Being Ready for Hurricane Sandy

There is a fine line between informing the public of a dangerous situation and taking a story about a weather event and hyping is up to scare people.  The purpose of this blog page and the social media is to keep people aware of possible danger.   I want people to listen to the experts at the National Hurricane Center, The National Weather Service and NOAA as they watch the skies with satellites, dual pole radar and with super computers to inform us with the best available information.

Hurricane season normally ends November 30th, but now we see what could be a historic and dangerous storm to impact a very highly populated area.   I already see many states around the mid Atlantic area issuing states of emergency and evacuations plans for coastal areas.

The map below shows what Sandy will be doing over the next 5 days, they call this a hybrid storm.
Let us not forget what a Tropical Storm or Hurricane can bring.. These storms could trigger multiple strong thunderstorms and we will need to watch for flood warnings and even tornado warnings.
We could see 24-48 hours of sustained wind and rain if the storm hits Delaware into Philadelphia.

Being Ready

Please check local news and weather reports regularly.
A Tropical Storm Warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected in this case within 24 to 36 hours.
A Tropical Storm Watch means that tropical storm conditions are possible within the watch area, within 48 hours.

Please read and learn about flood and flash flood terminology and safety tips.
Driving through a flooded area can be extremely hazardous.  Almost half of all flash flood deaths happen in vehicles.  When in your car, look out for flooding in low lying areas, at bridges, and a highway dips.  As little as SIX INCHES of water may cuase you to lose control of your vehicle.  Remember - turn around, don't drown.

Flood Watch: Flooding is possible.  Tune in to NOAA Weather Radio, commercial radio, or television for information.

Flood Warning:  Flooding is occurring or will occur soon; if local officials give notice to evacuate, do so immediately.

Flash Flood Watch: Rapid rises on streams and rivers are possible.  Be prepared to move to higher ground: listen to NOAA Weather Radio, commercial radio or television for information.

Flash Flood Warning: Rapid rises on streams and rivers are occurring; seek higher ground on foot immediately.

For detailed information visit www.ready.gov

Supplies (Red Cross)

Water - one gallon per person, per day
Food - non-perishable, easy-to-prepare items
Flashlight
Battery-powered or hand-crank radio (NOAA Weather Radio, if possible)
Extra Batteries
First Aid Kit
Medications (7- day supply) and medical items
Multi-purpose tool
Sanitation and personal hygiene items
Copies of personal documents (medication list and pertinent medical information, proof of address,
deed/lease to home, passports, birth certificates, insurance policies)
Cell phone with chargers
Family and emergency contact information
Extra Cash (ATM machines need electrical power to dispense cash)
Emergency blanket
Map(s) of the area
Fill gas tank of your car or Truck (Gas Stations need electrical power to pump fuel)

Prepare your home
Remember to bring in anything that can be blown away in a storm (lawn furniture, bicycles, etc.)
Turn on your refrigerator and freezer to the coldest setting. Keep them closed as much as possible so that food will last longer if the power goes out.  Place a few zip lock bags of water in your freezer so that you can move them frozen to the refrigerator in case you loose power.
Turn off your propane tank.
Unplug small appliances.

For more information, visit www.redcross.org

An Aurora & Suomi NPP

Satellites can record and collect important data but that is not all they can do.  The Suomi NPP satellite with its multiple instruments can also capture images high above the Earth that we admire and use to study space weather.  Back in the evening of October 4th, a solar flare erupted and shot particles of energy out of the sun which some of this energy was hurled towards the Earth.  This energy collides with the outer atmosphere and affects our magnetic field, and this effect causes  the Aurora Borealis also known as the Northern Lights to be seen in the Northern areas in Canada, Russia Alaska and other areas to the north. The image shown below was taken by the high resolution VIIRS.   There are other images of Auroras taken by the International Space station as well.

A recent online article on a Nasa website mentions that the solar energy particles that strike our atmosphere has an almost fluid like wave effect over the Earth.

