Archives
Categories
WeatherGuys Links
Category Archives: Meteorology
When did computer-based weather forecasts begin?
Immediately after World War II, it became fashionable to imagine technologies that might allow human beings to control the weather. In fact, one goal advocated by influential scientists was actually to explode nuclear bombs in the right locations and in the right quantity to alter the weather in favorable ways.
Such an enterprise would require accurate forecasts of the weather thought possible by using brand new computer technology to make the millions of requisite calculations. Continue reading
How strong a wind will knock someone over?
We have had some hefty winds this past week.
The wind can displace objects, including people. Continue reading
What was that stuff that fell on Thursday?
On Thursday, many locations in southern Wisconsin experience snow squalls in which the falling precipitation was momentarily quite intense.
This event was an example of shallow convection – as opposed to the deep convection of summertime thunderstorms. Thursday’s shallow convection was spawned by a conspiracy of circumstances occurring at different levels in the atmosphere. Continue reading
Why does the severe weather threat increase as spring and summer approach?
As the threat of winter snows recedes across the country, it is replaced by the threat of severe weather — thunderstorms with hail, damaging winds and tornadoes.
The severe weather season, though broadly spanning March through August across the United States, is actually quite regional. It begins in March in the southern states, moves to the southern Plains during April and May, and then farther north toward the Great Lakes states during the summer. Continue reading
Category: Meteorology, Seasons, Severe Weather
Comments Off on Why does the severe weather threat increase as spring and summer approach?
Comments Off on Why does the severe weather threat increase as spring and summer approach?
Did spring come early this year?
Astronomically, spring occurs when the sun’s rays strike the equator at noon at an angle that is directly overhead.
This particular time varies from year to year due to variations in Earth’s orbit about the sun. In the Northern Hemisphere, the vernal, or spring, equinox (“equi” meaning “equal,” and “nox,” “night”) occurs sometime between March 19 and 23, but often on March 20 or 21. Continue reading
