Totally Irrelevent Weather Fact of the Day

The Weather Guide

[raygun]

On this day in:

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1816: Snow covered higher northern elevations in New England. 20" of drifted snow and sleet accumulated in Danville, VT. Parts of CT and MA saw flurries.

1993: an F4 tornado tore a 10mi long, at times 500yd wide, path through SD Lake County. Near Junius all that remained of a farmhouse were the steps and foundation, and of the farm's pickup truck: a bumper and the engine.

There have been cases of people who've been electrocuted while talking on the phone during an electrical storm. Its just a guess on my part, but perhaps related to the same aforementioned storm system, and on the same day in 1993, this time in Ligionier, IN, a woman innocently sitting near her phone, was hurt by lighting that lept from it and struck her.

[raygun]

poing

[quantim]

Wild Weather Leads To Power Outages, Downed Lines

Dozens Of Area Schools Closed Monday

POSTED: 7:19 am EDT June 6, 2005

UPDATED: 7:29 pm EDT June 6, 2005

Severe storms downed power lines and caused power outages in southeastern Michigan overnight.

 About 13 utility poles were knocked down in Lyon Township, blocking traffic along Grand River at South Hill and Milford Road Monday morning, Local 4 reported. Dozens of traffic lights throughout metro Detroit were out Monday morning, creating problems during the commute, according to the station's reports.

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The power just came on in here in the last two minutes just in time to see the Pistons make it to the Finals.

Just divine.

[blam]

Put the raygun down and go to bed, You've had a rough day and it'll be okay in the morning.

[pierrem15]

1816: after effect of Krakatoa.

To get an idea of how much colder it was in the 17th century, when Champlain first saw the lake named after him, he noted that the mountains to the south had no snow, unlike the others.

In July 1609.

Continuing our course in this lake on the west side I saw, as I was observing the country, some very high mountains on the east side, with snow on the top of them. I inquired of the savages if these places were inhabited. They told me that they were — by the Iroquois — and that in these places there were beautiful valleys and open stretches fertile in grain, such as I had eaten in this country, with a great many other fruits; and that the lake went near some mountains, which were perhaps, as it seemed to me, about fifteen leagues from us. I saw on the south others not less high than the first, but they had no snow at all”

[BradyLS]

There have been cases of people who've been electrocuted while talking on the phone during an electrical storm. Its just a guess on my part, but perhaps related to the same aforementioned storm system, and on the same day in 1993, this time in Ligionier, IN, a woman innocently sitting near her phone, was hurt by lighting that lept from it and struck her.

I lost an internal modem that way, even though the power cord for the computer ran through a bus (not that that would help if the electricity is surging through the phone line). The computer was otherwise fine, but the modem was toast.

I have experienced mild, static electricity-type shocks while talking on the phone while a storm is happening in the vicinity. I hear these clicking noises on the line and *zap* my cheek or ear gets a static-cling shock.

I'm sure folks wanted to know that... :-D

[raygun]

NSW isn't confirming a tornadic event occured occured here. By definition severe thunderstorms are capable of straightline winds >65kts and hail >1" diameter. Furthermore, while radar interpretation is about as much black-art as it is scientific training, it requires a certification above and beyond (and obtained subsequent to) mere observer certification.

While Doppler radar can detect strong winds moving towards the radar and an equally strong wind is moving away at the same time in the same area, is indicative of localized vorticity (air twisting around itself), vorticity in and of itself doesn't always mean a tornado. Although such voriticy would set off signals at weather monitoring stations. The storm clouds continue to build up, and hail is formed as the rain is caught up in the circulation and sent up to the top of the cell. Large hail is also an indicator of a potential tornado formation, which can also be measured by calculating the amount of liquid in a vertical measurement of the cloud's height.

There are also law enforcement officers and trained civilians who move to assigned areas and watch the sky for signs of a funnel cloud or 'wall cloud', a low-hanging cloud bank which usually forms right ahead of a tornado. If any of these weather spotters notice severe weather, they report their findings directly to the weather monitoring service. Comparing the field data to the radar readings, professional meteorologists will then decide if a tornado has actually formed. If the answer is yes, the weather service notifies a network of local broadcast stations that a tornado warning has been issued for a specific county or counties. This information is immediately repeated by the local television weathermen, who may or may not be meteorologists themselves, and citizens in the path of the tornado take shelter. Such alerts are no trivial matter.

