JB’s Journal, 10/4/11

LIGHTNING
* Did you know that a bolt of lightning is only one to two inches in diameter but a single bolt of lightning can shoot for many miles through the sky. Once a person was found dead by his bike in the Rocky Mountains (Colorado if I remember correctly) There were burns on his body but no sign of a fire. Lightning detection equipment showed only a single bolt of lightning anywhere in the region. The single bolt of lightning apparently arced out of the top of a thunderstorm, passing across a ridge, and striking the biker 25 miles away on the other side. This is an extreme case but not impossible.

* Did you know that lightning strikes this old earth an estimated 30 million times a year? Lightning instantly heats the adjacent air to 50,000 degrees.

THIS DATE IN HISTORY
* Bill Murray is our official weather historian in The Weather Company. He reminds us that it was at this time in 1963 that Hurricane Flora spent 11 deadly days wrecking havoc along her path through the Caribbean killing 5,000 Haitians and 1,300 Cubans.

LIGHTNING CLOSE CALL
* It was on this date in 1996 when Hurricane Opal made landfall on the NW Florida Coast and then moved north to near Montgomery and then up through East Alabama. Zillions of trees (not a real number)were uprooted even into East Tennessee because Opal was so stubborn about weakening. I was in the Channel 6 Weather Office responsible for frequent radio updates on the Clear Channel Group here in Birmingham, such as WERC and Magic-96. James was of course doing TV weather. At some late (very late) hour we decided that conditions had improved enough for us to go home. Mother Nature did not like that decision. We stepped out the back door of Channel 6 facing Downtown Birmingham. Less than five seconds later, a powerful bolt of lightning struck the big Channel 6 electric sign that overlooks the city. Mind you, that was only about 20 feet from where we were standing. We both jumped straight up and we thought we were history! Opal eventually caused $3 Billion damage.

DID YOU KNOW?
That everything weighs one percent less at the equator? Maybe I should move there.

WEATHER TERMS
Over the years these have changed somewhat but most terms have survived. Cold Wave Warning is no longer used. You no longer hear “thundershower” any more, it is all thunderstorms. As a kid, I used to get up early (very early) and listen to WHO, Des Moines, KOMA, Oklahoma City, WGN, WLS, WBBM in Chicago and I would hear occasional “Cold Wave Warning” and I knew right away that it would turn much, much colder in Havana Junction in just a few days.

* I did a weather program for a mens group once and while I was packing my equipment, I noticed about 10 guys lingering so I started a jam session. I love to do those. I asked them if you heard a weather forecast for “scattered showers” and another one for “widely scattered showers” which forecast (if correct) would give you a better chance of rain. Four of the gentlemen said “widely scattered showers.” They had assumed that “widely scattered” also meant “widespread showers.”

SEVERE CLEAR
Ah, yes, Severe Clear! No such term. You will never see it as a part of an official forecast from the NWS. Nevertheless, you see and hear it at times. I am not 100% sure where it got started but I am 90% sure it began at Birmingham Airport before daybreak one morning in the late 1950s or 60s. At that time, we (the US Weather Bureau) did all of the pilot briefing.We had an unlisted phone that we answered all hours reserved for pilots and the media. I was working midnight to 8 am one night and about 4 am a gentleman called wanting a route forecast to the Pacific Northwest. He owned his own plane and business and he flew all over. But he was nervous at times and was rated VFR (Visual Flight Rules) I gave him a complete briefing and he said, “don’t give me no who shot John, I don’t want clear, I want “severe” clear”. He used that term many times. But he also took chances. One time on the way back to Birmingham he risked some lowering ceilings and about half way between Chattanooga and Birmingham, he had to make an emergency landing in a cow pasture. Other Birmingham Area pilots, who knew him well, named the cow pasture, “Jones Airport.” His name was NOT Jones by the way.

WE ARE PUPPYLESS: Our new little Shih-tzu puppies, M&M are at the PBS (Puppy Beauty Shop) in Argo for their first haircut. It is quiet as a mouse around here. No wild chases through the house and no Wrestling. We have mostly recovered from both of us falling chasing M&M Friday afternoon when they escaped and were headed for points north!They were looking back over their shoulder and grinning!

Category: Hodgepodge