WEATHER MANIA!

This is our miscellaneous page where we'll touch on all things weather-related. We'll also use this page to answer any questions you may have concerning the weather and if we can't provide the info, we know who can. And if you have any COOL weather pics like the one to the right, we'd love to feature them right here.
So write us already!

Wednesday, April 4, 2001 - From The Bismark Tribune - Bismark, ND

Weather Watcher Still Invaluable
JERRY KRAM

DICKINSON -- Over the years, the National Weather Service has invested millions of dollars in precision radar and state-of-the-art computer systems, but one of the agency's most valuable tools is still a trained set of eyes, said Daniel Noah.

Noah is the Warning Coordination Meteorologist for the NWS office in Bismarck. He was in Dickinson Monday to do a training session with the Theodore Roosevelt Amateur Radio Club and Stark County Emergency Management for the agency's Skywarn Program.

"Radar is wonderful, but they don't detect everything." Noah said. "We still need the eyes and ears out in the field. Those counties that have an active Skywarn spotters are better protected than those that don't. Dickinson has an excellent program."

Skywarn is a network of more than 167,000 volunteers across the United States who give the NWS eyewitness descriptions of how severe storms are developing. Noah said there are 1,600 volunteers in western and central North Dakota who work with the Bismarck NWS office. He said much of the volunteer network consists of law enforcement officers, rural fire departments and ham radio operators.

Amateur radio operators are still the core of the Skywarn network, Noah said. They can communicate when cell phone networks get overloaded during an emergency.

About 80 members of the radio club are weather spotters, said Joe Callahan, the club's emergency coordinator. They cover an area from Dickinson to Beach and Bowman to Killdeer. In the event of severe weather, the National Weather Service or county emergency manager will send out an alert to the Skywarn volunteers.

Noah said the first report of the tornadoes that hit Bismarck last November came from a spotter. The storms developed too close to the Bismarck radar site to be clearly imaged.

"It wasn't until the storm moved away from the city that we could pick up the individual tornadoes on radar," he said.

Spotters were also needed to identify a tornado near Fairfield in Billings County last summer. It didn't show up on radar because at that distance, the Bismarck radar beam is about 10,000 feet off the ground. Noah said weather radar works best between 20 and 80 miles from the radar site.

Along with tornadoes, the spotters report dangerous conditions like torrential rains, hail, flash floods and dangerous winds called downbursts. A downburst in Devils Lake last year produced wind measured at 111 mph that caused severe damage.

Last year was a busy one for weather spotters, with 21 tornadoes, eight funnel clouds, 145 reports of large hail, 40 damaging wind events and seven flash floods in western and central North Dakota.

The NWS also contacts spotters after storms to collect damage reports and other follow-up information. This helps the agency gauge the strength of storms with more accuracy.

Noah warned the crowd of about 40 people that safety should be their first priority. He pointed out that lightning, hail and flash floods as hazards they need to watch out for. However, he pointed out that the most useful place to observe severe weather was well to the south of a thunderstorm, and not in its path.

Noah said the public should report severe weather to local law enforcement agencies rather than the NWS so trained observers can verify the observations.

Skywarn spotters go through a short training session on how severe weather develops and how to safely observe storms. They also learn how to report those observations to the NWS. The public is welcome at any of the Skywarn training sessions, even if they don't want to be part of the network.

"We'd like to have more people attend," Noah said.

Anyone can join the Skywarn program. The NWS does about 30 trainings in central and western North Dakota every spring. A schedule of the trainings is available by contacting the agency, local ham radio clubs, county emergency managers or at the Bismarck National Weather Service Web site at www.crh.noaa.gov/bis/.

November 7, 2000 — Shippers on the Great Lakes prepare to mark the 25th anniversary of the sinking of the freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald as the region moves into its stormy winter season and the United States looks toward a more normal winter with its occasional severe wind and snow storms. This is the time of year when moisture from the still-warm Gulf of Mexico helps fuel development of low pressure systems in the lee of the central and southern Rocky Mountains that later collide with arctic air masses and ride the jet stream into the Great Lakes region. The relatively warm waters of the Great Lakes can cause these storms to intensify more than they might over colder ground.
Full Story

NOAA Weather Radio is a nationwide network of radio stations broadcasting continuous weather information direct from a nearby National Weather Service office. NOAA Weather Radio broadcasts National Weather Service warnings, watches, forecasts and other hazard information 24 hours a day. Working with the Federal Communications Commission's new Emergency Alert System, NOAA Weather Radio is an "all hazards" radio network, making it the single source for the most comprehensive weather and emergency information available to the public.

