One of our favorite places to visit, if only in our dreams, is Val Gardena in South Tyrol area of Italy (about 75 miles [120 km] from Innsbruck, Austria). In the heart of the Dolomites, it boasts not only fantastic skiing, but seven Vantage Pro2s and live cams to keep skiers and visitors up on the latest weather conditions. The highest is at 8,038 feet (2,450 meters) above sea level. Above is a recent live cam shot of the Sassolungo, just peeking out of the clouds. The Vantage Pro2s are on the mountains Seceda, Dantercepies, Ciampinoi, Piz Sella and Col Raiser, and in the valley in Selva "Tubla" and Ortisei.

Even if you can’t visit in real life, a virtual visit is just a click away.

Clever in Cleveland

Justin Tume is an up-and-coming Internet weather superstar from down under we heard about in a story in the Bayside Bulletin. Seems Justin’s Raby Bay (near Cleveland, which is a suburb of Brisbane), Queensland, weather page has been attracting visitors like crazy.

Our favorite part of the story is where Justin upgraded from his old weather station from one of our competitors, to the much more professional Vantage Pro2! No wonder they call him Justin the Clever in Cleveland. Or maybe that’s just what we call him around here… Go ahead, add another hit by clicking here.

Weather Check Quiz Question 2: Queensland is not known for which of these (could be more than one!):
A. The cane toad environmental disaster
B. Banana plantations
C. Rabid rugby fans
D. Warm weather
E. Ayers Rock
F. The Great Barrier Reef
G. UFO sightings
H. The late Steve Irwin (“The Crocodile Hunter”)
I. Birthplace of actor Mel Gibson
J. Winemaking
(Click here for answers.)

TECH TIPS :

Macintosh WeatherLink Users Rejoice!

There are two kinds of weather people in the world: PC people and Mac people. While we have equal, and undying, esteem for all weather lovers, we have to admit that our Mac user customers sometimes feel like second-class citizens. (You’re certainly not second-class, but you are, unfortunately, in the minority.)

Our WeatherLink software for Mac works terrifically with the new Mac OS X 10.5, and it works just as well on an Intel Mac, but if you put the two together (as some of our Mac customers have tried with the Intel Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard), the crashing and swearing sounds that result are not pretty.

But just to prove we love ‘ya, our Tech Team has created a fix. Contact our support staff at support@davisnet.com for further details on how to resolve this problem.

WEATHER 101:

2007: Year of the Ice Storm

In the middle part of the United States, 2007 came in and went out in the same style: with ice storms. A killer ice storm in January 2007 hit from the Rio Grande to New England and Southwest Canada. And less than a year later, many Americans were “treated” to a repeat performance in December of 2007. Millions of people in the Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma, Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New York woke up to beautiful, but very dangerous, winter scenes.

According to the NOAA, the recent storm occurred when persistent widespread rain fell into a shallow layer of below freezing air. This allowed the rain to freeze upon contact with exposed objects. Ice storms often begin with a snowflake formed at high elevations where the temperature is below freezing. As the snowflake falls through air that is warmer, it partially melts. If that partially melted drop falls through a shallow layer of below-freezing air, (such as the air beneath a cloud) it becomes a super cooled liquid drop that immediately freezes when it hits any surface. It spreads to form a clear veneer of ice. (Sleet, on the other hand, is what happens when the snowflake melts and refreezes into a tiny ice pellet.) (Here’s a pretty good explanation by a CNN weather forecaster.)

Needless to say, ice storms are very hazardous. It is difficult to even walk across slick, icy surfaces, much less drive. Car accidents are unavoidable and pile-ups can be deadly. (Click here for a “pinball” game video of cars sliding around during an ice storm ). Then there are the falling chunks of ice, trees, and power poles. A single tree branch can accumulate tons of weight from an ice storm. The weight of ice can snap power lines and even power poles. For an eye-opening view of what falling ice can mean, see this video on UTube in which some off-camera guys seem to be literally under attack from ice falling off a power pole. They are laughing, but we bet whoever owns the car in the very last scene didn’t find it all that hilarious.

We heard from several Vantage Pros that rode out the storm in style.

David Harder, of Carbondale, Kansas, was just one among many who had more of a “Clear” Christmas than a white one. He asked, “I wonder if there might be a technical issue with my Vantage Pro2 because I’m not getting any wind readings. Maybe this picture will help you determine the cause?”

(Hmmm, David, we’ll have to check with Tech Support…)

David added, “While we didn’t get the worst of the storm we got a pretty good coating of ice. Even encrusted as it is, I get a good signal for the readings it can send.”

Here’s another poor old Vantage Pro2, completely encased in ice. This one belongs to Jeremy Grams, a mesoscale forecaster at the NWS Storm Prediction Center in Blanchard, Oklahoma.

USA Jeremy wrote, “We received 2.15" (55 mm) of freezing rain which began in the late evening on December 8th with several rounds of thunderstorms producing around a half-inch to an inch of ice accumulation on exposed objects by the afternoon on the 10th. Numerous tree limbs were downed along with several power outages. Here’s a photo of my Vantage Pro2 station taken on the afternoon of the 10th. The wind sensor was frozen solid for 49 hours! Otherwise the rest of the station kept on ticking and transmitting data.”

And while these Vantage Pro2s might not agree, the storm did make for some lovely scenes. Fred Demeter of Stockton, Illinois, sent us a portrait of his iced Vantage Pro, which looks a lot like David’s and Jeremy’s, but he also included several shots of his home, which had become a winter fairyland. Here are just two of them.

