Working Together is Important

Maybe you heard about it on the national news, but this week the director of the National Hurricane Center left his position. There is some speculation as to exactly what happened, but it seems to be that he had trouble getting along with other people at the hurricane center. It was bad enough that a petition was circling the office asking for him to step down from his post before the center gets busy with tropical weather activity. You hate to rain on this guy's parade, but you have to be able to work with people, even though you might not always see eye-to-eye.


Bill Proenza, former director at the NHC, also upset people by making comments about a failing satellite that might affect the accuracy of their forecasts. While it may be an inconvenience to be without this satellite, there are several other tools available to meteorologists at the NHC that will keep their forecasts on track. No need to worry about just one satellite. We have redundancy in weather for many reasons and this is a good example why.


Imagine a major hurricane bearing down on the US and everyone at the hurricane center starts to look like this guy.









It is scary to think about, but I think they finally have things under control for the upcoming hurricane season... at least we hope. Otherwise, there will be thousands of people along the coast without critical information.

Rain, Weather Patterns, and Summer

As I write this entry, it is 80 degrees outside and a good evening to just be outdoors. How are you spending your summer? I'm not sure about you, but it seems like the summer is moving along at a fast pace. I think it's because we are all staying busy and it goes faster as we get older (I'm finding that out fast).

I've had a few questions regarding the heat in the west and other questions about the heavy rainfall that has fallen recently in Kansas. The hot weather in the west is nothing unusual for this time of the year. Remember, the jet stream is tracking near the Canada/US border, so south of this jet stream is where you find the warmer temperatures. The jet stream doesn't move much until we get into September, so the hot weather will continue in the west. There is some connection to the heavy rainfall in Kansas too. Cold fronts that drop out of the north usually make it to Kansas and then stop. When the fronts stop on Kansas, we tend to get heavy rainfall events. The extremely high moisture content in the atmosphere was another reason why we ended up with 17 and 18 inch rainfall amounts. A similar situation could be on the way this week with several rounds of storms, but lets hope it doesn't get that bad.

I like putting pictures on here and we did get a good one this week from Robin Eshelman. The deer in the picture don't look to happy about the situation. Swimming must not be their forte. By the way, after spending some time at home for the holiday, I noticed a HUGE increase in the toad population. They literally cover the road and it's impossible to dodge them with a vehicle. Just thought I would share.

Tropical Weather In Kansas

The rainfall and humidity has been excessive in some areas this spring and early summer. It almost reminds me of Costa Rica, which sees rainfall almost every afternoon because of its location in the tropics.

I visited Costa Rica almost 7 years ago to the date as part of an all-expense paid trip through the National FFA Organization (an organization that teaches leadership, personal success, and career growth through agricultural education). In order to quality for the trip, you had to be nominated for a national award and then be interviewed by a panel of judges. A tedious process worked out in my favor and I was fortunate to get the opportunity to travel with a great group of FFA students, most of them 4 or 5 years older than me at the time.

I don't want to bore you with all the details of the trip, but our purpose was to spend 10 days in Costa Rica learning how agricultural practices are different from those in the United States. The weather is ideal for growing sugar cane, bananas, pineapple, and coffee beans, which keep the farmers in that area busy almost year round. I had the chance to pick coffee beans by hand, but that was before the tour guide informed us there are pit vipers that hide in the coffee plants. Refer to my blog entry called "Facing Your Fear". I hate snakes!

We did see all kinds of different animals in our journey through Costa Rica. The best part about the trip was soaking in the hot springs just outside of San Jose. The water is natually heated by Volcano Arenal, which erupts almost daily. If there is a big interest in other details, I'll write more in another entry. Enjoy the pictures and look for a KWCH connection in a few of them.