by Bill Evans
Cotopaxi, Ecuador (19,347 Feet/5,897 Meters)
One of the world’s tallest active volcanoes, Cotopaxi has erupted more than fifty times since its first recorded eruption in 1534.
Etna, Italy (10,902 Feet/3,323 Meters)
With more than two hundred recorded eruptions, Mount Etna is one of Europe’s most active volcanoes.
Krakatau, Indonesia (2,667 Feet/813 Meters)
The great eruption of 1883 was heard 2,900 miles away. Enormous sea waves from tsunamis killed 36,000 people.
Paricutín, Mexico (8,990 Feet/2,740 Meters)
The first volcano to be scientifically observed from its earliest stage of formation, Paricutín began as a small fracture in a farmer’s field in 1943.
Surtsey, Iceland (568 Feet/173 Meters)
Underwater eruptions created the island of Surtsey, which appeared above the surface of the sea in 1963. Surtsey is now a square mile in area.
Vesuvius, Italy (4,203 Feet/1,281 Meters)
The famous eruption in AD 79 destroyed the cities of Pompeii, Stabiae, and Herculaneum.
Nasty, Gnarly, and Naughty Pacific Northwest Winds!
In the hurricane section, I mentioned the book that I think is probably the best weather novel ever written (besides Category 7 by Bill Evans and Marianna Jameson!): Storm by George R. Stewart. Stewart, a professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote about a nasty storm referred to as “Maria.” While “Maria” was a nasty fictional storm, some nasty, gnarly, real storms frequently strike the northwestern Pacific Coast of the United States.
Residents in that area of the country never experience a hurricane or a tornado, but they are battered by giant storms called extra-tropical lows that rival any hurricane. An extra-tropical low is basically your everyday low-pressure system, except it grows to be extremely large and dangerous. It’s a low-pressure system on steroids!
Some major Pacific Northwest storms have been stronger and caused more damage than a lot of hurricanes. Extra-tropical lows can match a Category 3 hurricane in both minimum central pressures and sustained wind speeds. Such storms have a reach far beyond that of a typical hurricane: they can throw a cold rain into the Alaska Panhandle while pummeling the San Francisco Bay Area with a warm, saturated gale.
Some of these storms have been given very cool names. A couple of the biggest blasts to strike the Pacific Northwest are the “Storm King of 1880” and the “Columbus Day ‘Big Blow’ of 1962.” The term blowdown is used to describe a record Northwest windstorm, one that knocks over 1 billion or more board feet of timber. Some blowdowns have wiped out more than 10 billion board feet.
Damage caused by the Columbus Day “Big Blow”
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce
These blowdowns happen every 30 to 40 years. The 1962 Columbus Day storm was the last big blowdown; it destroyed 11 to 15 million board feet of timber. That’s an awfully large number of trees!
Not only do these storms have Category 3 hurricane-force winds, they also produce tons of rain and snow. During the “Storm King of 1880,” some areas received 4 feet of snow, causing roofs to collapse!
You Are My Sunshine, My Only Sunshine!
There would be no “us” if it were not for the sun. I worship the sun just as many ancient cultures did. The sun warms the Earth, makes plants grow, makes the weather, and is absolutely necessary for life.
Scientists say the sun is more than 4.5 billion years old, and will last billions more. The sun is a star just like the ones we see at night—except it’s a lot closer. Like all stars, the sun is a collection of gases, mainly helium and hydrogen, and works like a giant nuclear reactor.
The sun’s core is a nuclear furnace where gravity pulls all mass inward, creating immense pressure. That pressure causes nuclear fusion reactions between hydrogen atoms, which then become helium atoms. These reactions give off a huge amount of heat, estimated at 27 million degrees.
Frank Picini
The radiation zone is the layer above the core where energy is carried outward by gamma rays. Hydrogen and other atoms absorb and emit gamma rays millions of times, and the energy from that cycle is transformed into ultraviolet light.
NASA
The convection zone is the outermost 30 percent of the sun. It is dominated by convection currents that carry energy to the surface. It’s sort of like when you open a bottle of club soda and the bubbles race to the top.
The layer of the sun we see is the photosphere, the temperature of which is about 11,000ºF (6,093°C). It appears bubbly, like the simmering surface of a pot of water.
The chromosphere lies above the surface of the sun, but we can’t see it because of the photosphere’s brightness. It’s believed that convection is caused in the chromosphere due to the underlying photosphere, resulting in 180,000 degrees of heat!
The corona is the final layer of the sun. It extends several million miles out from the photosphere and is most noticeable in X-rays of the sun and during solar eclipses. The corona is the white part around the sun you see in an eclipse. Scientists believe that the magnetism of the sun enables the corona to reach its amazing temperature of 5 million degrees Fahrenheit (2,777,760°C)!
Sunspots, the cool dark areas on the sun, are intense magnetic fields. They can be five times the size of the Earth. They are a little cooler than the photosphere at 7,600ºF (4,204°C)! Sunspots always appear in pairs and come in 11-year cycles called the solar cycle.
NASA
The Light, the Light, I Can’t Stop Moving Toward the Light!
