The Human METAR

OK guys haven’t had much to talk about here (cause the weather is the same….snow and cold…grumble grmuble). But I thought I would give you a little insight on a mini project I worked on for Transportation Meteorology.

Ocean forecasting isn’t a hot topic these days. However it is still important for mariners who make long trips across the sea. And unfortunately it has been part of the media recently due to a few NFL players getting lost at sea due to high waves from a storm in the gulf (source).

Now obviously an important factor in ocean forecasting is where is it going to rain? But that’s not the biggest issue. Waves can be highly dangerous, and most of the products issued by the Ocean Prediction Center will have some sort of description of the waves in the area.

Most waves are generated by the wind, and there are 3 factors that will help wave growth:

1. Wind Speed
2. Fetch
3. Duration

The first and third one are simple to understand. The higher the wind speed, the larger the wave will grow. And if it happens for a long period of time, then it will continue to grow. A fetch is an area the wind blows over a constand speed and constant direction.

So, if we have strong constant wind speed moving in the same direction over a long period of time, we can see pretty large waves. Some buoy’s and ships over the oceans will report the wind speed and direction, however the data is sparse, and does not provide a great representation of the winds over the entire ocean

Enter QuikSCAT. The Quick Scatterometer is a satellite orbiting around the earth that will look at the ocean surface and generate a wind vector and plot it over the ocean. Here is an example of one:

As you can see, we can get a great sense of the winds at the ocean surface, especically where there are no buoys or ships to record this data. This has become highly popular to National Weather Service forecasters, because not only can we see the winds around a storm, but it can also help marine forecasters determine waves, as we can see wind speeds and fetch areas on these kind of maps.

For more information, you can check out my powerpoint slide here, or look at live data here.

Good Morning, and I wish you all a happy Jared Rennie Day today!

Now I know what you’re thinking….What the heck is Jared Rennie Day? Well don’t worry, here are some answers to your questions:

1. Yes, it is a national holiday in the following countries: United States, Zimbabwe, and Petoria
2. Yes, you are required to send me a gift ($50 minimum). Don’t worry though, if you haven’t bought anything yet, you are welcome to send a check to me, as long as the post office receives it by 5pm today
3. No, it is not a made up holiday. Jared Rennie Day was actually observed in the City of Woburn, Massachusetts on February 16th, 2002. Don’t believe me? here is the proof:

On February 16th, 2002, A ceremony was held to honor my Eagle Scout Award. The award is the highest honor in the Boy Scouts of America, and only very few scouts have received this award.  To earn it a scout must receive 21 specific merit badges (don’t worry, I have the Weather Merit Badge) as well a coordinating ones own Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project. For my project,  I refurbished a playground behind a Little League Park  the City of Woburn was going to tear down. Only 1.7 million scouts have received this award since 1911, including Stephen Spielberg, Wynton Marsalls, and President Gerald Ford.

During the ceremony, the mayor came and presented the documentation above declaring that day as Jared Rennie Day. And yea…I laughed too, but this day was not my idea, it was a Mayor’s idea. And mayor’s have a lot of credibility, much more than me. Which is why I still celebrate this day every year.

So put on your Jared Rennie glasses, turn on the Weather Channel and crack yourself open a cold Dunkin Donuts Iced Coffee, and have yourself a Jared Rennie-iffic Day!.

It’s not even halfway through January, and I am already sick and tired of all the snow Plymouth has received. I used to be a fan of snow, meaning days off from school and a chance to go skiing. But now that I live in an off campus apartment, I have to keep my parking spot clean, without any help from the school. Needless to say I’m getting tired of going out every day and shovel. With another few inches forecasted for tomorrow, it looks like spring won’t be coming any time soon

Hey guys, On the right hand side you’ll notice I added my plurk widget. Check it out!

Also, if anyone has cool ideas for a domain name let me know. Right now I am leaning towards www.themetard.com, but it doesn’t seem too professional.

I got tagged with this by jemartin

First, here are the rules:

• Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post – some random, some weird.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.

1) I have Astraphobia: a fear of Lightning and Thunder.

I know, that sounds crazy being a meteorologist and all, but if it weren’t for my fear, I would not be a weather man today. Way back when I was 12 (I want to say it was May of 1998) I was out camping at Camp Massasoit in Plymouth, Massachusetts with Boy Scout Troop 500. It was the first time I was camping without my Dad. That night we had a terrible thunderstorm (I’ve always wanted to do a case study of it, but I never could remember the correct date), and the lake (about 100 yards away from me) was struck by lightning. Needless to say it scared the heck out of me.

Before this event I had no problem with a thunderstorm. I would even go outside and watch the event. But after that night I could not stand thunderstorms. From that day forward I became a constant viewer of the Weather Channel. Whenever I would hear thunder, or even see a towering cumulus on a hot summer day, I get chills down my spine. I would then immediately look at the local Radar and stare at that until the event had passed. When deciding what to do for college, I felt that I needed to understand the concept that caused these storms, and become a meteorologist.

I have gotten better over the past few years. 2 years ago I was out in Oklahoma, and it rained every night. I still cannot sleep through tstorms, and it was a brutal summer. This summer I will be testing my phobia again as I will be down in the lightning capital of the world: Florida

2) I am a sucker for Disney Movies / Musicals

Blame my mother for this one, but I have no problem sitting down and watching Aladdin or The Sound of Music. I think it’s because that is all my mother let us kids watch way back in the day.  In fact I think my favorite is Mary Poppins. That movie rocks, and if you think otherwise I will come after you.

3) I am a Dallas Cowboys fan at heart

Back in 1994, when I started watching football, I became a fan of the local team, the New England Patriots. However the Dallas Cowboys were a team that I also liked for some reason. A few years later, I met Emmit Smith at a golf tournament at Cape Cod and got a picture with him. Since then I have also rooted for the Cowboys. Whenever the Pats didn’t make the playoffs, the Cowboys were my number 2 team to root for.

4) I am a Guitar Hero

If you challenge me to any guitar game (Guitar Hero / Rock Band) I will destroy you. I know that sounds mean, but that is really the only video game I dominate. The people I usually beat take their revenge on me during Halo. Now you may think it’s lame that I don’t play a real guitar, but since last summer that has been no longer true.  I bought a cheap classical guitar and have been playing on it here and there. So because I play a real and fake guitar, I definitely consider myself a guitar hero.

5) I hate the concept of wide screen

If I buy a dvd, it must be in full screen. Why? Because whenever I buy a widescreen movie, it cuts off SO MUCH in the vertical (even if i use a widescreen tv). I understand that eyes can see widescreen a lot better, but why cut off 3 inches on the top and bottom if you’re only adding a half inch on each side?

6) I have a day named after me

On February 16th 2002, I received the Eagle Scout Award. During the ceremony the mayor came and dedicated that day as “Jared Rennie Day” (More on this in42 days)

7) Listening to good music makes me feel so much better when I’m down

For some reason, there are few songs out there that whenever I listen to them, make me feel a lot better than I did before.  I constantly update my iPod to play 25 songs that usually relate to how I feel about things. And whenever I have a problem with something, I will listen to that song and for some reason it makes me feel a lot better.

That’s all I got, I have no one else to tag though