Bizarre Weather

"Morgans" wrote in news:FVtnj.68$zV2.51
@newsfe06.lga:

"Judah" wrote
I am a firm believer in Darwin's Weather Evolution principal.

Huh ? ? ?
That went "wooosh" right over my head, I'm afraid! g

Hi Jim,

I've evaluated 3 responses:

1) Perhaps you need to increase your altitude next time.

2) Wow! I didn't think anyone else actually read my drivel!

3) It was a poke at people who think that we as humans actually know
everything (like how to predict the weather). Combine that with a knock on
those who would support their opinions by expressing their dogma in the form
of scientific and/or religious laws, and you come away with just the
slightest taste of that cynical mesh of liquid wiring that I like to call my
sense of humor.


My apologies to Dan and anyone else who was not interested in the bandwidth
wasted by the oft-erratic sputterings of my acetylcoline.

On 2008-01-28, Jay Honeck wrote:
Just goes to show you that weather is still as much a mystery than a
science. But after such an unusually harsh winter, we'll gladly take the
occasional pleasant surprise...

No - not really; a stable atmosphere where there's insufficient
condensation nuclei or insufficient relative humidity, fog won't form
and the visibility can be quite good. You can also get poor visibility
with unstable air, happened quite often when I lived in Houston.

The general case (unstable air, rough, good visibility; stable air,
smooth, terrible visibility) is just the general case. There are
conditions that can result in something other than the general case. No
particular mystery!

--
From the sunny Isle of Man.
Yes, the Reply-To email address is valid.

Dylan Smith wrote:
On 2008-01-28, Jay Honeck wrote:
Just goes to show you that weather is still as much a mystery than a
science. But after such an unusually harsh winter, we'll gladly take the
occasional pleasant surprise...

No - not really; a stable atmosphere where there's insufficient
condensation nuclei or insufficient relative humidity, fog won't form
and the visibility can be quite good. You can also get poor visibility
with unstable air, happened quite often when I lived in Houston.

The general case (unstable air, rough, good visibility; stable air,
smooth, terrible visibility) is just the general case. There are
conditions that can result in something other than the general case. No
particular mystery!


Cold Clear = Nice Solid Air Usually

NW_Pilot wrote:
Dylan Smith wrote:
On 2008-01-28, Jay Honeck wrote:
Just goes to show you that weather is still as much a mystery than a
science. But after such an unusually harsh winter, we'll gladly take
the occasional pleasant surprise...

No - not really; a stable atmosphere where there's insufficient
condensation nuclei or insufficient relative humidity, fog won't form
and the visibility can be quite good. You can also get poor visibility
with unstable air, happened quite often when I lived in Houston.

The general case (unstable air, rough, good visibility; stable air,
smooth, terrible visibility) is just the general case. There are
conditions that can result in something other than the general case. No
particular mystery!


Cold Clear = Nice Solid Air Usually

Isn't solid air a little rough on the airframe? :-)

Matt

Jay Honeck schrieb:

Usually, when we get a warm day in January, the wind howls out of the
south. Today, not a wisp of wind fluttered the flags -- and the calm
covered a huge area. Further, because of the extensive snow cover, a
temperature inversion formed, with 47 degree air at 3500 feet, and 33
degree air at the surface. When this happens, usually fog or clouds form
-- but today was CAVU, with stunning visibility.
....
Just goes to show you that weather is still as much a mystery than a
science.

Luckily, today's science is a bit more advanced.

Usually, when we get a warm day in January, the wind howls out of the
south. Today, not a wisp of wind fluttered the flags -- and the calm
covered a huge area. Further, because of the extensive snow cover, a
temperature inversion formed, with 47 degree air at 3500 feet, and 33
degree air at the surface. When this happens, usually fog or clouds
form -- but today was CAVU, with stunning visibility.
...
Just goes to show you that weather is still as much a mystery than a
science.

Luckily, today's science is a bit more advanced.

