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W h e r e were the biggest snowstorms, the longest rainless periods, the hottest heat waves, the coldest cold waves?
W h e n were the killer tornadoes, the major hurricanes, and snowstorms in Florida? W h a t causes cold fronts?
Heat waves? W h a t was the weather like in 1776?
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1982
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news from our chapters 1
Aloha
On 25 March, the chapter held a meeting at the Hickam Air Force Base Officers7 Club, with guest speakers Professors James Sadler, Klaus Wyrtki, and Colin Ramage from the University of Hawaii. The meeting's topic was the 1986-87 warming in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. The meeting was hosted by President Pao-Shin Chu.
Sadler opened by reviewing several definitions of El Nino and by identifying the years that would be labeled as El Nino years. He briefly discussed the Southern Oscillation and its relationship to El Nino. Using data from five tropical Pacific islands, he contrasted the non-El Nino weather conditions with El Nino weather conditions. He mentioned the relation- ship between an El Nino event and the local Hawaiian weather. Hawaii experienced deficient rainfall after an El Nino event and was more likely to be influenced by tropical cyclones during El Nind. He concluded that while 1986 was not an El Nino year, there were some weak indications that 1987 might be one.
Wyrtki discussed the eastward transport of anomalously warm water from the western Pacific to South America by oceanic Kelvin wave and showed sea-level response to remote atmospheric forcing. During 1986 the westerly wind pulses were evident in the western Pacific, but their frequency was insufficient to transport the warm water to the east of the dateline.
Ramage outlined the typical El Nino event in the context of large-scale air-sea interactions coupled with a tropical- cyclone development. In May 1986 a twin cyclone developed in the western Pacific, giving rise to the equatorial westerlies and Kelvin waves. However, due to the late occurrence of this development and the lack of subsequent wind impulses, there was not an El Nino event during 1986.—Linda Paul, secretary and Pao-Shin Chu, president
Central Arizona
The 2 June meeting was held at the Gateway Park Hotel in Phoenix in conjunction with the 2nd Annual Arizona Severe Weather Symposium. Ninety-eight members and guests at- tended. After dinner, the meeting was called to order by President Norm Hoffman at 7:25 p.m.
Hoffman introduced the people seated at the head table, including Ron Alberty, area manager and meteorologist in charge at the Weather Service Forecast Office (WSFO) in Phoenix.
Alberty offered words in memory of Louis Battan of the University of Arizona. His tribute included a brief biography and a warm goodbye on behalf of everyone present. Alberty then extended special thanks to Barbara Brown, secretary at the WSFO in Phoenix, for the tremendous work that she did on the symposium. The speakers and sponsors of the sym- posium, most of whom were in attendance, were each rec- ognized as well. Finally, Alberty introduced the featured speaker for this special meeting, Ted Fujita, severe-weather researcher at the University of Chicago.
Fujita began with life in his native Japan—noteably, his
1 Meeting reports received at headquarters before 1 July 1987 are included. Copy from chapter representatives should be typed double-spaced and submitted to the news editor in duplicate.—News Ed.
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1174 Vol. 68, No. 9, September 1987
visits to Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the bombs of 1945. A study of the damage patterns confirmed that one and only one bomb detonated at a certain height above ground zero in each city.
The similarity between these wind and pressure damage patterns and the damage pattern seen at JFK International Airport after an unexplained aircraft accident lead to this discovery of the microburst.
He then proceeded to discuss his famous tornado research—
also based upon damage studies. This included his six-point scale of tornado intensity for FO to F5, international tornadoes, and aerial investigation of damage. A model of a single tornado system with multiple suction vortices was also explained.
Other tornado topics discussed were the use of Doppler- radar data, the wind field of a tornado—oftentimes showing updrafts with no rotation, and the geographical distribution of maximum tornado wind speeds.
Fujita concluded with a look at a recent microburst event in North Phoenix.
His talk was quite entertaining as well as informative, and his slides added a great deal of color and understanding. The chapter members and guests at the meeting greatly appreciate his attendance.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 P.M.—Scott J. Cun- ningham, secretary
District of Columbia
On 21 January 1987, William Bonner, director of the National Meteorological Center (NMC), talked to the chapter at the Bethesda Naval Hospital Officers' Club. His presentation covered the broad range of NMC activities, with emphasis on numerical analysis and forecast operations.
On 18 February, Vince Oliver presented a history of weather satellites from their infancy in the early 1960s. Held at the World Weather Building, the February meeting included a showing of the film "Cold Fronts Over Oceans" by Walter A.
Bohan.
