Long day. Currently 10:19 pm, and students are still forecasting.
OK...we left at around 10:30, although it took a while to actually hit I-40 (which is about 10 feet away from the hotel) since students agitated for a run to Starbucks. Per previous post, it was raining all morning, and so we left in steady rain (not like any Flagstaff trip I've done in the past!) Heading east, we ran into some heavier cells, the kind where you can barely see beyond the hood of the van. Our initial target was Holbrook, a 90 mins drive east of FLG, and well on the way to the NM border.
Once at Holbrook, we headed south and found a good spot to set up and leave a RAWS running for the day. For the students, this was their first "assemble a RAWS" session, and they did very well. All the time we were eyeing the skies and our cell phones, watching for cells to develop to our south. The hope was that a cell would pop up over the rim and head right over us.
Having set up the RAWS AND done a SUCCESSFUL radiosonde launch - which we tracked to 299 mb - we headed back into town for lunch. The main west-east street (Hopi) turns out to be Route 66, so of course we ate at a Route 66 cafe named Joe and Aggies's Cafe, a tradition since 1943. Left with full tummies and souvenirs, including free stuff they gave us as we left!
More staring at the sky, and our cell apps, and the Baron Threatnet displays. All of which generated the idea to keep heading east. There is a chance we might have bombed straight into Gallup, NM, since lots of big cells were firing in western NM. However, as got closer, they were dying. The same was true of a cell that crossed I-40 east of Holbrook. We had fun watching the radar and seeing the storm split! To its north was a pair of cells which had probably been through the same history about an hour ago. But again, we got there just a little too late, and instead kept driving east to Hwy 191 south. After a few miles, we crested a rise which gave us great 360o views, including a great view of the next incoming cell. After a few minutes of ooh-ing and ahh-ing, somebody decided to launch a balloon. And pretty much as soon as the inflation began, really heavy rain hit! Downpour! Plus nearby lightning and thunder. Since the inflation was underway, it wasn't possible to abandon ship, so those students on that task were fast getting soaked to the skin. I whipped out a stylish plastic poncho, but my shorts, shoes, and sleeves got soaked. Somebody produced a tarp to cover the students, as a result of which I have great video of a tarp, pouring rain, and laughter from under the tarp!
Such a lot of fun! Probably not if you're from somewhere rainy, but for CA kids... So that pretty much fried us for the day (by now it was after 5). Long slog home via Holbrook to take down the RAWS. Rolled back into town at 8:20, with no dinner and no forecasting done. The truly dedicated would have eaten a stale pack of cheese and crackers (or Craig's "power bar and Amp" solution), but there was a critical mass of Red Lobster fans!! Say no more!
And thus again, here we are at 10:40 pm on a Saturday night on the field trip, NOT relaxing in front of the TV, NOT out clubbing, NOT asleep, but rather - forecasting and discussing things like GFS versus NAM etc.
Drying out tomorrow, but there should be enough left over for some Tstorms. We're pretty much out of helium 'till Monday, so tomorrow is RAWS day!
Again...I WILL post pictures! When I get a moment to breathe!
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Saturday morning sit rep
Wow! Between midnight and 9 am, I have already experienced several of my favorite activities, including: being awoken by thunder right overhead and walls rattling in the middle of the night; breakfast; and a swim in the rain!
Apparently, the thunderstorm hit between 12 and 1 am. It never occurred to me to get up, get dressed, and go outside to look, but apparently there was an SJSU presence outside :-)
Got a wake-up text at 6:30 am from Mike. Basically: "Cells are moving in - let's go!". Part of the group dashed off at 7:15 to experience the heavy cells moving in, with cores just west of us. I chose to walk across the street to Coco's for breakfast, and walk back in the heavy rain. Does that make me a slacker? (Warning: saying yes could reduce your grade!)
