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WeatherBrains 290: Blowing Up Skype

| August 16, 2011 @ 1:55 am | Reply

WeatherBrains Episode 290 is now online (August 15, 2011). If you are crazy about weather, this is THE netcast audio program for you!

Tonight’s Guest WeatherBrain created a product that was a pick from a listener last year. Several of us have become big fan boys of it. He grew up in Tulsa and was actively involved in spotting/amateur radio in Tennessee. He worked for Weather Decision Technologies before moving to Denver, where he works for Jeppesen. His product, SimuAWIPS, is a fantastic website that presents weather information in a format that looks like the NWS AWIPS system. Andrew Oldaker is our special guest WeatherBrain.

Levi Cowan is a student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. A listener wrote in and tipped us off to Levi’s excellent tropical blog and YouTube discussion channel. Thought it might be fun to have Levi come on the show to talk tropics and perhaps he can become our go to guy for tropical discussions. So he agreed to give it a try tonight.

We also have a special guest in John Huntington, a Professor of Entertainment Technology at NYC College of Technology, a member of the NYC Stagehand’s union (Local 1 IATSE), and a weather geek. He has been working in the entertainment industry since 1985.

Other discussions in this weekly podcast include topics like:

  • Preparations well underway for the National Weather Association annual conference in October;
  • How wide is a bolt of lightning? Lightning capital of the world?
  • Northeast US very wet
  • Dallas only 99 over the weekend
  • Little Rock only 87 today
  • 113 at Laughlin, CA
  • Gert in open Atlantic moving northeast
  • and more!
  • Our mail bag has been getting some attention and Kevin puts it in perspective.

    From The Weather Center:

    WeatherBrains 101: The eye and eyeball have been topics of the last few episodes of 101 so this week we take a look at one of the last components of a hurricane, the rain bands. The term rain bands has multiple definitions but a very specific definition when it comes to tropical systems.

    TWIWH: Bill Murray looks back at the week of August 16th. Camille in 1969 remains the focus as part of this week. Camille was an extremely dangerous hurricane as it approached the US Gulf Coast.

    Listener SurveyListener 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 290:

    SimuAWIPS

    Hurricane Danny review by Mike Wilhelm

    Levi’s Tropical Blog

    Huntington’s Blog

    Picks of the Week:

    JB Elliott – Video of Hazardous Weather Testbed of the NWS

    Bill Murray – Survey Monkey about Sirens

    Brian Peters – Video of stage collapse in Indiana

    James Spann – ABC 3340 Studio Construction

    The WeatherBrains crew includes your host, James Spann, plus other notable geeks like JB Elliott, Bill Murray, and Brian Peters. They bring together a wealth of weather knowledge and experience for another fascinating netcast about weather.

    Category: WeatherBrains

    About the Author ()

    Brian Peters is one of the television meteorologists at ABC3340 in Birmingham and a retired NWS Warning Coordination Meteorologist. He handles the weekend Weather Xtreme Videos and forecast discussion and is the Webmaster for the popular WeatherBrains podcast.

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