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Apparently there's a huge storm coming up in New Bedford, which will cover most of Massachusetts with a low pressure Windows error system, and tornado watches for the western region of NBC's weather PC.
A Chinese man, killed by a weather rocket, was thought to have died from getting struck by lightning until his body exploded at his own funeral.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the 284 passengers on board Quantas Flight 12--a Boeing 747-400 flying from Los Angeles to Sydney--couldn't believe their eyes when they looked through their windows to see another Boeing from Air New Zealand flying just a few thousand feet from their aircraft. The explanation, as the commander announced, was simple: He was "flying blind" after their aircraft's weather radar broke three hours after take off. Fortunately, as Qantas explained, the Air New Zealand flight was able to relay the data their 747 needed all the way to the other side of the Pacific:
Hath Hell frozen over, or hath an internth presseth the wrong buttoneth? [Thanks Dustin!]
First off, I hope everyone who stayed behind in the path of Hurricane Ike is OK this morning. Second, we know what we knew about Ike due in part to the guys, gals and tech shown in these storm chaser photographs. The photo above shows a "Smurf," or the Stepped-Frequency Microwave Radiometer, which has adorned the wings of hurricane hunting WC-130J aircraft since 2007. The device, and the 24/7 missions run by the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, have helped increase the National Hurricane Center's accuracy rate by 30%.
Kite surfing is a fun sport that involves using a large kite and a surfboard to get a lot of speed up on the water. It's like wakeboarding without a boat. Naturally, you need a decent amount of wind for it to work properly. There's a limit to how much wind you should use, however, as a dimwitted kite surfer discovered when he tried to unleash his kite during a tropical storm in Fort Lauderdale and ended up getting flung across the beach and into the side of a building right in front of local news cameras.
Instead of trekking across ice sheets and into dangerous areas to gather data on climate change, scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology are going to send robots in instead. Dubbed SnoMotes, the in-development robots are modified kids snowmobiles—chosen for their cheapness and resilience—packed with navigation gear and sensors, and able to work as a team without the need for remote control.
When it comes to forecasting the weather, I often think that sticking a moistened finger into the air is about as accurate as all of that fancy doppler radar. However, there is no shortage of weather addicts out there that religiously check the news and treat weathermen like they were friggin' prophets. It appears that Oregon Scientific has developed a weather forecasting watch made specifically for these types of people.
You think China inducing rain to prevent a washed-out Olympics is impressive? Whatever. Check this out: a group of scientists has just shot a laser into some clouds and triggered lightning.
We like strange USB gadgets: Brando's new gizmo plugs into a USB port and gives you accurate temperature and humidity measurements, on a second-by-second basis, if you like. It even logs the data for you, in a spreadsheet-friendly fashion. So that you can, you know, predict if it's going to rain on your laptop. Maybe you put a long lead on it, and dangle it out the window? I don't know. For those of you really into that kind of microclimate data collection, it works between -40ºF and 120ºF, measures humidity 0-100% and works with XP/Vista. Available now for US$24. [Geek Alerts]
