Proudly displaying their NWS awards are storm spotters/chasers (left to right) Mick Phillips, John Utech, and Chris Caldwell.

Mick Phillips’ Hummer got him the “Best Looking” award.

Chris Caldwell is ready for anything with his Storm Chaser vehicle.

John Utech, Oklahoma Storm Chaser Extraordinaire sent us this report on the new National Weather Center in Normal, Oklahoma.

The new National Weather Center, located in Norman, Oklahoma, conducted its long-awaited public open house. On display were the DOW (Doppler on Wheels) trucks along with new research vehicles. Visitors also got to witness weather balloon launches and take a tour of the NWC itself.

But the grandest display didn’t belong to the NOAA at all. It was in the parking lot! Storm spotters and chasers were invited to the inaugural 2006 Storm Chaser Car Show, and they brought their vans, cars, pickups, and SUVs from Kansas, Texas, Arkansas, and all over Oklahoma to show them off and possibly win one of the awards presented by some pretty savvy judges from NOAA. The vehicles boasted radio antennas, satellite dishes, and a lot of flashing lights. A few emergency management departments brought their vehicles to show off as well.

They were all vying for awards in six categories: Most Hail Damage, Most Working Sensors, Most Unique, Most Cutting Edge, Best Looking, and the coveted Meat-Wagon Award.

Are you ready for this? Five of the six awards were presented to a storm chaser and two storm spotters from Kay County in far north central Oklahoma. A single county! And those five winners all use Davis weather equipment!

John Utech, Blackwell Storm Spotter took home both the “Most Hail Damage” and “Meat Wagon” award. Chris Caldwell, storm chaser for KOCO TV OKC will display with pride his awards for “Most Working Sensors” and “Most Cutting Edge.” Matt Lehenbauer, of Woodward Emergency Management and KOCO TV OKC got the “Most Unique Award;” and Mick Phillips, Blackwell Storm Spotter, was named “Best Looking” (his vehicle, that is!).

(What’s a “Meat Wagon?” It’s a vehicle that has seen a lot of action, is pretty beat up, doesn’t look real pretty but can roll into any storm and accurately measure and report weather measurements -- thanks to the tough and rugged Davis weather stations. In other words, it’s worse for wear but still gets the job done!)

According to award winner John, “Davis weather instruments have played a very important role in Blackwell as well as the rest of Kay County. All of the Emergency Operation Centers in the county use Davis weather instruments. In the case of the cars, trucks and SUVs, Davis weather instruments play a major role the development of M.W.T. (Mobile Weather Technology).”

From the first day he was involved with weather reporting, award winner Chris Caldwell has relied on the dependability of Davis for his “FAST UNIT 55” chase vehicle, as well as for his website.

“I have been using Davis weather instruments since 2000,” Chris said, “and when it came time to equip my Dodge Durango chase vehicle it was a no-brainer to go with Davis once again. Davis weather instruments help me report the most accurate, up-to-date information from inside the storm back to the TV station I chase for and to the Ponca City and Blackwell EOC's. The Vantage Pro is one tough piece of equipment and it has been hit by low hanging trees and even a garage door or two during oil changes-- it still keeps on going like it was brand new. One thing that really stands out about Davis weather instruments is how low-maintenance they are. In all the years I have owned them, I have yet to even clean them out.”

Award winner Mickey Phillips is the director of field operations for the Blackwell Storm Spotters. He depends on Vantage Pro for accurate and timely measurements to report to the Norman Weather Office which uses the data in issuing severe weather warnings for Kay County, Oklahoma.

And if any county needs storm spotters, it’s Kay. According to NOAA data, Kay County is ranked third in the nation for tornados, with a total of 87 tornadoes -- one third of which have been in the Blackwell area. There are a total of 11 registered Storm Spotters for the city of Blackwell alone!

(Thanks, John! Sometimes we wonder why we don’t live in Oklahoma where they really know how to have weather!)

Weather Check Quiz Question 2: Oklahoma is a weather-watcher, storm-chaser paradise –especially if you are into tornadoes. True or False: Oklahoma ranks first among US states first for total number of tornadoes (1950-1996), and second for deadliest tornadoes (1950 – present). (Click here for answers.)

Polish Mountain-Top Weather Watched by Vantage Pro2

Adam Skowronski sent us this pretty picture of a Vantage Pro2 going up at 1257 meters on Skrzyczne, the highest mountain in the Silesian Beskids in southern Poland. (Note the cheerful temperature readout on the building.)

Weather Check Quiz Question 3: What animal resident is Poland famed for? (Click here for answers.)


WEATHER 101:

Happy Groundhog Day!

