April 8, 2013 Storm Chase and landspout

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Joe

On April 8 a few severe to tornadic cells moved through parts of northeast Colorado, northwest Kansas, and extreme southwest Nebraska. I had been watching the situation during the afternoon and deciding whether it would be worth it to chase or if I might do better just waiting until something came to me in Goodland, KS. I took the wait-and-see approach, because while the environment was very favorable south of I-70, there didn’t seem to be a strong forcing mechanism. I watched a cell strengthen in eastern Colorado, and as it was passing I-70 just west of Burlington, CO I noticed the cell trying to split. A right turn would mean the storm could cross into Kansas and be fairly close to me, so I and a friend decided to make a go at it.

We took to KS-27, a paved highway north of Goodland and about 5 miles north made a left turn to head west on dirt roads. The cell was moving north-northeast but appeared to be weakening. Even so, this low-precipitation storm looked pretty great from our vantage point and we were able to get some good photos! This was my first time chasing in the Plains and seeing a real supercell thunderstorm in person. I was very thankful to have a co-pilot guiding me where to drive (and when to stop) – I couldn’t imagine going out there alone.

The sun was hitting this storm just right. It wasn’t perfect, but I thought it was pretty stellar.
Blowing dust as seen from our vantage point. I enhanced a sliver of the photo to bring out the dust a little better.
A short panorama from inside the car with a forced auto exposure region to capture the structure better.
Towards the end of the trip the striations looked fantastic. At this point the storm had weakened a bit.
Back in Goodland we could still observe the structure – this was when the storm was dropping up to 2″ size hail near St Francis (Cheyenne County KS)

After about an hour of watching the storm it appeared to be weakening, so we decided to head back to Goodland. As I was about to get back on the paved highway KS-27, I stopped to glance at my phone and saw a text from a friend: “JOE CONFIRMED TORNADO ON THAT CELL NOW TURN AROUND.” Knowing how my friends and I joke with each other, I figured he was just kidding me. While I was without radar data for a time, based on what we saw of the storm structure it didn’t look exciting. I continued on the road and my co-pilot checked out the radar to see my friend was not kidding! Soon after I received a call from NWS Goodland asking what I could seem, since my last Spotter Network location was near the storm. I told him we were already on our way back to Goodland and he let me know that they had multiple land spout reports. The storm later went on to produce 2″ hail and another tornado warning.

While I missed the landspout, I was very curious of what had happened since there were a ton of chasers on the storm. Below are a number of videos from the storm showing the landspout which I found on YouTube:

 

 

Another from the same folks above:

 

 

 

And one last one showing the intense blowing dust (skip to 1:00):

 

All in all, I thought it was a great first “chase” of the season – a good dry-run of things to come this spring. And I really can’t complain about the location of the chase – within a half hour I was getting great photos and was home before sunset.

LSRs and Warnings from IEM

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Top 5 Reasons to Intern at the Meteorological Development Lab!

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Joe

During the entire year of 2011, I’m working at the National Weather Service’s Meteorological Development Lab (MDL) in the Student Career Experience Program (SCEP). The coordinator of the program recently sent an email to the current interns (~6 of us) asking us to promote the internship because we have some openings coming up in January. So, I decided to create this list of the top five reasons why students should apply for the SCEP at MDL based on my experience.

5. Work at a world-class laboratory with some of the top scientists within the National Weather Service. MDL is the only lab within the National Weather Service. (Others, like GSD, are part of NOAA Research.)

4. See how products go from research to operations and understand the challenges that are faced in bringing a product from an idea to an operational product. Learn more about how the National Weather Service and NOAA work from the inside out.

3. Get paid as a real scientist! SCEP’s are considered full-time employees, so you get paid just like everyone else. You also get the benefits of working for the federal government, too, such as healthy benefits and a retirement savings account. You also receive transit benefits which cover the cost of public transportation to/from work. (Note: You don’t get housing like some internships, but you can usually find a place to live with some roommates to keep costs down.)

2. Live and work in the nation’s capital! MDL is located in the NOAA Silver Spring Metro Campus (SSMC) inside NWS headquarters, which is a stones throw away from the metro (rail) station and just a few minutes from DC via metro rail or bus!