We had moderate-heavy rain for quite a spell this morning (in addition to overnight rain), so I persuaded the hotel staff to open the pool early. Which is how I came to be jumping in and bobbing around in rain at 8:45 am. Pool-hot tub-poll-hot tub - you get the picture.
All in all, it's been a very active morning, and it's only 9:30! We are now meeting to decide the plan for either the whole day, or the first half. Right now, radar is showing rain across much of western AZ west of I-17 (which runs from FLG down to Phoenix). Hence, we don't expect much heating there yet. A bit less activity to the east, so we're hoping the clouds will clear to allow heating to fire off storms later. The northeastern quadrant is looking promising. Stay tuned!
Apparently, the thunderstorm hit between 12 and 1 am. It never occurred to me to get up, get dressed, and go outside to look, but apparently there was an SJSU presence outside :-)
Got a wake-up text at 6:30 am from Mike. Basically: "Cells are moving in - let's go!". Part of the group dashed off at 7:15 to experience the heavy cells moving in, with cores just west of us. I chose to walk across the street to Coco's for breakfast, and walk back in the heavy rain. Does that make me a slacker? (Warning: saying yes could reduce your grade!)
We had moderate-heavy rain for quite a spell this morning (in addition to overnight rain), so I persuaded the hotel staff to open the pool early. Which is how I came to be jumping in and bobbing around in rain at 8:45 am. Pool-hot tub-poll-hot tub - you get the picture.
All in all, it's been a very active morning, and it's only 9:30! We are now meeting to decide the plan for either the whole day, or the first half. Right now, radar is showing rain across much of western AZ west of I-17 (which runs from FLG down to Phoenix). Hence, we don't expect much heating there yet. A bit less activity to the east, so we're hoping the clouds will clear to allow heating to fire off storms later. The northeastern quadrant is looking promising. Stay tuned!
Friday, August 6, 2010
Friday - Day 1 (photo added)
The word of the day is: "almost". We almost did this, we almost saw that, we were almost rained on etc.
To begin, we were wheels rolling at 8:55 am, which was not bad. Stopped in Needles to see how hot it was and raid the Food Mart @ Chevron! It was 106oF and only 7% RH - yikes! Despite the heat, the students managed to throw a football around. The football will no doubt come back into the story this week.
Sharp downhill run to the Colorado river, followed by a climb back up onto the plateau. One nice thing (there are many more!) about the drive from Needles to Kingman to Flagstaff is to watch the vegetation change as we drive east and climb to over 5000'. Kingman looks dry as a bone, with scrub vegetation and the odd cactus (which look to have a lot of new growth this year due to the rainy winter - El Nino?) And let's not forget that Kingman is one of those places that attracts "survivalists", if you know what I mean! As you head east, pine trees begin to appear, and the land looks greener, no doubt due in part to the heavy monsoonal rains over the last 2-3 weeks. And by Flagstaff, lots of pine trees. Forests even! Also, you get winded more rapidly as you dash to the gas station restroom, for dash you must in order to beat the crowd and not have to wait in the line!
Anyway, as we bombed eastward - AZ freeway speed limit is 75, which we stuck to, as we have no papers - the skies to our east looked more and more "stormy", and we were all furiously updating laptop and cell phone radar displays. Problem was...the good, big stuff had fired up earlier, and while we were an hour west of FLG, the good stuff was an hour east on I-40. As Mike said: "We should have left Barstow at 8" (which got earlier each time he said it). Turns out there were roadworks at FLG, and we lost any slim chance of a late chase due to being motionless. Can't chase when there are stationary semis ahead, behind, and beside you :-(
So by now we were on plan C, I think, which was to head to the hotel, check in, and use the wireless to check developments. This led to plan D, which was to head back WEST to try to chase a small cell moving NNE. We almost got under it, which would have been fun. But due to roads, and the cell's decision to decay, we didn't quite make it. Again from Mike...well, you can fill in here!