Everybody knows that when it’s sunny on February 2, winter is going to drag on for another six weeks.

February 2 falls halfway between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, on a day Europeans called Candlemas Day. A sunny Candlemas Day meant more wintry weather; a cloudy one meant the end of winter. Settlers in Pennsylvania found their Candlemas Day customs aligned nicely with the native Delaware Indian’s reverence for groundhogs. In a satisfying bit of American synergy, the cultures meshed. Hence, when the noble groundhog emerges on February 2, his shadow (or lack thereof) predicts the weather.

But does it? Depends on your definition. Spring always arrives on time. It may come with snow flurries, but on March 21, (it changes by the year – see The Royal Observatory Greenwich’s website for a calendar) it’ll be spring, regardless of what your Vantage Pro2 tells you about the wind chill.

And according to Keith C. Heidorn, PhD, also known as “The Weather Doctor”, in the short term, Punxsutawney Phil’s shadow might be pretty good at predicting the weather. “Sunny winter day at these latitudes indicates a weather situation likely dominated by a cold high pressure system. Such conditions may last for another day or two or three. A winter day with grey skies and weak sun giving no shadow usually indicates that a frontal system dominates the weather, generally the influx of warmer, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico. (This system will likely be followed by a surge of cold arctic air within a few days, however.)”

But in the long run, Phil is not quite ready to sign on at the NWS. He isn’t always wrong, though. As the Weather Doctor says, “even a stopped clock is right twice a day.”

Weather Check Quiz Question 4: According the Groundhog.org, “the official site of the punxatawney groundhog club” Punxatawney Phil has: (Choose as many as you like!)
A. Seen his shadow 65 times since 1887, exactly half the 130 times it has been recorded.
B. Met President Reagan and Oprah Winfrey (though not at the same time!).
C. Announced that it was a "United States Chucknik," rather than a Soviet Sputnik that became the first man-made satellite to orbit Earth.
D. Not been in his “den” when handlers opened it in 1934. He was later found, safe, under a burlap bag in the bed of a pickup truck.
E. Threatened, during prohibition, to impose 60 weeks of winter on the community if he wasn't allowed a drink.
F. Actually trained to drive a vehicle with Bill Murray as his depressed passenger. (Click here for answers.)

MAILBAG:

Tom’s Tilting Mast Design

Tom Mendenhall has his weather station set up in the salty, wet northern California coastal town of Arcata. He came up with a clever design for a mast, using two pieces of galvanized pipe, that allows him to easily access his rain collector and temperature/humidity sensors.

His design is posted at the Weather-Watch forum. Check it out, DIYers!

Why would it be nice to easily access your rain collector while keeping your wind sensors up high? Just ask USAF First Lieutenant Matt Schmitz who was visiting his dad, Fred when Fred noticed his rain collector was not reporting the latest precipitation. Matt, who has no fear of heights, volunteered to climb up on the roof and see what was wrong. Matt came down from the roof faster than he went up when he found the approximately 100 buzzing culprits.

Pilots Fly Into Us

Pilots, we learn, are a precise lot. Quite a few of them let us know that we erred a bit in our discussion of barometric pressure in our last issue.

Dale Gunter told us a pilot “does NOT set his altimeter to zero on the runway. You set your altimeter to the runway altitude. There are signs on the taxi-ways that will tell you the airport altitude. This, in turn, sets your barometer to the correct pressure in the area. As long as you fly around close to the airport you are assured to have the correct barometric reading. Your airplane's reading may be slightly off numerically, from a weather station, but it will be dead-on, altitude-wise, and that is the reason for correcting your altimeter to local pressure.”

Dwight Zeller, a self-described “old pilot” added that, “the correct procedure is to set the altimeter to the reporting station’s current altimeter setting and then verify that the altitude displayed on the altimeter matches the field elevation that the pilot is about to depart from. This can also be done in reverse by setting the altimeter display to indicate the airport’s field elevation and then verifying that the altimeter setting window displays the current station altimeter setting.

“We do this so that ATC (air traffic control) and all aircraft are measuring their altitude from the same reference point. This helps tremendously in maintaining vertical separation of aircraft. If pilots departing airports with different field elevations set their altimeters to read zero, it’s entirely possible that you could end up with two or more aircraft with different altimeter readings being at the same physical altitude. Should they also be in the same place at the same time, it would be the lead story on the news. This is why the corrected value is always used. We call the resulting altitude reference MSL (mean sea level).”

Peter Drew, who’s been flying for 20 years, agrees. He added that “the big jets flying up high (well above 10,000 feet) all use the same standard QNH barometric setting so they do not have to change it all the time on transcontinental and intercontinental flights and air traffic controllers know what level they are at.”

