Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Skywarn

Well I finally did it, after searching and putting it off for about 3 years, I finally got down to business and took the basic Skywarn class.  I have to say this was better than I thought it would be, the instructor is an actual Meteorologist from NOAA and works for the National Weather service.  The class was very good and I did learn about things that I did not find online.  They showed a few video clips, one about driving through flood waters that made a memorable point. We saw a car dragged away, and by some miracle the driver and passenger managed to get out in time.  A few other videos showed twisters causing actual damage.
Then at a break in the middle of class we had a visit by Channel 3's Meteorologist Kate Bilo. She spoke to us and I have to say, what a smart and attractive lady!  They then led us outside to see their Mobile Weather lab that is a modified Audi Q7.  It has an array of weather sensors to measure wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity etc.  It has a large flat screen TV display in the back and the vehicle transmits its reports live via satellite through several on board cameras.


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Sunday, October 30, 2011

Happy Halloween!

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
Besides being Halloween tomorrow, there are several events that have or will occur soon.  
On October 28th we saw the successful launch of the NPP Satellite;


Last night we witnessed a historic storm which left us with over 2.5 million people without power in the surrounding area.  As mentioned before, there were black ice conditions which led to a  fatal accident overnight on I-95. Channel 6 news also reported a few other pileup accidents on other major roads in PA and in NJ.   I am actually looking to order a full set of snow tires and wheels,  maybe next month myself.
 
Just a reminder that November 6th is the hour change for Daylight Savings Time, Fall back which to set the clocks one hour back.

Coming up on November 8th, there will be a very large asteroid that will pass by us at a closer distance from us to the Moon.  It is called 2005 YU55, which is about the size of an Aircraft carrier!  Thank goodness that Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is stating that there should no chance that this asteroid will hit the Earth.

A final note, I have signed up to take a Skywarn class on Tuesday.  I will meet up with a class that teaches how to report storms to the National Weather Service.  I will volunteer my time and hope to help others by reporting storms.