Santa meets USAF Captain Scrooge - uh oh!
December 15th, 2011 | Bill KirkTwas 10 day before Christmas when all through the sky, Not a thing was stirring, not even a fly, When what to my wondering eyes should appear, But Santa’s sleigh and his 8 reindeer, They flew through the sky on wind with grace, But the clear air turbulence, the sleigh’s radar could not trace, THE REST OF THE STORY HERE...
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Funny Weather We're Having
October 16th, 2011 | Bill KirkEverywhere you turn its all gloom and doom from the weather to the economy to protests to wars to Steve Jobs to lack of jobs and to top things off I can barely type tonight as I think I broke a wrist...so we'll lighten things up with some weather humor...OK...a lot of weather humor and a lot of cartoons so I don't have to type! Enjoy
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Are You Ready For 5,200" of SNOW?
September 22nd, 2011 | Bill KirkDon't panic...that 5,200" is the total amount of snowfall expected across the ENTIRE United States (260 major U.S. markets) this season. The good news? That's actually the least in 5 years...the bad news...we'll still have plenty of cold and snow and ICE to contend with. But now that we got your attention, let's take a look at what we expect this season.
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Really Honey...The Weather Made Me Buy It!
August 4th, 2011 | Bill KirkFor almost 10 years now we've been working with some of America's most successful and admired companies in retail, seasonal category manufacturers, agriculture and Wall Street to help them better plan their businesses around NEXT YEAR'S weather forecast. But in reality it's all about all of us who buy these products and believe it or not, the weather plays a big role in what we buy and when we buy it. After reading this blog I'll give both spouses an excuse to say, "Really Honey, the weather made me buy all that beer," or, "It's so hot out Honey, the weather made me buy all those strappy sandals"! :)
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Dog Days of Summer...Get Sirius!
July 13th, 2011 | Bill KirkThe dog days of summer are officially here, so to figure it all out we need to know a little history, math, weather, stocks, astronomy, and cynology! And you thought all we were going to talk about was dogs! Get Sirius! :)
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April Showers Bring May Flowers then June Lightning Bugs
June 17th, 2011 | Bill KirkIt looked like the battle of Normandy tonight here in Eastern Pennsylvania as an invasion of lightning bugs, or fireflies, took flight shortly after sunset. As a kid growing up in Hawaii, I was deprived of this childhood experience to see bugs pretending to be a lightning storm as the only bugs that flew in Hawaii were pterodactyl like cockroaches and termites that could swarm so thick it looked like fog. We'll do a little digging here on these meteorologist-wannabe bugs.
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wt360 Best & Worst Weather This Summer
May 17th, 2011 | Bill KirkOnly 36 days until the official start of Summer, so we thought we'd take a peak at who will have the best and worst weather this Summer month-by-month. Last year we had an epic heat-wave in Russia - more likely to be cool/wet this year; Hawaii had a drought - not this go around; the Eastern U.S. had the hottest/driest Summer in decades - rethink that beach house this year!
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Honey...I Shrunk the Meteorologist
April 11th, 2011 | Bill KirkPopular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science predicted in 1949 that "computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons!" That's roughly 3,306 pounds. Guess that prediction didn't turn out so well as today's computer chips weigh less than 2 grams or 0.004 pounds. As our computing power gets faster and faster it also tends to get smaller and smaller. Is the meteorologist next to be put into the ray gun from the 1989 classic "Honey I Shrunk the Kids"?
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Baseball Season Opens with a SNOWY Curve Ball!
April 1st, 2011 | Bill KirkWe all get excited with the first snowfall of the season but snow in April - enough already! Baseball season opened up early this week to the sounds of "Play Ball" or should that be "Snow Ball"? Temperatures across much of the Great Lakes and Northeast U.S. were the coldest in over 20 years and that's no April fools joke! Normally at the game you hear "beer guy here...get your ice cold beer"...this year he's saying "hot coffee guy here...get your hot coffee."
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Weather & Syrup - Tricky and Sticky
March 25th, 2011 | Bill KirkIt's syrup season in the Northeast U.S. and Canada and we're off to a good start thanks to the weather. So goes the weather so goes the flow of sticky, sappy syrup out of Sugar Maple trees in New England. Vermont is the biggest producer of Maple Syrup in the U.S. and last year's very hot start to Spring across the Northern U.S. cut U.S. production by 19%. We'll look at how weather influences this sweet stuff and why gas prices look so cheap at $4 a gallon.
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Blizzard Alley Meet Tornado Alley
March 4th, 2011 | Bill KirkIt's that time of year when cold air meets warm air for big Spring snow storms and the start of the severe thunderstorm/tornado season in the U.S. This coming week we'll get a chance to see both Blizzard Alley active and at the same time Tornado Alley should come to life. Now would be a good time to set up some severe weather alerts in wt360.com!
