3/28/13 Solar Plane Coming To America

While the Solar Impulse will never replace fuel-powered commercial flights, it is designed to showcase the possibilities of solar-flight. For example, three years ago, the plane flew non-stop for 26 hours, which means it was able to store enough energy from sunlight to be able to still fly through the dark night sky. With that said, in its current state, the single-seat plane can only cruise around 40 mph. Also, due to its low weight, it cannot fly through clouds, for fear that rough turbulence and/or bad weather could bring the plane down.

In 2012, the plane made its first transcontinental voyage, traveling from 1,550 miles from Madrid, Spain to Rabat, Morocco. It made that 1,550 mile flight in 20 hours. The Solar Impulse has the wingspan of an Airbus A340, but only weighs as much as an average car.

Intrigued by this solar-powered plane? Good news: it’s coming to America! It was announced today which U.S. cities the Solar Impulse will visit in May.

The plane’s creators, Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, will make the Solar Impulse available during its “Across America” tour. In the image below, the red dots show the cities that have been selected for the tour.

Interestingly enough, Piccard, one of the creators, is not the only adventurous “scientist” in his family. In fact, his father, Jacques, was an oceanographer who plunged deeper beneath the ocean than any other man. Before that, Piccard’s grandfather, Auguste, was the first man to take a balloon into the stratosphere.

CBS also highlighted the solar plane during its 60 Minutes program. Here is a link to the video clip.

Sources: AP, Time Magazine, CBS

3/13/13 Bad Weather For Sweet Sistene

At 4pm (Italy time) the current weather condition in Rome, Italy was rain showers with a temperature of 48°F. Since voting for the new pope began on Tuesday, NBC confirms that the first two conclave votes to elect a new Pope were inconclusive, thus, not resulting in a new pope. While there are no favorites in this race, bets are being made. In Europe, they have a Sweet Sistene betting system (similar to how the college basketball Sweet Sixteen brackets work in the U.S.), for who will end up winning the papalship. Could Mother Nature have some money on this? Hear me out. Last month, when the previous pope resigned, lightning struck the Vatican. Sign from above? Probably not. Just like the Empire State Building, Sears Tower, and the Burj Khalifa alike, the Vatican is a tall building, and often gets struck by lightning. Still, some people saw this as a sign. If you were one of them, get ready for more signs.


Courtesy: Weather.com

When the Papal Conclave convened yesterday to start the voting process, thunderstorms rolled into Rome, and accorindg to Accuweather, brought several rounds of heavy rain, lightning, and even hail to the Vatican. If that wasn’t enough, a waterspout was reported yesterday just off Isola del Giglio, an island off the coast north of Rome.


Courtesy: Blitzortung.org

Courtesy: GiglioNews

Coincidence or rare occurance? While I can’t say it is a coincidence, it certainly is not rare for Italy to experience thunderstorms in the Spring. In fact, the weather in Rome is filled with hail, heavy rain, and lightning during the Spring months. However, some felt differently about the type of storms they were having. A tweet from Wendy Lou Who says that MSNBC’s reporters mentioned that during their coverage of the conclave that there was “thunder, lightning, and Biblical rain”.

Many stand at the Vatican waiting for an answer with their umbrellas in hand. More rain is expected through the evening tonight, quite heavy at times. Rain will continue Thursday as well, before finally tapering off before Friday morning. So whether or not all of this bad weather is a sign, I cannot say. What I can say is that more of it is likely.

 

 

Sources: Accuweather, Weather Channel, ABC News, NBC News, Twitter, Blitzortung

3/4/13 Tornado Scale In Pictures

Often times when a tornado has been confirmed for a certain city/area, you will hear the rating that is given for it as well. This rating is used to let people know how bad of a tornado it was. The scale is called the Enhanced Fujita Scale, and it goes from zero to five, with an EF5 being the worst tornado damage and highest wind speeds. However, sometimes it is hard to visualize what that damage can look like. So above and below are images that show you what each scale category looks like.

 

EF0

This category has wind speeds of 65-85mph. The lowest tornado rating, EF-0, is reserved for minor damage. Above, an EF-0 tornado peeled back parts of the red roof (picture above) on a chicken barn  in Ringgold, Georgia. These weak tornadoes usually cause only light damage to well-built homes. They may peel back gutters or siding, snap branches or uproot shallow-rooted trees.

EF1

This category has wind speeds of 86-110mph. Twisters of the second-lowest rating can still wreck smaller structures, like the roof of this church in Lyons, Georgia (seen below). Typically, EF-1 twisters strip away roofs, flip mobile homes, blow off doors and shatter windows. And even though these tornadoes are on the lower end of the scale, they can still be deadly. Mobile homes will slide off their foundation and can roll or flip over, although they will remain intact. However, they can still be death traps since trees can crash through them or the homes can roll and pin people underneath. In fact,  in the Southeast, often called Dixie Alley, there are many manufactured homes, which is one reason that our region has a high number of tornado-related deaths.

 

EF2

This will have wind speeds of 111-135mph. EF-2 tornadoes are when things get serious. These strong storms can tear the roof off a house (picture below from Normantown, GA), shift a house's foundation, snap large trees of 1ft. in diameter or larger, lift cars off the ground and shoot boards like missiles. Mobile homes will be destroyed like in the picture below from Normantown, GA from back in 2008. Apartment buildings will experience uplift of their roof deck and suffer significant loss of roofing structural materials.

 

EF3

Wind speeds of 136-165mph. An EF-3 tornado is strong enough to destroy entire stories of well-constructed houses, knock over trains, rip the bark from trees and toss heavy cars. Apartment buildings will suffer the collapse of their roof structure, and will cause the collapse of most walls on the top floor, like this one from Montgomery County, GA (seen below).

EF4

Wind speeds of 166-200mph. These tornadoes are strong enough to level sturdy houses, and rocket cars and other large objects.  Apartment buildings will suffer the destruction of their top two stories. Hattiesburg, MS just recently experienced an EF4 back in February, and the tornado flattened several streets in the community (image seen below).

EF5

This category will have wind speeds of over 200mph. These tornadoes, while relatively uncommon, are the most powerful. These twisters are strong enough to blow away big houses and collapse tall buildings. The slabs of traditional homes will be swept clean and apartment buildings will be completely destroyed. Two years ago the town of Joplin, Missouri was forever changed by an EF5 tornado. An estimated $3 billion in damages, and over 150 fatalities were blamed on one single tornado. 

 

 

Another EF5 tornado demolished the town of Greensburg, Kansas back in 2007. The massive twister leveled at least 95 percent of the city and killed 12 people.

Sources: Our Amazing Planet, NOAA, NWS, Hattiesburg American, Chattanooga Times Free Press, eHow, AP