Severe Storms of October 18th

The weather cam captured some pretty spectacular lightning flashes last Thursday. Here's a sampling.

Extreme Drought - No Relief

We drove to the airport in Louisville today and hit some tremendous, drenching rain showers.

It looked liked Prospect got some rain, too. But, along US 42, from Goshen on out to Lagrange, NOT A DROP! We got a few sprinkles overnight, but not enough to even tip the rain gauge.

The soil moisture indicator is at 128 centibars. I don't think it goes any higher.

There are a few scattered showers north of us now. We'll keep hoping they float our way.

Some Relief

We hit 100.4 degrees this afternoon, the hottest of the summer. A line of severe storms came through and gave us a little over an inch of rain. While coming home through Prospect in northeast Jefferson County, I observed quite a bit of wind damage - limbs down, power out. No sign of bad winds here. We topped out at 38 mph. I doubt the heat is over and I know the drought isn't. We'd have to get a lot more rain to make up the shortage. This was no hurricane, of course, but it seems that our summer droughts are often ended by a hurricane. As much damage as they cause on the coast, they are often a salvation inland. Remember those rainy September mornings going to school in the rain - lights on in the school building? Many were drought ending hurricanes.

WAVE tower visible in cam

I've moved the camera to a southwesterly view. You can now see the WAVE-TV broadcast tower which is about 1 mile away from us. The tower is 1820 feet tall. If you switch to the live stream view, you'll see the tower lights flashing at night. Much of our weather comes from this direction so it might provide some interesting views. On the downside, we're getting quite a bright flare from the sun in the afternoon. We'll leave this shot locked for awhile and see what develops as the season progresses.

Mucho radar work

I haven't written here for quite some time (how often do you see THAT in blogs?), because I've been working on refining the radar images on the site. This hobby has thrown me not only into graphics, in which I have some experience, but also into mapping and geography. If you check out the doppler radar image you'll see a new topographical background. I've also added regional temperature readings. This took up all of the past weekend when I wasn't painting our guest bathroom.

Stormy anniversary

This is the anniversary of the the tornado outbreak of 1974.
Luckily, nothing like that today.

It was interesting to use our new radar display (GRLevel3) to zoom in on our local area as the storms were hitting. Click on the image to more clearly see this capture from 6:03PM. Notice the detail between Westport and Sycamore Run, just as we received the worst of the rain and wind.

These images are really nothing new. But it's pretty cool to have control of the images from this end and not rely on a broadcaster to feed them to us.

Microwave birdhouse heater

I spent much of last week building and assembling the birdhouse/lightning detector antenna. Perhaps you've already read here that we discovered major problems with having the detector antenna in the rafters of the house. Everytime we used one of our light dimmers the detector went crazy and displayed what looked like a megastorm right here in the neighborhood. Unacceptable. By using a small AM radio tuned between stations, I found that the static from the dimmers stopped about 20 feet from the house.

But where could I mount the antenna? The bird feeder is far enough away, but it's too low. For best reception, the antenna needs to be at least 10 feet high. A tower? There are restrictions in our neighborhood (thank goodness) about towers and the like, so that was out of the question.

As bird enthusiasts our solution was perfect - a bird house! We went for a Purple Martin house mounted on a 12 foot high, 4x4 post. Why a Martin house? Well, we like the little fella's in the way they swoop around in the evening catching bugs. We've read that we're more likely to attract other species than Martins to the house, and that's OK.

Once the bird house was up with the post set in concrete, the next step was to dig a shallow, 40 foot trench for the cable run. I used 1 inch, gray PVC conduit in the trench, drilled a hole through the brick to my basement, and ran about 150 feet of CAT5e cable to my upstairs room where my weather computer is located.

The next step was to mount the antenna inside a waterproof housing which I constructed of 3 inch PVC with a top cap and bottom fitting. This assembly was connected via a 1 1/2 inch PVC elbow to a base fitting mounted to the post. For my fellow weather hobbyists, that base fitting, the one mounted on the post, was the hardest to locate. If your plumbing supply store doesn't carry it, check with a pool and spa store, they'll fix you right up!

Almost done - just terminate both ends of the cable with male RJ45 connectors, plug it in and . . . nothing. I've done quite a bit of intricate wiring in my life, but RJ45 connectors are a beast with which I have NO experience. I just couldn't seem to get those 8 little wires into those 8 little slots. I needed help. I hired help. Thanks to Scott Cason of Lagrange Communications. Scott had the knack and the know-how and he had me up and running in short order.

