What has meteorology taught me this semester?

This semester meteorology has taught me a lot.  Things such as finding out what symbols are displayed during a forecast at the 6 o' clock news or how or what creates a thunderstorm.  This class has been tremendously helpful as far as preparing for oncoming weather dangers.  Knowing how to prepare my family for the problems El Nino or La Nina can present allows for me to get my family as protected as possible.  When I lived in Louisiana, my parents always had an evacuation kit with unperishable items like spam, peanut butter and water. Louisiana is known for hurricanes and tornadoes and evacuation kits were standard ways of preparing.  After, moving away from Louisiana and residing here in Arizona, I have become accustomed to not having to worry about extreme weather besides well heat.  Taking your class has opened my mind to be prepared as my parents were and are. We may never know what tomorrow's weather can bring us. Knowing what I know now with weather systems, I know what conditions can create a tornado or why cities such as San Diego receives such much rain and why Yuma receives so little. It is amazing how everything makes sense now that I understand things such as what creates fog or what instruments we utilize to test and/or predict weather.  I know this may not be part of the blog criteria but you have may this class very enjoyable, interesting, and a worth taking. Thank you Professor Esslinger!!!

Warming of the World

There is a strange theory going about stating that the Earth's sudden warmer temperatures is creating a complete chaos of the Earth's weather system.  Our world has experienced its share of freaky weather such as crazy hail storms, wild fires, floods as well as unnatural weather systems.  Much has been said about the increase in the Earth's overall weather system.  We are experiencing hotter summers and colder winters. Could these theories acutally mean the end of the world in 2012? Or are these theories myths to create a situation in where Earth's citizens are enticed to go "green".  I personally believe it is a mixture of both.  The warming of the Earth may have caused some of these freaky weather situations but I believe a political skew has been added to create a sense of urgency to force individuals to go "green".  This process of going "green" helps a nations economy become richer.  Meaning it allows for individuals to buy more expensive but more cost effective and greener products.  The purchasing of these products allows for nations to grow richer since money is going back into the economy. Although, I have noticed much stranger weather on my days of leaving on this Earth, I must certainly believe that politicians such as Al Gore is blowing the warming of the Earth a little more than what it actually is.  The urgency placed on this situation, I believe, comes at a great time because it gives individuals the sense of knowing the importance of making the world a safer place for our children and grand kids.  I do not like the way politicians are bringing about the rising situation of the Earth's warming. There are other ways of letting the public know instead of creating a chaotic situation amongst our population. How do you feel about this topic?

Black Friday Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

It was 6:00 pm Thanksgiving night and my family decided to brave the elements and shop for early specials.  Our first stop was going to be Toys "R" Us since I believe they were to open at 10:00 pm. To prepare I put a leather jacket over my short sleeved polo shirt and thought I would be warm enough. Boy, was I in for a very long long night. The first couple of hours while standing in line were fine until the wind started to blow and then it became very chilly. So, like a true wimp I took shelter in my car a turned up the heater.  Well, little did I know I did not have much gas so I could not run the engine as long as i wished.  I decided to fall asleep knowing I had to be at work for 3 am that morning. When I awoke at 12:30pm Friday, my feet were numb from the chilly temperatures. However, I had to get ready for work, if I had remembered correctly there were no indications of cloud cover when I looked at the sky while waiting in line.  I figured it will be chilly still since clouds were not overhead to trap what little heat the Earths surface contained. I wrongly estimated the days temperature and simply overdressed. The morning temperature was 50 and would later rise close to 80 degrees and it perplexed me. I thought the temperature would be still cold and windy, maybe it is a good idea that I not become a meteorologist.

"The Big Stripe"

Apparently, there is an extreme cold front hitting the United States early than expected. The cold front goes as far northwest as Montana all the way to the east coast of the Carolinas.  After this low front passes through the midwest and east coast, a push of Canadian air will make its way south.  The Canadian air will cause tremendously frigid temperatures for places that are not use to getting significantly chilly during the holiday season.  I wish Yuma could get some of the cold front. It has been years since I have experienced a white Christmas.  While our high temperatures will reach close to 70 degrees, Montana will have temperatures as low as 13 degress and the Carolinas will be in the 40's.  It is making me shiver just thinking about it. If you think those are cold, below is a graphic that of the expected lows for Sunday, December 5.

The temperatures displayed are unreal. Negative 2 in the state of North Dakota, I would not know how to prepare for such weather.  I would probably overdress and end up sweating which will cause me to become sick with the flu.  States that will experience the Canadian cold air will have snow fall much earlier than expected.  Although, I would love to have or experience a white Christmas, one thing that I would not like to have to go through is scooping up the snow from the driveway and sidewalks plus laying salt to ensure the snow melts in those areas.  One other problem that would arise could be the infamous black ice. I've driven through black ice when it snowed back in 2003 while stationed at Fort Hood, Texas.  That was one scary ride. Also what didn't help was the fact that I did not know how to drive in these type of conditions.

