tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-118678542011-04-21T12:55:18.452-05:00Here is where you will find the things I did not have time to mention during my daily weathercasts. A few rants and raves perhaps and hopefully some good info on Earth Science. Dan SatterfieldDan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comBlogger631100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1155481778899096602006-08-13T10:06:00.000-05:002006-08-13T10:09:38.920-05:00

I have decided to move my blog to my own web space. All of my previous posts have made the move, too.You can now find me here: Dan's Wild Wild Weather JournalThanks for visiting, please follow the link above for future posts!Dan

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1151351476672675922006-06-26T14:45:00.000-05:002006-06-26T14:51:16.686-05:00

I know this blog has not been updated in awhile. It is not that I do not have anything to write about, I do! Right now though I am finishing up a Master's degree and this is taking ALL of my spare time outside of work.I will be done in about 4 weeks and then you can expect at least 1-2 per week. If I find a little time between now and then I might even get a short one out. There is a great story

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1138866519501601362006-02-02T01:24:00.000-06:002006-02-02T01:50:49.806-06:00

I did a blog awhile back on the 8 planets in the solar system. That's right 8 planets. Not the 9 that your grammar school and high school text books say. Well today my view of the solar system got another boost. Seems that astronomers have detected another big object orbiting the sun. It's official name is UB313. The discoverer wants to name it the planet Xena. Before you think this is just a

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1136414798372517692006-01-04T16:37:00.000-06:002006-01-04T16:46:38.390-06:00

I have been on holiday for much of the past 4 weeks. It is actually good to get back to work.If you have never been to the Canadian Rockies, I highly recommend you see them. If you are not a cold weather lover like me, then go in the Summer. I took a 5km hike up to a frozen waterfall in Banff National Park. It was -20C at the time but with an elevation gain of 350 meters, I was soon sweating.

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1133771578330698762005-12-05T02:23:00.000-06:002005-12-05T02:32:58.330-06:00

Snow is the toughest of all forecasts to make. Especially around here since people are not used to dealing with it and it seems to play havoc. I learned a lesson about forecasting snow in Alabama when I first moved here. I mentioned on air that we could see a heavy dusting of snow. Minutes later the phone rang in the weather office and it was a school superintendent telling me they were canceling

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1131593914005269182005-11-09T21:29:00.000-06:002005-11-09T21:38:34.020-06:00

I know we have had some crazy weather of late but today takes the cake! A tornado hit Hamilton Ontario around 4 pm today. Canada does have some damaging tornadoes from time to time. One last Summer near Toronto was exceptionally strong. A Twister in November however, is exceedingly rare. Do not get the idea that this means a warm Winter. It does not. (See my blog on the winter forecast-I have not

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1130450555400267902005-10-27T16:53:00.000-05:002005-10-27T22:23:28.776-05:00

Our weekend anchor Amber Moody made it back to Huntsville last night. What a wild 7 days she has had. First getting married (That will scare anybody!) and then off to an idyllic honeymoon...in Cancun!When she got my message last week (It was short and simple.."Get out NOW!") she tried to get a flight but it was already too late. The already heavily booked flights were all full. She has some real

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1130208113933993102005-10-24T21:36:00.000-05:002005-10-24T21:44:59.236-05:00

The warm weather crowd in the newsroom is already grumbling. This is already to much for them! For those of us that like the cooler weather, this is hog heaven!Last night, I opened the window and turned up the old electric blanket to well done..and slept well!This pattern is going to continue all week with a deep upper trough in the jet stream parked over the eastern half of North America. If

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1129849442529896882005-10-20T17:54:00.000-05:002005-10-20T18:04:02.540-05:00

If you had asked me Tuesday night if a hurricane could intensify by 50 millibars in 8 hours, I would have probably laughed. Thirty or even forty perhaps..but even that would be stretching it.So there I set in bed in the early morning hours of Wednesday..my WiFi laptop in front of me and my wife sound asleep beside me. I decided to see if there was a new recon report on Wilma. There was. 901

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1128985440012356942005-10-10T17:41:00.000-05:002005-10-11T13:18:18.596-05:00

Twenty years ago making a 6 month forecast was for the fool hardy. Things have changed dramatically since then. Our knowledge of how the atmosphere reacts to the oceans is still in the fundamental stages, but we do know enough to make some guesses.Season long forecasts look at things like El Nino and La Nina. A Pressure pattern called the Arctic oscillation and even the number of Hurricanes in

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1128383543523580632005-10-03T18:51:00.000-05:002005-10-04T09:52:23.956-05:00

