Flooding in the Last Five Years: 2009

With the recent flooding in the Midwest, I thought it would be interesting to look at flooding in the United States over the last five years. I did some research into different areas that flooded, how badly, and how much did it cost. At first I was going to put all five years into one post, but it was turning out to be longer than I thought! I have decided to run this topic over a few postings. Here is the first.

2009

• January: Two feet of snow fell in the Cascade Mountains. This storm caused flooding and the damage led to more flooding from a rain storm later in the month. There was a total of about $68 million in damages and no deaths.

Flooded homes, fields, and roads are shown from the air Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009 near Chehalis, Wash.

• March - April: The Red River in Manitoba (Canada), North Dakota and Minnesota flooded. This was due to heavy storms raining on ground that was already soaked by the melting snow. About $55 million in damages. No deaths were reported.

Elsie, one of two Stensgard family dogs, sands on the earthen and sandbag dike surrounding the Stensgard home, not pictured, which overlooks a flooded outbuilding as the Red River continues to rise, Wednesday, March 25, 2009 in Fargo, N.D. Due to the flooding, the Stensgard home can only be reached by boat. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

• April: Flooding in the Red River Valley in Oklahoma and Texas, due to a large storm system. Flash flooding also occurred in Kansas and Missouri because of thunderstorms. About $42.9 million in damages and five lives lost.

Flooding in Claremore May 1, 2009 (Courtesy of KJRH.com, Randy Lane)

• May: Flood in Alaska due to ice jam. As the snow and ice from the winter melts pieces of ice break off and float down stream. They can jam together and block the waterway, leading to flooding in the area. A large jam caused "the worst flooding in recorded history" on the Yukon River in Eagle, Alaska. There were no deaths and about $29 million in damages.

Yukon River flood damage, May 2009. The river rose to 20 feet above flood level. Downtown Eagle waterfront looking East. Uploaded by AlaskaMark

• June: Flash flooding in Wisconsin was caused by a band of thunderstorms. Each storm dumped a large amount of water in a short period of time. There was about 25.6 million in damages and no flood-related deaths.

A second flood event occurred in Michigan. Flash flooding due to storms caused 41.3 million more in damages. No deaths occurred due to this event either. 

• August: There was flooding due to heavy rains in Kentucky and part of Indiana. Luckily, there were no lives lost, but there was about $45.3 million in damages. The rate of rainfall was amazing; "rainfall rates up to 8.8 inches per hour were reported"!

FLOODING NEAR KENTUCKY KINGDOM (PHOTO COURTESY TIPSTER)

• September: A large storm system across parts of Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South and North Carolina stalled and rained for days. This was by far the worst flooding of the year, with 11 deaths and over $250 million in damages.

These were just the worst flood events of the year. The National Weather Service reported that the total deaths and damages were much higher than the totals of the numbers above. There is a chart in the NWS report that includes deaths and damages in all 50 states, plus Washington D.C., Guam, Puerto Rico/Virgin Islands, and America Samoa. The total number of lives lost due to flood in 2009 was 51 and the damages totaled just over a billion at $1,000,026.

This seems like a lot to me! Maybe this was a bad year for floods... or maybe this is the norm?

Next time I will look the major floods and total damages in 2010. Then for the next year and so on...

By the end of this series of posts, I think we will have a better idea of the flood trends that are happening currently. And, we may then better understand the risk of flooding in our country, and the damages it causes us.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the second installment, Flooding in the Last Five Years: 2010.

Interview With a Warning & Coordination Meteorologist

We have been talking for a few months now about weather events and climate issues. I feel like I have learned quite a bit, and hopefully you have too.

I thought it would be interesting to reach out and interview someone who actually works in the field of meteorology.

With help from my mentor Dr. Lance Strate and his colleague Dr. Susan Jasko I was put in touch with Warning & Coordination Meteorologist, Mr. Mark Fox.

Nyssa: First, please tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from, what is your background, and so forth?

Mark: I grew up in Oklahoma, and developed a fascination with tornadoes pretty early. I saw my first tornado when I was 9, as a F3 tornado moved through my hometown of Stillwater, Oklahoma. We lived on a hill west of town and saw the entire thing. Since then, I've been hooked.

I got a degree in meteorology from the University of Oklahoma in 1989. That same year, I began as a broadcast meteorologist. Worked in TV for about ten years, and started with the National Weather Service in 1999. 






