Fog

“Fog is really just a cloud that touches the ground”. Correct, but the particular type of fog  affects many different people in many different ways, especially when it gets so thick that it affects our vision.

Heavy fog affects golfers, surfers, automobile driving, buses, aircraft taking off and landing,, painters, construction, and road work.  There’s just hardly anything you can do outside in the fog.

Fog is a certainty where the surface is colder than the air above, like over the ocean above cold currents. The Grand Banks of New Found land” the “World’s Fog Capital”. is a classic case ,with the cold waters of the Labrador Current cooling the Gulf Stream to the dew point temperature.

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An article by Paul Ruch No Comments

Tornadoes

Everyone knows what a Tornado is: a rapidly rotating column of air usually accompanied by a cumulonimbus cloud formation and usually touches the ground, but here are some facts you may not know: 

Although most tornadoes are not as strong as those you see in the news, they have been clocked at over 275 miles per hour.

Most tornadoes rotate in an anti-clockwise direction, but a few rotate in a clockwise direction.

Waterspouts (tornadoes over water) are weaker and more frequent than those over land.

Reports of tornadoes have come from all over the world, including all 50 US states.

When a Hurricane makes landfall, expect tornadoes to form in the forward right quadrant, also max winds and max rainfall.

If you come upon a tornado in your path:

• Look carefully. Is it coming toward you? If so, turn right or left!
• Is it going to the right? Turn left!
• Is it going to the left? Turn right!

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An article by Paul Ruch No Comments

Desert Temperatures

Ever camp out in the desert?  It really gets cold fast there, in the evenings.

A desert climate is very dry.  The low humidity is usually caused by the air mass traveling over mountainous areas, losing moisture often by rainfall, then dropping down to a lower elevation on the other side, where the air is warmed and dryer by compression.

The air, which was significantly warmer and very dry, cools rapidly just as soon as the sun sets. The air temperature, without clouds or moisture to isolate it from the natural radiation cooling, drops dramatically.

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An article by Paul Ruch No Comments