Weather on the Web

As you can see we now have near real-time weather data being displayed on the website. The information is uploaded every few minutes from our school weather station.

If you click on the weather display it will take you to WeatherUnderground (wunder.com) and show you more information from our station including data history, forecasts and more.

What did Santa bring Lakeview?

Maybe it wasn't a fat guy in a red suit --- more like a skinny science geek in jeans and a t-shirt.

There was no sleigh and reindeer, instead he had a ladder, drill and some clamps, but he was jolly and on the roof top. And now Lakeview finally has their weather station installed.

When you get back to school we'll have a monitor display in our room that will give us readings from the station -- temperature, wind speed/direction, rainfall, humidity and barometric pressure.

Next we'll install some software on one of the classroom computers and build a Lakeview Weather Page for the web site.

Let me know if you're interested in becoming a Lakeview weather expert!

Chapter Challenge Re-visited

Let's take a look at what I would have considered as good accurate discussions (answers) in your Chapter Challenge. Good answers could come directly from classroom work without the need to do further research. The textbook (remember you can always checkout a textbook from the media center) and classroom notes are all you needed.

First you needed to discuss ocean circulation and how it changes during El Nino. Here's what I was looking for:

• Factors that influence currents: winds, land masses, Coriolis effect
• Normal non-El Nino Pacific currents: strong easterly trade winds, easterly equatorial currents, mounding of warm surface waters in the western Pacific, cold deep water upwelling along South America
• El Nino changes: weak or reversed trade winds, equatorial currents reverse (flow down hill) towards east, central and eastern Pacific warm, western Pacific cools, upwelling ceases.

Second discuss the relationship between ocean and atmospheric circulation during El Nino:

• Changes in pacific equatorial currents and warming of central and western Pacific affects Walker Cell circulation. Normal Walker Cell circulation collapses and warm moist air raises over the central and eastern Pacific, low pressure moves east.
• Jet streams move south across US
• Changes in these circulations affect the weather around the globe

Next discuss the weather impacts in Central Florida:

• Changes to jet stream results in fewer hurricanes due to increase wind shear aloft, hurricanes that do form tend to be pushed more towards the north Atlantic.
• Temperatures do not vary significantly, some slight cooling in winter months of about 2-3°
• Increased cloud cover and rainfall, an additional 10 inches (30%). This may have some negative impacts on crops and tourism, however it helps to recharge the aquifers and reduce the number of brush fires
• Increased likelihood of tornadoes

Discuss the relationship between ocean circulation, the aquatic food chain and El Nino:

• During non El nino years upwelling occurs along the west coast of south America. This upwelling bring nutrient rich cold bottom waters to the surface where it helps feed small organisms called phytoplankton. Phytoplankton are producers and form the bottom rung of the ocean food chain.
• During El Nino years the upwelling stops which results in significantly less phytoplankton. The reduced levels of phytoplankton means each level higher up on the food chain will have insufficient food.

How El Nino changes might affect the food chain/production in Florida:

• While El Nino has a significant negative affect on the fishing industry along the west coast of South America, it does not have a significant impact on fishing in Florida. El Nino is an event in the Pacific ocean not the Atlantic. However it may affect imports of certain fish and fish products raising prices due to decreased catch
• El Nino does affect our winter crops in Florida with increased rainfall and reduced sun. Increased rain might delay planting or increase diseases. Different varieties may need to be planted or different planting techniques used. El Nino even affects cattle raised in Florida, as pasture area is less productive.

A summary recommendation on whether Florida should or shouldn't hold a conference on the impacts of El Nino:

• Based on our research I would not recommend a conference on EL Nino since the major impacts to Florida are fairly mild except for increased number of tornadoes and some agricultural impacts. However it would seem reasonable to have some type of meeting to discuss tornado preparedness and public safety. Agricultural issues can be resolved through better forecasting of El Nino events allowing farmers to better plan.

Good accurate presentation of this information would have earned a B. To earn an A requires going beyond what we did in class and adding information from additional resources.

Weather Station

We have now completed our unit on Oceans and will be moving to study the Earth's atmosphere. In this unit we'll actually install a weather station at Lakeview (the equipment was donated by the City of Winter Garden).

Once installed on the roof a receiver in our classroom will display accurate readings of temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, rainfall and air pressure. We'll even be able to create a weather page on the web.

More El Nino Info

Here are 3 simple pages to better understand El Nino.

1. An Introduction
2. Normal Conditions
3. El Nino Event
   

For a more in depth look go to the Home Study page.

Another Website to Study Hurricanes

Storm surge is one of the affects of hurricanes that can result in a lot of damage. Click on the image above to learn more.

Seems to happen on weekends

Tropical storm activity increased again this weekend so we'll be adding another named storm to our tracking maps on Monday. Interestingly, Monday is also the peak date for hurricane season and there are now 3 tropical disturbances developing that we should monitor. Click on the image below to see the most recent activity.



I want to give you a heads up that you have a test on hurricanes coming up. Of course all of you are going to want to do some additional studying and I've made it easy. Here's a link to a great site that I think you'll enjoy and also learn from. Try it out and let me know what you think.

When you go to the site you'll see an image like that below. You will have to register in order to view the activities. Clicking on the image below will also take you to the site.







Here's another way you can study for the test -- read pages 9 and 11 in your notebooks and view the videos listed below. These are the same videos we watched in class.

• The Science Behind Hurricanes
• El Nino And La Nina Weather Patterns
• Lessons Learned From Previous Hurricane Seasons
• What To Do When A Storm Hits
• Behind The Scenes Tour Of Hurricane Hunter Plane
  

Hurricane Felix

Here we go again. Friday Felix formed just North of South American as a Tropical Depression with winds of 35 mph and a barometric pressure of 1008 mBar. By today, Sunday, it's pressure dropped to 980 mBar with sustained winds of 105 mph and is rated as a category 2 hurricane.


Look at the global sea surface temperatures. What are they telling you? What does the blue color off the western coast of South America mean? Click on the image and explore Weather Underground, a great site for weather information. Look at the projected path for Felix, find where the jet stream is, and look at the paths of other hurricanes.

You can begin tracking hurricane Felix on your tracking maps (page 9 in your interactive notebook). Also monitor tropical disturbance 98 over the next few days and look for further development.

El Nino

I was looking around for more information about El Nino and I found this clip on a NASA site. Click on the image to see the movie (requires QuickTime and speakers).

Here's the site I found it on. It provides some good basic information about El Nino. Follow this link : http://kids.earth.nasa.gov/archive/nino/intro.html or click on the image below.

Welcome to a New Year of Science

Hey, I'm glad you stopped by the site. I'm still making some changes to it, but by the end of the week, I should have it all done. Take some time and look around.

This year we'll be studying Earth and Space Science and in fact although today is just the second day of class, we already started by viewing the video on tropical storms. Now even though I didn't require you to take notes on the video, it contained some important information.

What can you tell me about the formation of hurricanes? How does El Nino affect hurricanes? What should you do to prepare for hurricanes? If you find it difficult to answer these questions then consider it a gentle suggestion to pay a little more attention in class. Perhaps, even when it's not required, you might still take notes.

One of the things I like to do on the site is give you additional sources for information and study. Remember I said learning is your responsibility and every night you should be at least reviewing what we did in class or going a little deeper. Well click on this link and check out some of the sources from WFTV.