Mesonet Receives Best Of Kentucky Technology Award

April 20, 2010

The below article segment was copied from http://www.wku.edu/news/releases10/april/mesonet.html .  Please follow the link to see full article.

Bowling Green, Ky. - The Kentucky Mesonet has received a Best of Kentucky Technology Award for “Best Application Serving Public Agencies.”

The award was presented Tuesday in Frankfort during the Kentucky Digital Government Summit.

“We are very honored to be recognized as one of the best technological applications in state government,” said Mike Grogan, lead systems architect for the Kentucky Mesonet. “From the start of the Kentucky Mesonet program, our primary goal has always been to build something positive and beneficial for the entire Commonwealth. We feel this award confirms that our efforts for and dedication to the people of Kentucky is on-target.”

In his announcement, Kelly expressed some uncertainties about certain aspects of the USCRN data, which I would like to address below.
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Kelly:Some of the info is only updated (either at the platform or at the NCDCingestsite) once an hour.  So, for example, wecannot seem to find 5 minute wind mean/max, but only hourly.

Also,there do not seem to be 5-minute winds, but only hourly means, and a single peak gust for the whole hour, rather than for each 5-minute period, the way one would usually do this.  Also, there is scalar speed but no direction (we've never been sure why, because thisis sosimple to add), so the wind roses all come up blank. (Wind, and some of the other stuff, is not a primary measurement ... these are intended as diagnostics of temp and precip calues.)

USCRN:  Wind data have not been transmitted or archived at the 5-min interval during the history of the program.  In addition, wind direction measurements are not taken at USCRN sites. The hourly wind speed observations are not taken at 10 m heights like is typical, but at the height of the air intake to the aspirated platinum resistance thermometers,typically about 1.5 m above the ground.  These data are most useful for understanding wind influences on temperature and precipitation measurements, as Kelly mentioned parenthetically, and they are not really comparable to wind data from other networks.  In addition, infrared surface temperature and global solar radiation are also only available as hourly means or statistics.  In the future, some of these variables may be sampled at the 5-minute rate, but a decision has not been taken on this issue currently.

With regards to data updates, the USCRN station platforms transmit data hourly in three hour blocks of time (redundancy in case of a rare dropped transmission), so true latency depends on the time not only in processing the transmissions, but how far from the beginning of the hour the transmission takes place.  USCRN and USHCN-M are essentially near-real-time platforms, but not real time.
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Kelly:The nomenclature can be tricky and we are trying to come up with asyntax thatapplies to all types of platforms and data recording methodologies.  This is not easy.  Forinstance, we may wish to obtain the longterm statistics (max, min, mean) of the maximum minimum 5-minute mean(oversome defined interval), or some such thing.

The basic temperature is called Mean Temperature (because it is a 5-minute mean).  We cannot seem to find the max and min temperature within that basic 5-minute reporting interval (which is usually what we call Max Temp and Min Temp). So, what is called Max and Min temp are actually *hourly* max and min of the 12 5-minute mean temps.

USCRN: At the individual platinum resistance thermometer(PRT) level, only the 5-minute mean temperatures are retained and transmitted to NCDC.  There is no maximum or minimum for each 5-minute period.  However, a maximum or minimum temperature for the hour is calculated not from the125-minute means, but from a 5-minute window that is moved in 10-sec steps.  Therefore, the maximum and minimum temperatures for each PRT and hour are based on 360 possible 5-minute intervals during the hour. Finally, the official hourly temperature values for a station are derived by considering observations from all three PRTs in a complicated algorithm that also looks at fan speeds, pair-wise comparisons, and other system indicators, choosing the median of the available measurements.
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Kelly:One other thing, for precip, we pull the full precision, and can bin incrementally or in accumulated format, and don't have to worry about 5-minute round off if we don't feel like it.

USCRN:  Fullprecision being pulled from USCRN is tenths of millimeters. In the WRCC product, many decimal places are preserved, related to the conversion from metric to English units.
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Kelly:There are many ways to create an hour from 5-minute data, many ways of creating a day from sub-daily or sub-hourly data, and many ways of creating a month or a year, as well. Our goal is to eventually make this as explicit as possible, and also leave all these decisions to user control.

