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February 22, 2010

Mason-Dixon, Lorton meteors in TV cameo Weds.

Amateur astronomer and astrophotographer Mike Hankey, of Freeland, reminds the WeatherBlog that this week's edition of Meteorite Men will include a "short segment" on two recent meteor events in the mid-Atlantic states.

UPDATE: Apparently, the Mason-Dixon meteor has been edited out of the final version of the show. Lorton survives. Earlier post resumes:

The show, on Discovery's Science Channel at 9 p.m. Wednesday, will focus on last year's meteorite fall in Ash Creek, Texas. But Mike says there will be some attention paid to the Mason-Dixon meteor last July 6, and the Lorton meteorite fall in suburban Washington, D.C. on Jan. 18, 2010.

The Mason-Dixon meteor startled residents of north-central Maryland and nearby Pennsylvania with sonic booms and a fiery pass through the atmosphere. A security camera at a York Water Company pumping station caught it on tape. And Hankey captured the space rock's entry by accident on a digital camera hitched to his telescope. Despite a search by meteorite hunters, no trace of the meteor was ever found.

The Lorton meteorite was found quite easily. The fist-sized rock crashed through the roof of a Lorton doctor's office. No one was hurt, and the meteorite was turned over to the Smithsonian Institution. 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 4:25 PM | | Comments (0)
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January 28, 2010

Torrential Peru rains strand 1000s at Machu Picchu

Here's a weather story that has not received as much press as it deserves: More than 2,000 tourists, including many foreigners, including Americans, remain stranded by heavy rains, flood waters and mudslides Urubamba River near Machu Picchunear the Incan ruins at Machu Picchu, in the Peruvian highlands northwest of Cuzco.

The railroad that brings most tourists to the archaeological site from Cuzco has been washed out by a mudslide. Roads and bridges have been damaged, and the Peruvian government is cooperating with the U.S. and others in an effort to bring the tourists out by helicopter. It's not going well.

Food and water and other supplies are running short. So are some tempers. Crowds are being sheltered in hotels, hostels and public buildings. Some tourists are pitching in on sandbagging duty while they wait for a flight out. Some vacation.

More importantly, thousands of Peruvians are homeless or dealing with damaged homes in the wake of building collapses and other rain-related damage. Crops also have been inundated.

I have seen little of this in the big media. You have to drill down some to find CNN's report. And it says little or nothing about the damage and hardship being suffered by Peruvians.

These rains are the heaviest in many years in Peru. I suspect they can be attributed to the El Nino event underway in the tropical Pacific.

(AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 5:15 PM | | Comments (3)
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December 29, 2009

High winds buffet cars, cut power

Woke up Monday and again Tuesday to the sound of wind roaring through the trees. And when I went to the drive-up ATM machine this morning, the wind caught the receipt as it emerged from the machine, and before I could grab it, the thing soared high into the swirl of leaves and trash around me and out of sight. The cash, happily, stayed put.

The cause is a "tight pressure gradient" - close proximity between a deep low-pressure center in the Canadian Maritime Provinces and a high in the Midwest. That is funneling a gusher of Canadian air into the Northeast, and we get stiff winds. And it's cold. Temperatures were dropping all night after the passage of a cold front, and seem to be struggling to reach the freezing mark at mid-day Tuesday. The wind chills are in the low 20s. Look for a low near 20 degrees tonight. Windy weather

The National Weather Service has issued a Wind Advisory for Central Maryland through 6 p.m. Tuesday, warning of sustained winds of 20 to 30 mph, gusting to 45 or 50 mph. Such winds can make driving difficult, especially for high-profile vehicles. Gale Warnings are in effect for the Maryland portion of the Chesapeake Bay, and the tidal Potomac River.

Here are some peak wind gusts around the region. Some have reached 50 mph.

Winds down at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport have been steady at more than 20 mph this morning, and gusting to 38 mph. BGE is reporting more than 13,000 customers have lost power since the windstorm began. More than 8,000 of those have already been restored.

Instruments at the Thomas Point Light are recording winds of 29 knots, gusting to 36, with falling temperatures.

(SUN PHOTO/Amy Davis/January 2000)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:17 AM | | Comments (0)
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December 21, 2009

Okay: NOW it's winter; solstice arrives at 12:47 p.m.

It may have looked like winter to you for several days. But officially, if you buy the tradition, winter arrived today - Monday, Dec. 21 - at 12:47 p.m. - with the winter solstice.

Winter solstice - AP PhotoThe winter solstice is the moment when the "sun stands still" - from the Latin "sol" and "stistere." That is, it's the time when the sun stops its apparent drift southward in the sky, and begins to rise and set a bit farther north each day, headed toward spring and the summer solstice in June.

In fact, the solstice occurs at the moment in the Earth's annual orbit around the sun, when the Northern Hemisphere reaches its maximum tilt away from the sun - 23 degrees, 26 minutes from the perpendicular. At the same moment, the Southern Hemisphere is enjoying its Summer Solstice, its longest day and the start of the southern summer.

In many cultures, the winter solstice was celebrated as mid-winter, not the beginning. And it made sense. Today is the day with the shortest period of daylight. From here, the days get longer, and brighter. We have already passed the date of the earliest sunset (Dec. 7), and on Jan. 4 we will note the latest sunrise. But from this moment, on balance, the days are getting longer. It's all good from here.

So cheer up and shovel.

(AP PHOTO/Chris Young - English Druids celebrate the 2005 winter solstice at Stonehenge)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:14 PM | | Comments (3)
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October 8, 2009

LCROSS to slam moon Friday morning; how to watch

NASA 

NASA's LCROSS spacecraft and its booster rocket are on course to crash into the moon's south pole Friday morning as scientists make another bid to determine whether there is useful water ice hidden in the rocks and soil of a deep polar crater.

The idea is to blast enough of the moon into space with the booster's impact that detectors on board LCROSS itself can measure the water in the debris and send the data back to Earth before the spacecraft itself follows its booster into the dirt. (No, it won't hurt the moon.)

Plans call for both objects to target the Cabeus crater, impacting at 7:31 a.m. and 7:35 a.m. EDT. Scientists and engineers at the Goddard Space Flight Center are playing roles in the the mission's final moments.

Both impacts will also be watched closely through telescopes on Earth and in orbit, in the expectation that one or both crashes will reveal the presence of water. If the answer is positive, it would be a boost to hopes that a manned base at the south pole would have access to water, for drinking and for hydrolysis, which breaks the H2O into hydrogen and oxygen.

The oxygen could help supply the base with breathable air, and the two gases - if there's really enough there - could be repackaged and used as fuel for sending rockets and people back to NASA's LCROSS missionEarth, or elsewhere in the solar system.

Previous unmanned missions to the moon have provided hints of hydrogen at the poles. And the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission now circling the moon has detected a thin, volatile "dew" of water on the lunar surface.

But lunar mission planners are especially interested in water ice at the polar craters. The moon's poles are attractive to base-builders because high elevations could provide nearly constant sunlight for solar electric generation, and shelter (thanks to the steady, low sun angles) from the extremes of heat and cold that prevail closer to the moon's equator.

And the deep polar craters, thanks to the absence of sunlight, are where scientists suspect water ice - delivered during the early bombardment of the inner solar system by icy comets - is most likely to have been preserved.

Unfortunately for people in Maryland, and anywhere east of the Mississippi, the LCROSS impacts won't be visible directly because the moon will have set. (SEE COMMENTS BELOW) In any case, you would need a telescope, with a lens or mirror at least 10 inches in diameter. But there will be ways to watch the events in your jammies via Webcast. Here are some of them:

NASA TV will Web cast the impacts beginning at 6:15 a.m. EDT. There is an onboard camera that should send back dizzying video of the fall.

LCROSS has a Twitter site, too. Follow developments minute to minute.

The mission is also on Facebook, believe it or not. Looks pretty nasty to me, but I guess you could be a friend for a few hours.

Also, the online SLOOH telescope system will provide live Web feeds of the impact. 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 1:08 PM | | Comments (7)
Categories: Events
        

Another one bites the dust

Bird strikes Sun bridgeAs the autumn migration season continues, another bird has flown into the glass windows of The Sun's footbridge over Centre Street. It appears to be the fourth of the season so far.

In addition to the yellow-bellied sapsucker that fell a few days ago, an unidentified gray bird (maybe a catbird?) lies in the gutter of the bridge a few yards from the sapsucker. This morning on the way in I noticed another bird lying in a puddle on an awning not far from the bridge. It has black and white spots, perhaps another sapsucker.

Here (photo) is the latest addition to the count, spotted today on the east ledge of the bridge. If you can identify the species, let me know.

This is an annual phenomenon at The Sun. Easily a dozen or more birds die in collisions with the footbridge windows each fall. Indeed, bird strikes on glass buildings are a major cause of bird mortality in the U.S. Millions die each year.  

A number of readers have sent us suggestions for inexpensive ways to make the bridge window glass more visible to the birds. I have forwarded them to management and will let you know what happens.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 9:43 AM | | Comments (3)
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September 11, 2009

Rain. Finally.

Northeast radar 

Awoke this morning to the sound of rain on the WeatherDeck in Cockeysville. After more than a week of rainy forecasts and dry skies, the storm that's been loitering off the Carolinas and bluffing about a drift inland finally made a move our way overnight.

There was heavy rain - about 5 inches  since noon Thursday - in Ocean City, closer to the low's center off Delmarva overnight, and the rain finally headed our way early this morning. We've got more than 1.5 inches of new rain in the gauge on the WeatherDeck. Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport had something closer to three-quarters of an inch at 7 a.m. Ditto for The Baltimore Sun's weather station at Calvert and Centre streets downtown.

Washington's Reagan National and Dulles airports have received far less rain this morning. More rain seems to be moving onto the cities to our north, including Philadelphia, where they've seen more than an inch, and Wilmington, Del., with an inch.

Here are some of the highest 24-hour rain totals from across the region:

Berlin: 5.88 inchesI-83 rain

Salisbury: 3.11 inches

Jacksonville:  2.3 inches

St. Michaels:  1.9 inches'

Cockeysville: 1.88 inches

Jarrettsville: 1.82 inches

Pasadena:  1.45 inches

Towson:  1.33 inches

Catonsville:  1.21 inches

Columbia:  0.87 inch

Crofton:  0.80 inch

Here are more tallies.

Forecasters out at Sterling say the center of the low, now off the Delaware beaches, will be drifting out of the region over the next 24 hours, That will draw much drier air our way from the southwest. It's already sunny in Harrisonburg, Va.

The northeastern portion of the state will be the last to shake free of the lingering showers and cool temperatures, while the Shenandoah Valley enjoys sunshine and highs in the 80s. Our weather should look brighter by Sunday and Monday, with sunny skies and highs in the low 80s.

(SUN PHOTO by Frank Roylance)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 7:15 AM | | Comments (2)
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August 24, 2009

Annual cicadas are making a racket

Stuck at home after surgery, and I'm noticing an amazing chorus of insects in the woods behindAnnual cicada/nDroae from Flickr the WeatherDeck. They're the annual, or "Dog-Day" cicadas, (right) and they seem to be enjoying an unusually loud and busy summer in Maryland's trees.

University of Maryland entomologist Mike Raupp agrees. "I can't remember a year that the annual ... cicadas have been as abundant and active," he said in an email on Monday.

And how. Just off the WeatherDeck in Cockeysville you can see them flitting from tree to tree in search of that special someone, following the chattering, rasping chorus of come-hither songs. The noise seems to come in waves, rising and falling in volume as if they're all listening to each other and responding with ever-more vigorous refrains.

The insects almost drown out the air conditioners. Here's an audio clip from the WeatherDeck.

Periodical cicada/Maryland 2004These are annual cicadas, among them Tibicen linnei, a separate set of species from the well-remembered 17-year periodical cicadas, or Magicicada, (left) that last emerged from the earth in central Maryland in May and June 2004. Known as Brood X (ten), they're due back in 2021.

Raupp had some speculation about what might explain the bugs' abundance this summer:

"Like with all bug-related issues this year, we are attributing the fine cool and wet spring to enhanced survival of many insects and superior quality of plants that serve as food. With many of the subterranean dwellers including termites and cicadas, getting out of the ground is critical. This is only speculation on my part, but I am guessing that moist loose soil coupled with nice humid conditions favor emergence and survival of these guys. Also, the glorious lush growth of trees and shrubs this year may be providing adults with abundant high quality food during their tenure above ground."

The annual cicadas we're hearing now are sometimes called Dog Day cicadas because they emerge and start their singing in mid-to-late summer, the "dog days" of summer.

It's an interesting expression. It evokes images of overheated dogs lazing about in dusty southern streets under oppressive heat and humidity.

If fact, the "dog days" label refers to the position of the sun at this time of year, near the bright star Sirius. Sirius, the brightest true star in the heavens (actually, a double star system), is also known as the "Dog Star" because of its position in the constellation Canis Major, the Big Dog.

Because Sirius is so near the sun in the daytime sky at this time of year, we can't see it. But it is prominent in the night sky in winter and spring, just to the left of, and below, the familiar constellation Orion. 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:20 AM | | Comments (4)
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August 20, 2009

Weds. storm drops baseball-sized hail

Severe thunderstorms rolling across southern Maryland yesterday produced a number of funnel clouds and what witnesses described as baseball-sized hail. Here are details from Steve Zubrick, science and operations officer for the National Weather Service forecast office at Sterling:

NOAA"An intense supercell formed yesterday afternoon (19 Aug 2009) just 
after 4pm in SE Charles Co. MD. As the storm intensified as it moved 
east into St Marys Co, it produced large hail up to baseball-size just 
south of Leonardtown.

"The storm was rotating and prompted us to upgrade our severe t-storm 
warning to a tornado warning...and while we had multiple reports of 
funnel clouds, no confirmed touchdowns or extensive damage have been 
reported.

"An impressive storm!"

For the record, the largest hailstone on record in the U.S. was nearly the size of a soccer ball! That's the one in the 2003 NOAA photo above.

If anyone has pictures of the Leonardtown hailstones, please send them to me at frank.roylance@baltsun.com and I will post them here.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 9:11 AM | | Comments (0)
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June 30, 2009

High tides on the Eastern Shore

Charlie, on the Eastern Shore, left a comment here this morning asking why the rivers and creeks over there have been experiencing unusually high tides in recent days:

"I wanted to ask if you have any idea why we seem to be having a month's worth of very high tides here on the Upper Choptank and Tuckahoe Creek. Its been going on day after day, super high tides one after the other. What gives? Thanks. Charlie"

Well, he's right about the tides. Below is a graph of the tides at Cambridge over several recent cycles. You can see that water levels (red lines) have been running a foot or so above predicted levels for several days - at least four high tide cycles are captured on this graph. 

