Hi everyone,
Spring finally has arrived and with it, the ALERT Callouts of active weather.
I want to thank the operators who have responded to the callouts and for the long hours you have put in at K4NWS. We are receiving good quality reports both from the Weather Chats and from our RF operations. And, the NWS & ALERT appreciate your efforts.
Always remember, that the reports you gather for the NWS do make a difference. Your efforts and the reports you receive for the NWS help in the raising the situational awareness level and help in the decision making processes leading to the warnings by which lives are being saved.
You may never know whose life you have saved or whose families that will still be whole because you provided that one key piece of information that tilted the scale & resulted in the warning that saved
that family. But, YOU were part of the reason they are still here. A fact for which you should never forget.
While I “have your ear” there is something I would like to discuss and clarify. I know that over the past few months much time, attention and emphasis has been placed on the new Weather Chats, as we have experimented, tweaked and tuned them, getting them ready for regular use.
This attention should not be interpreted as a signal that ALERT is moving away from or minimizing our commitment to RF operations. The Chats are meant to complement, not replace our radio links and operations. And, frankly, if you are planning to or have started relying on the chats as your primary or sole link to the NWS, and start “clipping the coax” you are making a serious mistake.
I like the chats & think they have the potential to greatly increase our effectiveness in ALERT’s mission of gathering reports for the NWS.
But….and the “buts” will always get you in the end, the technology is still exceedingly fragile.
When things work, they work well. When not, modern computer based technology becomes as worthless as gnat dandruff. All it takes for things to come to a screeching halt is for a T-1 or T-3 Line to go down. Or, as in my case, for a squirrel with a bladder problem to take good aim at the telephone pole.
This reliance and trust in computer technology, I fear, will eventually prove to be our National Achilles heel. As we become ever more so dependant on computers, and “high tech solutions”, we increasingly lose the knowledge and abilities of how to function when the inevitable “oh (censored)” moment occurs.
So always keep your tried and true methods & “lower tech” solutions available and operational.
Here’s a good test for you.
Have someone, at a random time of their choosing, flip the main switch at the fuse box. Preferably right at the end of your movie when 500 Apaches are attacking & John Wayne has three bullets left.
How many of your high tech gizmos still work?
How about the low tech ones?
Can you find the flashlight?
Do you own a flashlight?
If you do and it doesn’t turn on and you open it up and a cup of greenish baking soda looking powder and goop comes pouring out, do you recall that you last put new batteries in on New Years Eve in 1999 for Y2K?
Can your Weather radio sound the alarm if there is “no juice”?
And, finally, ask yourself, if this were the “real deal”. If you were suddenly in the dark, at 3 AM in your PJs and you heard the freight train & suddenly remembered that you don’t live anywhere near a railroad track, do you suppose that keeping that old clunky radio and keeping it charged and working might still be worth the trouble, even if it doesn’t blink & shine pretty?
So, put those wire cutters away & charge that sucker up. You may need it sooner than you think.
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Mark’s Almanac
The Romans called April “Aprilis”, probably from the word “aperire”, which means “to open”. This time of year being when buds open. It was originally the second month of the Roman calendar, before Roman King Numa Pompilius added January & February in 700 BC.
April’s Full Moon is “Pink Moon” in Native American folklore.
April is less wet than March & rain becomes more localized and less widespread in nature. The sun heats the lower atmosphere near the ground and since the upper atmosphere is still cold, the warm air rises, reaches the dew point line, forms clouds & then it may rain. April is the first time in the Spring season that favors local convective activity, which is why you have “April Showers”.
April is peak tornado month, with wide scale outbreaks possible. There are 2 ½ times the number of tornadoes as in March. 25% of the year’s tornadoes will have occurred by April 28.
Some notable Alabama tornados in past Aprils include:
April 18, 1953 F3 Lee & Russell County 6 dead 195 injured
April 18, 1953 F3 Shelby County 8 dead 495 injured
April 15, 1956 F4 Jefferson County 25 dead 200 injured “McDonald Chapel Tornado”
April 18, 1969 F4 Montgomery, Bullock ,Butler & Crenshaw Counties
2 dead 15 injured
April 3, 1974 F5 Lamar, Marion, Winston, Lawrence & Morgan Counties
30 dead 230 injured “1974 Super Outbreak”
April 3, 1974 F4 Pickens, Tuscaloosa, Fayette, Walker & Cullman Counties
3 dead 178 injured “1974 Super Outbreak”
April 3, 1974 F5 Limestone-Madison 28 dead 260 injured “1974 Super Outbreak”
April 3, 1974 F3 Cherokee 0 dead 20 injured “1974 Super Outbreak”
April 4, 1977 F5 Jefferson County 22 dead 130 injured “Smithfield Tornado”
April 1, 1998 F3 Russell County 2 dead 23 injured
April 8, 1998 F5 Tuscaloosa &Jefferson County
32 dead 259 Injured “Oak Grove Tornado”
The April 3 & 4, 1974 “Super Outbreak” produced at least eight tornadoes, including four extremely intense and long-lived storms that swept the state killing eighty-six persons and injuring 949. The Huntsville area had an F3, F4 & an F5 tornado. The F4 tornado struck a half mile from where they were still digging out from an F3 tornado that had struck earlier in that day. Guin was literally wiped off the map, as was Xenia Ohio. The entire Eastern US and Southern Canada was affected during “The Day of 100 Tornadoes”, which in total produced 148 tornadoes including 30 F4 and 6 F5 tornadoes, killing 315 people and injuring over 5,000 people.
I remember being 16 years old and listening to the chaos on the old 34/94 repeater as the hams struggled as wave after wave of tornadic storms swept through our state. It was hearing those hams handling the hell that was erupting around them is what made me want to become a ham & to want do the things that we are doing with ALERT & Skywarn today.
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This month’s meeting will be on April 14 at 7PM at the National Weather Service Forecast office at the Shelby County Airport.
Hope to see you there!
Mark / WD4NYL
President
ALERT