Nyssa: So, where do you currently work and what is your position there?

Mark: I am currently the Warning & Coordination Meteorologist for the Weather Forecast Office (WFO) in Fort Worth, TX.

Nyssa: What is a typical day like for a Warning & Coordination Meteorologist? 

Mark: Ha! What is typical? Most days, I am getting ready for events in the future. I’m getting ready by meeting with our partners (Emergency Management, Media, elected officials) or spotter groups. During severe weather, I spend most of my time communicating the forecast that our office produces. That means gathering my opinions about what will happen, making sure I am on the same page as our forecasters and then communicating early and often with our partners. I’m not necessarily the one that sends the warnings, but on occasion, I am.

Nyssa:  How did you end up becoming the Warning & Coordination Meteorologist? 

Mark: Good question. I started at this office (Fort Worth) as a non-traditional meteorologist intern in 1999. I worked here for about two years before getting a general forecaster position in Amarillo, TX. While there, I worked with two of the best meteorologists (and people) you would ever hope to work for, Jose Garcia and Steve Drillette. They both mentored me, helped me to understand that meteorology is only the beginning; lives are saved based on actions taken after the warning is issued. Since that time, I've been working on how to better communicate risk information. That work led to a promotion to a senior forecaster at WFO Lubbock, then to the Regional Training Officer for the Southern Region of the National Weather Service. I started this position in August of 2009.

Nyssa: It's great that you had such positive influences; mentors can play a big role in our lives. Tell us, what is the most difficult part of your job?

Mark: Let’s just say there are meteorologists in all fields that believe that forecasters should write the forecast and nothing more. Trying to convince people with this mindset to change can be difficult.

Nyssa: That does sound frustrating! So, what part do you find the most enjoyable?

Mark: Without a doubt, helping people make good decisions based on our forecasts.

Nyssa: I was wondering, what do you think has been a big leap forward in the field of risk communication?




Mark: The big leap, in my opinion, is social media. You used to get weather information from us, or more likely from TV. You can still get that, but now you can also get the weather information from friends, family, and friends of friends. This can have a negative impact, but the more personal the threat becomes, the more likely people are going to act. (which is good)

Nyssa: Can you expand a little on the role of social media in your field?

Mark: Four years ago, social media had no role. Today, social media is a large part in what we do. Four years from now, who knows what will be next. We have to be ready.

Nyssa: What do you see for the future of storm warnings?

Mark: Storm warnings have to get more personal, and I think social media will play an increasing role. Years ago, we heard nothing until the warning was out. And then we heard nothing until the official update. Now, we hear about the storm forecast. We hear about the clouds developing. We hear about the rain and hail beginning. We hear about the hail getting bigger. We hear the warning. We then hear where the storm is. (etc.) In other words, the information around the official storm warning can be more important than the actual warning itself.

Nyssa: I too have noticed that the coverage of weather events has gotten more extensive. By me, Hurricane Irene and Sandy were on almost every channel for days. Do you think this extreme coverage is a positive for people? Or, do you feel that it is becoming too sensationalized?

Mark: How did you respond the first time you ever heard a car alarm going off? Do you even notice if a car alarm goes off now? The more we ramp up forecasts and warnings and nothing happens, that has a negative impact on people. We need to get it right, but we also need to communicate the threat more effectively.

Nyssa: That being said, what do you think is the most important thing that the public should understand about storm warnings?

Mark: Bad storms happen to good people. Storms do not discriminate, so you have to be ready. A lot of folks think bad storms happen to “other people” and not themselves. Complacency is a huge issue. Think about how many storm warnings you were in… and nothing happened? That can be a false sense of security.

Nyssa: I am going to change the topic for a minute. Climate change is an issue that I have discussed in a few of my posts. What is your stance on climate change?

Mark: The data suggests the climate has been changing. The question then becomes what is causing it? Is it natural? Has it happened before? All too often, it becomes a political argument, and that’s an argument as a scientist I’d like to stay away from.

Nyssa: I completely understand, it has become a hard issue for non-scientists to follow, I feel because of the politics. It's hard to know what is going on with all the conflicting information. So, getting back to your area of expertise, what wisdom or tip would you give to a student interested in working in the field of meteorology?

Mark: You will be wrong. Take your work seriously. Don’t take yourself too seriously.