USCRN:  It is useful for users to have flexibility in calculating accumulated valuesfrom5-minute data.  However, many users simply need an hourly, daily, or monthly value that is provided without need for considering calculation rules.  We will be working with the WRCC to provide the option for users to select the hourly, daily, and monthly values for certain variables as they are directly calculated by USCRN.  For the moment,users may find some small differences between USCRN hourly, daily, and monthly observations and the ones calculated directly by the sub-hourly tool at WRCC.
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We appreciate this effort to move USCRN and USHCN-M data to the user community, including the work done at the WRCC, and hourly USCRN products now available at the MRCC.  We will work to coordinate activities so as to ensure data are comparable through these various portals, and that the user may choose the interface that is most convenient for a given purpose.

Mike Palecki, USCRN

8th Annual Climate Prediction Applications Science Workshop

2010 Annual AASC Meeting Details Available

The Annual Meeting of the AASC is held each summer.  The 35th Annual Meeting of the American Association of State Climatologists will be held 12-15 July 2010, at the Embassy Suites,4130 Lake Tahoe Boulevard, South Lake Tahoe, California 96150.

For more information visit
http://www.stateclimate.org/meetings/

New office would target nation’s fast-accelerating climate information needs

NOAA launches www.climate.gov as portal for climate science and services

full article can be found at
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100208_climate.html

February 8, 2010

"Individuals and decision-makers across widely diverse sectors –from agriculture to energy to transportation – increasingly are asking NOAA for information about climate change in order to make the best choices for their families, communities and businesses. To meet the rising tide of these requests, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke today announced the intent to create a NOAA Climate Service line office dedicated to bringing together the agency’s strong climate science and service delivery capabilities."

NOAA Launches Landmark Climate.gov Portal

"NOAA is also unveiling today a new Web site – http://www.climate.gov– that serves as a single point-of-entry for NOAA’s extensive climate information, data, products and services. Known as the NOAA Climate Portal, the site addresses the needs of five broadly-defined user groups: decision makers and policy leaders, scientists and applications-oriented data users, educators, business users and the public."

July 2009 - Pennsylvania Weather Recap

After a cool month of June, some hoped July would bring usual summertime warmth to the state of Pennsylvania.  Unfortunately, for the first half of the month, a stubborn upper-level trough situated over southeastern Canada and the Great Lakes brought persistent below average temperatures and rounds of showers and thunderstorms to the Commonwealth.  Although warmer weather moved in towards the end of the month, July finished well below average temperature-wise.

The month started off on a wet note as an area of low pressure moved from the Great Lakes to southern Quebec.  Rainfall was scattered throughout the state with Reading receiving 1.42” (36.07mm) from the1^st-3^rd while Downington recorded only 0.11” (2.79mm) in the same time span.  As the system of low pressure pulled northward, dry and pleasant conditions prevailed for the holiday weekend.  The 4^th of July featured a mix of sun and clouds with temperatures in the 70s throughout much of the state.

As the next workweek began on the 6^th, a weak cold front pushed through Pennsylvania bringing isolated showers to much of the state with the exception of the Pocono Region where 0.66” (16.76mm) fell in Hawley. Behind the front, a large dome of high pressure built into the region for the 8^th-10^th keeping conditions pleasant.

High pressure began to creep off the East Coast on the 10^th ahead of an approaching cold front.  In advance of the front, temperatures in the western half of the state reached well into the80s on the 11^th.  This Saturday also featured some severe storms across the Commonwealth associated with the aforementioned front.  High wind reports were common across the central portion of the state and a tornado even was reported on the ground in Northumberland County.  Places in Carbon County received upwards of 2.50” (63.50mm) of rain from the storms.

Much cooler air rushed into the state from the 12^th-14^th due to an unseasonably strong Canadian high pressure system.  Well below normal temperatures were common with near record nighttime readings in northwest counties.  Some cool spots included: 40F (4.4C) in Chandlers Valley on the 14^th and 38F(3.3C) in Oswayo on the 15^th. These low temperatures are usually seen at the end of September, not in the middle of July!

 However, these cold temperatures would be short-lived. On the 16^th, a warm and humid southerly flow ahead of a cold front allowed some locations in southern Pennsylvania to reach 90F (32.2C) for the first time this summer.  The hot spot was Shippensburg where 93 was the high temperature.  Rainy weather on Friday, associated with a large area of low pressure, kept temperatures in check for the end of the workweek.  Rainfall amounts were moderate with Latrobe receiving 1.25” (31.75mm). The wet weather cleared out for the weekend of the 18^th.  It was cool however, with a high temperature of only 69F (20.5C) in State College, PA on the 18^th.

         The work week of the 20^th began with dry weather across the state but muggy conditions were felt for the rest of the week as a strong southerly flow brought scattered showers and storms to the Commonwealth.  Rainfall amounts were not evenly distributed.  State College received 3.28” (83.31mm) while Latrobe only received 0.60” (15.24mm).  Some locations in western Pennsylvania received hail on the 21^stfrom a line of severe thunderstorms.  As a low pressure center moved through the mid-Atlantic on the 24^th,more rain and storms occurred throughout the state.

