Click here to listen to episode 615 of Weather Break.
Between Pixar’s movie UP and the recent exploits of a family in Colorado, there has been a lot of interest in recent months about using helium balloons as a way to lift cargo up to great heights in the atmosphere. The apparent hoax in Colorado is particularly interesting, as at first it was alleged that the father of the family was a meteorologist. (He’s not.) How big would a helium balloon have to be to lift a 6 year old boy to the heights observed during that incident? Was it really likely that meteorologists couldn’t tell whether or not a 37 pound child was onboard, just based on how high the balloon floated and how fast it rose? Today on Weather Break, we take a look at the facts behind this strange story.
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We’re trying to avoid the issues associated with this particular family and their apparent quest to get on television and become reality-TV stars. Let’s focus on the science, like what you’ll find in these articles:
Tags: Basic Meteorology · Weather in the News
Click here to listen to episode 614 of Weather Break.
At this time of year, you will often see that your local meteorologists are informing you that the National Weather Service has issued a “Frost Warning” or a “Freeze Warning” or a “Freeze Advisory” or some similar kind of statement. These messages are intended primarily for agribusiness and horticulture purposes, as a cold night like the one that is expected will apparently bring about an end to the growing season. In November, this can be a pretty tricky forecast, but in January or February, it would be a LOT easier to figure out whether or not it was going to freeze (almost certainly, the answer would be “yes”). Why doesn’t the National Weather Service issue frost and freezes warnings in the winter? We asked meteorologist Steve Byrd, and he tells us all about it on today’s episode of Weather Break.
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WeatherBug provides this relatively informal definition of “Frost and Freeze Warnings”.
Tags: Winter Weather
Click here to listen to episode 613 of Weather Break.
In the fall, you’ll often hear meteorologists mention that frost is likely or expected in “low-lying areas” on a particular night. Why are “low-lying areas” so prone to frost? Does frost ever happen in areas that are “not low-lying”? Here at Weather Break, when we have questions like these, we turn to our resident expert and friend of the show, Mr. Steve Byrd. He’s a retired forecaster from the National Weather Service office in Valley, Nebraska, and he’s one of the best forecasters we know. Today on Weather Break, Steve sorts out why we get so much frost in low-lying areas in the autumn.
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For more information about frost, consult these past episodes of Weather Break:
Tags: Winter Weather
Click here to listen to episode 612 of Weather Break.
Yesterday on Weather Break, we talked with Mr. Steve Byrd, a retired forecaster with the National Weather Service, to learn more about the conditions under which dew and fog occur at night. Today we’re following up on that conversation with more questions about how the NWS actually produces (or, more accurately, USED TO PRODUCE) forecasts of these phenomena. We also talk about why forecasts of stuff like this are actually important to a number of different consumers of weather information, including agribusiness.
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For more information about the forecasting of dew, check out TheWeatherPrediction.com or this journal article. TheWeatherPrediction.com also has a nice article about fog forecasting.
We mentioned “detasseling corn” on today’s episode. If you don’t know what that is, click here.
We mentioned “walking beans” on today’s episode. If you don’t know what that is, click here.
Tags: Water and Weather
Click here to listen to episode 611 of Weather Break.
At night, temperatures fall, and if they fall all the way to the current “dewpoint temperature”, condensation will be begin–water vapor in the atmosphere will start turning into liquid water droplets. But here’s the thing–sometimes that will result in DEW on the surface of the Earth, and other times in it will result in FOG, or tiny droplets of water suspended in the atmosphere. Today on Weather Break, Dr. Jon Schrage talks with retired National Weather Service forecaster Steve Byrd to find out the straight dope about the differences between the conditions under which these two forms of condensation happen.
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For more information about fog and dew, we recommend this journal article, wsanford.com, AustraliaSevereWeather.com, or Idaho State University.
Tags: Water and Weather
