Assignments

Reading: Nothing new

Homework 1 (due Friday Sep 24, 2004)

Housekeeping

Reviewed questions for Homework 1

Hurricane Ivan:

- Examined the remnants of Hurricane Ivan as it traveled north on the east coast.

- The atmospheric pressure decreased as you moved closer to the center of the hurricane; creating a bull’s-eye shape of isobars. Isobars are lines on a map used to provide a visual representation of areas with equal atmospheric pressure.

- How to decode atmospheric pressure:

Jacksonville, Florida: coded pressure is 118 = decoded 1011.8 millibars

- A hurricane is decreased in status to a tropical storm when winds slow down to

39-74 miles per hour. The symbol for a tropical storm is similar to that of a hurricane, only the center of the circle is not filled in black. If the winds fall below 39 mph the storm would become a tropical depression.

Fronts are lines dividing large masses of air with differing temperatures. Warm fronts are depicted by lines with scallops along the side. Cold fronts are depicted by lines with triangles along the side.

Links from Class Website covered:

-Day 1 Convective Outlook

- Convective is just another word for thunderstorm.

- This is the website for the storm prediction center. It was created by experts in

extreme weather, located in Oklahoma. The site provides an overview to the National Weather Service on the risk of thunderstorms. The map divides areas into segments of risk for thunderstorms. There is also links for other weather events such as hail, wind, and tornados.

-NWS Watches and Warnings

- To see what watches and warnings are in effect select the state of the your

interest. Red states have warnings in effect. Each warning will give a timetable

when the weather will affect a given area, as well as what to do in the situation.

Example: If caught in an unprotected area during a tornado, find a ditch and lay

flat on the ground with your hands covering your head.

-Conceptual Diagram

- This diagram depicts weather radar, which is used for additional information to

determine where it is raining. A beam of energy is sent out; if it encounters an

obstacle (such as a droplet of water) some of the energy is reflected back towards the station, indicating something is out there. So that the beam of energy isn’t reporting back every bird in the sky, it can only detect objects the size of rain droplets.

-NWS Radar Network

- The NWS radar network cost $1 billion to develop. It is also known as the

Doppler radar network system. Our local weather radar is located in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The radar system is so advance it can even pick up tornados. For additional views, click on national, then a location to see local radar, which enables you to see active moving precipitation.