Weather Radios Recalled

Just wanted to pass along some important weather information regarding NOAA Weather Radios. First off, anyone who receives alert signals from the Roanoke, Lynchburg, Hinton or Mount Jefferson transmitters will notice the radio broadcast will be off-the-air Tuesday, September 25th from 10am to 4pm.

The National Weather Service in Blacksburg will be conducting a computer software upgrade. Again, the radios should be back up by 4pm Tuesday.

NO severe weather is forecast for Tuesday, so the timing is impeccable. Nice job NWS Blacksburg!
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Also, weather radio manufacturer Oregon Scientific has recalled over 66,000 of their NOAA weather radios, as they fail to receive alert signals in certain areas of the country. Click the link below for model names.

Click Below For The Press Release:
Weather Radios Recalled by Oregon Scientific Due to Failure to Receive National Weather Service Alerts

Hope you have a great 1st week of autumn! --Brent

Why I'm Not A Pilot

I love flying, and have a great appreciation for anyone who can take a piece of machinery and navigate it through an active atmosphere while at the same time knowing you have hundreds of people's lives in your hands. Just couldn't do it. Pilots have so many variables to deal with...wind, rain, storms, ice and fog. The video below shows a Boeing 737 landing in thick fog at London's Heathrow Airport without visibility. You can hear the computer instrumentation guiding the pilot through the landing process. Amazing to see!



There are many rules when it comes to flying an aircraft under certain weather conditions. Here's some of the lingo.

Visual Flight Rules (VFR) - the pilot has the responsibility for seeing and avoiding other aircrft, towers, mountains, etc.

Marginal Visual Flight Rules (MVFR) - conditions between VFR and IFR. Generally defined as visibility between 3 and 5 miles, and ceilings between 1,000 and 3,000 feet.

Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) - the pilot may be in clouds, flying solely by instruments, and therefore unable to see other aircraft. The controller takes the responsibility for aircraft separation.

Low Instrument Flight Rules (LIFR) - ceiling below 500 feet AGL and/or visibility less than one mile.

Sounds like a topic for BTF. --Brent

Humberto Brings Hope

The spanish meaning for Humberto is "bright." Sure enough, the rain from this record-setting storm brightened the spirits and the lawns of southwest and central Virginia. While not everyone received the 5-8 inch totals as Patrick and Henry counties did, everyone got at least some rainfall. Below are some of the rainfall reports from the National Weather Service in Blacksburg. These come from the IFlows automated rain gauge network. You can find a link to all these guages on our weather page, look under "Weather Extras" and click on "Rainfall Totals from area Gauges."

...PATRICK COUNTY...8.12" CIRCLE M IFLOWS

...HENRY COUNTY...
5.58" SMITH RIVER SG

...ROANOKE...
1.44" MILL MOUNTAIN

...CITY OF DANVILLE...
1.63" DANVILLE

...BATH CO...
1.32" DOUTHAT ST PARK

...BOTETOURT CO...
1.00" DALEVILLE

Not only did this storm provide benefitial rain to areas in a moderate to extreme drought, it also made history. We have never seen a tropical depression intensify this rapidly into a hurricane just prior to making landfall. Here's the details from the National Hurricane Center:

"BASED ON OPERATIONAL ESTIMATES...HUMBERTO STRENGTHENED FROM A 30 KT (35 mph) DEPRESSION AT 15Z (10 am) YESTERDAY TO A 75 KT (85 mph) HURRICANE AT 09Z (4 am) THIS MORNING...AN INCREASE OF 45 KT (50 mph) IN 18 HOURS. TO PUT THIS DEVELOPMENT IN PERSPECTIVE...NO TROPICAL CYCLONE IN THE HISTORICAL RECORD HAS EVER REACHED THIS INTENSITY AT A FASTER RATE NEAR LANDFALL. IT WOULD BE NICE TO KNOW...SOMEDAY...WHY THIS HAPPENED."

Thanks Humberto for your rain, and we hope there are more where you came from. We have a long way to go to make up for what we've lost. Now I need to go mow my lawn. The first time since July!

--Brent

A Cool Find!

Every once in a while it'll happen. Someone out there will stumble upon a bright orange parachute with a cardboard box attached to it by lots of string.

On Monday, nine year old Devin Browder found such an object while walking in Hillsville on Hayfield Road. What he found was a weather balloon, which was launched by the National Weather Service. There are a few places this could've come from, including Morristown, TN, Charleston, WV, or likely Blacksburg. These weather instruments (called radiosondes) measure important weather aloft. Meteorologists gain valuable information like temperature, humidity, pressure and the wind profile of the atmosphere.

Weather balloons were first used by the U.S. Weather Bureau in 1936. They are launched twice daily from roughly 90 weather service offices around the country. The balloons are filled with Helium, and while they are big before the launch (around six feet in diameter) they get about as large as a two story house once the Helium interacts with cold air around 20 miles above the earth. Temperatures there are around -130 degrees Fahrenheit! Each radiosonde costs the government around $200 - and meteorologists at the NWS office in Blacksburg tell me they only get back around 2% - 4% of the balloons they launch every year. Devin didn't tell me if he plans on returning his balloon or not, but I bet it makes it to a few "show-and-tells" at his school this year. Thanks for sending us your photo Devin! --Jay

Just Our Luck ~ No Rain

Even with a subtropical storm to our east, and a cold front loaded with moisture to our west, we're not getting a drop of rain this weekend. Instead, hot and humid weather will be the rule. The image above shows the zones of precipitation Sunday morning through Monday morning. As you can clearly see, the coastal Carolina's will pick up a few inches of rain courtesy of Subtropical Storm Gabrielle, and the front stretching from Maine to Texas will have areas of heavy rain. But just our luck, the sinking, dry air between the systems to our east and west will win out, which means more lawn watering (unless you're like me and you've given up on that!) The WDBJ7 DayPlanner offers a few rain chances next week. Thanks for checking out our weather blog! --Jay

Everything you need to know about weather!

Research shows the average viewer knows little about the atmospheric processes. As meteorologists, we try to put the complex world of weather forecasting into simple terms most people can understand. While it sounds like a simple task...it's not. So, as a crash course in weather, I'm requiring all my students to view this simple, yet educational video presentation.



This is actually Peter Weatherall's music video about the weather. He writes songs geared toward children. Peter was born in Australia, and grew up in England, the United States, and New Zealand and currently lives in Japan. So he knows his international weather. For more info on the weather song and Peter's music, visit www.kidsinglish.com

In the next class, we will examine the effect of coriolis force on vorticity covariance in MHD turbulent flow of dusty fluid.

--Brent