KenMankoff

Iceland’s Root

Iceland's Root

Image appears to be related to Wolfe et al. (1997). Also available in Schubert and Turcotte below the discussion. Image found at LDEO.

GISTEMP.StationData

NASA GISS has recently announced another year of the surface temperature trends. Last year, 2009, tied for the 2nd warmest year on record, and the past decade (January 2000 to December 2009) was the warmest on record.

I took the time this weekend to re-create a Google Earth layer showing these data. This visualization allows you to see a broad geospatial overview, and then select any particular location and see both long-term trends and even the data point for each individual month.

Download (330K)

GISTEMP.StationData

GISTEMP.StationData

Storms in Santa Cruz

Starting yesterday, and continuing through the week, and possibly through much of next week, Santa Cruz is experiencing some extreme weather. NOAA warns of the following:

High Surf Warning
Wind Advisory
High Wind Watch
Coastal Flood Watch
Hazardous Weather Outlook

Where, for example, High Wind Watch means winds 25-40 mph with gusts up to 60. Almost all week long.

I could not sleep in the storm last night. Perhaps because the thunder was so loud and so close that car alarms went off. And the windows rattled a lot.

It might also have to do with Antarctic boats. I’ve spent more than 3 months of the past year on a boat, and the last few storms I’ve been through like this made me nauseous, but also rocked me to sleep. I missed the rocking last night, which is good, since I’m in a house and not a boat.

Webcam and webcam.

Tracking Hurricanes

Stormpulse screenshot

Hurricanes are popular again since last week when New Orleans was targeted by Gustav, and we had some nice weather on Saturday with Hanna in New York City. If you want to track the storms, you have a lot of websites to choose from. I’ve just come across Stormpulse, which is by far the best in terms of fancy graphics and interactivity. You can watch the current systems and predictions (general estimates and model tracks), or view historical storms, looking at any time period, historical cloud overlays, etc.

If you want interactivity and browsing, go with Stormpulse. If you want the raw data, head over to the NOAA National Hurricane Center. Same data, different interface.

Condition 2

We have three weather states here: Condition 3 (normal), Condition 2 (right now) and Condition 1. For condition 1, nobody is allowed outside the building they are currently in. If the weather persists through a meal or sleep time, then the search and rescue team will set up ropes between buildings and escort people to the dining hall and back to the dorm rooms.

Here is a photo out my office window of the heli-pad. Compare and contrast to most of the other photos. It has been Condition 1 for the past 10 days, but today it is Condition 2.

From Antarctica

Here is a video of Condition 1. I did not take this, nor have I experienced it yet, but I do hope we get a day or two of this while I'm down here.

Patagonia

On October 10th through 11th, a day or two after arriving at McMurdo, I'll be sleeping outside in a hole I dig in the snow as part of my survival training. The temperature right now at McMurdo is around -30 degrees Celsius.

In preparation I spent yesterday morning in the Patagonia store in SoHo getting outfitted with some underlayers that they were kind enough to donate. I'd like to especially thank Kevin (far left in that image) for working with me to get the donations. The United States Antarctic Program (USAP) provides me with 35 pounds of Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear, so Patagonia supplied a base of socks, long underwear top and bottom, and some lightweight gloves.

Not only will that outfit keep me warm, but it will double as my Halloween costume. I'll wear tight white long underwear pants, a tight blue long underwear shirt, and a chefs hat. What am I?