Archives
Categories
WeatherGuys Links
Monthly Archives: October 2020
What is the status of the ozone hole?
Ozone occurs about 18 miles above the Earth’s surface.
Ozone is both caused by and provides protection from damaging ultraviolet energy emitted by the sun. The development of an atmospheric “ozone layer” allowed life to move out of the oceans and onto land.
The amount of ozone in the atmosphere is routinely measured from satellites. Typically, the Antarctic ozone hole has its largest area in early September and lowest values in late September to early October. This year it was measured to be one of the largest and deepest in recent years, covering just over 9 million square miles. Continue reading
What is a waterspout?
There are two types of waterspouts: fair weather waterspouts and tornadic waterspouts.
A fair weather waterspout is a whirlwind that forms beneath a cumulus cloud and over water. It’s generally not associated with thunderstorms.
A fair weather waterspout develops on the surface of the water and moves upward. Before you see the waterspout, you may see a funnel cloud hanging from the bottom of the cumulus cloud. A waterspout forms as the rotating funnel draws up water. Continue reading
Do the Rocky Mountains influence our weather?
Our string of beautiful days at the end of last week were related, believe it or not, to the presence of the Rocky Mountains hundreds of miles to our west. Last week, the atmospheric flow at levels just above the … Continue reading
Why are cold snaps in autumn so short-lived?
Over the past weekend southern Wisconsin experienced its first cold snap of the season with widespread morning lows in the lower 30s on Friday and Sunday mornings.
Very often cold snaps in the autumn are very short-lived as this recent example was, affecting usually one or two nights at most. Continue reading
