Dear Weather Club Member,

Welcome to the February edition of our Weather Club e-news!

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Here’s a quick preview of this month’s contents
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Davis Vantage Pro® at the Olympics with Finland's Cross Country
Ski Team . . .Baby, It's STILL C-C-Cold Outside… Jason Karvelot, MMM (Meteorologist Most Magnifico)… Weather Monitor II Tells Rick Dolliver When to Tap his Sugar Maples… You're Brilliant! Answers to Quiz Questions…Who You Gonna Call? Davis! …Enjoy!

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Davis Vantage Pro® at the Olympics with Finland's Cross Country Ski Team
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So, the Finnish cross country ski team was packing up for the Winter Olympics in far off Salt Lake City, Utah: "skis, check; freestyle bindings, check; klister spreader, check; kick wax, check; glide wax, check; wax iron, check: ear muffs, check." The team moms all insisted on sun block and long underwear, "check." Finally, all that was left were the very large, very heavy, cable-loaded, European-made weather stations. They seemed even heavier and larger than ever when considering transporting them all the way to Utah. It was then that the team's chief trainer called Davis's Finnish dealer and announced that the team would be upgrading to the lighter, more modern, wireless Vantage Pro.

Cross country skiing is a sport that depends on absolute up-to-the-minute weather data. At the Olympics, ski preparation starts at 5 a.m. in order to have skis ready by 9 a.m., and the team's service manager must have a very informed sense of the snow conditions that will face skiers for the day's races. In order to choose the right wax, he will have to know whether the snow is old or new, (old or manmade gets klister, new powder gets stick) and what the air temperature will be (very cold gets green wax, very warm gets yellow wax - and there's a vast rainbow between them). An error in judgment by the service manager, and the team loses crucial seconds.

Finland has more than just the usual competitive urge to bring home the gold this year. Cross country skiing is a part of Finnish life, and bringing home Olympic medals in this sport is always a point of pride. But after the Nagano games, during which the team had to forfeit several races due to the mystery illness that hit Olympic Village, this time they plan to remind the world that "Finns are born on skis." As a country where the ski museum (yes, they have one) boasts a pair of 6th century A.D skis that were found pristinely preserved in a Finnish peat bog; where school girls, mail carriers, and church social workers use skis to get around, the Finns are, indeed, very determined to prove their cross country prowess.

Cross country skiing as an Olympic event entails two distinct styles of skiing: classical, in which the skis remain parallel on flat terrain and diagonal when going uphill; and freestyle, in which skiers "skate" by pushing off from the edge of the weight-bearing ski. Freestyle is faster and does not use a prepared track as does classical. Starting on February 9, the world's best cross country skiers will meet at Soldier Hollow to compete in individual races of 5, 15, 30 and 50 kilometers and 20 km (women) or 40 km (men) relays.

Although we will be rooting for the Americans, if the Finnish were to take all the gold because their trainers had the advantage of the very best in weather information, we could live with that. (Go Finland!)

The official page of the 2002 Winter Olympics is at http://www.saltlake2002.com. Here's a web site that will tell you all about waxing cross country skis: http://www.xcskiworld.com/waxing.html. Also check out the Virtual Skiing in Finland page at http://virtual.finland.fi/finfo/english/skiing.html. Here's the link for the Finnish Ski Association (just in case you speak Finnish): http://www.ski.fi/linkit_kotimaa.html and our Finnish distributor's page: http://www.iloy.fi/welcome.cgi.

Weather Check Quiz Question 1: All snow crystals are flat, six-pointed flakes. True or False? (See answer at the very, very bottom. Yes, you must read the whole E-News to get there. No skimming.)

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Baby, It's STILL C-C-Cold Outside
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Rob Paola, of Winnipeg, emailed to tell us he enjoyed our last Weather Club E-News and offered the following advice in response to my comments about how cold it is here in the San Francisco Bay Area: "Next time you think it's cold, just check my site to see what cold really is!"(His site is on our Weather World 'Round or at http://members.shaw.ca/wpgwx/robsobs/home.htm.) Well, this morning, after I scraped the ICE off my windshield to get to work, I did check out his website.(Those computer keys are not so easy to hit when wearing ski gloves.) Omigosh, Rob, it's -20ºF there! That's the high his Vantage Pro is reporting! I must say, Rob, knowing that has done little to warm me up, but much to shore up my admiration for you and your neighbors!

(While the folks in Winnipeg must think snow is about as exciting as telemarketers at dinnertime, we Bay Area residents were struck dumb with awe when our hills got a nice dusting of white stuff last week. Kids in Petaluma [just north of San Francisco] got a day off from school, which they spent scraping up tennis-ball sized lumps of snow for use as weapons and/or teensy snowmen. Dogs did the crazy happy-dog dance, cats were appalled, and television anchor persons reported live from front yards. You'd think it was a dusting of 24K gold for all the hullabaloo!)

