HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: hannegan@hyperion.gsfc.nasa.gov (Bryan Hannegan)
Subject: Re: Stupid statements
Summary: Hey! I remember being an intern once!
Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 18:39:01 GMT

In article <1992Jul29.165214.9680@constellation.ecn.uoknor.edu> mfoster@alliant.backbone.uoknor.edu (Marc Foster) writes:
>I picked this up off the computer today...
>
>SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT  
>NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORT WORTH TX  
>600 PM CDT MON JUL 27 1992  
> (blah, blah, blah) 
>.............                         This may also be another case
>of an inexperienced intern writing statements (not to say I have a lot
>of experience... I don't write 'em, just broadcast 'em).
>

Well, Mr. Foster.... I guess that you never went through the "Call to Action"
and "Clear Weather Writing" books at the WSFO in Norman,did you? Yes, I 
believe that it is another instance of engaging keyboard before brain on the
part of an intern or even a forecaster? You know from first-hand experience
(as do most of the individuals reading this) that when things get popping
in the Midwest or any other svr weather area... things can get hectic in the
office. I've often wondered exactly how many of these types of "blunders" 
go out over the air and over the teletype to the media each day...

I remember when I was working at WSFO Los Angeles a couple years back, I
did some pretty big boo-boos myself....like taking a telephone call about 
some flooding and going right on the air with it... despite the fact that 
it was as blue of sky and clear of cloud as it gets in LA... seems some
bonehead called us because a nearby water main flooded his house and he
hadn't looked outside (neither did I for that matter!)

Let us also not neglect our buddies in a "small town" across the border from
Lawton! (hint: the NWS station id is the same as the header for special wx
statements!)

Cheers.

Bryan Hannegan
(Former OU Weather Weenie, '92)
on vacation at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD
hannegan@hyperion.gsfc.nasa.gov

Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
From: okabe@unixg.ubc.ca (Ian Okabe)
Subject: Re: Forecasting error (was: Stupid statements)
Organization: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 03:42:44 GMT

In article <10017@sun13.scri.fsu.edu> stricher@masig.fsu.edu (Char Aznabul) writes:
>I was always told that looking out the window is one of the last
>things one does before issuing that local forecast... :)
>James

Don't laugh. We used to get our hands slapped for looking out the window
while training to be forecasters. The assumption here is that you are
forecasting for a very big area remotely and looking out the window
wouldn't help for your forecasts 100's of miles away. Two offices come to
mind....Arctic Weather Centre, in Edmonton, Canada which forecasts remotely
for all the Canadian arctic, and the Meteorological/Oceanographic Centre
which forecasts for the entire North Atlantic.
-- 
Ian T. Okabe (okabe@unixg.ubc.ca)
Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
From: stricher@masig3.ocean.fsu.edu (Char Aznabul)
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
Subject: Re: Sign in Conn.
Date: 23 Jul 92 22:26:23 GMT
Distribution: na

In article <1992Jul23.172954.16598@ncar.ucar.edu> ilana@kiowa.scd.ucar.edu  
(Ilana Stern) writes:

+ The moral of the story is:  never ask a meteorologist for directions.

Hey! It's a simple transformation that shouldn't take more than a day or
two to compute on a Cray.

James
From: wats@scicom.AlphaCDC.COM (Bruce Watson)
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
Subject: What causes the yellow?
Date: 24 Jul 92 17:39:44 GMT
Organization: Alpha Science Computer Network, Denver, Co.

The usual afternoon thunderstorm buildup occurred yesterday with
a large one in the early stages as it passed overhead here in
Denver as headed to the east. As I looked at the underside, I noticed
the usual twisted, boiling, texture, but mixed in among the white and
grey was yellow. This was reported by radio amateurs on the severe
weather net so it must be a common occurrance in pre-tornadic activity.
What is it? And what does it mean to a tornado chaser?