Held in conjunction with the Washington Academy of Sci- ences, the March meeting of the local AMS chapter was held at American University. Eugene Rasmussen presented a lec- ture titled "Global Climate Variability: Recent Trends and Future Outlook."
On 14 April, Theodore Fujita of the University of Chicago presented a most entertaining lecture called "Recent Studies of Tornadoes and Microbursts."
Joe Friday, deputy director of the National Weather Service (NWS), was the guest of honor at the May banquet of the District of Columbia Chapter, held at the University of Maryland. He talked about upcoming changes in the modern- ization of the NWS.—Allan C. Eustis, recording secretary
Metropolitan State College
The student chapter held its March meeting on the 17th with 19 members and guests in attendance. James Wilczak, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colorado, was the guest speaker for the evening. He presented some of his models and results of his work on the Denver cyclone and how this phenomenon initiates significant convective weather in the Denver region.
After Wilczak's presentation, President Brad Ratcliffe an- nounced that officer nominations and elections for the 1987- 88 academic school year would be held during the April meeting. Ratcliffe also announced that orders were still being taken for the Metropolitan State College meteorology sweat- shirts and T-shirts.
The year-end meeting of the chapter was held on 28 April,
with 18 members and guests attending. The guest speaker was Steve Markkanen from Denver's National Weather Ser- vice Forecast Office, who spoke on the climatology of Colo- rado's severe weather.
After a short break, President Brad Ratcliffe lead the nom- inations and election of the 1987-88 officers. The results are as follows: President Patrice Kucera, Vice-President Terry Trieu, Secretary Eric Holloway, and Treasurer Eric Dernovish.
Congratulations and best wishes to the new chapter officers.—
Patrice Kucera, secretary
New Jersey
A midwinter meeting of the chapter was held on 29 Janu- ary at Kean College in Union. The evening's guest speaker was Joseph Del Greco of Allied-Bendix Marine Science Ser- vices. His presentation, titled "Ocean Routing and Marine Forecasting," focused on the "hows and whys" of modern commercial ship routing. He pointed out that it is the responsibility of the ship-routing firm to get from Point A to Point B by way of the most efficient and/or safest route. In many instances, ships are forced to travel many miles out of their way in order to avoid a weather situation that could prove hazardous, or even fatal, to both ship and crew alike.
Del Greco noted that such situations do not always result in delays for ships that heed the router's advice and that often ships that ignore such advice and sail through rough weather via more-direct routes find themselves experiencing long delays caused by strong headwinds or rough seas. He pointed out that it is not as uncommon as the public might imagine that a ship breaks up and sinks in rough seas and that in some instances a large loss of life and property could have been prevented by the heeding of sound routing advice.
Del Greco closed by commenting that it is long-term weather patterns, not hour-by-hour changes, that most greatly affect ship routing, and that economics, in the form of fuel costs, dock, and tug rentals, and union wage rules, also play a serious role in the formulation of routing decisions.
At the 19 March meeting of the New Jersey Chapter, held at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) in Princeton, the evening's speaker, Stephan Fels of GFDL/
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, presented a program titled "The Great Antarctic Ozone Hole."
Fels opened with a discussion of chlorofluoromethanes (CFMs), which are widely used as refrigerants and, until recently, were used as spray-can propellants. CFMs were thought of as the "wonder compounds," so benign and stable in their composition that one could "bathe in them." It has since been discovered that CFMs do indeed break down in the presence of ultraviolet light to form free chlorine ions, just a few of which may destroy extremely large quantities of ozone through a process that creates molecular oxygen. Cal- culations have shown that the equilibrium of this reaction may be reached in approximately 100 years and that at that time stratospheric ozone may be depleted by upwards of 45 percent. An ozone depletion of this magnitude could decrease stratospheric temperatures by at least 20°C and cause adverse effects on the climate of the troposphere.
The great Antarctic ozone hole, discovered in 1982 over the British observing station at Healy Bay, was thought to be the first large-scale manifestation of CFM reactions in the strat- osphere. Ozone levels within the area of the hole were extremely steady except for a sharp drop in October, a drop that had become more pronounced with each passing year.
Two major groups of theories have been put forth as to how the hole may be formed.
In the chemical theory, the CFM-produced chlorine is the
Bulletin American Meteorological Society 1175
culprit, in combination with the returning early-spring sun- light. In Antarctica, the coldest part of the world, all available water condenses out of the stratosphere to form stratospheric polar clouds. In the presence of the sunlight, returning after the long, dark Antarctic winter, the chlorine reacts with the water in these clouds to form hydrochloric acid, which in turn creates free chlorine ions that may, in turn, destroy ozone. Fels noted that there is a bit of a timing problem with this theory in that the sun and ice clouds must exist simul- taneously, which may not be entirely possible for any length of time.