The Western Shore has been seeing the same thing. Annapolis and Solomons Island are also running about a foot high. The NWS says the next several high tides will also be a foot or two above predictions. Here's this morning's tidal discussion from Sterling:

"EARLY MORNING TIDES WERE RUNNING 3/4 TO 1 FOOT ABOVE NORMAL. WATER
LEVEL AT ANNAPOLIS CRESTED JUST BELOW THE LOWEST THRESHOLD LEVEL FOR
MINOR TIDAL FLOODING AT 2.5 FEET. POSITIVE ANOMALIES SIMILAR TO
THOSE OCCURRING EARLY THIS MORNING WILL LIKELY CONTINUE FOR THE NEXT
COUPLE OF HIGH TIDE CYCLES. WILL MENTION TIDES UP TO 1 FOOT ABOVE
NORMAL IN CWF PRODUCT. MINOR TIDAL FLOODING IS NOT EXPECTED DURING
THE AFTERNOON HIGH TIDE WHICH IS THE LOWER OF THE NEXT TWO.
ANNAPOLIS WILL GET TO 1.9 TO 2.0 FEET. HOWEVER...THE FOLLOWING HIGH
TIDE CYCLE OVERNIGHT BEARS MORE WATCHING. 1 FOOT ABOVE ASTRONOMICAL
PREDICTIONS WOULD PUT ANNAPOLIS JUST ABOVE 2.5 FEET."

The blue arrows on the next graph down show wind direction. And they also reveal a persistent component out of the west or southwest. That would tend to blow water up into the Bay, and hold more of the water in at low tide.

The next chart down shows atmospheric pressure, which has been trending low in recent days. Tides tend to run higher under low air pressure.

There is also the moon to consider. The moon was "new" on the 22nd, and that would have exerted an extra tug on the tides for several days, making the highs higher and the lows lower last week. The astronomical, or lunar component, however, would have been weakening in recent days, leaving the winds as the dominant factor. The moon will become a bigger factor closer to the full moon in another week - on July 7

The persistent winds would seem to be the result in part of low pressure systems that have been lingering off the New England coast, and the Great Lakes for several weeks.

That's my take on it, anyway. Anyone else? Take any good high water photos? Email them to me at frank.roylance@baltsun.com

Cambridge tides

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:08 AM | | Comments (2)
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April 29, 2009

From the clouds to your tap; water isn't free

It may start free, but almost as soon as the rain hits the ground, it begins to cost money. The Baltimore Department of Public Works has to capture that water, protect its purity, process it, ship it to your spigot and send the sewage off for treatment.

The folks in Baltimore who make sure that water reaches the millions of people who rely on it have their hands full, especially when this old city's aging pipes begin to crack, as they have so spectacularly this week.

So maybe this is the perfect time they tried to educate the public about the often invisible work they do. May 3 to 9 is National Drinking Water Week, and the Baltimore DPW had organized a full week of activities designed to showcase the water system that produces what is arguably the tastiest and most reliable - even in drought - municipal water of any big city in the Northeast.Sun Photo/David Hobby 2005

The week kicks off Sunday from 10 to 3 at Loch Raven Reservoir, where you and the kids can learn about where the city's water comes from, and the history of the valleys and the dams and the three reservoirs that now capture and store the city's water. There's also plenty to know about the critical role we all play in making sure the watersheds that feed these reservoirs stay clean - for us and for the wildlife and the fishery that share the land and water with us.

On the 4th, at noon, there will be an event at the Ashburton Water Treatment Plant (3001 Druid Park Drive) that includes dedication of the renovated atrium, and a screening (5:30 p.m. at the Maryland Science Center) of the documentary "Liquid Assets," describing the water and wastewater systems that keep us all healthy and hydrated.

On Friday, May 8, 12:30 to 2:30, the DPW's water and wastewater employees will be honored at an "Employee Appreciation Event at the Haven Street Maintenance Yard, 804 N. Haven St. These are the guys who repair those pipes, getting wet and muddy in sometimes freezing conditions to keep the fluids flowing under the streets.

Finally, on Sunday May 9, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the public is invited to tour the Montebello Water Filtration Plant 1, at 3901 Hillen Road. Learn how our water system operates, and how the mains are repaired, replaced, cleaned and re-lined. 

Sun Photo/Kim HairstonIt's a tough, expensive job, but someone's got to do it. And, of course, someone's also got to pay for it. So when the city asks for a (another) water rate increase (9 percent) later this year, at least you'll know where the money goes. The proposed hike amounts to $74 a year for a typical family of four using 39 units of water each quarter.

The new rates would mean we would pay five cents for a 10-minute shower. The increase would bump Baltimore from the second-cheapest water and sewer rates to fourth, out of seven nearby jurisdictions. The annual costs for a family of four are now the cheapest of seven eastern cities, the city argues. The increase would bump us to second, leap-frogging New York City, but still cheaper than Philadelphia, Washington, Richmond, Boston and Atlanta.

The money is needed, the city argues, in order to rebuild and replace aged water and sewer lines, and to tackle the rising number of main breaks being reported - 5,000 between January 2005 and January 2009 alone. Leaks cost us all 20 percent of all the water the city processes. Work in the queue includes $2.2 billion in capital improvements to the system.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 3:21 PM | | Comments (4)
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March 27, 2009

Lights out Saturday night!

Remember when you could see stars? Have your kids ever seen the Milky Way? For some reason we have, as a society, decided we need to keep the bulbs burning in our stores and offices when they're empty, and illuminate things that don't really need to be seen at night - like tall buildings. Too many of our outdoor lights waste energy lighting up dust in the air and the underside Skyglow/International Dark Sky Associationof the clouds.

That's what causes the skyglow captured in the photo at left, andInternational Dark Sky Association erases the stars. It is costing us billions in wasted energy, contributing to climate change and divorcing us from our heritage in the night sky (right).

For one hour beginning at 8:30 local time Saturday night, from Baltimore's City Hall to the Pyramids of Egypt, the lights will go out in a global expression of concern for our planet.

"Not only does it help reduce carbon emissions, but [it] encourages citizens to reflect on ways they can help save on energy costs and make Baltimore and their environment even greener," said Khalil Zaied, head of Baltimore's Bureau of General Services.

In addition to City Hall, the lights will go out for an hour downtown at the city's Abel Wolman Municipal Building, the MECU Building, the Charles Benton Building, the People's Court, the War Memorial Building and Fire Department Headquarters.

The global event is called Earth Hour, and it's being organized by the World Wildlife Fund. This will be the third year of its observance, and it continues to grow. This year, 2,400 cities in 82 countries are participating, up from 400 cities in 35 countries last year. In addition to Baltimore, U.S. cities taking part include Washington DC, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York City and Nashville, Tenn.

Also going dark for an hour will be the Acropolis in Athens, Rockefeller Center and the Chrysler Building in New York, and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. In London, the bright lights of Piccadilly Circus will go out for an hour, and Marriott Hotels around the world will also switch off their outdoor lights.

Of course, everyone is invited to take part, switching off their porch lights and other unneeded illumination for an hour wherever they are. But one hour of darkness at a relative handful of locations won't be much more than a symbolic vote in favor of more sensible energy use and more rational illumination ordinances.

What the Dark Sky movement has been about for many years has been a campaign to educate the public and their policy makers about the needless waste of energy for illumination, which has the added effect of erasing the night sky by allowing unnecessary light to shine sideways, or up into the sky where it's not needed.

Dark sky advocates agree that some nighttime illumination is needed for safety and security. But they argue that too much of that lighting is badly designed, shining on things that don't need to be illuminated, instead of being concentrated on the things that do.

Wasted light/energyFor example, light from a streetlight that beams into your upstairs bedroom window is not helping anyone see the street (left). That light isGood lighting/International Dark Sky Association wasted and intrusive. Such lights should be aimed and shielded (right) so that the light goes only where it's needed. That would not only prevent light intrusion into your bedroom; the proper engineering of the light fixture would also require less energy, since less light would be needed to do the job. 

In Baltimore County, the owners of Bengies Drive-In Theater argue that unnecessary light intrusion from a neighboring business is causing problems for their movie-going customers. Better lighting design could have avoided the problems and saved money and energy.

Likewise, a spotlight shining onto a billboard from below the sign sends much of its light into space, lighting up the bellies of migrating birds and washing out the night sky. Mount that light on the top of the billboard, and shine it down onto the ad only, and you have a cheaper, more sensible plan.

Many cities have enacted good, strong outdoor lighting ordinances, some with the help of the International Dark Sky Association. What's needed is for more local governments to do the same, and for all those who enforce these ordinances to do their jobs.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:02 AM | | Comments (7)
Categories: Events
        

February 12, 2009

Stiff winds cut power, fuel fire danger

 NOAA

Northwest winds have been gusting to more than 50 mph at BWI-Marshall this morning as that intense low pressure system pulls away toward the Canadian maritime provinces. BGE has reported more than 25,000 customers lost power today as the winds pulled down tree limbs and utility lines. More than half of those outages have already been repaired.

The winds have also contributed to traffic light outages and the partial collapse of a vacant rowhome in Baltimore. Read more here.

The high winds, coupled with low humidities have raised fire hazards across much of the state. Red Flag Warnings are posted across Central and Southern Maryland Maryland:

"A RED FLAG WARNING MEANS THAT CRITICAL FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS
ARE EITHER OCCURRING NOW...OR WILL SHORTLY. A COMBINATION OF
STRONG WINDS...LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY...AND WARM TEMPERATURES WILL
CREATE EXPLOSIVE FIRE GROWTH POTENTIAL."

While these winds have topped 50 mph in several locations across Maryland, there are reports of gusts in excess of 70 mph in West Virginia. They reached 19 mph at The Sun.  Gale warnings and storm warnings are up over the northern Chesapeake bay and Maryland's offshore waters.

Jim Studnicki photoI spent part of the night listening to the wind howling, and wondering whether the three bags of paper recycling I put on the curb last night would have blown off and papered the neighborhood by daybreak. No one else had put anything out for pickup this morning, and I began worrying that they had seen the windy forecast and decided, prudently, to wait until morning to take out the recycling. I could see the headline in the community newsletter: "Weather guy ignores own forecast, plasters neighborhood with newspapers." I imagined myself spending the morning collecting my own windblown trash.

Fortunately, the bags appear to have held together. Whew! Anybody else have wind stories today?

Jim Studnicki sent in this message, and a photo of the doomed poplar hanging over his house:

"Hi Frank: Out here in Towson off Providence Road, we’ve had a large tulip poplar fall and get caught by another one about 80’ off the ground and about 15’ from the corner of our house!  We’re hoping it stays up until our “tree guy” can come out later this afternoon to size up the situation. -- Jim"

 

 
Posted by Frank Roylance at 8:44 AM | | Comments (3)
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February 7, 2009

Baltimore haze blamed on Southeast fires

NOAA/UMBC Smog Blog

It was an unseasonably mild and sunny Saturday in Baltimore. But the view was marred by an unusual pale, smokey haze across the region (below, from CAMNET). Air quality observers at the University of Maryland Baltimore County have been tracking the smoke, and they say it has originated in numerous wildfires (yellow flames on the map above) burning in the southeastern part of the United States, and blown our way on southwest winds. 

Here's more from the UMBC "Smog Blog." So far, the air quality readings for Baltimore have remained "moderate," according to the Maryland Department of the Environment.

www.hazecam.net/CAMNET

Posted by Frank Roylance at 9:47 PM | | Comments (1)
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February 3, 2009

Small quake rattles North Jersey

USGSA small earthquake rattled part of northern New Jersey late last night. The tremor was centered in Morris County, 30 miles west of Manhattan and just southwest of downtown Morristown, near the community of Victory Gardens. No injuries were reported.

The magnitude was rated at 3.0 and a depth of about 3 miles.

Residents described the event as a loud "booming," or an underground explosion. Here is a New York Times report on the event, which occurred at 10:34 p.m. EST.

Here's more on the history of earthquakes in New Jersey.

 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:51 AM | | Comments (0)
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January 29, 2009

Schools close in ice or snow. So what else is new?

So how tired are we of hearing this from people who move here from snow country? "Schools are closed? Because of some ice?"

I know. I moved here from Massachusetts. I said it myself. But after living here for 29 years, it does get tiresome coming from new arrivals. Here's how the Associated Press covered the latest exclamations from a new arrival:

 Sun Photo/Doug Kapustin   President Barack Obama, steeled by many snowy Chicago winters, expressed disbelief Wednesday when his daughters woke up to find that their classes had been canceled for the day.
    Schools in Washington and the surrounding suburbs either opened late or scrapped all their classes because of icy conditions.
    “Can I make a comment that is unrelated to the economy very quickly?” the new president told reporters at a gathering with business leaders. “And it has to do with Washington. My children's school was canceled today. Because of, what? Some ice?”
    The president said he wasn't the only one who was incredulous.
    “As my children pointed out, in Chicago, school is never canceled,” Obama said to laughter. “In fact, my 7-year-old pointed out that you'd go outside for recess. You wouldn't even stay indoors. So, I don't know. We're going to have to try to apply some flinty Chicago toughness.”
    Asked if he meant the people of the national's capital are wimps, Obama said: “I'm saying, when it comes to the weather, folks in Washington don't seem to be able to handle things.”
    Obama's daughters attend the private Sidwell Friends School.
    Malia, 10, is a fifth-grader at the middle school campus in the District of Columbia, while younger sister Sasha is in second grade at the elementary school in Bethesda, Md., just outside Washington.

It's just the way it is, kids. We close because we can. Snow and ice don't happen much here. It's safer. And it's fun to get an unexpected holiday and spend it sledding, or sleeping, or just catching up. Go with it. Enjoy. 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 7:00 AM | | Comments (5)
Categories: Events
        

December 9, 2008

Weather Channel launches "Top Ten" series

Sun Photo/Lloyd FoxMy daughter used to be addicted to The Weather Channel. She switched it on as she was getting dressed, and fell under the spell of the goofy background music they play during the "Local on the 8's" segment. (An odd child... Me, I'm partial to the AccuWeather bloopers page.)

Okay, so TWC production values are a little sketchy, but when bad weather threatens, it's good to dial them up. 

This week, TWC is airing its "Top Ten Weather Events of 2008" series. They're not saying in advance exactly what they are. They want you to watch, of course. But the first - No. 10 on their list - aired last night. It was the March 14 tornado that struck downtown Atlanta. (The rest will air during the 7-8 p.m. and 8-9 p.m. hours, weeknights through the 19th.)

You know Hurricane Ike, the one that cleared parts of the Texas coast near Galveston, killed dozens and caused billions in damage a couple of months back, will be a contender (if not a shoo-in) for No. 1. TWC meteorologist Mike Bettes has his own list, which looks like a reasonable one for 2008.

How about an All-time Top Ten Weather Events list for Maryland? Here's a start, right off the top of my head. Feel free to rearrange them, or submit your own favorites.

1. Tropical Storm Agnes June 1972Sun Photo/John Makely (for sheer destructive power and lasting impact, here and elsewhere).

