Featured Speaker: Bill Sites Topic: Life aboard a NOAA Corps ship

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1 NEWSLETTER TWIN CITIES CHAPTER AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY January, 2008 Vol. 29 No. 5 The meeting of the Twin Cities Chapter of the AMS will be at 7 PM THURSDAY January 17th, 2008 Twin Cities WFO, Chanhassen, MN Specific directions to the meeting can be found on page 5. AMS chapter members, interested acquaintances and potential members are invited to attend. Featured Speaker: Bill Sites Topic: Life aboard a NOAA Corps ship Bill Sites grew up in Port Orchard, Washington and received a B.S. in Atmospheric Science from the University of Washington in He retired from the NOAA Corps in 2005 after 23 years and 10 assignments in NOAA's Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, National Weather Service, National Ocean Service, and Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. After a post-retirement stint as a farmer in Washington State, he packed up his family and moved to Minnesota to re-join the National Weather Service as a civilian in May He is currently a Hydro Tech at NOAA NWS North Central River Forecast Center. President s Corner: Chris Bovitz We're entering our science fair season. We need volunteers to offer a few hours of their time to help to encourage the next generation of weather enthusiasts. If you'd like to help out for just an afternoon, please contact Karen at sciencefair@twincitiesams.org. Our chapter awards are weather radios; if you need one, we'll get you one. Lisa will take our chapter poster (thanks to everyone who worked on it!) to the national meeting this month. Not that we're going to pick up any members down there, but at least we can let people know we're here. The exposure won't hurt. Other than that, let's just keep getting out the word around town. This chapter doesn't grow and get better with the same people. We need fresh faces, fresh ideas and fresh enthusiasm to not only just survive, but to thrive. We're all ambassadors for this chapter. All we have is an enjoyment for weather and a desire to share

2 that with others. Let's do that. In addition, if you know of someone in town or coming to town who you think would be a good speaker for our group, let us know. Movin' On, Movin' Up, Movin' Out The Newsletter editor will be stepping down with the May edition after serving since Sept Kurt Scholz will be the new chair of the Mathematics Department at the University of St. Thomas starting July 1, If you've heard some news about a member, send it to (newsletter@twincitiesams.org). If you have big changes in your personal or professional life you would like to announce to the chapter, please send a summary to newsletter@twincitiesams.org. Member Sign-up and the Member Page This year, we have a member application page to support our member page. You can fill out the page on-line and send the information to the secretary/treasurer, or you can print it out and send it in, too. Either way, we need your dues, dependent on how you want your newsletter delivered. After submitting this form, send a check (payable to Twin Cities AMS) with the correct amount of dues to: Twin Cities AMS c/o Lori Bovitz Hurley Ave. Lakeville, MN As mentioned in a previous Corner, we're going to have a list on the web of our members. You can see it at This will be a list that the public will see, so if there's something you don't want to be seen, denote that when you fill out the membership form. I know that web spiders are out there and can pull addresses out of web pages. To fix that, I will make addresses images, making them harder to see by these web-page-searching programs. And if you don't want any information of yours listed, let us know. Minutes of the December, 2007, Meeting by Karen Trammell The December meeting, held at the KSTP studios, was a huge success. Approximately 25 people attended the meeting that was hosted by KSTP meteorologists Dave Dahl and Rob Koch. The meeting began a little before 6:30 pm, and attendees were first moved to the studio and allowed to watch the creation of the 6:30 pm newscast, as well as the filming of 2