NOAA Weather Radio also broadcasts warning and post-event information for all types of hazards - both natural (such as earthquakes and volcano activity) and technological (such as chemical releases or oil spills). Known as the "Voice of the National Weather Service," NOAA Weather Radio is provided as a public service by the Department of Commerce's National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration.

The NOAA Weather Radio network has more than 530 transmitters, covering the 50 states, adjacent coastal waters, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the U.S. Pacific Territories. NWR requires a special radio receiver or scanner capable of picking up the signal. Broadcasts are found in the public service band at these seven frequencies (MHz):162.400 162.425 162.450 162.475 162.500 162.525 162.550

For additional information, visit the NOAA Weather Radio site: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/index.html.

Three simple ways to get historical weather conditions exist. (Well, probably more exist, but we've only listed three.) The first is an easy, well formatted summary table, but is limited to the past five years. The second is a little more complicated to use and read, but is very complete. The third is the fail-safe -- it costs money, but when you are out of options sometimes you have to pay the piper.

Easiest Way
You can find the exact conditions for most cities around the world at Weather Underground. Here's what you need to do:
1) Go to Weather Underground
2) Find the weather of interest using the box labeled "Find the Weather for any City, State or Zipcode, or Country"
3) Once the weather forecast appears, scroll about 3/4 of the page down to "Historical Conditions"
4) Select the month, day and year of interest (only last 5 years) and hit the "Go" button

History includes average, maximum and minimum temperatures, heating degree days, dew point, precipitation, snow depth, sea level pressure, standard pressure, visibility, wind speed, gust speed and any unusual events that may have occurred on that day.

A Little Harder Way
The National Climatic Data Center is the world's largest active archive of weather, and contains daily observations.

After you agree to the terms, you will proceed through a sequence of questions that will guide you to the nearest weather station that gathers data. You can view daily information on a host of parameters, including: maximum temperature, minimum temperature, mean temperature, precipitation, snow depth, mean dew point, mean sea level pressure, mean station pressure, mean visibility, mean wind speed, maximum sustained wind speed, and maximum wind gust -- most of the information you are looking for.

The currently available data runs from January, 1994 to December, 1998 and includes cities around the world.

Most Costly Way
You can order monthly summaries from the National Climatic Data Center and view them online, download them, or have them mailed to you.

This publication summarizes temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, cloudiness, wind speed and direction observations for several hundred cities in the U.S. and its territories. Most monthly publications also contain the 3 hourly weather observations for that month and an hourly summary of precipitation. Reports are $2 each and the database dates back to 1996.

Related Sites and Information

• MSU Climatology

Click on this interactive Michigan map and get historical   climatological summary tables for weather observation stations throughout the state. The tables are based upon data compiled between 1951-1980. An excellent source of historical weather averages from Michigan State University Climatology.

• Almanacs

Weather almanacs allow you to view what the weather conditions are typically like during the year. How much rain will fall in July? What is the lowest average temperature in December?

• Make A Long Range Weather Forecast

The polar opposite of this article! It answers the question "How do I determine the long range weather forecast?", and provides the resources you need in order to do so.

• Weatherbase.com

Fantastic site including over 5,700 sites worldwide. Also includes a unique vacation weather finder -- four steps to the weather you want on your next vacation! -- as well as a glossary and calculators.

• World Climate

Over 80,000 climate and historical weather records for over 20,000 weather stations worldwide.

Please use caution with all images. The Internet and associated automated computer systems can have problems that may delay the images. This could be dangerous when dealing with storms, since a casual user might mistake how close a storm is. Always use your common sense when making weather-related decisions. During an ongoing weather situation, tune to NOAA Weather Radio or your local media outlet for the latest weather information. Always check the time provided on the images to make sure of when they were updated.

To access the system clock in Windows, double click on the time displayed at lower right corner of your screen. A control window will open, and you will be able to adjust the date and the time. To adjust the time zone, click on the time zone tab and select the appropriate zone for you.