1. Learn new skills and apply them for a full year! Unlike some internships, the SCEP at MDL is a 12-month commitment. I’m currently working my 12 months in one session (Jan 2011 – Jan 2012), but you can also break it up into two segments. In addition, after graduating there is a “possible 120-day work period, after graduation and possible conversion to career-conditional appointment, depending upon the availability of positions.”

Here’s some more information about the SCEP at MDL:

  • Applications are welcomed year-round! Unlike the separate nationwide program, the SCEP at MDL hires at all times of the year.
  • You can intern as an undergraduate or graduate student. (You MUST NOT be completed your degree requirements before beginning the SCEP.)
  • The branch you work in will depend on available openings.
  • You only need to fill out the application and provide a resume and (unofficial) transcript to begin the application process!

So what are you waiting for? Apply today!

If you have any questions, feel free to comment below, ask me on Twitter or Facebook or shoot me an email (joe at this website’s domain).

 

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How-to: Installing the WRF-EMS on a virtual machine

Posted on July 10, 2011 by Joe
This entry is part 1 of 1 in the series WRF How-To

At my internship, I’ve learned a ton about Unix/Linux. As a meteorology student, I have always had an interest in modeling, especially since we run a version of the WRF at Millersville. I knew it would be an enormous task to compile and run the WRF myself… then I stumbled upon the WRF-EMS. The WRF-EMS is a pre-compiled WRF with a ton of built-in functionality that makes it a cinch to get up and running in hours! The WRF-EMS is built using a pre-configured version of the WRF model controlled by perl scripts with lots of extra goodies that making running it almost too easy.

Everything listed here is free; in addition to the Open Source community that makes Unix and other projects so successful, you can thank your hard-working tax dollars for the people at NOAA/NWS/NCEP and UCAR/NCAR for making something like this possible.  Finally, the ease of installation and operation would not be possible without Robert Rozumalski, the NOAA NWS SOO Science and Training Resource Coordinator at UCAR and author of the WRF-EMS*. (*Just to be clear, Robert is the author of the WRF-EMS. The core WRF code (the actual model that runs) comes from the WRF development teams at NCAR (ARW) and NCEP (NMM). Read the introduction on the WRF-EMS homepage if you’re confused.)

Step -1: Disclaimer and Requirements

  • I did nothing to make any of this happen! Everything in this guide relies on the hard work of others (see above). I’m writing this post to help out other students and scientists (and myself!) learn more about the WRF and modeling in general.
  • This guide is made for someone interested in modeling. If you are serious about running the WRF for operations, you should not be using a virtual machine. However, this is a great way to get started if you’re not yet ready to take the plunge on dual-booting or buying a new machine.
  • You should have at least 4 GB of RAM, a modern (minimum dual core) processor and 150-200GB of hard disk space. A fast internet connection (or a load of patience) is required as well.
  • I am not responsible if this breaks your computer! Working in a virtual machine should prevent any computer disasters beyond the “virtual” machine. Please proceed at your own risk!
  • Ready to go? Let’s go!

Continue reading →

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WxBlogging: How to get started with your own weather blog

Posted on June 25, 2011 by Joe

One of the first things I learned about meteorology was that to be a good forecaster, it took a lot of experience forecasting. Through my years of education and internships, I still am a firm in this and I think many others in the industry would agree. There’s no great how-to manual for every single forecasting scenario- you have to apply your education every day to become better at it. For this reason, I think starting a weather blog is an excellent idea for meteorology students (or meteorology students-to-be). It’s easy to look at the radar, look at models, take some MetEd modules and think you have a handle of what’s going on; when you sit down and try to describe this in written form it can be a real challenge!

This guide is for anyone looking to set up their own weather blog, though its primarily aimed at my peers at Millersville and other colleges who are looking to get into blogging about the weather. I’ve helped out a number of peers through this process and I hope I can help you, too!
Continue reading →

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Welcome to Twitter, NWS!