Solar flares are violent explosions that are caused by sudden changes in the sun’s magnetic field. Flares are made up of ultraviolet light, X-rays, gas, and electrons. When this blast of radiation hits the Earth’s magnetic field, it interacts with the North and South poles to produce the aurora borealis. Solar flares disrupt communications, satellites, navigation systems, and power grids. They’ve even caused blackouts!
Hey, That Cloud Looks Like a Pony!
Did you know you can forecast the weather by looking at the clouds? You can! Some clouds indicate fair and beautiful weather, while others indicate trouble ahead.
I love looking at clouds. You should go outside, to a yard, a patio, a deck, or a big open field, lie on your back, and look at the sky.
I will never forget the time I freaked out my four kids while we were at the beach because I knew the clouds. I didn’t know the clouds personally, I just knew what different clouds meant. You can, too!
We were at Greenwich Beach in Connecticut, when I noticed a cumulonimbus cloud whose updrafts were starting to billow the cloud up into the summer sky. The cloud was situated over land to our east, and as the hot summer day wore on, I noticed that the cloud was starting to drift a bit westward, toward us. The sun was behind us, keeping everything bright and hot, and no one else noticed the cloud in the haze above Long Island Sound.
I gathered the kids together and said, “We have to get to the car, it’s going to blast down rain in about two minutes.” In total disbelief, eyes rolling, my wife and kids picked up the beach chairs and towels, and headed for the car. No one else was leaving the beach but us. Just as we got everything and everyone in the car, Ka-boom, Blammo, Ker-Pow! Lightning cracked the sky, a big clap of thunder sent a shock wave over the beach, and a torrent of rain fell from the “cumulo-monster.” People were screaming and running from the beach. About 10 minutes later, when my family picked their jaws up off the floor of the car, a faint voice asked, “How did you know that?”
Rapunzel, Let Down Thy Locks of Cirrus So I May Climb to the Sky!
To me, cirrus clouds are the most beautiful of all clouds. Their name comes from the Latin for “lock of hair” and they are delicate wisps of ice that appear high in the heavens. They are the highest of the ten main cloud types at 24,000 feet. Some of the wisps have curls or hooks, and look like what’s called mare’s tails. Cirrus clouds tell us there is going to be fair weather and little
in the way to block the sun!
Amber Waves of Clouds…
Billow clouds look like ocean waves. They are generally created by wind shear, which occurs either when winds at different levels are blowing in slightly different directions, or are of different strengths. The turbulent, rotary motion between the waves gives them their unique look.
That Is One Bad Mama Jama!
Cumulonimbus clouds are the monsters of the midway. They are also called thunderheads. They are the king of the cloud jungle and can tower as high as 55,000 to 60,000 feet. Really nasty ones, called super cells, can create life-threatening conditions. Gusty straight-line winds, flooding rains, lightning, hail, and tornadoes are the usual suspects with these bad boys.
Dude, I See a Martian in That Cloud!
Lenticular clouds are the favorites of the UFO crowd. They are shaped like spaceships and many people who believe in aliens think these clouds are formed by alien spaceships. Lenticular clouds are really formed when a stable layer of air is forced to rise over hills or mountain peaks. Their smoothness is quite striking, and upon close examination, you can see they form on the leading edge of a mountain and dissipate on the downward side of a mountain.
That Leprechaun Dude Is Lurking!!
Rainbows are one of the most gorgeous meteorological phenomena. When I see them, it gives me a warm feeling of goodness and hope; I know that all is right with the world.
Rainbows appear when the sun is behind us and falling rain is in front of us. The rainbow’s spectrum is caused by sunlight shining through raindrops or droplets of moisture. The light is refracted as it enters the surface of the raindrop, then reflected off the back of the drop, and refracted again as it leaves the drop.
Frank Picini
The colors of the rainbow are, beginning at the top, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Very rarely, a secondary rainbow is seen, a touch fainter with the colors in the opposite order, with violet on the top and red on the bottom. I saw this once myself in the mountains of Tucson, Arizona. The two rainbows were awesome looking!
A rainbow is an optical illusion whose apparent position in the sky depends on the observer’s location. You can make a rainbow at home with the garden sprinkler; just make sure you make the drops very small or a mist.
Eyes on the Skies!
The question I am asked the most has to be, “How do you know it’s going to rain?” It’s a great question with an easy answer!
I have two wonderful tools: Weather satellites in outer space and Doppler radars on the ground are our eyes on the skies.
The first weather satellite was launched on April 1, 1960 (that’s right, April Fool’s Day, but this was no joke!). Its name was TIROS-I. Compared to today’s satellites, it was pretty crude, equipped with what amounted to a Brownie camera and an AM transmitter! But TIROS-I represented the dawn of a new era. For the first time, meteorologists could see pictures of a storm over the northeastern United States.
NASA
Nowadays, satellites carry instruments, not cameras, that scan the Earth to form images. Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) circle the Earth at a very high altitude of 22,500 miles in what’s called a geostationary orbit. That means they always stay above the same part of the Earth’s surface, for instance observing the Northern Hemisphere. The instruments on these satellites detect and measure the Earth’s emitted radiation, from which atmospheric temperature, wind direction and speed, moisture, and cloud cover can be derived. GOES data are used to generate the satellite animations that you see on television. The first geostationary satellite (GOES-1) was launched on October 16, 1975, and quickly became a critical part of our weather forecasting.
