Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog

Quoting WoodyFL:


I always wondered why it was referred to as the tidewater? Come on, 50 words or less, you can do it.

Its the area of rivers and bays that are affected by the tides.

Did it in 13.

Quoting VAbeachhurricanes:


Its the area of rivers and bays that are affected by the tides.

Did it in 13.

Did you ever consider writing tropical updates for the NHC? LOL

Is that stationary plume in the border of Wyoming / Montana a volcanic eruption? ..... Anyone knows?

Quoting sunlinepr:
Is that stationary plume in the border of Wyoming / Montana a volcanic eruption? ..... Anyone knows?

no, but that would be one gigantic volcano...

Quoting WoodyFL:


Did you ever consider writing tropical updates for the NHC? LOL

hahaha you dont like wordiness?

Quoting WoodyFL:


I always wondered why it was referred to as the tidewater? Come on, 50 words or less, you can do it.

LOL! .... and he DID IT too!

Quoting Some1Has2BtheRookie:


LOL! .... and he DID IT too!

easy peasy ;)

Quoting sunlinepr:
Is that stationary plume in the border of Wyoming / Montana a volcanic eruption? ..... Anyone knows?

A BP refinery? -------> exit, stage right!

Quoting Some1Has2BtheRookie:


A BP refinery? -------> exit, stage right!

hahahaha, idk what it is, very weird though

Quoting Some1Has2BtheRookie:


A BP refinery? -------> exit, stage right!

Just called me the attention that everything else moves but that plume looks stationary....

Quoting sunlinepr:


Just called me the attention that everything else moves but that plume looks stationary....

the source looks very stationary...

Quoting VAbeachhurricanes:


hahaha you dont like wordiness?

No!

hahaha i can tell!

I have enjoyed everyone's post today. Time to call it a night. Thanks!

Quoting Some1Has2BtheRookie:
I have enjoyed everyone's post today. Time to call it a night. Thanks!

Night!

Quoting sunlinepr:


Just called me the attention that everything else moves but that plume looks stationary....

It could be a very large wildfire, since Yellowstone is on the northern left edge of Wyoming.

Quoting VAbeachhurricanes:


the source looks very stationary...

Odd looking on radar there. Some very stationary ground clutter or something.

Quoting Skyepony:


Odd looking on radar there. Some very stationary ground clutter or something.

hmm...that's probably what it is skyepony, since I'm not seeing anything on Wyoming News about any fires in that area.

I wonder what it is, sunline wanna shoot dr. m a message and see if he knows what it is?

I see windfarm NW of Billings. It's showing up on radar tonight with the wind. The other ground clutter looks like mountains in wind? Maybe that's causing the constant plume, friction of mountains in high winds. No real smoke plumes on radar.

Quoting Skyepony:
I see windfarm NW of Billings. It's showing up on radar tonight with the wind. The other ground clutter looks like mountains in wind? Maybe that's causing the constant plume, friction of mountains in high winds. No real smoke plumes on radar.

yeah but on sat it looks like a single source, if it were the mountains wouldn't it be more of a sheet?

Interesting blog update Dr. Masters. I was in the NW suburbs of D.C. this past Friday and Saturday and it was amazing to see snow there in October. The heavy drizzle began to mix with sleet and a few wet flakes around 1:00 pm where I was, then suddenly it was all snow. Didn't accumulate except for a slight slushy dusting in grassy areas. Later that afternoon in Downtown D.C. we encountered somewhat heavy snow (huge flakes) for about an hour. I never expected to experience temperatures below 40 F let alone snow in Virginia in October.

Quoting GTcooliebai:
Can a storm get any more perfect?

Cyclone Monica

Quoting Ameister12:

This is as perfect as it gets.

Perhaps not perfect in a tradional sense, but the structure of wilma at peak still amazes me.

