Dual Pole Radar + Storm Spotters = Improved Alerts

South East PA  has little severe weather compared to other parts of the country, we follow the weather enough to find out if it will rain or snow tomorrow.  There are a few out there that do follow the weather nationally, some of these folks are weather fans like myself.   I joined Skywarn last year, and since then I have really not had much of an opportunity to report weather events because of the lack of severe weather.   However this causes us to get too comfortable and ignore safety warnings, Verizon has started a program in certain cities to send alert via cell phones, but this has not yet reached our local city yet.  Besides buying a battery powered NOAA Weather Alert Radio, we can still use old fashioned AM/FM, TV or the internet to stay informed.  I do need to point out that when sever weather does occur, we have to keep in mind that the loss of electrical power from strong winds may knock out our ability to access communication sources such as weather and public safety updates.

I wanted to post this video showing how Dual Pole radar helps to detect severe storms and even tornadoes, storm spotters are used to help the National Weather Service under the Radar beam to report truth on the ground as to what is occurring and call this important information in to the local NWS office.

Please take a moment to see this video, and remember to keep you and your family safe by learning how to be weather aware.

Effective Early Warnings

Doubt has surfaced regarding the importance of the National Weather Service and there is a bill that may be passed by March 16th to reduce it's budget.

 Today a story with a graphic came out in USA TODAY,  I wanted to share the graphic and with this, I wanted to urge readers to sign the petition to stop budget cuts which help fund the very source of vital weather alerts and information.  After watching recent news, how can we allow budget cuts, when it is clear that many lives were saved by the early warning from the NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.

Please find the link right under the graphic to sign the petition.

PLEASE CLICK THIS LINK TO SIGN THE PETITION (please):

Happy Anniversary - National Weather Service

A big step was taken back on Feb. 9th 1870, when  President Ulysses S. Grant helped start the National Weather Service.  He signed a joint resolution of Congress authorizing the Secretary of War to establish a national weather service.  When this started the military had 22 telegraph stations throughout the US and they sent reports to Washington D.C.   Before the president took action for start a formal service, there were volunteers that helped to record weather data.   Did you know that Thomas Jefferson and George Washington regularly noted their own weather observations on a regular basis?

For a much more detailed list of US weather history, please visit a great source from the NWS. There is a very detailed time line here;  http://www.nws.noaa.gov/pa/history/timeline.php

First Dual Pole Image

The upgrade to Dual Polarization is slightly ahead of schedule.  I wrote here back in November about the upgrade for the Doppler Radar system at Fort Dix, NJ.

Here is a first look at a test conducted today, unfortunately there was little to no precipitation for a real test.

Please visit my original post about the Dual Pole upgrade;  http://climatedriver.blogspot.com/2011/11/dual-polarization-radar.html

NWS Modernization

 National Weather Service, has been going through significant upgrades at the cost of $4.5 billion dollars.
Thankfully this was a result of a study from the years 1989 to 2000, by the National Research Council.
As an example they had found that the highest recorded ocean temperature was in 1997, which was well above normal levels.

The renovation of weather forecast tools will greatly improve and provide early warning and information for weather research and education.

These are upgraded technologies;

• The Automated Surface Observing System
• Next Generation Radar (Dual Polarization)
• New Weather Satellites
• Powerful New Computers systems
• The Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System

This to me great news, we will be entering a new technological age, in modern 21st. Century Weather Science and Forecasting.
With the depletion of the Arctic Ice, holes in the ozone and with very high ocean temperature,s we know this has impacted weather events at a global level.

We need new tools to record and predict strong weather events.

I want to credit the National Academy of Science for providing this important story online
The detailed story is here. http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=13216

as a final note a signature image of the day, vista from Pennypack Park area;