RAIN, RAIN, COME AGAIN ANYDAY!

Finally, we’ve seen relief from the drought… 

WXII12 viewer, Leanne Evans sent us this photograph of her 10 gallon fish tank filled with rainfall:

Several towns in the Foothills and Mountains received more than 8 inches of rainfall. Although, rain totals of more than 6 inches in Greensboro between October 19th & October 26th put a major dent in the rainfall deficit, we need another 10 inches to reach the yearly average. 

With a dry winter likely, it’s a good time for us to continue our water conservation efforts.  A great way to figure out how many gallons of water you’re using in your house is a water use calculator:

 http://www.miamidade.gov/conservation/water_calculator.asp

 The drought outlook through January suggests rainfall will be below average.

Enjoy your week!

Meteorologist Michelle Kennedy

Katrina: A Look Back

Posted by wxii12.com news at 8/29/2007 1:18 PM
By WXII 12 Weather Plus meteorologist Michelle Kennedy:

Hurricane Katrina made landfall as a Category 3 storm on Aug. 29, 2005 at 7:10 a.m. just south of Buras, Louisiana. 1,836 people died from Louisiana to Alabama and Mississippi. When it comes to property damage, this is the most destructive hurricane ever to make landfall along the United States coastline. To date, our deadliest storm was Hurricane Galveston in 1900. More than 6,000 to 12,000 people were killed as Galveston’s coast was washed away in the storm surge.
That morning meteorologist Brian Slocum saw Katrina blowing up in size nearly covering the entire Gulf of Mexico with clouds and outer rainbands. The storm had become a monster, but Brian wasn’t convinced the weather computers were telling an accurate story. He rebooted all of the weather programs to make sure what he was seeing was reality. Unfortunately, the data we were receiving was correct. The hurricane had in a matter of hours grown to a Category 5 storm with winds of 175 miles per hour.

The storm dropped two categories, but the devastation was astounding. What followed was a disastrous few days that turned into weeks for people in Mississippi and Louisiana. When the levee system failed in New Orleans, the flooding shutdown the city and stranded its residents.
I was away in New York City during Katrina’s landfall. In the diners and on the subways, people were talking about the hurricane and all of those people begging for help. Many individuals across the country decided if the government wasn’t acting quickly, then they would bring aid to Katrina victims anyway possible.
One of those generous people was Robert Nickell of Stokes County. He and his wife rented a truck and loaded up supplies of water, canned goods and basic necessities. They decided to help people in Mississippi who were also waiting for days for help. They arrived at the distribution point after being waved off with guns and finally receiving an escort from U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents. Nickell said they’ve never witnessed the kind of desperation and chaos like the victims of Hurricane Katrina endured.

Please take a look at the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration website for links to satellite images of Katrina and photos of the aftermath. The site is:
http://www.katrina.noaa.gov/

Muggy & Buggy: Why the praying mantis is welcome in my backyard

Posted by wxii12.com blogs at 8/30/2007 10:08 AM
As we’ve lamented over the heat this summer, we’ve also done our share of complaining about the bugs!
Although we are in the middle of a drought, it doesn’t take much water to encourage mosquitoes to breed. In fact, I discovered a small puddle in the backyard from our air conditioning drain.
My mother-in-law, an avid gardener, had just the solution. She brought me a gift of praying mantis cocoons the other day. While I often squirm at the sight of insects, I do appreciate their purpose on this planet.
Fortunately, the praying mantis will eat other insects including mosquitoes. We placed them up on the branch of a bush in a protected spot in the yard.

I’m optimistic that this is a great way to beat the mosquitoes without the use of pesticides. For more information, I found a few links that might interest gardeners and those of us who just want the mosquito bites to stop:
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2154.html
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/index.html
http://www.amazon.com/Kaufman-Field-Guide-Insects-America/dp/0618153101 … Read More »

Appalachian State 34 – Michigan 32

Posted by wxii12.com blogs at 9/3/2007 12:03 PM
Reaching the 40 year mark a few weeks ago, I realize more and more the things that move me. Seeing someone open their eyes to the Lord’s Love for them, my son swishing his first real game basket or even my daughter Lacey wearing a nice classy “My Dad Rocks” t-shirt all touch me deeply. Faith and family invite passion in ways most other areas can rarely rival. When my Happy Appys knocked off the mighty Michigan Wolverines Saturday, something “did it” for me then that has me smiling in places inside that I had forgotten even existed.

