RadarDude's Blog

I have noticed that since saturday Foxrad has been used on a limited basis. What i mean is...during the rain events like today and yesterday it seems the composite ref is being used. Usually composite is usedwhen a radar is down or when you look at the rain in another part of the country. I use Foxrad alot and dont really trust the composite since it shows all levels.

So I ask...has Foxrad gone down...Is it ok???

Ok Iwas able to capture what I believe is the start of the high wind gust at Hobby...I have posted a Velocity and Ref image below....comments, questions, your own stories or reports you can leave them here...Stay safe everyone....

What happens when you take 5 chief meteorologists and put them in a room together???....You get loads of fun and lots of good info.

One of the breakout workshops on saturday included a Q&A with all the chiefs from the area. Me and Ceci (who was moderator) were talking about how some folks only get to see them in serious mode on tv...but at the workshop they were a bunch of kids...lol. Laughing cracking jokes. It was a blast. It also helped to show some that these guys are really all buddies....we learned the thought process from the tv meteorologist side. I took the photos below before we started. To me this was the best part of the entire workshop. This should be included for all the following workshops.

So I was reading the Chron yesterday and happened to find an article about KRIV starting a 5 and 530 newscast during the week....I nearly jumped out of me seat with excitement. Aug 18 I believe is the start date....

This is going to be great...now when I get tired of the other "nets" at that time I can go to FOX. Good luck you guys...I will be watching.

What does everyone else think about this???

I post this here in weather because I was watching a story on Ron Stone, and they showed him trying to do the weather...lets just say he was better at news than weather...LMAO.

God Bless that man...and his family....Lanny has posted a blog about him as well in the news section...

I posted this as a comment to the blog below...I just gave reasons why WHBQ has to and did a good job of alerting viewers to a tornadic situation. But apperently the author of that blog didnt like my comments so he deleted them....ok, I will just post my own blog.

It does not matter if you are used to tornadoes or not...or if you like tornadoes or not. Just because tornadoes are common in your area. We cannot look a t a storm and say "hey...that storm has a tornado". Each storm is different just like a hurricane. Thats why we have tv stations. Not everyone has the ability to go on the internet or a good clear view of the horizion. You have to remember that tv ststions dont have the ability to pick and choose the houses they want to warn. Even in Oklahoma where tornadoes are even more frequent they still have to warn folks by cutting into programs. The folks in or near the damage path of a tornado understand this....its whats called "A part of life in tornado alley". Also the WHBQ promo is correct...May 2, 2008 was not just rain, it was tornadoes...several of them. You cannot hype tornadoes. Cool song and good job WHBQ!

A "hurricane hunter" is a man or aircraft that flys through a hurricane....a "rusty coat hanger found in the parking lot" is an object that is used (unsuccessfully) to unlock your car door when the keys are inside.

I am posting this first...Me and Stormchaser drove to Galveston to view the P-3 Hurricane Hunter. Those photos will come later...the story starts after the visit. As we arrived back at out cars I decided to put my stuff in my car so we could chat, I also put my keys down on the seat...as I was comming out of my car my "bottom" pushed the unlock button on my car door...I saw no problem with this since the car was already unlocked.

As I walked around my car to talk to stormchaser.....the car locks....with keys inside. one of the first things out of SCs mouth is "Find a coat hanger!". The search began...as we combed the lot I happened upon a very rusty hanger. Im suprised it didnt fall apart. As the pictures show SC took the first try...I tried later as desperation took over. First we tried using our skillful knowledge...years of watching the show "cops" and bad guy movies should have given us the skills we needed........but no dice. We then turned to family and friends sor help...none that we could use. Then came the final move...magic. SC had read an email that if you place the spare remote for the car to the mik on a cell and held the receiving cell to the lock...the car would open. It was crazy enough to fool us into thinking it would work. So dad was called...I asked him to help...he did but it didnt open.

Finally my dad arrived with the spare key....and off we went. I am not a good writer so if we all get to meet again ask me to tell you this story...It was all good though...the weather was great. SC thanks for staying there and not leaving me to rot at that little airport..LOL

Hello all...

A few months ago I went digging through my Hurricane Tracking Chart collection and found two rare things. before last year KRIV had only produced three hurricane tracking charts. I took photos of them with my phone and was going to post them as a look back at some good old days....

With the recent passing of Robert I decided to post them today. I grew up watching Robrt on tv when Fox26 was in its early days. Before Cecilia it was robert smith who was my weather idol. I wanted to grow up and be chief of the weather dept at a tv station like he was. When he left I was so sad, but his leaving introduced us to Cecilia Sinclair. I much joy he was put as chief meteorologist at News24Houston. But when they folded he was off the air again. I never got to meet him, but I guess you could say I did from watching him on tv and through our friend Cecilia. I will miss him as many of us will...Robert and family will be in my prayers. God Bless.

Cecilia its good to hear from you....

