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Who or what triggers the decision to sound a tornado siren?
The National Weather Service is responsible for issuing forecasts, watches and warnings for a variety of weather and water hazards. A “warning” is issued when hazardous weather poses an immediate threat to life or property.
A warning can be issued for a variety of hazardous weather, including tornadoes, thunderstorms and flash floods. These threats can form quickly, last a few minutes and impact a small area. Forecasters must rely heavily on observational data from Doppler radar, satellite, and other ground-based equipment and sensors to inform them during the warning process. Continue reading
Category: Meteorology, Severe Weather, Weather Dangers
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Are we ahead of schedule with the spring greening?
We all just lived through a historic April here in Madison, and broadly across the region.
In Madison and Milwaukee, April 2026 was the wettest April since record keeping began in 1869 and 1871, respectively. Madison received 7.26 inches of rain during the month, more than half of that amount coming on just three days (1.34 inches on April 2, 1.53 inches on April 14 and 0.98 inch on April 17). Continue reading
Is global warming impacting bird migration?
Global warming refers to the rise in global temperatures due to the increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. One impact is that northern latitudes are experiencing warmer mean annual temperatures and experiencing earlier springs, milder winters and delayed falls.
Bird migration is a natural phenomenon that involves the seasonal movement of birds from one place to another. Their evolutionary adaptation allows species to take advantage of seasonal resources and avoid harsh winter conditions. Because seasonal change is a dependable feature of our planet, migratory bird species have adapted to this seasonality as it coincides with the optimal conditions for feeding, breeding and raising their young. Continue reading
What is the tornado scale?
A tornado is a powerful column of winds that rotate around a center of low pressure. The winds inside a tornado spiral inward and upward, often exceeding speeds of 300 mph. We classify the strength of a tornado after trained observers assess the damage it did to the area.
All tornadoes are assigned a single number from the Enhanced Fujita Scale (EF) according to the most intense damage caused by the storm. When tornado-related damage is surveyed, it is compared to a list of damage indicators and degrees of damage to help estimate the range of wind speeds the tornado likely produced. The rating is assigned based on a set of 28 damage indicators, such as barns, schools and trees; the degree of damage to each one is used to determine the EF scale of every tornado. Continue reading
Why do clouds turn green during some storms?
The visible light spectrum covers colors from violet to red. Each color corresponds to a different wavelength, with green sitting roughly in the middle. Blue and violet have shorter wavelengths. Light rays change direction when they hit particles — a process known as scattering. The sky looks blue because air molecules scatter shorter wavelengths more effectively.
Clouds are made of water drops and ice crystals that scatter light from the sun in all directions. It is the multitude of drops and crystals that make a cloud look white during the day. Sometimes only a small amount of light escapes out the bottom, and so cloud bottoms often appear grayish. Continue reading
Category: Meteorology, Phenomena, Severe Weather
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