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Space Shuttle a Wimp in Weather!
February 23rd, 2011 | Bill KirkOn Thursday, 24 February 2011 at 4:50pm EST Discovery space shuttle mission STS-133 will be the last mission for Discovery with only 2 more shuttle launches. The Atlantis mission in June will officially bring t an end 30 years of Space Shuttle missions. While the space shuttle is unmatched in space, traveling at more than 17,500 mph (Mach 23), 9 times faster than a speeding bullet, 26 times the speed of sound, and lift-off thrust exceeding 37 million horsepower, but put it down here on Earth and it's actually a big WIMP when it comes to the weather!
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Groundhog Day's 1,000 year tradition started in Europe.
February 2nd, 2011 | Bill KirkWhile many imposter groundhog weather prognosticators have emerged in recent years like Staten Island Chuck, Long Island Malverne Mel, Connecticut Chuckles, Georgia's General Beauregard Lee and Canada's Wiarton Willie, Nova Scotia's Shubenacadie Sam and Alberta's Balzac Billy...there's only one REAL weather forecasting ground hog and that's Pennsylvania's own Punxsutawney Phil! This morning at 7:25am it's official Spring is on the way! Don't be on it...
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U.S. gets a D- in Science & Math
January 27th, 2011 | Bill KirkThis week 3,500 scientists, meteorologists, climatologists, students, businesses and weather organizations gathered in Seattle, Washington for the 91st Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society (AMS). The theme of the 2011 AMS Annual Meeting is “Communicating Weather and Climate” but a government report out this week shows just how poorly U.S. students compare to their international counterparts when it comes to the importance of academic disciplines in advanced math, physics and science.
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How Winter forecasts are really made?
January 22nd, 2011 | Bill KirkThere have been 395 record low temperatures tied or broken so far in January across the U.S. with some notable extremes. It's hard to call this "record cold" but +51F (10C) was a new all time January record low in Waimea, Hawaii on January 5th. Even the big city Honolulu, Hawaii broke a record at +56F (13C) but take that down a 100 degrees for the real cold stuff like -51F (-46C) in Central Alaska, -47F (-44C) in Dickinson North Dakota breaking the 117 year record or -46F (-43C) yesterday in International Falls, Minnesota breaking an 82 year old record. So how are Winter forecasts really made? The secret revealed!
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49 of 50 U.S. States (71%) Covered in Snow!
January 12th, 2011 | Bill KirkFor the 2nd year in a row 49 of 50 U.S. states have some snow on the ground! On the 13th of February 2010 all states but Hawaii were covered in snow including Florida with 68.1% of the U.S. covered. This time Florida has escaped the snow but Hawaii, yes Hawaii, has snow on the top of Mauna Kea at 13,796 feet (4,205 meters). A whopping 70.9% of the U.S. is covered in snow - most likely the most since the 1970s and possibly the late 1800s.
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WT360's Weather Super Hero Sighting?
January 7th, 2011 | Bill KirkHello Earthlings, I'm your new WT360 super weather hero to save you from boring weather forecasts and other earthly calamities! My objective is simple to spread awareness about future YEAR-AHEAD weather. My motive is a little bit more complex: to get people to believe that weather matters.
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Storm Chasing an Earth Sized Thunderstorm?
December 30th, 2010 | Bill KirkA typical thunderstorm here on Earth might span a couple miles and reach 50,000 feet tall. But, imagine a thunderstorm the size of planet Earth with 1,100 mph winds and lightning bolts a 1,000 times stronger. Fortunately,this "Dragon Storm" is on Saturn and has reemerged with a vengeance in recent days. If you want to chase this mega storm all you need is a small telescope and clear skies.
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A poetic holiday weather forecast
December 21st, 2010 | Rich WoolleyTwas the days before Christmas, when all through the land All the people were shopping, to find that right brand. The shelves at the store were piled high with care, In hopes that more shoppers soon would be there...>
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Witches thought to be meteorologists? UH OH!
December 20th, 2010 | Bill KirkThis doesn't happen very often - a lunar eclipse on the first day of Winter. According to the US Naval Observatory it's only happened once in the past 2,000 years on 21 December 1638 and won't happen again until 21 December 2094. The rare lunar event is not the only unusual happening in space as the Sun is up to some very unusual antics as well that will have an impact on planet Earth's weather for decades to come. If you don't like the cold, you won't like the answer!
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Ocean Dump + Big Waves = Plastic Soup?
December 9th, 2010 | Bill KirkYou will not find this soup on the menu this holiday season and if you did, your bowl would be bigger than the state of Texas! We all know that everything in Texas is BIG so this is really big. The soup we're talking about is a huge swirling mass of "plastic soup" or "Pacific Garbage Patch" that is stuck in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and California and another one near Japan. When the waves pick up (you can now monitor waves for day 1-8 in wt360.com) and come from a certain direction Hawaii's pristine beaches can go from paradise to a nightmare.
