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Category Archives: Severe Weather
What can happen to hurricanes when they move into the mid-latitudes?
Hurricanes are large-scale, organized storms that form in the tropical latitudes.
They are fueled by the enormous amount of heat released when water vapor, evaporated off the warm tropical ocean surface, changes phase to liquid and ice in the thunderstorm clouds of the hurricane.
They are smaller in areal extent than the storms that commonly affect us in the mid-latitudes here in Madison. Continue reading
Category: History, Meteorology, Severe Weather
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Does lightning add nitrogen to the soil?
Our bodies need nitrogen to make proteins. The atmosphere’s composition is 78% nitrogen, but the nitrogen in the air is not available to our bodies.
The two atoms in the airborne nitrogen molecule are held together very tightly. For our bodies to process that nitrogen, the two atoms must separate. Continue reading
Category: Meteorology, Phenomena, Severe Weather
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Comments Off on Does lightning add nitrogen to the soil?
What is energy’s relationship with rain?
Many locations across the country (and the world) have been experiencing unusually heavy rainfalls this summer.
Though in Madison we have had a relatively benign month of August in terms of temperature and humidity, we have still managed to find ourselves 2.09 inches above normal for rainfall for the month prior to Sunday’s rain. Continue reading
Are heat waves increasing?
A heat wave is a period of abnormally and uncomfortably hot and usually humid weather.
The World Meteorological Organization is specific in its definition by stating that a heat wave is when the daily maximum temperature for more than five consecutive days exceeds the average maximum temperature by 9 degrees. Continue reading
What causes lightning?
Charges form in a storm composed of ice crystals and liquid water drops. Winds inside the storm cause particles to rub against one another, causing electrons to be stripped off, making the particles either negatively or positively charged.
The charges get grouped in the cloud, often negatively charged near the bottom of the cloud and positively charged up high. This is an electric field, and because air is a good insulator, the electric fields become incredibly strong. Continue reading