Behind this system, clear skies but humid conditions built in for the weekend as a Bermuda High pumped sultry air along the Eastern Seaboard.  A cold front entered this warm and humid air-mass on the 26^th, spawning scattered severe storms.  A tornado was even reported in Elk County.  The final week of the month consisted of more humid weather and scattered showers and storms. Widespread rain occurred on the 29^th with 2.07” (52.58 mm)falling in Dingmans Ferry.  More severe weather occurred in the eastern third of the state with a tornado being reported in Stroudsburg.  Drier weather returned on the 30^th before more showers moved in on the last day of the month.

Overall, July 2009 was one of the coldest on record (since 1895) throughout the state of Pennsylvania.  Temperatures in Harrisburg reached above90F (32C) only one time during the month which is well below average (9 days).  Rainfall was plentiful for much of the state with the exception of the southwestern part.  Erie was extremely wet with 6.89” (175.00 mm) while Lancaster only reported 2.69” (68.33 mm). In the end, although the calendar said July, the weather on many days (especially during the first half of the month) felt like May.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BOB SKIPPER, DIRECTOR
MAY 22, 2009 MEDIA RELATIONS
MCCONNELL TO OFFICIALLY LAUNCH MESONET NETWORK

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell will officially launch the Kentucky Mesonet network during a Tuesday ceremony in Grayson County.
Sen. McConnell, R-Ky., will join Western Kentucky University President Gary Ransdell, Grayson County School Superintendent Barry Anderson, John Gordon of the National Weather Service and Mesonet Director Stuart Foster at 9:30 a.m. (CT) at the Grayson County Mesonet site. The site is adjacent to Lawler Elementary School and Grayson County High School off of U.S. 62 in Leitchfield.

The Kentucky Mesonet is a statewide weather and climate monitoring network collecting real-time weather and climate data on temperature, precipitation, humidity, solar radiation, wind speed and direction. Data is packaged into observations every five minutes and transmitted to the Kentucky Climate Center at WKU every 15 minutes, 24 hours per day, throughout the year and is available online at www.kymesonet.org.

Currently there are 25 Mesonet sites operational and plans call for construction of 100 stations to be located throughout the Commonwealth. The environmental monitoring network supports a variety of products to serve needs across Kentucky, including agriculture, education, energy, emergency management, engineering and construction, recreation, transportation, water supply management and weather forecasting.

Initial funding for the project was secured by Sen. McConnell through a series of federal appropriations totaling $2.9 million for the Kentucky Climate Center, part of WKU’s Applied Research and Technology Program in the Ogden College of Science and Engineering.

The Mesonet’s first station at the WKU farm in Warren County became operational in May 2007.  The Mesonet has partnered with universities, school districts,

Office of Media Relations, 1906 College Heights Blvd. #11012, Bowling Green, KY 42101(270) 745-4295 Fax: (270) 745-5387 E-mail: WKUNews@wku.edu Internet: www.wku.edu
businesses, farmers and others for site locations. The National Weather Service and media outlets are utilizing the Mesonet data for weather forecasts and reports.

Directions to the Grayson County Mesonet site:
From Ky. 259 south of Leitchfield, take U.S. 62 west approximately two miles. Continue past the entrance to Lawler Elementary School and turn on the next left. The Mesonet site will be on the right.
- WKU - a leading American university with international reach -

More WKU news is available at http://www.wku.edu/news/index.html and at http://wkunews.wordpress.com/.
RAS
Mesonet
Mcconnelladv.doc

AASC representatives will have an exciting opportunity to provide testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology.  The topic will be expanding NOAA climate services, with a focus on developing the national climate service.  This will be taking place Tuesday, May 5th 2009.  Please see details and links below for more information.

Committee on Science and Technology
U.S. House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Energy & Environment :: May 5, 2009

Hearing: Expanding Climate Services at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA):
Developing the National Climate Service [Scheduled]

Information about the National Climate Services testimony, to be given 10am-12pm May 5th can be found here

34th Annual AASC Meeting
Please see the following links for more information!
Details
Registration

The 34th Annual Meeting of the American Association of State Climatologists will be held July 7-10, 2009 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This is the AASC's first trip to the Wolverine State.

The meeting will be held at the historic Amway Grand Hotel, on the shore of the Grand River in downtown Grand Rapids.  Please follow the above links for Details and Registration.