2. Blizzard of February 2003 (right) (For beauty, civic disruption and inspiring community spirit).

3. Tropical Storm Isabel September 2003 (For damage, surprise and surreal images).

4. Hurricane Hazel 1954 (Much like Isabel).

5. Great Hurricane of 1933 (the one that cut the inlet at Ocean City and changed everything for the resort).

6. Drought of 2001-2002 (For duration, crop losses, mandatory water restrictions).

7. The Knickerbocker Storm, January 1922 (98 fatalities in theater collapse in DC).

8. Heat wave, August 1918 (For 100+ days and sheer misery pre-air conditioning).

9. Ice storms of January-February 1994 (For the icy misery that wouldn't stop).

10. La Plata tornado, April 2002 (Top photo; for power, speed and staggering destruction).

Posted by Frank Roylance at 3:51 PM | | Comments (7)
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October 28, 2008

“Surprise” nor’easter wets the state

If you were surprised by the overnight rain and the cold, damp morning you found on your doorstep today, you were not alone. I had this in my inbox this morning:

"Frank, I enjoy reading your blog. How could the forecasters have totally missed this storm we're in the middle of. I live on the eastern shore and it's been raining since Monday afternoon!! As of Sunday night, the forecast called for no rain on Monday or Tuesday. How could they have been so wrong on this one??" -David

Indeed, Salisbury has had 0.3 inch since dinner time last night. We’ve had more than that here on the Western Shore. Here are some other measurements from around the state.

I still have yesterday morning’s forecast on my desk. Updated at 10:19 a.m., it called for "mostly cloudy" skies overnight and today (Tuesday), with a "slight chance of showers" Tuesday night.

Instead, we had 0.4 inch of rain in the gauge out on the WeatherDeck this morning, and nearly that much here at The Sun. BWI-Marshall reported 0.43 inch.

So what happened? I called Brian LaSorsa, a forecaster out at the NWS office in Sterling. He said the Sterling forecasts began to reflect the approaching rain late in the day yesterday. The problem was this:

As cold air pushed south through the region yesterday, a wave of low pressure began to form along the front and rapidly intensified off the coast. The counterclockwise flow of air around the low began to sweep cool, moist air off the Atlantic, triggering the rain overnight. And this morning's dank chill.

The intensifying low wasn’t a surprise, LaSorsa said. But "it was originally expected to be further offshore ... The track has been a little further west, and that allowed for the rain to come back further south and west into our area."

Here’s AccuWeather.com on the topic. Here's the pretty cool radar loop.

AccuWeather.comAs the coastal "nor’easter" heads north into New England, it will draw cold air and strong north winds our way. Wet snow is expected along a corridor from Quebec, to eastern New York State and northeastern Pennsylvania. AccuWeather.com is forecasting as much as a foot of snow in part of the Adirondack mountains in Upstate New York. Blizzard conditions are possible in the Poconos, Adirondacks, and the Green and White Mountains of New England as winds reach 60 mph amid wind-AccuWeather.comswept rain and snow.

There is a wind advisory in effect for our area through late tonight. Winds gusting as high as 41 mph will be out of the north. That will blow a lot of water out of the bay, pushing low tides 1 to 2 feet below forecast levels.

There will be chances for more rain and even snow showers tonight and tomorrow. It will be too warm at the surface for any accumulations here, but cold air aloft could produce enough flakes to be noticed.

Farther west, in Garrett and western Allegany counties, they’re looking at real snow - a Winter Weather Advisory calls for 1 to 2 inches of accumulation today and another 1 to 3 inches by tomorrow.

Check out this forecast. Ho-hum snow for those mountain folks.

Once all this gets past, by late tomorrow, we can look forward to milder weather. High pressure arrives with sunshine for Thursday and Friday, and temperatures will rise back into the 60s.

 

WeatherBlog readers: Exasperated by how long it takes your comments to process? I feel your pain. The blog platform The Sun uses is very slow, and frequently breaks down on this end, too. It was down all morning today. We are in the process of replacing it with one that actually works. We hope.

I’m told that all Sun blogs will begin migrating to a new system around Nov. 15. The only difference we should notice is that things will happen faster. (Although your comments will still have to be noticed, read, approved and posted by us. That is, me. We have no 24/7 decency police.) Thanks for your patience.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:36 PM | | Comments (1)
Categories: Events
        

October 22, 2008

A report on NWS Sterling open house

Shaun Bell photo, used with permissionThe Sterling, Va. forecast office of the National Weather Service - the place that generates the official weather forecasts for all of Central Maryland - from Allegany County to the bay - held an Open House this past weekend.

I didn't make it out there, but Laryssa Wirstiuk, who edits Too Shy to Stop, an online arts and culture magazine for young people, did.

She stopped by with a photographer, Shaun Bell. They seem to have had a good time, while learning quite a lot.

Here's her report.

 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 2:13 PM | | Comments (0)
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September 30, 2008

So how will you spend that $170 BGE credit?

That was sweet! I got my BGE bill this week and found a balance due of exactly zero dollars. It was the bill that reflected the one-time credit of $170 from the gas and electric company, the sum worked out as part of a $2 billion settlement of a lawsuit between the utility and state.

So, at least in theory, I should have an extra $170 in my household budget this month to spend on something else. Heck, the bill tells me I still have another $28 coming as a credit in next month's bill. But what to spend it on?

I could send it to my bank, and ask them to put it toward my car loan, or the home equity loan, or my credit card balance. They may be the last loans I can ever get. And it might save me a little bit of interest. Or, I could hang onto the $170, and put a sticky note on it saying: "For BGE gas cost increase" which the company says will cost me something like $110 more this winter.

But forecasters say the coming winter looks pretty mild for most of the country. So, maybe I won't need the extra cash for heat.

There is the banking crisis, of course. Maybe I should put  $1 in the cup of each of the next 170 bankers I encounter selling pencils on the sidewalk. Maybe that will help them get back on their feet.

Hey, maybe I should invest the money in my 401K. If history is any guide, it should be worth, oh, $17 by the time I'm ready to retire. Or, by tomorrow. Whichever comes first.

Hmmm. On second thought, maybe 10 cases of Oktoberfest would be a better investment in my future happiness AND my mid-winter warmth. Yeah. That's the ticket.

What are your plans for your $170 BGE credit? Drop us a comment. Let it all out. You'll feel better. I know I do.  

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:25 AM | | Comments (4)
Categories: Events
        

September 22, 2008

A sunny welcome to Autumn

NOAA

These are the final, sweet, sunny moments of the Summer of '08. At 11:44 a.m. EDT today we welcome the Fall Equinox and the official start of Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere as the sun appears to cross the equator into the southern sky in its inexorable slide toward the next Solstice on Dec. 21.

The long-term forecast for the Fall season calls for temperatures and precipitation in our section of the country for the next three months to be near the 30-year averages. The Winter forecast, from December through February, anticipates near-normal precipitation in Maryland, with some chance for milder-than-normal temperatures. A big snowstorm is always a possibility, of course, but the averages would appear to be working against it. I suspect this winter will look more like last winter - very little snow and mild temperatures.

More immediately, we're looking at more delightful late-summer/early-fall weather as we head into the new work week. That's us in the sunshine in the satellite photo above, with clouds from the low off to our south and east. Here's how it looks in the satellite loop.

Forecasters at Sterling are expecting mostly sunny skies through Thursday, with highs in the 70s and lows in the sleep-friendly 50s as yet another cold front sweeps through today with more cool, dry air and high pressure.

Low pressure circulating off the Carolina coast later in the week will likely bring northeast winds and wet weather to the Chesapeake by Thursday or Friday. Models disagree over exactly how the event will play out. Confusing the issue is the tropical weather developing over the northern Leeward Islands, and how it will impact weather over the Southeastern U.S.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:28 AM | | Comments (0)
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August 14, 2008

Localized downpour swamps Lutherville area

Reports are now trickling in from the torrential but extremely localized rain that fell yesterday afternoon in the Towson, Lutherville, Timonium area. One official NWS spotter in Towson reported 3.6 inches of rain in an hour.

The amateur CoCoRaHS network reported very little rain across the state yesterday. But what fell was significant and very narrowly focused. The high readings:

Cockeysville:  .85 inch

Jacksonville:  0.67 inch

Long Green:  0.54 inch

Towson:  0.47 inch

We clocked 0.12 inch on the WeatherDeck in Cockeysville. Here at Calvert & Centre streets, we saw nothing. BWI saw nothing. The National Weather Service in Sterling has posted its Cooperative Observer measurements for yesterday. They have no observers in the Baltimore area, but do show some very heavy, very localized accumulations in Virginia and West Virginia.

But much more impressive than the numbers have been the eyewitness reports I've been receiving, like this:

"Dear Mr. Roylance,

On Wednesday evening (August 13th) 99% of the Baltimore area was rain-free. The exception was the Towson-Carney-Parkville area where a compact - but persistent - thundershower parked (or "trained") over the area for 2-3 hours. There was wave after wave of torrential rain and gusty winds. Busy intersections were awash and there was considerable tree damage - especially in the area of Goucher Boulevard and Joppa Road. Several times the skies brightened and it appeared the storm was moving out of the area but it drifted back as strong as ever. My question - what atmospheric conditions can cause an isolated storm to behave that way? Thanks! - Ted Lingelbach, Parkville"

You can read some other rain reports in the reader comments I posted here late yesterday. Here's a private station in Towson with more than an inch. And here's one in Timonium with nearly 4 inches in the can.

I called Brandon Peloquin, a NWS meteorologist at Sterling. He said the problem yesterday afternoon was the lack of wind to push the thunderstorms along. So, with plenty of moisture in the atmosphere, and strong sunshine to heat it up, convection began to carry the warm, moist air high into the atmosphere, where it cooled, condensed, and began to rain out.

"It was very persistent and localized - one storm that just sat there and did not move," he said. "The flow in the atmosphere was very weak, and storms that didn't have any wind to push them along." After one storm peters out, "something redevelops right over the top of what was there before."

One NWS spotter in Towson reported 3.6 inches of rain, Peloquin said. The weather service did issue a flash flood warning for an area east of Towson because of the heavy rain. Some basements were reportedly flooded, but there were no official reports of street flooding or damage. Only a few miles in any direction, it was "an entirely different ballgame." Streets were dry, or nearly so.

"It will be different today," he promised. Although showers and thunderstorms are in the forecast, but there will be "more push" to the atmosphere. Storms may be locally heavy, but they will be moving toward the east and should not persist as long in one place.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 9:43 AM | | Comments (0)
Categories: Events
        

June 26, 2008

Blogger sucked into wedding wormhole

Your WeatherBlogger, who has been circling the event horizon for days, has finally been pulled into the Wedding Wormhole. Scientists, citing Alfred Einstein's Especially General Theory of NASARelatives, say no information can pass into or out of the event horizon.

Theorists say the blogger can be expected to be eclipsed by the glare of his daughter's happiness, emerging again on the other side no sooner than July 2. Unfortunately, his wallet will be crushed into an infinitely small singularity with zero mass.

Watch this space for further developments. 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 6:17 AM | | Comments (1)
Categories: Events
        

June 20, 2008

Summer solstice tonight

Summer arrives at 7:59 this evening. (Misled by a typo on a reference book we use, we mistakenly said on the print weather page last week that the solstice arrived on the 19th. Just a reminder that humans produce this stuff.)

We have visitors from Sweden with us this week. For them, tonight is the night to celebrate Midsummer's Night and dance around a pole with candles in their hair. Or something. That's MID-summer's Night. Not BEGIN-summer's Night.

They conceded to us that they, too have been confused about why summer BEGINS on the date called MID summer, when the sun is in the sky longer than any other. And where they're from, it never does get truly dark at night at this time of year. 

We were visiting them one summer many years ago in Sweden, and we all went to dinner at the home of some friends. We drank. We ate. We talked alot. And each time I looked out the window it was dimmer, but still light. My wife and I, accustomed to summers living around a latitude of 40 degrees or so, figured it was, maybe, 9 p.m.

When we finally looked at the clock we were astonished to discover it was past midnight! We were dining at around 57 or 58 degrees north latitude, the equivalent of Churchill, Manitoba, on Hudson's Bay. The sun was down - we weren't above the Arctic Circle. But it was still twilight. I could have read a book without a flashlight.

ShakespeareAnyway, the idea that summer BEGINS around June 20 or 21 is a recent notion. Many of our ancestors did indeed see this as MID-summer. They used "cross-quarter days" - the midway points between the equinoxes and the solstices - to mark the beginning and end of the seasons. For example, by the Celts' reckoning, our summer began somewhere between the 4th and 10th of May, on a day they called Beltane. And it will end between the 3rd and 10th of August, on Lughnasadh.

Some also find it curious that the hottest days in Maryland - the warmest long-term daily average temperatures - are in mid-July, a month after the solstice. If the days are longest, and the sun is highest, and its rays most direct and intense around the 20th of June, why does this month not also produce our highest average temperatures?

The answer lies in the oceans. Literally. It just takes a few weeks for the increased solar energy falling on the Northern Hemisphere to heat the oceans to their maximum seasonal highs. That, in turn, delays heating of the atmosphere. It's like heating a pot of water on the stove. It takes a while on HI to get the water to boil. By the time temps reach their peak, the incoming solar energy is waning, and by late July, the oceans and air finally begin to cool again.

Anyway, enjoy the long day today. From here on until Dec. 21, the days only get shorter. And don't forget to get a look at the solstice moon tonight. It rises at 10:24 p.m. in Baltimore. It's just past full, but still a gorgeous sight in the east.  

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:03 AM | | Comments (2)
Categories: Events
        

June 18, 2008

Chilly morning wasn't a record

Another chilly June morning, blessed by the silence of idle air conditioners.

It was 52 degrees at dawn on the WeatherDeck in Cockeysville, and 52 degrees also at Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport down in Linthicum. That was not a record for the city's official weather station, but it was a nice run at one. The record low for a June 18 in Baltimore is 48 degrees, set back in 1959. We still haven't touched 80 today - only the third day this month that's happened. It was 62 this morning at The Sun's weather station at Calvert & Centre streets.

The forecast low for tonight is 57 degrees, as temperatures begin to warm back toward more seasonable readings this week.

All this cool air is being delivered by a big low rotating north of Lake Ontario. That's dragging cool air in from the north and west, along with little disturbances that, with some solar heating, may trigger some showers or thunderstorms - a few perhaps with hail - as they roll by us. 

So far, however, the coast is clear. Just some cumulus clouds and patches of blue, clearly visible in the satellite image below.

They're calling for more of the same Thursday and Friday, with a risk of showers both days, and highs near 80 degrees. Saturday looks perfect for a wedding - sunny and 83 - but showers and thunderstorms become a risk again for Sunday.

NOAA

Posted by Frank Roylance at 1:56 PM | | Comments (0)
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May 7, 2008

Volcanic smog sickens Hawaiians

Formosat-2 - Taiwan National Space Organization 

In Los Angeles, the choking smog comes from the tailpipes of cars and trucks. On the Big Island of Hawaii, it comes from the mouth of the Kilauea volcano, and they call it "vog" (volcanic smog).

Sulfur dioxide gas from the volcano has been wafting across the island for weeks, forcing the closure of portions of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. It has also begun to sicken residents of the island, who are reporting coughing, choking symptoms. They are also seeing casualties in their gardens.

Here's a satellite view measuring concentrations of sulfur dioxide emissions. Each little square pixel represents a volume about 13 kilometers square, rising 5 kilometers above the surface. Red incidates a concentration of 30 metric tons of sulfur dioxide inside that little volume, or 845 cubic kilometers. 

NASA Aura Earth Observing Satellite

Here's another view, in visible wavelengths shot from space, showing the sulfur dioxide "vog" plumes blowing across the island and out to sea.

