Welcome to the Fall 2007 Edition

In this issue:

Storm Based Warnings	Summer 2007 Climate Summary	Winter Outlook	Comparing Drought 2007 vs. 2000-2002
A Perspective on Climate	New StormReady Communities	The JASON project	Winter Flying in the Appalachians
Winter Weather Terminology	Tropics Summary 2007	The Northeast Snowfall Impact Scale	Winter Weather Safety
Astronomical Sky Forecasts	Air Quality Forecasts	CoCoRaHS: Because Every Drop Counts	SKYWARN^TM Recognition Day
Online SKYWARN^TM Presentation	NWS Blacksburg Working Hard to Serve You!	Welcome to a new employee	Frost/Freeze Program

Have comments or suggestions about our newsletter or articles?

NOAA’S NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WARNINGS PROVIDE MORE DETAILED INFORMATION

by Phil Hysell

The National Weather Service will introduce this fall, storm-based warnings

TOP OF PAGE

NWS Blacksburg Working Hard to Serve You!

by Dave Wert, Meteorologist-in-Charge

National Weather Service logo

The 2007 Severe Thunderstorm Season was a record year for the Blacksburg NWS forecast office.

TOP OF PAGE

CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR MAY-SEPTEMBER 2007

by Robert Stonefield

Departure of Average Temperature from Normal

One hot summer for the area

TOP OF PAGE

Winter Outlook, Another Mild Winter?

by Jan Jackson

Average Snowfall Map

After a mild winter in 2006-2007, can we expect colder weather this winter?

READ THIS ARTICLE

TOP OF PAGE

Comparing Droughts: 2007 vs. 2000-2002

Peter Corrigan
Service Hydrologist

When talking about the drought this year people often refer back to the last significant drought that only recently affected the area, in our case it was the 2000-2002 drought.

TOP OF PAGE

The Importance of Perspective

by Brian Sutherland

a temperature graph for Lynchburg showing temperatures 100 degree or higher

By now, the word climate is familiar to almost everyone. But what everyone knows about climate depends a lot on what one is told about climate, and how it is told.

TOP OF PAGE

NOAA’S NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DECLARES CAMPBELL COUNTY VIRGINIA AND CASWELL COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA STORMREADY

By Phil Hysell

StormReady logo

Officials from NOAA's National Weather Service praised Campbell County Virginia and Caswell County North Carolina for completing a set of rigorous warning criteria necessary to earn the distinction of being StormReady®.

TOP OF PAGE

NWS Blacksburg participates in the JASON project

By Phil Hysell

Wall Cloud with Lightning

Project JASON is a nonprofit program subsidized by National Geographic magazine, and is designed for schools to present science to students through explorers and expeditions.

TOP OF PAGE

Winter Flying in the Appalachians

    By Ken Kostura

One picture of a plane crashed in snow and another picture with a helicopter

Winter weather can adversely affect flight operations.

TOP OF PAGE

Winter Weather Terminology

Check out the various winter weather terms used in our area

TOP OF PAGE

FROST/FREEZE PROGRAM

by Robert Stonefield

Learn about the frost and freeze program

TOP OF PAGE

TROPICS MORE ACTIVE IN ’07 BUT WITH LIMITED IMPACT TO THE LOCAL AREA

by James Hudgins

Hurricane Dean east of Mexico

2007 has proven to be slightly more active than 2006

TOP OF PAGE

The Northeast Snowfall Impact Scale (NESIS)

by Anita Silverman

Image of snowfal across the northeast U.S.

NESIS ranks the severity of an East Coast snowstorm based
on snowfall amount and the population of the affected areas.

TOP OF PAGE

Winter Weather Safety

by Phil Hysell

truck covered in snow

The National Weather Service would like you to prepare
you and your family for winter weather.

TOP OF PAGE

Astronomical Sky Forecasts

by Kris Mattarochia

cloud cover forecast map

Will Clouds Obscure Your View of the Night Sky?
This article provides a couple of web sites for forecasting sky cover.

TOP OF PAGE

Air Quality Forecasts

by Phil Hysell

Photo of Pilot Mountain NC area

NWS and EPA partner to produce air quality forecasts.

TOP OF PAGE

CoCoRaHS: Because Every Drop Counts

by Dennis Sleighter and Anita Silverman

A program you can use to share your precipitation amounts with the world.

TOP OF PAGE

SKYWARN^TM Recognition Day

by Phil Hysell

skywarn logo

The ninth annual SKYWARN^TM Recognition Day will take place Friday evening November 30th through Saturday December 1st.

TOP OF PAGE

Refresher SKYWARN^TM training now available on-line

by Phil Hysell

image of shelf cloud

A condensed version of our SKYWARN^TM Training class material

TOP OF PAGE

A new addition to NWS Blacksburg

Picture of NWS Blacksburg

WFO Blacksburg welcomes our latest forecaster, a meteorologist named Kris Mattarochia

TOP OF PAGE

Comments or Suggestions?

Welcome to the Fall 2007 Edition

Have comments or suggestions about our newsletter or articles?

NOAA’S NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WARNINGS PROVIDE MORE DETAILED INFORMATION

NWS Blacksburg Working Hard to Serve You!

by Dave Wert, Meteorologist-in-Charge

READ MORE

CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR MAY-SEPTEMBER 2007 by Robert Stonefield

One hot summer for the area

READ MORE

After a mild winter in 2006-2007, can we expect colder weather this winter?

READ THIS ARTICLE

Comparing Droughts: 2007 vs. 2000-2002

Peter Corrigan Service Hydrologist

The Importance of Perspective

READ MORE

NOAA’S NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DECLARES CAMPBELL COUNTY VIRGINIA AND CASWELL COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA STORMREADY

By Phil Hysell

NWS Blacksburg participates in the JASON project

By Phil Hysell

Winter Weather Terminology

FROST/FREEZE PROGRAM

by Robert Stonefield

TROPICS MORE ACTIVE IN ’07 BUT WITH LIMITED IMPACT TO THE LOCAL AREA

by James Hudgins

The Northeast Snowfall Impact Scale (NESIS)

Winter Weather Safety

by Phil Hysell

The National Weather Service would like you to prepare you and your family for winter weather.

Astronomical Sky Forecasts

by Kris Mattarochia

Air Quality Forecasts

by Phil Hysell

CoCoRaHS: Because Every Drop Counts

by Dennis Sleighter and Anita Silverman

SKYWARNTM Recognition Day

by Phil Hysell

The ninth annual SKYWARNTM Recognition Day will take place Friday evening November 30th through Saturday December 1st.

Refresher SKYWARNTM training now available on-line

by Phil Hysell

A new addition to NWS Blacksburg

NWS BLACKSBURG HOME

CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR MAY-SEPTEMBER 2007

by Robert Stonefield

Peter Corrigan
Service Hydrologist

The National Weather Service would like you to prepare
you and your family for winter weather.

SKYWARN^TM Recognition Day

The ninth annual SKYWARN^TM Recognition Day will take place Friday evening November 30th through Saturday December 1st.

Refresher SKYWARN^TM training now available on-line