They are calling it Xenia and now they find it has a moon as well. Still if you ask most astronomers, this is not a planet. For that matter, neither is Pluto. Even the discoverers of Xenia agree there are doubts.Funny thing is, there is no actual definition of what a planet is. Pluto was called a planet after its discovery but in the years afterward, most astronomers realized it was probably a

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1128121350362369472005-09-30T17:49:00.000-05:002005-10-29T23:04:19.933-05:00

We have added 2 new weather net stations in the last couple of weeks. One at Hampton Cove and another at Collinsville over in Dekalb county. Not to mention the one in August at Bob Jones high school in Madison. This now gives us quite a mesonet of real time reporting stations. Thanks to the sponsorship of Bill Penney Toyota we will be adding another live camera and some more stations soon as well

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1127464033417891652005-09-23T03:07:00.000-05:002005-09-24T00:01:40.733-05:00

I watched CNN during dinner and was shocked to see the reports of thousands of people out of gas along Interstate 45 in Houston. Apparently the contra flow did not start until noon on Thursday.It seems to me that this raises serious questions about trying to evacuate everyone from a city of 5 million. (Has there been an over reaction??)Already there has been one reported death and wire reports

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1127369541224873812005-09-22T00:54:00.000-05:002005-09-22T13:04:11.116-05:00

Two category 5 hurricanes in matter of weeks. Hard to believe. Yet the satellite shots and the dropsonde numbers do not lie. Rita is not just a cat 5 storm tonight..it is a STRONG Cat 5 storm. Fortunately hurricanes do not tend to stay at this level for long and I suspect it will be a 4 at landfall...maybe even down to a 3 (Let's hope so)If it comes ashore as a strong 4 like Katrina, we are

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1126248675887495582005-09-09T01:36:00.000-05:002005-09-15T18:27:00.170-05:00

I have not blogged in the last few days because I would probably say something that gets me in trouble. After years of talking to civic groups about New Orleans and the waiting disaster...well you get the idea.Still, I am in the forecasting business. Once the storm hits, it becomes the news department's problem. I will say that I am proud of the media's excellent (for the most part) coverage of

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1125468007448240892005-08-31T00:40:00.000-05:002005-09-02T17:55:25.836-05:00

I was in New Orleans in June 2003 for the AMS weather conference I attend each year. We stayed at the Hyatt across from the Superdome. I've seen pictures of it in the last 24 hours. Not much left of that very swank hotel.After the conference session I walked through the French Quarter with my wife and son and took a ton of pictures. This may not be here much longer I told my wife when she asked

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1124863130026428542005-08-24T00:43:00.000-05:002005-08-24T00:58:50.033-05:00

Ok. First off my apologies on the long delay since my last blog. Will try and do better in the future.I do have some very interesting news tonight. Astronomers have been watching an asteroid named 2004NM for the past year. It is a type that orbits close to the sun but does pass through Earth's orbit from time to time. In a recent near encounter, a much better fix on it's orbit was attained. The

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1124000002028682632005-08-14T00:57:00.000-05:002005-08-14T01:13:22.036-05:00

My apologies at such a long delay between posts. Exceptionally busy week. We are working on some new weather graphics and I think you will like them. Much clearer and very pleasing to the eye. To be honest I have not been a real fan of the current scheme. The new one is the best I have seen. Just when you will see it on air is uncertain. Probably in a month or so.Many thanks to all who keep

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1123304934029741082005-08-05T23:44:00.000-05:002005-08-06T00:08:54.036-05:00

I have been in Washington all week at the American Metr. Society Broadcast Meteorology conference. While there was little time for sight seeing, I had still hoped to do some. The weather did not cooperate though. The heat and haze and smog were horrible. This was expected of course. There are few places in the USA with a more brutal climate in August than D.C.Still I managed to grab my camera and

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1122368753741130442005-07-26T03:48:00.000-05:002005-07-29T20:42:44.430-05:00

I am not one to fall asleep easily. My wife is just the opposite. I will ask her a question after she has gone to bed and she will answer. I will ask a follow up not 10 seconds later and.....out cold.I am envious. Give me a cold night with howling winds and I will fall asleep quickly. Otherwise... Next week is the annual AMS Broadcast conference. It is Washington D.C. and is being held jointly

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1121924834620772382005-07-21T00:27:00.000-05:002005-07-21T00:47:14.626-05:00

