportunity.  Either way it is not surprising to see greedy individuals out there stealing.  These three guys take the cake.  After the Moore tornado the small amount of dip sticks came out from their campers and began searching the debris.  Three men in particular had a game plan established.  They were going to clean up on copper parts that recently have been a hot item for thieves.  Unfortunately they were caught.  Now I know you are thinking at this point how can this be.  Apparently walking down the middle of a demolished street carrying out copper throws up a red flag.  It's even worse when you are walking to the vehicle your two buddies are standing next to with a van full of stolen goods.  Here is the kicker.  The three men were from Virginia.  They had driven to Oklahoma for the sole intention of stealing copper after the tornado.  That is some brilliance.

2.)
It's fire season and this past week saw very warm temperatures for the west combine with high winds and low humidity.  Red Flag warnings were up for many areas west of Denver through Nevada and Arizona.  Many times it is the isolated thunderstorms that produce more of a light show than a rain event that get fires started.  The warnings still advise people to avoid camp fires in the woods and do not flick a cigarette out the window.  They might need to add another to that list.  Don't burn ants with a magnifying glass.  Three kids in Flagstaff found out the hard way.  My head is spinning on this one.  I can't believe people still do this.  I am slightly pleased to see kids still want to play outside.  But I'm also concerned about this type of activity.  A part of me feels that this might have been the most affordable thing to keep them preoccupied.  It is unclear how many ants if any were victimized but the kids did manage to start a fire.  Luckily a group of neighbors heard the commotion and were able to control the fire before it got out of hand as firefighters arrived to spray the entire area to be sure.  Every year there is some fire started by something that makes you shake your head.  Maybe this is the one that doesn't end with an entire forest burning down.

3.)
This past week saw numerous cases of volatile weather across the east with much of the severe weather rolling through to the south of our area.  Tornadoes were reported as far north as Delaware that saw an EF0 and video caught a small tornado over the harbor in Baltimore.  During this time the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, the only bridge over the bay, was briefly closed for safety reasons.  It's not uncommon as high winds across a flat surface hitting a long suspension bridge can lead to rocking.  A minor inconvenience for most is an acceptable cost as opposed to a very intense amusement park type of ride.  One minor detail nobody knew about.  There was still a truck out on the bridge when it closed.  All he could do was pull over and take some video.  It's not as crazy and you might think but still not a place I'd want to be completely alone.


There you have it.  Hopefully this roundup can continue as I find more suitable stories.     

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Rain and Rides

Half way through the month and Philadelphia has taken a strong lead in the rainfall totals.  Nobody could have predicted the city would be well on the way towards the ten inch mark in one month.  The good news is we are very early into this rainfall tracking, and I would bet willing to be almost anything that one of the other cities passes Philadelphia within a short amount of time.  The other thing that should start to take shape, if it hasn't already, is the truth that cities in the northwest U.S. really don't see a lot of rain.  That's the reason I picked Portland.


I was able to get out riding twice in the past two weekends.  The first came at Jim Thorpe which was a nice change of pace.  The thought behind that ride was to get away from the 90 degree temperatures that week.  If I go up again I would probably do the whole ride which I think is about 50 miles.  Add in a mostly gravel trail and it makes for a more difficult ride.  There also isn't a place to stop and walk around unless you want to sit by the river.  However the town is charming enough to allow for a quick walk through.  It will be on my radar in the future especially towards fall.


Last week I went for a shorter ride.  I'm trying to experience as many areas as I can and the only thing I can do is try them out.  This time it was in the Blue Mountains.  You can only experience so much on a bike.  There wasn't a ton to look at outside of dense woods and the speed you go at makes looking into the greenery almost nauseating.  What I do like though is that there are so many things revolving around nature to do that people have no idea exist.  It's fun to explore.  As much as I enjoy the outdoors there are some things that throw me.  About half way into the ride I started to hear a high pitched noise.  I didn't think much of it because even on a windless day the breeze as you ride makes noise in your ears.  This noise was different though.  I looked back to my rear tire a few times to see if the spinning was the culprit of the noise.  Then I slowed down thinking the noise would change if it was coming from my bike.  I almost came close to asking the few other riders I saw if they heard it to just to be sure it wasn't me.  Eventually I decided I had to stop riding.

This is what I heard.  Feel free to up your volume.




Now outside of a few birds chirping there is nothing that should make noise out here.  There are no roads close by or rivers or streams.  Everything is calm except for that sound.  Even listening to it again I get a vision of tires spinning.  It's not.  It hit me soon that the paper that morning had an article on the front about people now seeing the cicadas.  That had to be it.

Half of the ride ended up being a whistling version of that bizarre sound.  It wasn't that bad but it never changes.  Only at some point the bugs weren't around anymore and the normal wooded sounds came back.  It was very odd.

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No tropical activity at this point.  No areas look to be in line for excessive rainfall this week.  Severe weather looks to be limited.  It's hot where it is normally hot.  Fire season is kicking in like it does every year.  It's an unfortunate byproduct of living in the picturesque areas of the west but something that has to be dealt with every year.  Let's remember most of these areas border on a desert type climate.

Our area should finally be able to dry out from the heavy amount of rain we received.  Looking like a nice week.  

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Storm Following

I use the title of that post in two different aspects for the post today.  I am personally tracking storms for our area today, and also took a lot of time on Friday to follow what was unfolding in Oklahoma City once again.  Little did anybody know what would be the result from that day.