Ok.....As we all know Foxrad is the best radar in town....1 of only 8 across the country. The thing is, is that Dual Pol radars like Foxrad are so new, there is still much to be learned. But the future of radar is Dual Polarity. Dual Pol has up to 6 different scans...able to determine what is snow, rain ,hail, big rain drops, etc.....These radars will be better able to show what storm or which part os a squall line has flooding potental. Yesterday there was a small outbreak of severe weather in Oklahoma and North Texas. The weather office in OKC has the only other radar like this not owned by a Tv station. This is a research radar only and is not in operation full time. Thankfully they turned it on yesterday.

Below are two different examples of the use of Dual Pol radars. The first image shows regular reflectivity...the circle shows the area of intrest. The next image is one of the new Dual Pol products called Hydrometor Classification. This is the really cool product...you might have seen Foxrad do this a few times, but Foxrads is a littel better. This is the product that determines wheather it is raining or snowing. The second image shows that the radar indicated hail in the storm of intrest from the first image. Twenty min later in the third image NWS issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning on the Storm of intrest.

The only draw back of this is that the radar cannot determine the size of the hail. A severe thunderstorm Warning is issued on a storm when winds reach a certain mph and when hail reaches a certain size. So even though most of the storms yesterday indicated hail most of that hail was either not reaching the ground or not at a severe size. But this is start....to me a real amazng start. I had never seen so many storms with either hail falling or hail aloft. Dual Pol technology is amazing and I cannot wait till it gets put into full service.

I hope you all enjoyed this...Please let me know what you think or if you have any questions.

Just about a week ago, March 14, 2008, a strong EF-2 tornado struck Dowtown Atlanta. Thankfully nobody was killed. At the time an NCAA Basketball game was in progress at the Georga Dome. The tornado passed 100yards north of the Dome, went across the CNN/Omni Hotel complex, over the Equitable Bank Tower, across I-85/75, then into the Cotten Mill Lofts....it contuined moving southwest where it finally weakened.

A tornado moving into a major metro is not a new event. 2000 Fort Worth, Tx; 1999 Salt Lake City, Ut; 1998 Nashville, Tn; 1997 Miami, Fl; 1993 Houston, Tx; 1953 Waco, Tx....Just to name a few. Foe those who dont remember...a small tornado did move through D-Town. Breaking glass in buildings and other minor damage. I am currently looking for any other data/info on this event.

Ok now to the pics....The first image is from the KFFC doppler radar. It is currently showing the velocity data for that night...(as the arrows show, red is wind moving away from the radar green towards the radar.)...The circle is the approximated location of the tornado. Notice the tight couplet over the downtown area. The radar is around 25-30miles from Atlanta...So the radar beam is a few hundred feet in the air...so the actual tornado is just a bit to the south...The other two images are from WAGA FOX5, of some of the damage. Sorry I wrote so much...lol

Ok.....im at work and I found this photo on the WDSU TV site out of New Orleans....Apperently people seem to think he pointed the gun at a police officer....I dont know....It just made me laugh. What do you think?

Ok...so im really bord at work so I have decided to post some pics.

The first was taken on Jan 28...It is of the skyline of Downtown from 45 going south. There is nothing really intresting about this pic...but while going through it I noticed something...I had to resize the image so I drew in an arrow...there are some windowwashers up there. I dont think I could ever do that job. LOL. If you want to see more pics I have taken from this angle of downtown just let me know.

The next two pics were taken yesterday as I left for work...It was probly around 750am. Nevada at Hwy 3 South Houston looking south.

The image after was taken about 825am looking north from the Woodridge exit of 45 northbound. Enjoy....

Stormchaser I must say that was a good one you pulled on Dr. Jim yesterday...You had me fooled as I was watching...Hes was even more surprised. I didnt get to see it live...but I saw it this morning here at work.

So...O know this is late....HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR. JIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok todays forecast might be short....

Tomorrow still looks like a go for us bloggers. The front decided sometime overnight to go ahead and move through...If skies remain clear tonight lows that were expected to remain somewhere in the upper 60s just might dip into the lower 60s and possibily the upper 50s....we shall see. It will remain dry through out today.

Looking at water vapor imagery dry air will settle in place through at least tomorrow night. Sunday though is when the changes will start. The humidity will move in on sunday ahead of another cool front. Warm moist air will be drawn in off the Gulf, increasing chances of rain on Monday.

So...in summary. Today :Good; tomorrow: Great; and sunday; Blah.....LOL

See you guys tomorrow. Lets see if this holds up.

OK...I will present here my forecast for the rest of today through saturday.

Looking at surface maps and sat imagery the frontal boundary which is located around central Texas will again stall out before reaching our area. Temps will remain in and around the Mid80s. Slight chance of stoms tomorrow.

Tonight thngs should remain the same. Lows will be around the mid to upper 70s depending on your location. Humidity will be reasonable.

Froday slight chance of showers and some thunderstorms. Highs will be around the mid 80s. Light winds will not help with heat or humidity. Froday night lows approaching the upper 60s.

Saturday still highs around mid 80s. Hopefully some dry air will filter down. To atleast lower the humidity a bit. Again wind will most likely not help. I can see no real chance of rain.

From what I can see we are go for Saturday!!!!!!!!

I have to go because my laptop is low on battery power...let me know how I did. i will post another tomorrow. SeeYa!!!