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Google Trends, Weather Trends and Stephen Colbert?
December 1st, 2010 | Bill KirkSo what does Google Trends, Weather Trends, the UN Climate Change Conference taking place in Cancun, Santa Claus, Al Gore, Winter Weather Forecasts, Black Friday, Carbon Trading, Global Warming, President Obama and Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert all have in common? Not much! :) At least according to Google Trends. Read on for what's hot and what's not.
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Harry Potter & Black Friday Weather - Magical
November 15th, 2010 | Bill KirkQUESTION: So what does opening night of Harry Potter and Black Friday have in common? ANSWER: Millions of Americans will be standing in long lines in the wee hours of the morning - whether it is Friday's (19 Nov) midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 or a week later standing in more long lines for those Black Friday sales (26 Nov). Both days will be mainly dry across the U.S. but one dramatically colder than the other...either way you might need Harry's spell "Expelliarmus"? Or maybe "Incendio"?
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Weather Radar Won't Cook Your Turkey
November 8th, 2010 | Bill Kirk115 years after the accidental discovery of X-rays, Google opted to X-ray their logo today - safer than what the German scientist did back in 1895. The X-rays were called this because they were an "unknown" (reason for the X) type of radiation or very small wavelength with high levels of energy. Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen's first subject to test the new X-ray device wasn't a Google logo but rather his wife's hand; not sure if that tells us how he felt about his wife or if he was just a big chicken or turkey. I'm leaning turkey. We'll move up to some bigger wave lengths to talk turkey on weather radars.
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What to Wear During a Chinook
October 29th, 2010 | Bill KirkThe media made a big deal on this week's big storm in the Northern Plains of the U.S. and whether or not a low pressure record was set in Big Fork, Minnesota. While this storm was intense and brought snow to the higher elevations of the Rocky Mountains, dozens of tornadoes and strong winds to the Central U.S. the media bark was bigger than the bite! This storm pails in comparison to some of the record setters.
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High-Tech Leaf "Peeping" with a GPS?
October 25th, 2010 | Bill KirkFor those of us who live in the middle latitudes across the Northern Hemisphere between about 40N and 30N this is a great time for enjoying the Fall foliage season when leaves show off their bright colors of orange, yellow and red which traditionally peak in October. If you're looking for a high-tech twist for you "leaf peeping" day trips try "Geocaching". It's kind of like hide and seek, treasure hunting and a message in a bottle all rolled up into a fun day outdoors.
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The Flu, Weather and Guinea Pigs?
October 21st, 2010 | Bill KirkThe Northern Hemisphere is entering the dreaded Winter Flu season just as our neighbors down under are coming out of their Flu season. Scientists have debated for decades whether or not cold Winter weather has anything to with the Flu but it's a very hard thing to study in a laboratory. Intuitively the answer is yes since the Flu peaks, everywhere in the world, during the cold Winter season. So let's look at Australia, Winter weather and Guinea Pigs to find out why!
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"Free at Last" - A Beautiful Day!
October 13th, 2010 | Bill Kirk"FREE AT LAST!" 33 Chilean copper-gold miners had no idea they would experience a life changing event on a cold August 5th Winter day. But on this day they are one-by-one experienceing a glorious Spring day and reunited with their loved ones with the entire world watching!
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Meteorologists Make for Fun Neighbors
September 30th, 2010 | Bill KirkThe first time I scared the heck out of my neighbors here in Eastern PA (U.S.A.) was on the 7th of September 1995. It was an abnormally hot day with a sweltering temperature of 91F and a heat index in the mid to upper 90s - hazy, hot and humid was an understatement. On this day my neighbors thought I was 1) crazy or 2) maybe I knew something really big weather wise was about to happen...
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60 days + 64,000 forecasters = 59 day old forecast?
September 29th, 2010 | Bill KirkWhile some think weather prediction is as simple as looking out the window, licking your finger and holding it to the heavens to make a forecast, it's a bit more complicated than that, in fact much more complicated. The science behind predicting the weather has been around for over 100 years with the "primitive equations" that make even the smartest mathematician's head spin. To give a sense of that complexity a leading mathematician by the name of Lewis Fry Richardson in 1904 said it would take 64,000 highly skilled scientists 2 months to make a 1 day forecast! Hmmm...Houston, we have a problem.
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Woolly Worm Weather Folklore - Fact or Fiction?
September 18th, 2010 | Bill KirkI just saw my first "woolly worm" of the season (also known as the woolly bear for our friends to the North) here in Eastern Pennsylvania (USA) and it was all brown! Folklore suggest this will bring a mild Winter. Legend has it that the a reddish brown color on the fuzzy creature means mild Winter periods while the black areas suggest severe Winter weather. Fact or Fiction?
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