Well, all we had to do was wait 15 hours. Today we have a "Wind Advisory",
it's overcast, and with poor visibility -- far more in keeping with the norm
for a January warm spell...

Yesterday was a real gem -- best warm-weather (relatively speaking, of
course) January flying day I've seen.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Jan 27, 11:32*pm, "Jay Honeck" wrote:
After weeks of bitter cold, today was one of those rare January flying days
in the upper Midwest that literally convinced everyone to go flying. *I
haven't seen (and heard) this much GA traffic since last summer.

The sudden change from bitterly cold to warm weather has been the
norm this winter in the Northeast. We have done quite a bit of
flying training/practicing for our commerical ratings this winter (had
over 20hrs in the first two weeks of the year). The GA traffic was as
busy as during the summer. About 2 weeks ago, we had several days in
the 60's then the temp dipped to the low teens. It is warming up to
the 40's this week. Unfortunately with both the plane and pilots out
of commision (a broken wing flap cable bracket for the cardinal and a
terrible cold for both of us), it will a week or two before we can get
back on the air to finish our ratings.


We flew from Iowa City to Prairie du Chein, WI, and saw nary a cloud, and
felt nary a bump, despite all weather circumstances pointing to the
development of such conditions.

Umm, I think this is at least the third time that you mispelled
Prairie Du Chien. It's no big deal but it bugs me enough that I have
to point it out ;-). About the calm weather, in our few last flights,
it was just dead calm that we had fun pretending that our Cardinal had
an autopilot and flew without touching the yoke and the pedals while
maintaining our goal of 2-2-20 (2 degrees of heading, 2 knots of speed
and 20' of altitude deviations).

Just goes to show you that weather is still as much a mystery than a
science. *But after such an unusually harsh winter, we'll gladly take the

Weather prediction may not be an exact science but it is quite an
advanced sicence. NOAA report had predicted an above-average winter
temperatures

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories...9_outlook.html

Our electric bill for the last two months was only $100. The bill
showed the total degrees in comparison for the same two-month period
last year and it was indeed significantly warmer. Well, for those who
use air-conditioning in the summer (we don't), the winter electric
bill saving will be insignificant in comparison to the summer bill if
this warming trend continues.

Hai Longworth

"Longworth" wrote:


Just goes to show you that weather is still as much a mystery than a
science. But after such an unusually harsh winter, we'll gladly take the

Weather prediction may not be an exact science but it is quite an
advanced sicence.

It is politically important to some people to deny that.

After all, if scientists can't exactly predict the weather, how can they
predict the climate?

....and what science *is* exact?

--
Dan

"The future has actually been here for a while, it's just not readily
available to everyone."
- some guy at MIT

"Dan Luke" wrote in
:


"Longworth" wrote:


Just goes to show you that weather is still as much a mystery than a
science. But after such an unusually harsh winter, we'll gladly take
the

Weather prediction may not be an exact science but it is quite an
advanced sicence.

It is politically important to some people to deny that.

After all, if scientists can't exactly predict the weather, how can
they predict the climate?


Actually, weather prediction is very good nowadays.

Very good.

We get working flight logs which are generated a few hours before our
flights. They have forecast winds on them for each waypoint and each
altitude. They're generally accuraes within a few knots and a few degrees.
15 years ago, they were guessing about a lot of things, These days,, not so
much...



...and what science *is* exact?


None, but none claims to be.

"Bertie the Bunyip" wrote:

After all, if scientists can't exactly predict the weather, how can
they predict the climate?


Actually, weather prediction is very good nowadays.

Very good.

Indeed.

But it is a common talking point of U. S. right wing global warming deniers
that it isn't because it rained in Peoria one day when it wasn't supposed to.

...and what science *is* exact?


None, but none claims to be.

Just so.


--
Dan

"The future has actually been here for a while, it's just not readily
available to everyone."
- some guy at MIT