 NASA Terra Earth Observing Satellite

Posted by Frank Roylance at 5:26 PM | | Comments (0)
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April 18, 2008

Illinois quake details

USGS 

This morning's Mag. 5.4 earthquake in Illinois occurred in an area with a history of small tremors - and some big ones - going back to the early 1800s.

Here's a link to the U.S. Geological Survey report on today's quake. And here's one to a description of the local geology and the history of tremors in the region.

Although we don't think of the middle of the country as being earthquake-prone, there have been some very powerful quakes in the region, centered mostly on the New Madrid, Mo., area. Historical accounts of New Madrid quakes in the early 19th century are quite astonishing. They were felt as far away as New England.

Here's what the USGS says about the area: "Moderately damaging earthquakes strike somewhere in the region each decade or two, and smaller earthquakes are felt about once or twice a year. In addition, geologists have found evidence of eight or more prehistoric earthquakes over the last 25,000 years that were much larger than any observed historically in the region."

Emergency managers in Memphis and other communities in the area have recently begun to take the threat very seriously, and there has been a great deal of planning, and quake-proofing work in recent years to protect key Mississippi River crossings and gas and oil pipelines.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 8:35 AM | | Comments (2)
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March 19, 2008

A half-inch of rain already; more to come

The rain gauge here at Calvert & Centre streets has already clocked in nearly a half-inch of rain at this writing. BWI has seen nearly as much. This is just the start of a rainy, and possibly stormy night tonight ahead of a cold front.

The same weather system has caused heavy rains, flooding and 10 deaths in the Midwest. Some spots have recorded 10 inches of rain or more. Here's more on that, plus some video.

We won't likely see anything close to that.  But forecasters out at Sterling are calling for up to another half-inch tonight before the front goes by, winds shift, and cooler, drier air pushes in from the west. Here's the radar loop.

Here's why we're so socked in:

NOAA

 

 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 5:48 PM | | Comments (0)
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March 11, 2008

Dangerous water on the Potomac

Great Falls of the Potomac - National Park Service

Runoff from heavy rain and snow melt are not a problem just on the Susquehanna this week. The Maryland Natural Resources Police have issued an advisory, warning against most recreational uses of the Upper Potomac River, through Friday.

Based on data from the National Weather Service and the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, the DNR said hazardous river levels persist this week on the Upper Potomac all the way from Cumberland, in Allegany County, to Little Falls, in Montgomery County. Here's a look at data from Point of Rocks.

Wading fishermen, swimmers (in March!?) and anyone venturing onto the river in non-whitewater boats or tubes runs a risk of life-threatening hypothermia, wave action, high-velocity or treacherous currents, the DNR police said.

These hazardous conditions exist along the Potomac itself, as well as on adjacent rivers and creeks.

The advisory does not apply to "professionally guided river trips," or "teams of experienced whitewater paddlers," the police said. All the same, be careful out there. We don't need to be writing any search and rescue stories.

For river condition updates, call 703 260-0305.

Continue reading "Dangerous water on the Potomac" »

Posted by Frank Roylance at 3:52 PM | | Comments (0)
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March 5, 2008

Spring peepers are, well, peeping

Pseudacris crucifer  

Okay, as far as I'm concerned, it's spring. As I walked from my car to my front door last night, I heard the first spring peepers calling from the soggy flood plain of Western Run in Cockeysville.

These tiny frogs are a sure sign that winter is on the run, and froggy love is in the air. It also tells me that the wetlands along the river remain healthy enough for the frogs, turtles, fish, deer and occasional beaver I've seen down there. It's a miracle, frankly, with all the development in Hunt Valley, with more to come. The Brightview folks are planning a new assisted living facility on the rise above the peepers' love nest. Baltimore County zoning hearings on the proposal are coming up.

In the meantime, if you haven't heard the peepers, or just love their jingle-bell calls, here's a Web site that offers a sound file. It's very cool.

 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:55 AM | | Comments (2)
Categories: Events
        

Storms topple trees, wires, structures

Sun photo by Kim Hairston

Utility crews work to repair wind damage at Ritchie Highway and Wellham Avenue this morning. Sun photo by Kim Hairston.

Last night's storms knocked down a surprising number of trees, utility poles and wires across the region overnight as they heralded the passage of a new cold front and the end to our balmy weather. They also collapsed a barn roof and a garage in Frederick County. Here's a summary of damage reports.

The damage also caused some traffic disruptions this morning.

Heavy downpours produced some minor flooding west of the urban centers. Flood Warnings are posted from Frederick County west to Allegany County. Parts of the Potomac River, the Monocacy and the Conococheague were expected to crest above flood stage in the next few days. Here's the full list of Flood Warnings.

The rain left 0.4 inch in the gauge at BWI, and 0.45 here at Calvert & Centre streets. Winds at the paper gusted as high as 30 mph overnight, and 35 mph out at the airport. As much as 2 inches fell in other parts of the state. Here's a rainfall map. Here are some other readings across the region.

Continue reading "Storms topple trees, wires, structures" »

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:47 AM | | Comments (0)
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February 19, 2008

Greece buried in snow

AP PhotoFirst it was Iraq, then Iran. Now Athens, Greece is grappling with unfamiliar depths of snow in this very odd winter in the Old World. Up to three feet have fallen on communities woefully ill-equipped to deal with the stuff. Yet there it is. Here's CNN's report. Here's more.
Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:54 PM | | Comments (0)
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February 14, 2008

Get involved in the weather

Tired of being just a passive victim of the weather? Well, you can take an active role in observing the weather, and make a real contribution to science in the bargain. Get involved with CoCoRaHS, an organization of volunteers dedicated to recording and reporting on precipitation across the United States.

The group, the Community Collaborative Rain Hail and Snow Network, is looking to expand, and they're meeting Friday, at noon, at the NOAA offices in Silver Spring to spread the word. Here's their release: 

On Friday, February 15, 2008, Henry Reges and Nolan Doesken of Colorado State will present "CoCoRaHS http://www.cocorahs.org, the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network."

Abstract: What do meteorologists, hydrologists, farmers, emergency managers, newspaper reporters, golfers and baseball players have in common? They all keep track of precipitation! Precipitation is one of the most important of all climate elements for daily life. Yet, precipitation varies tremendously from place to place and from month to month and year to year. These variations have widespread impacts. This seminar will describe a project where people of all ages, using very simple and low cost instruments, are helping scientists study storms and precipitation patterns. Volunteers provide valuable data for NOAA applications while learning directly about climate processes, impacts and research. Methods for measuring rain, hail and snow will be demonstrated, and CoCoRaHS results will be shown including precipitation patterns from recent storms.

The seminar will be held at 12 noon in the NOAA Central Library, 1315 East-West Highway, SSMC3, 2nd Floor, Silver Spring, MD 20910

Henry Reges is the National Coordinator for CoCoRaHS at Colorado State University. He was formerly with the American Meteorological Society in Boston, MA. Nolan Doesken is the State Climatologist for Colorado and has worked for the Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University since 1977. He initiated the CoCoRaHS project after an extremely localized storm in 1997 dropped over 14 inches (350 mm) of rain near his home but was not well detected by existing observing systems. Nolan Doesken has worked closely with National Weather Service headquarters on several snow measurement projects.

 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 2:03 PM | | Comments (0)
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February 12, 2008

Afternoon shaking was not a quake

Many residents of northeastern Maryland felt a series of tremors this afternoon, and Joe MulQueen figured the shaking his house took must have been an earthquake. "It sounded like an explosion, but the entire house shook," he said.

But area seismographs were quiet. The shakes were the result of explosions at the U.S. Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground. Base spokesman George Mercer said the blasts included three "static detonations" at the facility's Edgewood Area. "And they were loud," he said.

Aberdeen Proving Ground areaA temperature inversion - a layer of warm air atop a layer of cold air at the surface - caused the sonic energy to reflect back to the ground rather than dissipate into the sky above. That just made matters worse, he said.

The noise and shaking was heard and felt from Perry Hall to Middletown Del. Mercer took 30 calls from concerned citizens. About 20 of them were complaints, the rest just expressions of concern and curiosity. 

There is more on the incident at Baltimoresun.com and there will be an article in Wednesday's print editions. Break a buck and buy one. Our kids gotta eat, too.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 5:49 PM | | Comments (1)
Categories: Events
        

February 11, 2008

Ice could follow cold, high winds

Cold wind straight out of arctic Canada raked the region yesterday, toppling trees, snapping power lines and launching tons of leaves, branches and trash into the air. It also threatened to shove small cars and empty trailers off the highway. I know. I was in one of them. (A small car, that is.)

Here's a long, but by no means complete list of wind-related incidents across the region. And here's the latest accounting of power outages that BGE crews are scrambling to repair.

Temperatures at BWI dropped to a low of 13 degrees just before dawn this morning. It was the second-coldest morning of the season, after the 8-degree low on Jan. 21. (December's low reading was 14 degrees, on the 7th.

It was 11 degrees out on the WeatherDeck in Cockeysville when I got up. That was the night's low. Here are some other readings from across the state.

Ordinarily,  an outbreak of arctic air like this, in the middle of February, would be a setup for a big snowstorm. The cold air is dense, and heavy, and difficult to dislodge. The first coastal storm that runs into it should drop 10 or 20 inches of snow on our heads.

But alas, this cold doesn't seem destined to last. And, while there is a storm headed this way for tomorrow and Wednesday, it's coming from the Ohio valley, so it is likely to affect us mainly with rain. After a cold day today, stuck in the low 30s, we're headed for the 40s for the rest of the week. Here's the Hazardous Weather Outlook for this area. Here's how AccuWeather.com's Elliot Abrams maps out the precipitation:

AccuWeather.com

I say mainly rain because forecasters at Sterling are hedging a bit. The computer models are having some trouble with the strength and timing of the storm system, and exactly when the cold air we're in now will be forced out.

Hence, the morning's discussion says stuff like this (my edits, for clarity, in parentheses):

"Assuming it (storm) comes Tuesday morning-midday (forecast area) will be recovering from a cold start ... So initial precipitation most likely to be snow" (before warm air erodes and it all changes to rain)."

"Am somewhat concerned about northern tier of (counties in Maryland, W.Va. and Virginia) ... Setup hinting that cold air may hang on longer than (forecast) ... There could be a period of freezing rain, maybe for several hours. Maybe for the entire afternoon into evening. From this perspective, don't think we will be able to avoid a headline with this event, especially (Cumberland-Hagerstown)."

The forecast also mentions  a "chance" of more snow or rain Saturday night, the 5th anniversary of the start of the biggest snowstorm on record for Baltimore, back in 2003.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:35 AM | | Comments (0)
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February 7, 2008

Deadly front has little impact here

The spring-like cold front that triggered dozens of deadly tornadoes across the South crossed Maryland late yesterday without much fuss. Baltimore-Washington International Airport saw winds of 26 mph, with gusts to 40 mph around 11 p.m. as the weather boundary passed.

The Sun's anemometer, somewhat sheltered by buildings, spiked to 25 mph around midnight. But there was none of the predicted heavy rain.

We had two hundredths of an inch of rain here at Calvert & Centre streets. It rained very hard for a brief time out on the WeatherDeck in Cockeysville. But when it ended we had just five hundredths of an inch in the gauge.

Reagan National Airport in Washington collected 0.14 inch of rain, but Dulles, out in northern Virginia, had none. Hagerstown reported 0.31 inch, the most I could find in the immediate area. The Inner Harbor saw just 0.03 inch. Here are some other readings from across the state. McHenry, out in far western Maryland, reported an inch of rain, perhaps the most anywhere in the state. Here's the CoCoRaHS report.

We're still well ahead of the curve for February, thanks to the heavy rain - 1.8 inches - on the 1st. But the long-range picture is still dry. Here's this morning's Drought Monitor Map. We still have not made up the deficits accumulated after April of 2007. The southern counties of the Eastern Shore are hardest-hit.

Streamflow, however, looks much improved. So do some of the USGS groundwater monitoring wells. Here's one near Granite, in Baltimore County.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:49 AM | | Comments (0)
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January 3, 2008

Weather Channel for sale?

A story on Forbes.com (via the AP, from the New York Times) says that the hugely popular Weather Channel may be for sale as part of a family-owned group of media properties now on the block. Here's the scoop.

Weather ChannelOwned by Landmark Communications, Inc., in Norfolk, the WC Web site alone had 32 million unique visitors in November, the story says. It's the 19th biggest media site on the Web. One estimate puts the value of the whole WC caboodle - Atlanta-based cable TV channel and Web site - at $5 billion. Who says you can't make money in weather?

Landmark also owns nine daily newspapers, including the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, and a bunch of TV stations.

 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 5:53 PM | | Comments (0)
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November 29, 2007

Mag. 7.3 quake in eastern Caribbean

USGSThe US Geological Survey is reporting a powerful earthquake today off Martinique in the Eastern Caribbean that was initially measured at 7.3 on the Richter scale. It was felt from Caracas, Venezuela to Puerto Rico. Here are some early details from the USGS. 

Here's a BBC report. And here's a report, in Spanish, from Puerto Rico, 400 miles from the quake's center. The shaking on the U.S. island caused some panic, the report says. It was estimated to be equivalent to a quake of magnitude 6.2. 

Looks like it was felt at the quake-sensitive monitoring well at Christianburg, Va., too. The kick can be seen in the sharp spike in water levels at the end of this trace.

Martinique has a fearsome history of quakes and volcanic eruptions. The great eruption of Mt. Pelee in 1902 killed as many as 30,000 people and destroyed the town of St. Pierre. Here's more.

Continue reading "Mag. 7.3 quake in eastern Caribbean" »

Posted by Frank Roylance at 2:52 PM | | Comments (0)
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October 17, 2007

1,000-year-old cedar topples

Western red cedar in Stanley Park -Tourism BC 

It had survived 1,000 years of bad weather. But in the end it was simply old age and rotted roots that brought down the famed giant Western red cedar in Vancouver's Stanley Park. The tree - the largest in the vast park in British Columbia, and perhaps the biggest cedar anywhere - had been featured in a 1978 issue of National Geographic magazine, and it drew thousands of tourists each year.

The magazine article reported the much-photographed tree's circumference at 45 feet back then, and its height at 130 feet. Park officials cut a path through the tree's remains where it had fallen across a path last week. But they plan to leave the rest in place, to support the next generations of forest life.

To read more, and view video reports, click here.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:56 AM | | Comments (0)
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October 16, 2007

Still no rain, but metal drops from the sky

A 16-inch piece of twisted metal rod, reportedly still hot to the touch, fell from the sky in Delaware Monday afternoon and punched through the roof of a (unoccupied) car. The initial word is that it didn't come from an airplane. Space junk remains a possibility. Read on.
Posted by Frank Roylance at 6:12 PM | | Comments (0)
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October 12, 2007

"Arbutus" quake was actually in Lochearn

Site of Monday's tremor - USGS 

Seismologists have now had time to study the seismic data on that little "micro-quake" that tapped Baltimore County at about 8:28 a.m. on Monday. Turns out the tremor was actually centered beneath Lochearn, off Liberty Road just west of Baltimore, and not the southwestern community of Arbutus, near the UMBC campus, as initially reported.

That's not the only revision. (This sort of reassessment and adjustment is normal after a quake as more data is evaluated. These things take time.)