An official tornado warning must meet specific criteria before the National Weather Service issues it. Distinctive radar readings can indicate a tornado has formed, but it may or may not actually touch the ground. Spotters are usually the first people to confirm an actual funnel cloud and any subsequent damage it causes. Trained meteorologists working as broadcast weathermen can also issue their own warnings based on radar readings, but they must be very careful not to endanger too many people with false alarms. Many public institutions will not consider a tornado warning to be official until the National Weather Service has issued one, but certain local weather reporters may have better views than the NWS. Any tornado warning should be taken very seriously, regardless if it was issued by an official government agency or a trained broadcast meteorologist.

Frankly, what I saw on the NEXRAD radar summary at about 8 P.M. (right before the line blew throgh Macomb County) hadn't convinced me that a tornado occured. Although from now on I'm going to do screen captures of that stuff for posterity. I'm convinced that what came through was nothing more than strightline winds in excess of 70MPH, perhaps mature convective cell downdrafts, or winds associated with cyclonic vorticity of some of the stronger storm cells. Neither the area of individual cells, nor the intensity of any of the cells making up the line of storms, nor the shape of the cells themselves suggested that what came through was indeed a tornado, or that one had occured. While there did appear evidince of a significant amount vorticiy on some cells, none of the evidences combined was overwhelmingly compelling.

The straightline winds that severe thunderstorms are capable of producing (either as sudden downdraft - an instantaneous 60 MPH gust - or as outflow) can cause some pretty nasty damage in their own right without having to resort to tornadic activity.

Check out Force 10 (or 11) images here

Complete Beufort Scale chart here

[sharktrager]

Is she sure it wasn't Russel Crowe that caused her phone to attack her?

[Fierce Allegiance]

Samuel D. Champlain had three daughters. Their names were Faith, Hope & Charity.

[raygun]

Man, there's something wrong with your call-waiting. I'd get that fixed.

[quantim]

Well, sounds like you got a piece of the same storm! I removed a 3" diameter and about 3' long branch from my roof some 75' away from the top of a dead ash tree in my front yard, no small chore.

There are still a lot of schools closed and folks without power with numerous trees down on the Wayne-Oakland-Washtenaw border.

I concur, just high winds. DTE claimed 80 MPH winds.

Having been made a homeless person 2 times (1 a total loss) I know a tornado when I see one - that is after viewing the wake of disaster.

[raygun]

I don't know about that daughter thing. The source I found talked that he had three girls (the oldest being 5 years younger than his wife, and the second oldest half her age, and the other one of indeterminant age - maybe even their mothers) not daughters, whatever that means.

In 1610 Champlain married Hélène Boullé, who at the time was 37 1/2% his age (12). Her parents wouldn't allow her to leave home until she was 14 though. In 1620 she arrived at Champlain's newly built fort: Quebec. Champlain, a devout Catholic, to his horror, discovered she was infected with the heresies of her father, a disguised Huguenot. He addressed himself at once to her conversion, and his pious efforts were something more than successful. Over the course of the subsequent four years which she remained in the fort, she devoted a great zeal chiefly exercised in admonishing Indian squaws and catechising their children.

In 1624 Hélène Champlain returned to France, and nothing would content her but to become a nun. Champlain refused her this favor; but, as she was childless, he at length consented to a virtual, though not formal, separation. In July 1629, having no choice he capitulated to the English, and attempted to barter permission for his two native girls (about 17 & 12 yrs old) to return with him to France (one girl having previously returned to her People). The English repatriated all French colonists back to France by way of England, including the Jesuit priests, they refused him this favor. After Champlain's death, Hélène Boullé Champlain ultimately gained her wish, and became an Ursuline nun. She subsequently founded a convent of that order at Meaux, and died with a reputation almost saintly.

[handy old one]

Ligionier. IN, Known for marshmallows