Todd Gross' Cape Cod and The Islands Weather Page!

Weather Trivia - Crazy Temperature Jump Last Week

While we were rainy and relatively cool, one of the world's
craziest, hottest temperature rises happened last week
in Nebraska, but at night! It was a "heat burst"
which is caused by decaying thunderstorms.
The rare setup for a heat burst is dry air directly
beneath a weakening elevated thunderstorm.  When a
thunderstorm is weakening air within the thunderstorm
begins to sink. If this sinking air is very dry it will begin to accelerate
toward the ground since it is more dense. Any remaining
precipitation will fall through this dry air and evaporate.
As the air continues downward, it warms rapidly due to
compression. Needless to say, a heat burst is noted by a
rapid increase in temperature, an extreme drop in relative
humidity and an increase in winds. THE QUESTION: How
much did the temperature rise?

ANSWER: The temperature jumped 23 degrees in 45 minutes between
4:15 am and 5:00 at  Grand Isle, Nebraska to a whopping overnight
temperature of 93 degrees Fahrenheit just before 5am on June 20th,
2006! 

Todd's World of Links - New Photos

In Todd's World of Links, in the sidebar right,  I have added yet another incredible site, extremeinstability.com which featured this photo as their photo of the year for 2005. There are many more like this one. Click on it (that is the mantra of this site, try clicking on just about every image and it blows up a lot or a little or leads to a link)

THANK YOU !! - Cape and Islands Weather.com visitors!

CapeandIslandsWeather.Com aka CapeCodWeather.Org has become increasingly popular in the past several weeks, now pulling in almost as much traffic as the related Boston area ToddGross.Com. If you are interested in having me as a guest speaker, please EMAIL ME. My talks include Global Warming, my role in "the Perfect Storm", and "Why the Cape Needs Its Own Forecast". I am also available to "voice over" commercials for your business, which I recommend you advertise on the 4 Quantum radio stations.

WEATHER TRIVIA + FIRST DAY OF SUMMER 6/21/06

The first moment of summer came on  Wednesday 6/21 at 8:23am. That is the time that the sun shined directly down onto 23.5 degrees north latitude, (the tropic of cancer, just south of Florida) and about to turn the other way, back to the south. (so it appears highest in our sky on the 21st of June as well) It is also the longest day of the year. The diagram on the left shows what is going on. The Earth's axis is tilted 23.5 degrees so as the Earth makes a revolution around the sun, in December the southern hemisphere is receiving the direct sunlight, and in June the northern hemisphere is receiving the direct sunlight. The Equinoxes occur on approximately March 20th and September 21st, when the rays of the sun shine directly down upon the equator.

WEATHER TRIVIA QUESTION: REGARDLESS OF THE ABOVE, WHAT DATE IS THE EARTH CLOSEST TO THE SUN? THE ANSWER IS: AROUND JANUARY 4TH!!! THE EARTH IS ACTUALLY FARTHER FROM THE SUN IN THE SUMMER--->MOST DISTANT ON JULY 4TH.

IN ADDITION TO THE ABOVE, YOU WILL NOTE THAT THE SUNRISE/SUNSET TIMES DO NOT EXACTLY MATCH WHAT YOU WOULD EXPECT FROM THE CALENDAR. (you would think the latest sunset would be June 21st!)  TODD GROSS SUPPORT TEAM MEMBER ERIC WERME HAS WRITTEN AN ARTICLE EXPLAINING WHY.

 

WEATHER TRIVIA QUESTION..

HOW MANY YEARS does it take for a hurricane name to be "repeated" , assuming the name is NOT retired? 

Like Baseball players, hurricane names are retired when they cause enough damage. However, if they are not, they are recycled every six years. The names are picked by the world meteorological organization, whose web page you can find on worldweathernow.com in the sidebar.

June 9, 1953.. Worcester Tornado

While our weather has been bad, it has been matched with a marine flow, a flow of air off the water NOT condusive to severe thunder or tornadoes. On June 9, 1953, however, a cold front that caused tornadoes in Michigan on June 8th, came barreling into the area tornado in hand. Here is a link talking about the storm.

6" of Rain in 24 hours Thursday June 8th

If you look closely at this photograph from Ann Marie of Brewster, you will notice hidden in the woods an extremely small pond, a picture of which was taken Wednesday prior to the rain's onset.

The following picture was taken after 6" of rain fell in less than 24 hours. The pond grew quite a bit!. Click on the images to enlarge!

Meanwhile our Brewster weather spotter, Anne, was keeping us posted during the event frequently, as were all our cape and islands observers. "Doc" reported winds over 50mph in E. Falmouth as an example. These very localized observations can be accessed if you click on the "Todd's Weather Spotters" link in the sidebar, it is prominently displayed.