Fred, who owns three Davis stations, wrote, “I measured 1.19 (30 mm) inches of freezing rain, with the official NOAA rain and snow gauge. I have one Davis rain gauge that is heated and it measured 1.13 inches (29 mm), which is very close to the NOAA gauge. I had to deice all the anemometers and wind direction vanes on the stations, as the temperature never got over 31ºF (-0.6ºC) during the storm. It rained for eight hours with the temperature around 30ºF (-1.1ºC).

Thanks David, Jeremy, and Fred!

Weather Check Quiz Question 3: Why does new snow on the pavement sometimes squeak when you step on it?

Extra Credit: Is it ever too cold to snow? Can it snow if the air temperature is above freezing? (Click here for answers.)


Nin Leaves Mount Washington

After 12 years as the mascot of the Mount Washington Observatory, “Home of the World’s Worst Weather,” Nin has retired. The mellow, unfreezable, windproof, feline ambassador took his last ride down the mountain to live out his retirement years in the comfort of a lower altitude, and much less breezy, home. We wish him many happy, warm, tuna-fish filled days. See the story in the Houston Chronicle.

MAILBAG:

Former B-52 Pilot Remembers Brush with Ball Lightning

Who needs action movies when you know people like Bob Croach, of Canon City, Colorado, who can tell you a story like the one below? Bob was inspired to tell us about his experience with ball lightening and aircraft by the article in our November issue. Hang on to your hats.

“During the Vietnam action, I first flew the venerable old Caribou or C-7 for the Air Force in-country and had many experiences with lightning in general. My next tour was in the venerable (forever) B-52 and I spent quite some time flying missions from Guam. “Flying a bombing mission in the B-52 G model over South Vietnam during the cyclone season, we were proceeding in-country (known as flying 'feet wet' to 'feet dry') at about 41,000 feet (12,500 meters). We encountered a highly charged electrical area that was evidenced by more St Elmo’s fire on the wings and fuselage than we had ever seen. The blue-green glow extended several feet from every surface that we could see including the tail (had to use the sextant port to observe that). Since that was nothing more than a more than usual occurrence of St. Elmo’s, we just ignored it after remarking on the intensity of it.

“The St. Elmo’s was just getting started though. My copilot grabbed my arm and pointed to the forward, center, windscreen just as a mass of ball lightning seemed to transition through the windscreen just above the center instrument panel. The ball lightning then proceeded down the center aisle right over the throttles of the BUF. (B-52 crew members’ nickname for the B-52: Big Ugly Fellow, sort of). En route to the electronic warfare and gunnery station, the ball lightning tripped not less than about 100 circuit breakers mounted on the side panels of the aisle leading from the pilot’s stations to the defensive stations where it finally discharged, burning the gunner slightly on the left arm and the EW (Electronic Warfare Officer) slightly on the right arm – not to mention momentarily blinding both of them and knocking out many of their systems.

“Needless to say, this was an alarming and unusual experience on an extremely long mission – fortunately we had packed extra underwear in our mission kits. It was also pretty unusual since it happened only to my BUF, and not to two others that were flying in formation with me at 500-foot (150 meter) altitude intervals and approximately one mile (1.6 km) separation. Guess that was just one of many events that earned my Vietnam sorties the nickname of the ‘flying circus.’”

Bob’s memory was really kicked into gear and he added this: “I forgot the most salient point: I assume aircraft windscreens, especially of the B-52 vintage, are glass – almost pure silica. Of course, current vintage aircraft, especially fighter aircraft are Poly cyo. Would be interesting to find out if any current jocks had instances of ball lighting in their cockpits – if so, might work to dispel the connection of silica and ball lighting – or confirm if they have not.”

Continuing to mull, a few days later he added this: “Well, to negate the theory, one only needs to read all the tales of St. Elmo’s and ball lighting on tall ships of the previous two centuries. I have to believe it as more to do with static electricity reaching a critical mass with objects passing through an intense area of electrical charge. The object passing through would be the catalyst or ‘gatherer’ and where the static discharge builds until the ball lightning occurs.”

(Poor Bob, with a brain – and memories - like that, we wonder if he ever sleeps.) What a ride! Thanks, Bob! (Check out a simulated photo of ball lightning at The UnMuseum.)

Weather Check Quiz Question 4: What is St. Elmo’s fire?

Extra Credit: Which of the following are actual natural phenomenon?
A. Naga Fireballs
B. Glimmer Rain
C. Will-O’-the-Wisp
D. Foxfire
E. Min Min Light
(Click here for answers.)

YOU'RE BRILLIANT!:

Question 1:
A. False. It must be applied in layers, at about 500 to 600 gallons per hour. The less water applied at one time, the better the ice.
B.True. Otherwise the surface under the ice would freeze and cause structural damage to the building.
C. True. If it gets too humid in the rink, a fog will form over the rink. (Classic advection fog!) Most rinks must run dehumidifiers to keep the humidity at about 30%.
D. False. Other way around: figure skaters prefer the good bite they get in slightly warmer ice. Hockey players like the sharp edges they get from colder, harder ice.
E. False. They just cover it up with plywood. The process takes about 8 hours.
F. True. Absolutely.
Lots more of this is on the How Stuff Works webpage in an article by Melissa Russell-Ausley. (Back to stories.)