Earth Day 2012

Happy Earth Day!

 A few tips to help the planet every day:

-Recycle cans, paper, plastic and glass

-Turn off the water when brushing teeth

-When you are finished watching TV, turn it off

- Turn the lights off when you leave the room

-If possible take public transportation or carpool

- Do not litter

Our actions today can prove for a brighter tomorrow

History of Earth Day

6th NOAA EPP Education and Science Forum

Sunday March 25, I left for the 6th NOAA EPP Education and Science Forum in Tallahassee, FL. The forum was held at Florida A & M University. There I attended talks in the Climate and Mitigation technical session as well as the Weather Ready Nation technical session. I also presented some of my research on The Economic Value of Air Quality Forecasting in the poster session. My results are in the preliminary stage as I am comparing air quality measurements to model forecasts. I still have more to review for the economic value. The region I'm observing is the Washington, DC metro region and Baltimore, though I plan to look at more cities in the near future.  I'm studying the Summer 2011season for both cities and the high air quality days during the season. Certain precautions are implemented on very high air quality days and I'm trying to see how much the city is losing on days which turn out to be false positives. I got a lot of feedback on my poster and I'll take that all in towards the progression of my research.

The campus was nice and so was the weather. I missed the DC cold snap. Going to Tallahassee was a bit of a hassle. Before the 25th, in the afternoon, there was no direct nonstop flight from DC to Tallahassee. I left early that morning and had to go to Charlotte, NC then take a flight from there the destination. I can not remember the last time I felt so much turbulence as I did on that morning flight (darn the mixing). The pilot told us it was light to moderate turbulence. Let me just say I was clutching my seat. From NC to Tallahassee it was smoother. The plane was a cute 30 or so seat plane for that flight. I remember being on a flight like that before. I mentioned the afternoon because some of my classmates were on an afternoon flight, 2:30 PM to be exact. When they landed they were greeted by the mayor of Tallahassee, water cannon salutes from firetrucks and news crews. It was the inaugural flight from DC to Tallahassee, so they had a wonderful welcome. There was even cake at the airport. I thought that was awesome.

At the forum, some of my classmates won awards for their presentations. My classmates and I took a direct flight in another 30 or so seat cute plane, going back to DC. We made up about more than half of the flight. In DC for the first time, I took a bus to the terminal. That was cool too. Here are some pictures from the forum.

By my poster.

 Explaining my research.

With some of my classmates and professors at the forum.

View from the plane on the way to NC.

Welcome Spring 2012

Spring has officially arrived for the Northern Hemisphere. Today also known as the Vernal Equinox arrived at 1:14 a.m and marks when the length of day and night are about equal. Some people  try to balance a raw egg on the equinox, which happens two times a year. Did you try it? The other equinox is in September.

With the warm temperatures these past few weeks, it had already begun to feel like Spring. The 2011-21012 winter (wait, what winter?) for much of the United States was above average. In fact this winter is the 4th warmest winter on record since 2000. This map is from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), shows the usual regional ranks for temperatures during this past 'winter'.

  Many plants and trees have already started blooming weeks before their normal blooming time. Many around the region before the start of Spring.  I was in DC this past weekend and saw that much have the Cherry Blossoms have bloomed, which is early for this time of the year. I snapped a few shots of them, they are really beautiful trees:

Spring you kicked Winter to the side and made your presence known. For much of the United States, this was weeks ago, yet now we can officially welcome you. So welcome Spring!

NASA Tweetup with Astronaut Ron Garan

 Signed photograph of Astronaut Ron Garan.

Yesterday, my boyfriend Rex and I went to a special Valentine's Day edition of NASA Tweetup.  This was our second tweetup.  Our first tweetup was back in October 2011. The link to my blog entry on that adventure can be found here. We saw two astronauts, Sandy Magnus and Chris Ferguson from STS-135, the last space shuttle mission at NASA.

I found out I had been selected for the Ron Garan @Astro_Ron tweetup in Washington, DC on January 30th. I was delighted because only 150 people were randomly selected for this event and the last tweetup I had gone too, I had been on the waitlist. I replied with my response (heck yeah I was going...I didn't write that hehe) and was set for the February 14th tweetup.

From the NASA site, "Garan spent 164 days in space during the Expedition 27 and Expedition 28 missions to the International Space Station. He and his crewmates launched April 4, 2011, and returned to Earth on Sept. 15, 2011. Aboard the station, the crew worked on a variety of microgravity experiments and hosted two space shuttle missions, including the last shuttle to visit the station. Garan also participated in the last space-shuttle-based spacewalk during the STS-135 mission." Garan also took pictures of his time in space and shared them on his Twitter account and on his blog Fragile Oasis blog.

There were many people at the event. Some of the farthest came from Arizona and California.  There was a large show of hands, for first time attendees and it was nice seeing a big addition to the NASA tweetup family.  A full list of the attendees can be found here. Thank you to everyone who contributes towards putting the wiki together :-)

At the tweetup we introduced ourselves by our twitter handle and expressed our gratitude towards Stephanie Schierholz @schierholz, who stated that this was her last tweetup for NASA and was her last official event as an employee of NASA. She has moved on to Raytheon. Garan was very personable and had a great sense of humor. He answered many of the audience's questions. One of my favorites was about Underseas Laboratories. Garan explained about his life and space and mentioned events like viewing lightning storms, auroras, and watching falling meteorites, as some of his favorite moments in space. He also likes seeing the lights on Earth. He discussed the idea of energy from the moon and how it is greater because it doesn't go through the atmosphere, nor is it hindered by weather.  He talked what he missed on Earth while at the International Space Station (ISS) and his told of a time when space junk was headed toward the ISS and that he and his other crewmates had practiced for moments like that. Thankful the space junk did not hit the ISS. Garan stated that the smell of space, is burnt metal and that space exploration is learning about life on Earth from an outside view. "Nothing is impossible," he said.

