Stories tagged weather
Lightning strikes again: More electrifying stories from summer storm survivors
Shocking stories of lightning: Read all about these people's encounters with nature's electronic forces.
Courtesy andrewomerknapp.A few weeks ago we posted a link to a story about a guy who got hit in the head with a lightning bolt and lives to tell about it. Here are more lightning strike survivor stories. And the real interesting tidbit of information near the top of the story, 89 percent of people struck by lightning are men. Can you figure out why that would be? Hint: It has nothing to do with the storm scene from the movie "Caddyshack."
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Are we next?: No. Definitely not.
Courtesy NASAY’all know what “fratricide” is? It’s when a brother kills a brother. Or when a sister kills her brother. Or when a sister and a brother kill their brother. Any combination, really, involving a brother getting iced.
Well, it has happened on Jupiter. A little brother has been torn apart by his giant siblings. And by giant, I mean many times the size of earth.
The Great Red Spot is a huge hurricane-like storm on the surface of Jupiter. The storm has been spinning for several hundred years, and has a diameter about three times that of Earth. Also, it’s red.
The spot happens to have a couple of little brothers, too, named Red Spot Jr. (or Oval Ba, if you can’t get your head around having a little brother that’s your “Jr.”) and the Little Red Spot. Or, I should say, it had a couple of little brothers. Now it has a little brother, and some spare brother chunks. You see, Great Red Spot, and Red Spot Jr. tore Little Red Spot to shreds last week.
Officials are still baffled as to the motive, but what we know is this: LRS was strolling innocently through its neighborhood of Jupiter when it was ambushed from either side by GRS and RSJ. No weapons are thought to have been involved, ironically making the crime that much more brutal—the larger storms ripped their little brother apart with their own stormy hands, and when GRS and RSJ ran off, all that was left of LRS were sad little shreds.
The proximity of the incident has complicated investigation, to say the least, but I have my own theories. Red Spot Junior, as it happens, only recently earned its title—it was not until only two years ago that it actually turned red. I think that RSJ may have been long overdue to prove itself as a true red spot. Both intimidated and protected by its larger brother, RSJ was content to allow GRS to be the planet’s muscle. Over the months, however, I guess that RSJ’s desire to prove itself intensified, or that GRS tired of doing its little brother’s dirty work. Either way, the two larger spots turned their sites towards their small brother, always the “simplest” of the three. I think it’s very likely that GRS provided cover and just watched while RSJ did the butcher’s work, but the blood doesn’t stand out on its recently acquired coloring.
The red color of the spots, although no doubt symbolic of their bloodthirsty hearts, is not entirely understood. It’s thought that the color may come from material sucked from deep in the planet as the storms get stronger. Phosphorus-containing molecules, for instance would turn red when exposed to sunlight on the planet’s surface.
Astronomers the world over are reeling from the violent act.
Lighting a backfire
Courtesy LouAngeli2008
As fires continue to rage in the forests of California, I thought I would introduce you to some of the people trying to control them. Smokejumpers are the logical people to start with as they are usually the first on the ground.
Smokejumpers are the elite forces of the US forestry department. Many fires begin in locations inaccessible to the standard means of transportation (trucks, helicopters, or by foot). These firefighters arrive by plane and parachute into remote areas. Often their landing site is the top of a tree or a boulder field. Their kevlar suits provide some protection but their skill set includes tree climbing, practiced falling and general hardiness.
In the beginning, jumpers were required to be unmarried without dependents. They had to be a bit reckless to be able to agree to jump out of a plane into a fire area! Despite the inherent danger of jumping, there have been relatively few fatalities in their long history. Jumping began in the late 1930s as flight technology and airplanes became more sophisticated. During the war, many of the jumpers were conscientious objectors to WWII. In 1981 the first women were allowed into the program. Today there are 9 active bases in the West but they serve fires from Alaska to the North East.
The physical requirements... 7 pull ups, 25 push-ups, 45 sit-ups, and a 1.5 mile run completed in under 11 minutes---all done in one session with a 5 minute break between each activity. So, I am pretty much disqualified right off the bat with the pull ups and even if I were to manage, the running would definitely eliminate me. I view running as a self destructive behavior (who would put themselves through that? sorry El). You must also be mentally and emotionally stable--that is a requirement! A smokejumper’s pack often weighs upwards of 100 pounds...and you have no ride out, you must hike or hitchhike in (after landing) and out of the fire. To see a complete list of physical requirements (including height and weight) check out the West Yellowstone smokejumper website.
What they do : After landing and recovering their gear (which is dropped from the plane in (hopefully) a relatively similar location to where they land) the crew sets out towards the fire. They carry no water save for their thermoses. They control the fire by either creating a fireline/firebreak, a swath of land around the edge of the fire cleared of any brush or fuel that could feed the fire, or they light a backfire . Backfires act much like a fireline/firebreak in that they burn towards the oncoming fire. By doing so, they remove the fuel the fire needs to continue burning. Only if the jumpers are unable to contain the fire are reinforcements called to the scene. Jumpers direct helicopters to drop water on hot spots and systematically work their way through the burn site feeling the ground to make sure that there will be no flare-ups. They can leave when the fire is controlled or fresh firefighters take-over, often times many hours after they first jumped from the plane.