This was a very satisfying project. The birds get new digs. The neighborhood is spared an eyesore. (Heck, some might guess it's some kind of high-tech birdhouse heater.) Best of all, my lightning detector is performing much, much better in terms of sensitivity, accuracy and avoidance of RF interference.

Diggin' spring

I've had trouble with the house dimmer circuits messing up the lightning detector. Yesterday, I used a small AM radio to detect how far out the dimmers radiated. It turned out they didn't radiate past 20 feet or so into the yard.

I spent a large part of today outside in the spectacular cool spring weather digging a trench. This trench leads from the north corner of the house 30 feet or so into the yard. In this trench will be placed a one inch PVC conduit. I'll soon place a run of CAT5 cable in the conduit. One end of the cable will connect to my weather computer's lightning detector. The other end will connect to the lightning detector antenna. The antenna will be mounted on a 16 foot high, 4x4 post. At the top of the post will be a 12 compartment Purple Martin bird house.

Daylight saving time

The earlier change to DST was a big hassle for me and many others who run weather stations. I know, we had plenty of time to get ready for it, but it meant renting rare equipment to upgrade the firmware inside my station console. DST was here before I could get my hands on an updater. I hope to get it fixed before the change back to standard time in the fall.

As a result, I had a software crash in the middle of the night because of the clocks getting screwy. I know the purpose of this earlier change was to save energy and money, but I'm wondering if it didn't really end up costing more as so much equipment like mine, traffic control circuits, etc. had to be upgraded or replaced.

On the brightside, I'm going to enjoy the extra light in the evening!

Crash time

OK, the brand new weather computer crashed. I think I know why it happened. So, I should be able to prevent it in the future. You know how computers can be. Keep your fingers crossed.

This loss of two days on-line reminded me that we often lose power briefly during thunderstorms. However briefly the lights flicker, it's enough to shut down the computer, modem and routers. So, we're now on a UPS (uninterruptible power supply), more accurately described as an instantaneous battery back-up. It won't keep things going very long during an extended power outage, but should handle those "flickers" during storms and other brief outages.

Lightning detector

We've added a lightning detector. We hit a snag when we discovered that using dimmers in the house caused erroneous "hits". So, we're trying to remember not to turn on dimmers when the lightning detector is in use. The final solution to this problem will be to move the detector antenna outside to the weather station sensor post. That will mean burying a cable.

Otherwise, the display works great and can be very interesting. The unit is most accurate for storms within 300 miles, but it can sense lightning from much greater distances, too. Those distant hits might not be exactly where the storm is, but it gets pretty close.

Interest on deposits

6:25PM

Rain started here about 6:20PM. Doesn't look very long lived.

As I mention on the front page of the site, the Red-Winged Blackbirds are back. These are the birds that most like to perch on my rain collector. The birds put their "depositor" over my "collector" and, quite effectively, clog it with their doo doo. I just got soaked while running out to remove the collector so I could clean it. This will be a regular maintenance item from here on out.

Some fellow station keepers have some humane ideas to deter the birds from perching. I'll be looking into those.

Beating the rain

That's me on today's weather movie, between 10am-noon, driving my lawn tractor while spreading crabgrass control and some fertilizer. I nearly froze to death, but I wanted to get the stuff down ahead of this rain which rolled in mid-afternoon.

Timing is crucial with this crabgrass stuff. The weed seeds are already on the soil. With just a few warm days, the seeds will germinate. You have to get the chemical down before germination or it's useless. I hope we timed it right.

Be sure to click on Links/Meterologists-Local. There are links there to Tom Will's and John Belski's blogs which really give a valuable insight into local conditions. Here's an interesting entry from Tom Will's blog for today:

"The average high temperature for Louisville hit 50 degrees today! Meteorological winter is December, January and February. But, in the past 2-3 decades, data has shown that 'spring' has been arriving anywhere from a few days to two weeks EARLIER than during the first half of the 20th century. So, it looks like our Spring is here, at least statistically!"

Spring approaches

In case you're wondering who to thank for the warmer weather and the obvious approach of spring - thank me! Let me explain. You know the old theory of wash your car to make it rain? Same thing at work here. You see, when we were without power for a few days after those really nasty spring thunderstorms a couple of years ago, I decided to buy a generator. My mother razzed me about it. "You'll spend all that money and I'll bet we'll never have that kind of power failure again." My answer, "Great! Then it will be worth EVERY PENNY!"