It turns out Monday's event was also a tad stronger than initially stated - a twitchy 1.5 on the Richter scale, rather than 1.3.  That's not inconsiderable, but also not a lot, at a difference of two-tenths of a Richter number. Each whole-number increase in Richter measurement represents a 32-fold increase in the energy released. At 1.5, it's the energy equivalent of 392 pounds of TNT, not unlike a conventional WWII bomb.

And, the Monday tremor occurred deeper under the surface than initially estimated - 5 miles instead of 3 miles.

Finally, because it was less than a 2-pointer on the Richter scale, it was both common - more than 8,000 a day somewhere on the planet - and "unfelt" as geologists rate such things.

Maybe so, but there have been a few people who have reported sensing something of the quake. We got this email from "Cathy:"  "We heard/felt it at our law office in 'downtown' Arbutus. We thought is was either thunder or a big tractor-trailer."

At the Maryland Geological Survey, Jim Reger also told Sun reporter Dennis O'Brien yesterday he had heard from residents of Edmondson Heights, just outside the city line, between US 40 and I-70. Another person living near Lake Montebello, on the other side of Baltimore City, reported feeling or hearing the jolt.

The tremor was also detected by instruments 180 miles away, maintained by the Lamont-Doherty Cooperative Seismographic Network.

There's one other interesting note. Similar micro-quakes have been recorded recently in other parts of the Northeast. There was one, in Hackensack, N.J., measured at 1.3 on the Richter scale, at 8:48 a.m. last Friday. Another, also at Richter 1.3, was recorded 8 miles north of Lawrence, Mass. at 7:15 a.m. on Monday, just 73 minutes before the Lochearn quake.

Curiously, of you look at all three of these spots on a map (three blue dots on the following linked map), they form an almost perfect straight line. But Reger says there's no single fault line that would explain the coincidence.

Once again, if you heard or felt this little tremor, leave a comment here and describe it. Here's more on Maryland quakes.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:30 AM | | Comments (5)
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October 11, 2007

Rainless streak at BWI ends

A tenth of an inch of rain late last night at BWI has ended the long stretch of dry weather there at 24 days. The last time the airport received any measurable precipitation was on Sept. 14-15, when 0.12 inch fell. Twenty-four days is not a record. The longest span of rainless weather on record for Baltimore is 32 days, ending on Halloween 1941.

Only 0.35 inch of rain fell at BWI during all of September. Baltimore has received just 1.1 inch of rain since Aug. 22. There's not much in the forecast - just a "slight" chance of showers tonight, then clear, sunny weather through the middle of next week. 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 7:32 AM | | Comments (0)
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October 8, 2007

Mini-quake taps Arbutus

Maybe it was my mother falling out of bed. The US Geological Survey is reporting a very mild earthquake at 8:28 a.m. today, centered 3 miles below the surface, just a mile west-northwest of Arbutus. The USGS put the epicenter just west of the UMBC campus. Here's the seismic record from the Maryland Geological Survey (red squiggles, right center of the chart.)

The tremor measured 1.3 on the Richter Scale, not even enough to be felt unless you're a seismometer. The last time we registered a quake you could feel was on Feb. 23, 2005. That tremor, centered near Dundalk, registered a whopping 2.1 on the the Richter Scale and was felt, or heard in several spots around the city.

There are thousands of these "micro-quakes" each day around the world. If you did happen to feel, or hear this one, or if your dogs went crazy ... leave us a comment.

Here's the report from the USGS on this event. And here are some links to data on Maryland's earthquake history.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 5:45 PM | | Comments (1)
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September 19, 2007

A TV treat for stargazers tonight

Stargazers! Sure, there's plenty to see in the night sky tonight. But take a break and don't miss "Seeing in the Dark," a beautiful and very mellow PBS exploration of the joys of backyard astronomy. It was written and produced by science writer Timoth Ferris, who wrote the delightful book of the same name, which explored Ferris' own youthful discovery of the night sky.

I got a preview copy of the special, and it's terrific. Accompanied by music from Mark Knopfler and Guy Fletcher, this special is beautifully photographed and paced - like a night out under the stars.

It focuses on amateurs, and the astonishing images and discoveries that have become possible for them thanks to a new generation of (more or less) affordable telescopes, laptop computers and image-processing software. I own a small telescope, and I enjoy poking around among the stars and planets I've learned to identify. I will never own the kind of equipment these folks work with, and I will never get into the hobby as deeply as they have. But I know enough to appreciate their skill and passion. Some are making serious contributions to science.

Mostly, though, I just share their amazement as they gather under a dark sky and marvel at the stars. 

The film airs at 8 p.m. tonight, Wednesday Sept. 19, on PBS, Channels 22 and 26 in Baltimore. Enjoy.

Continue reading "A TV treat for stargazers tonight" »

Posted by Frank Roylance at 2:20 PM | | Comments (1)
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September 13, 2007

Northwest Passage open for business

Arctic ice this week - NSIDC 

The Northwest Passage - a ship route across northern Canada, from the Atlantic to the Pacific - is now ice-free as the 2007 summer meltdown of the Arctic ice cap continues to set new records. Here's the latest report from the National Snow and Ice Data Center. The melting season is about over, and the region will soon begin to ice over again for the winter.

 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 1:01 PM | | Comments (0)
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September 12, 2007

Amazing: Indonesia quake rattles fish tank, Va. well

The power of the Richter 7.9 earthquake today in Indonesia has been captured on a video of a fishtank  500 miles away in Singapore, and in a groundwater monitoring well  9,000 miles away in Christianburg, Va.

Here's more on the quake from the US Geological Survey. And from BaltimoreSun.com

Posted by Frank Roylance at 3:00 PM | | Comments (0)
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September 11, 2007

Wet stuff falls from the sky

Something wet and slippery dripped out of the sky over Maryland late last night and early today. Oldtimers called it rain, the first measureable amounts that have fallen at BWI since Aug. 25, a dry spell of 17 days.

Could this really have been responsible for the terrible traffic backups this morning? Was it really slippery out there because there's been so little rain to wash away the accumulated oils on the road surfaces? Or are we becoming more and more like Los Angelenos, who panic at the sight of rain much as Baltimoreans panic at a whisper of snow? Perhaps...

Anyway, the rain began here at Calvert & Centre streets at about 11:30 last night, according to our rain gauge data. We got a quick 0.2 of an inch, followed by off-and-on drizzle ever since. In all, we've measured just over a quarter-inch (0.27) beside the Sun's executive parking area - the Bigshot Lot.

Out at BWI they've had 0.15 of an inch.

Here's is the rainfall accumulation loop for the event. Here's how the numbers look. Here's a mapped view.

We're still more than an inch short of rain for September. This comes after a very dry summer, with rainfall shortages every month. We haven't had a month with surplus moisture since April, and we're more than 6 inches short for the year. And with a La Nina coming this fall, we're likely to see a continued scarcity of rain for the forseeable future. A brush with a passing tropical storm would be welcome.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:27 AM | | Comments (1)
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August 27, 2007

Greece on fire

Deadly wildfires have killed dozens of people in the southern Peloponnesus region of Greece in recent days. Greek authorities suspect arson on many of the fires. Here's more from CNN, and the BBC. And here is a remarkable satellite image of the fires and smoke.
Posted by Frank Roylance at 9:35 AM | | Comments (0)
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August 16, 2007

Peru quake shakes Va. well

Christianburg, Va. well response

Last night's 8.0 earthquake southeast of Lima, Peru, sent the water level in the USGS groundwater monitoring well near Christianburg, Va. surging. A second, slightly less sensitive well in Augusta County also felt the tremor from 3,400 miles away. Hydrologist David Nelms writes:

"The water level started oscillating about 15 minutes after the quake.  The total oscillation was 0.50 feet and lasted for nearly 3 hours.  The long period of oscillation is mainly due to the magnitude and close proximity of the M7.9 and the numerous M5+ aftershocks.

"The Augusta County well also saw a response.  Again the water level started oscillating about 15 minutes after the quake.  The response in this well is normally more subdued as evidenced by the smaller oscillation of 0.09 feet and shorter period of just over 30 minutes." 

Here's the tracing from the Christianburg well. Here's another view of the well's response. And here's the USGS report on the Peru quake. At this writing, the USGS has reported 14 aftershocks since the initial quake last night. Two of them have been 6.0 quakes or stronger.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:00 AM | | Comments (0)
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August 10, 2007

Indonesian quake rattles Va. well

Wednesday's big (7.5 on the Richter scale) earthquake off the coast of Indonesia near Jakarta sent seismic signals around the globe. When they reached the US Geological Survey's monitoring well near Christianburg, Va., they produced a noticeable fluctuation in water levels in the well.

As incredible as it seems, it's not unusual. The Christianburg well's sensitivity to major seismic events is well-known and long-watched by geologists and hydrologists. The well also shows regular rises and falls in response to the Earth's tidal movements. These are movements in the Earth's crust due to the gravitational pull of the sun and moon. They're the same forces that create ocean tides, except they're seen in the rock. And those movements cause the well water to rise and fall like water in a sponge.

Here is the data on the Indonesian quake, which occured at 1:04 p.m. EDT. And here is how the Christianburg well responded.

This is a longer look at how the well's water level responds to the regular pulse of Earth tides. You can also see that water levels in the well are falling this summer. 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:30 PM | | Comments (0)
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August 9, 2007

Storm cools the air, wets the dust

Temperatures have dropped 29 degrees from where they stood yesterday at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. It was a record-setting 102 degrees at BWI yesterday afternoon. After today's thunderstorm passed by, the thermometer dropped from a high of 93 degrees to 73 between 1 and 2 p.m. Just before 4 p.m., with the sun back out, it has crept back up to 81.

Some locations saw more than an inch of rain, but most had less. Here's a sampling. And here's the cumulative rainfall map for the storm. It was the most rain BWI has seen in one day since July 10.

The rain hasn't ended the drought, but it has helped a bit. Here are some rainfall numbers, and temperature-drop readings for today from around the area:

BWI:  0.43 inch   93 to 73 degrees.

Dulles:  0 rain  96 to 81 degrees.

Reagan National:  0.02 inch  94 to 79 degrees.

Maryland Science Center:  0.31 inch   96 to 77 degrees.

Frederick:  1.17 inches  90 to 70 degrees.

The Sun:  0.21 inch   91 to 77 degrees. 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 3:49 PM | | Comments (0)
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August 7, 2007

Utah mine collapse on seismographs

The mine collapse that has trapped six Utah coal miners a quarter of a mile beneath the surface of the Earth was detected on seismographs in Utah and reported initially as a minor (3.9) earthquake. Here is that early quake report. A University of Utah scientist says there have been about 20 mining-related quakes recorded since 1978.

Shallow quakes in Utah are not unusual. Here's a map of recent tremors.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:28 AM | | Comments (0)
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July 10, 2007

Surprise storm pummels Baltimore

With no more than a few minutes warning, a large thunderstorm popped up southwest of Baltimore shortly after 1 p.m. this afternoon. Heavy rains and hail the size of pennies and pingpong balls dropped on downtown streets and parking lots as the storm tracked north and east. Here's the radar loop.

The storm dropped temperatures at The Sun by 16 degrees - from 94 degrees to 78 degrees in less than 30 minutes.

The storm arrived just  minutes after the National Weather Service issued a "severe storm warning" for Anne Arundel County at 1:25 p.m. That warning was later extended to include the city and Baltimore County.

Rain fell, briefly, at a rate of more than 7 inches an hour at The Sun. In 15 minutes, more than a third of an inch had passed through the rain gauge.

Readers? Let's hear from you. Leave a comment and describe what you're seeing out there.

 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 1:52 PM | | Comments (8)
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July 5, 2007

Twisters menace 4th; more storms today

A report of a tornado touchdown in East Columbia, and a funnel cloud hear Centreville yesterday, prompted authorities to clear the National Mall yesterday afternoon. But there has been no confirmation that any twisters actually touched the ground. Here is a rundown on are storm and damage reports yesterday afternoon, including the reported funnel clouds, lots of hail, some tree and cable damage.

The National Weather Service forecast office in Sterling, Va. has not yet decided whether the reports warrant sending a team out to inspect any damage and verify whether a tornado touched down.

Sun photo - Mauricio RubioThe thunderstorms that swept the Baltimore region last evening dropped widely variable amounts of water. The downpour was torrential, but brief in downtown Baltimore, and the fireworks went off despite a lingering drizzle. Other stations recorded little or no precipitation. Here's The Sun's story on the festivities and the storms.

And here are some rain totals, through midnight, from around the region:

BWI: 0.58 inches

Science Center, Baltimore: 0.86 inches

The Sun: 0.14 inches

Washington National: 0.03 inches

Dulles Int'l: 0.74 inches

Hagerstown: Trace

Martinsburg, W. Va.: 0.02 inches

Recent rains, especially in western Maryland, appear to have eased the dry conditions that have been worsening in recent weeks. The western counties have dropped out of the "moderate drought" category on this week's Drought Monitor maps, although 97 percent of the state is now considered "abnormally dry" - up a tad from last week. The maps reflect conditions on Tuesday of each week, so last night's rain has not yet been taken into account.

There may be more storms, and just plain rain in store for us this afternoon and evening as a cold front approaches and shoves off the coast. Here is the forecast. The threat will vanish by the weekend, and strong sunshine will boost temperatures into the 90s well into next week.

Headed for the beach? Here's the forecast.

 

 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:43 AM | | Comments (0)
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June 29, 2007

Cooler, but scant rain

The promised cold front is upon us, but all the excitement yesterday about an approaching line of thunderstorms - including severe storm watches across the state - appears to have come to very little in terms of severe weather and much-needed rainfall. What has fallen has been spotty at best. We had nothing on the WeatherDeck in Cockeysville until about 8 a.m. today.

The instruments at BWI-Marshall have recorded just 0.17 inch of precipitation from this frontal passage. Our weather station here at Calvert & Centre streets checked in with 0.27 inch. There's still time to wring more moisture from this front. Here's the radar loop.

But here's the rundown as of about 10 a.m.:

BWI:  0.17 inch

The Sun:  0.27

Frederick: 0.07

Martinsburg: 0.02

DC Reagan: 0.04

Dulles Int'l: 0.62

MD Beaches: 0.10

We still need rain. Western Maryland remains in moderate drought, according to the latest Drought Monitor maps. Nearly the entire balance of the state is rated "abnormally dry."

At BWI, we have measured 2.19 inches of rain in June through Thursday. That's the driest June at BWI since 1999, when just 2.04 inches fell. (The average is 3.43 inches.)

We'll likely end the month nearly an inch below the 30-year averages for June. And that follows May's 3-inch deficit. The bottom line is that we are about 4 inches short of normal rainfall since mid-April.

The weather ahead? Looks very pleasant into next week, but not much rain in the cards.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:06 AM | | Comments (0)
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June 26, 2007

Small, isolated T-storm hits NW Baltimore

The National Weather Service has issued flash flood warnings for Baltimore and Baltimore County as a small, stationary thunderstorm dropped heavy amounts of rain at mid-afternoon on northwest portions of the city, Pikesville and adjacent county. The radar estimates suggest more than 2 inches in some very localized spots.

