Moore, Oklahoma. May 3rd, 1999

             My presentation was about the massive F5 tornado that went on a 38-mile journey through Moore, Oklahoma on May 3rd, 1999. This causing 46 deaths, 800 injuries, about 8000 homes damaged/destroyed, and over $1.5 billion in damages. Fema reacting immediatley, opening shelters to about 1,600 people overnight.Roughly $180,000 had been approved by FEMA for disaster housing assistance by May 9. By May 13, increasing to more than $5.9 million over the following five days. It was also the deadliest, costliest  and most violent tornado ever on record in the area.

 

Carl-Gustaf Arvid Rossby

Demarco Woody 10/26/14

Summary

What I thought about Carl-Gustaf Arvid Rossby is that he was the first to explain the large-scale motions of the atmosphere in terms of fluid mechanics at that time. Also that Rossby came into meteorology and oceanography while studying under Vilhelm Bjerknes in Bergen in 1919. What i thought that was cool that In 1925 Rossby was granted a fellowship from the Sweden-America Foundation to study the application of the polar front theory to American weather. Also that when he died that they would  on Time magazine because of his contributions to meteorology. What was also cool was that During World War II, Rossby organized the training of military meteorologists, recruiting many of them to his Chicago department in the post-war years. the thing that really caught my attention was that after the war he visited Professor Hans Ertel, an old friend, in Berlin. Their cooperation led to the mathematical formulation of Rossby waves. Thats what i thought mainly the things that i thought that was interesting for my project.

Aristotle: The Father of Meteorology

This past friday, I presented on Aristotle and his contributions to the Meteorology field. What Ive presented is that Aristotle while being a philosopher and a polymath, wrote a Book named De Meteoris, and this was the introduction to the sub-science we now call Meteorology. Although the use of the word has been narrowed down to the weather, Aristotle wrote about what he observed in the earth, and his theories about it. Some of the things that he observed were Water Vapor, the water cycle, tornadoes, lighting, and the original four elements (earth, fire, wind, air). For all of these things he has been regarded as the Creator of Meteorology.

Creating Supercooled Water

supercooled water (n.):  water that is still a liquid even though its temperature is below freezing

Check out these videos, courtesy of Marcellus, Marco, and Farrad, which show the flash freezing of supercooled water:

Washing Out Loveland, Colorado

The Big Thompson Canyon Flood (1976)

My presentation was on the Big Thompson Canyon Flood which was Colorado's worst natural disaster. Only July, 31 1976, it began as a weak moist easterly flow that began on the east side of the Rocky Mountains. The moist air had risen up the mountain slopes and combined with the daytime heat to form thunderstorms which moved to Fort Range and began to rain heavily around 6 p.m. The winds in that region were not strong enough to push the storm out of the Big Thompson Valley and it remained stationary for more than three hours dumping more than a foot of rain into the canyon. The rain caused the river's water level to raise to nineteen feet high and speed down the 25 mile long river to Loveland,  Colorado where there were around 4,000 people in the Big Thompson Canyon during Colorado's centennial fishing, hiking, camping, etc. Along the way, the flood destroyed 316 homes, 45 mobile homes, 52 businesses, and 483 automobiles that were along the river bank and in the canyon. The flood also washed away most of Highway 34 which was along the river throughout most of the canyon. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were contacted to remove destroyed automobiles as well as over 300,000 cubic yards of debris from the canyon with a total of $1.6 million in clean up costs. The flood left a total of about $35 million in damages and 143 people dead including five people who were unaccounted for. Most people were killed trying to drive out of the canyon ahead of the flood rather than climb to higher ground and many were unsuccessful causing them to be swept away to their deaths. A total of 840 people were evacuated from the area by helicopter with 250 people reporting injuries. The people in the canyon were not officially warned by deputies and patrolmen, and were only warned by word of mouth. Many people however, did not believe the warnings because the thunderstorm had not reached their area. In effect after the flood, Colorado instituted "Climb to Safety In Case of a Flood" signs along it's mountain roads and highways. Larimer county installed a reverse 911 emergency home system that broadcasts phone calls so that those in danger areas can be warned. The National Weather Service teamed up with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Weather Radio for county - by - county coverage of any disasters. With these new advancements, Colorado can now be more prepared for any future natural disasters so that there may never be as many deaths or damages as there was with the Big Thompson Canyon Flood.

Edward Lorenz & The Chaos Theory

My powerpoint presentation was on Edward Lorenz and his contribution to modern meteorology. At first Edward was a mathematician but after coming from WWII helping as a meteorologist he knew meteorology was a passion. He studied at MIT, Harvard and Dartmouth, and was a professor at MIT. Edward and many others contributed to the chaos theory; scientifically unpredictable surprises, things that can't be graphed. In the chaos theory there are six principles; the butterfly effect, unpredictability, mixing, feedback, order/disorder, and fractals. Edward saw that weather forecasting was extremely difficult due to the simple fact that there are too many factors that make it impossible to correctly predict the outcome of weather patterns. He created some formulas that show us the movement of air in the atmosphere, when graphed creates a lorenz attractor. This makes weather forecasting possible and more precise.

°F

 Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit was a polish merchant who had a fascination in natural science, mostly about temperature. Following his fascination, he went to Germany to study physics and thermometry. After settling as a glassblower, he conducted an experiment to remove alcohol from the thermometer and replace it with mercury. Being the first to invent the in-glass mercury thermometer, he also developed a scale to follow it known as degrees Fahrenheit. Keeping his invention to himself for almost 18 years, once made public he was elected to the Fellows of the Royal Society and degrees Fahrenheit has been used to measure temperature in Europe since then until the 19th century.

Flattening Florida

Hurricane Andrew (1992)
A tropical wave which came off the west coast of Africa quickly became a ferocious natural disaster that would devastate millions of lives in the southern part of the United States. The hurricane didn't show much promise to the agents at the weather service.  The hurricane only five days before making landfall on the US was forecasted at a 50% chance of hitting the nation. In addition the Weather Service told its listeners that even if it were to hit, it would be nothing more than average. This flawed information soon was discovered distorted when the storm's strength erupted into a full blown category 5 hurricane directly aimed at the Bahamas and Florida. The beast unleashed its wrath on America early in the morning on August 24th in Homestead, Florida. The hurricane contained swirling winds that were calculated to reach 165 mph and led to the deaths of 66 civilians nationwide and the destruction or damage of 125,000 homes. Many schools and thousands of business were destroyed and cost the state of Florida alone, $25-26.5 billion in damages. Hurricane Andrew was an unique storm for the reason that it had a "double eye wall". This is literally one eye about 8 miles wide inside a larger one about 25 miles wide. This natural disaster destroyed an extensive amount of Florida's natural wildlife and obliterating 70,000 acres of mangroves in the Everglades. There are still lingering effects of the storm with businesses out of commission and acres of empty land, where  houses previously held their foundation. One positive effect of the storm was the improvement of the inadequate building code. The system encouraged for owners to "hurricane proof" their houses to make it sustainable and give their houses a fighting chance against extremities such as Andrew. Hurricane Andrew might've damaged America ,but the everlasting strength of the home of the brave has once again surpassed the wrath of a natural disaster.