-- 
 __________________________________________________________________________   
|wats@scicom.AlphaCDC.com|    "Another Case of too many scientists and     |
|Bruce Watson            |     not enough hunchbacks." -- Gary Larson      |
Xref: sparky sci.geo.meteorology:2573 rec.boats:4994 rec.windsurfing:2791
From: munoz@bcstec.ca.boeing.com (David Munoz)
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology,rec.boats,rec.windsurfing
Subject: Are there any detailed Isobar pictures of the Pacific N.W. on the net?
Keywords: Isobar, Baro Pressure, Northwest, Washington State, Weather Fax
Date: 23 Jul 92 20:57:48 GMT
Followup-To: poster
Distribution: usa
Organization: Boeing Computer Services, Seattle

Hello Fellow Netskateers,

I'm looking for a detailed Isobar map similar to what
you can get on a weather fax.  I'd like a detailed
map of the Pacific North West.  Does anyone know where
there is such a map on the net?  The "Surface analysis
and Weather Summary" maps that cover the whole USA
are too coarse for my needs, but would otherwise be
fine.


Any hints would be greatly appreciated.  Please e-mail if possible.
Thanks ahead of time,


David Munoz
dgm1626@boeing

Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology,alt.stupidity
From: ataylor@nmsu.edu (Nosy)
Subject: Re: Lightening
Followup-To: alt.stupidity
Organization: NMSU Computer Science
	<1992Jul20.070532.4249@eskimo.celestial.com>
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 16:30:13 GMT

<In article <1992Jul20.070532.4249@eskimo.celestial.com> victim@eskimo.celestial.com (Tony Garton) writes:

<   that itchy feeling was probably the charge building up in a small area
<   near you just before the discharge.  If it was any closer, YOU would
<   have been the sight for the discharge.

	Maybe he's just allergic to electricity?

	Question: could he have avoided this experience by 
	wearing some of those "anti-static-cling" laundry
	thingies for the dryer?

[serious meteorological types note the newsgroups: line and the
 followup-To: line]


Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
From: rtp1@quads.uchicago.edu (raymond thomas pierrehumbert)
Subject: Global Warming Discussion (Science!)
Reply-To: rtp1@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 16:22:56 GMT


The recent discussion cross posted here has had some interesting
points in it from time to time, but I am finding it hard
to follow (or even to stomach!) because of the constant
injection of irrelevant political issues  (name calling-- e.g.
I have been accused here of being a "socialist" and "non-individualist")
and bizarre ad-hominem attacks on the entire climate science
community, based on an irrelevant decade-old speech by Russel
Train.

I'd like to start a thread keeping the best of the interesting
issues alive for discussion, and split off from the other things
which hopefully should go back to sci.sceptic.

First issue:  Precedent for rapid climate change in the past,
and evidence of impact on ecosystems.  Admittedly, ecosystems
science is (owing to the complexity of the system) behind
climatology in its ability to make accurate models, so
predicting the biological impact of a 2-4 degree warming is
very difficult.  So, some evidence of the kind of ecological
impact of past climate changes would be interesting.  Of
course, there were the mass extinctions, which may have 
been due to climate change, but may have also been
influenced by bolide impact (which may have itself caused
some climate change).  

What is known about the ecological impact of Younger-Dryas? Surely,
paleo-biologists should have a pretty good record on this period.
Given that YD is not global in scale, it would be important to
know the extent to which migration of species around the
edges of the impacted area played a role in reducing the impact.

I'd also be interested in current studies bearing on the ability
of forests to adapt to a 2-4 degree warming over the next
century.

Second issue:  Modeling of the warming itself.  A lot has been
done since the IPCC report, so the snapshot of the state of
the art at the time of that report is no longer necessarily
representative.  It seems to me that the main uncertainty
(particularly with regard to low-warming scenarios) has to
do with the response of cloud radiative properties and upper
tropospheric water vapor.  I'd be interested in hearing
from people working in these areas (either from an observational
or theoretical/modelling perspective).  The cloud responsee
has a potential for extending the warming beyond 4 degrees,
as well as reducing it below two degrees.  In the tropics,
currently, the longwave trapping effect of clouds almost
perfectly cancels the shortwave albedo effect.  If something
happened to the clouds to reduce the albedo effect without
reducing the trapping effect, then catastrophic changes in
the tropical circulation would be possible.  I don't know
of any physical argument that would plausibly lead to this,
but it seems worth thinking about.


Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
From: capskb@alliant.backbone.uoknor.edu (Keith Brewster)
Subject: Re: A new type of hail?
Organization: University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 04:53:49 GMT

In article <1992Jul20.153250.25231@nsslsun.nssl.uoknor.edu> stumpf@nsslsun.nssl.uoknor.edu (Greg Stumpf) writes:
>In article <1992Jul17.221936.665@colorado.edu> cas@bjerknes.colorado.edu (Cathy Smith) writes:
>>
>>I ran into this while looking at severe storm warnings:
>>
>>AT 450 PM CDT A HAM RADIO OPERATOR REPORTED PING PONG BALL SIZED HAIL
>>1 MILES SOUTH OF CHRISTOVAL.
>>______________________________________________________________    
>
>There are standard sizes for hail as per the NWS (I don't know them offhand),
>and Golf Ball is one of them (I believe 1 3/4").  However, many storm
>spotters don't know these standards, and report the hail to any size they
>are familiar with.  Some of the one's I've seen include "ice cube", "hen's
>egg", "thumbnail", "rock salt", "canned hams" (just kidding on that last
>one).
>

As a spotter, I was always told to "calls them as you sees them", and don't
remember being given an "official list", though I've seen lists which are 
used to quantify people's reports.  Obviously you want to avoid things that are
ambiguous (like hens eggs, which could be small to jumbo), and most nets
discourage the use of "marble size" even though most people mean about 1/2 inch.
The worst thing I've heard is a net-control insisting someone restate a hail
report in terms of "coins" -- the spotter says "well, I guess dime", and of
course a dime is about 3/4 of an inch, so bingo- severe!  If it was anything
less than dime it wasn't severe.  Maybe the NWS should print a ruler on the
edge of the SKYWARN card (or provide a plastic wallet card with a ruler) so
everything can be reported accurately.  

For the purposes of a warning statement, I doubt if anyone had to think twice
about what was meant by ping pong ball size hail, especially Captain Kangaroo
fans.

kb
-------------------------------------
capskb@alliant.backbone.uoknor.edu
From: pdh@netcom.com (Phil Howard )
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
Subject: Re: Lightning
Date: 24 Jul 92 18:51:27 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest)

Dan_Jacobson@ATT.COM writes:

>[Distribution: chi above]
>Chicago TV viewers can see a show about lightning on channel 9 at 7PM,
>on Fri 24 Jul 1992

Chicagoans may not realize this (you miss learning a lot when you are
couped up in a big city :-) but channel 9, WGN-TV, is carried via
satellite to a LOT of cable TV systems all over the USA and Canada,
and even a few places beyond.  WTBS is the only TV station carried
on more systems.  WGN and WOR-TV (New York City) are about tied in
coverage.

So I expanded the distribution in the hopes that more people will be
able to see this show, which is only 5 hours and 10 minutes from the
time of my posting.

Times for Chicago are CDT, so this means 9 PM Atlantic, 8 PM Eastern,
6 PM Mountain, 5 PM Pacific, 4 PM Anchorage, 3 PM Hawaiian.
-- 
/***********************************************************************\
| Phil Howard  ---  KA9WGN  ---  pdh@netcom.com   |   "The problem with |
| depending on government is that you cannot depend on it" - Tony Brown |
\***********************************************************************/
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
From: stumpf@nsslsun.nssl.uoknor.edu (Greg Stumpf)
Subject: Re: Gustnadoes
Organization: National Severe Storms Laboratory
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 16:41:43 GMT

In article <1992Jul23.152948.19968@nsslsun.nssl.uoknor.edu> stumpf@nsslsun.nssl.uoknor.edu (Greg Stumpf) writes:
>
>Good description.  Many argue that a gustnado *is* a tornado beacuse it
>is a violently rotating column of air on the ground, but seem to forget that
>the definition of a true tornado says that this column of air is *pendant
>from the cumulonimbus cloud*.  This does not mean, however, that you can have
                                                                      ^^^
>very damaging gustnadoes if conditions are met.  Also, some gustnadoes can
>be entrained into the thunderstorm updraft, becoming tornadoes (or hybrids).

This should read "can't".


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Greg Stumpf - KB5LMU          \  /  Internet: greg@nsslsun.nssl.uoknor.edu
Forecast Applications Research ||      Phone: (405) 366-0477 FAX: 366-0472
Room 249, National Severe      ||   Disclaimer: I chase to learn, but it's fun!
          Storms Laboratory    ||       "Be Landspouty!"
1313 Halley Circle             ||       "Everyone get good pictures!"
Norman, OK 73069              /  \      "NSSL wants your video!"
From: cgilbert@igc.org (Claire Gilbert)
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
Subject: Happy Birthday to Blazing Tattles
Date: 21 Jul 92 03:37:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1466900268:000:1309
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!cgilbert    Jul 20 20:37:00 1992


                      Material herein from
         _Blazing Tattles_, Vol. 1, Issue 12, July 1992.
                 Published by Claire W. Gilbert

               HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BLAZING TATTLES!

