Severe weather to start your Friday?

7:20 AM EST 1/27/12 | Although no Tornado or Severe Thunderstorm Watches are in effect at present, our Severe Weather Team is closely watching upper level dynamic and surface conditions for signs of unexpected changes. For today, the Storm Prediction Center has outlooked a large portion of the Carolina and Mid-Atlantic coast under a slight risk of severe weather. 


A line of thunderstorms, heavy rain and lightning is currently moving east into the Mid-Atlantic. The primary hazards, according to SPC, would be strong damaging winds along this squall line as it crosses the region between 7 and 10 AM. 

We urge readers in this region to remain alert to changing conditions, and monitor watches and warnings from your local NWS forecast office. Just because we are approaching the "dead middle" of winter does not mean severe weather takes a break from the weather pattern, even in less-than-likely place such as the immediate coast. 


(Forecasters Foot, Jason M., and the Severe Weather Team) 

Alabama in the line of fire...again
Florida panhandle is next

NWS REGIONAL RADAR FOR THE SOUTHEAST

11:50 AM CST 1/26/11 | Tornado Watches and Warnings continue to plaster the map from Alabama to the Florida Panhandle as a line of strong to severe thunderstorms is plowing through some area already hard hit from Monday's outbreak in Alabama. The Florida panhandle is next in line for severe weather.

This graphicast from the Mobile/Pensacola National Weather Service shows the severe weather risk that is already underway due to the eastward moving front and cold air interacting with surface and upper level instability, as well as ample Gulf moisture surging ahead of the front. Our team is covering this event in the recently launched Florida Panhandle page on Facebook led by Forecaster Megan Hodge, a north Florida resident and senior in Meteorologst from the University of South Florida.   

For Monday's outbreak in the Mid-South, the Birmingham, AL National Weather Service confirmed at least 10 twisters ripped apart homes and lives in Central Alabama alone, in some cases, communities which had recently recovered from the catastrophic destruction of the April 27, 2011 outbreak were in fact, struck on Monday, January 24, 2012. 

This insightful report from ABC World News details some of the valuable safety lessons that Alabama residents have learned in the aftermath of such a frequently violent year of severe weather.  This news story features Meteorologist James Spann of ABC affiliate 33/40 in Birmingham, whom recently spoke at the student conference of the American Meteorological Society in New Orleans. Mr. Spann aptly points out that for smoke detectors to be  in a home, "it's the law" but that same rule does not apply for having a similar alerting protection to something more destructive and unpreventable: Tornadoes

The Foot's Forecast Team strongly agrees with Mr. Spann: A NOAA All-Hazards radio in every home would go a long way toward saving more lives and protecting more property in a storm-prone area such as the Southeast. Simply put, there's no good reason to go without one. Visit this link from Midland Radio, manufacturer on where you can purchase your Weather Radio today.


(Forecasters Foot, Daniel Ross and the Southeast Severe Weather Team)

"Listen to the Mandolin rain..."

-Lyrics from the1986 single by Bruce Hornsby & The Range

2:30 PM CST 1/25/12 | Affiliate Forecaster Wesley H. from Convective Weather in Wylie, Texas reports in his latest post that wet weather has finally returned to stone-dry Texas, and will be impacting much of the Mississippi Valley heading to the weekend.

"After a prolonged period of rain-free weather across much of the Lone Star State, Texas will see a return to wetter conditions. Our upper-level system responsible for the upcoming rain moved in from California. The models had been bouncing all over the place over the last several days in regards to the timing and track of this system." 

"Fortunately, they converged on a track into Southwest New Mexico/far West Texas by Wednesday evening. Once the system makes it into West Texas, it will slowly wind up, eventually becoming an upper-level low. As it strengthens, its eastern progression will slow. By Wednesday evening, it will have only made it into Southwest Texas." From here, rainfall will increase ahead of the system into the lower Mississippi Valley on Thursday, the Ohio Valley and the Northeast by Friday.

For more details on how this storm will evolve toward the weekend and affect the Southern Plains, and eventually the Mid-South, please visit his site at ConvectiveWeather.com

From Weather Camper to Forecaster

WEATHER CAMP ON FACEBOOK | OUR MEMBERS AT 2009-11 CAMPS

The Summer 2011 class of Weather Camp grads
from the Howard University program in Washington, DC.


Applications for the 2012 Camps, hosted by the 

NOAA Center for Atmospheric Science are now available:  

NOAA/NCAS CAREERS 2012 WEATHER CAMP: .pdf APPLICATION 

3:10 PM 1/25/12 | "Oh wow, you went to Weather Camp?" This is a common phrase heard around the 20-state team of Foot's Forecast, and we hope it will become part of your resume if you're a high school sophomore oe junior with an interest in weather. Since the summer of 2009, our team has welcomed over 10 high schoolers from around the country to become Foot's Forecasters, and the adventure has only just begun. 


