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Davis
Instruments Weather Club
November/December 2003
In This Issue:
New Gadgets: Gifts for Your Favorite Weather Buff
Santa, who has
his Vantage
Pro
mounted on the back of his sleigh so he always has real-time, world-wide
weather data, has contacted us to say that many of our readers have
been very nice indeed this year and deserve a new gadget for their
weather toy chests. So fine, we said, anything to get our own names
off the naughty list. (Okay, if you must know, last year someone
ate the chocolate chip cookies that were left out for Santa under
the Vantage Pro our showroom.)
For the weather
buff who already has his/her Vantage Pro (and if he/she doesn’t,
read no further but click here
and get it shipped NOW), here’s a brand new item that all the nicest
of weather buffs want to find in their stocking. (We hinted at it
a month or so ago!)
It’s our new
hand-held, ultrasonic wind meter, the WindScribe.
Our newest gizmo is a weather techy’s dream: small (fits in your
hand, easy to mount on your bicycle, hangs on a peg on your boat),
sleek, and hi-tech. It measures wind speed without moving parts,
ultrasonically. Just point the tube into the breeze, and read current
wind speed, highest positive speed (headwind), lowest negative speed
(tailwind), 5-second average, and running average. You can select
from mph, km/h, fpm, m/s, f/s, or knots, plus temperature and wind
chill in tenths of °F or °C. It is sensitive to breezes as low as
0.4 mph, yet withstands winds as high as 150 mph. We rarely get
quite so excited about a new product, but this so pretty and useful
it just tickles our weather fancy. Right now, the Windscribe is
on backorder, but Santa’s elves expect to start delivering WindScribes
in plenty of time for Christmas. In fact, we expect the first shipments
to go out around December 15.
Another new
product for the weather dude/dudette who has everything is the Daytime
Fan-Aspirated Radiation Shield Kit. For those who want to add
the benefits of fan aspiration (the fan circulates the air for a
more accurate temperature reading) for their Vantage
Pro or Vantage
Pro Plus, this kit is about half the cost of our other fan-aspirated
radiation shield, but almost 75% as effective in reducing the effects
of daytime radiation. It works by using solar power to run the fan
during the daytime, when the effects of the sun are most notable.
(At night, the fan stops.) It can be used with any later-model Vantage
Pro or Vantage Pro Plus station with round radiation shields.
If the nice
weather fanatic on your list already has her/his Vantage Pro, then
why not soup it up with a Weather
Envoy? The Envoy receives data from the VP and posts it to your
computer, freeing up the Vantage Pro’s console to sit wherever you
want it. Or how about a Weather
Echo? The pocket-size unit receives and displays the Vantage
Pro’s data wherever you go within the range of the system. And at
least wrap up a Davis
T-shirt, polo shirt, or baseball cap – they are always on the
weather buff’s wish list. If your weather buff really does have
every known weather gadget, then what he or she needs this year
is a CarChip!
It’s not in our weather catalog, but techy’s of all stripes love
it.
Our new 2004
catalogs are in the mail and are full of other great gift ideas.
If you don’t receive yours soon, call our Customer Service department
and they’ll be happy to send you
one. In the meantime, you can download PDFs of the catalog on our
website!
Weather
Check Quiz Question 1: How old is Santa?
Extra
Credit: Which is closer to its respective pole: Patagonia to
the South Pole or Copenhagen to the North Pole?
Some
Call the Wind Sharki, or Willy-willy, or maybe Elephantra;
SoCals Call it Bad News
Reader Ed Marelius sent us this set of portraits, before and after, of his brave little weather station, which was set right in the middle of the Southern California firestorm. “Amazingly,” Ed wrote, “the temperature did not go up that much. It was about 85ºF or so. The wind out of the east was pretty strong (25mph gusts), going right to left in the picture, so I'm guessing the wind kept the temperature from soaring. The burned area is only about 30 feet or so from the ISS. The brush in the foreground is in my yard. We'd soaked it pretty well before the fire came through.” Luckily, Ed’s home survived as well.
Wind, the simple
movement of air from high to low pressure that we weather nuts love,
answers to a long list of names, depending on where the wind-blown
observer lives. A Warm Braw can be felt in the Schouten Islands
north of New Guinea. You could get violently tossed around by a
Pampero in Southern Argentina, and you might feel squeamish about
a Squamish in the fjords of British Columbia.
But in southern
California, at least lately, they’ve been calling the wind a few
names we can’t print here. Every southern Californian knows about
the Santa Ana winds: the warm, dry northeastern winds that come
barreling down through the canyons of Los Angeles every year around
this time. But this year, the Santa Anas were a major player in
the devastating fires that took hundreds of homes and many lives,
and displaced thousands. These fast moving winds (to be a Santa
Ana, wind speed must be at least 25 knots) made fighting the fires
almost impossible, whipping the flames into a furious crescent that
filled the air with smoke that was visible from space.
Santa Anas are
a fact of life in Southern California. At best they stir up pollen
and exacerbate allergies, at worst, well, all you had to do was
turn on the news in October to see how these winds were helping
fuel the horrific wildfires that burned an area the size of Rhode
Island.
