WAFF Weather

A great Friday for sunset pictures.

Take a look at some of the sunset pictures for November 9th sent in by WAFF 48 viewers.  A great way to start the weekend.

Dana Thomas from Grant.

Dust in the wind..

8am in Madison, AL.  filtered sunshine this morning.

After high winds battered the drought stricken areas of the Central and High Plains Thursday afternoon we are seeing a layer of dust in the atmosphere this morning.  You may have noticed this on the way to work or while dropping off the kids at school this morning.  The dust is acting like a filter and it almost looks like we are having a solar eclipse this morning.  

 Here are some of the wind reports from Thursday afternoon from the National Weather Service in Rapid City, South Dakota.

High Winds buffet the Black Hills Region 

October 18, 2012 - An intense storm system tracking across the northern tier of the United States produced very strong wind gusts over the Black Hills region. Gusty winds developed behind a cold front that crossed the area during the evening of Tuesday, October 16; then increased during the early morning of October 17. The highest gust recorded Wednesday was 73 mph near Parmalee on the Rosebud Indian Reservation.  Thursday's highest gust was 81 mph at the National Weather Service office in Rapid City.  

 The table below lists the peak wind gusts in mph for weather stations across South Dakota.

LOCATION	TYPE OF OBSERVATION	WIND Oct 17	GUSTS Oct 18
SOUTH DAKOTA
Badlands National Park /   8 S Wall	RAWS	64	65
8 SW Batesland	Dept of Highways	46	57
1 N Belle Fourche	Broadcast Media	52	50
Belle Fourche Airport	AWOS	56	52
14 NW Belle Fourche	Dept of Highways	57	55
32 N Belle Fourche	RAWS	61	56
10 NE Belvidere	Dept of Highways	67	74
1 W Box Elder	Dept of Highways	55	72
Bison	Mesonet	58	56
Bison	Airport	63	62
1 N Buffalo	ASOS	71	63
14 ESE Buffalo	Mesonet	56	49
4 E Cactus Flat	Dept of Highways	64	65
2 E Cottonwood	Mesonet	55	59
Custer Airport	ASOS	52	51
Custer State Park	RAWS	50	45
Dupree	Broadcast Media	63	N/A
Eagle Butte Airport	AWOS	62	63
1 SW South Eagle Butte	Mesonet	59	58
10 W Edgemont	Dept of Highways	57	61
Ellsworth AFB	Other Federal	58	74
Faith Airport	ASOS	68	71
2 W Hamill	Mesonet	64	62
Hot Springs	Broadcast Media	45	38
Hot Springs Airport	AWOS	52	38
Kadoka	Broadcast Media	59	58
Lemmon	Mesonet	82	69
3 W Lemmon	Dept of Highways	64	56
Lemmon Airport	AWOS	62	57
4 N Ludlow	Dept of Highways	63	57
Martin	Mesonet	51	56
Martin	Broadcast Media	51	59
Martin Airport	AWOS	49	62
15 SE Mission	Dept of Highways	67	74
Nemo	Other Federal	48	58
Newell	Broadcast Media	66	59
2 NW Pactola	Dept of Highways	47	61
6 W Parmalee	RAWS	73	72
Pine Ridge Airport	ASOS	47	39
4 NW Pine Ridge	Broadcast Media	45	41
Philip Airport	ASOS	60	66
1 NW Piedmont	Mesonet	45	63
5 NE Porcupine	RAWS	57	57
Downtown Rapid City	Official NWS Obs	67	81
Downtown Rapid City	Broadcast Media	52	68
1 S Downtown Rapid City	Broadcast Media	41	50
Rapid City Airport	ASOS	67	70
Downtown Spearfish	Broadcast Media	50	50
Spearfish / Black Hills Airport	AWOS	51	51
Downtown Sturgis	Broadcast Media	55	57
Sturgis Airport	AWOS	61	69
Fort Meade	RAWS	57	N/A
Union Center	Mesonet	72	73
3 NW Wasta	Dept of Highways	64	73
Wall Airport	AWOS	57	63
White River	Mesonet	51	52
Winner Airport	ASOS	63	59
WYOMING
Beulah	Dept of Highways	49	44
2 NE Echeta	RAWS	57	49
Gillette-Campbell County Airport	ASOS	48	48
14 SW Gillette	Dept of Highways	46	42
Newcastle Airport	AWOS	53	N/A
5 NW Osage	Trained Spotter	69	N/A
Pine Haven	Trained Spotter	44	42
15 SW Sundance	Dept of Highways	47	47
25 N Weston	Trained Spotter	58	48
25 SE Wright	RAWS	48	50

This image on Twitter Thursday afternoon shows several semi tractor trailors that were blown off the road.  Many interstate highways from Oklahoma to the Dakotas had to be shut down Thursday.