Meteorologists like to break the atmosphere down into scales. We have the microscale and the meso scale and synoptic scales and global or planetary scales. Most forecasters concern themselves with the synoptic scale.If you have a house that is 10 km long it is a mesocale house. Ten Meters long and it is a local scale house. 10,000 km long and your house is a planetary scale house!Synoptic scale

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1121225052126144402005-07-12T22:08:00.000-05:002005-07-12T22:24:12.143-05:00

Right now the weather for the shuttle launch on Wednesday looks pretty good. I would say the chance of a shower scrubbing the launch is only about 25%. When I worked in Florida, I covered several shuttle launches. They truly are something to see. TV definitely does not due it justice. Especially a night launch. When you watch on TV they stay zoomed into the shuttle but at the press site you can

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1120969773469128782005-07-09T23:19:00.000-05:002005-07-09T23:31:17.706-05:00

The recon aircraft sent back a central pressure of 941 mb just before 10 pm tonight. On the Saffir Simpson scale, that pressure would make Dennis a category 4 storm. The winds are not really up to cat 4 strength yet but they will do so shortly I think.The difference between a cat 3 storm and a cat 4 storm hitting a coast line is quite dramatic. If it stays this strong or god forbid gets stronger,

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1120889225048044902005-07-09T00:55:00.000-05:002005-07-09T01:11:59.910-05:00

As of 1 am CDT, Dennis is now visible on the Key West Nexrad. It is off shore and just NE of Havana. All of the 00z models are in now and they are remarkably in agreement. It looks more and more likely that landfall will be somewhere in the western part of the Florida Panhandle or perhaps as far west as Gulfport Miss. That could certainly change but I do not think it will change much. The

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1120806151180101002005-07-08T01:42:00.000-05:002005-07-08T10:56:57.190-05:00

Someone said a few years back that if weather satellites could only be used for tracking hurricanes, they would still be worth their cost many times over. It is certainly true. I myself cannot imagine what it was like to try and forecast these things before real time satellite imagery. Meteorologists have developed a technique for ascertaining the strength of a tropical storm using only satellite

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1120632545249565572005-07-06T01:39:00.000-05:002005-07-06T01:49:05.253-05:00

Tropical storm Cindy is passing right over New Orleans as I type this. The lake front aiport is getting gusts to 60 mph in torrential rains. The main airport has gusts to 52 mph. Cindy is a tiny storm though with winds a hundred miles away reported as CALM! Camille was a similar storm. Much much stronger of course. Camille's winds were 200 mph.Dennis is next in line and if the long range model

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1120549811859761382005-07-05T02:40:00.000-05:002005-07-09T01:25:04.180-05:00

I had not been to Toronto for many years until last month. I waited too long. Canada itself is one of the most beautiful places on earth with endless prairies across the plains and and the most spectacular mountain scenery in North America. It's largest city is a real treat though. No wonderful scenery to speak of but the CN Tower rising majestically above downtown is a must visit. From the top

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1120105465084808312005-06-29T23:10:00.000-05:002005-07-02T15:54:16.343-05:00

I took some needed holiday time last week. A trip to Toronto and Niagara Falls in beautiful Canada.I did do some work though. Stopped in Boston for a seminar at WSI. WSI is the company that makes our weather graphics system. This set of computers makes the graphics we display on TV during our weathercasts. It also does a host of other things by categorizing the non-stop stream of weather data we

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1118992138681552852005-06-17T01:47:00.000-05:002005-06-17T02:10:17.576-05:00

We have a new weather satellite going up later this month. Goes N will be launched (hopefully) on 24 June. This is the first of a new series of geostationary weather satellites.GOES N will eventually become GOES 13 and replace GOES 12 which has done a great job for the last several years. GOES images are the ones you see on TV every night during my weathercast. (and every one else's for that

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1118737881236864262005-06-14T02:55:00.000-05:002005-06-14T03:31:21.243-05:00

It was June 1905 and the story goes that world famous physicist Max Planck brought in the mail after a long day at work. In the mail was a scientific article by an author unknown to most of the science community. A guy who worked as patent clerk and wrote in his spare time. Somehow the article intrigued him and one can just imagine Planck, absent mindedly putting down the rest of the mail while

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1118641137653904522005-06-13T00:29:00.000-05:002005-06-13T00:38:57.656-05:00

Well, as I thought, Arlene was just a tropical storm and brought some much needed rain to the area. Tropical storms and hurricanes play a big part on keeping the water tables up in this part of the world. I can remember many droughts that were broken by a tropical system.Have never owned property on a beach. Not going to buy any either. Where ocean meets land is one of the most geological