A sequel to the ISS Blues was shown at the event and displayed Garan playing his guitar and other crewmates. The first ISS Blues was shown back in September 2011. According to Garan, "You gotta have fun, or else you'll go crazy." A timelapse of the ISS flyover Earth was shown as well. It was absolutely breathtaking seeing the lights on Earth and the aurora. I drooled at the aurora. The event ended with a special presentation for Stephanie, honoring her for all the work she's done helping to put NASA in a more social media environment. I'd like to thank NASA, Stephanie, Astronaut Ron Garan and the everyone else involved in the production of this tweetup. It is a great way to connect with NASA and I hope to attend many more in the future. It's also a wonderful way to meet new people. Shout out to my NASA Tweetup family :-)  Here are some pictures from the event:

 My boyfriend Rex and I with our badges. 

 So cute.

 The stage.

 Astronaut Ron Garan. 

 Stephanie receiving her gift from NASA. 

Here is a picture Stephanie tweeted of her gift.

Some goodies we got from NASA:

 Headshots of Astronaut Ron Garan. This includes the signed photograph featured at the top of the blog post.

 :-)

 A pin of the ISS and of the Expedition 28 mission. 

Our badges.

For more information about Ron Garan, check out this link.

"We are all riding on a spaceship, we call Earth," - Ron Garan.

Cirrus Clouds

I saw some sweet cirrus clouds on my way back from visiting my some of my family members, in North Carolina recently.

Here's the picture: 

Love it!

92nd Annual American Meteorological Society Conference

Recently I attended the 92nd Annual American Meteorological Society Conference in New Orleans, LA this year with some of my classmates and faculty from Howard University. I did not present, however I am working on research on the economic value of air quality forecasting, which I may be presenting at a conference in Florida, later this year.

The conference was nice and the talks were very intriguing. I helped out at the Weatherfest last Saturday, giving demonstrations on crushing cans. My group at Howard University (the Graduate Student Association for Atmospheric Sciences) GSAAS also hosted a reception called "The Colour of Weather: Breaking Barriers, Destroying Stereotypes," that Sunday. I went attended mostly the talks on public health, policy and air quality. Vulnerability and Resistance were key words in many of the talks and were further discussed at the Women's and Minority luncheon. I could not forget about Hurricane Katrina which struck the city of New Orleans in 2005. While I was there, severe weather spawned tornadoes in parts of Texas and brought rain to parts to Louisiana.

I'd never to New Orleans previous to this conference and felt the city's spirit.  I walked a little through the French Quarter and I admired the atmosphere there. The atmosphere of Bourbon Street reminded me when I went to Las Vegas. Very alive. I would definitely like to go back to New Orleans and visit the city with my boyfriend, for a more leisure experience. I really enjoyed the weather. It was pretty much in the low to mid 70s for most of the time I was there.

Here are a some pictures from my trip to New Orleans:

 Outside the Convection Center

 Me by a house made from scrap. 

 Picture of a sunset I caught from my hotel room.

 At the WeatherFest.

 Being silly.

The panel at the Women and Minorities Luncheon.

 Never forget. 

 View in the French Quarter.

View of the Mississippi.

 With some of the students and faculty of the Howard University Program of Atmospheric Sciences (HUPAS).

 

With AMS President Elect, Dr. James Marshall Shepard. 

The mask that I got in New Orleans.

DC Snow Event January 9th

Yesterday a low pressure system brought an overachieved snowfall event here in the DC metro region.

Here are the totals from the National Weather Service of the storm and here is a link to the snowfall totals in the exact locations.

 

The storm brought over 1" in some areas. In Adelphi, MD the snow was about 0.5". This was nothing compared to the over 10' of snow that parts of Alaska received recently. I took this screen shot of the radar of the storm yesterday, as well as the weather map:

You can see the low pressure system and the stationary front associated with the storm. High pressure was to the North. The article by the Capital Weather Gang, gives a great explanation of why the forecast was not up to par. Many of the computer models did not agree and some where showing that there was not enough cold air or moisture to produce such an event. When the snow did start falling, the end result was more than an inch in some areas. You can also see the area around Texas which brought flash flooding to Houston.

I found the snow event a delightful treat, it was my birthday yesterday.  The event is also the first snowfall of the 2012 season for DC. It was just enough for a coating and looked really nice coming down and covering the grass. There were a few slick spots on the roads however. Hopefully this won't be the last snowfall event for the season or anything like Snowmageddon, back in February last year. Oh yeah or like that DC snow hole which is clearly shown after a snowfall event back on December 26, 2010:

 Yeah that's real. 

Me enjoying the bit of snow :-)

I also recorded a video posted on TwitVid. Search @weathersavvy1.

Amazing Photo by Photographer Angela Pan

Yesterday, I saw an amazing picture posted on Capital Weather Gang's (@capitalweather) Facebook wall about the sunrise that morning. There were many gorgeous photos, but one really caught my eye by it's magnificence. That photo was by photography Angela Pan (@abpanphoto).  It is the most beautiful picture of a sunrise I have ever seen in my life.

The picture was taken at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC. Here is a link to her posting on the photo.  It is available for purchase on her website, A B. Pan Photography. Many of her other photos are great as well. Good job Angela, you captured so much in this photo, words don't do it justice!