The classic “Something For Joey” when John Cappeletti fulfills a pledge to his ill little brother by scoring an absurd amount of Penn State touchdowns was my first discovery that a sports experience could trigger an emotional response (tears of course). Wake fans can relate to “Brian’s Song” and the emotions piling up with that one about former Deacon Brian Piccalo and his battle with cancer. “Rudy” gets me everytime even after a dozen viewings! Without question, I am deeply moved when an underdog comes through in a supernatural way. I think its those rare instances when faith and circumstance collide and we all get a brief glimpse when impossiblity becomes a liar. I will be shocked if some creative writer or producer doesn’t jump on the opportunity Saturday’s Ann Arbor war brings for a movie script. One where tears and cheers will co-mingle even with the hardest of hearts.

You can sincerely beleive that David did beat Goliath but until you actually see it, the power of that revelation has limit. When Corey Lynch bursted off that line and shocked the world with his field goal block Saturday, I released a yell that came from deep within. A classic “yawp” by Robin Williams standards for sure. My big and goofy body did a dance in the Fox and The Hound that would likely make most wolves howl in fear, but nonetheless a joyful noise of jubilee in public without regret of anyone “evaluating” me. What a release!

To all my fellow Boone goons, Daniel Boone Inn meals are great, a cheeseburger from Boone Drug is good and Makoto’s ginger sauce is tough to beat. What we just accomplished Saturday as a school tops them all. ‘Walk tall and ride this joy’ is what I say!
To all my new Ohio State friends who danced with me, ‘you guys rock’ but don’t get used to it because my Mountaineers might be coming to a Columbus, Ohio stadium near you soon.
I love this game!

OH SO DRY

Posted by wxii12.com blogs at 9/6/2007 10:14 PM

“It’s so dry the grass is crunching beneath my feet.” That’s how the conversation went tonight during our newscast as my coworker and friend Cameron Kent described our ever-worsening drought situation. You may have other words for it and other ways of describing it– but the message is the same. Cameron’s right. It’s bad.
The entire state of North Carolina is in some stage of drought. “Exceptional” drought (the highest level) is occurring in the southwestern mountains. “Extreme” drought exists across the heart of the Triad, the Triangle, and the Charlotte metro area. “Severe” drought extends from Sparta to Elizabeth City, with “Moderate” drought across the extreme northern tier.
With “extreme” drought, you can expect major crop and pasture losses along with widespread water shortages and restrictions. So don’t be surprised if this drought forces you to change your habits in a hurry. I have to say though that I haven’t noticed alot of lawn watering in my travels. All I have seen is brown lawns and dry fields. It seems most of us have tired of fighting this losing battle.
As the phrase goes, “Rome was not built in a day”, and too we didn’t get into this drought overnight. It’s been a long haul this summer. Starting in May, the Triad has yet to reach it’s normal rainfall per month- and now it’s September! Here’s a look at rainfally amounts in the Triad since May:
May’s Rainfall .54″ (3.41″ below normal)
June’s Rainfall 2.20″ (1.33″ below normal)
July’s Rainfall 2.38″ (2.06″ below normal)
August’s Rainfall 1.36″ (2.35″ below normal)
September Rainfall as of Sept. 6th 0″ (.83″ below normal)
The tally of those numbers leads us to 9.98″ below normal since May!
We need rain and and we need it in a hurry. It’s so dry my children asked me the other day if the earth was coming apart. We were looking down at the dry, cracked clay at a construction site we were touring. My youngest, who’s four, thought those cracks were getting bigger right before his eyes!
If you’d like to share your thoughts on our current drought or recollections of past droughts, please feel free to pass them along here.
For more information on the drought situation in North Carolina check out this link http://www.ncdrought.org/
Lanie

