Sunset in Rain Gauge

Panoramic sky Sunday 12/28/14

Saturday rain

Sunset

Tuesday sunset

As Seen on TV

Clouds on a December Day, 2014

11/26/2014

https://www.storehouse.co/stories/o5axj-first-alert-weather-network-report-11-26-14

As seen on tv

Fall at EES

Flowers of Fall, 2014

Lunar Eclipse Blood Moon

Sunday

Big cool down over night. 43° at 7:00AM. 

Foggy Tuesday

Sky photos

Sky Observation

Sunny Day

cumulus clouds 

Mushroom

Sunday Morning

0.89" of rain in past 24 hours at CoCoRaHS station NCCL3 Chadbourn 1.1NNW. 

Sunny Day

Friday Fungus

The National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) needs your help with our research!

The meteorological Phenomena Identification Near the Ground Project (mPING) needs you, the Citizen Scientist, to watch and report on precipitation and weather-related conditions. 

mPING is looking for volunteers of all ages and backgrounds to make observations - teachers, classes, families, farmers, gardeners, construction workers, truck drivers, everyone and anyone! This app and associated web pages are your portal to providing observations to research meteorologists at NSSL that will help us develop and refine algorithms that use the newly upgraded dual-polarization NEXRAD radars and the latest, high-resolution numerical weather models. With the data you provide, we can build better algorithms that will allow more timely forecasts and warnings of hazardous weather conditions. To do a good job, we need tens of thousands of observations from all over the US.  We can succeed only with your help.

As an mPING volunteer observer you can spend as much time as you want, from a little to a lot, making observations. The basic idea is simple: NSSL collects radar data from NEXRAD radars in your area along withsounding  and other data from our numerical weather models during storm events, and merge these data with your observations to develop and validate new and better algorithms. We have two focus areas: cold season precipitation type, and warm season precipitation type along with severe weather observations. Cold season precipitation includes rain, freezing rain, drizzle, freezing drizzle, snow, ice pellets, mixed rain and snow, mixed ice pellets and snow, mixed snow and ice pellets and even observations of none when the precipitation has stopped. Warm season includes rain, hail (along with measured size with a  ruler is best but stay safe no matter what), wind damage form thunderstorms, flooding and tornadoes along with their cousins, water spouts. We also include visibility reductions due to dense fog or blowing sand/dust and even landslides/mudslides.

We need your observations because radars cannot see close to the ground at far distances and because automated surface sensors are only at airports. But the people affected by weather areeverywhere so we need you to tell us what is happening where you are. The same goes for severe weather and visibility restrictions. Landslides/mudslides are important even if they are small because we need to understand better the conditions that cause them. All you need to do is use this app to select the precipitation type or phenomenon.

 

Tell us whats out there! NSSL scientists will use your report with all the other data available to us to develop new technologies and techniques to better inform and warn you about weather-related conditions and hazards.

For additional information on the mPING project see http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/projects/pingor 

contact Kim Elmore at kelmore@ou.edu. 

A video explanation is available here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6UM5Xg3C3s

Photos from July 22, 2014

0.61" recorded Tuesday, 7/22/14

Outflow boundary clouds

Monday morning

68° under the carport. No rain in the past 24 hours. Winds are calm. 

Look closely and you can see my dad's "hayburners". 

Hurricane Arthur Grazes Chadbourn

CoCoRaHS rain gauge

0.53 inches of rain recorded 7/3/14 Chadbourn, NC

Friday pics

Dark storm clouds dropped around 0.4" Friday in my rain gauge. Crime is so bad, we opted to reconnect an alarm system in a storage building. 

Friday clouds

Roundup from around our County

Sunday- Mother's Day

Rain from Mid-week Storm

Surviving an Ice Storm: Things I would do differently

Ice on the branch of a shrub at my house

We all joked and snickered when we first heard about the snow storms coming and with that said, how did you survive the power outage? What hardships did you have when the power stayed out longer than you thought?  

What could you have done to have been better prepared?

I can sum it up in one word: COLD. 

Here's a link to a website that I am visiting in the aftermath of what was the longest time I have ever been without power in the 30 plus years I've lived in the house. 

I wanted to learn more about what the experts say about preparing for this kind of event.

http://www.ready.gov/winter-weather 

This resource has a step by step process. 

• Be Informed
• Make a Plan
• Build a Kit
• Get Involved

Be Informed: 

• Before winter, add the following supplies to your emergency kit:
  • Rock salt or more environmentally safe products to melt ice on walkways. In our humid area, this is difficult to store. 
  • Sand to improve traction. I fellow educator posted on his Facebook page that he "used kitty litter". 
  • Snow shovels and other snow removal equipment. I've lived here for 58 years and never seen a time I would use a snow shovel. However, a square front shovel can be used for may year round tasks and works on sidewalks too.
  • Sufficient heating fuel. You may become isolated in your home and regular fuel sources may be cut off. Store a good supply of dry, seasoned wood for your fireplace or wood-burning stove.
  • Adequate clothing and blankets to keep you warm. If you have not gained too much weight since the last time you went duck hunting, those are cloths made for no heat. Layering worked for me.
• Make a Family Plan. What do you do if a limb comes though your roof or lands on your vehicle? What do you do when the power is off over 24 hours? Do you have a burglar alarm? If so, the batteries in them do not last forever. Replace them every four years. Your monitoring service will try to call you when your battery starts running low. There are steps you must take to protect your expensive alarm equipment. Make sure you contact your service provider well in advance and ask them about what to do. Your family may not be together when disaster strikes, so it is important to know how you will contact one another, how you will get back together and what you will do in case of an emergency. Have your phone numbers in your phone, backed up on your computer or tablet. Make sure you have that file downloaded to your device. If the battery dies on one device, your contact info needs to be available on them all. This is a good use of one of those water proof notepads. 
• Listen to a NOAA Weather Radio or other local news channels for critical information from the National Weather Service (NWS). Be alert to changing weather conditions. If your weather radio is not receiving the weekly test alerts, be safe and attend a Weather Radio Programming event. My recommendation, when you have weather radio problems: buy a new radio, follow the instructions and setup the radio or get help.  
• Minimize travel. If travel is necessary, keep a disaster supplies kit in your vehicle. I volunteered to stream video for a TV Weather crew. I should have loaded a disaster supplies kit in my vehicle for that adventure. I called it Storm Creeping instead of Storm Chasing. Instead of chasing and running fast like my pants were on fire, I eased out on the road and never got over 40 MPH. That was only on a stretch of road I has just driven on and felt very confident that it was completely dry. When it was sleeting, and the road was still too warm for accumulations, I creeped along. 
• Bring pets/companion animals inside during winter weather. Move other animals or livestock to sheltered areas with non-frozen drinking water. One more tip from my dog groomer, hay. If you have animals in a shelter, make sure they have fresh, dry soft hay. As your local farm supply or dog groomer where to get the soft kind of hay. My pet is an inside dog.

Flipagram - January 30, 2014

sleet continues to fall

Winter Storm January 2014