Severe Weather Forecasting

I wanted to follow up on a comment that someone posted in the last entry I had on here talking about severe weather forecasting and wondering if it is actually getting better. By now, I'm sure you've seen some of the tornado damage on TV and some are asking if the death toll could've been reduced if the people in those areas knew ahead of time about the severe weather threat.

I know I'm biased when I say this, but severe weather forecasting is getting better and better with each passing season. Just recently (last year if I remember correctly), the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, OK started highlighting areas of concern for severe weather as many as 8 days in advance. We can't always tell you about a specific severe threat 8 days out, but we can tell you which areas may have severe weather and which day (or days) we are most likely to see the storms. I'm posting an example of the graphic that the Storm Prediction Center puts on their website. In this case, the SE corner of the US has a threat for severe weather on Day 4, which would be Tuesday, Feb. 12.

I have a feeling because we aren't technically in tornado season, most of us are not prepared for a significant outbreak like we had last week. But as we've seen now in 2 different cases, tornado outbreaks do happen in winter time and we should be ready. There is no severe weather (of the springtime variety) in our extended forecast. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Wade, Tornadoes, and a School Visit

Someone requested a picture of my nephew, and I just received some new pictures this week. Here you go; Wade Leland Janssen makes his debut on the blog. He is growing like a weed and it won't be too long before he'll get to go on his first storm chase with me. Alright, so that might be pushing it a little bit and I'm not sure if his mom would be willing to let him go, especially with me.

I had a chance to visit some of the high school kids at Wichita East Tuesday morning. We covered mathematics in meteorology (one area I wasn't so good at in college) and I had the kids doing conversions on the different temperature scales. It was just early enough in the morning that I bribed the kids with chocolate candy for answering some of my questions.

There has been another tornado outbreak already this year. We watched another round of tornadoes hit east of Kansas and there has been significant damage in the Memphis area. I don't know if this is any indication of how our severe weather season will be, but it is definitely off to an early start in places that don't normally get severe weather until April or May. Very interesting to say the least!

Groundhog Day 2008

So the Groundhog saw his shadow on Saturday, which means 6 more weeks of winter. Millie says we will have an early spring, so let's see which one is a better long range forecaster. According to the records, Phil has seen his shadow 97 times in the last 121 years. There have been 15 years where he did not see his shadow, which leaves 9 years where there was no record of his prediction. I was scrolling through some of the pictures from this years event and I thought this one was just fitting for the election that is coming up this year.

We will be going through some changes in the weather pattern this week, so expect some big fluctuations in the temperatures through the next 8-10 days. There will be some 60s this week, but there will also be some days in the 30s too. Tuesday will be one of those days.

In an effort to keep the blog somewhat professional, I'm trying to keep some of my personal life out of the blog. I appreciate each and every one of you and your comments are always fun to read. The regular bloggers (and you know who you are) do a great job of keeping it interesting and I want you to continue to post the things that may be on your mind, or questions you have about the weather. Questions about my relationship status are not ones I want to continually discuss, and I hope that everyone will understand. What did you think of the Super Bowl?