LA NINA & THE TROPICS…

Posted by wxii12.com blogs at 9/9/2007 10:41 PM

La Nina appears to be taking shape in the Pacific. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration refers to La Nina as the periodic cooling of ocean surface temperatures in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific that occurs every three to five years. Easterly trade winds in the Pacific also strengthen. Take a look at this website and view a current animation of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific:
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/MJO/enso.shtml This pattern may have a big impact on our tropical weather pattern into 2008 by creating encouraging a more active pattern. As we wrap up the 2007 hurricane season with a fall peak in Atlantic storms, we may expect to see an increase in activity through the end of October. “While we can’t officially call it a La Nina yet, we expect that this pattern will continue to develop during the next three months, meeting the NOAA definition for a La Nina event later this year,” said Mike Halpert, acting deputy director of the Climate Prediction Center in Camp Springs, Maryland. For the southeast, this developing pattern may bring a slightly better chance for wet conditions in September and October, but a dry pattern may develop for the winter months. We can only hope for a few tropical systems to bring much needed rainfall to the Carolinas this fall. La Nina will likely mean a wetter than normal conditions in the Pacific Northwest and drier than normal conditions in the drought stricken southwestern United States this fall. Look for the next La Nina update from the Climate Prediction Center on October 11th.

CONFIRMED TORNADOES IN THE TRIAD…A LITTLE HELP FROM HUMBERTO

Posted by wxii12.com blogs at 9/15/2007 6:10 PM

Weak tornadoes are typical with tropical systems that move inland. We’ve seen our share of weak tornadoes from tropical systems in the last few years. Remnants of Tropical Storm Cindy helped form a tornado just east of Yadkinville on July 7, 2005. On September 17, 2004, Tropical Storm Ivan encouraged a tornado near Stokesdale in Guilford County.More recently on September 14, 2007, we just so happened to have a nice combination of tropical energy from Hurricane Humberto’s remnants along with upper level support and a surface front. These weather ingredients helped produce a tornado in Clemmons area at 2:36 p.m and then another tornado at 4:23 p.m. near Thomasville on highway 52.
Homeowners along Peace Haven road say the tornado knocked down several trees as it tore through their neighborhood. Siding was ripped off and a resident reported her fence being blown away. The strength of these tornadoes were listed as weak with winds between 65 mph and 86 mph on the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF-0. The tornado rating is assigned after damage is surveyed. Take a look at how meteorologists estimate the power of tornadoes:
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/ef-scale.html

Between the months of March and May, the state of North Carolina experiences the most tornadoes for the year. Many tornadoes in North Carolina develop between the hours of 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Are you wondering when the last time a tornado hit your neighborhood? The Storm Event Database developed by climatologists at the State Climate Office of North Carolina may help you find out the answer. Here’s a link to their database:
http://www.nc-climate.ncsu.edu/monitoring/events.html

To be better prepared for severe weather, make sure to have a family disaster plan. Also, remember to check the battery in your NOAA weather radio each month when you change your smoke detector battery. If you don’t have a NOAA weather radio, consider buying one from a local electronics store. This radio acts as a weather alarm clock and will sound an alarm if a warning is issued by the National Weather service for your area.

FALL OR SUMMER?

Posted by wxii12.com blogs at 9/23/2007 11:25 PM

Fall officially started on Sunday morning September 23rd at 5:51 a.m. Instead of highs in the comfortable upper 70s, we reached 92 degrees! Yes, it’s hot and we have a big week ahead with above normal highs in the 80s. A ridge of high pressure at the surface and aloft will create the warm conditions.
In case you’re keeping track, we have seen 59 days of 90 degrees or higher and 4 days at 100 degrees this year. The heat has only compounded our drought troubles. As we begin fall we are more than 12 inches below normal for the year. The monthly outlook doesn’t look great for rain or an end to the extreme drought. Check out the latest drought conditions by clicking on the link below:
http://drought.unl.edu/dm/DM_southeast.htm
Now that autumn is underway, you’ll notice we have fewer hours of daylight and more hours in the dark. Are you wondering just when we the sun will rise on a given day? A great resource for sunrise and sunset information is a site from the U.S. Naval Observatory:
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.php
While we are waiting on the cooler temperatures and the rain, we can enjoy the full Harvest Moon on September 26th.