We know there are thousands of students around the country who simply love the weather. These are the ones who would watch The Weather Channel instead of Saturday cartoons, began record daily temperature changes at an early age, and have a passion for sharing their skills with others. Courtesy of funding from NOAA and the National Science Foundation, we can offer just an ideal outlet for guiding students who wish to explore Atmospheric and Climate Sciences as a career interest. Officially it is known as "Careers Camp" but our students simply call it "Weather Camp" and you should know why. 


Foot's Forecast is pleased to be a supporting partner for the NCAS Careers/Weather Camp program, lead by the NOAA Center for Atmospheric Science at Howard University in Washington, DC.


One student, many stories
Matt Bolton is a prime example of the impact that attending Weather Camp has had on our forecast team, and the meteorological community. High school student Matt Bolton from Central Florida attended several camps in the past 2 years, including the Jackson State University Camp and the Howard University Camp. In October 2010, Matt joined Foot's Forecast, leading our Central Florida page in Facebook. Since then, he has presented at AMS WeatherFests, has a leadership role in the local AMS chapter, has toured the National Hurricane Center, attended or collaborated in outreach events of local NWS forecast offices. In In October 2011, Matt with Advisor Mike Mogil presented extensive tropical cyclone research findings at the 36th annual National Weather Association conference in Birmingham, Alabama. Matt was a member of the 2011 Tropical Team and has collaborated on several forecasts for our main national website.

2011 Foot's Forecasters Mintong, Dakota 
and Reginald from the 2009 camp.

How many Weather Campers have joined our team? Since 2010, nearly ten campers from across the U.S. have become mainstays of our team, making a local difference in the lives of over 1,000 readers a dozen states. (Links below are to local Foot's Forecast pages in Facebook operated by  the students). 


SOUTHEAST WISCONSIN
Forecaster Robert P.
NORTHERN VIRGINIA
Forecasters Megan M. and Kurt H.
NORTHERN MARYLAND
Forecaster Nick S.,
EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA
Forecaster Mitch D.
COASTAL NORTH CAROLINA
Forecaster Ross H.
CENTRAL TENNESSEE
Forecaster Kelton H.
CENTRAL FLORIDA
Forecaster Matt B. 

If you have a Jul/Aug issue of Weatherwise Magazine, you can read all about the program, written by Weather Camp Director H. Michael Mogil, a Certified Consulting Meteorologist with HowTheWeatherWorks. 


Mr. Mogil an Advisor to the Foot's Forecast Team, also featured in the article the important connection between Weather Camp and Foot's Forecast. 


The abstract can be viewed via this link.  

The 411 on NCAS Careers/Weather Camp

Each Summer, students in the U.S. between grades 6 and 11 have an opportunity to expand their passion for weather and climate,  learn from professional meteorologists and get immersed in real science. This mosaic of pictures and articles provides a detailed look at the program, as published in the Howard University NCAS facebook page by Meteorologist H. Michael Mogil.

The NCAS CAREERS Weather Camp is an education outreach program funded by a NOAA grant.  The program is headquartered at Howard University's Center for Atmospheric Science in Washington, D.C. Tuition is "low or no cost" to all student participants, and applications for the 2012 program are now available. 

The weather and climate-centered camp program began in 2002 with this vision: To provide authentic "career-exposure" opportunities for bright and under-represented middle or high school students interested in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The Weather Camp Program funded in part by the NOAA Educational Cooperative Agreement # NA06OAR4810172 and partners with the meteorological training and outreach company How The Weatherworks in Naples, Florida.

WEATHER CAMP 411 (Get an inside look via this Associated Content slide show on activities from previous weather camps since 2007). As you'll see from the slide show, Weather Camp can be for many, a life-changing experience. For others, it is an eye-opening look at the many opportunities available to those interested in science as a career. (Photo: Mr. Foot and Forecaster Dakota with the Camp Coordinator Mr. Mike Mogil and Dr. Vernon Morris of Howard University at the January 2011 conference of the American Meteorological Society in Seattle, WA.)

For two weeks, students are "engaged in hands-on activities, field experiments, seminars, tours of research facilities, and workshops that expand their knowledge of atmospheric sciences, weather and forecast models, and environmental instrumentation." A resident program for rising high school sophomores, juniors and seniors, the camp provides exposure to the college experience through their interactions on campus, interactions with Atmospheric Sciences STEM and graduate students, and use of campus computational and academic facilities.

THE FOOT'S FORECAST CONNECTION

In 2010, our team developed a partnership  with How The Weatherworks and Howard University in order to provide qualified weather camp graduates an opportunity to advance their forecasting skils by joining our multi-state teams. 