Most Santa Anas
are born far from their namesake, the Santa Ana Canyon southeast
of Los Angeles. They are conceived over the Great Basin between
the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountain ranges, in Utah, Nevada and
Idaho. The typical Santa Ana starts out as an area of high pressure
there above the dry plateau. In the Northern Hemisphere, air flows
clockwise around a high pressure system. This clockwise rotation
leads to winds in the area south of the high pressure area that
blow toward the lower pressure area off shore. As the air rolls
downhill toward the Los Angeles basin and the Pacific, it becomes
compressed, which leads to warming – at a rate of 5º F per 1,000
feet. The air started out dry, and the compressional heating drops
the humidity even more – sometimes to 20%.
When that dry,
warm air is channeled through the narrow canyons and passes in the
coastal mountains, it picks up speed and takes on its name. Typical
speeds are 30 to 40 knots (35 - 45 mph), with gusts as high as 60
(70 mph). The canyons twist and turn, narrow and widen, creating
eddies and swirls of warm air that can go from peaceful to furious
in a few moments. Add a flame to feed, and you’ve got highly dangerous,
unpredictable, and hard-to-battle wildfires. The fire’s heat adds
to the effect by causing the air to rise and creating even more
gusts. It’s a fire-fighter’s nightmare.
This year’s
firestorm was as bad as it gets, but things might be even worse
for the southlanders if not for the cool, moist air that blows in
from the ocean and often mediates the Santa Anas. This year the
sea breezes came too little, and much too late.
In our part
of California, the Bay Area, we often see a similar sort of wind
that flows from high pressure areas over Nevada down through our
canyons toward the Pacific. We call the wind Diablo. (It means “devil”
in Spanish – but we think of our beautiful Mount Diablo.) Even further
up the Pacific coast, the Chinooks flow down from the Rocky Mountains
in a manner very similar to the Santa Anas.
We’d love to
hear what the wind is called where you live, because there are some
great wind monikers out there. (A fascinating list of names can
be found on our favorite meteorologist, Jan Null’s
Golden Gate Weather
Service website.) This year
we Californians just wished we could call them off.
Weather
Check Quiz Question 2: Descending motion heats the air:
A. Expansively
B. Adiabatically
C. Radioactively
D. Frictionally
Artists
Clouding the Picture
Speaking of Jan
Null, he wrote to tell us about a
story he published back in June in the San Jose Mercury News
about art and weather . In it, he wrote that the history of
weather images in artistic expression goes all the back to ancient
Egypt, where hieroglyphics depicted the hot sun. Some more modern
artists seem to have been pretty well versed on weather phenomena.
"Jan van Eyck,”
our Jan wrote, “a 15th century Flemish painter, used puffy cumulus
clouds in the backgrounds of many of his works. Of particular note
is ‘The Crucifixion,’ done in 1435, which has at least four different
cloud types in the background of this very striking painting. The
clouds were reproduced in great detail, similar to what would be
found in a cloud atlas.”
Weather and
art lovers should check out his story.
Weather
Check Quiz Question 3: We don’t know if Jan Van Eyck
included a representation of Swelling Cumulous clouds in his painting,
but if he did, what would they look like?
The
Quiz Question with No Answer
In last month’s
E-News, we gave you a quiz question about heat units, and then failed
to provide an answer! We learned quickly that E-News readers like
to know the answers, now, darn it! It was a matter of minutes
before we were informed of the error by several readers.
Louie Delaware
of Louisville, CO (we think they named the town after him) wrote,
“I believe you may be thinking of Scoville units, but I bet I am
wrong." He knows us too well – it would have been a good bet!
So in honor
of Louie:
Weather
Check Quiz Question 4: What are Scoville Units?
Click a Link!
Bill Shearer,
who works for the City of Port St. Lucie in Florida enjoys the links
we like to include in our E-News and has added many to his “favorites”
list. He told us that October’s “Pumpkin and Alaska sites are great
but the solar weather sites were awesome.”
Just because
you are so nice, Bill, we’ve got another solar treat for you. Click
over to the StarDate
Online site to see a very cool X-ray image of a solar flare
taken by the orbiting SOHO observatory in early November. It was
the most powerful outburst of X-rays every observed on the sun,
and it wreaked a bit of havoc on earthly communications. (So far
no word on heightened ghostly activity on that day.)
Data Shared is Data Useful
Trevor Atkins,
of the Eccles Primary School in Norwich, England, wanted to thank
everyone who sent his students weather data in response to a request
we printed in the E-News – but there were so many, he has been unable
to reply to them all. So far, all the data they received was from
the U.S. (Come on, we know the rest of the world has weather, too!).
He wrote that
the “children are intrigued by the differences in weather in such
a large country, as in the UK we have regional differences but nothing
like yours! It has also been a huge encouragement to the children
(ages 5 – 11), that people in the USA responded so generously.”
Many school
children are sharing data and learning about weather through the
GLOBE program.