There was a flurry of very shallow (3 miles) seismic activity several dozen miles east of Oklahoma City overnight, the largest a 4.7. This is the most powerful earthquake in Oklahoma since 1952, and not too much smaller than the state's most powerful quake ever, a 5.5:



Magnitude 4.7
Date-Time

Saturday, November 05, 2011 at 07:12:45 UTC
Saturday, November 05, 2011 at 02:12:45 AM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 35.570%uFFFDN, 96.703%uFFFDW
Depth 4.9 km (3.0 miles)
Region OKLAHOMA
Distances 33 km (20 miles) NE of Shawnee, Oklahoma
67 km (41 miles) W of Okmulgee, Oklahoma
68 km (42 miles) SSE of Stillwater, Oklahoma
75 km (46 miles) E of OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma
Location Uncertainty horizontal /- 12.9 km (8.0 miles); depth /- 3 km (1.9 miles)
Parameters NST=240, Nph=246, Dmin=90.2 km, Rmss=1.31 sec, Gp= 18%uFFFD,
M-type=body wave magnitude (Mb), Version=9
Source

Magnitude: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Location: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)

Event ID usb0006k8b

Of course, one can't help but wonder whether last night's Oklahoma tremors are related to fracking operations like those earlier in the year likely were*, and as last month's quake in Texas may have been, and as last year's quakes in the UK almost definitely were, etc. I reckon we'll find out...

* - From the report's conclusion: "The strong spatial and temporal correlations to the hydraulic-fracturing in Picket Unit B Well 4-18 certainly suggests that the earthquakes observed in the Eola Field could have possibly been triggered by this activity."

Quoting Patrap:
Asteroid 2005 YU55 To Narrowly Miss Earth (PHOTOS, VIDEO)





An asteroid a quarter-mile-wide will, astronomically speaking, narrowly miss Earth next week.

And while it is the closest an asteroid this size has come to the home planet since 1976, there's no need to call Bruce Willis ... yet.

"There is no chance that this object will collide with the Earth or moon," Don Yeomans, the manager of NASA's Near Earth Object Program office, told Reuters.

But that doesn't mean the asteroid -- named 2005 YU55 -- won't be a threat to earth in the future.

Lance Benner, a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a video from NASA (available below) that scientists haven't been able to reliably compute the asteroid's path beyond a couple of hundred years from now.

At its closest point, the space rock will be about 201,700 miles (324,600 kilometers) away, which is 0.85 the distance between the moon and the Earth. NASA says that the asteroid will reach this point at 6:28 p.m. EST on Tuesday.

"In effect, it'll be moving straight at us from one direction, and then go whizzing by straight away from us in the other direction," Benner said.

An asteroid this size -- which, according to Scientific American is larger than an aircraft carrier -- would cause widespread damage if it were to hit Earth, however. The Associated Press spoke to Jay Melosh, a professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Purdue University, who said that the asteroid would create a four-mile wide crater 1,700 feet deep. It could cause 70-foot tsunami waves and shake the ground like a magnitude-7 earthquake.

Even though the asteroid will be inside the orbit of the moon, NASA said that the space rock's gravitational pull shouldn't have any "detectable effect" on Earth's tectonic plates or tides.

Yeomans told HuffPost that the flyby will give astronomers a great view of 2005 YU55 and is an opportunity to do research into the asteroid's composition. He said that it's a C-Type asteroid, which means it contains carbon-based minerals which could potentially be used in future space exploration.

"These objects are important for science ... they're potential resources for raw materials in space that we may wish to take advantage of some day," he said.

The New York Times reported last month on proposed fuel stations in space that one study says could put astronauts on an asteroid by 2024.

Bruce Willis lol

Sad news...Andy Rooney has passed away.

Link

Quoting GeoffreyWPB:
Sad news...Andy Rooney has passed away.

Link

Sad to hear but he lived a long, productive life.

Good morning everyone! Sad news to learn of death of celebrity's and in my personal life two loved ones have passed away. It seems like Autumn is the time of year when many people let go - they don't get to have that one last winter. All the more reason for us to savor each day as it comes and not waste it on bickering or bitterness, but spend it in curiosity and joy and appreciation for the gifts we have been given. So have a good November 5.

Quoting GeoffreyWPB:
Sad news...Andy Rooney has passed away.

Link

Sad, he lived a good life.
:(

We had a few wind gusts over 50mph last night,the storm and the high pressure to the northwest created a pressure gradient. Pretty neat,huh? Outer Banks of North Carolina.

This has been happening here for over a year, what exactly is Dry Slotting? Yesterday my humidity was 10 percent, my low was 35 some areas in South Central Texas got down to 20 degrees officially, humidity at 3 am was 33 percent? I know I am not getting any rain because it is too dry but dry slotting?