 

The high winds spread south into Kansas and Oklahoma.  Here is a satellite image from the National Weather Service in Wichita, KS.  You can clearly see the dust in the image.

This picture from KAKE TV in Wichita, Kansas shows just one of the wrecks along I-35 close to the Oklahoma/Kansas state line.


This is the 700mb weather chart for Friday morning.  You can see the arrows indicating the wind direction.  The wind between 8,000 and 20,000 feet is blowing the dust from Kansas and Oklahoma into the Tennessee Valley.  This is why we are seeing the dust and filtered sunshine this morning.  It looks like most of this dust will stay in the upper atmosphere.  If we had rain in the forecast it would be a dirty rain that's for sure.

Pictures below from the interenet.  No source given.

During the dust bowl of the 30s days like this probably happened a lot.   For more on the dust bowl you can check out this link.  

http://www.weru.ksu.edu/new_weru/multimedia/dustbowl/dustbowlpics.html

Brad Travis
Chief Meteorologist
WAFF 48 Storm Team
We Track Storms 

 

Fall colors coming out.

Mother nature is beginning to put on her October show across the Tennessee Valley.  The typical peak for fall colors around here is late October.  This can change slightly from year to year depending on early season frosts and below normal rainfall.  Thanks to some near normal rainfall the past two months we should see a pretty good display over the next two weeks before the incoming winter cold fronts blow the leaves from the trees. 

You can share your fall colors with our viewers by sending them to pix@waff.com

 

The main reason we see the colors change this time of year has to due with the fact we are losing sunlight.  This is a critial part of photosynthesis.  The colors begin to change first over the Northeast and Great Lakes.  This is because that part of the country begins to lose daylight hours sooner and at a faster rate.  Here is the equation for photosynthesis.

     6CO₂ + 6H₂O + light → C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂.

Photosysthesis requires carbon dioxide, water and sunlight and occurs mainly in the leaves.  All of these substances must be obtained by or transported to the leaves.  This process creates green chlorophyll.   The loss of sunlight causes the plants to give up and go dormant.  The leaves begin to change color and the trees begin to feed off the root system.  In a drought the loss of water has the same affect.  An early season frost or freeze will speed up the process.

For more information on how trees prepare for winter click on this link. http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/leaves.html

 

Northern Lights in Alabama

We have been talking about increased solar activity lately and the possibility of communication and satellite interrupts because of it. 

Coronal Mass Ejection     courtesy  http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2010/08/from_the_sun_to_your_sky_in_ju.php

 However one of the beauties  that happens when highly charged electrons from the solar wind interact with elements in the earth's atmosphere is the Auroras Boreales.  This is also known as the Northern Lights.

It is very rare to see them this far south but many North Alabama residents saw them early Monday evening. 

 

This picture below is an example of what you might have seen.  This picture was taken by Mike Kingston in Alaska.

 

  More information on the Auroras Boreales can be found here. http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/atmospheric/question471.htm

 

More information on space weather at www.spaceweather.com

Brad Travis

Sunset from Research Park today on the ALFA Camera Network

The sun is setting earlier eveyday but today's was worth another look.  Sunset at 6:40pm.  I will have a timelape of it tonight on WAFF 48 News at Ten.

 
 
 
 
 
 

Radar vs ALFA Camera

This is what this cell looked like on radar around 5:22pm.  It's the red dot over southeastern Morgan County.

 

The image from the same time on our ALFA camera network from Decatur.  The cell is 18 miles away.  The top of the cumulus cloud is 15,000 in the air.

 

Sunday evening's spectacular lightning show over Limestone County

Lightning is the under-rated killer.  These pictures taken by Craig Shamwell show you the beauty as well. 

Lightning travels at very close to the speed of light (186,000 miles per second).

Thunder  travels at the speed of sound which is 768 miles per hour.

This is why you see the lightning before you hear the thunder. If you see the lightning and  count five seconds and then hear the thunder that means the storm is about 1 mile away from you.  This is because it takes thunder about five seconds to travel a mile.  If you count to ten between seeing the flash and hearing the thunder it is two miles away. 

Lightning can strike at least 10 miles away from the parent thunderstorm.  It's always a good idea to follow the 30 30 rule from the National Weather Service.

Lightning 30/30 rule: If it takes less than 30 seconds to hear thunder after seeing the flash, lightning is near enough to pose a threat; after the storm ends, wait 30 minutes before resuming outdoor activities.

 

 
 
 
 

Snow in Cloverdale.

A picture from Amanda South in Cloverdale.

Russellville, AL Reports anywhere from 7-10 inches in the Shoals. 10 in Leighton in Colbert County

Russellville ALFA Camera

 
 
 

Decatur, AL Reports across Morgan County vary from about 5-8 inches around 12:45am.

ALFA Camera in Decatur