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.