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

Tropical Depression Funso - NPP Image

Latest update for the  NASA - NOAA NPP  Satellite

Tropical Depression Funso from space!

On January 23rd, the NPP captured a breathtaking image using it's on board VIIRS instrument.  The NPP in it's unique polar orbit took these images at 7918 miles above the Earth.  From earlier posts the VIIRS stands for the Visible Infrared, Radiometer Suite.  

I wait each month eager to see the next image that is posted on the NASA website from this advanced satellite.

Thank you to NASA for providing public information for this project and fantastic images from space.

 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/archives/2012/h2012_Funso.html

Andy Gabrielson - Pro Storm Chaser

I only saw him on TV and his live feeds when he was on the road chasing storms.  I had no idea how young he was when I saw him on the last season of "Storm Chasers"(on Discovery Channel).    Andy Gabrielson was a true storm chaser, he died today in a terrible head on crash.  The accident occurred when a truck was going the wrong way on an interstate, the crash involved at least four vehicles and both Andy and the drunk driver died in the crash.  The Weather Channel repeated a short tribute of him tonight as he was on a TV show there called "Tornado Hunt".

Here are a few links to articles about him and a video of some of his work...  RIP..

Weather Channel

http://www.newson6.com/story/16677460/multi-car-wreck-closes-turner-turnpike-at-sapulpa

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/04/10320387-storm-chaser-killed-in-oklahoma-collision-with-wrong-way-driver

The Weather Channel Tribute

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

Tornadoes in the Southeast

Social Networks were alive all night long, and twitter was actually down for a moment either for maintenance or because it's servers were overloaded.  I did not stay up to see the reports but I tried to follow numerous reports by Meteorologists, Public Safety Workers, Skywarn, etc.  Up to around 21 tornadoes were spotted overnight and this makes one feel happy that we live were we do and we don't have to wake up in the middle of the night worried about our family and if we need to run to find shelter.   Here is an overview by weather.com explaining the many reports that occurred since yesterday.  Looking online there is an unconfirmed report of 4 fatalities in Alabama from Tornadoes.

Please open the link below to read the report written by folks at the Weather Channel.

http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/january-outbreak-damage-reports_2012-01-23