"A Tale of Two Cities (Forecasts)"...

(click on pics to enlarge)

Short blog today as I crashed extra early yesterday and am now playing catch-up for all the things I put off doing! Who, ME, procrastinate???

Thankfully, I awoke to a radar that was active outside our viewing area, warnings a-churnin' along the Savannah River Valley, and that's fine with me. We had the Severe Thunderstorm Watch go up in the mountain counties just before 1pm, which then spread into the Piedmont by 4pm. I do believe our mini-cool wedge helped keep the atmosphere above us more stable, hence lack of widespread storm problems last evening.

However, a tornado warning popped around 9:30a on the south side of Asheville for a small but clearly rotating cell. Unimpressive on the radar in every way, but there. Mountain T-warnings are unusual in that the uneven terrain is not favorable for the development of funnels, though the Asheville area is in the rather broad French Broad/Swannanoa River Valley. Late yesterday afternoon I saw a T-warning pop for Ashe County, which has quite the rolling topography. The shot below is roughly 15-20 miles to the northwest of where the warning came down (taken last fall):

Here is the radar scan from that cell, the T-warning outlined in fuschia...

When I did a 3-D scan, there was little of note to see; too, this area is a bit far from the radar beam, so there was a lot of missing 'info' in the lower reaches of the storm. Compared to the 3-D scans I blogged with yesterday which had strong development up into the purple and white velocities, this one was only up into the red. All that to say I have no impressive 3-D scan from that warning. HOWEVER...

One of the many tell-tale things you look for in a doppler radar scan is a 'couplet'. Basically, reddish colors in a 'velocity' scan indicate winds moving away from a radar, and greenish colors indicate winds moving towards a radar...and where you have a clearly defined red-green 'point' of sorts, you have at the very least rotation aloft. Whether it makes a funnel that reaches the surface is another matter, but check out this beautiful couplet that is as 'clean' an example as I've seen in NC tornadoes in quite some time...

The brighter the colors, the stronger the winds...just a beautiful velocity scan of that T-warning cell. They also had serious rainfall issues in Ashe County, with mudslides and flooding reported in several locations. Rains started early in the morning in Ashe and Watauga Counties especially, so by the time the late afternoon big dawgs rolled in they made for a serious mess...

Following is a 'storm total' grab I took at 1am today...sorry I don't know the length of time for the image, but it gives you an idea of the overall widespread storm coverage we've had lately:


The National Weather Service made their official assessments yesterday of the prior day's potential tornado damage in NC and SC...at last check they had classified 3 tornadoes, one EF-0 and two EF-1s. There may be more detailed info yet to come down, as well as a graphical index I can share with you on the blog; I just made a quick check and only came up with short written confirmation reports, so I'll go snooping later today.

Time to head 'em up and move 'em out, as they say. Oh yeah, the blog title 'inspiration'...I have models that say zero storms today, and one that says a 20% chance...and at the moment I am seeing a Storm Prediction Center covering us in a "slight" severe storm chance for today which has me putting storms in the forecast, albeit few in number...the PM met has been going 'dry' for two days, and I feel compelled to keep chances in the wording...will toss my proverbial weather coin and call heads or tails in a couple of hours after some new data comes down....wheeeee!!!

"Holy Tornado, Batman!"

Literally minutes before turning in for the night for this morning's shift work at WSOC, a tornado warning popped for the storm that had just passed on the west side of Cherryville in NW Gaston County. The problem with the cell was it's not-terribly-fast movement and the explosive nature in which the cell grew.

The following are images I quickly grabbed from my Gibson Ridge Level 2 data radar system feeding from GSP National Weather Service office. The time was roughly 6:15p through 6:35p, though I mistakenly didn't save all of the screen image which had the actual scan time. The purpose of these grabs is simply to let you look at a powerful storm and see some neat features that came out as a result...this is by no means a scientific, 'official' discourse, just a weatherman-heading-to-bed-who-had-to-tear-himself-away-from-the-radar-because-he-needed-to-sleep-and-couldn't-do-anything-about-it-anyway type of moment., kapish?

(click on pics to enlarge)

Just a rough approximation of the storm cell that headed south and a tad east yesterday around supper time...I-85 is the red line dropping down to the left of Gastonia, and Highway 74 is the yellow road running west through Shelby, FYI. Kings Mountain is at the bottom of the yellow circle where 74 splits from I-85.

When a radar image has substantial 'white' in it, it is producing a good bit of hail, and probably at a decent size. We refer to these as "hail cores"....

Within each color 'level' (white being stronger than purple being stronger than red, etc.), I can still manipulate through the intensities...and noticed a strong growth at the top of the storm indicating very cold temperatures and significant freezing in this cell intensifying...

Soon enough hail was reaching the surface, along with damaging winds and a strong likelihood of a tornado on the ground. One particular scan of the storm as it neared the Kings Mountain area was noting 3.7" hail aloft...ouch!

As I switched to scanning the purple intensities, it removed the significant hail core...and you can see straight through the storm to the surface below. Yet more proof in the pudding that this was a serious tornado-producing storm , with the funnel somewhere at the base of this tube...

One could argue for two likely funnel formations...the strongest with the hail core, but also a potent vortex to the left, SE edge...

Same image as the previous one, just a bit of re-shading and positioning...

In stepping back to the red levels, which are strong enough indicators in any storm, notice how the mass aloft is narrowed to a more specific area in the lower altitudes, stressing again the focusing nature of the winds in this cell...