Nyssa: Great advice for anyone! And one last thought to leave us with?

Mark: Bad storms are a matter of when…not if.

Nyssa: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me. I really appreciate it as this interview has been very interesting. I definitely think my readers and I have learned a few things, and I know I enjoyed the interview. Good luck in all your future endeavors, and let's hope for calm weather this summer!

The Story of the Carbon Cycle

In honor of Earth Day I thought today I would tell you the story of the carbon cycle.

Many many many years ago, back to the time of the dinosaurs. Wait, go even farther back than that! Volcanoes were erupting and sending carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the air. It was launched way up into the atmosphere, and there it stayed.




It was just floating along when all of a sudden it started to rain! All these drops of water started to fall from the sky and the CO₂ thought that looked like great fun!

So, CO₂ decided to hitch a ride with one of the raindrops. As they plummeted together toward the ground, the water and the CO₂ decided to become best friends forever. They called themselves carbonic acid.




They weren't a very strong acid, but they sure did know how to party with the rocks! The stones that the carbonic acid landed on were glad for the new company and reacted by releasing carbon. The carbon from the carbonic acid rock party washed gently into the ocean. There it meet other carbon that had eventually found its way to the ocean too. Some carbon took a longer route to get there, but all carbon ends up in the sea!

Our carbon had seen how much fun the water, CO₂, and rocks had together and wanted a friend of its own!

Unfortunately, the carbon started acting out and upset some nearby plankton. The plankton decided it was best to lock the carbon up in it's shell so it wouldn't cause anymore trouble.

The carbon and the plankton lived together until the end of the plankton's life. When the plankton died it drifted to the bottom of the ocean and eventually became a rock. The carbon now found itself back inside the Earth.




Another CO₂, cousin to our first friend, found the temperature becoming warmer and warmer and all her friends were joining up with rain droplets. She watched as more and more carbonic acid dropped down and made the rocks release more carbon. As it grew hotter she started to get worried.

But then the plants started to grow and grow. They liked the rain, the warm temperatures, and our friend CO₂. This little CO₂ decided that the party life wasn't for her and joined up with a plant instead. The plant pulled her in and placed the carbon into the soil, back to the ground where she started.








The temperature started to even back out again as the amount of carbon in the air was brought back into balance.

Every now and then something would happen that would make the Earth cooler or warmer, but eventually the carbons working with the rocks and the plants would balance out the climate.

Well, until man arrived and started to invent new and amazing things.

Most of the carbon ended up in the ground in forms that man learned to use, like oil, coal, and natural gas.

All of a sudden, carbon that had slept for thousands of years was waking up!

Carbon had slept for so long in a rock at the bottom of the ocean, but what was that noise?! The carbon that had gone into the ocean floor because of plankton was now being drilled back up!

His cousin had ended up as coal deep in the ground and had slept soundly too, but now she was being dug up as well!

As the coal was burned and the oil was burned, our cousin carbons were released back up into the air! Along with their other cousin carbons that hadn't been up there for centuries!

As they gathered together they remembered the fun they had all those years ago, and again joined up with water. It came raining back down as carbonic acid and the cycled continued as it had all these years. Except now there was more carbon being released by man and less trees and vegetation to pull the carbon back into the ground. Man threw more and more carbon up into the sky, not considering what it might do to the delicate balancing act billions of years in the making.

It's getting warmer. 

Earth will be alright, she will make it through this carbon party and eventually balance herself back out.

The question is, can we adapt to the changes we are causing? Can we survive long enough to see the climate come back to its balanced state?

I hope so.



(This story was written using information gathered from The Weather of the Future by Dr. Heidi Cullen. This information can be found in Chapter 2: Seeing Climate Change in Our Past on pages 23-25.)

Flooding - It Could Happen To You

Let's talk flood protection. Once again I headed on over to FEMA. In case you didn't know, FEMA stands for Federal Emergency Management Agency. I find this agency's website to be very helpful, the information is relevant and  (in my opinion) trustworthy.

Ready.gov is the FEMA site that provides information on how to prepare for multiple disasters and events, like floods.

You may think that you don't need to read this post or prepare for a flood because you have never flooded before.

Wrong.

Flooding can happen to anyone, anywhere. Even if you don't want to take all the steps I am going to go through in this post, it is good to at least be aware of the possibility.

