As Big As It Gets

You don't see this very often. Check out the above storm report from Harper County, Oklahoma. See the second number, 425? That's the diameter of the hail -- 4.25".

Craving severe weather? Be careful what you wish for -- we may get some late Sunday, although any falling chunks of ice will be much smaller.

Too Pretty

I had to grab this picture, processed from the National Weather Service Doppler radar out of Dodge City, KS.

Kansas has been hot with violent weather this spring. This impressive line of supercell thunderstorms produces several tornadoes, widespread nickel-to-golfball-size hail and winds of 80 mph.

The white arrows represent the direction of a relentless 20-30 mph wind, pumping moist air into the convective system. The purple arrows represent a stiff wind caused by an expanding pool of rain-cooled air knows as outflow. The two airmasses converge along the gust front, which shows up beautifully as a ribbon of blue.

The yellow arrows show where humid air is being accelerated into a rotating updraft. Note how the gust front curls into the supercell. You can see how the precipitation twists around the mesocyclone. Note the curl of purple (large hail) embedded within the deeper reds (hail and blinding rain). The white circle is where everything comes together, and where you would find funnel clouds or a tornado.

The Birthday Boy

Our son turned two on Sunday. Even at this age, he loves Star Wars. In the picture, you see him wielding his light sabre. It appears by the color of his sabre blade, he's already turned to the dark side.

Save Big

A quick scan of CNN this morning to see if anything major was happening; instead I get Gerri Willis handing out tips on how to lessen the financial blow when you fill 'er up.

Of course, the only thing you can really do is buy a Prius or move to Venezuela. Or take your Prius to Venezuela and drive all year for $80 -- I'm not kidding.

The tips on CNN were hysterical, such as: take the roof rack off of your car. Yeah... that'll save a ton. I Googled "gas saving tips" and found numerous lists. Many suggested: don't drive around with a bunch of stuff tied to your roof rack -- it causes air resistance. I'm guessing a producer at CNN -- or perhaps Gerri herself -- found a similar list and conveyed the wrong information.

I Never Thought I'd See It...

I never thought I'd see the day a network news organization tried to fake a reporter being on-scene. Congratulations to NBC 2.0 for pulling it off.

NBC Nightly News is clearly trying to make you think the reporter pictured above is standing on-scene near a Florida wildfire. The casual dress... the baseball cap... nobody dresses like that in the studio. But this reporter clearly is in the studio, standing in front of a chroma-wall overlaid with video, just like a TV meteorologist would do with weather graphics. The back of her shoulders and the top of her hat are getting blasted from above by studio lights, and check out that killer shadow on her forehead.

Brian Williams was very careful never to say she was in Florida; instead, she was simply reporting on the fires.

Notes On The News

Ironically, I don't watch much local news -- I have no need for the weather, and I'm satisfied reading the paper or pulling information off the web. I needed something to do Thursday night while I munched my granola cereal, so I turned on News10's late news. I like watching News10 because they make Steve Caporizzo say, "STORM TRACKER LIVE HIGH DEFINITION DOPPLER RADAR".

Someone Needs To Say It

One of their stories was about Schalmont High School, and how the compost on the athletic field stinks. One student, Stacy Heller, went home with a "bad headache" because of the smell. News10 reported that her mother won't force her to return to school.

Folks, it's exactly this whining attitude that makes the rest of the world hate us. A girl who refuses to attend school because she doesn't like the way the air smells -- only in America. Don't believe this girl's a complainer? Read the blurb she posted on a message board: "I would like to comment on the school lunches, i belive there should be more served to you...and you should be able to wear tube tops and short shorts.and i also think that womens thongs should be able to peek out and get soem fresh air during the day. because during a regular day, many things can get sweaty and need to breath."

Based on the spelling and punctuation errors in her post, I'd encourage Ms. Heller to get her butt back to school.

Class

News10 also reported that Schenectady Mayor Brian Stratton will be running for re-election. Watching the report, it looked like Mr. Stratton and the Dem's went all-out for the announcement, as the event came complete with red, plastic drinking cups and balloons.

Fighting Words

And finally, News10 -- searching for that next angle -- decided to "stir things up" by getting a Siena College economics professor to explore the not-so-peachy side of Sematech's humongous U-Albany expansion. Dr. Richard Shirey said the Sematech headquarters would increase traffic, and lead to higher home assessments and taxes. What -- no U-Albany prof. was available?

Weather Summary

Just a small threat for a shower or t'storm this Friday. Winds will turn westerly, bringing in some drier air.

Cooler and breezy for the weekend; but with plenty of sun, it'll be nice.

Tornadoes

Amazing... 91 tornado reports on Saturday. That's a pretty significant outbreak. Reading the reports reveals the incredible processes that were occurring in the atmosphere.

LARGE WALL CLOUD WITH MULTIPLE VORTICES

TWO TORNADOES ON GROUND AT THE SAME TIME. LARGE WEDGE TORNADO 6 MILES NORTH OF DILLWYN...ANOTHER MULTI VORTEX TORNADO WAS SPOTTED ABOUT HALF MILE EAST OF THE WEDGE TORNADO

HAIL UP TO SOFTBALL SIZE

The spring that follows an El Nino episode is typically rich with violent thunderstorms in Tornado Alley. It appears this spring is no exception.

Tornadoes

I've written about this subject before, but I feel it's interesting enough to re-visit... again, and again.

It does not need to be hot -- or even warm -- for a tornado to occur; however, the air does need to be moist. The picture above is from the Sioux Falls, South Dakota, National Weather Service Doppler radar. Conditions for tornadic thunderstorms in this region were ideal when I grabbed the image. Note the white numbers, which show temperatures across a warm front. North of the warm front, temperatures are only in the 60s -- not exactly balmy.

You also need wind shear. The blue arrow shows the flow of a stiff, 30 mph wind. Well above the ground, the wind turns, blowing from the SSW at 70 mph.

Numerous tornado warnings were in effect when I grabbed this image. The most notable storm is circled, where you can clearly see a tornadic, Doppler signature.

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The tornado that demolished Greensburg, Kansas was a wedge tornado. The first 2/3 of the video below nicely shows the evolution of such an event -- it's not of the Greensburg tornado, but instead of a tornado which occurred several years ago. WARNING: THIS VIDEO CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE

Identifying The Problem

The Yankees lost 11-15 to the Mariners last night. Almost everyone blames the loss on poor pitching, but Derek Jeter going 0-6 didn't help.

Why the poor performance by Jeter? I think I've found the answer. Watch the commercial above. At 10 seconds into the ad, pay attention to the man in bed with the woman. Yup! He went 0-6 because he was tired -- up all night with a restless partner.

Illness In The House

Not me, but count me out today. Enjoy the five-star weather.