Fires, Hurricanes, Earthquakes, and Frost

It's been nearly two weeks since my last post and although I haven't really thought much has been going on, I was wrong. Looking back over the weeks a lot has happened. We'll start with the California wildfires.
This picture was taken in the city of Los Angeles. I'm not sure what direction the picture is facing, but the smoke is going up to 25,000 feet into the air. This looks more like a photo of a volcano than of smoke from a brush fire. That's a point to make too, this isn't really a forest fire, but rather a brush fire. The mountains around Los Angeles are so dry there aren't any trees. It's just scrub brush. You can see many more pictures on the LA Times website here.

Moving on from fires to Earthquakes now. An earthquake hit the Charleston, South Carolina area on the morning of Saturday, August 29. The quake measured 3.2 which is quite small and probably not felt by many. What's really interesting though is that on August 31, 1886 a 7.3 quake struck the same area causing massive damage. Sixty people were killed and over 90% of the buildings in Charleston were damaged. You can read more about the 1886 quake here.

Now for the hurricanes. Tropical storm Claudette didn't bring much moisture to us here in Indiana. In fact, Claudette just sort of fizzled. However, Bill turned into a strong category 3 storm, but stayed well offshore. The only problems were strong rip currents and beach erosion caused by the very large waves. I'm thinking that there was a tropical storm Danny, but I'm not sure what happened to it.

Finally, the first signs of fall are appearing. The low this morning was 48 and in Minnesota and Wisconsin, low temperatures were in the upper 20's and low 30's. As a result, frost advisories were issued for the northern sections of those two states. Woo hoo! :-) It won't be long till we get a nice frosty morning ourselves. Tonight, the core of the cold air has moved east and frost advisories are posted for the northern half of the lower peninsula of Michigan and for areas of northern New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

Tropical Storm Claudette

Yesterday, the thunderstorms that were sitting off the coast of Florida in the Gulf were forecast to not become an organized storm. Today, bam, a tropical storm. This is the third storm named this season in a season which has gotten off to a very slow start. Claudette will move to the north northwest over the next several days and bring some heavy rain to the area. Claudette may even hook up with a stationary front in our area and provide heavy rain. The HPC five day precipitation forecast has our area in the two to four inch rain total area.
Looking at Ana, she is still well to the southeast of Miami, but is not becoming stronger. Bill is getting stronger and is suspected to become a major hurricane according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. This storm will turn north towards Bermuda in the next few days.

First Tropical System of '09 Season

The first named tropical storm of the season has formed in the Atlantic. Tropical Storm Ana is currently about 2,000 miles (3,218 km) southeast of Miami, Florida. The storm has maximum winds of 40mph (64kph) and is moving the the west northwest at approximately 17mph (27kph). Current forecasts have the storm going over Key West and on into the Gulf, however there are forecasts that take the storm further south over the Dominican Republic. If the storm does go over the Dominican Republic, chances are the storm will be ripped apart by the tall mountains on the island. The tallest of which is 10,164 foot (3098 meter) Pico Duarte.
In addition to Ana, a second named storm with very similar strength has formed right behind Ana. This storm is forecast though to move up the eastern seaboard and move out to sea.
Back closer to home, the weather has turned quite boring. Temperatures have been warm, humidity has been high, and skies have been dry. At least we'll start to see some fall weather in about six weeks. Also, the days are getting noticeably shorter. The sun is setting a minute earlier every day. Only 77 days till Daylight Saving Time Ends!!

The Perseids Are Back!

The annual Perseid meteor shower is upon us. Estimates are that up to 200 meteors per hour may be seen between 12am and 5am over the next couple of nights. Peak viewing times are the early morning hours of August 11 and August 12.
The meteors that we see are left over pieces of comet Swift-Tuttle when it last passed through the area of space that the Earth is currently passing through on its orbit around the sun. Most of the meteors are the size of a grain of sand and some are as big as a marble. Almost none of the meteors strike the ground. Instead, the harmlessly burn up in the atmosphere.
Some interesting facts about comet Swift-Tuttle, it's nucleus is nearly 6 miles (10km) in diameter. It makes one complete orbit around the sun every 130 years. It was discovered in 1862 and was last seen in 1992.