DRY SLOTTING ALOFT STILL LOOKS LIKELY...SO WILL
CONTINUE TO UNDERCUT STORM POTENTIAL OVER SOUTH CENTRAL TX...WITH
THE BEST POTENTIAL OVER THE HILL COUNTRY AND EASTERN COUNTIES
MONDAY NIGHT AND EARLY TUESDAY. THUS A MOSTLY DRY FRONT IS
EXPECTED OVER SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS AS THE SECOND UPPER LOW EJECTS
NORTH OF SOUTH CENTRAL TX

weather underground is advertising now parasite control for dogs. might think about picking some up for some friends in latin america one friend there was complaining no number twos but terrible gas for wks we told him to go to the doctor they found 11 different types of parasites in his system. thats what happens to gringos when they eat rotten food low pressure off n.carol coast

Remember this.....


$


I hope we don't see one of these this Cyclone season.

Quoting winter123:

Perhaps not perfect in a tradional sense, but the structure of wilma at peak still amazes me.

Another impressive sat pic. Cyclone Monica just before landfall in Northern Australia...

Quoting AussieStorm:
Remember this.....


$


I hope we don't see one of these this Cyclone season.

Impressive images. If you want to post these and more hurricane and typhoon images,I made a blog to post them.

Link

Quoting stormwatcherCI:
Sad to hear but he lived a long, productive life.

Very very true..He must have knew. He retired a few weeks ago . Good morning C.I.

Dry slot

A zone of dry (and relatively cloud-free) air which wraps west- or south-westwards into the southern and eastern parts of a synoptic scale or mesoscale low pressure system. A dry slot is seen best on satellite photographs. A dry slot should not be confused with clear slot, which is a storm-scale phenomenon.

Quoting hydrus:
Very very true..He must have knew. He retired a few weeks ago . Good morning C.I.

Good morning. Bright blue skies here this morning. It was a cool 71F earlier but has warmed up to upper 70's now.

Quoting stormwatcherCI:
Good morning. Bright blue skies here this morning. It was a cool 71F earlier but has warmed up to upper 70's now.

I am just south of Richmond, Virginia this morning. 36 degrees at sunrise, forecast to reach 53 by this afternoon...Been up in this neck of the woods over a month now..Getting a little home sick.

Quoting Neapolitan:
Of course, one can't help but wonder whether last night's Oklahoma tremors are related to fracking operations like those earlier in the year likely were*, and as last month's quake in Texas may have been, and as last year's quakes in the UK almost definitely were, etc. I reckon we'll find out...

* - From the report's conclusion: "The strong spatial and temporal correlations to the hydraulic-fracturing in Picket Unit B Well 4-18 certainly suggests that the earthquakes observed in the Eola Field could have possibly been triggered by this activity."

I have no earthly idea whether the fracing has any correlation with the quakes but, C'mon - "could have possibly been" does not equate to likely.

And, FYI, there is a huge difference in magnitude between a 4.7 and a 5.5. I may be way off on the math here, but I think a 5.5 is something like 80 times greater magnitude than a 4.7.

Here's a dry slot in Irene.



Anyone who's been tracking long enough should be easily able to see which one is her real eye. And yet, despite the very well defined eye, she was only a 90mph category 1 hurricane at the time of that picture.

Quoting Patrap:
Asteroid 2005 YU55 To Narrowly Miss Earth (PHOTOS, VIDEO)





An asteroid a quarter-mile-wide will, astronomically speaking, narrowly miss Earth next week.

And while it is the closest an asteroid this size has come to the home planet since 1976, there's no need to call Bruce Willis ... yet.

"There is no chance that this object will collide with the Earth or moon," Don Yeomans, the manager of NASA's Near Earth Object Program office, told Reuters.

But that doesn't mean the asteroid -- named 2005 YU55 -- won't be a threat to earth in the future.

Lance Benner, a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a video from NASA (available below) that scientists haven't been able to reliably compute the asteroid's path beyond a couple of hundred years from now.

At its closest point, the space rock will be about 201,700 miles (324,600 kilometers) away, which is 0.85 the distance between the moon and the Earth. NASA says that the asteroid will reach this point at 6:28 p.m. EST on Tuesday.

