Monthly Archives: August 2011

Autumn 2011 Forecast

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Daryl Ritchison

Wednesday is the last day of meteorological summer.  After 6 straight months with below average temperatures, the past three months all finished warmer than normal. With the autumn season beginning tomorrow, many people have asked if this warmer than average … Continue reading →

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A Touch Drier

Posted on August 28, 2011 by John Wheeler

Have you noticed that it isn’t raining as much the last couple of weeks?  We were already assured of above-average August rainfall when it rained 2.87 inches on the first day of the month.  After one more heavy rain and … Continue reading →

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Weather Control

Posted on August 27, 2011 by John Wheeler

Does anyone else remember the idea back in the 1970s that Soviet Union scientists were controlling our weather?  The theory, which achieved some popularity, was that the Russians had found a way to project standing wave patterns into the atmosphere … Continue reading →

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Infrared

Posted on August 26, 2011 by John Wheeler

William Herschel, a famous astronomer of the mid 1700s through the early 1800s, is probably most famous for discovering the planet, Uranus, the first planet discovered with the use of a telescope. He was messing around with prisms and sunbeams … Continue reading →

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90s Gone Missing

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Daryl Ritchison

This past Tuesday, Fargo Moorhead recorded our 8th 90 degree day of the year, although, just barely as the high only reached 90 degrees that afternoon.  With our 90 degree season winding down, it seems likely we will finish the … Continue reading →

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Moving Pole

Posted on August 25, 2011 by John Wheeler

Modern day GPS units have made the old fashioned compass almost obsolete.  It is just as well, really.  Compasses never really pointed true north, anyway.  Technically, a compass points not to the North Pole, but to the Magnetic North Pole. … Continue reading →

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Fireball!

Posted on August 24, 2011 by John Wheeler

Tuesday evening, around 9:45 pm. a large number of people all over the region saw a bright flash of light move quickly across the sky.  What they saw was a kind of glorified meteor called a fireball.  Most meteors are … Continue reading →

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Severe Weather Rests on Weekends?

Posted on August 24, 2011 by Daryl Ritchison

This summer it has been common for there to be thunderstorms, often with severe weather, in this area on one of the two days of nearly every weekend since Memorial Day.  Plus, conventional wisdom is that it always rains on … Continue reading →

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Tomato Summer

Posted on August 23, 2011 by Daryl Ritchison

During the three months of meteorological summer, the high temperature in Fargo Moorhead is in the 80s, on average, 40 percent of the time.  This summer the temperature has been in the 80s very persistently.  In fact, since June 1, … Continue reading →

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Postitive Lightning

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Daryl Ritchison

We tend to think of all lightning strikes as being the same, but as is the case with other electrical currents, lightning comes in two flavors, negative polarity strikes and positive polarity strikes.  The strong turbulence within thunderstorms tend to … Continue reading →

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