Air pollution season begins; new hurricane buoys go on-line
Air pollution season begins May 1 and lasts through the end of September. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has designated this week as Air Pollution Awareness Week, so I'll be pointing people to the EPA web site designed for the occasion. We worry most about air pollution in the summer for two reasons:
1) The pollutant of most concern in the U.S. Is ground-level ozone. Ozone is a colorless odorless gas. It's the same kind of gas that's found in the ozone layer. But in the ozone layer, high in the Earth's stratosphere, ozone protects us from the sun. At ground level, where we live, ozone pollution is unhealthy to breathe. Ground-level ozone forms when nitrogen oxides and gaseous carbon compounds from cars, trucks, power plants, industries, and some consumer products cook in the sun. Intense sunlight and hot temperatures make the most ozone. Thus, hot summer days in late afternoon have the highest ozone pollution--unless strong winds disperse the foul air.
2) Summertime has the the greatest incidence of multi-day periods with clear weather and light winds. These "air stagnation episodes" allow pollutants to build up, since there is little wind to disperse the stuff. Air stagnation episodes are much less common during other times of year, when low pressure systems and their attached cold fronts and warm fronts bring strong winds that keep pollution levels lower.
I'll have a new blog Tuesday or Wednesday, and take a look at last year's pollution season. Is air quality improving in the U.S.?
Figure 1. Map of hurricane buoys maintained by the National Data Buoy Center. Image credit: NOAA.
New hurricane buoys on-line
Two new ocean buoys are now on-line to help monitor hurricanes, thanks to over $2 million in special hurricane funding approved by Congress in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005. Buoy 42059, a few hundred miles south of Puerto Rico, and buoy 41043, a few hundred miles north of Puerto Rico, are strategically placed to offer data in area where hurricanes frequently traverse. Six more buoys are scheduled to come on-line in the next year, and these will be a big help in tracking hurricanes.
Jeff Masters
Reader Comments
Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 — Blog Index
I geuss you might call it a cutoff low, but not even sure about that. Those are usually associated with fronts and troughs if I am not mistaken...
You can find most of the models and model pages from the Quick Links page at SJ.com. Also try using vorticity models as well as pressure models.
sucks. We are so dry in SWFL (high 600's on the drought index) that at least 1 or 2 50+ acres fire goes up a day. Lehigh Acres is getting the brunt of it. Hazy days...90 degrees...We actually had our first seabreeze collision induced rain shower in Cape Coral yesterday...let's hope we get more of it with no lightning!
Just wanted to announce once again the GFS upgrade which is now in affect.Some of the changes here.
Here is some of the changes.
1. REPLACE SPECTRAL STATISTICAL INTERPOLATION /SSI/ ANALYSIS
SYSTEM WITH GRIDPOINT STATISTICAL INTERPOLATION /GSI/
ANALYSIS SYSTEM.
2. USE OF INCREASED OBSERVATIONS INCLUDING FULL RESOLUTION
ATMOSPHERIC INFRARED SOUNDER /AIRS/ DATA...CONSTELLATION
OBSERVING SYSTEM FOR METEOROLOGY...IONOSPHERE AND CLIMATE
/COSMIC/ GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM RADIO OCCULTATION /GPSRO/
DATA.
MODEL CHANGES:
3. MODIFY SIGMA COORDINATE SYSTEM TO A HYBRID SIGMA-PRESSURE
COORDINATE SYSTEM.
4. UPDATED GFS RADIATION MODULE
PRODUCT CHANGES:
5. SURFACE FLUX FILES HAVE 30 NEW RECORDS MAINLY FOR
HYDROLOGICAL USE
6. CHANGE OUTPUT OF GLOBAL DIAGNOSTIC ASSIMILATION SYSTEM
/GDAS/ FROM 3-HOURLY TO HOURLY
7. MODEL TO NATIVE OUTPUT FILE WILL CHANGE FROM A SIGMA
SPECTRAL BINARY FILE TO A HYBRID SPECTRAL BINARY FILE
Welcome aboard sf.
Adrian's Weather
heres the satellite pic of the low in the middle and south US fairly big low pressure center.
Over the past 10 years we have averaged 14.5 storms per year. Most of those seasons had 14-16 storms. That being said, the '06 season was fairly slow compared to recent years.
The 02, and 99 seasons had 12 storms and the 97 season only had 8. Pretty much every other year has seen 14+ named storms.
And with the exception of Bermuda no land mass was even close to threatened by a cane.
Hence, IMHO, the rightful assumption that '06 was a slow year as far as the tropics go.
as Dr. Masters has always stated, the margin of error for such seasonal forecasts is extremely high!
bottom line, the best we can do at this point is make an educated guess!
hope I am not wasting time pointing out the obvious! LOL
but I guess we aren't playing horseshoes! LOL
I agree that is the average 23 was using, but since we are in a time of increased activity I don't think it is really fair to use that 200 year average. I have heard that this increased activity could last as long as 40 to 50 years. Therefore I don't think we should really give to much credibility to the 200 year average until we are out of this cycle. Just my two cent.
Back to work y'all.
What are the chances no Atlantic storms develope this year?
0%
THE LARGEST CONCENTRATION OF CONVECTION NEAR THE ITCZ IS THE NUMEROUS
MODERATE FROM 2S-5N BETWEEN 25W-35W. THIS AREA HAS BEEN SHOWING
SOME TROPICAL WAVE-LIKE CHARACTERISTICS OVER THE LAST DAY OR
SO...AND MAY BE ADDED AS EITHER A TROUGH OR A WAVE TO THE 1800
UTC MAP.
Lots of thunderstorms rolling off Africa already in the last weeks days .. it could be a bad sign already with the season still 4 weeks off.
unfortunately, some of these "could" be "major" storms..... possible bad news for the islands, the gulf, and even (gulp) the east coast! :(
Viewing: 301 - 351
Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 — Blog Index