After having been involved in severe storm spotting for a few years and having been to the National Weather Service office a couple of times I thought I probably would skip this year’s Skywarn Appreciation Day event. Now, if you’ve never been to the forecast office – it’s pretty cool for anyone with any interest in technology and / or weather. Being a former IT Auditor for Shopko Stores I love technology. And since I’ve spent a great amount of time out in the weather skiing, sailing, fishing, etc. I have a keen interest in the weather. But after a couple of visits I wondered if I would have any fresh questions that I wanted to get answered.
Alas, I had been doing some research on the internet into some weather and I stumbled upon an article that stated that Chicago would be receiving a radar upgrade. I didn’t realize this, but it turns out that the National Weather Service radars currently are only vertically polarized. The article stated that the upgrade would provide a dual polarization antenna for the new radars. Later I read that Green Bay, Wisconsin would also have their weather radar upgraded. That made me wonder what we as trained ham radio severe storm spotters could expect from the radar.
I use a variety of weather data sources as I try and make sense of the weather that is passing through our area. One that I use for long-range views is http://weather.unisys.com/satellite/sat_ir_hem_loop-12.html – while this site on this particular setting gives a long range view you can use the controls above the map to zoom in and change from visible image to radar, water vapor sensor, etc..
Another source that I find good is the US Farm Report / AG Day TV shows. While they have current weather forecasts, I have found their longer-term forecasts to be pretty good. Other sources don’t tend to show us a longer-term view and these guys generally do a nice job of that. A recent show predicted a particular pattern for the winter months but did not explain why that would develop. I wondered why it would develop.
I watch various indicators during the year to try and get a real rough idea of how a particular season is unfolding. For example, I have found that the first snow flurries typically are right around Halloween weekend. Deer hunters cheer when the first snow is at the start of deer season because of the ability to track game. The first accumulating snows on the roads typically are around Skywarn Appreciation Day in the fall. It would be an odd year to be able to see grass on our lawns at Christmas, etc.. I had thought that this winter was turning out to be quite average and I wondered if that matched up well with the actual data or not.
So – for those reasons and others my wife Jane (KD8KRS) and I went to the 2010 Skywarn Appreciation Day. We decided to make an evening of it. We drove up to Green Bay, Wisconsin from the Appleton, Wisconsin area and first toured the Green Bay Botanical Garden’s Garden of Lights Christmas light show. It was $7 each and was WELL worth it! It took maybe 30 minutes to walk through at night and see all the lights and take pictures and such.
After a fun tour of the lights we went to the National Weather Service office in Green Bay, Wisconsin which is just down the road a bit. There, we were able to have a wide ranging discussion with the chief forecaster of the office. Topics ranged from global warming theories and opinions and facts to the new radar and others. Turns out that my perception of this being a close to average early winter season were right. I also found out that rain drops flatten as they fall from heights. I believe that the polarization of the radar beam could have an impact on the data returned to the radar. For example – a larger rain drop that is just as flat as a smaller rain drop would probably look the same on a vertical beam radar and probably would not look the same on a horizontal beam radar.
Look forward to a loss of radar service from the Green Bay National Weather Service office as the radar is upgraded. Estimate a week or two. Around August of September are current thoughts.
Thanks for reading my humble posts!
Jon Kreski, AB9NN – Appleton, Wisconsin area
http://www.HamRadioResources.com
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