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Category Archives: Phenomena
What are those rolls of snow in a farm field?
Those cylinder-shaped masses of rolled-up snow are called “snow rollers.” Some appeared after the pre-Christmas storm, but they are uncommon in the Midwest. (The last time someone told us they saw snow rollers was in February 2003.) While they may look like someone was rolling snow to make a snowman, you won’t see any footprints in the snow as these rolls form naturally. Continue reading
What was the ring around the moon last month?
As the remnants of Superstorm Sandy approached us on Oct. 29, people in Wisconsin observed a halo on two consecutive nights. These halos resulted from the ice clouds generated from the storm.
A halo is a whitish ring that encircles but does not touch the sun or moon. It is an optical phenomenon that owes its existence to the bending of light by ice crystals, much like the “rainbow crystals” you may hang in your windows. Continue reading
What are sundogs?
On a day with high ice clouds, you are likely to see shiny, colored regions at either side of the sun. These are sundogs, an optical effect caused by refraction and dispersion of the Sun’s light through ice crystals. When the light rays strike the boundary between the air and water, like an ice crystal, several things can happen. Some rays are turned back in the direction from which they came, the familiar process of reflection. Other rays are transmitted into the crystal. Some of the transmitted rays change direction, a process known as refraction. Continue reading
Are there different types of lightning?
Lightning is a huge electrical discharge that results from the rising and sinking air motions that occur in thunderstorms. Lightning can be either cloud-to-cloud or cloud-to-ground and is accompanied by thunder. Lighting also has different appearances. Continue reading
How much energy does it take to produce a torrential downpour?
Recently, the Duluth-Superior metro area had devastating flooding a result of rainfall totals of 10 inches or more in some locations. You may have seen photographs of the damage wrought by the flood waters — washed-out roads, flooded homes, ruined crops, etc.
Even in the face of such dramatic damage it is easy to overlook the enormous amount of energy that is involved in simply processing the water involved in such enormous amounts of precipitation. Continue reading
Category: Phenomena
Tags Dangers, Meteorology, Phenomena
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Tags Dangers, Meteorology, Phenomena
Comments Off on How much energy does it take to produce a torrential downpour?
