Old school weather forcastings

[mackmobile43]

 

[kd-5-bgt]

heh that is pretty good,

any idea how old that artical is?

 

[mackmobile43]

Not totally sure, the wife was going through some pictures that belong to her mother and found that article and I assume it was somewhere in the mid 50's to early 60's but I do know it was quoted from a popular mechanics article.

 

[mackmobile43]

Here is more on the Weller Method.

National Weather Service - NWS Hanford

On September 22, 1968 Newton Weller—a self-taught electronics researcher—released a strange story to the Des Moines Register and Tribune. He told Iowa readers of his long efforts to develop a reliable tornado detection system, and gave simple instructions for turning any TV set into a tornado detector.

 

[Robb]

As a storm chaser, I have never read that bit before (on the first post).
We just depend on a laptop, a cell phone/internet connction, and a program called 'Gibson Ridge 3 (or 'GR3').
Maybe I'll bring a TV along next time and see if it works!

Interesting piece...

 

[Sonwatcher]

Pretty neat article !

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

New life for old analog TV's??

 

[kd-5-bgt]

That is a very interesting to say the least.It has me wondering as well if there is actually any validity to the artical.....I am sure to a point there is but to use a TV in that manner to give you a warning of an impending tornado......just a tad far fetched to me

I am a spotter as well and I know that I have a couple of old battery powered 6 inch TVs somewhere...I might try that next storm season just to see what happens

 

[Sonwatcher]

use a TV in that manner to give you a warning of an impending tornado.

Did you read the reason beyond the outlined part ? It seems there's some reasoning electronically for it to work. It is interesting. Here's what the NOAA says about it-

[SIZE=-1]Known as the Weller Method when used in the 60's and early 70's, it was possible to detect tornadoes using the TV or the AM radio. The theory is that severe thunderstorms which contain a tornado will also contain large amounts of lightning. The user was to turn the television to channel 13, turn down the brightness till the screen was almost black then switch to channel 2. As the tornado developed, the lightning intensity would increase to a point that would cause the screen to turn bright white since channel 2 is near the same frequency as the signal produced by the lightning and would override the brightness control. (Using the radio, the static would become continuous at 55MHz, on the low end on the dial).

While this method can work, this is absolutely NOT foolproof because... [/SIZE]

• [SIZE=-1]
  [*]Research has shown that tornadoes can (and do) form when the parent cloud contains little lightning. Conversely, not all thunderstorms which contain a large amount of lightning will always produce a tornado.
  [*]Some television sets are designed with filters to prevent this from happening.
  [*]Many people now have cable. If you do, this will not work.[/SIZE]

 

[HiDef]

You get much more accurate and repeatable data from licking your finger and holding it against the wind.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

The idea is the same as listening for static crashes on 80m versus 10m. The RF energy produced by lightning is stronger on the lower frequencies and whereas a radio hears the static crashes, the TV actually shows them as bursts of light on the screen.

 

[mackmobile43]

As a storm chaser, I have never read that bit before (on the first post).
We just depend on a laptop, a cell phone/internet connction, and a program called 'Gibson Ridge 3 (or 'GR3').
Maybe I'll bring a TV along next time and see if it works!

Interesting piece...

You sure as hell won't have to worry about channel 2 having a broadcast unless it's digital ready.lol

An old black and white with a pair or rabbit ears.

 

[mackmobile43]

You get much more accurate and repeatable data from licking your finger and holding it against the wind.

Is that what is happening when a cat licks it's ass.lol?

 

[MAC292OHIO]

that's pretty neat mack43(seems like the lead time is not all that great tho, and sirens should already be sounding at that point)....but can it predict tornadic supercells 24hrs or more in advance....

oh how i love the WRF core models for WX prediction...

on feb 9th-10th of 2009 , the 4KM WRF(SPC) nailed 4 TORNADIC supercells 24hrs in advance[/b]....this is what sold me on the WRF cores(from that day on ive done a ton of research, im still very much an NOVICE to this stuff, to this day this is one of the most impressive things ive ever seen in numerical WX modeling)....

BTW,i got a hundreds & hundreds of WX links if anyone is looking for any weather related stuff...

 

[kd-5-bgt]

I am a spotter in the Joplin Missouri area and my spotter group uses weather underground for some of our spotter setups.The ability to focus in on a given area down to within a 10 to 20 square mile area really helps our control guy tell us where we need to be at in relation to the storm.

Weather Underground radar was a huge help on the Mothers Day weekend Pitcher,Oklahoma tornado a couple of years agur spotter group was on that tornado as it moved from Pitcher and into Missouri.That tornado also hit Neosho and Granby Missouri.....I live just north of Granby and that tornado came within 4 miles of my house....was unnerving to say the least