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1118300167835566252005-06-09T01:28:00.000-05:002005-06-13T00:03:40.806-05:00

I was at work yesterday when the word came down the wire that Anne Bancroft had died. She was one of my favorite actresses. I was also very sad for her husband of over 40 years, Mel Brooks. A living comic legend in his own right.While everyone remembers Anne Bancroft for The Graduate and The Miracle Worker, I remember her for another movie. Not well known, but it has become a cult classic.84

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1118051147660992122005-06-06T04:13:00.000-05:002005-06-06T20:14:25.153-05:00

My wife and I took very different courses at the University of Oklahoma. We did have one instructor in common, although we did not know it until after we were married! His name was Duane Roller, Ph.D., and the class was History of Science.Now, that may sound like a rather boring class to you. Most students who signed up for it thought the same thing. Just another elective. The class met at 7:30

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1117877812086576562005-06-04T03:43:00.000-05:002005-06-04T04:36:52.093-05:00

Space and the universe are on my mind tonight. This was prompted by the confirmation that Voyager 1 has reached the termination shock.The termination shock is the point in space where the stream of solar particles from our sun meet with the slower interstellar particle stream. Many researchers believe this to be a good definition of the "edge" of our solar system. Check out the science section

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1117780625916683492005-06-03T00:32:00.000-05:002005-06-03T01:39:47.746-05:00

There has been talk of banning this substance. There are some good reasons for doing so. It is very corrosive. (Darn stuff will dissolve almost ANYTHING!)Accidentally inhaling it is often fatal. It is a major component in acid rain as well.Banning it won't be easy though. It is everywhere. As a matter of fact about 67% of the Earth's surface is covered with this chemical compound.Yes I am talking

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1117527920383219642005-05-31T02:33:00.000-05:002005-05-31T03:25:20.400-05:00

One of these days I am going to do my whole weathercast in metric units. I can hear the howls now....Yup, This blog is metric. By the time any Meteorology student graduates there are a few things he can recite in his sleep...The hydrostatic equation (don't ask!) and metric units are among them.Some observations about Fahrenheit versus Celsius:One of the main tasks of the weather system we use to

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1117273996815973272005-05-28T04:02:00.000-05:002005-05-31T02:00:28.993-05:00

My wife always laughs when someone asks me the time because I will tend to give the unsuspecting questioner the response...WHERE? Time depends on where you are. (It also depends on how fast you are moving but let's leave the relativity stuff for another blog)I'm also asked what the "Z" means on radar images and satellite images we show. The answer is GMT. Z stands for Greenwich Mean Time. The

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1117186680640678412005-05-27T04:24:00.000-05:002005-05-27T04:38:00.646-05:00

I showed some of our first echo id data on air at 10pm Thursday.(See the last blog) Using ARMOR and it's dual polarimetric capability, a computer program can be run to analyze the radar echoes using different variables like differential reflectivity and specific differential phase etc. (I have a link at the end that will explain these)This program can then estimate whether the echo is rain..sleet

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1117008639651793092005-05-25T02:53:00.000-05:002005-05-26T00:21:31.786-05:00

It is pretty neat stuff coming to work every day with the most advanced weather radar at any TV station in the world. Our relationship with the UAH atmospheric Sciences Department and the National Space Science Technology Center, is allowing us to do some fabulous things. Research is already underway with ARMOR. We have a working algorythm now for hydro id as well. Read on and look for a neat

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1116922763216465862005-05-24T02:33:00.000-05:002005-05-26T00:26:09.053-05:00

First off,many thanks to those of you who filled out the survey for Andrew Pennell. Andrew is doing a thesis on how people in the USA prepare for severe weather. He told me the other night that the city of Abilene, Texas has done away with their weather sirens and told folks to go out and buy a NOAA weather radio. (see my blog on screaming sirens).Well some huge news in the Geological world. It

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1116734963349351172005-05-21T23:03:00.000-05:002005-05-21T23:09:23.360-05:00

I have been helping a graduate student from London this week. He is working on a Masters degree and is doing a thesis on severe weather hazards and how people prepare for the severe weather we have around here. It would be very helpful if those of you here locally in the Huntsville area could fill out an on line questionaire for him. We do not need your address or even a name but a street or zip

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1116576686905997102005-05-20T02:41:00.000-05:002005-05-20T12:05:24.103-05:00

In my last few blogs I've tried to put forth some good information on climate change with some links to great sites on the web. If you read these I think you will have a pretty good understanding of where we are in climate research.One more link that will require about 15-20 minutes to listen to. It is a 3 part report that National Public Radio did last year. One of the people interviewed is John

