Weather and Climate 301K - I

Transcription

1 Weather and Climate 301K - I January 18, 2011 Introduction to weather and Climate (Text Chapter 1) -everything is from the lecture -utpd.com Weather affects us all Affects the world economy WEATHER MATTERS!! Weather: How it Affects our Lives Weather is very important in aviation o Ex: when Atlanta gets shut down due to a snowstorm, delta is stuck with nothing going on. You think this just affects Atlanta, then you realize that it affects flights going to other places too. Costs the airlines millions of dollars Farming o If you are in the south plains a little thunder storm causes pea sized hail, doesn t affect us, but the farmer knows it could destroy his crops for a year. Personally-every day activity o Affects what we re going to wear, what we re going to do o Some weather can even take our lives! Ex: floods. Like in Australia! In the United States a lot of snow and ice Some definitions Weather: o Current state of the atmosphere! when we came in it was overcast, now the sun is coming out. Change.! All types of elements can change Climate: o The collective state of the earth s atmosphere over a long period of time. o Minimum of 30 years o Not the same as weather

2 Meteorology: o Study of the earth s atmosphere! Weather forecasting is a subset of this. Its looking and predicting how the state of the atmosphere will change over a time period.! Scientific guess of how the atmosphere will change.! Not perfect: always changing. Atmosphere: o Having to do with the gases that envelope the earth and other planets in our solar system. o Weather takes place 50,000-60,000 feet January 20, 2011 Meteorology Time line- ask in range of years on exam 340 BC-Aristotle s Meteorolgica o wrote a document on weather o a lot of ideas were flawed o father of meteorology o TECHNOLOGY changed our view from the spectacle ideas Aristotle had 1593-Thermometer (Galileo) o measures hotness/coldness of something o based upon a liquid within a tube that expands/contracts due to molecular 1643-Barometer (Torricelli) o measures atmospheric pressure 1664-Hygrometer (da Vinci/Folli) o measures amount of moisture in the air 1843-Telegraph (communication) o changed everything which lead to iphones and everything we communicate with. o With telegraph we could spread word of weather in different areas cup Anemometer (Robinson) o measures wind speed

3 1870-Signal Corp/ Dept of War o first time we had federal agency that started observing weather o beginning of national weather service we know today Civilian U.S. Weather Bureau o beginning of weather 1920-Air Mass theory (fronts) o Norwegian meteorologist came up with air mass theory/frontal theory 1936-Mississippi tornado o one of the worst tornadoes that ever hit o Northeast side of Mississippi; o Next day another one killed a lot of people in Georgia o Over 300 people died in Tupelo including AA and nativesworst tornado that ever hit o AA didn t keep track of people killed in tornados-way of racism o Racial aspect and exposed why we don t keep track of injury s 1940-Weather Bureau (to Commerce) 1940 s-upper Air Balloon (rawinsonde) o changed the way we look at weather o up to this time weather was treated like a single dimensional thing. o Needed weather balloons to tell them about upper weather conditions that affect aviation in WW2 o There are stories of back in the day in WW2 where pilots were flying along look down see that they weren t moving and that there was a head wind o WW2 got us to a point where we realized we need to understand weather up in flying range o Today balloons are released in over 60 places. THAT IS HOW WE GET UPPER AIR INFORMATION o Get it about twice a day o Also through plane reports o WHAT GOES ON DOWN HERE IS DETERMINED BY WHAT GOES ON UP THERE.