We DID release balloons, however. Again the almost word crops up. The 1st balloon almost worked, which means we let go, but then had zero communication with the receiver, and thus - no data. In Craig's words (roughly): "Stupid German radiosonde system". Which is why we launched the 2nd balloon with a second radiosonde system. At least we got a temp sounding to 375 mb from that one!!! However, the RH came in at 99% for the entire ascent, and even I know that's fishy!!! Let's hope tomorrow brings better luck on the radiosonde systems. Here are the students getting ready to release the balloon.
Plan E...head back to hotel, eat dinner, start forecasting for tomorrow. Craig (in jest, he now claims) suggested power bars and Amps for dinner, and blast on somewhere to watch lightning and/or chase. Right after that, we all saw lightning from a storm east of FLG, so of course this led to plan F = eat at McDonalds (or somewhere else fast), and bomb east to watch lightning. But once the fries and burgers hit our systems, and we saw (again) that the cells were dying (again), and that we were in the wrong place at the wrong time (again), we decided to bag it in favor of the hotel.
Which explains why yours truly is now in the hotel lobby, blogging here fingers to the bone, while the students polish off their forecasts. As I end this, it's 9:57 pm and most are still here, even tho' the pool closes in 10 minutes!
We are pretty confident that tomorrow is the best-looking day of the trip for widespread convection, some of which may generate problems. So the broad idea (plan A for tomorrow!) is to hope for clear skies early, strong heating of favored locations, and updrafts tapping into the incoming moisture surge. And then - color us in the middle of it all!
Lots of driving today. Author too pooped to upload photos - hopefully I can slot them in later!!!
To begin, we were wheels rolling at 8:55 am, which was not bad. Stopped in Needles to see how hot it was and raid the Food Mart @ Chevron! It was 106oF and only 7% RH - yikes! Despite the heat, the students managed to throw a football around. The football will no doubt come back into the story this week.
Sharp downhill run to the Colorado river, followed by a climb back up onto the plateau. One nice thing (there are many more!) about the drive from Needles to Kingman to Flagstaff is to watch the vegetation change as we drive east and climb to over 5000'. Kingman looks dry as a bone, with scrub vegetation and the odd cactus (which look to have a lot of new growth this year due to the rainy winter - El Nino?) And let's not forget that Kingman is one of those places that attracts "survivalists", if you know what I mean! As you head east, pine trees begin to appear, and the land looks greener, no doubt due in part to the heavy monsoonal rains over the last 2-3 weeks. And by Flagstaff, lots of pine trees. Forests even! Also, you get winded more rapidly as you dash to the gas station restroom, for dash you must in order to beat the crowd and not have to wait in the line!
Anyway, as we bombed eastward - AZ freeway speed limit is 75, which we stuck to, as we have no papers - the skies to our east looked more and more "stormy", and we were all furiously updating laptop and cell phone radar displays. Problem was...the good, big stuff had fired up earlier, and while we were an hour west of FLG, the good stuff was an hour east on I-40. As Mike said: "We should have left Barstow at 8" (which got earlier each time he said it). Turns out there were roadworks at FLG, and we lost any slim chance of a late chase due to being motionless. Can't chase when there are stationary semis ahead, behind, and beside you :-(
So by now we were on plan C, I think, which was to head to the hotel, check in, and use the wireless to check developments. This led to plan D, which was to head back WEST to try to chase a small cell moving NNE. We almost got under it, which would have been fun. But due to roads, and the cell's decision to decay, we didn't quite make it. Again from Mike...well, you can fill in here!
We DID release balloons, however. Again the almost word crops up. The 1st balloon almost worked, which means we let go, but then had zero communication with the receiver, and thus - no data. In Craig's words (roughly): "Stupid German radiosonde system". Which is why we launched the 2nd balloon with a second radiosonde system. At least we got a temp sounding to 375 mb from that one!!! However, the RH came in at 99% for the entire ascent, and even I know that's fishy!!! Let's hope tomorrow brings better luck on the radiosonde systems. Here are the students getting ready to release the balloon.