Be sure to check out the links below. Jumpers work from June-Oct so those of you looking for adventure with an extremely selective and tight-knit group, smokejumping could be for you.
http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/people/smokejumpers/
http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/gallatin/fire/wyifc/main.htm
To Burn or not to Burn...
in The Water Cycle, Weather and Climate, Interdependence of Life, and Forces of Nature
Scene from Watsonville fire in California
Courtesy alexthompsonThat is the question. Controlled burning is a technique where by intentional fires are set to clear forests of debris. Fires sparked by lighting have always been a part of the life cycle of forests. Though it seems counterintuitive, fire can actually be a very healthy thing. It clears the forest floor strengthening older trees by giving them more access to soil nutrients while also acting as a kind of natural recycling. Regular burning (burning that mimics what formerly naturally occurred in forests) can actually reduce the severity of fires such as the one burning in northern California.
Sounds great! But, what if you live near a forest scheduled to burn? Though it is called a “controlled burn” I would certainly be skittish about the combination of control and burn. Fires can be extremely dangerous, but scientists utilize many tools for tracking weather and wind patterns prior to burning. They have extensive topographical information that allows them to track the path of the fire. There are also many resources available for homeowners.
Do the risks of controlled burning outweigh the risk of uncontrollable wildfires? Ultimately nature has the power to override any hesitations I may have about whether I want a fire in my backyard. So I have to ask, what is my role in fire and forest ecology?
Researchers around the country are testing a new radar system that should track storms more accurately, and give earlier warning of deadly tornadoes.
In Iowa, 83 of its 99 counties are now disaster areas
Iowa flood warnings: Sunday, June 15, 3 pm
Courtesy National Weather ServiceIowa was the epicenter of the flooding that swamped Kansas, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan and Indiana this week.
A levee holding back the Des Moines River broke Friday night in Des Moines, sending water rushing into a neighborhood near downtown.
In Cedar Rapids, the state's second-largest city, the waters of the swollen Cedar River crested Friday night, but more than 400 city blocks remain waterlogged and 24,000 people have been forced from their homes.
Click on the link below to read more
flooding in Iowa (Yahoo News)
A million forced to flee flooding in China
Torrential downpours have severely affected nine provinces in China. China's civil affairs ministry says nearly 1.3 million people have now fled their homes in the hardest hit regions as the bad weather continues. The flooding in the Pearl river delta is the worst for 50 years. The flooding has submerged large areas of farm land and destroyed 6,600 homes in Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces. As of early Sunday morning, 55 deaths were reported.
Click this link to read more and see a video:
Recent flooding in Southern China (BBC News).
Click here to see BBC photos.
The region normally experiences heavy rainfall about this time every year, but meteorological authorities said this was the worst in five decades.
Flooding has affected many cities in the Pearl River Delta -- home to many export manufacturing plants -- and the western part of Guangdong province. (Reuters via Yahoo News)
What the hail? It’s been an ice-filled sky this spring
Hail, hail this piece of hail: This is the world-record hailstone that fell in Aurora, Nebraska, in 2003. It has a diameter of seven inches and circumfrence of nearly 19 inches.
Courtesy NOAAIn the Twin Cities area, we’ve had some pretty impressive hail storms lately, at least if you’re measuring by frequency and intensity. Today’s Star Tribune has a nice round up on our surge in hail activities.
So what is hail any way, besides the sound of green to auto glass replacement and body shop companies?
Hail is formed when storm clouds supercool water droplets into frozen masses around particles of dust. The formation of thunderstorms is the ideal circumstance for creating hail. Updrafts in the storm’s formation blow the hail up into the thunderhead for a little while. Then the hail descends in the cloud, collects more moisture and becomes a bigger piece of ice when another updraft blasts it back up into the thunderhead. When those updrafts subside or the ice gets too big and heavy, the hail comes pelting back down to Earth on us, our vegetation and cars.
In the U.S., “Hail Alley” is located there Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming converge. Worldwide, deadly hail storms have been recorded in India and China.
Before you start to think our recent hail storms here in the Twin Cities have been impressive, consider these storms:
• Around the 9th century, several hundred pilgrims were killed by a massive hailstorm in Roopkund, Uttarakhand, India.
• July 11, 1990, in Denver, Colorado, softball-sized hail destroyed roofs and cars, causing $625 million in total damage.
• April 14, 1999, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, $1.5 billion was done spread across 20,000 properties and 40,000 vehicles. In addition, more than 25 aircraft were damaged at Sydney Airport.
• July 19, 2002, Henan Province, China, resulted in 25 dead and hundreds injured.
• June 22, 2003, saw the largest hailstone on record fall in Aurora, Nebraska, It has a 7-inch diameter and a circumference of 18.75 inches.
Itching to learn more about hail? Here's a link to the Wikipedia page of all things hail.
Tropical storm Arthur, 1st of hurricane season, hits Yucatan
The storm formed one day before the official start of the season June 1, hitting land near the Mexican port city of Chetumal and Belize's Corozal city. Yahoo News
Not very newsworthy except that my name is Arthur, too.
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