Tom Niziol's Winter Weather Blog

Astronomical VS. Meteorological Winter

Fri, 1 Mar 2013 15:43:00 GMT

Now that we are getting toward the end of winter, I through it might be interesting to explain the differences in how winter is defined from an astronomical and meteorological standpoint. I am pretty certain everyone is familair with the astronomical-based seasons. They are defined by the rotation of the earth around the sun and the tilt of the earth's axis. In Figure 1, I have outlined the tilt of the earth's axis in relation to the sun throughout the year. As...
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NORTHEAST SNOW STORM - THE PIVOT POINT

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 17:43:00 GMT

This is a quick look at the Upton New York radar loop (courtesy College of DuPage NEXLAB) from 1800 UTC 2/8/13 through 0800 UTC 2/9/13 at approximately 15 minute intervals. The point I want to make with this animation is to show how the band from NEMO sets up across Long Island and literally pummels them for several hours. Note how the band pivots right across the island as the Low moves from south to north several miles to the east of the island during the night....
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Snow Pack Across The Sierra

Tue, 5 Feb 2013 12:25:00 GMT

As many people who follow my blogs know, I absolutely love to view the high resolution imagery available from our nation's polar orbiter satellites. These satellites orbit from pole to pole at a low height, around 450 miles, compared to geo-stationary satellites which orbit around 23,000 miles above the earth. Although polar orbiters only provide a couple images a day at any one point on earth, they provide very high resolution photos. I got hooked looking at the...
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MESO-VORTICES ON THE EASTERN GREAT LAKES

Fri, 1 Feb 2013 18:11:00 GMT

Recently there were some very interesting features spinning away on the Great Lakes as seen by the GEOS-East satellite. Although somewhat masked by higher thin, cirrus clouds, you can still make out the circulations or "spins" going on across three of the bodies of water which make up the Eastern Great Lakes. In Figure 1, over Georgian Bay (northernmost) you can see a rather large meso-vortex spinning away in the cloud field as it moves south along the Bay. On L...
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Great Lakes ice cover - It's that time of year again

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 21:22:00 GMT

It's about that time of the year again when the Great Lakes begin to develop significant ice cover. Of course, the buildup of ice has a lot to do with the air temperature and this year the average air temperature around the lakes has been warmer than normal. Figure 1a shows the surface air temperature anomaly for the period November 1st, 2012 through January 5, 2013. As you can see, the air temperature over the Great Lakes ran anywhere from 1 to 2 degrees Cent...
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