The program, which is supported by Davis equipment and software,
offers students and teachers from all over the world the opportunity
to learn from one another. In the meantime, the Eccles Primary School
kids should check out the Jerome
Middle School website. Steve Burns, who teaches Integrated Technology
in Jerome, Idaho, wrote to tell us that his 8th graders collect
and analyze the weather data in Excel and report their findings
through multimedia projects. We’ve added their site to our Weather
World 'Round page, which continues to grow rapidly. (While you’re
there, check out these cool new sites: Poviglio,
Italy; Kuwait City,
Kuwait; and Santa
Barbara, CA.)
Speaking of
sharing information, ham radio and weather dude, Joe Schmidt (W4NKJ),
told us that over 1200 hams from 23 countries have become “members
of the Citizen Weather Observer Program (CWOP) and use APRS or Internet
to send ‘real time’ observations from home weather stations to the
Forecast System Laboratory (FSL) of NOAA. A data stream from FSL
is available to government agencies and laboratories including NASA,
the National Hurricane Center and the National Weather Service.
The observations are valuable for improving the accuracy of weather
prediction models developed by these agencies.
“‘According
to Patty Miller a Branch Chief at FSL, ‘NOAA maintains one of the
world’s largest databases of real time surface observations.’ This
information may be seen on the NOAA
web page.' Data from radio amateurs is displayed under the designation,
APRSWXNET.
“During last
summer’s Hurricane Isabel radio amateurs at the National Hurricane
Center used the Mesonet site to provide dozens of supplemental observations
for the forecasters. The large volume of data even made it possible
to track the eye as it moved inland.”
You don’t have
to be a ham to join the CWOP – all you need is your Vantage
Pro
or Weather Monitor II weather station, WeatherLink software (version 5.2
or later) and an Internet connection, and you’re all set. There
is a notice about becoming a CWOP volunteer packed with all of our
new weather stations, so many of the volunteers, ham and otherwise,
are reporting Davis data. (Thanks, Joe!)
You're
Brilliant! Answers to Quiz Questions
Question
1:
550. This according to Northpole.net.
But we must say we are just a bit doubtful about the veracity of
this site. On it, the weather elf, Snowflake, reports that it is
snowing and everything is silver and white. Since the last bit of
twilight disappeared in October, how can Snowflake see that? Maybe
elves have super magic elf night vision. Perhaps a more reliable
site is the Environment Canada’s weather page for Resolute
Bay, Nanavut, Canada, a community of 200+ located only 1,061
miles from the geographic North Pole.
Extra Credit:
Copenhagen is closer to the North Pole.
Question
2: B. Adiabatically. We know that rising air cools as it moves
toward lower pressure and expands. The cooling is not due to a transfer
of heat, such as what happens when your coffee cools off and the
mug warms your hands, but due to an increase in “work” done by the
expanding particles. When air drops, the pressure increases, the
gas particles become compressed, and the air heats up – without
taking heat from the outside. Adiabatic means that no heat is exchanged.
For a good description of this process, see the website of Palomar
Community College Instructor, Jane
R. Thorngren, Ph.D.
Question
3: According to a really lovely website belonging to the Cloudman , also known as Dr. John Day, Swelling Cumulus clouds would have “active separated heaps with flat bottoms and bumpy cauliflower tops.” A member of the Cumulus (Heap) Family, they form at between 4,000 and 25,000 feet. (Do check out this site! John’s photographs are gorgeous – here’s a site you can wander for whole stretches of time when you ought to be doing something else, and learn everything you’d ever want to know about clouds. You’ll never take the sky for granted again!)
Question
4 : Scoville Units measure not the heat outside, but the heat
inside – your mouth, that is – when you pop in a pepper. Back in
the early 1900’s a pharmacist by the name of Wilbur Scoville set
up a torturous test of tongue toughness. He started with a brew
of hot peppers in water, and then had volunteers sip it. He kept
adding water until the testers said it no longer burned. That not-terribly
scientific test has been refined into a measure of capsaicin (the
chemical in hot peppers that is responsible for their heat). We
love hot foods, personally, and have been known to load the Tabasco
sauce (Tabasco’s
website has lots of info on Mr. Scoville) onto our tacos
while tears course down our cheeks. Why would we do that? Because
we are, apparently, addicted to the endorphins released when our
brain is “fooled” into thinking we are pain. (We say we really are
in pain, but we love it!) Endorphins, a natural relative of morphine,
make one feel a bit euphoric and allow us to find the searing fire
of our favorite Thai choo chee gkung a good thing.
Pure capsaicin comes in at 16,000,000 Scoville Units. The hottest
of peppers, the Habanero, rates about 100,000 – 350,000 Scoville
Units. The bland little pimento brings up the rear at with less
than 100 Scoville Units. Check out the chart on the Victory
Seeds website to see how your favorite pepper rates.
Who You Gonna Call?
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 requests
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-News. Member participation is what keeps the E-News alive
and kicking.
Well, that’s
it for this edition. You’ll be hearing from us again next month!
Vantage Pro,
Weather Monitor, Weather Wizard, WeatherLink, Weather Envoy, Weather
Echo and Weather Echo Plus, EZ Mount Gro Weather, EZ Mount EnviroMonitor,
EZ Mount Health EnviroMonitor, and Perception are trademarks of
Davis Instruments Corp
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