Back to spring. Just a few days ago, with wind chills in the single digits and snow on the ground, I purchased:

A heated birdbath

And three cans of Prestone Spray De-Icer

Winter's back has been broken. Spring is almost here.

Severe will be here (soon)

We're still a little way out from severe weather time (even though thunderstorms are predicted for this weekend.) It will, however, be here soon. I've added a link under "Forecasts/Severe" that will show the National Severe Storms Forecast Center map out of Norman, Oklahoma. Our plans here are to add a lightning detector within a few weeks. (Happy Birthday to me!!)

Also added tonight, a left panel display on "evapotranspiration".

Bird count

We had a lot of fun watching/counting birds during yesterday's little snow event. We learned that identifying birds correctly is pretty hard to do. I'm sure we'll get better at it. We also learned that "Woodrow" is NOT a Downy Woodpecker, he's a Red Bellied Woodpecker.

The end?

Well, we got two inches from the clipper system. Picture at right was taken at 6PM. Radar is showing we might get a little more, but this looks like the end of it. Spent the morning in front of the fire. Then, out with daughter Bethany for lunch at the Red Pepper in Lagrange during the peak of the snow. Back to watch birds for the Backyard Bird Count this afternoon. Good day!

Ready for snow?

After a perfectly clear day, one of the last frames from today's weather movie shows the clouds from the leading edge of the clipper system that's expected to bring us some snow this weekend.

Reading charts is hard work

I was not surprised to see some poltical pundits popping off during our resent cold/snow snap that "global warming seminars are cancelled because of snow." Their job, of course, is to entertain. Very seldom do they enlighten.

Ice and irony

Our drizzle switched over to ice around 8:00 yesterday evening. As we were leaving the neighborhood this morning we saw a green pickup in the ditch. It looked like they lost it when they were taking the curve to go down Smith Lane. Then we came upon another accident being cleared on Highway 53 in front of the veterinarian's office. This one looked like it had been a head-on. Ice + not adjusting driving to fit conditions = wreck. I'm always amazed at how some drivers try to drive on weather affected roads as if the roads were dry.

Anytime there's ice, I think of my old friend, Hugh Finn, who died while taking his kids to school. It was March but there was black ice that morning. A driver lost it and hit Hugh's car. Ironically, when I was working the morning shift at WAVE, it would be Hugh who would call me if the weather was bad to wake me up an hour earlier than he knew I arose. I remember vividly hearing Hugh say "Allen, it's getting icy out there. You'd better be careful and leave early!" He was a good man with a wonderful family.

Hugh's death became a national story. I don't want to go into it here, but you can Google his name and read all about it if you wish.

Breaking winter's back

It's been a pretty dreary day, but our sunset was a reminder that we live in a beautiful place. Spring isn't too far away. "February breaks the back of winter."

Freeze those seeds

The final design for a "doomsday" vault that will house seeds from all known varieties of food crops has been unveiled by the Norwegian government.

Woodrow the woodpecker

Caught our little buddy in the Weathercam heading for the feeding trough!

How gloomy is Seattle?

This made me laugh, especially since my oldest daughter lives there.

Samples:

"The weather is more mellow than gloomy, in my opinion."

"Seattle is definitely not gloomy. Its one of the most exciting and livable cities on the westcoast with so much to offer. Come here during the summer or springtime and you most likely will not want to leave."

"Don't move here. Everything everyone said above is a lie, it's cloudy 9 days out of 10 and for 8 months a year is constant drizzle. If you like sun you will become depressed in no time. We don't want you here, so go away."

Contour maps

I've added contour maps. Some are on the front page. The rest are on the left menu. I'm working on a way to animate some of them.

Now streaming live!

We're experimenting with a live (or nearly live) streaming feed of the WeatherCam. It updates almost every second depending on the load on the CPU.

Speaking of CPU loads, something caused a snafu with all of our data feeds after midnight last night. Things weren't back to normal until I rebooted late morning. Ah well, that's why we have that disclaimer thingy at the bottom of the page. Hey, this is a hobby. . . and well, things screw up. Ask some of those radio controlled airplane guys about that!

I should add, however, that our data is kept as up-to-date and accurate as possible, even with shutdowns/lockouts of our computer. Our regional radar and satellite images (for which we pay $) are very, very reliable. The only things that seem "sketchy" are the icon that shows "cloudy, partly cloudy, clear, etc."and, also, NOAA Radar. These items are provided by our tax dollars. Government entities could do a much better job of feeding that info.