Purpose:  To see if any distinct September hurricane track patterns were present when the first 6 months in Missouri were wetter than normal. 

Table 1: List of the 10 years in which the precipitation total was the greatest in Missouri from January to June.

By using the analog years found in the table above, past September hurricane tracks were plotted using a program provided by NOAA's Coastal Services Center.
This program can be found at: http://maps.csc.noaa.gov/hurricanes/viewer.html.

(To view the actual graphics, please go to:http://climate.met.psu.edu/newsletter/.  Once logged in, click on the 'July 2, 2008' newsletter).

After plotting the September hurricane tracks that occurred during the 10 analog years, the graph showed that only two hurricanes traveled up through the Gulf of Mexico.  The other hurricanes made landfall along the Eastern seaboard. 

 The ten years in which Missouri experienced their driest first 6 month period was used in order to compare the hurricane track pattern. 

Table 2: List of the 10 years in which the precipitation total was the least in Missouri from January to June.

When plotting the September hurricane tracks that occurred during the 10 driest analog years, the graph showed that roughly half of the hurricanes that made landfall traveled up through the Gulf of Mexico.  In order to confirm this pattern, an additional plot was made using randomly selected years.  This plot also showed that about 40% of all the hurricanes that made landfall traveled through the Gulf. 

Conclusions: By comparing the plots, it is evident that more hurricanes are concentrated in the Central Atlantic Ocean when the precipitation total was the greatest in Missouri from the January to June period, while during the driest first 6 month period, more hurricanes made landfall on the U.S.coast through the Gulf of Mexico.  Interestingly, when the years were picked through random selection, the hurricanes were more concentrated in the Central Atlantic Ocean when compared to the hurricane tracks during the driest period.  However, about 40% of the hurricanes did make landfall by traveling through the Gulf of Mexico. 

The Journal of Service Climatology publishes peer-reviewed research articles in applied and service climatology, including but not limited to agricultural and forestry climatology, bioclimatology, climate data quality and instrumentation, environmental climatology, hydroclimatology, human dimensions of climate risk and socioeconomic impact assessments, and climate services administration.The Journal also publishes review articles on the use of climate information indecision making, climate service tools (web-based or stand alone programs), data sets with detailed meta-data, climate education materials (including stand alone technical presentations),notes,comments to the editor, and invited articles.

The Journal of Service Climatology inaugurated its launch with three invited articles, by Stan Changnon (father of the Regional Climate Center concept), Ken Hubbard (High Plains Regional Climate Center) and a NOAA team led by Bob Leffler.

For more details about the Journal, please visit http://www.journalofserviceclimatology.org

The 2008 AASC Annual Meeting will be held from Monday evening, July 7th until midday Thursday, July 10,th 2008, at the Sheraton Burlington Hotel and Conference Center in Burlington, Vermont (more info). A block of rooms have been reserved for the AASC and are available until June 5th.

Quick links: Registration and Payment Options; Tentative Agenda

This year's meeting features the now-traditional dinner cruise . The Vermont version will take place aboard the Spirit of Ethan Allen III (more info) on Wednesday, July 9th.

About Burlington:
Burlington is located on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain. The moderating influence of the Lake is particularly noticeable in the summer when hordes of Vermonters and visitors alike flock to the beaches along the lake, or take a stroll or bike ride along the several miles of picturesque Waterfront.

There is much to do in downtown Burlington and its environs, from the world famous Ben & Jerry's ice cream shop to the Vermont Teddy Bear Company just 10 minutes south of the city. Parking in public garages is free for the first two hours and only 75 cents per half hour thereafter. Burlington is centrally located just 90 miles south of Montreal, Quebec and about 3 hours away from Boston, MA.

Almost every major airline serves the Burlington International Airport,located just 5 minutes away from the meeting hotel. These include Continental, United, US Airways, Delta, Jet Blue, Northwest. Air Tran is scheduled to begin flights by mid-summer.

Registration & Reservations:
This year, meeting registration and lodging reservations are available online.You can now pay your AASC meeting and membership fees by credit card through a convenient PayPal shopping cart. You can also pay by check or PO, or at the annual meeting using a credit card, BUT you must register by June 5th so we can order meals and refreshments.

More Notes:
The draft schedule of the annual meeting is posted here.

Please indicate on your registration whether you would like to present a poster (during Monday evening's reception) or a state report or a partner's report.

Looking forward to seeing you this summer!

