Thunderstorms and iPods — Not a Good iDea

According to a report from the New England Journal of Medicine a jogger was burned when lightning traveled through the wires of his iPod. Click here for more.

This May Make You Laugh

Doppler Radar Detecting Cars!?!?

An interesting radar phenomena occurred early Sunday morning, when the National Weather Service Doppler radar in Chicago actually detected cars moving quickly along Interstates 80 and 55! Doppler radar measures the speed of motions toward and away from the radar, typically it measures the motions of rain and water droplets, however this wasn’t the case early Sunday monrning. During the predawn hours a strong temperature inversion developed above the ground, which caused some of the energy from the radar beam to get re-directed toward the ground. In the doppler radar image below small pixels of fast motions toward and away from the radar are being detected up and down I-80 and I-55 southwest of Joliet, this is actually Doppler radar detecting the fast moving vehicles along the interstate! Click here for more information on how doppler radar works.

Air Quality Awareness Week

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Weather Service urge Americans to "Be Air Aware" during Air Quality Awareness Week, April 30-May 4, 2007. Click here for more.

Weather Cartoon

Cartoon Courtesy of Cartoonstock.com

Are You Kidding Me?

This is a letter to the editor.

I would like to hear your comments.

Sky Awareness Week

The 16th Annual Sky Awareness Week (SAW) celebration will be held April 22-28, 2007. Its theme will be ...
"THE SKY- Where Meteorology Meets the Heavens and the Earth!" Click here for more.

NOAA Celebrates 200 Years

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration celebrate 200 year. Click here for more.

NWS Newsletter

Some National Weather Service Offices put out a newsletter every season. The National Weather Service in Des Moines has their issue. Click here to see the newsletter.

Vacation

I am will be on vacation next week. I will not post anything new here until I get back to work on the 19th. Join me here again, as I take a look behind the headlines. Have a great week.

February 2007 Review

Iowa Weather Review for February 2007
Compiled by Harry Hillaker, Iowa State Climatologist and Craig Cogil, National Weather Service
General Summary: Temperatures averaged 15.8º or 8.4º below normal while precipitation totaled 1.74 inches or 0.76 inches greater than normal. This ranks as the 14th coldest and 15th wettest February among 135 years of state records. This was also Iowa’s coldest month since December 2000. Click here for more details.

Time To Change

Don't forget to turn your clocks ahead one hour at 2 AM CST becoming 3 AM CDT. While moving the clock ahead one hour, be sure to place new batteries into smoke detectors and NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards receivers. What does this time change mean to you (other than later sunsets)? Contrary to a popular belief that has surfaced at times, the change from Standard to Daylight Saving Time does not add an extra hour of daylight to the day nor does it affect weather patterns.

For the history of daylight saving time click here.

For the current time click here.