WeatherBrains 118: Virginia Tornado Event
WeatherBrains Episode 118 is now online (April 30, 2008). This is THE netcast audio program for people who absolutely love everything weather.
Yup! We are a tad late with the latest episode thanks to trouble scheduling the weather geeks of WeatherBrains. So please excuse us as we finally manage to get together to talk weather.
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Virginia Tornadoes: The WeatherBrains crew makes a call in the dark and manages to get Brian Jackson at the NWS office in Wakefield, VA, who brings us up to date on the tornado outbreak in Southeast Virginia. The warning process worked very well in getting warnings out ahead of a supercell thunderstorm. Lead times were about 15 minutes on the Suffolk tornado which was rated an EF3. And our own Kevin Selle talks about the tornado in the same area in 1993.
The meteorological community noted a big loss last week when Dr. George Cressman, tenth Director of the NWS, passed away at 1:30 pm on Saturday, April 19. Dr. Cressman was NWS Director from 1965 to 1979. It was during his tenure, in 1970, that NOAA was formed. Dr. George Cressman was the first Director of the Numerical Meteorological Center, a position he held from 1954-1964. In 1965, Dr. Cressman was named Chief of the Weather Bureau and supervised the transition of the Weather Bureau to the National Weather Service following the creation of NOAA in 1970. A memorial service is planned on Saturday, May 10, at 2 pm at the Chapel of the National Lutheran Home in Rockville, MD.
Mailbag: And James Spann puts his hand into our mail bag to review feedback from listeners. And believe it or not, we got an email from the UK and Australia!
From The Weather Center:
WeatherBrains 101: How the temperature changes as you go up in the atmosphere is called the lapse rate. So this week, our topic will be a discussion of what that is and how it can be important.
This Week in Weather History: Bill Murray takes a look at the active weather for this week which included high wind and flooding which affected some trains and some ball games.
Listener Surveys: Okay, we continue to drive this topic into the ground, but we really do like to hear from you. Many thanks to everyone who has taken the time to fill out the Listener Survey. The survey takes just a minute or two to complete and provides us with an opportunity to learn where you are and hear your thoughts and comments on the show. Click here to take the survey.
Web Sites from Episode 118:
Serious about the weather? Stratus Station, our sponsor, has a great product for monitoring live weather for almost anyone from television stations to emergency management.
James Spann corrals the usual collection of weather geeks including JB Elliott and Brian Peters for this look at the field of weather in the latest episode of WeatherBrains.
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