The first thing is to make sure you have an emergency kit and plan. I discussed this in my post How To Prepare For Tornado Season. Ready.gov walks you through how to develop and maintain your kit here. Then you can go here to work on your emergency plan!

This is a good reminder for those of you who meant to do this after reading my other post. Don't feel bad, I still haven't done it either! I will though, because I really do think it is important.

It is also important to understand the risk of flooding in your area. This can be done by reviewing a Flood Insurance Rate Map of your area.

Well, checking the map didn't work very well for me! I checked the area where I live now and was told "sorry there are no items to display for this State, County and Community. Please check the Future or Historic Maps for available panels."

Ah, then I saw further down on the FEMA site that they are changing the maps. Going digital, Digital Flood Insurance Rate Map (DFIRM).

These maps are important not just because they tell you your risk, but because they also tell you how much flood insurance will cost you. These new maps may change the cost of your flood insurance. If you already have insurance you may want to check with your agent to see if you are on the new one, or the old. When considering flood insurance for the first time, ask if there is a DFIRM for your area.

My town map isn't available in the new map catalog either. "Enter your Zip Code to see all of the communities in your county that have maps scheduled to be updated. Even if your community is not listed, changes may still be in progress." Perhaps that is the case for my town...

Well checking these maps turned out to be difficult for me! Hopefully, some of you will have better luck. If not, my suggestion would be calling a flood insurance agent and discussing the risk to your area. You don't have to buy, just become informed.

These are the other preparations that FEMA suggests:

• Avoid building in a floodplain unless you elevate and reinforce your home.

• Elevate the furnace, water heater and electric panel in your home if you live in an area that has a high flood risk.

• Consider installing "check valves" to prevent flood water from backing up into the drains of your home.

• If feasible, construct barriers to stop floodwater from entering the building and seal walls in basements with waterproofing compounds.

According to Friends of the River a floodplain is the low flat area along a river that can flood periodically. Unfortunately, this area while not flooded is a pretty enticing area to build or farm on. However, this is an area that can and will flood. When the river becomes too high, it will expand into the floodplain.

If you do decide to build on a floodplain, make sure you plan ahead and build appropriately.

WiseGeek explains that a check valve makes it so that water can only travel in one direction. It is also called a one way valve or a nonreturn valve, and works in a couple different ways. The most common being a ball valve.

I found a "Flood Guard for Floor Drains" on PlumbingSupply.com.

The company has a wide range of products from water damage prevention to FloodStop systems. I have never ordered products from this company. If you have, I would love to hear what you thought about the company and their products!

Have you used any flood prevention products in your home or business? Built any barriers, or taken any steps to protect against flooding?

Please feel free to share your experiences in the comments section.

I'd love to hear about problems you have had with flooding and what you learned. What you went through may help someone else. That person might even be me someday!

The 100 Year Flood

With the intense storms and flooding that have been experienced lately people are talking more about 100 year events. There are other number events too, such as 10 year, 50 year, and 500 year events. These events can be floods or storms, like a 100 year flood.

I first heard these terms a couple years ago while taking an emergency management course. We were talking about flooding at the time. We learned in class that the number, 100, 50, etc, actually refers to the statistical chance that the event will occur every year. So, a 100 year flood means that every year there is a 1 in a hundred, or 1%, chance that a large scale flooding event will occur. If there is a 1 in a hundred chance that the flood might occur, then one should happen about every 100 years. I found a great image, see below, that helps illustrate the water levels and occurrences of the different events.

Ohio Department of Natural Resources

According to FEMA in their handout titled The 100 Year Flood Myth all different levels of flooding occur and can come with their own label. Lesser floods will most likely occur more often and be labeled 1 year floods or 5 year floods. As the floods grow in intensity the likely-hood of them occurring decreases. So, a 50 year flood won't be as bad as a 100 year flood but is twice as likely to occur. However, the handout points out that floods occurring every couple years, or even every ten years, will end up doing more damage then a flood that occurs only once every 100 years.

The other interesting point made in the handout is that the term 100 year flood is being used more frequently than it should. Not every flood is a 100 year flood! The term sounds good, and catches peoples attention, so the press like to use it. It may seem like 100 year floods are occurring more than they should, but that is most likely due to the floods being mislabeled.

