First and foremost, let us all remember that today is not National Grilling Day. Today is a day to remember those armed service members who have given their lives in order to insure our freedom here in the United States. We have something here in the US which scores of other countries have not been able to experience, and let us not take any of it for granted.
In honor of Memorial Day, I would like to write a special post to commemorate the importance and significance of weather in many of the world's battles and wars.
Around the World
1281: Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, took his Mongols, who had already conquered most of Asia moved to attack and conquer Japan when a typhoon arose and destroyed most of the 140,000 troops and 4,000 ships. Japan was saved by a western pacific hurricane.
1360: King Edward III of England almost renewed hostilities with France when a hailstorm raked the English countryside. Taking it as a bad omen, instead King Edward signed a peace treaty, the Treaty of Bretigny, with France.
1588: King Philip I of Spain organized the now-famous Spanish Armada to overthrow the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in England. However, between Sir Francis Drake and the North Sea Storms, Spain experienced their greatest naval disaster losing most of their 150 ships armed with 26,000 troops.
1788: It is thought that the French Revolution began sooner than planned due to food shortages caused by a series of crop-ruining hailstorms, similar to those in 1360.
1812: Napoleon's advance into Russia is halted due to the unusually harsh winter.
1815: As a result of heavy rain storms prior to the invasion, Napoleon's troops were outmaneuvered at the Battle of Waterloo as his horses got stuck in the mud in the low ground and were preyed upon by the Allied forces higher up.
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American Battles and Wars
1814: During the continuing War of 1812, the British set our nation's capitol on fire. The fires were put out the next day by a series of severe thunderstorms and possibly tornadoes and being awestruck and surprised by the intensity of these storms, it is believed that the British soldiers may have actually left their positions prematurely.
1940: "Miracle of Deliverance" - The weather allowed for the evacuation of more than 300,000 allied troops from the French Coast at Dunkirk. How?
1. The English Channel was unusually calm allowing for more than 700 "little ships" and many larger ships to cross.
2. Clouds and rain hindered the German Luftwaffe from performing bombing raids on the fair-weather coast.
3. The muddy terrain from the rain prevented tanks from rolling to the coast.
1941: The Japanese dive bombers had the perfect meteorological scenario for their surprise attack on Sunday, December 7. A 5,000 foot cloud deck permitted the main Japanese strike force to fly unseen to the attack zone over Pearl Harbor where the clouds broke and gave the pilots perfect visibility for their attacks on our unsuspecting Pacific naval fleet. Had the cloud base been higher, or not broken over Pearl Harbor, the Japanese pilots would not have been able to cripple the Pacific fleet nearly as effectively because they may have totally missed the Island of Oahu.
1944: The British Meteorological Office two-day weather forecast for the English Channel on June 4th, 1944 was for stormy conditions on June 5th, and calmer conditions on June 6th. The Allied forces attacked in the less favorable weather and took the Germans, who expected a fair-weather attack, completely by surprise on the beach at Normandy. Operation Overlord, also known as D-Day, was far more successful than planned.
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These are just a few examples throughout the last 800 years showing how much of an impact weather can have on the success (or lack thereof) of militaristic campaigns. Below are links with information concerning weather's impact in the military.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2010/08/weather_and_war_throughout_his.html
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/space/aberdeen/history.htm
http://www.wunderground.com/news/war-and-weather-photos-20120527
http://www.livescience.com/11339-weather-changed-history.html
http://www.datasync.com/~bouchard/rich/brand2.html
Monday, May 26, 2014
Happy Memorial Day!
In honor of this day for our military, I will be writing a second post immediately after this one going back through American War History and seeing how weather affected different battles and wars.
I'd also like to take a look at the Eastern Pacific Ocean south of Mexico. Yesterday, Hurricane Amanda because the first hurricane of the season and is quite possibly the strongest May hurricane in history, currently sitting at a Saffir-Simpson Category 4 with sustained winds of 115 kts (135 mph) and a central pressure of 949 mb.
Based on forecasts for Amanda, it looks as though she should be dying out within the next couple of days without doing any damage to the coastline. With hurricanes though, there's no telling what might happen to spark another increase in strength.
For anyone living in Western Mexico, NM, AZ, or CA, it would be wise to keep an eye out for Amanda over the next couple of days just to make sure of a more sea-ward path. It is likely that hurricane Amanda will decrease in strength over the next 48 hours and turn out toward the open ocean.
Below I have posted the current NHC (National Hurricane Center) advisory for Hurricane Amanda.
There is a system moving through Texas right now which was strong enough to issue a severe thunderstorm warning. There is some rotation visible in the system so those living in the San Antonio area stay tuned to your local station for updates. Also flash flood warnings and watches have been issued for Victoria, Texas as well as Central and Western Texas and Southeastern NM.
For this post though, I'd like to bring everyone's attention to the scattered severe thunderstorms which arose yesterday afternoon in the Southeastern US. Last night while I was looking at the radar I noticed numerous severe thunderstorm warnings scattered in SC, GA, and FL counties, including a tornado warning in Jacksonville, FL. With the temperature rising in the US, and moisture coming up from the Gulf of Mexico, more and more of these sporadic thunderstorms are possible across our region.