Here's the radar loop. Check out Pikesville rain totals.  This storm is mostly stationary, so it is capable of dumping lots of rain on a small area before it's drained. Ocean City is seeing a very similar storm at this time. See radar loop link above.

 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 2:19 PM | | Comments (1)
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June 21, 2007

Summer Solstice arrives

At 2:11 p.m. EDT this afternoon the sun will reach its northernmost point for the year above the celestial equator - the plane of the Earth's equator extended outward into space. The moment of the Summer Solstice also marks the traditional beginning of summer for the Northern Hemisphere (and winter in the Southern).

In some cultures, of course, today marks not the start of summer, but mid-summer, and tonight is Midsummer's Night, when the sun never sets above the Arctic Circle. And for meteorologists, the statistical summer actually began on June 1, and runs through Aug. 31.

While the sunrises have been getting later since the 15th, our sunsets will continue to creep later in the evening until June 27. The real import of the solstice, however, is that from today onward until Dec. 22, the days will gradually grow shorter, and the nights longer. We have begun the inexorable slide toward winter, and into darkness, and cold.

But what am I saying? Forget about all that. The hottest days of summer still lie ahead, in mid-July on average, thanks to the air and oceans, which are slower to heat up under the high summer sun. The garden is growing and the living is easy. And the solstice is as good an excuse as any to celebrate the sunshine and raise a glass to life and warmth. Skol!

 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:19 AM | | Comments (0)
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June 8, 2007

Hot town, schools stay open

So here we are, at the end of the school year, and temperatures are headed into the 90s this afternoon. Naturally, that has the kids talking on the playground. "Will they close schools early today because of the heat?"

Fay Chen writes from Baltimore County: "The playground gossip states that there's a formula the schools to use to determine whether or not to close for heat. Some say if it's 80 degrees by 10 a.m., or 90 degrees by 11 a.m. the decision is made automatically. I've searched Baltimore County's website though, and can't find a reference to an official determination schedule. Do you know if one exists, or is it just a myth? Thank you!"

The gossip is half right. Baltimore CITY schools have a policy that states they will close schools two and a half hours early on days when the heat INDEX reaches 90 degrees at the Inner Harbor by 11 a.m. In the COUNTY, however, there is no such policy. School officials there take hot days on a case-by-case basis, taking the duration of the hot spell and the conditions of the schools into consideration.

At 11 a.m. this morning, the temperature at the Inner Harbor was 92 degrees, with a dewpoint of 68. That made the heat index 98 degrees. But city school officials nevertheless decided not to close. Schools spokeswoman Edie House said the facilities folks calculated the heat index at 87 degrees. She had no information on how they reached that number. Sorry kids.

By 1 p.m., the temperature at the Inner Harbor was 95 degrees, with a dewpoint of 71 degrees. That made the heat Index 104 degrees. Twelve city schools have closed today due to power outages, according to their website.

Usually, school buildings don't heat up to unbearable temperatures until the warm weather has persisted for several days. This looks like a one-day heat wave. 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 1:21 PM | | Comments (2)
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May 22, 2007

Atlantans choke on smoke

Those fires in southeast Georgia and northern Florida are still generating a pall of smoke across the Southeast, and the plume finally reached Atlanta this morning. It blocked the sun and filled the air with the acrid smell of burning brush. Here's a look at what it was like

Blame the high-pressure system that is bringing us our fine spring weather this week. The clockwise circulation around the high swept up the smoke and blew it northwest to Atlanta. It's dissipated some since this morning, but it's still looking a bit hazy down there. Here's the weather cam. The plume is still visible from orbit, too. Here's how it looked Tuesday from NASA's Terra Earth-observing satellite.  

Posted by Frank Roylance at 5:22 PM | | Comments (0)
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May 16, 2007

Quick hit

The front has gone by, but not before dropping temperatures here at Calvert & Centre streets by 12 degrees in about 15 minutes - between 4:30 and 5 p.m. We recorded .34 inch of rain, most of it between 4:30 and 5.  Winds peaked at 19 mph. BWI data is running late.

Here are some other rainfall totals for the region. Here's some streamflow data. (SLide your cursor over the dots and click for details. Not much to cluck about there. Not enough rain to fill most of the creeks, which have been relatively low thanks to a month of dry weather. Herring Run up in Idlewylde, on the city-county line, appears to be running highest relative to long-term averages for the date.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 6:29 PM | | Comments (0)
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April 30, 2007

Zowie! 87 at The Sun

So who knew it would get this hot today? It's 87 degrees at Calvert & Centre at 2 p.m., with a couple more hours of solar heating ahead of us. It's 83 degrees out at BWI. That's already 14 degrees above the normal high for an April 30 at the airport. The record for the date is 92 degrees, set in 1910.

The heat cranked up after that little disturbance swept through with some sprinkles this morning. Skies cleared quickly after that and temps shot up - from 61 degrees at 7 a.m. to 79 down here in Newspaper Gulch just four hours later.

The two Washington airports are both reporting 85 degrees and sunny. And I'm stuck here in the newsroom, where it's a steady 75. And gray. Dang.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 1:58 PM | | Comments (0)
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April 3, 2007

Marine layer brings fog

Driving down the JFX this morning you couldn't help but notice it. We cruised south under sunny, blue skies and mild temperatures. But as we neared downtown, the air grew suddenly colder, and the blue sky became obscured by low clouds and fog. That's the "marine layer" - a chilly layer of air, a few hundred to a few thousand feet thick, cooled and moistened by the ocean. It runs up onto the land, bringing a chill fog. Marinelayer Above and beyond the marine air, however, the sun is shining and temperatures are dramatically warmer. Here is what is looks like this morning from orbit. You can see the cloudy marine layer retreating across Delmarva.

At left is a nice photo of the cold, marine-layer fog from the Los Angeles Astronomical Society. And if it felt like San Francisco downtown this morning, it's no accident. The West Coast is frequently assaulted by a cool, foggy marine layer blown ashore by westerly winds. It usually retreats, or dissipates as the morning wears on. And the sky does appear to be brightening over The Sun building as I write.

Temperatures at Calvert & Centre streets fell from 70 degrees at 11 last night, to 61 degrees by 5 a.m. Then the marine layer shoved its way ashore, and the mercury dropped to 51 degrees at 8 a.m. Two hours later it's still only 53, but climbing. Deeper in the marine layer, Ocean City remains gray and 46 degrees.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:28 AM | | Comments (0)
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March 27, 2007

Flash! Boom! Summer's gone

So much for the 80-degree weather for this week. That little thunderstorm this evening dropped temperatures here at The Sun from 81 degrees at 6:30 p.m. to 71 degrees at 7 p.m. We clocked just .15 inch of rain, but it sure fell in a hurry, peaking briefly at a rate of more than 3 inches an hour.

Our high at Calvert & Centre streets was 83 degrees. The airport saw a high today of 81 degrees The rest of the week will be cooler.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 7:29 PM | | Comments (1)
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March 16, 2007

Small brain warnings

OK. Somebody please tell me why the good folks who operate the Solomons Island Sailing Club down in Calvert County had a dozen young sailors - inexperienced boaters in their teens - out on the Chesapeake yesterday afternoon in "daysailors."

In case you hadn't heard, five of the six boats capsized in strong winds at around 4:30 p.m., pitching the kids into the frigid water. All were saved, thanks to life vests, wet suits and quick action by rescuers. But everybody was danged lucky.

In The Sun's story today, the youth sailing organizer for the Southern Maryland Sailing Association described the boats as "small dinghies ... they capsize all the time."

That's fine in the summer. With life jackets on, a little dunking when the boat goes over is fine. Fun, even. A learning experience.

But the water temperatures in the bay are still in the 40s.

And more to the point, the National Weather Service had posted small craft advisories for the Chesapeake at 11:10 a.m. There was a strong cold front surging across the region during the afternoon, forecast to shift the winds from south to north, and increase their speeds to 15 to 20 knots or higher. (That's 17 to 23 mph.)

At the Patuxent Naval Air Station, just across the river from Solomons, weather data show that the winds shifted from south to north between 4 and 5 p.m., and jumped from 9 mph to 25 mph, with gusts to 35 mph. Just about the time the boats keeled over.

So why would any (presumably) adult send student sailors onto the bay - in "dinghies" - under small craft advisories? Sure, it was balmy through the noon hour yesterday. But wasn't anyone watching the forecast? Checking the watches and warnings?  Someone needs to go back to sailing school.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:01 AM | | Comments (5)
Categories: Events
        

March 14, 2007

Spring peepers are back

The spring peepers - the tiny frogs that emerge from the muck in early spring to peep their way to love and Peeper procreation - are back. Or at least tonight was the first night of the season that I've heard them from the WeatherDeck in Cockeysville. Anybody else hear them? It's always a welcome sound after a long winter, and a good indication that somebody's wetlands are still healthy enough to support the little amphibians.

Here's what they look like. Be sure to click on the "Listen" button for some recordings of their songs. A breath of spring.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:40 PM | | Comments (4)
Categories: Events
        

February 13, 2007

Heavy rain, freezing temps

That's a bad combination, but it's the fate in store for us this afternoon and evening. How's this for weird: Surface temperatures, now in the upper 20s, are going to fall this afternoon, but the light snow we're getting now will change over to moderate to heavy rain tonight as warmer air moves in thousands of feet over our heads.

Icycommute The result? Accumulating ice. Here's the latest from Sterling:

"A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 2 PM EST
WEDNESDAY.

PERIODS OF SNOW AND SLEET ARE EXPECTED THIS AFTERNOON. A CHANGE TO
FREEZING RAIN IS EXPECTED OVER MOST AREAS THIS EVENING.

SNOW AND SLEET ACCUMULATIONS TODAY ARE EXPECTED TO TOTAL THREE TO
FIVE INCHES OVER PORTIONS OF THE NORTHERN SHENANDOAH VALLEY AND
EXTREME WESTERN MARYLAND...WHILE ONE TO THREE INCHES IS FORECAST
OVER NORTHERN VIRGINIA AND NORTH CENTRAL MARYLAND
....AROUND AN
INCH IN THE I-95 CORRIDOR.
OVER THE HIGHLANDS AND CENTRAL
SHENANDOAH VALLEY...AN INCH OR LESS IS EXPECTED.

TEMPERATURES IN THE LOWER TO MID 30S ARE EXPECTED TO FALL DURING
THE AFTERNOON...AND BE BELOW FREEZING EVERYWHERE BY THE EVENING
COMMUTE...
AND REMAIN SUBFREEZING THROUGH MIDDAY WEDNESDAY.

TONIGHT MODERATE TO HEAVY RAIN IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP. WITH
TEMPERATURES BELOW FREEZING THE SUBFREEZING AIR WILL CAUSE ICE TO
FORM ON TREES...ROADS...AND POWER LINES
. THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY
BETWEEN I-81 AND ROUTE 15 WILL BE ESPECIALLY
PROBLEMATIC...RECEIVING ICE TOTALS TONIGHT OF BETWEEN ONE QUARTER
AND THREE QUARTERS OF AN INCH. THIS WOULD CAUSE SIGNIFICANT
PROBLEMS WITH POWER OUTAGES AND TRAVEL.

ONE QUARTER TO ONE HALF INCH OF ICE IS EXPECTED FURTHER EAST.
TRAVEL PROBLEMS AND ADDITIONAL POWER OUTAGES ARE POSSIBLE IN THE
I-95 CORRIDOR OVERNIGHT.

See a good weather scene? Snow? Ice in the trees? Pets? Kids? Falling limbs? Snap it! And then log in to the Readers Photos gallery at MarylandWeather.com and upload it so we can all see.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:23 PM | | Comments (0)
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December 14, 2006

Fogbound

"The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on."

Poet Carl Sandburg knew what he was talking about. This fog seemed to appear out of nowhere last night. It socked us in overnight, and is taking its sweet time burning off this morning. It has affected much of the Southeast, forcing ground stops at airports across the region, including BWI, while air traffic controllers wait for the visibility to improve. School systems on the Eastern Shore delayed their openings this morning. Dense fog advisories remain in effect west of the Chesapeake Bay.

National Weather Service meteorologist Luis Rosa, out at the Sterling forecast office, explained that yesterday's rain contributed a lot of moisture to the atmosphere. More humidity moved into the region on southeast breezes from the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

After the cold front passed by, skies cleared and, as night fell, radiational cooling brought air temperatures down to the dew point - saturation. That's when the water vapor in the air began to condense, forming droplets and - fog. As I look at our weather instruments here at The Sun in downtown Baltimore, the temperature (at 10:25 a.m.) is 43, and the dew point is 43. So the humidity is 100 percent. And it's still quite foggy around the Maryland Penitentiary.

What we need now is solar heating. As temperatures warm, the fog droplets will begin to vaporize, and the fog banks will "burn off." That should leave us with a sunny, mild day, and a fine weekend. 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:34 AM | | Comments (1)
Categories: Events
        

December 8, 2006

Rocket launches galore

UPDATE at 9:00 p.m. Saturday: The shuttle Discovery launched on time tonight, apparently without a hitch. That clears the way for the launch of TacSat2 Monday morning from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The weather there looks good for liftoff at 7 a.m. Earlier post follows.

I don't think I've ever had to tell readers about TWO rocket launches that might be visible from Maryland. But that's what we're looking at here over the next few days.

The launch of space shuttle Discovery, with Baltimore-born astronaut Robert Curbeam aboard, is now scheduled for 8:47 p.m. Saturday night, after its planned Thursday night launch was postponed.

Whenever it lifts off the pad, we can expect to see it crossing our sky - very low on the eastern horizon - about six minutes later. You can follow launch developments on NASA TV, which is available on some cable systems, and on the Web. There's also a Launch Blog here.

Assuming the Discovery launch goes off on schedule, we can expect the launch of a four-stage Minotaur rocket from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility sometime after 7 a.m. Monday morning. Watch for a story in The Sun Sunday morning. The Minotaur, carrying two government satellites into orbit, should be visible for hundreds of miles in all directions. Joe Rao, a columnist with Space.com, estimates that people as far as 800 miles from Wallops Island may be able to see it, weather permitting. Download rao.minotaur.txt .

Baltimore is 115 miles northwest of Wallops. Rao thinks people from Maine to Florida, and as far west as Kentucky might get a look. We'll see.

Here again, you'll need a clear view of the southeastern horizon. Check Wallops' website for news of flight delays.

Any delay in the Discovery launch Saturday would probably force delays in the Minotaur launch Monday, to allow Wallops personnel to shift gears and help NASA track the shuttle up the coast. Here's the forecast for Cape Canaveral, and for Wallops.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 7:07 PM | | Comments (1)
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December 5, 2006

A rare Egyptian tornado

Tornadoes are rare in Egypt. The last one was in 1981. But when astronomer Aymen Ibrahem dashed outside the Bibliotheca Alexandrina yesterday hoping to snap a picture of a rainbow, he instead encountered a rare funnel cloud dangling over the library. (Click to enlarge) The twister apparently never touched the ground.

Ibrahem1_strip

Here in the United States, tornadoes are uncomfortably common. In fact, we are the tornado capital of the world, as you can see in this global map of tornado activity between 1930 and 1985.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:25 AM | | Comments (1)
Categories: Events
        

December 4, 2006

"It Could be Worse" Dept.

