Jon Shaner: July 2009 Archives

From the Associated Press:

CORPUS CHRISTI -- Police can arrest people who don't leave town under mandatory evacuation orders under a new state law that goes into effect in the heart of Texas' hurricane season.

The law was passed this year and is effective Sept. 1. It also applies to other disasters, such as fires or floods.

As it stands, officials cannot compel people to evacuate, only warn that those who stay behind won't have any emergency services at their disposal.

The Corpus Christi Caller-Times reports the new law gives county judges and mayors the power to authorize use of "reasonable force" to remove people from the area.

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This is a common point of debate when it comes to public policy as it relates to natural disasters.  Government's role, of course, is to keep people safe, but what happens when residents choose to ignore warnings?  Should people be free to risk their lives in dangerous weather?

In my opinion, the big reason government feels the need to make laws like this is that the same people who ignore the warnings turn around after the fact and blame officials for not doing more.  It's that lack of personal responsibility that is the real problem.

What do you think?  Send me an e-mail!  -JS

Good morning!  First, some factoids about our cool July:

- Grand Rapids hasn't seen a high temperature above average this month.
- The highest temperature in GR this month has been 82°.  The last time a summer month (June, July, or August) did NOT reach at least 85° was June 1982.

OK, now I need your opinion on something.  Paul Bogdan sent this photo from along I-96 east of Lansing (click to view):
stormcloud.jpe

Paul's note: "We were driving east on I-96 out of Lansing on Sunday July 19, 2009 around 2pm and saw the cloud formation in the center of the picture with the angular edge- almost a perfect right angle.  We took a cell phone picture and when I uploaded it and viewed it enlarged on a computer screen I saw the formation on the right center of the picture.  Could this be a 'dust devil'?"

Sunday was a fairly active weather day around West Michigan, in a manner that's more reminiscent of September or October than July.  Waterspouts were reported along the Lake Michigan shoreline in Ottawa County, including one that briefly came onshore near Holland.

Here are some photos sent by Steve Geerlings of Holland:

Waterspout.bmp
Waterspout2.bmp

Waterspouts are much more common in the early fall, when water temperatures are still warm and cooler air starts to move in aloft.  But because the weekend was so unseasonably cool, the line of showers that developed with an upper-level disturbance in the late morning had enough instability and rotation with them to generate the waterspouts.

While you don't want to go directly into a waterspout, they rarely cause any damage.  That was the case with the 'spout in Holland, but they certainly cause a lot of excitement!  Even my in-laws called from Maryland, having somehow heard about it.
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In other science news, the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century is about to take place on Wednesday (really late Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning our time).  However, unless you're willing to travel halfway around the world, you won't see it.

Fortunately for us, though, there will be live webcasts of the event.  Here is the NASA link to all the information on the eclipse.

Have a good week! -JS

A recurring theme of conversation in the weather segments this summer has been the quality of the weather as it relates to being able to relax in a hammock during the day.  After all, who doesn't like a good hammock day?

Well, our discussion of such weather led to the creation of the following graphic at 5:30 this morning:

Hope you enjoyed a fantastic weekend!  That is, except for folks still dealing with the line of strong storms that came through West Michigan early Saturday morning.  For most locations, the storms brought much-needed rain.  But especially in Allegan County, there were a few reports of trees knocked down by gusty winds:

In an annual ritual, I've received my first e-mail about Mars looking as big as the moon coming up in August.  The people who forward these e-mails always mean well, but you should know that the claims of the e-mail are not true.

There are different forms of the text, but the one I see most often says something like "Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye."  Like most prolonged myths, it's partially based in fact -- an event sort of like this occurred in 2003.  But even then, you had to use a 75x telescope in order to have Mars appear to be the same size as the moon.

When I get e-mail forwards like that, I always check them out at snopes.com.  Here's their page about the "Mars Spectacular" e-mail.

Another realm of fake weather e-mails is photos.  Because we solicit weather-related photos, people often forward me the ones they get from their friends and family.  Here are some of the more popular ones.  If you recognize any of these photos, chances are the description in the e-mail isn't accurate... click the link for the real scoop.

Tornado or Katrina?

I've neglected to mention it on the air the last couple of days, but we've had great weather the last couple of nights for viewing the International Space Station in our sky.  Here are the specifics from NASA:

SATELLITE	LOCAL	DURATION	MAX ELEV	APPROACH	DEPARTURE
	DATE/TIME	(MIN)	(DEG)	(DEG-DIR)	(DEG-DIR)

ISS	Wed Jul 08/00:43 AM	4	19	10 above WNW	11 above NNE
ISS	Wed Jul 08/02:19 AM	4	15	10 above NW	10 above NE
ISS	Wed Jul 08/03:54 AM	5	36	10 above NW	10 above E
ISS	Wed Jul 08/05:29 AM	4	25	11 above W	11 above SSE
ISS	Wed Jul 08/09:56 PM	5	32	11 above SSW	11 above ENE
ISS	Wed Jul 08/11:31 PM	5	31	10 above W	10 above NE
ISS	Thu Jul 09/01:10 AM	1	13	13 above NNE	10 above NE
ISS	Thu Jul 09/02:44 AM	4	20	11 above NNW	10 above ENE
ISS	Thu Jul 09/04:18 AM	6	80	10 above WNW	10 above SE
ISS	Thu Jul 09/10:20 PM	6	75	10 above WSW	10 above NE
ISS	Thu Jul 09/11:59 PM	1	17	17 above N	11 above NNE

The "MAX ELEV" is the angle above the horizon that the space station will appear the highest in the sky, and the "APPROACH" and "DEPARTURE" are the directions you should look.

We're hoping to keep skies clear enough at least through Wednesday night for decent viewing.  Enjoy!

Good morning!  Just a couple of things to share with you this morning:

The National Weather Service office in Grand Rapids did a great and very detailed damage survey of the June 19th tornado.  (link to PDF file)

Tropical Storm Blanca is spinning uneventfully in the Pacific.  It continues to be a quiet tropical season so far, but we rarely start to heat things up for another month or so.

I'm really excited about the next couple of days of weather -- I love these days with highs in the 70s and low humidity levels.  Maybe I'll see you at the Whitecaps game today!  -JS