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Joe

The National Weather Service (NWS) recently announced a number of experimental Twitter feeds:

Over the next several weeks, prototype Twitter feeds will be established for the following sites:

NWS Norman OK
NWS LMRFC (Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center)
NWS Pleasant Hill/Kansas City MO
NWS Salt Lake City UT
NWS Charleston SC
NWS Western Region
NWS Honolulu HI
NHC Atlantic | NHC Pacific – The National Hurricane Center will run 2 accounts, basin specific.

The NWS Norman account is currently posting relevant stories to their CWA. I have a pretty strong feeling that Norman didn’t happen to be one of the first WFO’s on twitter, however: their WCM, Rick Smith, interacts on Twitter regularly using his ounwcm account. NWS Kansas City also has an active account with re-tweets of other accounts.

Contrast this with NHC Atlantic, which is strictly a feed (also available via RSS) of their latest products, a la the IEM Bots. It doesn’t seem (so far, at least) that there is any human using the Twitter account..

Twitter means different things to different people. Many people tweet “at” or mention other users (eg. @username) in their tweets, and many people have come to expect a response. Some companies even have entire teams dedicated to dealing with help on Twitter. in fact, when I needed help with my phone, I got a faster response by tweeting @ATTCustomerCare instead of calling! While this is great for some people, I think many would agree that NWS shouldn’t be constantly watching who mentions them. However, I hope that they do occasionally reply and generally keep an eye on mentions just as much as they do for their Facebook pages.

Ideally, this is what I hope to see from these Twitter accounts:

  • Stories and short-term forecasts (eg. an upcoming snowfall event, enhanced fire weather risks, public outreach like Lightning Awareness Week)
  • Occasional re-tweets of reliable sources (eg. an emergency management agency publishing helpful information)
  • Occasional replies (eg. towards members of the general public- but only when time permits)
  • Automated posting of severe weather information, ideally published through the IEM/NWSChat bot system

I hope this Twitter trial is successful and expands to other offices soon!

FYI: How many people are on Twitter? It’s always important to get a reality check: A recent Pew survey found that roughly 13% of online Americans use Twitter. Using various sources, this comes out to about 10% of the entire US population. In comparison, 38% of Americans are on Facebook. These aren’t huge numbers, but they’re likely larger than the current number of Americans who have Weather Radios- which, in my opinion, makes a project like this worth the effort.

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Enhancing #wxreport with Skywarn spotters

Posted on May 7, 2011 by Joe

I’ve been following the progress of the National Weather Service’s #wxreport Twitter project since its inception. In fact, I was researching the idea of using twitter for high-density (but low quality) weather reports as an observation network.

It seems the project website hasn’t been very active (though the RFC has been renewed through 2011), and I can bet why: while there may be some great reports, most of the tweets tagged with #wxreport are just plain noise. So how do we fix this? If only there was a way to verify people who were trained in some way to spot the weather, so that their reports carried more weight than others. Hm… Skywarn anyone?

What if trained spotters could let their local WFO know their twitter username, so that forecasters knew they could trust the reports more than others? There are a few ways this could be done:

  1. NWS could set up a central registration page for users to log in and enter their Skywarn info (possibly with other information, like their current phone number/email address). Then, this data could be used in applications used by WFOs.
  2. Users could tweet “at” or “direct message” a special account with the necessary information to a special twitter account. (For example, @nws_skywarn_register #SkywarnID #WFO #email could be sent by users and a script could be ran to catch and organize these tweets with some manual QC to establish a database.)

On a related note: I still don’t understand the Spotter Network- a Non-profit organization started by Tyler Allison (of AllisonHouse) that “is in no way sanctioned or affiliated with the NWS nor any of the other government agencies.” They have their own training, not related to Skywarn (or so it seems). And if this confuses me, a senior meteorology student, I have no doubt others have been confused as well. I would like to see this program and the Skywarn program joined or merged in some way to have one private-public partnership spotter network. I know this is tough given the current budget constraints, but I think it would eliminate some duplication while strengthening NWS’s relationship with the private weather enterprise.

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Watch/Warning/Advisory colors should be standard across all NWS platforms and partners

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Joe

What color is a tornado warning? Red? Usually. Unless you use the default on GRLevelX products- then it’s pink. I also found a Memphis TV station that used bright orange.