The Weather Vane  has tools to help monitor the solar storms that create the Auroras, some of these solar storms can affect satellite communication, certain radio transmissions and in extreme cases power grids in Canada.

Here finally is the image captured by the Suomi NPP on October 8th, 2012

Background and image credit NASA  http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=79373

Weather Satellite Malfunction

You cannot help but to be concerned when a weather satellite malfunctions during Hurricane season.

As mentioned before the NOAA's GOES 13 Weather Satellite was not able to transmit its data and GOES 14 which is another satellite started to be used as a backup to help meteorologists to examine the entire eastern part of the U.S. and the Atlantic Ocean for potential storms.

On October 1st NOAA reported that they had the two satellites switch positions in orbit so that the GOES 14 has same viewable position that the GOES 13 had when it was working properly.

Here is a video showing the two satellites that were moved in orbit

Story source and video credit NOAA

One Weather Satellite Less

GOES 13 NOAA's Geostationary Operations Environmental Satellite 


An important weather satellite that helps us to watch the US east coast was down recently.  With swift action the GOES  14 satellite took the place of the much needed GOES 13

Here is a great animated image of GOES 13 in action last year that followed Hurricane Irene.

Current status information for GOES 13 

http://www.oso.noaa.gov/goesstatus/spacecraftStatusSummary.asp?spacecraft=13

Here is some background information on  GOES13

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOES_13

A Weather Ready Nation, the next Steps

WRN

Back in December I wrote about a large national project called a "Weather Ready Nation".
This is a project where several organizations have joined forces to inform public to being prepared for weather emergencies due to storms.  Before this project the information we received was really only to alert of weather events and emergencies, however educating the public was difficult because there were too many fragmented national organizations that were trying to communicate public safety  awareness.  Internet technology had to be utilized effectively and messages from the scattered organizations were not being made mainstream into public media enough.   Newspapers, Television networks and other media sources unfortunately depend on what readers and watchers want to see and they are controlled by its paid advertising campaigns.  Public safety messages rarely are noticed because we have to admit some of the messages have been a bit boring or thought to be unnecessary because some areas of the country only see a strong storm every 50 years.   Being a storm spotter I listen to co-workers and friends and they state the same thing.  Meteorologists like to scare the public to think that a storm is coming and then it does not happen.  2011 was a busy year for weather events, records were broken in snowfall, temperature extremes and drought.  These changes to our landscape has cost our county billions of dollars.

NOAA, The National Weather Service and several other national organizations started this project to help the public to be prepared and to do so they will need to use the internet and smartphone technology which has become very popular and a logical choice to communicate quickly and to many people at a time.  Other communication tools are considered because if there is a power failure, some methods of communication would not be reliable.  The video at the bottom mentions the need to improve forecasts, alerts and the need to improve the way we are educated by using new media.

The Next Steps

  Communication was only one part of the advances made by this project, here is a list of new or upgraded tools to keep our nation informed and to be prepared.

• Suomi NPP Satellite - A relatively new advanced satellite to measure weather readings and study our climate - more here : NPP overview

• NOAA's Dual Pole Weather Radar upgrades - Here is my write up; Fort Dix upgrade - what is dual Pole video

• Updating communication via Cell Phones, Google Maps and Social Media -  My first report about WRN

• Testing the system via Pilot Project in different cities -Six locations one of them in Silver Spring MD,   to bring life saving information to make a life saving decision. from the source

Being prepared does not mean that you have to rely on others to make a decision, you can find the way to learn how to be prepared.  "Be a Force of Nature" is the slogan from NOAA's National Weather service.   This blog has made the commitment to being prepared and to pass this message along as well. You can find information here but even better go to the source; www.ready.gov

Here is a video from The National Weather Service about WRN and the National Dialog event they had last December. 

Original source- WRN Advancing toward a Weather-Ready Nation