News from Jason's Weather Center 5/7/07

NEW WEATHER PROGRAM AT JWC!

Last Wednesday, something very special happened...my birthday! Because of my birthday, I received a gift of SwiftWx storm tracking software. While this program is not especially crucial in running the website, it allows me to track storms across the entire United States with ease. I can jump from severe weather in South Florida to blizzards in the Pacific Northwest with just a few clicks. To help run this and all of my old software, I am also upgrading my computer's RAM by increasing it from about 640 MB to over 1 GB of RAM! This will allow me to run more programs, easier, which is very important during severe weather outbreaks or hurricanes.

GREAT HURRICANE GUIDE FROM NWS LAKE CHARLES

Speaking of hurricanes, Hurricane Season 2007 is only 25 days away. The National Weather Service in Lake Charles, Louisiana has put out a great preparedness guide with specific information for southwestern and south-central Louisiana. This includes Lake Charles, Lafayette, New Iberia, and Morgan City. It has specific storm surge maps, historic hurricane information (e.g. Audrey, Lili, Rita, etc), and more! To download it, go to http://www.srh.weather.gov/lch/tropical/2007LCHHurricaneGuide.pdf. This file is a .pdf and requires Adobe Acrobat Reader to open, which most computers have, but if you need it, you can download it for free at http://www.adobe.com.

BROTHER'S WEBSITE

Also, my brother has been begging me relentlessly to post a link to his video games and comic books website. You can access it at http://www.freewebs.com/presstart.

UPCOMING STUFF

• Hurricane Season 2007 (Starts June 1, 2007): Tropical Weather page will be fully operation on this date. You can go there now to access information on this year's predictions, and trust me, they don't look good. :(
• April 2007 Weather Summary: due to an enormous pile of things to do, weather or not (no pun intended), the April 2007 weather summary will be out A.S.A.P. as I am trying to get it out before May is over.

ANNOUNCEMENT - I NEED PICTURES

If you have interesting weather pictures, you can email them to me at weatherguy08@gmail.com. Please include your name, email address, location of picture, and date the picture was taken. Do not worry, the only information that will be visible to visitors is your first name and the picture's location, date, and description.

ANNOUNCEMENT - MAILING LIST

If you would like to be added to my mailing list for the following things, send me an email at weatherguy08@gmail.com with "Add Me to Your List" in the subject bar.

• Slight, Moderate, or High Risk of Severe Weather
• A tropical cyclone enters or forms in the Gulf of Mexico
• Tropical Storm/Hurricane Watches/Warnings are issued for portions of the Louisiana Coast
• Widespread rainfall totals of up to three inches are expected
• Winter weather is expected
• Any other significantly hazardous severe weather

ANNOUNCEMENT - WEBSITE SURVEY

If you have not taken my website survey, please take it as it is short, anonymous, and will help me improve the website to meet everyone's needs. Remember, you can also post questions in comments in the guest book. You can get links for the survey and guest book on my home page.

Tragedy in Kansas

At around 9:37 PM on Friday, May 4, 2007, a powerful tornado totally devastated the entire town of Greensburg, Kansas about 135 miles west of Wichita, Kansas. This tornado was rated an EF-5, the highest on the Enhanced Fujita Scale and the first of this category since a powerful tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma on May 3, 1999 killing 36 people. As of Monday evening, the Greensburg Tornado has killed at least ten people. Below is an aerial photo of the devastation as well as a radar loop. For the National Weather Service in Dodge City, Kansas page on the tornado, go to http://www.crh.noaa.gov/crnews/display_story.php?wfo=ddc&storyid=7828&source=0 and for information on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Fujita_Scale.

Powerful Supercell Devastates Greensburg, Kansas

Last night at around 10:00 PM, I was watching a severe weather outbreak across parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska when I noticed a powerful "classic" supercell move through Greensburg, Kansas about 135 miles west of Wichita, Kansas. By definition, a supercell is a severe thunderstorm with a deep, persistent, rotating updraft. They can produce a range of weather from damaging winds to hail to heavy rain to tornadoes. The one that hit Greensburg produced a powerful tornado which destroyed over 75% of the city according to Fox News. As of 3:45 PM Saturday, seven people have been killed by this storm. Here are some radar images of the supercell as well as a sketch of the structure of a supercell.

Base Reflectivity Radar image showing the well-defined "hook echo" to the northeast of Greensburg. The white pixels are likely large hailstones being detected by radar. The tornado is inside the green pixels inside the "hook".

Storm Relative Motion image showing a "couplet" northeast of Greensburg. Green and blue colors are storm areas moving towards the radar while red and yellow colors are storm areas moving away from the radar. Therefore, yellow against blue indicates that the areas are moving towards each other and shows us where the mesocyclone is located.

Diagram of a classic supercell thunderstorm (source: Wikipedia)