How about a Severe Thunderstorm Warning? The National Weather Service website uses bright orange, while most media outlets use yellow. (GRLevelX Products use a default of red.)

And don’t even get me started about other products, like severe watches and winter products. Watch/Warning/Advisory colors is a messy topic across platforms that I believe should become standardized.

In doing my research for this post, I found I wasn’t alone. Turns out there was a *paper published by the American Meteorological Society’s Interactive Information Processing Systems (IIPS) Subcommittee for Color Guidelines in 1993 that contained guidelines for colors. Under severe weather, they recommended all thunderstorm and tornado WWA products be displayed in red. However, that was nearly 20 years ago! (The age of the paper is evident is phrases like, “Consideration should be given to how the color set will map to gray shades if some users will ultilerly view the color set in monochrome mode (for example, monochrome television or hard copy)…”) However, the paper does have some relevant points:

  • “The colors selected should be used consistently everywhere they are used (Travis 1991): for example, if green in used to represent landmasses one place it should not be used to represent water bodies in another instance”
  • “Limit the number of different colors that used in any single visual display or product.” (Ahm… NWS…)
  • “When selecting colors to represent various features or conditions, choose colors that have familiar relationships…”

While I don’t see having inconsistent color schemes for WWA colors across NWS partners as a critical safety issue, I don’t believe that it’s helping convey important weather information, either! Luckily, at least one broadcast market has recognized the issue:

The local TV stations in Kansas City, MO got together and standardized their colors. While I haven’t been able to find any articles about this other than the video, I’m sure the cost of implementing these changes cost next to nothing.

Who should implement this? I think the National Weather Service has the authority to do this, at least as a strong recommendation to its customers. If not NWS, I think it would be a great thing for an AMS committee to develop guidelines.

What are your thoughts? In an informal, non-scientific poll amongst my peers I could not find one dissenting voice. What’s stopping this from happening?

 

*Guidelines for Using Color to Depict Meteorological Information: IIPS Subcommittee for Color Guidelines. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 74.9 (1993): 1709-713.

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Where’s my storm chaser TV network?

Posted on March 27, 2011 by Joe

Technology is amazing. Every day that there is severe weather, dozens of storm chasers stream their experience live via Severe Studios, ChaserTV, UStream, Livestream- you name it. The proliferation of affordable mobile broadband cards in recent years has made live streaming mobile video not only technically possible, but relatively affordable. This is great!

While I’ll be the first to admit I haven’t got much of a clue when it comes to “real” storm chasing in Mid-West, I do know that much of the time chasing is not very exciting. It’s a lot of the “Hurry up and Wait” sort of thing. So when there’s a severe outbreak predicted, many chasers might be streaming while they wait for storms to begin. While it’s certainly exciting to be there waiting for a storm to begin, it’s not the most entertaining thing to watch.

Once storms do begin to fire, it can be hard to keep up with what’s going on! Twitter will be on fire* and while it’s a really great tool to stay up to date, it can really be overwhelming. It’s an overload of information… much like the first few days of March Madness! How do you stay up-to-date when there are so many details unfolding on so many scales?

I think a web-based Storm Chaser TV Network would be a great idea. Here’s what I’m thinking:

  • Who would host it? Ideally, experienced storm chasers or broadcasters who not only know the meteorology but also know the geography.
  • When would it air? It would have to be something with maybe a days notice, depending on the type of outbreak. It could just be limited to days with a Moderate Risk, or it could be a daily thing (depending on the availability of those involved). I would see something airing just before storms are expected to start in the afternoon until sunset.
  • What would the format be? I see a mix of in-depth severe analysis, community involvement, SPC Multimedia Briefings, call-ins from chasers, and, of course, live video of chasers. A live chat with a few IEM_Bots would be excellent as well.
  • Who would produce it? This is one of the more difficult questions to answer, but I think either of the two most popular live storm chase video sites (Severe Studios or ChaserTV) have the technical know-how to pull it off.
  • Why? It would be much more entertaining to watch a well put-together live production than just to wait and watch chasers drive around. Why not showcase the best-of-the-best live streams with educational analysis? Plus, advertising revenue could be shared fairly among chasers- heck, I’m sure some people would pay a small amount to watch something like this.