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1116490308192390082005-05-19T02:48:00.000-05:002005-05-20T12:11:20.913-05:00

It was 10 years ago Wednesday that the Anderson Hills tornado hit Madison county. I can still recall vividly watching the radar and a live feed from one of our reporters in Athens as the storm approached. Suddenly, a large hook echo appeared on radar and at the same time I saw a curtain of rain wrap rapidly around the south side of the storm.A tornado warning was already in effect but I knew then

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1116317896197160642005-05-17T02:58:00.000-05:002005-05-18T18:06:43.133-05:00

It might surprise you to know that we are in an ice age.Have been for the last 3 million years or so. Currently we are in a short warm period between ice advances. The last advance of the ice ended about 10,000 years ago. At that time the ice sheets were near the Ohio river and our part of the world was much cooler than now. The BIG question is when will the next ice advance start? Most recent

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1116139629716679112005-05-15T01:17:00.000-05:002005-05-18T18:11:58.603-05:00

My last blog was the beginning of several I plan writing about climate and climate change. Many thanks to those of you who emailed. Nice to know I am not the only one interested in this stuff!Have you ever driven through a highway cut and noticed the interesting layers of rocks. Not only are there different colors but you can sometimes see faults and the rocks are tilted at incredible angles.

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1115970766904308672005-05-13T02:08:00.000-05:002005-05-13T19:45:17.393-05:00

Before I get into the meat of tonight's blog. Check this link out:http://www.popvssoda.com/countystats/total-county.html I always said soda ...I get about 3 minutes a night to do the forecast. Actually that is about right. (Don't ever tell a producer I said that) Any longer and it would put people to sleep.We all lead busy lives and you do not watch the news because you have nothing else to do...

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1115880992102969032005-05-12T01:31:00.000-05:002005-05-12T01:59:17.026-05:00

The pressure at the bottom of our atmosphere is about 1000 millibars. On Mars the pressure at the surface is about 10 millibars. Almost a vacuum to us..but enough to support wind and even some clouds on the red planet.The sandy soil and the very strong temp. gradient makes Mars a perfect place for dust devils. Scientists have been hoping to catch some. Not really an easy task though if you think

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1115799036740149082005-05-11T02:51:00.000-05:002005-05-11T03:16:26.110-05:00

You know what the number one weather killer is in this country??Nope not tornadoes, and if you said flash floods or Lightning you get a C-. They are number two and three.It's heat waves.Interesting thing about heat waves, sometimes it is hard to know if a fatality is a direct result of the heat or a contributing factor. That issue came up during the heat wave in Chicago a few years back. I went

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1115707985150614632005-05-10T01:35:00.000-05:002005-05-10T01:53:05.166-05:00

The math teacher who wrote the Calculus book that almost every engineer and science major used in college over the past 25 -30 years has died. Louis Leithold was 80 and apparently a much beloved instructor.I can guarantee you his book is still on the shelf of thousands of scientist and engineers around the world! Supposedly he came up with a way to make it much easier to understand(If his was the

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1115355056303725812005-05-05T23:42:00.000-05:002005-05-10T01:35:12.616-05:00

I frequently get asked for information on when the last hail storm was for a particular area. This is usually because someone has hail damage and the insurance company wants proof that it hailed before they will replace a roof. Hail damaged a roof of mine on Florida back in the early 90's but the insurance comapany never asked for proof! Then again, maybe they did not want to argue with a

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1115181836682810532005-05-03T23:27:00.000-05:002005-05-04T00:09:17.686-05:00

Every morning I open my email. There with the usual assortment of spam I can almost count on receiving THE PICTURES. What you ask are THE PICTURES?They are a gorgeous selection of wall Clouds tornadoes and gust fronts.All shot by some storm chaser over the last few years. Out in the plains, probably. I'd love to show them on air, BUT, we only show pictures taken by the party that sends them.