Plan E...head back to hotel, eat dinner, start forecasting for tomorrow. Craig (in jest, he now claims) suggested power bars and Amps for dinner, and blast on somewhere to watch lightning and/or chase. Right after that, we all saw lightning from a storm east of FLG, so of course this led to plan F = eat at McDonalds (or somewhere else fast), and bomb east to watch lightning. But once the fries and burgers hit our systems, and we saw (again) that the cells were dying (again), and that we were in the wrong place at the wrong time (again), we decided to bag it in favor of the hotel.
Which explains why yours truly is now in the hotel lobby, blogging here fingers to the bone, while the students polish off their forecasts. As I end this, it's 9:57 pm and most are still here, even tho' the pool closes in 10 minutes!
We are pretty confident that tomorrow is the best-looking day of the trip for widespread convection, some of which may generate problems. So the broad idea (plan A for tomorrow!) is to hope for clear skies early, strong heating of favored locations, and updrafts tapping into the incoming moisture surge. And then - color us in the middle of it all!
Lots of driving today. Author too pooped to upload photos - hopefully I can slot them in later!!!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Blast off!!!
If it's Thursday, it's blast off! As you might guess there was the usual running around, but nothing (really) bad happened and we left earlier than planned!
First, thanks to Josh Diamond (pre-trip SJSU major) for bringing in coffee and donuts! Homer Simpson would love to meet you Josh! Second, thanks also to Josh for calling Steve Paulson at channel 2 (KTVU) and giving them a heads-up about the trip. Thanks in turn to Steve Paulson for mentioning us and the trip on-air! I'll see if I can post a link.
Craig had already organized all the met instrument gear, so it didn't take long to haul it and all our luggage downstairs. At first, almost everything was carefully packed into the trailer we had planned to take. And then on a whim (luckily while I was upstairs), it was decided to deep-six the trailer. Hence, unload everything and stuff it in the vans.
The only thing left, of course, was to re-attached the bone I found last year on the trip to the front of "chase 1" - the van on the right below. Up close, the bone looks bigger (probably from a cow).
And thus it was that at about 10:45 we left! Craig got, maybe, a mile from campus before he had to come back for more spare parts. Thanks to Enterprise Rent-a-car for giving us a van with the AC power outlets disabled (deliberately). Which limits the instrumentation we can run to - none. So we are now playing "hunt the fuse" to see if we can get the power back on.
The drive southbound on I-5 and eastbound across north Bakersfield on 58 was grim, as usual, but at least it was cooler than it could have been (only 90's). We rolled into Barstow at 6 pm (lunch stop and 4pm cold drink stop, if you're wondering why it took so long).
As I write this, the students are quietly looking at zillions of weather products on the class web site, and working on their forecasts for the Flagstaff (FLG) region for tomorrow. Assuming there is some storm activity when we roll into FLG tomorrow, we may well just keep going and chase it down!
Fingers crossed!
First, thanks to Josh Diamond (pre-trip SJSU major) for bringing in coffee and donuts! Homer Simpson would love to meet you Josh! Second, thanks also to Josh for calling Steve Paulson at channel 2 (KTVU) and giving them a heads-up about the trip. Thanks in turn to Steve Paulson for mentioning us and the trip on-air! I'll see if I can post a link.
Craig had already organized all the met instrument gear, so it didn't take long to haul it and all our luggage downstairs. At first, almost everything was carefully packed into the trailer we had planned to take. And then on a whim (luckily while I was upstairs), it was decided to deep-six the trailer. Hence, unload everything and stuff it in the vans.
The only thing left, of course, was to re-attached the bone I found last year on the trip to the front of "chase 1" - the van on the right below. Up close, the bone looks bigger (probably from a cow).
