Last week I mentioned the 20 Signs of a hard winter. Here are some initial reports:

In
Douglasville, Ga. I have noticed green acorns on the ground, green pecans on the ground, more spiders in the house, a squirrel burying nuts. I figured it was due to the drought. Maybe we will have a cold winter. My children have only seen a good heavy snow 1 time in their lives. That was in
Oak Grove Ky. snow, ice, and 15 below zero, but they were all babies then. Danny

Response: Danny - sounds like you have it all. Acorns, spiders, pecans and squirrels. Got out the shovel and any tool to stay warm this winter!

I live in central New Hampshire on Lake Winnipesauke– we have an abnormally high amount of Daddy Long Leg spiders in the area, I mean they are everywhere and on everything. Does this have any significance on a hard winter?

Please let me know what you think. Vicky

Response: I am not sure that the number of Daddy Long Legs is as significant as whether they are beating down the doors to get in. This is one to watch.

Here is an observation about caterpillar tents:

I just read your article about the woolybear caterpillar. “The wollybear caterpillar - A narrow orange band in the middle of the caterpillar warns of heavy snow; fat and fuzzy caterpillars warns of bitter cold. Also… a rough winter if you see lots of them crawling around, their movement is slow (thought they were always slow?), you saw them crawling before the first frost.”

I lived in Asheville NC and now in
Greenville, SC. I remember the winter of 1977 when
Beaver
Lake froze over and people were actually driving their cars across the lake in
Asheville. I just went to the Farmers Almanac and looked at the highs and lows for that month….what a month. I remember we had only two days of school all of January because of the cold. I visited
Hendersonville this past weekend and I noticed something that I have not seen in many years. There was an unusual amount of worms building nests in most of the trees throughout the area. They didn’t seem to spoil the Apple Festival or Apple Parade this weekend. Ken

Response: Ken is observing an annual occurrence,. It is called the Eastern Tent Caterpillar. The caterpillars lay eggs and each spring they hatch and start devouring leaves of trees and shrubs. When the caterpillar reach maturity after 6 weeks, they develop a silken cocoon that becomes visible on trees. It is not a sign of a hard winter but is the way this species survives year after year after year.

It may be a bit early for winter signs or is it?? Let me know what you are seeing.

We called for a possible hurricane to hit the East Coast this week. It was relatively quiet until the tropical storm turned up. Not a hurricane but winds and rain nonetheless. .

Technorati Tags: winter, weather, Farmers’ Almanac

by pgeiger
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On Labor Day, I had the pleasure of being interviewed on the Dave Rutherford Show which airs in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I find Canadians to be very insightful and offer great questions during call in programs. One caller asked about my impression of Solar Cycle 24. I have read about it but had to do some digging. Solar Activity cycles first started being named in 1755. A man named Rudolf Wolf devised a way to calculate sunspot cycles in 1848. An expert on sunspot lore, Wolf confirmed the existence of a cycle in sunspot numbers. He more accurately determined the cycle’s length to be 11.1 years by studying historical records. I asked Farmers’ Almanac astronomer, Joe Rao, for his take on Cycle 24.“Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research recently announced a new solar activity forecast model* indicating that the next 11-year solar cycle, Cycle #24, is expected to have a 30-50% higher number of sunspots than the current Cycle #23. Sunspots are correlated to solar activity, solar flares and radiation storms, and geomagnetic activity in Earth orbit, so the environment of our satellites orbits will be comparably more intense. It does predict that there will be more storms and an overall increase in average storm intensity compared to the current cycle. The model also predicts that Cycle #24 will be as intense as two previous cycles, #21 and #22, and this is the critical factor. Most satellites have withstood these levels previously, and are designed to withstand environments of this intensity.

So . . . what does this all mean? Hopefully, if this forecast is correct, many of our important satellites on which we rely upon for radio, television and phone service will be able to stand up to the increased levels of solar radiation produced by potent solar flares and geomagnetic storms. There is also an up side to this: spectacular displays of the aurora borealis (”northern lights”) may become more frequent and may be seen at more southerly latitudes than they normally are observed.”

There are websites devoted to Cycle 24. Some people predict major disruptions on earth because of the intensity of the solar flares as Joe mentions above. During an earlier cycle, I do remember more frequent “Northern Lights”. That would be a treat. So like it or not, we will soon enter Solar Cycle 24… we’ll see the impact on communications along with a few benefits.

If you are a late night person, tonight (or should I say Friday morning) at 1am - 2am. I will be doing an annual call in program with long time friend, Peter Anthony Holder on CJAD/CFRB Radio in Montreal and Toronto. If you are up and can get the station, give us a call.

Technorati Tags: Solar Cycle 24, solar cycles, Dave Rutherford, Farmers’ Almanac

by pgeiger
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I hope you had a safe and relaxing Labor Day Weekend. It was picture perfect in Maine. I was thinking of the best and worst places from the perspective of weather, so I went into past almanacs and found:

What is the safest weather town in the United States??

A survey was conducted a number of years ago that took into account the probability of a tornado or an earthquake. When the survey was completed, it was determined that the town of Crossroads, in southeast New Mexico is the “safest” in the nation.

Speaking of tornadoes - what city has been it by the most tornadoes?

According to the National Weather Service, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma has been hit with the most tornadoes. The exact number varies because city limits and tornado reporting practices have changed over the years. But it is agreed that the number of tornado hits is over 100.

If you want to experience a thunderstorm/ lightning strike, where should you go?

Again the National Weather Service indicates that the most thunderstorms and lightning strikes hit Central Florida each year.

Want a “bad hair day” then climb Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, it has the highest recorded wind speeds in the world - topping at 231 mph (372 kilometers). This occurred on April 12, 1934. This record has stood for over 73 years and has become the stuff of legends. It was also a tribute to the small staff in the observation tower that endured this surprise storm and logged the important data.

Finally, if you just can’t get enough snow more snow falls in the Western Mountains of the US than anywhere in the world. Mt. Rainier in Washington has an average 692″ (17,580 mm) of white stuff each year. Their record fall came in 1971 - ‘72 when they topped 1,122 inches ((28,500mm). In the East - Mt. Washington enjoys an average 269″ per year.

But for those of us who live closer to “the ground” here are a few choices this or any winter:

Valdez, Ak - 327″

Blue Canyon, Ca - 240.3

Marquette, Mi - 138.7″

Sault St. Marie, Mi - 117.4″

Syracuse, NY - 115.8″

Caribou, Me - 112″

Technorati Tags: weather, tornadoes, thunderstorm, lightning, Farmers’ Almanac

by pgeiger
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