In addition to two of our forecasters having attended the Howard weather camp in 2009 and 2010, Advisor Mr. Foot and Forecaster Dakota Smith presented the Foot's Forecasting concept to several NOAA Weather Camp Directors at the 91st Annual Conference of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) January 27 and 28, 2011. In 2012, two 2011 weather camper and six members of the Foot's Forecast Leadership Team were in attendance at the 2012 AMS conference in New Orleans.

As reported on the weatherworks website: 

"We are now heavily involved in fostering the nationwide growth of Foot's Forecast, an innovative weather forecasting program showcasing the talents of interested high school and underclass college undergraduates. You may wish to check in to see what future meteorologists are capable of delivering in the way of weather services."

A Solar Flare Tuesday

12:50 PM EST 1/24/12 | Largest solar flare/coronal mass ejection since 2005 | The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center has been tracking the most significant solar disruption in 7 years via the ACE (Advanced Composition Explorer) satellite. This 20-second video of the solar flare energy exiting the solar disk was recorded earlier today by NOAA. This link to the Helioviewer Project Blog, contains a Youtube video should be acceptable for viewing in a school under teacher discretion as education content.

You can also view the video at this Facebook page of the Space Weather Prediction Center. Special credit for alerting the Forecast Team to this event goes to Red Apple Post, a Washington, DC area media post-production company that produces epic video products for the Discovery Channel and many media outlets. They also happen to be big fan of Foot's Forecast (and Space Weather). Thanks Red Apple! 

The ACE mission, according the project website at CalTech, is to provide near-real-time 24/7 continuous coverage of solar wind parameters and solar energetic particle intensities (space weather). When reporting space weather, ACE provides an advance warning of about one hour of geomagnetic storms which can overload power grids, disrupt communications on Earth, and present a higher than normal radiation risk to airline travelers, as well as a hazard to human spaceflight.  Source: http://www.srl.caltech.edu/ACE/

(The U.S. Leadership Team of Foot's Forecast)

Get ready for round two

Current image of infrared satellite, surface pressure
and radar from the PSU e-wall

8:45 AM CST 1/23/12 | The low pressure system and cold front responsible for firing off Sunday's severe weather event in the Mid-South has produced a new round of Tornado Watches for portions of Alabama and Georgia until 5:00 PM local time. As the Pacific Northwest slowly climbs out of their ice-encrusted reality, the Northeast is also dealing with a similar winter weather threat. Low-level surface "cold air damming" from central Maryland to Massachusetts to Maine has prompted widespread Freezing Rain Advisories and Winter Weather Advisories across the region. The image below from the NWS Eastern Region headquarters shows the extent of current winter weather statements.

On this diverse day of hazardous weather, as always we urge readers to remain alert to changing conditions, allow extra commuting time, and stay close to your latest NWS forecast office for any watches or warnings. Our team continues to report on these events in our 30+ forecast zones in facebook. To locate the forecast zone nearest you, search for "Foot's Forecast" in facebook. 


If you recently met our Leadership Team at the American Meteorological Society conference in New Orleans, and are interested in joining our team, our online application is available by clicking the "Opening Doors For You" image at left.  

Collaborating to save lives 

and protect property

7:45 AM CST 1/23/12 | Following Sunday's severe weather event in the Mid-South  the loproduced at least 21 suspected tornadoes across 4 states, including 35 reports of hail, some up to 2" in diameter and 118 wind reports. 

The hardest hit was Arkansas, as noted in an update by Affiliate Forecaster Wesley H. ConvectiveWeather at 8:00 PM last night, stating "Strong to severe storms continue to race off toward the north and east across Arkansas this evening. Over the last 15-20 minutes, there have been signs of these storms becoming more linear in nature.several well-organized supercells are noted on radar and are capable of isolated tornadoes (some of which could be strong), damaging winds, and large hail." 

Forecaster Wesley from Texas was one of five college and high school Affiliates or Forecasters on our team who interacted with professionals and meterorologists in managing this outbreak while balancing homework with an eye on the playoff games. From early morning on Sunday to well after midnight this morning, our Severe Weather Team provided updates to our Southeast, Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic pages, reposted NWS watches and warnings for their local zones, and collaborated across multiple states in Facebook. 

Our thanks also goes to Southeast Region Director Daniel Ross, Central Mississippi Meteorologist Shundra Stewart, Metro Atlanta Forecaster and Gwinett County Schools science teacher Jason Isaacs, Mid-Atlantic Forecaster Josh Owens of Maryland Weather Center, Central Virginia Forecaster Nikki Byers, Severe Weather Coordinator Jason Mitchell of our Capital Region, and Forecaster Jason Warren of the Ohio Valley. 

*links are to forecast zones in Facebook.