What do you think? Too much work? Not a big enough market? Is this already happening? Feel free to leave your comments below or share them with me on Twitter.

 

*FYI, Google’s Realtime search, which searches Twitter, Facebook and Buzz (ha), is a very powerful social search engine. Not only does it get the latest data (and updates the page as updates roll in) but you can search back in time, and also narrow down your search by location.

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Idea for MU-AMS: A Data Visualization Workshop

Posted on January 8, 2011 by Joe

I’ve wanted to plan something like this for nearly a year, but I’ve always been too busy to actually plan it. And while I am now taking a year off from school to be a SCEP at NWS/MDL, I wanted to get this idea at least written down and hopefully prompt some discussion.

My idea is to have a one- or two-day workshop focused on some of the current visualization tools. Why? We don’t really learn them formally in our classes, yet many of us will need to know how to use them in our careers. I think it would be an excellent service to our members to hold something like this and would give our students (myself included) an edge in the current employment environment.

Focus: To teach attendees how to install and use the current visualization tools, with a focus on operational forecasting and research.

Audience: Our main audience would be MU-AMS members (~100), but we could also have it open to pre-college students, weather enthusiasts and possibly met students at other schools.

Location/Venue: Naturally we would use the facilities we already have in Caputo Hall.

Date/Time: A Saturday or Friday/Saturday in the Spring or Fall.

Costs: Minimal. Some refreshments, maybe a catered lunch? If we really wanted to go all-out and fly in some guest speakers), I would see costs around $1,000, max. At minimum this could be done for $200 or less.

Cost to participants: Less than $20.

Topics:

  • GRLevel2Analyst – An excellent radar tool that some of us already use.
  • The Interactive Data Viewer (IDV) – I LOVE this program, though it has a steep learning curve. You can do everything from models to radar to satellite to… well, anything in almost any format.
  • ArcGIS or other GIS software – While the GIS class is available to take instead of IDL, I still think a tutorial in how to use GIS software would be immensely helpful!
  • GEMPAK/NAWIPS – And maybe AWIPS2 when it becomes available.
  • BUFKIT - A tool used in many NWS offices.
  • Other web-based tools?

Format: I have no idea, but I would think after giving some background and installation information on each software package, there could be a series of tutorials for different scenarios. Perhaps participants could request subjects ahead of time so that the workshop focused on what they really wanted to learn.

Speakers: This would be the biggest issue in planning. We would need to find the best speakers for each software package; these candidates could include NWS personnel, professionals at private businesses, Unidata people, or even our own professors.

Technology: Some of this software is already installed on the department computers, but the rest could probably be installed as well. However, it would likely benefit participants to work on their own machines.

Can it happen? Of course it can! Millersville actually hosted a Unidata Regional Workshop on IDV back in 2004. (Edit: Plymouth State hosted the regional workshop in 2008, too, though it looks like this was the last Unidata workshop on the east coast.)

So that’s my idea. Feel free to discuss in the comments below, on Facebook, on Twitter or at any open officer meeting (even if I won’t be there).

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“Zombie Satellite” Galaxy 15 no longer a threat to NOAAPORT

Posted on December 30, 2010 by Joe

Back in early December, there was a NOAAPORT outage that effected everyone from NWS Forecasters to Wunderground and mostly everyone else that received their data from the NOAAPORT Satellite service. There was interference coming from a rouge satellite that caused a temporary period of downtime while the signal was adjusted to use a non-impacted frequency. The “zombie” satellite Galaxy 15, which is operated by Intelesat and used to relay TV broadcasts, was interfering with the SES-1, the satellite used by NOAAPORT. Space.com had a good article about how the whole thing came to be, while Dr. Jeff Masters (Wunderground) wrote about the suspected caused (a Coronal Mass Ejection) and its impact.

Finally, on December 23, the Galaxy 15 satellite finally died… and came back to life. The operators at Intelesat finally have control and will likely be able to finally make use of the formerly uncontrollable satellite.

After my remote sensing class this past semester I find this kind of stuff even more interesting. While not directly related to meteorology, Wikipedia has a great summary of 2010 in spaceflight, including an interesting pie chart detailing the distribution of country of launch.

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