In the dynamical theory, the hole is thought to occur in October, due to a drop in the amount of wave activity present in the Southern Hemisphere. The lack of wave activity, and the atmospheric mixing that it promotes, allows areas of maximum and minimum ozone concentrations to remain as distinct entities. When the strong wave pattern returns near the end of the Antarctic winter, mixing of the maxima and minima occur and the anomalous "hole" disappears.
Fels closed by noting that the subject of the ozone hole, and ozone depletion in general, is still in its infancy and that large amounts of research are planned in the future to further investigate its causes and effects.
The New Jersey Chapter held its final meeting of 1986-87 on 13 May at the Officers7 Club, McGuire Air Force Base. During the chapter election, officers for the 1987-88 meeting year were selected. They are President James Miller, Rutgers Uni- versity; Vice-President Gay Pearson, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection; Secretary Carol Broccoli, Web- craft Technologies; and Treasurer John Pinkerton, National Council of the Paper Industry for Air and Stream Improvement.
The evening's guest speaker was Don Perkey of the De-
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partment of Physics and Atmospheric Sciences at Drexel University. His topic, "Research on East Coast Developing Cyclones," was a presentation of an overview for the planning, funding, logistics, and early results of the Genesis of Atlantic Lows Experiment (GALE) Project. GALE was first proposed to study the dynamics of the genesis of mesoscale winter storms along the East Coast of the United States in the area of the Carolinas. It blossomed into a multi-institutional examination of these storms, involving studies of the winter coastal boundary layer, mesoscale orography, the structure of mesoscale fronts, and how such observations could aid in the development of techniques for improved numerical forecasting of winter storms.
Perkey noted that cooperation between such institutions as Drexel and North Carolina State was augmented by scientists from the National Weather Service, various branches of the armed forces, and private industry. Such Herculean tasks as the gathering of large amounts of expensive and delicate equipment, round-the-clock weather monitoring, cessation of aircraft observations for military exercises in the area, and a prolonged period of storm conditions whose constant obser- vation was deemed pertinent to the cause of the study all lead to many logistical, personnel, and scientific problems of varying complexity. However, Perkey noted that the obser- vations obtained, which are still in the early stages of analysis, will certainly become a most valuable tool to mesoscale modelers and forecasters alike. The observations are being made available to the public, for a fee, through the tape archives of Drexel University.
Perkey closed by noting that other projects on a scale similar to that of GALE are already well into their planning stages.
ERICA (Experiment of Rapidly Intensifying Cyclones in the Atlantic), being sponsored in part by the Office of Naval Research, is being planned for the early to mid 1990s. It is hoped that such studies will provide a broad base of infor- mation from which dynamicists and forecasters alike can work toward the improvement of the science of prediction and tracking severe coastal winter storms.—Carol M. Broccoli, secretary
Oregon
Charlie Feris opened the meeting by having each person stand up and introduce himself. After introductions, Feris went on to the treasurer's report.
Don Caniparoli reported that the treasury contained
$207.00. He also remarked that $200.00 of that was earmarked for the essay-contest prizes. However, the group was also expecting another $100.00 that had been pledged by television stations as donations to the essay contest.
Feris then added details on the progress of the essay contest.
He reported that the committee was in the process of reading the essays and that it would be getting together at some future date to pick the winners. The prizes would be two $100.00 weather instruments.
After completing the business portion of the meeting, Feris asked for any new business or announcements. Bob Lynott was recognized. He spoke about the flier that he had at the meeting, which was available to anyone who would like one.
The flier was about his book, which was scheduled to be available near the end of April.
Final announcements included reminders that the next meeting was tentatively scheduled for 16 May, with speaker Jim Deardorff.
The speaker for the evening was Tom McDonough. He spoke about Crater Lake, and included information on its creation, discovery, and climate.—Terry D. Worrell, secre-
tary •
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Kerry A. Emanuel TT. Fujita
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Donald Burgess Joseph Facundo Joseph H. Golden Vincent Lally Ronald D. McPherson James FW. Purdom Peter S. Ray Roderick A. Scofield Robert Serafin Dennis W. Thomson INTERNALLY GENERATED CIRCULATIONS
Robert W. Burpee Howard B. Bluestein William H. Hooke Charles F Chappell Douglas Lilly Daniel Keyser MESOSCALE CONVECTIVE SYSTEMS
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Richard A. Anthes William R. Cotton John B. Hovermale Donald J. Perkey SHORT-RANGE FORECASTING TECHNIQUES
Charles A. Dos well John McGinley Bruce B. Ross Thomas W. Schlatter
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Bulletin American Meteorological Society 1177
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