So it's cold. At least the sun is shining. So cheer up. A quick scan of the weather news should persuade you that things most certainly could be worse.

You could live in Buffalo.

Or Vietnam.

Or the Philippines.

Or Pakistan.

Or California, or Missouri.

Or Scotland. Or just about anywhere else in the British Isles.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 4:43 PM | | Comments (0)
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December 1, 2006

Record December heat

Strong southerly wind has pushed this afternoon's temperature at BWI to 75 degrees. That's 2 degrees above the previous record for a Dec. 1 at the airport, set just five years ago, in 2001.

The barometer here on the WeatherDeck has fallen to 29.47, where it has remained since 2 p.m., so the front has not yet  passed through the area, despite clearing skies. The temperature here is 74, but I expect to see it begin to drop shortly - headed for the 30s tonight.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 4:00 PM | | Comments (0)
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November 16, 2006

Cats and dogs

Whooo dogies, is it ever raining. Flash flood warnings are up for Baltimore City and county.

We're looking at rain rates as high as 5 inches an hour on the instruments here at The Sun just before 3 p.m.. We've clocked over an inch already, most of that in the last half hour. Wind gusts to 27 mph. The good news is that the barometer appears to have bottomed out at 29.45 inches. It's all uphill from here.

We welcome your reports. Just leave a comment.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 3:05 PM | | Comments (1)
Categories: Events
        

November 15, 2006

Whole lotta shakin'

That was one powerful earthquake this morning in the Kuril Islands north of Japan, complete with tsunami watches and warnings all around much of the Pacific basin. Many of those were later canceled, including those for Alaska, British Columbia and the state of Washington. The tsunami wave heights in the Far East turned out to be pretty small. Here's our story.

Here is the USGS report on the magnitude 8.3 main quake and the subsequent large tremors.

Here is a list of the largest quakes of 2006. It lists today's Kuril Islands quake at 7.8 on the Richter Scale. That has since been revised upwards to 8.3, making this one a "Great" quake, and certainly the biggest of the year to date.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:30 AM | | Comments (0)
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November 8, 2006

Rain held off

There was some light rain late in the voting yesterday, but not enough, it seems, to dampen turnout. But it picked up nicely overnight, after the polls closed.

They've recorded 1.49 inches at BWI-Marshall so far. We had over 1.5 inches on the WeatherDeck in Cockeysville by the time I left for work. The gauge here at The Sun appears to be clogged with ginkgo leaves, or something. Not a drop registered. Now I get to go out on a ladder, in the rain, to scoop them out.

Anyway, the rain is slated to continue into this evening. Here's AccuWeather's take on it. Here's the NWS forecast.

Speaking of ginkgoes, The Sun's ginkgo grove, on Calvert and Centre streets, is reaching its full golden autumn glory this week. If you're downtown, take a drive by. It won't last long. (That last link isn't a photo of our trees, just a hint at what we're seeing outside our office windows.)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:48 AM | | Comments (0)
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November 7, 2006

Pineapple Express soaks NW

Have you been reading about all the heavy  rain and flooding out in the Pacific Northwest? Several people in the U.S. and Canada have perished in the high water, and the bad weather and flooded roads may well affect voter turnout there today.

The torrential rains are a phenomenon that folks out in that part of the country are familiar with, and they call it the "Pineapple Express." Meteorologists call it the Madden-Julian Oscillation, and it's especially active during a weak El Nino cycle such as the one we're currently experiencing. (El Nino is a warming of the surface waters of the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, which can have impacts on weather around the world.)

During an MJO event, high pressure over the Pacific Northwest, which tends to block storms from the Pacific, shifts toward the west. That opens the door for a low-pressure system to replace it. At the same time, heavy rainfall in the eastern Pacific begins to migrate eastward. It passes across the Hawaiian Islands (where the "pineapple" part of the name comes from) and sloshes on toward the northwest coast of North America, where the low invites it right in.

As this moisture-laden tropical air strikes the mountainous coast, it is lifted up and cooled, and relieved of its moisture. The result is torrential rain, terrible flooding, landslides and plenty of hardship for residents of the region.

Here is an extended explanation of the Pineapple Express phenomenon.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:53 AM | | Comments (0)
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November 2, 2006

Quake rattles SW Virginia

The U.S. Geological Survey today is reporting a "minor" earthquake, registering 3.2 on the Richter scale, in southwestern Virginia. The tremor occurred at 12:53 p.m., about 7 miles north northwest of Raven, Va., near Richlands.  It was centered a little more than 7 miles below the Earth's surface, making it a relatively shallow quake.

Here's a grab bag of facts and figures about earthquakes in the U.S. And here's more on Virginia quakes.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 4:09 PM | | Comments (0)
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October 26, 2006

News from above the weather

The sky today is placid and blue - not much to write about. So here are some tidbits from far above the weather.

First, NASA's twin STEREO spacecraft were successfully launched last night from Cape Canaveral, placing two Maryland-built (Johns Hopkins' Applied Physics Lab) experiments into space to- eventually - provide scientists with a stereoscopic view of events on the sun. The "space weather" data they return should give us some deeper insights into the physics of the solar storms that cause not only beautiful auroral displays, but also radio interference, satellite damage and geomagnetic storms on Earth.

Here is a film clip of last night's launch.

Also, one of NASA's extraordinary twin Mars rovers - Spirit - is marking its 1,000th day on the Red Planet - far longer than anyone expected these craft to survive. To note the occasion, the space agency has posted a very nice panoramic postcard from the Martian surface. You can find it here.

Finally, astronomers say Comet SWAN, which is currently in the evening sky, has had an outburst of dust and gas that has boosted its visibility from binoculars-or-telescopes-only to naked-eye brightness. I can't vouch for it because I haven't looked in a couple of weeks. (When I tried to find it early this month with binocs, I managed to spot a faint blur that was probably the comet, but it was pretty underwhelming.) Anyway, if you want to try to find it tonight, the forecast for stargazing is terrific. Here's more on the comet's exploits and how to find it.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:12 AM | | Comments (0)
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October 18, 2006

Tennessee pounded by storm

We write a lot about hurricanes, but you don't always need a hurricane to produce hurricane-scale wind and rain. Just ask the folks down in Texas, Louisiana and Tennessee. They took it on the chin yesterday, but they won't get hurricane-scale media coverage.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 3:42 PM | | Comments (0)
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October 17, 2006

Rain tops an inch

This all-day rain has now topped an inch here at The Sun. Our gauge reads 1.04 inch at 5 p.m. Out at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport they've recorded just under an inch. And radar suggests we're largely done with this system.

The total brings BWI to more than 3 inches for the month, with two weeks yet to go. Normal October rainfall at the airport is 3.16 inches, so we appear to be headed for a second wet month in a row. September saw more than 7 inches.

Here is a sampling of rainfall from across the region. You can ignore the Caroline Street gauge in Fells Point, which may be located beneath a beer tap.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 5:15 PM | | Comments (0)
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October 15, 2006

Shakeup in Paradise

There are plenty of frayed nerves and some considerable disruption and damage out on the islands of Hawaii today after an earthquake in excess of 6.0 on the Richter Scale, and plenty of aftershocks.

Here is the story currently running on BaltimoreSun.com

Here is a link to the US Geological Survey's earthquake information center. Here are some maps and lists of the quakes today in Hawaii and elsewhere around the world. And here's some earthquake history to chew on.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 8:19 PM | | Comments (0)
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October 9, 2006

Korean blast a 4.2 on Richter scale

Seismographs around the world have recorded the impact of the North Korean underground nuclear test last night. It registered a 4.2 (light) on the Richter scale of earthquake severity. Here are the details from the U.S. Geological Survey. Here is how the explosion stacked up against recent earthquakes around the world. And here is the story from today's Sun. The political aftershocks, of course, are continuing.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:54 AM | | Comments (0)
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October 5, 2006

Interesting discussion on GW

There is an interesting on-line discussion underway about global warming. It's sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The "speakers" are Michael Oppenheimer, the Millbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs at Princeton University, and Daniel Schrag, professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard.

You can drop in on the chat by clicking here. I'll try to update the link after the session ends.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:43 AM | | Comments (0)
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September 29, 2006

NWS to survey storm damage

The National Weather Service is sending a storm-damage assessment team to Anne Arundel County this morning to survey wind damage. They will determine whether it was, indeed, a tornado that tore through the area last evening, and if so, how powerful it was. Here's The Sun's story. Here's this morning's NWS statement:

"SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS SPAWNED A TORNADO IN THE VICINITY OF SEVERNA
PARK MARYLAND IN ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY. DAMAGE HAS BEEN REPORTED IN
THE AREA. A SURVEY TEAM OF NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE METEOROLOGISTS
IS CURRENTLY EN ROUTE TO THE AREA TO INVESTIGATE THE DAMAGE IN THAT
AREA.

"PRELIMINARY TORNADO ASSESSMENT INFORMATION WILL BE RELEASED FRIDAY
AFTERNOON BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN STERLING VIA A PUBLIC
INFORMATION STATEMENT. THIS PRODUCT WILL BE ISSUED BEFORE 5 PM."

The WeatherBlog will post the statement when it becomes available. We're also happy to have readers upload any photos they have of the storm damage. Just go to our Reader's Photos page, at the bottom of the main MarylandWeather.com page, register and follow the directions for uploading your images. We've made it a bit easier than it used to be. Try it.

In the meantime, here is a rundown on some of the damage reports received by the NWS at Sterling.

Here at The Sun, our new weather station recorded 0.94 inch of rain from about 6 p.m. until 11 p.m. The temperature dropped 15 degrees in an hour with the frontal passage - from 75 degrees at 6 p.m., to 60 degrees an hour later. (The overnight low was 56.) The barometer bottomed out at 29.65 inches at 5 p.m., then began a swift climb to 29.90 inches - and still rising - at 11 a.m.

Here are some rainfall tallies:

Annapolis:  1.11 inches

Reagan National: 1.04

BWI: 1.03

Science Ctr.: 0.83

Dulles Int'l.: 0.67

Philadelphia: 0.27

Hagerstown: 0.19

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:30 AM | | Comments (0)
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September 5, 2006

September is a gusher

The rain that began this morning in Baltimore continues to fall, and forecasters are warning of the possibility for localized urban flooding. More rain is on tap for tomorrow. But once we get through tomorrow, skies clear and the temperatures warm into the 80s. Clear sailing ahead. But meanwhile...

The instruments at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall (pause for breath) Airport have clocked almost 1.7 inches already today. That comes on top of the 3.63 inches that fell as the remnants of Tropical Storm Ernesto blew through. Do the math, and it comes to 5.32 inches for the very young month so far. The average September at BWI produces 3.98 inches. The accumulation so far makes this the wettest since September 2003, when Tropical Storm Isabel (and another heavy rainfall a few days later) came through town, leaving 7.47 inches of rainwater behind.

Even more impressive, the rain that fell  with Ernesto alone (3.63 inches) was more than the airport received during all of July and August (3.31 inches) combined. The tropical torrents that fell in the final week of June, and the heavy rain we got from Ernesto, stand together as very wet bookends for a very dry summer in Baltimore.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:57 PM | | Comments (0)
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August 17, 2006

Conservation saved millions in heat wave

The PJM Interconnection - the outfit up in Valley Forge, Pa. that manages the generation and distribution of electrical power for 12 states (including Maryland) and the District of Columbia, says consumers heeded their call to conserve power during the recent heat wave, and collectively saved wholesale customers more than $650 million.

Power consumption during the hot weather peaked at a record 144,796 megawatts on Aug. 2. On that day, PJM officials report, voluntary reductions in power usage led allowed utilities to avoid switching on their most expensive generators. That enabled price cuts on the spot market totaling more than $230 million. The benefit fell mostly to big wholesale consumers, such as BGE, in the form of direct payments for the power they saved.

One hopes that retail buyers - like you and me - will enjoy some trickle-down effects in the form of lower monthly bills in the short term, and lower rates in the long term.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 1:39 PM | | Comments (1)
Categories: Events
        

August 16, 2006

Insurors to storm victims: get a mop

Hurricane Katrina victims who argued that the storm surge that ruined their home was caused by storm winds have been dealt a setback by a federal judge in Mississippi. He ruled that their homeowners' policy covered wind damage, but not water damage caused by a storm surge driven by the wind. It's a cruel twist in the insurance biz that Tropical Storm isabel's victims know well. Here's the story.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 3:47 PM | | Comments (0)
Categories: Events
        

August 8, 2006

Heat stroke: from the cutting room floor

Sometimes newspaper stories are the product of a collaboration of reporters. One will take the lead reporting and writing role, while others pursue other components of the story. At some point during the afternoon, the contributors file their "inserts" or "feeds" to the lead reporter, who assembles it all into a (hopefully) coherent whole. If the contribution is substantial, they'll get a "shared" byline with the lead writer (whose name goes first at the top of the story). If it's less substantial, the contributor will get a "contributor line" - a mention, at the bottom of the story.

And sometimes the contributing reporter files so much material that much, or most of it never makes it into the story, and it dies on "the cutting room floor," or in our case, in the computer system, to be purged a few days later and sent into digital oblivion.

Today's P. 1 story by Julie Scharper, on the heat-related death of a Baltimore man, is a case in point. My job was to find out why people die from heat exposure, and how it's diagnosed. Tight space, and the fact that I habitually report and write too much, led most of what I came up with yesterday to be cut from the final version of Julie's story. That's fine. It happens a lot.

But since it's weather-related, and may help readers understand why it's so important to check on the elderly and other vulnerable individuals during extreme hot weather (and because I took a great deal of time from Dr. Thomas Kirsch, the director of operations at Johns Hopkins Emergency Medicine to gather the information), I thought I'd resurrect the cuts and offer them here:

Humans have evolved a variety of mechanisms to cool things down if we can’t escape our overheated environment.

The tiny capillaries in our skin open up, bringing more blood to the surface, where it can radiate and dissipate body heat into the air. But the most efficient mechanism is the evaporation of sweat.

As temperatures rise, our sweat glands start moving water — and heat — to the surface. It evaporates, and the body cools.

High relative humidities – above about 75 percent — can make that evaporation impossible.

Healthy people who engage in strenuous activity in the extreme heat and humidity may also drive up their body temperature faster than their bodies cool off.

But the most vulnerable are the very young, the elderly, the sick, the obese and people on certain medications, Kirsch said. Abnormal skin, or medicine that inhibits sweating can get people into trouble. So can certain heart medications.

The increased blood volume that must flow to the skin to cool the body puts a big extra load on a weakened heart. And some cardiac drugs may make it even harder for the heart to keep up.

If the body generates heat faster that it can shed it, the core body temperature slowly rises. Normal metabolic processes quit working, and organs begin to fail.

One of the key danger signs is a change in a victim’s mental status – lethargy, confusion or coma, Kirsch said. "Anyone who comes in [to the ER] during a heat wave acting confused, a diagnosis of acute hyperthermia is way up on our list."

That, plus high body core temperatures trigger immediate intervention.

"Cooling, as fast as possible," Kirsch said. That can mean cooling blankets, or ice packs in the armpits or groin.

"But evaporation is still the best way to conduct heat away from the body," he said. "We strip them down, put fans in the room and have people continually spray water over them … just a cleaning bottle with water."