I'd also like to take a look at the Eastern Pacific Ocean south of Mexico. Yesterday, Hurricane Amanda because the first hurricane of the season and is quite possibly the strongest May hurricane in history, currently sitting at a Saffir-Simpson Category 4 with sustained winds of 115 kts (135 mph) and a central pressure of 949 mb.Based on forecasts for Amanda, it looks as though she should be dying out within the next couple of days without doing any damage to the coastline. With hurricanes though, there's no telling what might happen to spark another increase in strength.
For anyone living in Western Mexico, NM, AZ, or CA, it would be wise to keep an eye out for Amanda over the next couple of days just to make sure of a more sea-ward path. It is likely that hurricane Amanda will decrease in strength over the next 48 hours and turn out toward the open ocean.Below I have posted the current NHC (National Hurricane Center) advisory for Hurricane Amanda.
ZCZC MIATWOEP ALL TTAA00 KNHC DDHHMM TROPICAL WEATHER OUTLOOK NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL 500 AM PDT MON MAY 26 2014 For the eastern North Pacific...east of 140 degrees west longitude: The National Hurricane Center is issuing advisories on major Hurricane Amanda, located several hundred miles south of the southern tip of Baja California Mexico. Tropical cyclone formation is not expected during the next 5 days. $$ Forecaster Landsea NNNN
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No More Out of Control Fires!!
I am pleased to announce that there are ZERO Red Flag warnings on the NWS county forecast map meaning that fire departments either have the wildfires under control, or put out. A lot of the time, with the dry, windy conditions, controlled fires can get out of hand and break their containment. It is in these instances that Red Flag warnings are issued to inform natives and travelers that fires are running out of control and to be mindful of possible hazardous conditions. Currently though, there are no out-of-control fires to speak of.
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There is a system moving through Texas right now which was strong enough to issue a severe thunderstorm warning. There is some rotation visible in the system so those living in the San Antonio area stay tuned to your local station for updates. Also flash flood warnings and watches have been issued for Victoria, Texas as well as Central and Western Texas and Southeastern NM.Sunday, May 18, 2014
If April Showers bring May Flowers, what do May Showers bring?
If you live in Central NC, then the answer to this question this past weekend was "Floods". Parts of NC and Virginia experienced over 5" of rain in just a 24-hour period. Crabtree Creek was flooded again (as usual) by about 3:00 in the afternoon and other areas followed soon thereafter. The rain wasn't the only issue though. Higher-than-usual wind gusts took down trees all across the state, and even a tornado caused some damage in the Durham area. I spent the weekend in Asheville, NC this weekend with my girlfriend to celebrate another friend's wedding (which was absolutely beautiful by the way), but the wind in the mountains was eerily howling in the windows and trees and occasionally the cracking and banging of a falling pine tree was heard off in the distance.
Mother's day weekend proved difficult for some Midwestern communities as a large severe weather outbreak crashed down undesired on Saturday and Sunday of last week, even as far north as Chicago.
If you notice the blue in West Virginia heading North and East, an interesting cool air outbreak has occurred here toward the beginning of the summer. We have had so many cold fronts move through as a result of the location of the Sub-Tropical Jet Stream, that the Canadian cold air has pushed back unusually far South. Below is the Map of the Jet stream for the same time. Temperatures have dropped into the upper 30s and low 40s at night in the Appalachian Mountains and highs most likely will not climb back into the 80s in Asheville and upper 70s in Boone until Later this week.
With rain seemingly only falling in the Eastern Midwest and the Atlantic Coast, Red flag warnings are running rampant through NM,
AZ, and parts of TX, OK, KS, and CO. Also, there is a small system currently moving across Montana and North and South Dakota which is strong enough for a severe thunderstorm warning there in the middle of the system with watches and warning potential in the surrounding area. This storm is currently moving ESE.
It looks as though for Raleigh this week we should see partly to mostly cloudy skies as the week wears on with temperatures increasing to the upper 80s by Thursday.
Summer for me is in full swing now and now that I have a routine, I should be posting fairly regularly. I start my online English class tomorrow at NC State and I am looking forward to enhancing my meteorological knowledge over the summer by doing some personal reading and working on MATLAB in order to become somewhat proficient at a programming language.
If you have any questions concerning weather for your area, shoot me an email or comment on a post! I am completely open to straightening out confusion and explaining meteorological phenomena in order to help your knowledge and understanding!
Mother's day weekend proved difficult for some Midwestern communities as a large severe weather outbreak crashed down undesired on Saturday and Sunday of last week, even as far north as Chicago.
With rain seemingly only falling in the Eastern Midwest and the Atlantic Coast, Red flag warnings are running rampant through NM,AZ, and parts of TX, OK, KS, and CO. Also, there is a small system currently moving across Montana and North and South Dakota which is strong enough for a severe thunderstorm warning there in the middle of the system with watches and warning potential in the surrounding area. This storm is currently moving ESE.
It looks as though for Raleigh this week we should see partly to mostly cloudy skies as the week wears on with temperatures increasing to the upper 80s by Thursday.
Summer for me is in full swing now and now that I have a routine, I should be posting fairly regularly. I start my online English class tomorrow at NC State and I am looking forward to enhancing my meteorological knowledge over the summer by doing some personal reading and working on MATLAB in order to become somewhat proficient at a programming language.
If you have any questions concerning weather for your area, shoot me an email or comment on a post! I am completely open to straightening out confusion and explaining meteorological phenomena in order to help your knowledge and understanding!
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