By using the term “100 year flood” inaccurately to describe
floods that are actually much lesser floods, the misconception is
spread that 100 year floods are occurring every few years! In
fact, floods close to this are occurring, but they are only 5 or 10
year events that look so similar to the “big one” that they get
labeled with the same name. This misapplication of the 100 year
term leads to misplaced criticism of the analysis that produced it
and of those engineers who generated it.

Floods are very important to understand, as they can cause a lot of damage. I know people who live by me don't expect flooding and are not prepared for it. I certainly am not. 

When Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey and New York we were horrified, and still are, at the devastation that the flood waters caused.

PHOTOS: Hurricane Sandy Wipes Out Seaside Heights

Here's The Jersey Shore Devastation That Made
Chris Christie Get So Emotional

I remember seeing the damage that Hurricane Irene caused in Vermont. It was horrible. 

Who would have imagined that flooding in Vermont? 

Massive snowstorms, sure. 

Ice storms... remember the Ice Storm of '98? 

I sure do. But flooding? 

From Waterbury to Wilmington,
Vermonters shocked by Irene's destruction

Photos from The Republican

Flooding always seemed an event reserved for people living by the Mississippi River, in Florida, or New Orleans. The Northeast sure got a rude awakening. 

With climate change leading to more intense storms, will there end up being an adjustment to the 100 year floods?

It is definitely something worth watching.

There is a lot more to discuss about flood waters and flood safety. I might even take a look at flood insurance. So check back soon for more information on this topic!

Exploring Thunderstorms

Severe storms have been rolling across the continental U.S. this week. A tornado touched down in Mississippi, killing one person and injuring others. Below is a short video from an article on CNN of the tornado.



In my area we didn't have anything as severe as a tornado, but we did have our first thunderstorms of the season. As I lay in bed listening to the thunder, I decided it was a perfect time to write a post about thunderstorms.

I had touched a bit on lightning in my post When Lightning Strikes the Vatican and now I would like to expand on the topic.

I found some great information on NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory website.

First, let's explore how a thunderstorm is created.

It starts with the sun heating the Earth's surface, which in turn warms the air above that part of the ground. Something then has to "bump" the air and cause it to start to rise. According to the site, this could be other colder or wetter air, mountains or hills. If this rising air remains warmer and lighter than the air around it, it will continue rising.

As the warm air rises up into the atmosphere "the water vapor it contains begins to cool, releases the heat, condenses and forms a cloud".

Weatherquestions.com

The cloud grows bigger and bigger and will eventually reach air that is below freezing. Up there the water droplets freeze and start bouncing around. When they collide they pull bits of ice off of each other, along with electrical charge. This charge builds and builds then releases in a bolt of lightning either cloud to cloud or to the ground. The bolt creates a sound wave which is the thunder!

That wasn't too hard! But, how does this end? I mean, thunderstorms don't last forever, so when does it stop  and dissipate?

Thunderstorms have three stages to their lives, developing, mature, and dissipating. We have already covered the first two stages so lets take a look at the third.

During the mature part of the storm the warm air from the ground is still rising up into the cloud and pushing water vapor into the freezing air. As long as the air keeps rising the storm keeps going. Eventually, all the precipitation and wind coming down from the cloud overpowers the warm air rising up. The supply of new water stops and the precipitation raining down will slow and stop. Just be aware, even though the rain has stopped the lightning can continue for awhile.

Photo from NOAA NSSL:Severe Weather 101

Ok, so I feel like I now have a pretty good grasp on the thunderstorm itself. Let's explore lightning a little more.

Once again, NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory has an excellent site with all sorts of information about lightning.

You know those little jagged pictures of lightning that we drew as children?

Turns out that lightning really is jagged! "Lightning is a channel of electrical charge called a stepped leader that zigzags downward in roughly 50-yard segments in a forked pattern."

Or course, we can't actually see it, so our drawings weren't exactly accurate, but it's still pretty neat!

I thought this was cool too. "As it nears the ground, the charged step leader is attracted to a channel of opposite charge reaching up, a streamer, normally through something tall, such as a tree, house, or telephone pole."

It is when these two meet, the bolt and the streamer, that the current starts surging. I had mentioned in my previous post about lightning that the current goes through the lightning bolt multiple times. This is because when the two meet, a backlash of current actually travels back UP toward the cloud! One bolt can send up to twenty return strokes giving the bolt the appearance of flashing. Below is a short video from National Geographic on the topic.