3 a couple of weather teasers set to air between 7 pm and the 10 pm newscast that evening. A tour of the studios then ensued, featuring tour guide, Rob Koch, including the production booth, the graphic design studio and the weather studio itself. Unfortunately, we were unable to access the radio studios also contained in the building, but we were able to walk by and peer into the windows. One interesting did you know learned from the tour is that the KSTP studios straddle the city limit boundary between Minneapolis and St. Paul, something that was done purposely so as not to show favoritism toward either one of the cities. Following the tour, everyone gathered in the studio once again, where Dave and Rob showcased a couple of their favorite storm chases before answering a bevy of questions. The meeting wrapped up around 8:30 pm. Thanks to Dave and Rob, our wonderful hosts, for a very fun and informative look at life as a KSTP meteorologist! Upcoming AMS Chapter Meetings and Other Events Chapter Year Future events Date & Time Event Location January 17 7:00 pm January meeting Speaker: Bill Sites Topic: Life aboard a NOAA Corps ship Twin Cities WFO Chanhassen, MN (map) January Government on Display Expo Mall of America January February 12 7:00 p.m. Saturday, February 16 Tuesday, March 18 7:00 p.m. April 7:00 pm Saturday, May 3 88th Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society February meeting Speaker: Mark Davidson, St. Paul District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Topic: Operations of the St. Paul District South Central/Southwest Minnesota Regional Science and Engineering Fair Junior/Senior High level March meeting Speaker: Julie Westerlund, Education Coordinator, Minnehaha Creek Watershed District Topic: Implications of climate change on stormwater management April meeting Speakers: Seniors at St. Cloud State University Topics: Their senior theses South Central/Southwest Minnesota Regional Science and Engineering Fair Elementary level New Orleans, LA Steak and Ale Bloomington, MN (map) Minnesota State University, Mankato info Minnehaha Creek Watershed District Deephaven, MN (map) St. Cloud State University St. Cloud, MN Minnesota State University, Mankato info 3

4 A Look at Weather History: January 22, 1943 Anthony Stender Depending on the time of year and location, the average daily temperature swing in Minnesota is roughly 20 F. And, it isn t all that uncommon to observe a temperature change of 30 to 40 F in less than a day s time. However, a 40-degree temperature swing in the course of a day is quite small and slow when compared to temperature swings that have been observed elsewhere in the world. One of these more notable temperature-swing events occurred in the Black Hills in January of Cold air moved into the Black Hills on January 15 and remained fixed over the northern plains for the next several days. By January 20, a warm front moved to within 150 miles of Rapid City. Warmer air was also observed in the Black Hills at elevations above 4500 feet. Over the proceeding two days, the warm front slowly encroached on the Black Hills. During the same period, the warm air worked its way down to lower elevations in the southern portions of the Black Hills. The northern Black Hills, however, didn t notice a warming until January 22. Prior to 7:32 am on January 22, the temperature at Spearfish (elev ft) was 4 F. By 7:34, the temperature had risen to +45 F. The temperature continued to fluctuate, and it eventually reached 54 F by 9 am, only to drop back to 4 F by 9:27 am. Other cities in the area observed the same rapid fluctuations in temperature, including Rapid City (elev ft.). There, a 32-degree warming began at 10:29 am and ended at 10:33. Twenty to forty-degree rises and falls in temperature occurred several times throughout the rest of the day at Rapid City. It was surmised at the time that these unusual temperature fluctuations were the result of the quasistationary front that had moved into the region. Chinook effects had little influence on the temperatures. Essentially, the depth of the cold air on the eastern side of the hills grew shallower as the warm front moved up to the western side of the Black Hills. By January 23 rd, the depth of the cold air had increased again, and thermometers across the entire region dipped back below zero, thus signaling the end of this weather event. Source: Hamann, R.R. The remarkable temperature fluctuations in the Black Hills region, January MWR (1943), 71: AMS on the WWW Please check for lots of interesting information, changes and updates. Editor s notes Kurt Scholz All photo credits: ks, snowfall, my big backyard,

5 The September meeting will be held at 7pm, on Thursday, January 17th, 2008, NWS, 1735 Lake Drive West, Chanhassen, MN. Directions Take Highway 494 to the exit for Minnesota Highway 5 west in Eden Prairie. Travel west on highway 5 into Chanhassen. Turn left (south) at Audubon Road. Follow Audubon Road to Lake Drive, then turn right and follow Lake Drive to the NWS entrance, which will be on your left. The Nexrad radar tower will be visible as you approach the area. An alternative, if traffic is heavy and you want to avoid the Audubon turn off highway 5, is to turn left at the light onto Powers Boulevard, and head south. You would then take the first right off of Powers Boulevard, onto Park Road, and follow it to Audubon Road, then turn left and head south to Lake Drive. 5

6 . Twin Cities Chapter AMS c/o Kurt Scholz 3233 Snelling Ave. North Arden Hills MN