Flood Forces Laurel Residents to Evacuate

Heavy rain caused massive flooding across the area today. Many roads were closed due to the flooding and will likely require repair. County road crews were out with snow plows on the front of their trucks to push debris out of the roadways. A lot of gravel and debris such as logs and boulders were washed into the road along area creeks.
Residents on the south side of Laurel were evacuated from their homes after water from the Whitewater river left it's banks and moved into the town. A level-2 road emergency was declared by county commissioners around 1pm which mean only emergency travel was allowed.
The rain began this morning around 6am with a push of thunderstorms into the area. This round of rain ended though by 8am. A second and much larger area of storms moved into the area by 9am and continued through the morning and early afternoon hours. The rain finally ended at 3pm after 4.32 inches had fallen. Looking at the Doppler radar estimate map above though, even heavier rain fell just to our south in the Greensburg and Batesville areas. There it appears up to 6 inches of rain had fallen, but reports of 8 inches were heard on TV.
You can watch a video from WLWT Cincinnatti of the flooding in Laurel here. Or, you can watch my own video below. The water had gone down a lot when I took my video.

July '09 is Coldest in 60 Years

From the NWS in Indianapolis
Central Indiana July 2009 Climate Summary

July 2009 was the coolest in more than 60 years for much of Central Indiana. Average monthly temperatures were 3½ to 6 ½ degrees below normal. July’s average temperature was 2 to 4 degrees cooler than June. During July above normal rainfall continued in many areas south of Indianapolis. A dry trend developed in many areas north of Indianapolis. Rain events were rather evenly distributed during July, with rain occurring about every 7 days. A persistent trough of low pressure across eastern Canada and the Eastern United States helped funnel cool Canadian air into the Ohio Valley for much of July.

The following is a summary of the weather in Central Indiana during July 2009.

Temperatures

July 2009 featured little summer heat in Central Indiana and record to near record cool monthly average temperatures. The month began with temperatures well below normal and this trend continued nearly uninterrupted the entire month. The only first order station to report 90 degrees in central Indiana was Muncie.

At Indianapolis, July’s average temperature of 70.9 degrees was the second coolest of record and the lowest since 1947. July’s average temperature was only 0.3 of a degree higher than in 1947. This was similar to the normal July temperature at Lansing, Michigan.

The average maximum temperature of 79 degrees at Indianapolis was the lowest of record breaking the previous record low average maximum of 81 set exactly 100 years ago. This is the first July of record with an average maximum temperature of less than 80 degrees.

Another unusual climate feature at Indianapolis was July’s average temperature was 2.5 degrees lower than in June. This was only the 9th time since 1871 that the average temperature for July was cooler than June. The last time this occurred was in 1984. The greatest difference was in 1971 when July was 3.4 degrees cooler than June. Typically the average temperature increases 3.7 degrees from June to July.

Other temperature features at Indianapolis include:

·All of July’s daily average temperatures were below normal except for the 10th, 28th and 29th.

·The temperature failed to reach 90 degrees in July for the first time since 2004. This is the 9th July since 1871 to not reach 90 degrees. Typically 7 days in July reach 90 degrees.

·Only 3 days with a temperature of 85 degrees or higher. This has never happened since weather records began in 1871. The previous record was 7 days set in 1875.

·14 days did not reach 80 degrees. The average is 5. The previous record of 12 occurred in 1909 and 1915.

·Record Low Maximum Temperatures were set on the 4th, 18th and 22nd. On the 1st, the high temperature of 69 was the second lowest of record for the date and missed tying the record set in 1924 by 1 degree. For the 4th the new record is 70 degrees breaking the previous record of 71 set in 2008. For the 18th the new record is 71 degrees breaking the previous record of 75 first set in 1871 and repeated in 1883. For the 22nd the new record is 68 degrees breaking the previous record of 70 set in 1996.

Precipitation

July 2009 was a wet month across much of southern Indiana and a rather dry month for areas immediately north of Indianapolis. Monthly rainfall of 5 to 10 or more inches occurred in most areas south of I-65 west of Indianapolis and south of I-70 east of Indianapolis. North of this area and south of US 24 generally 1 to 3 inches of rain fell during July. The biggest rain during July occurred in south central Indiana where nearly 5 inches fell on July 22nd.