Rob's Winnipeg site is just one of 54 new sites we've recently added to our Weather World 'Round site. Nationally, we now have weather data from the previously unrepresented states of Alaska, Montana, Idaho, Utah, and Wisconsin. They join new sites from all over the world including Germany, Greece, and the Caribbean Islands. You can spend a very pleasant afternoon (or weekend) meandering all over the world collecting real time weather data without getting too far away from the comfort of your hot tub by going to http://www.davisnet.com/weather/cool/world.asp.

Weather Check Quiz Question 2: Does the air temperature have to be 32°F/0°C or lower for snow? (This one is brought to you by our own resident meteorologist, Jason Karvelot. See more about Jason below. Answer is at the bottom of this page.)

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Jason Karvelot, MMM (Meteorologist Most Magnifico)
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Davis's resident meteorologist, Jason Karvelot, was born and bred to be a weather professional. From his birthplace in the high-weather-action land of Colorado, to his parents who shushed him only when the weather report came on television, Jason's destiny seemed almost predetermined.

"Growing up on the eastern slope of the Rockies," remembers Jason "was a constant weather drama. We had thunder, snow, tornados, broiling summers - never a dull moment. It was great: the air was clear and there were bluffs from which you could really see funnel clouds and approaching storms. And unlike other weather-active areas of the country further to the east, our summer thunderstorms often happened in the daytime rather than at night."

As a boy, Jason kept coffee cans scattered in the yard to measure the rain and snowfall. He built his own anemometer out of balsa wood with cone-shaped cups and was delighted to watch it spin in the breeze. He regularly checked the thermometers mounted both inside and outside his home. To you life-long weather buffs, this childhood might sound rather routine. But in the Karvelot household, Jason was just following suit.

"My whole family got very excited when the weather was most extreme. That's what we enjoyed the most," he recalls. "Once, the tornado sirens started going off when my family was out driving. Instead of heading away from the storm, my dad went toward it. I remember going through small towns with the tornado sirens blaring. All the other family vehicles were going the other way; we were going the same direction as the emergency vehicles! Once we could get a view of the tornado, we stopped to take a better look."

It must have been no surprise to his parents when he applied only to the relatively few universities that offer a degree in meteorology. After graduating with a BS in Meteorology from California State University at San Jose, Jason joined Davis to help create weather instruments that provide the kind of information weather watchers need. For example, when your Vantage Pro predicts rain within the next 12 to 24 hours, and you hear the rain start to patter just as predicted, you can thank Jason for his work on the forecasting algorithm.

Speaking of forecasting, Jason has some definite opinions on the subject. "Scoring accuracy is very subjective," Jason tells us. "If the forecast is for a 'chance of rain,' and the skies stay dry, some people say the forecast was wrong. Whether it rains or doesn't, the forecast is accurate, since it's really about probabilities, not certainties."

With modern weather technology such as satellites, forecasting has become much more of a science than an art. "Before satellites," he told us, "it was very difficult to track hurricanes forming out at sea. And people on the west coast could only depend on observations from sea craft, which were often in the wrong place at the wrong time to help predict storms heading for land."

The other day, Davis's receptionist paged Jason to ask him about the unusual clouds she could see from her desk. Then, one of our customer service staff popped into Jason's office to ask if the rain would hold off until after Saturday, when she was planning to move into her new home. Clearly, Davis employees consider his wealth of knowledge - and his generosity in sharing it - a very nice "perk."

We are, however, willing to share him with all of you. (We're a very generous bunch.)

Weather Check Quiz Question 3: (Another one from Jason): Does dew "fall" from the air onto surfaces? (Answer at bottom of page.)

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Weather Monitor II Tells Rick Dolliver When to Tap His Sugar Maples
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Apparently, people aren't the only ones who react to wind chill. According to Rick Dolliver of Williston, Vermont, sugar maple trees don't like it much either. In fact, the trees themselves are very precise biological weather stations that release their sweet sap only when a rather precise combination of temperature, humidity and wind conditions are met. Since maple trees keep their weather information to themselves, Rick uses the next best thing - a Davis Instruments Weather Monitor II - to help him decide when to turn on his 600 or so maple taps.

"When the snow melts around the base of the tree, we start looking at our weather data," Rick said. "It has to freeze at night, then get to 38° by 11:00 a.m. - then the tree will give sap. We look at wind, too. Wind can make the trees 'shut down.' In fact, if you have buckets on the north and south sides of a tree, and there is wind blowing from the north, the north side will shut down while the south side keeps running."

The Dollivers collect enough sap each year to make about 200 gallons of syrup. When you consider that one tap collects about a quart of sap and it takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of pancake topper, this number becomes very impressive.

"It's sort of hobby," Rick told us. "We use the syrup ourselves and give it away. It's also a good excuse to leave work early. When the Weather Monitor tells me it's time, I just have to go home!"

Although Rick's Weather Monitor II was purchased a few years ago, it doesn't seem to be showing its age. "It is one of the few things around here that doesn't go on the fritz! I thought it might get rusty and worn down after a few Vermont winters, but it is still going strong."