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1115018615702717212005-05-02T02:06:00.000-05:002005-05-02T02:23:35.703-05:00

I got home Saturday morning as the sun was coming up. The latest severe weather has kept me at work in over 2 years! James Paul came in and made the night pass a lot quicker. We had time to work on some new scan settings for ARMOR. We also did some cut-ins when that line of wind came through around 3-4 am. One good thing about breaking into programming that late..the only people usually watching

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1114764984822654262005-04-29T03:41:00.000-05:002005-04-29T03:56:24.823-05:00

Well I had a pretty good streak of over 2 weeks without a busted forecasts. That came to an end on Thursday. .21 inches of partly cloudy to be exact. When this happens I go back and look at the charts and models and ask myself what I missed. Many times the answer is nothing. The models did not catch it and most of the time my forecast would have verified.Did the same today and frankly I think I

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1114585340235285352005-04-27T01:34:00.000-05:002005-04-29T03:24:51.980-05:00

I meant to update this blog sooner than this but I have been studying for a Historical Geology Final- It's been a real bear.Some odds and ends on my mind tonight:The Mets. over at Huntsville NWS went out and did a storm survey of Dekalb county after Friday's storm and upgraded the severe thunderstorm to an F zero tornado.Look for a pic of the wall cloud over Fort Payne on our web site picture

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1114154462494510432005-04-22T01:47:00.000-05:002005-04-22T02:33:53.060-05:00

Looks like we will see a significant severe weather event on Friday. Even the risk of some tornadoes is a bit higher than I thought earlier in the day. Then come a real cold snap! Right now it still looks to me as if mid 30's are likely Sunday morning. On Monday with calm winds the cold pockets in Dekalb and Jackson counties may very well see some frost. In case your wondering, the latest freeze

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1113875372126197892005-04-18T20:14:00.000-05:002005-04-19T17:23:17.806-05:00

Working as a Meteorologist in TV has it's rewards but it can be a bit lonely. The 3 of us in the weather office have to cover the entire day..all year. So we actually do not see much of each other!When there is something neat going on..there are usually no other Meteorolgists to talk too about it! Sometimes I will open the chat client we have with the NWS and talk to some of Mets. over there or

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1113549543241569862005-04-15T01:56:00.000-05:002005-04-15T02:19:03.243-05:00

One of my hobbies is researching the weather conditions present during great historical events. April 14 has 2 notable events that I have spent some time researching. What follows is based on things I have seen and read over the years..and I am always looking for some new bit of info to add.The first is April 14,1912. The sinking of the Titanic. Weather charts of the North Atlantic exist for that

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1113038076485228292005-04-09T03:49:00.000-05:002005-04-10T22:41:59.056-05:00

I am frequently asked about a good text on Meteorology. Many times it is a parent or grand parent of a school age child who has a fanatical interest in weather(I can relate to that!)A few years ago the number of books with good info and not a lot of math and physics were hard to find. Remember too that another name for Meteorology is Atmospheric Physics..in other words a good background of math

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1112859393340581652005-04-07T02:18:00.000-05:002005-04-10T22:40:03.936-05:00

This was passed on to me from the NWS office here in Huntsville. A good lesson to be learned...Guess you could say this falls into the I never thought it would happen to me department.***************************************************************************Rankin County tornado victim: 'This time, it really hit'(Brandon, MS)04/06/05By Cathy Haydenchayden@clarionledger.comAnd Joshua

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1112762319358302862005-04-05T22:59:00.000-05:002005-04-05T23:40:29.403-05:00

James Paul and I went over to UAH today and spent some time with Dr. Walt Peterson. Walt is a Senior Research Scientist who has been with us from day one on ARMOR. (Advanced Radar for Operations and Research) He has extensive experience with Dual Polarimetric radars (something VERY FEW meteorologists can say)We looked at some images of the Feb 21st hail event. I am going to attach some images

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1112684667396654992005-04-05T01:56:00.003-05:002005-04-10T22:39:40.403-05:00

I took this picture Sunday evening just before the memorial Mass at St. Mary's in Huntsville. It was a beautiful Spring evening. (One forecast I got perfect last week!)Dan

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1112654804382084402005-04-04T17:46:00.000-05:002005-04-04T17:57:51.830-05:00

Forecast BlogLooks like today will be the nicest day of the week weather wise. Each model run is slowing down this upper low and I am holding the rain back until Wednesday instead of Tuesday night. Upper lows like this have very cold air aloft, so storms with hail are likely. Sometimes in the Spring we will see cold air funnels with these systems. That might happen this time and if it does it

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11867854.post-1112424574061004752005-04-02T02:40:00.000-06:002005-04-02T01:16:39.276-06:00

Welcome to the Forecast Blog.My reason for creating this is to pass on details of the forecast that I do not have time to give during my weathercasts each day. I also plan to share some interesting pictures or some of my favorite science related web sites.Doing numerous radio updates and forecasting and presenting the weather on4 newscasts each day keeps me busy, so I cannot promise to update

Dan Satterfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103428750040230969noreply@blogger.com