This video doesn't mention ice particles causing the electrical charge, but it does explain the separation of the charges and the resulting release in the form of lightning.

So, what about thunder? Lightning causes thunder, so if you hear thunder you can be certain that somewhere there was lightning!

A lightning bolt heats the air around it, and heated air expands. It is so hot, and the air expands so quickly that it causes a sound wave, and that is what we hear.

Have you ever noticed that when the storm is close enough you can actually hear three distinct sounds in the thunder? First, there is a tearing sound as the lightning rips down through the sky. Then a sharp cracking sound caused by the streamer reaching up from the ground, followed by the rolling boom of thunder, which is what we hear when farther away.

This all happens very quickly so don't feel bad if you don't know what I am talking about. I have spent a lot of hours just sitting and listening to storms. It was actually a favorite activity in my family! Most people will be able to at least identify the crack and then the boom.

I think thunderstorms are amazing and are one of my favorite weather events. I love listening to them and watching them whenever possible. I will admit that I probably take too many risks when it comes to thunderstorms, but I just can't help it!

On that note, lightning safety is very important, and therefore, needs a post of its own. So, please check back soon for tips on thunderstorm safety!

How To Prepare For Tornado Season

Well, tornado season is truly upon us. As I type this blog post people out in the Plains are preparing for possible tornadoes from a storm coming out of the Rocky Mountains tomorrow. So, perhaps it is time to discuss how to prepare your household for a tornado.

How To Prepare For Tornado Season

• Prepare your yard by having any dangerous trees or tree limbs removed.
• Build a safety kit - check out FEMA's Build a Kit page!
• Food
• Water
• Battery-powered or crank radio
• Flashlight and batteries
• First-Aid kit
• Whistle
• Dust mask, plastic sheeting, and duct tape
• Moist towelettes, garbage bags, and twist ties
• Wrench or pliers
• Can opener
• Maps
• Cell phone and charger
• See website for more information
• Have a tornado safety plan:
• Pick the safest room in your house that all family members and pets will go to when a tornado may be coming. The best place is in a storm cellar or basement. If you don't have either option, then pick a room toward the center of your house, on the lowest floor, without doors or windows. 
• Mobile homes are not safe! If you have time, go to a shelter or the closest sturdy building. Plan your possible safe places ahead of time.
• FEMA's Ready.gov has a template that makes it very easy for you to create your own family emergency plan. I am going to make one for my home!
• Practice tornado drills so that everyone knows how to react to an approaching storm.
• Consider building a safe room.
• This room could be in the basement, the garage, or in a first-floor room in your house.
• There is a lot more information at the Ready.gov website under the "Preparing a Safe Room" tab. This includes a pamphlet and a manual for those of you who may be interested in taking this precaution.
• Know if your community has a tornado siren and what it sounds like.
• When you hear reports of a storm coming, make sure you store away loose items like yard/patio furniture and toys. If you can't move the item indoors then make sure you tie it down and secure it as well as you can.

Here are the two sites I used to gather information. As you can see, I color-coded them for you! There is so much more information at both these sites, so please check them out, especially if you live in a tornado-prone area!

American Red Cross: Tornado

FEMA's Ready.gov: Tornadoes

Being prepared for an extreme event, like a tornado, can mean the difference between life and death. Make sure you and the members of your household are prepared and knowledgeable. And of course, don't take any unnecessary risks! 

Stay safe this tornado season! I want you and your home to be around to prepare for the next tornado season, and the season after that, and the season after that, and the season after that...

Making Some Sense of the Melting Arctic

When deciding what I want to blog about, gathering research, or when just in the mood to read about weather and climate, I often find myself gravitating toward other weather blogs. I tend to read blogs posted on weather sites such as Accuweather, Wunderground, and ClimateCentral. These sites have blogs and posts written by multiple weather and climate experts.

I was exploring various blogs when I found this post by Angela Fritz, New Images of the 2013 Arctic Sea Ice Mega-Fracture. Fritz is an atmospheric scientist for Wunderground, and has a blog on the Wunderground site.

Her post on March, 29th 2013 contains some great pictures and video of a large fracture in the Arctic ice. According to Fritz this large fracture occurred because the Arctic ice is thinning and becoming a lot more fragile. Then the weather in the last two months was putting pressure on the ice from the land, pushing it into the ocean. Thicker, more stable ice wouldn't have been affected, but today's ice couldn't withstand the pressure and broke.