A Hurricane this late...

Apparently, a hurricane decided to rear its head into the Gulf of Mexico.  Hurricane Tomas formed in the Gulf of Mexico and was heading straight towards Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.  Tomas, a category 1 hurricane, has, so far, the intentions on hitting the continental United States. But, its torrential heavy rains can wreck havoc on the islands such as the Carribbeans, Cuba and the Bahamas. Many meteorologists are concerned over the city of Port-Au-Prince because its shores are very shallow and the storm surge the hurricane may create will devastate the entire city.  Most of Port-Au-Princes industrial buildings are located on the shore between to mountains or ridges.  To many that experienced Hurricane Katrina and lived in New Orleans know this scenario far too well.  The heavy rains may create flash floods and mudslides causing in more damage.  Even though Tomas is only a Cat 1, the eventual rain can burden the Haitian economy with millions, maybe billions, in damages.  I have never heard of a hurricane forming this close to Thanksgiving.  I know that its not impossible but in my twenty eight years it is something new.  I pray that those living within the islands take shelter and hopefully the storm will not make an impact as some have predicted.  Although, the storm is expected to weaken sometime Saturday afternoon, it can still reach warmer waters and make Tomas stronger.  If this situation occurs an unforseen low pressure may scoot the storm further northeast. 

Tornadoes

Tornadoes occur more frequently within the continental United States, however, under the right conditions a tornado can occur anywhere in the world.  The Midwest is a haven for tornado formation because maritime tropical air from the south mingles with continental polar air from up north to form unstable conditions. These conditions can cause severe thunderstorms, hail, flash flooding and the occasional tornado. According to Wikipedia and http://www.weather.com/, there have been a reported 1407 tornadoes, but, only 1019 have been officially confirmed.  Of the 1019 confirmed tornadoes there were 36 casualities. Plus, there were 3 confirmed deaths in other regions of the world.  According to the Enhanced Fujita scale, which tracks the wind speed and damage a tornado creates, most of the tornadoes which touched down within the United States were either EF0 or EF1.  Recently, the United States had its largest outbreak of tornadoes within a 4 day period (occurred Oct 24-27, 2010); however none of the tornadoes went above a category EF2.
The largest casualty total for a tornado occured in the year of 1925. It was "widely accepted" that 695 people died within a tri state area.  The "tri-state tornado" happened in Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois.  Most of the people that perished were those that resided within southern Illinois. 

Tornadoes are one of nature's greatest phenomenoms but also a major threat to civilization.  A tornado can wreck havoc on a major city if the right conditions intensify to create an EF5.  Imagine the damage a 200 mph tornado can create, if we know how much damage a 125 mph hurricane can make.  I love states such as Texas and Louisiana, but, I moved away from those states because 1.) Texas is, I believe, the major hub for tornado formation and 2.) Louisiana gets its share of tornadoes too, but you also have to wonder about the chance of a hurricane coming ashore.  So, that's why I reside in little old Yuma, Arizona. Sure there's a chance a major earthquake may hit since we live along a fault line but I will take my chances.

Chilly weather this week

It has been rather chilly especially in the morning here in Yuma.  It feels as though I am living somewhere else, like Santa Barbara, CA, instead of in Arizona. Here's a link into Yuma's monthly weather for October, http://www.weather.com/weather/monthly/USAZ0275.  As you can see there was a dramatic decline in temperature from October 4 to the 5 and also from October 17 to 18.   What is ironic is that we have had an abnormal high temperature for the month of October and also an abnormal low temperature.  The cold weather has me already thinking about Christmas, matter of fact, just yesterday I went to Target to buy a couple of pine scented candles.  It seems as though this winter will be much colder than ones that I've experienced in Yuma.  My first year in 2005 was pretty chilly but other years were sort of warmer and wetter.  I know in class we discussed La Nina and El Nino, and right now we are experiencing La Nina. It's forecast that we will have a drier and warmer Christmas, but I am going to have to disagree with a portion of that statement.  I believe we will have a drier Christmas but I feel that this year will be much chillier. So, what exactly is causing such a dramatic decline in temperature for us this year?  I tried researching it but came up empty.  My prognosis is that we are experiencing a cold front a lot earlier this year from northern Canada or Alaska. But, I believe "usually" rain is associated with the cold front that comes from up North every winter. However, I am grateful for an early break from the hot weather we were experiencing in the beginning of October. Hopefully we will have great weather for a while, that is until July comes around.