     In July of last year, the first issue of Blazing Tattles was
published, featuring a long essay on the media overage of the Gulf
War and the governmental cover up of data.  The next issue was
published in September, after which BT has put out monthly issues
and one special edition for the World Women's Congress for a
Healthy Planet, when it met in Miami, Florida.  When the fires were
officially extinguished, we decided to continue publishing until
the whole oilfire story is told and the environmental consequences
are well understood -- or until we go broke.
     Much to the surprise of the publisher, BT has developed a
following and a "name" though the distribution in hard copy is very
limited.
     The publisher is still traveling around North America, and
expects to "land" around the first of October, at which time she
will evaluate the future of BT.  Should it expand and cover other
topics?  Become a full length book?  Become a commercial
enterprise?  Any constructive input from readers is welcome.  In
the meantime, we conclude the first volume with Issue 12.
     --Claire W. Gilbert
From: skaggs@nsslsun.nssl.uoknor.edu (Gary Skaggs)
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
Subject: Re: green house versus global warming
Keywords: greenhouse global warming CO2
Date: 31 Jul 92 13:02:22 GMT
Organization: National Severe Storms Laboratory

In article <norris.712533096@aquifer.geology.uiuc.edu> norris@aquifer.geology.uiuc.edu (Chuck Norris) writes:
>
>Enough philosophy.  Green house vs global (climatic) warming:
>
>A couple of documentable observations:
>
>Diurnal temperature range at Champaign IL has steadily decreased over the 100+
>years of weather records.
>
>Chuck Norris
>University of Illinois

Chuck, one of the things that we observed during our research project in
Arizona during the summer of 1990, was the difference in temperature
between the 'suburbs' and downtown Phoenix.  During one particular overnight
experiment, we experienced a 68 degree temperature in the cotton fields 
south of Chandler (far SE valley) as opposed to 83 at the same time at
the NWS in downtown PHX.

I'm not sure where the instruments are in Champaign, but the urban heat
island is a known effect in other places.

______________________________________________________________________________
Gary Skaggs - WB5ULK				skaggs@nssl.nssl.uoknor.edu
	"Neither my employer, The University of Oklahoma,
	 nor The National Severe Storms Laboratory, where I work,
	 know that I even have any opinion, much less this one."
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
From: norris@aquifer.geology.uiuc.edu (Chuck Norris)
Subject: Re: green house versus global warming
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 15:59:01 GMT
Keywords: greenhouse global warming CO2

skaggs@nsslsun.nssl.uoknor.edu (Gary Skaggs) writes:

>>Diurnal temperature range at Champaign IL has steadily decreased over the 100+
>>years of weather records.
>>
>>Chuck Norris
>>University of Illinois

>Chuck, one of the things that we observed during our research project in
>Arizona during the summer of 1990, was the difference in temperature
>between the 'suburbs' and downtown Phoenix.  During one particular overnight
>experiment, we experienced a 68 degree temperature in the cotton fields 
>south of Chandler (far SE valley) as opposed to 83 at the same time at
>the NWS in downtown PHX.

>I'm not sure where the instruments are in Champaign, but the urban heat
>island is a known effect in other places.

>______________________________________________________________________________
>Gary Skaggs - WB5ULK				skaggs@nssl.nssl.uoknor.edu

Urban heat is certainly a potential problem, but PROBABLY not a significant
one here.  The instruments have remained in the same open location, with
the same distance from the same campus buildings, at the edge of town
near the University farms for most of their history and a move several
years ago actually into the country doesn't appear to have made difference
in trend or provided a step shift.  Also, the entire urban spread here
has been to a population of about 58,000 (100,000? if Urbana to the east
is included), so it's not a Phoenix type situation, at least not obviously.


Chuck Norris
Department of Geology
University of Illinois
Urbana, IL  61801             norris@aquifer.geology.uiuc.edu


Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology,sci.environment
From: ifkm@hippo.ru.ac.za (Andrew Murdoch)
Subject: Evaporation data needed
Summary: Evaporation data needed
Keywords: Evaporation data needed
Organization: Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 10:08:25 GMT


I am looking for regional mean monthly pan evaporation data in the vicinity
of North Danville, Vermont and Oxford, Mississippi. If anyone has this 
information, or knows where I could obtain it, I would greatly appreciate 
their getting in touch with me via the address given below, either
directly by E-mail, or by post.  Please don't respond to this Newsgroup,
I don't read it too often.