Top 5 Reasons I love the Dixie Classic Fair

Posted by wxii12.com blogs at 9/26/2007 10:47 PM

Top 5 reasons I love the Dixie Classic Fair:Every year since I moved here 6 years ago, I have been able to experience one of my now favorite things in Winston-Salem. It is the Dixie Classic Fair. The first year I was here, I hopped in the car with the television “fair veterans” and we took the cameras, tripods, and lights to the fair for a week full of live weather during our evening newscasts. I didn’t quite know what to expect. I’d only been to the State Fair in Columbia, SC once in college. But even on my first visit to the Dixie Classic Fair, the sights, smells, and memories came flooding back.

Here are the Top 5 reasons I love the Dixie Classic Fair:

1. The people. From all walks of life they gather to eat all they can eat, ride all they can ride, spend all they can spend, and yes go home with a large stuffed animal prize- or at the very least, a bag of cotton candy. The fair brings together everyone and I do mean every one. It is this collective mass that brings me great joy when I am there. With such diversity in our society; unfortunately there are so few opportunities for us to be together as one. I can think of only one other place where I have experienced this– Churchill Downs Derby Week — and it is also still one of my favorite things.

2. The food. In a word “YUM”. If it’s fried, I’m all for it. If it has lots of sugar, I’m in. That’s why I love the flavors of the fair. Fried dough, fried oreos, fried snicker bars, fried milky way, and yes fried twinkies. Did I mention sugar… there’s cotton candy, candied apples, caramel apples, ice cream, and chocolate covered corn to name a few. It’s the only time I allow my children to make a meal out of junk. Why not, it’s only Fair!
3.The music. I love the music that blares from my favorite ride which goes by a number of names. It’s the one that goes round and round to the loudest music I have ever heard. Then it spins you backward… thumping all the way. It’s the ride that makes youngsters scream, entices teenagers and young adults to get close– often too close as one poor sap always gets crushed because he/she chose the outside position in the car! Centrifugal force it’s called. That leads me to the older adult, who chooses to ride with a child in tow while screaming and singing along. Or perhaps the other spectrum… the adult who walks by as quickly as possible- hands firmly clamped over his/her ears. Warning: this could be a sign that you’re headed for the next ride called– “Over the Hill”.
4.The midway. It’s all abuzz. The microphones, the barking, the music, the pops and swirls blurting out of the games as you pass by. Our family favorite is the water gun race. My husband is a multiyear champion. He has yet to disappoint me or the kids. Needless to say, we have more stuffed animals than we need, and find a way to donate them every year.
5. The farm animals. I am not a farm girl, but the fair makes me wish I was. I don’t know that I’d be any good at it. I don’t particularly like the way pigs and goats smell, and I don’t like to have them lick food off of my hand. (I’m a germaphobe that way. I know what you’re thinking…they’re cleaner than the keyboard I’m typing on right now!) I do love to look at them and talk to them. The cows are my favorite. I’ve milked a cow before, and that’s pretty cool. I have really come to adore the farm life at the fair now that my young boys can experience it with me. They touch, smell, point, and talk to the animals, shouldn’t we all?

I’ll be at the fair, and I’ll be looking for you. Let’s share a fried sweet treat why don’t we? And if you have time, use our comment line below to share some of your favorite things at the Fair with me here online.

Lanie

Fall Color Change

Posted by wxii12.com blogs at 10/8/2007 5:12 PM

If I absolutely HAD to pick my favorite season (I love them all for different reasons) — I’d pick fall. It’s the beautiful blend of some of my favorite colors– yellow, red and orange! Our fall color change is just getting underway in the higher elevations of the mountain communities. It’s happening just a little bit later than normal thanks to the warm, dry weather we’ve seen for so many months. But do not despair, there will be color. Just how vibrant will it be? Well that depends on the amount of clear cool nights we see in the near future. It is the sunny, dry days leading to clear, cool nights that will help to intensify the color that we do see. The light frosts we have already seen in the mountains have helped as well. We’ve got more frosty conditions in the forecast for this weekend! Elevations above 4,500 feet are looking the best right now. I have included a couple of web sites that will help you track our fall color change along with some recent photos. We would love to see your photos too, and have a special spot for you to submit your pics under “Fall photos” on our web site right here under the “weather blog”.
Check out these photos by Helen Hopper of Grandfather Mountain. The first is Julian Price Lake, the second was taken along Grandfather Trail.