4 1950 s-computers o had to number crunch o helps us consolidate data o we have forecast programs now that help us forecast weather. Put programs together and models to help determine what weather is going to be o a computer of 1950 would occupy an entire floor of a building, technology has helped us change that to fit onto one desk Weather Radar o only been in use for 50 years o they were monochrome. Saw a white area and that was where the rain was falling o 2 type radars Weather satellite o only 51 years ago. o If we didn t have weather satellite how would we tell about weather? o Over 70% or earths surface is water o Most important thing that came with this was the ability to know about hurricanes o Galveston Hurricane- Isaac Storm o We can basically see around the world now Weather Bureau/NWS April 3 rd and 4 th Worst U.S. Tornado outbreak o worst outbreak in U.S. history o almost all the way down the gulf coast to the o tornados on the U.S surface at the same time o this was a turning point from 50s-70s. o in 1960 s if you had a TV at home you were lucky and got 3 channels in black and white! tv stations figured it out quickly that you need have attractive people to track the weather to get an audience! time in history where we refer to as the weather bunny era

5 ! this changed TV- people started to think maybe we should have real meteorologist telling the weather because they actually know what they are talking about as opposed to weather bunnies 1980s-Doppler weather radars o got rid of 2 type radars and dopplerized them with pretty colors etc. o radars came about o All we were seeing is reflectivity which the amount was determined by the different colors. o Doppler s view- If I can see an element and see how reflective it, is there a way I can tell in which direction its going. o In police work they use Doppler radar to direct traffic, instead of tracking weather track your license plate number o Can see wind motion within storms 1980s-Wind Profilers o realized weather balloons that worked every 12 hours were good, but needed additional detail o take the Doppler radar dish and sitting on its butt and having it look straight up. Supplements to the upper air balloon 1980s- Lightening detection systems o Gov. does not own this, owned by private company o We can see every stroke of lightening that occurs in the U.S. where, when, if it was a positive or negative stroke. o UTPD has a command center- where all types of workers are there tracking for lightening around game time.! Now when we have lightening the game has to end o Insurance agencies buy these systems in order to see when people are making false claims about damage to their property due to weather conditions 1990s-Weather observation (ASOS) o weather observation is at thousands of location around the world which is done automatically without human input. o Record weather every minute

6 o At the Austin Airport the weather has to be documented by humans 1990s-NWS Modernization o based upon the Doppler Radar science o decreased number of weather offices based on where the Doppler Radar services were Elements of Weather- these are the things we forecast/observe (things we screw up on in forecasts) Air Temperature: hotness/coldness of the air Humidity: amount of moisture in the air. Very common. Clouds: are mother nature s signature. Can tell a tremendous amount of what is happening in the sky concerning the clouds. common Precipitation: falling stuff-rain, snow, sleet, hail. Anything falling from clouds when enough moisture is available. Out of 10 cloud types only 2 precipitate. Less common Wind Direction: stated as a direction from which the wind blows Wind Speed (Gusts): how quickly air molecules are moving Atmospheric Pressure: what makes it so hard to grasp is that you can t see it, it is not visible. Certain animals have better pressure sense then we do: example dogs who know thunderstorms are going to happen. Cattle that huddle up before a storm. As the bodies that we re born in get older/ people with injury, you ll begin to feel more ache s and pain in change in air pressure, especially when it falls. o The weight of the air above us. Visibility: how far you can see Weather Observation Tools Satellite Radar-see where rain is when it falls Atmospheric profilers- tells us about upper level winds Rawinsondes-attached to upper air balloons Surface weather observations- aviation purposes, historical records every hour In thousands of locations

7 Aircraft observations- record air conditions Lightening detection networks- look to see where lightening is occurring Buoys- sitting out in the ocean and report weather information about the water, wave height Human observation networks (SkyWarn CoCoRaHS) people that run around tracking the weather outside in the conditions Cold/warm fronts are only located on Surface Maps Upper aie maps- very important for aviation in the U.S there are tornados a year it was against federal law to include the word tornado in a weather forecast. Wasn t allowed till 50 s Military in the 50s that began forecasting of severe weather WASHINGTON AND STRIPPERS Moral of story= HAVE FUN AND LAUGH AT HIS JOKES Atmosphere is not single dimensional at all As things develop in the atmosphere it affects weather on earth January 25, 2011 Isolines/Isopleths Lines of equal or constant values of a given property (with respect to place and time) 6 most important isolines Isobars-lines with equal atmosphere pressure Isotherm-line of equal air temperature Isohyet-post storm summaries with floods, lines with equal rain fall amounts. Can go back and see where most rain fell