Polar Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) operate on polar orbits at a low altitude of about 500 miles high near the North and South poles. The polar orbit allows the satellite to provide complete coverage of the Earth as the planet turns beneath the satellite. TRIOS-I was a POES satellite.
NASA
My second most important tool is Doppler radar. Radar is an acronym for radio detection and ranging. Christian Andreas Doppler was an Austrian physicist who, in 1842, first described how the observed frequency of light and sound waves was affected by the relative motion of the source and the detector. This phenomenon became known as the Doppler effect.
A radar antenna sends out short, high-powered bursts of radio wave energy of approximately 1,000 pulses per second. Radar uses radio waves at the very high end of the radio spectrum. After each pulse, the radar listens for a signal reflected back from the cloud. When the pulse hits any precipitation—rain, snow, or ice—the energy of the pulse is scattered, so only a small part of the signal returns to the antenna.
The radar measures the strength of the received signal and how long it takes to return from the cloud, which tells meteorologists how far away the precipitation is. This area of the radar is called base reflectivity. Doppler radar can tell you how hard the rain, snow, or ice is falling, as well as its position and height. Precipitation images are updated every 4 to 6 minutes.
Weather radar systems use colors to indicate the intensity of precipitation. Light blues indicate light rain and the colors go up from shades of blues to yellows to reds as the rain or snow grows stronger and denser. If you see red on a Doppler radar, you need to find a safe shelter!
You’re a Big Windbag!
The other beautiful feature of Doppler radar is that it can see turbulence. The vertical velocity feature of the radar allows us to pick out areas of a thunderstorm where violent, rotating winds may indicate that a tornado’s funnel cloud might be forming.
This happened to me just a few years ago while I was doing the weather live on-air. I suddenly saw, in a line of thunderstorms I was showing, a little group of colors that represented a comma or hook shape. I immediately knew it was a funnel cloud. The shape was moving from Staten Island across New York Harbor toward Brooklyn. I warned Brooklyn residents to not go outside as they might encounter a tornado. Luckily, no one was injured, but an EF1 tornado touched down several times and caused a lot of damage to brownstone buildings and town houses, and knocked over trees.
Who Thought Up the Word Meteorologist?
The Greek philosopher Aristotle is one of my heroes. He is credited with discovering many scientific things. For me personally, his greatest discovery is what he termed Meteorologica, the first major study of the atmosphere. From Aristotle’s work came the term meteorologist, meaning a person who studies the atmosphere.
I honestly believe that I have never worked a day in my life. Each day I wake, I can’t wait to take a look at the weather. I look forward to going to the weather office every day, even when I get the forecast wrong! That’s the beauty of weather forecasting: when you make a forecast and the next day the weather looks nothing like what you forecasted, then you know exactly what you did wrong!
I even look at the weather when I’m not going to the office. So I guess it’s true that if you love what you do for a living, you will have never worked a day in your life, because it’s not work, it’s a pleasure.
I have lots of weather jobs. I do the weather on TV, digital cable, radio, and the Web. I teach meteorology as well. It’s weather, weather, weather, all the time! I love it!
Performing the weather on television is fun, but it carries with it a big responsibility. I know that some people think weathermen are only good for telling you whether or not you need to wear a coat or carry an umbrella, but forecasting means much more than that.
It is my job to inform you and all my viewers and listeners about what type of weather to expect, and if there is going to be any dangerous or life-threatening weather nearby. I view the meteorologist’s role as that of a public servant. I help people plan their days when things are normal and let them know if they need to take drastic measures such as evacuating from their home, school, or workplace. Accurate forecasts help people at times of crisis, but also in their everyday lives.
I love helping people—and sometimes people ask for my help with the most interesting things! Once a lady called me and said she wanted me to come to her home and take a look at a meteor that had crashed through the trunk of her car. I tried to explain to her that was work for an astronomer and she began yelling at me, “But you call yourself a ‘me-te-or-ol-o-gist!’”
The most interesting part of my job is going on camera. When you see a meteorologist doing the weather on TV, he or she is not standing in front of a real weather map. The meteorologist is standing in front of a blue or green wall. In weather reporting, we use a technique called chroma key.
Steve Fenn; used by permission.
Chroma key allows us to mix two images together by removing a specific color from one image, revealing the second image behind the first. Blue and green are used most often because they are the least like skin tone. Sometimes when blue is used, people’s shirts and ties disappear! They look pretty funny with the weather maps right under their chins. For this reason, the wall behind me on the WABC-TV set is bright green.
Steve Fenn; used by permission.
The weather computer, video, still pictures, and any other images we are going to use are all keyed to that shade of green. Once on Halloween, I wore a green bodysuit that covered everything except my face. I was completely invisible! I looked like a floating head! This is the same technique used in movies to make characters look invisible or to place them in fantastic, computer-created settings.