Andrew Freedman and Michael D. Lemonick also discuss this fracture and Arctic ice in their post Arctic Ice Hits Annual Max and it’s 6th Lowest on Record. They have one of the same animations that Fritz has in her post, and discuss the topic at length.

This article is great because it goes on to explain why the arctic is warming faster than other areas of the world. It's a feedback cycle called Arctic Amplification. The white snow and ice reflects the sun's rays back up into the air. But now, with the ice melting, the darker colored water appears and instead of reflecting the rays it absorbs them. This heats the water, which in turn melts more ice! The cycle then continues with more and more ice melting, and the warmer waters starting to affect weather all over the world.

NBC News' John Roach published a great article titled Arctic change reverberates around globe, experts say. In the article he explains how the warming air can create such cold temperatures in some areas of the world. For awhile now, I didn't really understand how we could still have such cold temperatures when the climate was warming. Last year seemed to fit with my expectations, but this past winter was pretty cold!

Roach explains that when the ocean releases this warmth into the air, it affects the jetstream.

In particular, he and colleagues hypothesize that the warming Arctic causes the jetsteam to slow down and meander like a river flowing through the plains. This, in turn, transports less warm air over the lands from the oceans.

We saw this occur this past winter, when the wind from the west slowed down and we had a very cold, very wet, winter. He also goes on to explain that the slow jetstream can cause periods of high temperatures as well. It all depends on how the jetstream dips and rises.

Well that makes a little more sense!

Angela Fritz's blog post shows us a serious fracture in the Arctic ice that recently occurred, and why it happened. Freedman and Lemonick then explain to us the vicious cycle that is causing the Arctic ice to melt. Finally, the recent article by Roach presents a theory using the jetstream to explain why we may still have some very cold trends.

I love it when blog posts and articles come together and really shine some light on what is happening with our climate and our world.

Ever-Changing Wikipedia

As I was searching the web for information and tidbits to share with you all about tornadoes. I went on Wikipedia, just to check things out, and remembered my post, Naming Nemo. I wrote it back in early February and had decided to make a change to an article in Wikipedia. 

I had been writing about winter storms back then and noticed that Wikipedia was not using The Weather Channel's list of storm names for the 2012-2013 winter storm season. I noticed the page for the nor'easter back in November 2012 was titled November 2012 nor'easter instead of Winter Storm Athena. There was little information concerning the new system of naming winter storms, so I decided to update the site.

I just went back to Wikipedia, looked up The Weather Channel, and scrolled down to the section titled,
2012–13 naming winter storms. My changes are still there and someone even added to them! There is now a redirect link to a different topic: See also: Winter storm naming controversy. 

Also, I had listed out the storms that had occurred up until that point. Someone added more storms to the list: Pluto, Q, Rocky, and Saturn, but left the total as fifteen, instead of changing it to nineteen.

I decided to go back in and correct the storm total to twenty-two and add in the rest of the storms that occurred this season. Below is what is now posted, with my latest additions in red.

It officially named the nor'easter that hit the East Coast of the United States in November 2012 after the Greek goddess Athena. So far, in the 2012-2013 season, the Weather Channel has named twenty-two winter storms: Athena, Brutus, Caesar, Draco, Euclid, Freyr, Gandolf, Helen, Iago, Jove, Khan, Luna, Magnus, Nemo, Orko, Pluto, Q, Rocky, Saturn, Triton, Ukko, and Virgil. [24]

Multiple factors are taken into consideration when deciding whether or not to name a winter storm. This includes, but is not limited to, predicted snowfall and other precipitation, wind speeds, and the timing of the storm.[23]

The Weather Channel has provided the reasoning behind why they named some of the storms: Athena,[25] Brutus,[26] Gandolf,[27] Iago,[28] Khan,[29] Luna,[30] Magnus,[31] Nemo[32], Saturn[33], and Virgil[34].

I believe that the winter storm 2012-13 period is probably over. However, if another storm occurs either myself, or the person who made the changes before me, will update the information once again.

Next season I plan to again update this section. I will either be stating that The Weather Channel has once again released a list of names for the upcoming winter storm season, or I will be stating that The Weather Channel will no longer be naming winter storms.

It will be interesting to see if they continue this trend or if they fold under the disapproval of other weather services, like The National Weather Service!