Weather Service: Storm Damage not from Tornadoes

The storm system that hit Hampton Roads Tuesday evening was pretty amazing.  It barreled through at about 50 mph and generated winds gust of more 70 mph.  It knocked out electrical service to more than 192,000 Dominion Virginia Power customers, me included.  A wind gust knocked over two tractor-trailers on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel; high winds also ripped two new tears into the tent-like roof of the nTelos Pavilion at Harbor Center.  One question for after the storm:  was there a tornado involved?  According to the National Weather Service, no.

Meteorologists at the National Weather Service office in Wakefield sent a survey team to review the damage in two of the hardest hit areas:  Suffolk and the Kempsville section of Virginia Beach.  Their assessment:  the damages were from straight line winds from thunderstorms.  They found no evidence of rotational wind damage from a tornado.

There have been some anecdotal tales of funnel clouds in the storm.  But in a telephone interview this morning, meteorologist Mike Montefusco of the Wakefield weather office said no funnel clouds or tornado touchdowns were reported by their trained weather spotters.

Weather spotters, by the way, are volunteers who are taught how to identify and report severe weather.  The National Weather Service calls weather spotters the first line of defense against severe weather incidents.

Want to become a weather spotter?
Click here for more details about the program.
Click here for a schedule of upcoming weather spotter training classes.

More links
The NWS Wakefield Homepage.
A virtual tour of the Wakefield weather office by the aforementioned Mike Montefusco.
NOAA's Virginia Weather Page.

Power Restoration Target: 10pm Thursday

Dominion Virginia is aiming for 10:00 Thursday night as their goal for restoring all power that was knocked offline by Tuesday's sudden storm.  I asked Bonita Harris, Dominion's spokesperson in Chesapeake, for an update on restoration efforts.  As of 10:30am, Dominion had restored 96% of the more than 170,000 outages from Tuesday;  about 6,500 outages remain.

I'll admit that I called Bonita partially for personal reasons.  My house is one of four of my street without power.  She said hospitals, public safety offices like police stations, and water treatment facilities, are always put at the top of the restoration priority list.  After that, they repair the lines that have the most outages.  Meaning my one affected power pole with four houses on it will likely be put at the bottom of the list.

Harris also said don't assume that Dominion knows your power is out.  She said they would find out eventually, but having the customer report the outage helps them find the problem sooner.

To report an power outage, call 866-DOM-HELP (866-366-4357).

Link:
Dominion Virginia Power's Outage Summary

Living Without Limits

At age 36, Andy Holder was a working dad, the father of two young boys, and a body builder.  But during a routine physical, Andy learned he was diabetic.  Andy was stunned.  "I was in excellent shape," he says.  "I ate right; exercised.  I certainly didn't fit the profile that most people think of for...diabetes."

Andy was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, a disease in which his body is no longer able to produce the insulin that allows his body to metabolize food.  The diagnosis dampened the spirits of the normally upbeat Andy, but only for a short time.  "I had a few fleeting moments of asking, 'why me.'  But then I turned it into an opportunity."

What he did was turn himself into a triathlete.  Despite not being a runner or a very good swimmer or even owning a bicycle, and despite a medical condition that requires him to wear an insulin pump, Andy set a goal for himself of competing in a triathlon, a grueling race combining cycling, swimming and distance running.

Since his diagnosis, Andy has completed seven triathlons and now serves as a spokesman for the Good Neighbor Pharmacy chain.  He visits pharmacies across the country, talking with people about living with diabetes and living healthily.  His hope is to inspire others with chronic illness to manage their health and live well.

Andy's tour, "Managing Diabetes:  Living Without Limits," will stop at the Poquoson Pharmacy on Wythe Creek Road this Thursday, May 26th, from 2pm to 7pm.

You can listen to my interview with "Iron Andy" Holder below.


Links:
Andy Holder's website
Map to Poquoson Pharmacy

Education Through Sitcoms

My wife, Mary, asked me the other day if I knew the definition of the word "expurgated."  I did know, but it's how I knew that struck me as funny.  I remembered hearing the word several years earlier in a Monty Python sketch.