After you go bake yourself a nice stack of steamy waffles and drizzle some warm, amber, aromatic maple syrup on them, check out the University of Vermont Proctor Maple Research Center's web page at http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc/index.html. Their weather site is also on our Weather World 'Round page. Another good one is Vermont Maple, at http://www.vermontmaple.org.

Weather Wise Quiz Question 4: What in the world (the maple syrup world, that is) is "Sugar Snow"? (See answer at bottom of page.)

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Dramatic Video of Lightning Strike (Warning: May Not Be Suitable for Viewing by Tree Lovers)
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I don't want to shock of any of you with the following story, but that's the way it is with lightning. John Stevens, of Sydney, Australia, is the owner of a Davis Weather Monitor II and a weather buff. Like any good weather buff whose life in jeopardy due to some wild weather, he got out his video camera when a fierce storm began pounding his home. What he caught on tape is the dramatic demise of a poor tree that was hit by lightning.

(Well, he caught most of it. Although John is a dyed-in-the-wool weather buff, he is also a human being. This is evidenced by the fact that he momentarily lost contact with the camera trigger when the tree, which sits just a few feet from his home, went up in flames.)

His video is pretty darned amazing. He's put it on a website at http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2001/docs/200112-01.htm. Take a peek, cautiously.

Weather Wise Quiz Question 5: Lightning travels down from cloud to earth, right?

BONUS Weather Wise Quiz Question: A young couple is excitedly awaiting the birth of their first child. They are considering the following names for the baby: Beaufort Sirocco, Crepuscular Ray, Saffir Simpson, Qannik Dendrite, Alberta Clipper, Glory Gale, or Cori Olis. What's on their roof?

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You're Brilliant! Answers to Quiz Questions
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Question 1: All snow crystals are NOT shaped like flakes or stars. Crystal shape is affected by temperature, which makes them either flat and platelike or long needles or solid or hollow columns. In actuality, the most common shapes are small and irregular with no easily identifiable shape.

Question 2: No, the air temperature does not need be 32°F/0°C or lower for snow! Depending upon how dry the air is, snow can fall at up to 50° F/10 °C in some cases. Take, for example, a case where the air at the surface is above freezing. The air is below freezing where the snow first forms, in the clouds above. At some point the snow flakes will fall into the layer of air where the temperature is above freezing. Obviously, they will start to melt. The water that results from this melting, if the air is sufficiently dry, will begin to evaporate off the flake. This evaporation will cool the flake. If the evaporation cools the flake below freezing, then any further melting will cease and the flake will remain intact as it falls to the surface.

The temperature to which objects will cool to due to evaporation is called the "wet-bulb temperature." This temperature is always between the air temperature and the dewpoint. Thus, wet bulb will tell you whether, if precipitation occurs, it will be some form of rain or some form of snow. Based on this rule of thumb, if the dewpoint is above freezing, then it will definitely be rain.

Question 3: No, dew doesn't fall, it forms. This fact sometimes affects data provided by rain collectors by creating "false" tips of the tipping bucket. The extra condensation forming inside the rain collector can sometimes cause the station to register rainfall when there was none.

Question 4: Ha! Gotcha! You thought "sugar snow" refers to a dry snow that makes a crunching or squeaking sound when you walk on it and usually happens only when temperatures are way below freezing. Well, to people in the maple world, "sugar snow" happens when there is a low pressure cell with a cold front following a warm day. The skies get cloudy, and fat, wet snowflakes begin to fall. While one might think that the cold weather would keep the maple sap from flowing, the opposite is true. The warm preceding day and the low pressure cause the sap to flow prodigiously all night and all day. The buckets fill with cold, clear sap. The heavy snowfall makes the sugar house, with its roaring fires and aromatic, boiling sap, a very cozy place to be.

Question 5: Lightning travels down from cloud to earth, WRONG (usually). It happens so fast, it hardly matters, but the most common kind of strike is actually a return stroke, an intense wave of positive charge traveling upward about 60,000 miles per second (about 1/3 the speed of light). This happens after electrons from the cloud zig-zag (that's why it's called a "stepped leader") toward earth, drawing a streamer of positive charges upward. The leader and streamer come to together to start an electrical current flowing, leading to the return stroke.

Bonus Question: What's on their roof? Why, a Davis Vantage Pro weather station, of course.

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Who You Gonna Call?
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Each month after the E-News goes out, we receive messages back. Sometimes the messages are in response to a story we shared; other times they are a request for help of some kind. We read all the emails, answer those we can, and pass the rest on to the appropriate departments.

We think you should know, though, that if you're interested in the fastest possible reply, news@davisnet.com may not be the best place to send your message. Questions about how things work should be addressed to tech support directly at support@davisnet.com. For general information about the products, such as how much cable comes with a station contact sales@davisnet.com. To request a catalog, you'll find links for catalog here on our web site at http://www..davisnet.com/contact/catalog.asp.

Please continue to send your comments, weather URLs, and story suggestions to news@davisnet.com. We look forward to getting your comments and any responses you have to the E-newsletter. Member participation is what keeps the E-newsletter alive and kicking.

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Well, that’s it for this month. Will be checking in again in March. Until then - stay warm and dry!
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