Sincerely,

Announcing

The Dissertation Medal in Applied Climatology for 2008

Awarded By The

American Association of State Climatologists

Application Information

Purpose

The American Association of State Climatologists (AASC) is pleased to announce its third annual Dissertation Medal in Applied Climatology for 2008 - to be awarded to a recent recipient of the Ph.D. degree in North America or U.S. Territories whose research is considered significant to applied climatology.

Eligibility

To be considered for the AASC medal, a nominee's Ph.D. must have been awarded within three calendar years prior to the award submission date (April 15, 2008).

Who Can Apply

Any recent Ph. D. graduate who has a galley-proof manuscript or a published journal article derived from dissertation work accomplished while a student in North America or one of the U.S. Territories. Dissertations per se are not eligible for consideration.

Nominations

Nominations are solicited from graduates (or their sponsors) of universities in North America and the U.S. Territories. The nominator (e.g., State Climatologist, Regional Climatologist, Department Chair, or professional colleague) should submit an original letter of nomination. This letter should discuss the extent of independence exhibited by the nominee in the choice and execution of the dissertation research.

Four reprints of the dissertation research (as published in a refereed journal or in galley-proof format) must accompany the nomination.  Please submit only one article.

Nominations received for the current year's competition remain under consideration for two additional calendar years following the initial year of eligibility.

Due Date

Nomination letters and the required reprints must be received in the offices of the AASC President on or before 15 April 2008.

A Dissertation Medal Committee will be appointed by the Executive Committee of the AASC to select the award recipient. If, in the opinion of the Committee,none of the nominees is sufficiently outstanding, the medal will not be given for that year. The award recipient along with other nominees will be notified by May 30, 2008for presentation of the dissertation medal on July 8, 2008 at the Annual Meeting of the AASC in Burlington, Vermont.

The Award

The presentation will bestow a dissertation medal and a cash award of $500 to the winning nominee. The award also includes paid attendance at the Annual Meeting of the AASC that includes out-of-pocket travel expenses up to $1000 and the waiving of all registration fees.

Corresponding Address

-         Paul Knight, President

-         American Association of State Climatologists

-         Pennsylvania State Climate Office

-         503 Walker Building

-         University Park, PA  16802

Evaluation Criteria

Nominations and manuscripts submitted for the AASC Dissertation Medal will be evaluated based on the following scale (0 to 100 points):

- Clarity of the Manuscript (0-20 points)

- Organization/Figure Quality (0-20 points)

- Applicability to Climatology (0-10 points)

- Creativity (0-20 points)

- Scientific Merit (0-30 points)

The NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center(SPC) is proud to announce the routine posting of a Preliminary Monthly Severe Weather Database Summary to its web site. This SPC site allows one to obtain a general overview of severe thunderstorm activity in near real time.Such a data source was requested by the American Association of State Climatologists, and by several private sector enterprises which need a single source of information on areas recently affected by severe weather.

The Preliminary Monthly Severe Weather Database Summary gives a running count of unofficial severe thunderstorm reports for the year both as a table and as a chart. By using cursor positioning, the data can be sorted to show only reported tornadoes, large hail, or damaging wind. Data is available by month,or again via cursor positioning, by individual days. The individual day listing, gives each report as it was recorded into the SPC?s real time event database.

The site is at:
             http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/

Once at this site:

• click on: "New:  Preliminary Monthly Severe Weather Database Summary" towards the bottom of the page.
• The initial display consists of  "postage stamps" for the 2006 and 2007 Monthly Summaries. Click on either graph (monthly distribution of the total storms) or the map (spatial distribution of the storm total).
• Clicking on a year (e.g., 2007) will give a detailed page for that year.  There are two tables below the graph. The one on the right is the statewide storm distribution since Jan 1, 2007. The table on the left gives data by month. The tabs above the map allow sorting by type of report.
• Clicking on a month (e.g., Oct 2007) gives a detailed map and graph for October 2007. The table on the right has total tornado, hail and wind storm reports for your state in October. The table on the left is daily distribution of US storm reports in October. Click on a date in the table (e.g., 10/22/2007) to retrieve the main daily storm report page for that day.

Remember that this is a listing of real-time reports received at the SPC. Storms that are reported after a few days of their occurrence will not appear on the daily storm reports. Because of this there may be differences in the number of events listed on this page and the sum in the SPC Monthly Tornado Statistics which is updated to reflect delayed reports.

It should be emphasized that this is not "official" data. The official reports are contained in the NCDC Storm Data publication which is prepared after local NWS offices have evaluated the validity of the reports and has culled out duplicate reports. Typically there is a several month lag between the occurrence of an event and when the severe weather report is made official.