Automated WeatherCam

I have been manually creating the "weather movie" every evening. It wasn't a long process but I had to remember to do it. Not anymore! The entire process is now automated. Every night at 10:00PM the still captures will be converted into an .avi file, another process will encode that large file into a much smaller .wmv and finally, the file will be ftp'd to our server at 10:05 PM for all to enjoy.

(Click to watch the latest.)

This was fun! Plus, I got to do some easy command line coding (eeek...a DOS prompt) which I haven't done in years.

Think of it . . . video captured, processed and distributed automatically. Maybe nothing to the uber geeks . . .but really amazing to me.

Snowy Morning

About 1/2 inch of snow fell here in Oldham County this morning. Some of it must have accumulated in the rain gauge because, as the temp warmed today, it showed some precip (0.04).

It cleared nicely in the afternoon. The "conditions" icon, however, remained cloudy. This icon is generated by conditions at Standiford Field. The file that generates it hasn't been updated since 10:51 this morning. Something's broken at NOAA.

So, I did a manual override to display the correct conditions. I also have an automated override so that if it starts raining here at the station the icon will override NOAA and show rain in the icon.

Tech - Precip type radar added

I've subscibed to a "precipitation type" radar, otherwise known as "winter radar". It shows the difference between rain (green), snow (blue) and ice/sleet (pink). There's no legend on the display yet as it's a beta version. It performed pretty well during last night's freezing rain episode. It certainly gave a better image than NOAA's radar - at least in this instance.

Freezing Rain

Snow was in the forecast, instead, we got a fast moving burst of sleet and freezing rain. The anemometer froze up late in the morning. It was interesting to note that most of the personal weather stations all started showing freeze-up (zero wind) at about the same time.

I broke the ice off our instrument to get us back into business. This points out the importance of not mounting weather instruments high on poles or buildings. When they need maintenance you've got to be able to reach them.

Our favorite downy woodpecker, "Woodrow" had been feeding at his ice covered feeder earlier.

Technical Notes Archive

I've decided to move all of the technical notes into this new blog area. Here are all of the earlier notes. Future notes will be posted individually.
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1/18/07
ADDED INFRARED SATELLITE ANIMATION
Now displaying a looped video of the black and white IR satellite image of the USA. Black and white was chosen over the "enhanced" color version for clarity and aesthetics.

1/17/07
UPDATED PAGE LAYOUT
A new look! It allows for more flexibility in adding content and larger, easier views of graphics. Look for improved radar and satellite views in the future.

1/13/07
WEATHER CAMERA MOUNTED OUTSIDE
Weather camera now mounted outside. The view is toward the northwest. Be sure to check out the "weather movie" link.

1/11/07
MAINTENANCE UPDATE
Station has been migrated to dedicated computer. Weather camera not connected or updating at this time. Hoping to get cam fully installed this weekend.

1/11/07
SITE MAINTENANCE
Down for a few hours after 6PM Eastern to transfer the station to a dedicated computer. It is hoped that this will solve file upload and lock-up problems.

1/10/07
MISSING DATA & WEATHER UNDERGROUND PROBLEM
Have stopped sending data to Wunderground for unknown reason. Also, solar, UV, and moonrise data are missing. Looking into it. Weather station software is very, very quirky.

1/6/07
STATION LOCATION CORRECTED
Station location is now correct on Google Maps and mesomaps.

1/4/07
STATION LOCATION INCORRECT
The latitude, longitude and altitude of the station was originally determined using Google Earth. A recently obtained a GPS reading which showed that the original figures were a little off. That has now been corrected in station software but is not (yet) being reflected in the Weather Underground data. So, if you check out the station on the Google Map site or on a Mesomap it's a little south of where we really are located.

1/4/07
UV SENSOR WORKING NORMALLY
Finally enough sunshine to check that the new UV sensor is feeding data properly.

1/4/07
FORECAST DISCREPANCY RESOLVED
The forecast discrepancy seems to have resolved itself. This is a common problem with Weather Underground and could arise again.

1/2/07
FORECAST DISCREPANCY
Have noted discrepancy in forecast provided by Weather Underground. Looking into it.

1/1/07
INTERMITTENT CONNECTIVITY
Server connectivity problems so updates could be erratic.

12/30/06
RAIN GAUGE REPAIREDRain gauge has been inoperative for many months. It has now been repaired. The readings for hourly and daily rain should be correct effective

12/31/06. UV SENSOR REPLACEDWill be watching for results from this repair on the next sunny day.