"In effect, it'll be moving straight at us from one direction, and then go whizzing by straight away from us in the other direction," Benner said.

An asteroid this size -- which, according to Scientific American is larger than an aircraft carrier -- would cause widespread damage if it were to hit Earth, however. The Associated Press spoke to Jay Melosh, a professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Purdue University, who said that the asteroid would create a four-mile wide crater 1,700 feet deep. It could cause 70-foot tsunami waves and shake the ground like a magnitude-7 earthquake.

Even though the asteroid will be inside the orbit of the moon, NASA said that the space rock's gravitational pull shouldn't have any "detectable effect" on Earth's tectonic plates or tides.

Yeomans told HuffPost that the flyby will give astronomers a great view of 2005 YU55 and is an opportunity to do research into the asteroid's composition. He said that it's a C-Type asteroid, which means it contains carbon-based minerals which could potentially be used in future space exploration.

"These objects are important for science ... they're potential resources for raw materials in space that we may wish to take advantage of some day," he said.

The New York Times reported last month on proposed fuel stations in space that one study says could put astronauts on an asteroid by 2024.

Since "this outspace rocks" are the biggest threat to "humankind besides "selfaniquilation" , or a Nuclear war or nuclear accident, is a "most" that all the scientific community of the world join hands in an effort to find ways to "safe the planet" from a near future collition with one of this object. It should be our common goal to safe the planet. Any time, any day one of this "asteroids" are going to aim "Earth" and if the technology, resourses, and strategies aren't there, our very existense is at stake. This common goal, should unite the planet and perhaps, helps to bring peace among the nations.

This may have not had a landfall, but it was sure pretty,

Hurricane Isaac (Cat 4) at peak
(and its not the strongest either, but it was a beauty)

Quoting Articuno:


This may have not had a landfall, but it was sure pretty,

Hurricane Isaac (Cat 4) at peak
(and its not the strongest either, but it was a beauty)

Cool sat pic..Anita looked rather vicious in 1977..

Quoting DallasGumby:
I have no earthly idea whether the fracing has any correlation with the quakes but, C'mon - "could have possibly been" does not equate to likely.

I'll go with that. Interesting algebra you are developing there.

Quoting DallasGumby:
"And, FYI, there is a huge difference in magnitude between a 4.7 and a 5.5. I may be way off on the math here, but I think a 5.5 is something like 80 times greater magnitude than a 4.7.

This reminds me of how difficult it is to grasp how large a big number is--or how big a large number is. Once I get past two they all seem many to me. Wikipedia to the rescue.

"The expression Richter magnitude scale refers to a number of ways to assign a single number to quantify the energy contained in an earthquake.

"In all cases, the magnitude is a base-10 logarithmic scale obtained by calculating the logarithm of the amplitude of waves measured by a seismograph. An earthquake that measures 5.0 on the Richter scale has a shaking amplitude 10 times larger and corresponds to an energy release of √1000 ≈ 31.6 times greater than one that measures 4.0."

Then there is also this interesting passage.

"The Richter scale proper was defined in 1935 for particular circumstances and instruments; the instrument used saturated for strong earthquakes. The scale was replaced by the moment magnitude scale (MMS); for earthquakes adequately measured by the Richter scale, numerical values are approximately the same. Although values measured for earthquakes now are actually Mw (MMS), they are frequently reported as Richter values, even for earthquakes of magnitude over 8, where the Richter scale becomes meaningless.

"The Richter and MMS scales measure the energy released by an earthquake; another scale, the Mercalli intensity scale, classifies earthquakes by their effects, from detectable by instruments but not noticeable to catastrophic. The energy and effects are not necessarily strongly correlated; a shallow earthquake in a populated area with soil of certain types can be far more intense than a much more energetic deep earthquake in an isolated area."

Reminds me of the options available for measuring the intensity of tropical storms. The effects are not necessarily commensurate with the barometric pressure or wind speed. Then again, as Irene showed, the wind speed is not necessarily commensurate with barometric pressure. Complicated world.

Anita with double eye wall structure at landfall..

Anita is an intense looking storm.

Just saw this news story about air conditioning technology. Salt-driven air conditioner. They use a dessicant to remove water from the air.

.