While the hail shaft is not showing up on the surface coloration, this cell was still in tornado mode...

And with that I had to force myself to go to sleep...nothing like getting all worked up when the 1am alarm is a mere hours away! I hope the following link works, which is a nice representation of the local storm reports made on this storm. More reports will be made after daylight comes this morning, for sure:

STORM REPORT GRAPHICS

We're not out of the woods just yet, but I need to wrap this up and head into the station. Have a great and calmer day!

"It's a small, small world..."

"It's a world of laughter,
A world of tears.
It's a world of hopes,
And a world of fears.
There's so much that we share,
That it's time we're aware,
It's a small world after all."

When it comes to one of my new flutes, it is a small world, after all, indeed. I realize that some of you reading this aren't into music or techincal jargon or Native American style flutes...but there are aspects of what I do many find intriguing, regardless...be it the woodworking and how different woods behave, to the construction and how-to, even the process itself. And so I digress...

I recently came up with a 'first' for me, a type of flute that there simply must be very few of around this ol' world of ours. It's what I call an ultra-high key of A-flat (Ab). Some people don't like the really high keys...all I can say is that different pitches, different keys, play different types and styles of songs best. When you get really high and really low, it pays to slow down and let melodies do the talking. Out in nature, Life really responds to the high keys, maybe because they carry so well, or maybe because they are closer to bird-talk.
This flute is in my flat-bottomed Half-Pipe design, which allows for larger diameter finger holes as opposed to a round-bore flute for the same key (waaaay too long of a story for another day). But when I go above the key of high F, there has been a train-wreck of space for all 6 fingers to fit (for the 'usual' 6-hole flute design). After a friend's suggestion for a 6-hole ultra-high key, I thought that I could rearrange the finger holes so that they could all fit in a tight space.

In designing my flutes, the center of any finger hole is a specific distance from the end of the flute. Draw a perpendicular line around the flute at that hole mark, and by theory the hole can go anywhere on that circumference. And so I held tubes and looked at how my fingers would behave cramming them together in the 'normal' left hand above right hand configuration. I came up with this:
You are looking at the flute's left side above, where the mouthpiece is to the right, and the end of the flute to the left. The right hand is on the 3 holes to the left, and the left hand is covering the holes on the right hand side of the picture. If I can make this any more confusing for you, please let me know.
All I can say is it worked. Oh, it takes a minute or two to get used to feeling the holes in their relatively different positions, but it is rather natural feeling. Run the scales a couple of times and you're golden. All the notes are there, even the above-octave ones, cleanly and clearly.

The flute is about 19" long - didn't need to be, but I like the aesthetics of it. In the above picture, the hole to the left is a tuning hole, which lets the air know that's the 'end' of the flute. The Quilted Maple wood was too pretty to simply cut off at the hole. Same went for the figured Massarunduba wood used for the body of the flute.
Toward the back are two dark walnut inserts...the Maple bottom had two small holes in the wood, so I enlarged them and glued in the walnut circles, using them to mark the flute. I'm always inventing new and little things as I get bored with the same ol'-same ol' approach to work or Life.

Bottom line is I proved to myself a 6-hole in the ultra-high keys is do-able...it only takes a player willing to 'learn' something new to make it a perfect match. This one sold before it hit the streets because someone had just happened to write about wanting one if I ever made it. Ah, serendipity...

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And so here it is December 9 and I'm looking at forecasts for mid 70s highs and mid 50s lows for the next few days...so much for a yuletide fire, eh?
Nice radar grab out of Nashville, TN late yesterday afternoon showing thunderstorms with hail markers for 1-1.25" hail. Forecasts have been nigh impossible to nail down the past few days as a stationary front went wacko and flew north, against virtually all models. High of 63? Try 73. How about 67? Nope, 75. Oh well, got lots done outside and inside...and wearing the same wardrobe for both activities! "It's beginning to feel a lot like September...."

Of course, we're gonna pay for this excessive warmth, and it looks to arrive with a passion next weekend. So be it. 'Tis the season.

"Of Storms And A LOLdog..."

What an unstable air mass Monday afternoon and evening...one severe thunderstorm warning after the other kept popping up like the famous "Whack-A-Mole" game at the state fair. I made some periodic home radar grabs from the Triad, as well as an afternoon grab from the Charlotte market which had a tornado warning in the mix, as well...(click to enlarge any pic)...

Above is a mid-afternoon shot from GSP radar covering the Charlotte market...the pink polygon is a tornado warning due to rotation aloft...the red polygons are severe thunderstorm cells...at the same time, well to the north through the Triad region was this image below as the atmosphere got crankin'...

...and since I had so many irons in the fire before going to bed, I left the radars up a while and made these grabs before powering down...

This one had a nicely developing cell in Forsyth County around 6pm....

..and then this image from 6:48pm...a little intensification on the outflow boundary from the Forsyth cell, eh?!...but wait, there's more...

...only 22 minutes later there was this image, where I HAD to quit watching and get some sleep...4 simultaneous warnings, and I'm sure it only got better...

(7:20pm)

And so it is we early A.M. meteorologists can only watch and go to sleep, knowing our P.M. couinterparts' tongues are dragging from the intense coverage...such is the beast of afternoon and evening weather in the Southeast some days, most without the benefit of an extra body to help back you up...

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In follow-up to yesterday's post on LOLcats, I took a picture I had of Mercy and made a LOLdog, just for your viewing pleasure...

I know, I know, don't quit your day job, Flute Boy...don't worry, friends, not yet...not yet...!