Karim Sami
-
-- 
     |\/|     v |     ANDREW MURDOCH   -   Institute for Water Research
 /_\ |  | \___@ |  Rhodes University, P.O. Box 94, Grahamstown, 6140, R.S.A.
/   \     /   \ | Internet: ifkm@hippo.ru.ac.za     Phone: [xx27] [0]461 24014
From: cgilbert@igc.org (Claire Gilbert)
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
Subject: Letters to the Editor:  Blazing Ta
Date: 21 Jul 92 03:26:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1466900267:000:2324
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!cgilbert    Jul 20 20:26:00 1992


                      Material herein from
         _Blazing Tattles_, Vol. 1, Issue 12, July 1992.
                 Published by Claire W. Gilbert

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:  KUDOS, GRATITUDE, and TECHNICAL COMMENTARY

                              KUDOS

     "Congratulations on your heroic one-woman publishing
operation."  --Geoffrey Fox, Author, New York, New York

     "Loved the newsletter on ozone....Keep up the good work."
--Hank Brandli, Author, Satellite Meteorology

     "The content of the Bellringer Issue of Blazing Tattles was
fascinating!"  --Joe Vialls, Australian Journalist

                            GRATITUDE

     "Many thanks for running our petition for The Rights of Future
Generations....This petition is now circulating in 27 counties."
--Mary Batten, Editor, Calypso Log,  The Cousteau Society

                      TECHNICAL COMMENTARY

     "Regards Kuwait and its smoke -- no significant fraction of
the smoke from Kuwait ever reached the jet stream.  Nobody thinks
differently to my knowledge.  The only argument is whether the
amount is minuscule or only very small.  In any event, the amounts
are far too small to have a climate effect.
--Lawrence F. Radke, Manager, Research Aviation Facility
  National Center for Atmospheric Research

     "Doug (Lowenthal) and I are convinced we did measure Kuwait
oil smoke in Hawaii....We show in our paper that it (detection) can
happen with the appropriate meteorology.  (Our work) suggests that
long range transport (of smoke) may even be possible at low
elevations, something completely ignored by other researchers...
     "...we take a definite aversion to all of the comments which
were made early on that the smoke could not travel far.  That was
nonsense.  The question which should have been asked was how far it
is transported and in what concentrations.  Did anyone argue about
the fact that debris from Chernobyl was detected virtually all over
the globe?  No.  In fact there is a layer of that debris in
glaciers all over the globe which scientists have and will use as
a date marker for years to come."  (See "Evidence for Long-Range
Transport of Aerosol from the Kuwaiti Oil Fires to Hawaii, Journal
of Geophysical Research, Special Issue, in press.)
--Randolph D. Borys, Associate Research Professor
  Desert Research Institute
From: geoffm@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller)
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
Subject: Hurricanes vs. Typhoons
Followup-To: sci.geo.meteorology
Date: 31 Jul 1992 19:37:08 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.  Menlo Park, Ca.
Distribution: world
Reply-To: geoffm@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller)
NNTP-Posting-Host: purplehaze.corp.sun.com



It was conventional wisdom when I was growing up that typhoons are 
what hurricanes are called when they occur in the Pacific rather than
in the Atlantic.  But for several years now, I've heard and read about
hurricanes in the Pacific; I never hear the word "typhoon" 
anymore at all.

Has the convention changed, or is this an error on the part of the
press?  Or is it a matter of northern vs. southern hemisphere, and
therefore of the storms' direction of rotation, rather than of the
storms' ocean of origin? 

Also, I've noticed that hurricanes are alternately given male names now,
instead of just the traditional female names.  I seem to recall reading
somewhere that this was done at the behest of feminists.  I was rather
surprised to learn this, as I frankly assume that feminists have more
important and consequential concerns with which to occupy their efforts, 
but mainly because of the way the scientific world caved in to a trivial 
and evanescent issue from a vocal subset of the lay world.  Does anyone 
have any details on this?  When was the naming convention changed?


Geoff


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  "Somehow, I have a problem taking a hurricane named "Bob" seriously ..."
                                        		-- Akkana Peck
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