http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com science writer and book author Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:51:36 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/archives/answers-finding-wind-data http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/archives/answers-finding-wind-data#comments Sun, 26 Dec 2010 20:47:40 +0000 Jack Williams ©2012 http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/?p=2348 Q: What is your favorite source for near real time surface wind visualizations in the mid Atlantic region. I need the information for balloon flight planning in the field. Curt, Falls Church, Va. A:  I’ve yet to find any really good visualizations for surface winds because none show the winds in any real detail. That [...]]]> http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/archives/answers-finding-wind-data/feed 0 http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/archives/help-on-reporting-on-gulf-storm-threat http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/archives/help-on-reporting-on-gulf-storm-threat#comments Sat, 26 Jun 2010 00:10:00 +0000 Jack Williams ©2012 http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/?p=2145 With Hurricane Alex no longer a threat to the people and vessels working to stop and clean up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, reporters, newscasters, editors, and other news people can take a breather and think about ways to improve coverage when the next hurricane moves into  the Gulf of Mexico. One of the [...]]]> http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/archives/help-on-reporting-on-gulf-storm-threat/feed 3 http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/archives/answers-arizona-tornadoes http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/archives/answers-arizona-tornadoes#comments Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:47:00 +0000 Jack Williams ©2012 http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/?p=2103 Q: Do tornadoes occur in south-west Arizona, including in the Yuma area? Chris,  Yuma, Ariz. A: A few tornadoes have occurred in Yuma County in the past, which means that they can  occur in the future. Nevertheless, the record shows they are rare and usually weak. If  you go to the National Climatic Data Center’s [...]]]> http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/archives/answers-arizona-tornadoes/feed 3 http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/archives/pilot-answers-upper-air-data-and-forecasts http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/archives/pilot-answers-upper-air-data-and-forecasts#comments Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:29:35 +0000 Jack Williams ©2012 http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/?p=1995 Q: I use RUC soundings for flight planning, but I am befuddled by the following: When I enter a station, load the Op40 soundings, and hover with my mouse over the loaded graph I see  bold numbers on the far-left near the Pressure (mb) line, and light numbers appear directly underneath my cursor with a [...]]]> http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/archives/pilot-answers-upper-air-data-and-forecasts/feed 3 http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/archives/snowy-science-lessons http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/archives/snowy-science-lessons#comments Wed, 10 Feb 2010 03:43:11 +0000 Jack Williams ©2012 http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/?p=1778 From the afternoon of Friday, Feb. 5 through the afternoon of Tuesday Feb. 9, I spent roughly eight hours shoveling snow, thanks to the record-breaking “Snowmageddon” that brought two to three feet–in some cases even more–of snow to the Washington, D.C. area. Shoveling snow is a good time to think about the science of winter [...]]]> http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/archives/snowy-science-lessons/feed 2 http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/archives/science-lessons-from-bitter-cold http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/archives/science-lessons-from-bitter-cold#comments Mon, 04 Jan 2010 05:16:00 +0000 Jack Williams ©2012 http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/?p=1662 The strong winds and bitter cold that the new year 2010 brought to large parts of the United States has put wind chill in the news. This, like any outbreak of cold, windy weather, offers high school physics teachers in places where people are talking about wind chill an opportunity to relate the laws of [...]]]> http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/archives/science-lessons-from-bitter-cold/feed 1 http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/archives/answers-storm-winds http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/archives/answers-storm-winds#comments Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:12:04 +0000 Jack Williams ©2012 http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/?p=1264 Q: Why doesn’t an extratropical cyclone continue to rotate around a 360-degree axis, like a hurricane?  I’ve always wondered why a cold front begins to the northwest of the low center and then dies out on the northeast side. Why doesn’t it continue to just rotate?  How does the Coriolis effect play into all of [...]]]> http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/archives/answers-storm-winds/feed 1 http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/archives/aviation-contributes-to-better-forecasts http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/archives/aviation-contributes-to-better-forecasts#comments Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:47:12 +0000 Jack Williams ©2012 http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/?p=833 http://www.weatherjackwilliams.com/archives/aviation-contributes-to-better-forecasts/feed 1