Dual Polarization Radar

The Doppler radar site that covers our area (a good part of eastern PA and much of NJ), is being upgraded by February 2012. This upgrade will allow Meteorologists to detect and measure rainfall and storms with much better accuracy.  In some instances, a developing tornado can hide within a rain wrapped storm.  This new technology will help increase warning time to the general public.

Here is a youtube video from the National Weather Service which gives a good idea of the impact this technology will have on forecasting.

On a final note, looks like rain is on its way.  The NWS has posted its forecast,  rain for Monday and Tuesday.

Asteroid 2005 YU55 - twisters & tremors in OK

As I wrote before on October 30th, about the near fly by of the Asteroid 2005 YU55 and how it will pass very close to the Earth tonight.

Here is a video from Nasa explaining how the Asteroid is tracked; http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?collection_id=77341&media_id=119025761


I have heard reports from storm chasers of multiple Tornadoes in Oklahoma and more aftershocks were felt as well.


Here is a great video from Storm Chasers in Oklahoma, this was filmed yesterday. You can see the hail on the ground.  At 2:40 minutes in you see the Chaser talk about his car that flipped over because his steering wheel locked up on him.                                           

Courtesy of Extremetornadotours.com on youtube.

Frozen fall colors

After our early snowfall, the frozen temperatures  had an effect on the timing of color change of the leaves.
Per an article found here : NOAA fall Foliage , it states that the color change process is interrupted and some leave may not make its full change before the leaves fall from the trees to get ready for winter.
I took some pictures yesterday while I was in a commercial park.  It is nice that business put effort to decorate the landscape to make it a nice place to be.  The last pic here is from Blue Bell, PA, it is a good indicator of what a tree looks like halfway through its color change.  In the background you can see a few trees in different stages.  One tree had it's leaves fall off much earlier, could have been from storms we had before.

a fall of all colors

Red Reflections of fall

Half

Daylight Savings Time

After tonight we need to check all our gadgets from the microwave to our car radios, to see if we need to set them back by one hour.  The good news is that we gain one hour of sleep!  Hope that everyone enjoys the remainder of their weekend.  Be sure to adjust your clocks, the time change actually is in effect at 2 AM.

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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