It’s often not enough, he said. Studies have found that one in five patients who arrive at the ER with body core temperatures of 104 or higher will die. And some of those who survive leave with permanent brain damage, or in a coma.

The lessons are clear, Kirsch said. "When the [outside] temperature goes up like that you have got to get out of the heat."

"If anyone has an elderly relative, they should clearly, during a heat wave, check on them, and try their best to get them out of the hot environment. And if there are any signs of confusion, they need to call 911."

Posted by Frank Roylance at 9:07 AM | | Comments (1)
Categories: Events
        

August 3, 2006

Mercury hits 102 downtown

The thermometer at the Maryland Science Center reached 102 degrees at 2:18 p.m. today. It was the third day in a row of 100-plus temperatures there. (It was 101 on Tuesday and Wednesday.) The heat index was a stifling 112 degrees.

Out at BWI, it was 100 degrees at 3:48 p.m. That tied the record for the date, set in 1931. It was the second 100-degree day at BWI in the last three. (It was "only" 99 there on Wednesday.)

The National Weather Service said the last time temperatures reached 100 degrees on three consecutive days in Baltimore was on July 2,3 and 4, 1966. That was at BWI, however, so this week's triple play at the Inner Harbor isn't a match.

Friday's record is 100 degrees, so we're not expecting any threat to that mark from the waning heat wave. Highs are expected to hold in the low 90s as cooler air moves in from the Great Lakes. Eighties resume for the weekend, the first days that cool since July 26.

Living in Baltimore this week has been like walking around and breathing inside somebody else's bed. Happy to see the end of it. You?

Posted by Frank Roylance at 8:09 PM | | Comments (3)
Categories: Events
        

August 2, 2006

A record at BWI

My bad. The instruments at BWI clocked a new record high temperature yesterday, and I missed it. The heat topped out at 100 degrees, breaking the previous record of 99 degrees for an Aug. 1, set back in 1933. I had been monitoring the hourly readings from BWI-Marshall, which plateaued at 98. What I failed to notice was that it had hopped to 100 degrees and back between the top-of-the-hour observations.  We have corrected our on-line story, and will make reference to the new record in tomorrow morning's dead-tree editions.

The record high for today - Aug. 2 - is also in peril. The high mark is 100 degrees, set in 1955.

The high at the Maryland Science Center yesterday, meanwhile, also twitched higher than the 100 degrees we reported in today's story. It actually made it to 101 degrees. The Weather Page, at least, got it right.

Rumors are flying, as well, that July 2006 may have been the hottest on record for the continental United States, busting the record set in 1936. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is crunching the numbers and is expected to announce the results in two days.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:20 AM | | Comments (0)
Categories: Events
        

August 1, 2006

Inner Harbor hits 100

The 4 p.m. reading at the Maryland Science Center, along Baltimore's Inner Harbor promenade, reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit just before 4 p.m. today.  It's the first time the mercury has hit 100 at the harbor since July 23, 2002. However, it was 99 degrees twice last month - on July 17 and yesterday - the 31st.

The official high for Baltimore, meanwhile, was 98 degrees, at BWI Airport. That was NOT a record. The official record for Baltimore for Aug. 1 is 99 degrees, set at the Customs House downtown in 1933. The station of record for Baltimore was moved in 1950 from the Customs House to what was then Friendship Airport. 

Unfortunately, it's no longer possible to establish downtown records. For starters, the downtown instruments were moved on April 29, 1998 from the roof of the Customs House, which was judged to be inaccurate due to rooftop heating, to the Lawn of the Maryland Science Center. So we would be comparing apples and oranges (although we do that anyway by using pre-1950 data from downtown AND post-1950 data from the airport as if it were a continuous record.)

But beyond that, the Science Center instruments do not provide a reliable, comprehensive weather record, and they are not maintained as well by the weather service. As a consequence, there are gaps in the data, sometimes extending for many days. 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 4:22 PM | | Comments (0)
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July 27, 2006

Heat kills

There is just an amazing amount of bad heat-wave news out there today. California, St. Louis, England, France ... it goes on and on. People are overheating, even catching fire. What's it all mean? Maybe nothing. But lots of people are wondering.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 2:55 PM | | Comments (3)
Categories: Events
        

July 25, 2006

Heat, outages coast to coast

Hot weather, combined with massive strains on the power infrastructure have caused outages and worse on both coasts and in the heartland this week. Here's a sampling from New York City, St. Louis and California. So say a little word of thanks when that AC clicks on today. It's not to be taken for granted these days.

It could also be raining way too much, as it has been in typhoon-weary South China, and Houston, where a tropical disturbance has sloshed ashore.

So we'll be seeing our temperatures break 90 in the next few days, with higher humidities. Hardly seems worth fussing about in light of the suffering elsewhere. Just unfurl the Slip 'n Slide and enjoy our good fortune.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 4:04 PM | | Comments (2)
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July 24, 2006

California in the broiler

Now it's the Left Coast's turn to broil in the summer sun. Temperatures in the Pacific Coast states in recent days have soared toward the 100-degree mark in places that don't often get that hot. The power grid is struggling, and not always successfully, to keep up with demand for cooling energy. Better to hop in the surf. Here's a clip.

And here are the forecasts and conditions for San Diego, Sacramento, Portland, OR, and Spokane, WA.  You could go to Las Vegas, instead. But you'd better stay indoors. Here's the forecast.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 2:04 PM | | Comments (0)
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July 12, 2006

New Yorkers await celestial event

If skies are clear, New Yorkers who find themselves on the streets of Manhattan at around 8:27 this evening will be treated to an annual celestial event that evokes thoughts of Stonehenge - the great stone markers in England that served the ancients as a celestial calendar.

New Yorkers will have to make-do with their skyscrapers and east-west street grid, but the effect could be almost as dramatic as the setting sun throws its light directly down all the island's cross-town streets. It only occurs twice each year at sunset, today and May 28. Read more here.

In the meantime, we have an extremely hazy day today in Maryland. Not much of a sunset visible this evening, I'd guess. Here's how it looked yesterday from space.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 3:07 PM | | Comments (0)
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June 30, 2006

Teeny ants invade

I don't know if it's the current weather, the mild winter we had this year, or the alignment of the planets. But my house is being invaded by the smallest ants I've ever seen. They're trouping in along a trail that leads from under the shed, across the heat pump pad to the patio door, then up the frame to the top, where the endless marching hoards vanish into the house.

They emerge in the kitchen, where - until we blasted them with ant spray - they fanned out across the floor, up the wall and across the counters.

I was talking yesterday with University of Maryland entomologist Entomologist Mike Raupp, whom you may remember from our stories about the Brood X cicadas two years back. I was interviewing him for an upcoming Sunday story about mosquitoes. But before I let him go, I asked him about these little ants.

He said he's been battling them too (as have any number of the people my wife has mentioned the problem to). Mike confesses he doesn't know, either, what's brought them on so strong. But he says they're probably Tapinoma sessile, also known as the "odorous house ant."  I haven't tried this, but Mike says if you crush one, it smells like coconut. I'll take his word for it.

Anyway, Mike wrote about these critters last winter for his on-line Bug of the Week column. You can learn a lot about them, and how to get rid of them, by clicking here.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 4:16 PM | | Comments (4)
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June 20, 2006

Waterspout today in O.C.

WJZ Television is reporting a waterspout during bad weather today in Ocean City. The O.C. Airport reported a thunderstorm in the area at the time.

The station, without attribution, says the twister swiped the (closed) beach at 14th street just after noon and tossed a lifeguard chair some 20 feet.

If you saw it, or better yet if you got a photo of it, leave a comment here or email me at frank.roylance@baltsun.com and upload your picture to the "Readers Photos" feature at the bottom of the MarylandWeather.com webpage. Thanks.

Waterspouts are akin to tornadoes, but they form under different conditions. To read more, click here. And here's a photo gallery. Waterspouts can even form on lakes, such as Lake Tahoe, in California's Sierras. Here's an amazing gallery of Tahoe spouts.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 4:51 PM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)
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Nice rain. Send more

Yesterday's storms and this morning's showers have done a nice job of watering the garden. Some locations received well over an inch of rain, along with some storm damage. But we're still in the hole on precipitation. A few streams in Central and Western Maryland are flowing at record lows (the bright red dots). And portions of the state remain in abnormally dry to moderate drought conditions. The forecast , for now, looks pretty dry through tomorrow. Then rain chances climb again late Thursday, rising to 50 percent by Saturday.

Here's a beautiful shot of the storm front as it pushed across Maryland yesterday. It was taken by NASA's Aqua Earth-observing satellite. Click on it, then click on the enlargement box.

The heaviest rains fell on instruments in Fells Point, and the Hillsmere and Owings Beach sections of Anne Arundel County. Parts of Prince George's also saw more than an inch. Officially, the storms delivered less than a quarter inch - the 0.22 inch recorded at BWI-Marshall Airport. I had just 0.12 inch on the WeatherDeck in my back yard in Cockeysville.

But Howard County - at least where the rain is measured - was largely skipped over. Seneca Creek, in Dawsonville, Montgomery County, is continuing to run at a record low flow for the date this morning.

Among those flowing at very low rates, but not at record levels, are the Cranberry Branch, in Westminster; the Monocacy River at Jug Bridge near Frederick; and the Potomac at Point of Rocks, in Frederick County.

The new Drought Monitor map will be out Thursday morning. But the old one, dated June 13, still shows moderate drought in portions of the state.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 9:34 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)
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June 19, 2006

A rainfall lottery

This afternoon's shower brought more than inch of rain to one recording station in Baltimore. But it was a hit or miss event. Here's the data. The "Caroline" rain gauge - located at the foot of Caroline Street in Fells Point - recorded 1.26 inches of rain during the storm, which produced heavy rain but only briefly. Other stations around the region saw far less - from zero to three-quarters of an inch. On radar, it looked like the heaviest rain was directly over downtown Baltimore and Washington.

Officially, the NWS rain gauge at BWI-Marshall, at last check, saw just 0.16 inch. For an update, click here.

The weather service is reporting a 63-mph wind gust at Andrews Air Force Base, in Prince George's County just before 5 p.m.  Forecasters also have backpedaled on the rain chances for the week. Tuesday now looks rain-free.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 5:35 PM | | Comments (0)
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June 18, 2006

Space junk smacks car in Poland

Rain, sleet, snow, hail ... we can handle it all. But when chunks of spacecraft fall from the sky, it's another matter. Residents of Poland heard a whizzing sound in the sky just before (what was identified as) space junk crashed into some poor guy's car. Here are pictures of the results. If anyone out there can translate the Polish text, please post it here as a comment.

But tell me, how bad does your luck have to be to have your car - of all the square footage on the planet - become the bulls-eye for falling space debris?  And how lucky do you have to be to be somewhere else when it strikes?

UPDATE: A member of the Polish Fireball Network has reported to the "Meteorobs" message group that the "space junk" was not space junk, but part of an old Russian Katyusha ground-to-ground rocket. Somebody must have been playing with a souvenir from the old days. Never mind.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 9:31 AM | | Comments (0)
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June 13, 2006

London broils in June heat

Londoners have been basking in record-breaking summer heat of late. It was 87 degrees yesterday - a scorcher by UK standards, and the hottest June 12 since 1897. News reports have the sweltering Brits clearing the shelves of barbecue staples, beer and ice cream as they cool off and enjoy the unusual weather. And there was a lot of "suncream" spread on that pasty English skin.

Cooler weather is due today.

Meantime, those of us here on Thames Street and out in Westminster are enjoying unusually cool June weather. We're running at an average of 69 degrees so far this month - almost 3 degrees below average for June.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:54 AM | | Comments (0)
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June 12, 2006

Merrill sailed into stiff breezes

We may never know precisely what caused Capital-Gazette Publisher Phil Merrill's disappearance from his sailboat during his solo outing on Saturday. But weather data technology can help fill in some of the blanks. The Thomas Point Light weather buoy, located just south of the mouth of the Severn River, recorded the winds, air temperature and water temperature in the area.

Merrill, an experienced sailor, reportedly left his private dock on the Severn, in Arnold, around 2 p.m. He was alone, and sailed despite a small craft advisory issued at 4:22 p.m. Friday, and in effect throughout the day Saturday. The advisory meant boaters could expect sustained winds of 18 to 33 knots (20 to 38 mph) and 4-foot seas. While Merrill's sailboat was 41 feet long, there is no legal definition for "small craft" targeted by small craft advisories.

The data suggest that Merrill sailed into the windiest part of the day, but wind conditions - at least at the weather buoy's location - never reached small-craft advisory criteria. After a morning with sustained winds between 5 and 10 mph, the breezes picked up around noon, and blew between 10 and 13 mph throughout the afternoon and into the evening. Instruments atop the buoy recorded gusts as high as 14 mph around 5 p.m.

The weather station does not record wave heights.

Whether he became ill, stumbled and fell, or was knocked into the water by a swinging boom, Merrill evidently found himself in the water. The weather buoy recorded the air temperatures Saturday afternoon between 62 and 66 degrees. The water was actually warmer - between 69 and 71 degrees. But it's not likely Merrill, 72, could have survived for many hours treading water in the bay before hypothermia and exhaustion would have claimed him. Friends reported that Merrill did not customarily wear a life vest while sailing.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 4:27 PM | | Comments (0)
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June 7, 2006

Haboob sweeps Phoenix

Haboob?  OK, it was a new one on me, too. But it's apparently a familiar term in Arizona. Haboob is an Arabic word for sandstorm, and that's what swept through Phoenix yesterday as a wind front swept up desert dust and pushed it across the region. It darkened skies and stung anyone caught outside. 

CNN today ran some very cool footage on the storm. On the main CNN web page, look for the "Watch free video" feature, then click on the "more most watched video" link, and scroll down to "Miles of a Cloud of dust." If you can't find it, try one of the other pages (there are four; just click on the number "2" above the list). Arizona TV station KPNX also had video on their website. If you can get it to download, you're way ahead of me.

The pictures reminded me of black and white images of dust storms during the Dust Bowl days on the Great Plains.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:05 AM | | Comments (0)
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June 2, 2006

Caribbean eruption continues

The eruption of the Soufriere Hills volcano on the Caribbean island of Monserrat continues, and NASA's Earth-observing Terra satellite today captured the ash plume rising from the crater.

Vacationers rarely think of the Islands as hot-spots of volcanic and seismic activity, but they are. They're perched along the boundary of two of the Earth's crustal plates, much like the "Ring of Fire" that surrounds the Pacific Basin. Eruption of Mt. Pelee on the French island of Martinique killed something like 28,000 people in 1902. Only two are known to have survived. And quake-driven tsunamis have struck Puerto Rico (1918) and the Virgin Islands in 1867.

Small quakes have rattled Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the Virgin Islands 14 times in the past three days.

So go easy on the rum punch. You never know when you'll have to get up and run for your life.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 5:39 PM | | Comments (0)
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June 1, 2006

No hurricane, but Texas floods

A slow-moving storm system that briefly showed some signs of developing tropical characteristics has instead dropped as much as a foot of rain on parts of coastal Texas. There are reports of flash flooding near Corpus Christi. Here's the 24-hour rainfall accumulation map. Wow. Here's the