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In the Early Days of Tornado Warnings......

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Monday evening, with both the report of measles in Missouri and a tornado watch in Nebraska and Iowa, Kathleen told me an interesting story from her childhood.  When she was in first grade, she had a case of the measles. In the earliest days of tornado warnings, school officials did not know what to do with the students since Martin City Elementary School did not have a basement. They came up with the following (ridiculous) idea: send the kids out to homes near the school because the homes had basements! Of course, the giant flaw was that the homes were as much as ten minutes away and the tornado could arrive while they were walking out in the open.  Naturally, while Kathleen was home recovering, there was a tornado warning. Her Mom quickly got arriving kids into the basement but poor Kathleen had to stay in her above ground bedroom so as not to infect the other children. If a second tornado hit their home (they were significantly damaged by the Ruskin Heights Tornado of May 2...
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Heads Up: New Mexico

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I am concerned about a Pacific weather system that may eventually cause serious flooding in New Mexico.  Currently the National Hurricane Center says there is an 80% chance of this weather system turning into at least a tropical depression.  The latest reliable model (ECMWF) has the system becoming at least a tropical storm and reading the mouth of the Gulf of California. These systems, historically, cause flooding in the Southwest or Central United States.  Over the next seven days, the NWS is forecast as much as 5" of rain in eastern New Mexico which could be 1/3rd of its annual rainfall in the area. This has the potential to cause serious flooding. For what it is worth, the ECMWF, which came out after the above forecast was made, has a larger area of heavy rain that covers most of the state.  Typically, once the heavy rain occurs in the Southwest, heavy rain occurs in the Great Plains, somewhere from northern Texas to Nebraska. It is too soon to pin down where tha...
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Global Warming: This Will Give You a Laugh

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Glenn Beck found a clip of Dan Rather proclaiming that Florida would be underwater due to global warming. Watching the 1982 clip above will give you a laugh. The sad thing is earth's warmer temperatures are a serious issue that deserves serious measures. But we have spent $17 TRILLION -- mostly foolishly. Wind energy is a fiasco. Many of Al Gore's pet solar schemes have already been shut down, including one that required natural gas to keep running!
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For Young Meteorologists Looking For That First Job

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I have noticed many recent graduates in atmospheric science posting their resumes online and I believe they are getting poor advice from their professors. While I retired in 2018 from a high management position in private sector meteorology, we wanted  to see an applicant's entire job history. This especially included working at McDonald's, Wendy's or other jobs where they worked with the public. Working with clients is what private sector meteorologists do! When I was looking at resumes seeing, "Shadowed at National Weather Service, Summer 2017" it was not impressive because there was no actual responsibility and there was little work with the public.  So, if you are at all interested in working in the private sector (commercial meteorology, television, etc.) I recommend posting all of your employment experience. 
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Flash Flood Safety (1:15pm Update With Flood Forecasts)

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Flood Forecasts as of 1:15pm Wednesday Red = forecast of moderate flooding.  Orange = forecast of minor flooding.  Yellow = forecast of the river nearly reaching flood stage Flash floods seem especially common in autumn. Please keep these safety suggestions in mind. 
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Shelf Cloud Moving into Olathe This Evening

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A shelf cloud moves into Olathe, Kansas, this evening. A severe thunderstorm warning was issued for this storm. It produced 1 1/4" hail near Edgerton. 
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The Never-Ending Story

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