Weather roundup 12/28/13

It’s been a somewhat quiet week of weather across the continental United States.  With the easing of the harsh weather, repairs are still being done to the electric grids from Michigan to Maine that were damaged by last week’s ice storms.  There are still thousands without power, but will soon be back online.  A quick extreme cold snap in the middle of the country has been replace by milder air in the first part of the weekend, but the mild air won’t last as an even colder batch of arctic air will blast down giving a chill for the new year to much of the US.  Temps will plunge WAY below normal for a large section of the country.  No major systems expected this week but there could be a couple small snow events in the planes lakes and Northeast.  Here is a look at some of the coldest air expected.  Those are wind chills, by the way.


Other parts of the world are still having some pretty harsh weather.  In Switzerland, some areas saw as much as 3 feet of snow fall in just 12 hours.



Down in the Antarctic, there is a ship that has been stuck in the ice all week.  It is so cold that even the ice cutter ship got stuck in the ice.  Rescue efforts continue.  I say just get one of those swamp boats, enclose it with heaters and glide everyone away.  Lol

Ice Breaker gets stuck in Antarctica
Weather is a big story over in England where even the Prime minister is taking flack for a seeming poor response to flooding and power outages caused by large storms that have struck the Islands this year.



A strange Boom was heard over parts of Canada this week.  There have been reports of strange noises heard at various times around the world, many even captured on video.  IN this case, investigators are starting to see a link  between some of these “booms” and ice storms.  “Cryoseisms may be related to freezing rain! "What is similar about these events and the Christmas Eve events is that all of them had recently experienced an ice storm."

Christmas Eve Boom heard in Canada

Chemtrails

Chemtrails.

What are they?  One of the biggest conspiracy theories running around the web the past 20 years has been about chemtrails, or the lines you see in the sky after a jet flies over.  I’ve seen claims that they are the result of a government weather control program, or the government is spraying mind control things into the air.  Another theory I saw is about them being used as a means to curb global warming. 

I’ve been involved in the weather field for 25 years, and studied weather since I can remember.  Now I know what I am about to say will bring great protestations by some people and I will be accused of being part of the conspiracy, bought out by the man, or a shill for the government, but it all truthfulness, I am none of those thing.   I just want to shed some simple truth about what these chemtrails are, and hopefully alleviate some unneeded anxieties.  We have enough real issues to deal with without worrying about imaginary ones.


Chemtrails are formed by jet aircraft generally flying above 30,000 feet.  The hot exhaust from the engine being ejected into the cold atmosphere condenses water vapor in the atmosphere into a cloud.  The greater the humidity, or amount of moisture in the air, the longer lasting and length of the cloud produced.  If the air is dry, you may get little to no contrails (condensation trails, which is what I will call them from here on).  If the air is saturated, the contrail may linger for hours and spread into higher coverage cirrus clouds.  Various cross winds in the atmosphere can give the lingering contrails various shapes and deformation. 

Scientists have known about and studied contrails for years.  They are easily predictable.  The following chart displays the weather conditions and the predicted occurrence of contrails and their duration.


I know people love to cling to their conspiracies, so probably nothing here is going to change any minds of anyone deep into them.  I just hope I can ease the minds of those who have been freaked out by these conspiracies.  It really is just that simple.  It is not some complex government hidden agenda new world order population weather control conspiracy. Now granted, some of those may be out there, but this is not one of them.