I knew Friday was going to be an interesting day for the central part of the country.  Once again Oklahoma appeared to be targeted as chasers lined up all over the state waiting for storms to form.  I also sat patiently waiting with my updated radar system that I will get to later.  By late afternoon the storms were firing with heavy rains and winds and tornadoes out in front of the leading edge.  I generally pass on The Weather Channel but in times like these they are constantly on air using all of their available features which is what should be happening.  Then word got out that a large tornado was on the ground headed towards Oklahoma City as well as Moore.  Not even two weeks later and another tornado is crawling towards your doorstep.  Welcome to Oklahoma.

Between studio coverage TWC would link in with actual tornado chaser video as well as resources with the local media.  I have to say they did a very good job.  Throughout the month of May the channel also had their own team of meteorologists chasing storms.  The chase ended with something completely out of the ordinary.  As the night progressed it was learned The Weather Channel chase car had been caught up in the tornado.  My initial reaction was not terribly surprising as the outflow from storms or inflow of winds wrapping around a tornado is easy to come across when researchers are in the field.  What wasn't made so obvious at first was they were literally in the tornado.  Their car had been lifted, picked up and rolled multiple times to the tune of ending up 200 yards away.  That's not something to sneeze at.  There are pictures of the aftermath and even videos from inside the car as Mike Bettes (Weather Channel met) shouted instructions and video from outside of the car (camera was sucked out the window, landed in the grass and kept filming) as it was picked up and tossed.  It is really stunning news for me because if the highest profiled weather company with all of their data gets surprised by a tornado, what chances do anybody else have?

Below is an image I was able to capture during the storm off radar.

I took this to get a feeling of life in the plains.  Obviously we know what happened in Moore.  Here we are less than two weeks later and this is on your radar.  The purple diagonal line to the north of town is part of a box that signifies a tornado warning in place.  The purple line that runs more north to south sitting west of the city is another warning.  The triple colored line of pinkish color and black in the middle is a tornado emergency box which is the highest warning you can get.  In essence Moore was in three different tornado warnings at the same time.

Then this morning I learned of terrible news to the weather community.  It was reported that members of Twistex were among those killed by the tornado on Friday in El Reno (to the west of the map above).  It was an instant shot to me.  I followed this team when Discovery ran the show Storm Chasers to which I followed religiously.  The team was involved in chasing fueled by gaining knowledge through science and research with a more old school approach as compared to some of the younger chasers.  They were out there to help better predict these storms and instead were caught by the unpredictable nature of them.  I think all chasers know of the risk associated with doing the job.  This day cost the community some people on the front line of tornado research.  Let's also remember it is these people who report back to the weather service confirming that there are indeed tornadoes on the ground and telling people which way they are moving and at what location they are at.

For now we press on.  I just looked at the prediction center outlook for this week and the good news is it looks very low for tornadoes or outbreaks.  At this point that can only be a good thing.  By the way, if it sounds like I am very fascinated by these events, I am.  I spent an entire semester in college during a science writing class working on the topic of tornadoes.  He said to pick something science related and there is a lot of science behind these monsters.

ON GOING NEWS


I mentioned earlier about a new radar program that I might start working with that is illustrated in the Moore map.  Similarly like winter storms, I really start getting into the dynamics of summer storms and with hurricane season approaching and our own severe thunderstorm season kicking off later this summer it might be time to get on board. 

I am also considering revamping the front page.  The original design only allows me to do so much before I can't change anything.  In an effort to make it more visually appealing in the main section I might decide to go with something a little different that allows pictures to fit better as well as text.  I guess it depends on how much time I want to put in and right now it's not a lot.

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Memorial Day

The weather ended up being about as good as you could ask for last Monday which meant I would be out for what is becoming my weekly bike trip.  This time I went early enough to catch a small lunch on the way down before arriving in Philadelphia by midday.  Instead of providing little details about a constant peddling motion I will give a list of patterns taking shape that aren't necessarily annoying but make me shake my head.

1.  The Tour de France riders.  This entire list is based off a select few repeat offenders and is not a statement about the group as a whole.  However, this group is probably the worst especially in packs.  I'm not sure if some are aware but this isn't the Tour de Schuylkill.  They ride as if they are the only ones out there and all else should look out for them.  If you want to max out your speed go find some open country roads instead of a place with walkers, runners and skaters let alone slower bikers.

2.  Kids between 9 and 13.  I'm not great at guessing kids ages so this is a ballpark figure.  Here is my reasoning on why I think this group struggles.  First off there aren't a ton of kids out.  Young ones tend to stay close to their parents and sometimes even look a bit cautious.  Older kids generally have an understanding on how the process works.  This 9 to 13 range I feel are just old enough to show they can ride a bike like everybody else.  I almost hit a kid the first time I went after he decided to turn his bike to the left as I was passing.  I don't even think his feet were on the pedals.  He was just mounted on his bike in the middle of the trail.  I hit the brakes and said watch out before his mother who was behind him apologized.  Last Monday while leaving the city I slowly followed a group out led by a kid in this age range who at a point along the trail only big enough for two bikes made a left turn with his front wheel.  A biker with speed in full attire had no chance.  He hit the brakes but slid into the kids wheel.  This also happened under a bridge with concrete support so you couldn't ride into the grass.  His mother apologized and the kids did two or three times.  At first the guy looked like he was going to say something but to his credit said as long as everybody was okay it was alright.

3.  The out to lunch riders.  This is probably the group that most surprises me and has nothing to do with actually biking.  Regardless of when I go there is always a group of people that don't pull off the trail when they stop riding.  They stop and talk, look at the sights but can't manage to move a few feet over.

This is all to be expected when traveling on heavily used sections.  It's nice that other people enjoy the outdoors as well and the people who understand the rules of the road far outweigh the ones who don't.

Here are a few pictures from the ride.  Ended up being 55 miles.

Museum from across the river

Boathouses

Final stop to relax with the grass people at Walnut Street

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