And thus it was that at about 10:45 we left! Craig got, maybe, a mile from campus before he had to come back for more spare parts. Thanks to Enterprise Rent-a-car for giving us a van with the AC power outlets disabled (deliberately). Which limits the instrumentation we can run to - none. So we are now playing "hunt the fuse" to see if we can get the power back on.
The drive southbound on I-5 and eastbound across north Bakersfield on 58 was grim, as usual, but at least it was cooler than it could have been (only 90's). We rolled into Barstow at 6 pm (lunch stop and 4pm cold drink stop, if you're wondering why it took so long).
As I write this, the students are quietly looking at zillions of weather products on the class web site, and working on their forecasts for the Flagstaff (FLG) region for tomorrow. Assuming there is some storm activity when we roll into FLG tomorrow, we may well just keep going and chase it down!
Fingers crossed!
T-1 and counting!
"How do instruments work?" "What can go wrong with instruments?" How do we analyze the data?"
These were all questions posed by Dr. Clements in his all-morning lecture on meteorological instrumentation. At least presumably...I had to skip the class to take care of all the mickey mouse last-minute chair stuff.
BUT...I caught up with the class after lunch on the roof of our building (Duncan Hall) where they were doing their first radiosonde release.
Here we all are on the roof on a lovely day, with temperatures in the mid 70's, clear blue skies, and fabulous views of the southern end of the Santa Clara valley.
As is ALWAYS the case with instruments (in my limited experience!), something went wrong. In this case, the balloon sailed off, but the software package didn't receive anything (reminds me of last year!!!) We think the balloon was under-inflated and rose too slowly (and thus fooled the software). But the students all got the gist, which was the main idea!
Once that was done, really the only thing left was packing! The forecast is looking good for Saturday - fingers crossed!
These were all questions posed by Dr. Clements in his all-morning lecture on meteorological instrumentation. At least presumably...I had to skip the class to take care of all the mickey mouse last-minute chair stuff.
BUT...I caught up with the class after lunch on the roof of our building (Duncan Hall) where they were doing their first radiosonde release.
Here we all are on the roof on a lovely day, with temperatures in the mid 70's, clear blue skies, and fabulous views of the southern end of the Santa Clara valley.
As is ALWAYS the case with instruments (in my limited experience!), something went wrong. In this case, the balloon sailed off, but the software package didn't receive anything (reminds me of last year!!!) We think the balloon was under-inflated and rose too slowly (and thus fooled the software). But the students all got the gist, which was the main idea!
Once that was done, really the only thing left was packing! The forecast is looking good for Saturday - fingers crossed!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
T-2 days and counting!
Woo hoo! Here we go again! Our second annual field trip to study the Southwest Monsoon...destination Flagstaff, AZ.
Everything last year went fine - except for the stupid monsoon itself. The 2009 monsoon was a very sporadic, and virtually non-existent when we were there. So the only thing we are hoping for is - monsoonal activity, as in thunderstorms! And remember - we chose this time (first two weeks of August) because statistically it's the most reliable time for experiencing the monsoon. Hmmm. The monsoon has been roaring for the last two weeks, so naturally it is now dying down - just as we are getting ready to depart. Dying down - but not dying!
Today was the first day of class, and we welcomed ten students in for day one - an all-day forecasting refresher and get-to-know-you session. Laptops handed out, sparkling new 4 Gb thumb drives ready for oodles of data. We have four current SJSU students, four new/incoming grad students, and two "guests", one from SFSU and one from U Illinois. We are very excited to welcome such a diversity of students on the trip! I am hoping they all join in the blog so that you can meet them. The class website is here if you want to follow along meteorologically.
Tomorrow will be an all-day instruments refresher. Maybe we can squeeze in a "learn matlab in 30 minutes" session after lunch :-)
And then on Thursday, after we toss all the instruments and luggage in the vans and/or trailer, it's blast off. San Jose-Barstow on day 1; Barstow-Flagstaff on day 2.
I'll post photos tomorrow!
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