Jay Taylor wrote, “I believe it would be impossible to get a ‘zero’ altitude reading from a high-altitude airport with most altimeters because the range within which you can adjust the barometric pressure is only an inch or two from standard (29.92 inches). I did the calculation once for Denver, and was surprised at how low the absolute air pressure there was...something like 25 inches of mercury, as I recall. You can't dial in a barometric pressure of 25 inches in your plane's altimeter...doesn't go that low.”

Randy Coller, of Jackson, MI, agreed that airplane pilots do not set their altimeters to zero. “On the other hand, most balloon pilots WILL set their altimeters to read zero when on the ground because they normally only travel five or 10 miles and there is little elevation change and little reason to talk to ATC.”

Also chiming in was Mike Bertin. Mike also told how our meteorologist Jason Karvelot helped solve a barometric problem he encountered with his Vantage Pro installed at his home at 6,830 feet in the high desert east of Albuquerque, NM.

“I noticed a very large semi-diurnal swing in barometric pressure when I set in the 6,830’ during setup. I sent an Excel file to Jason with the station readings and those from three reporting stations in the area. Jason’s suggestion was to input zero for the station elevation and apply a pressure offset to bring the barometer reading to where it should be relative to the neighboring weather service stations. Worked great!”

So Are Engineers (Precise, That Is)

Cameron Bruce had a few more things to add to our discussion of what it takes to get a “P.E.” after your name. He wanted us to know that you have to take the Engineer in Training (EIT) exam, then get several years of experience under your belt before you can even take the P.E. exam.

Clearly, we were not giving Professional Engineers their due when we said they had to pass “an” exam. And those exams are not easy, Cameron tells us. From the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying’s website, we find that only seven of ten people who take the EIT pass it, and of those, only four pass the PE exam.

(Cameron, we will, in the future, grovel with appropriate awe before anybody with a “P.E.” after his or her name!)

Nice Cockatoo Perch, Chris

Chris Garner, of Melbourne, Australia is a bird lover. Or rather, his wife is bird lover whose heart went out to the poor things who needed some help surviving the current drought in the area.

Chris says the big birds don’t seem to appreciate their kindness.

“They start to attack,” Chris wrote, “if she doesn’t feed them quickly enough. We have about 20 coming in now at about 8 p.m. each evening, when these photos were taken.”

(But they are very beautiful, Chris!)

Weather Check Quiz Question 5: Already this year three people in Australia have died as an indirect result of the relentless drought conditions. What killed them and injured two others? (Click here for answers.)

More on Mothballs

Dick Endres seconds Paul Pylko’s idea of using mothballs in his weather station to keep bugs at bay. (See last month’s issue for some cautionary notes on using mothballs.) Dick has used mothballs in his yard lamps as well to keep spiders from gunking up the glass.

YOU'RE BRILLIANT!:

Question 1: To Prince William Sound where the Columbia Glacier is slipping into the ocean at a rate of 80 feet per day. According to LiveScience.com, “This tidewater glacier is up to 3,000 feet thick, but it has thinned up to 1,300 feet in places during the past 25 years, and researchers say it's stretching like taffy. Each year, it dumps two cubic miles of ice into the sound.” (Back to stories.)

Question 2: If you said true, there are some proud Texans who want a word with you. According to the NOAA, Texas has had 5,860 tornadoes since 1950. Oklahoma is second with 2,428, and Kansas is a close third with 2,249. And Oklahoma is way down in 22nd place in the “deadliest” ranks, with Texas first; Indiana and Michigan in second and third places. (Michigan!?!) But for its size, Oklahoma packs in some exciting and dangerous weather. In fact, the NOAA in Norman will give you an Oklahoma weather history fact for every day of the year if you click here. (Back to stories.)

Question 3: Storks! According to Poland.com, “Poland has over a dozen large stork colonies with at least 20 nests in each. There are even villages with more storks than people, like Zywkowo in north Warmia where 36 people live side by side with 180 storks in 40 nests.” (Back to stories.)

Question 4: A. Nope. He has seen it 96 times, unfortunately. B. Yes! (And he reportedly “just loved” Oprah’s gift bag!) C. Yes! D. Of course not! Nobody would ever lose Phil! Besides, Phil is not exactly a fast runner this time of year. E. Yes! D. It was a movie, honey. That was a fake Phil .(Back to stories.)

Question 5: Snakebites. According to Terradaily, the drought has drawn snakes out of the bush and into contact with humans. Australia is home to all 10 of the world’s most deadly snake species. You most definitely don’t want to meet a thirsty Brown Snake. (Back to stories.)

WHO YOU GONNA CALL?

Davis!
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 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 URL's, 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!


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