It's from the bookshop sketch.  When Mary said the word, my mind flashed immediately to Eric Idle asking John Cleese for a copy of Olsen's Standard Book of British Birds.  "The expurgated version," he says.  "The one without the gannet."  From that I was able to parse out that expurgated means "edited."

Expurgated actually means amended to remove objectionable phrases.  The Pentagon calls it "redacting."

Memory sometimes uses unusual markers to help us recall bits of information.  It's occasionally auditory in my case.  The other day during an on-air contest I was asked what century World War I was in.  I said correctly that it was the 20th after hearing in my head Bill Clinton's voice, talking about "Building that bridge to the 21st century."

Sometimes it's the sound of the word itself that helps us remember.  Everybody knows hasenpfeffer is a dish made with rabbit meat, thanks to a Bug Bunny cartoon.

If only I could remember where I left the remote...

Here's a version of the bookshop sketch.  And below that, Bugs Bunny's hasenpfeffer episode.  Enjoy

The Mysterious Boom...Seneca Guns?

There's a good chance that the mysterious booming noises that were heard and felt across the Hampton Roads region the evening of May 10th may never have an official explanation.   Earthquakes were ruled out by seismologists; a sonic boom from a meteor has been suggested.  There's even a term that defines the phenomenon but not the source:  Seneca Guns.  More on that in a moment.

As I detailed in an earlier post, last week's unexplained noise was only the latest in recent memory in Hampton Roads.  Many have been attributed to sonic booms from military aircraft, but one, heard in 1999, was never explained.

It wasn't seismic, but the rattling reported by many equaled the impact of a magnitude 3.0 earthquake, as detailed here.  I emailed the U.S. Geological Survey, the nation's earthquake experts, for some insight.  Geophysicist Lisa Wald of Colorado took time to write back and point me towards a FAQ page on unexplained noises occasionally heard along the East Coast.

Their research finds there have been many reports of booms over several decades that cannot be attributed to man-made sources.  Many predate the era of supersonic aircraft.  There is speculation they could be shallow earthquakes, large enough to be heard but perhaps not felt by people nearby or by seismographs.  Again, that is only speculation.

Guns of the Seneca
Seneca Lake in New York is the site of more unexplained booming noises going back centuries.  Called Seneca Guns, or more colorfully, Mistpouffers, the legendary sounds inspired James Fenimore Cooper's short story, "The Lake Gun," written in 1851.  Loud, unexplained booms heard in various parts of the U.S. and elsewhere are sometimes called "Seneca Guns" today.

The military may one day admit the May 10th event was caused by a sonic boom from a warplane.  Until that day, you can add May 10th to the list of Virginia's mysteries.

Links:
USGS FAQ on Unexplained Noises
Mistpouffers at Wikipedia
James Fenimore Cooper's "The Lake Gun"

Gas Prices Level Off

Some good news on the price of gasoline (finally).  After weeks of increase, gas prices appear to be leveling off.

The AAA's Fuel Gauge Report shows an average gallon of self-serve regular gasoline costs $3.95, down slightly from a week earlier.  This comes about a week after the price of crude oil began declining.

It has been a long climb to a price plateau.

12-Month Average/AAA Fuel Gauge Report

That green line is the national average price for gas.  It goes up from about $2.70 at the end of last summer to almost $4.00 May 1st.

It's amazing how so much of our economy is tied directly to the price of this one commodity.  Gas prices skyrocket, leading us consumers to use less gas, which has the affect of driving gas prices down.

And there seems to be a correlation between gas prices and the types of cars we buy.  Sales of all vehicles have been increasing as the recession ended.  Sales of SUV's and light trucks led the way until gas prices topped $3.00 early this year.  Since then, smaller and more efficient cars have been leading in sales.

Wall Street Journal

Having now used two, yes, two graphs in a blog post, allow me one more liberty...a rhetorical question.

Do energy prices have to be noticeably high for us Americans to think about conserving energy?

Links:
fuelgaugereport.aaa.com
Car Sales Data from The Wall Street Journal

Report: Allergy Season Here with a Vengeance

I spotted the above headline from the Associated Press and clicked on it, knowing full well that it would only verify what my nose and eyes have been telling me for weeks.  Pollen season is in full bloom.

Pollen season seems to hit me differently every year.  Two years ago I had the occasional bout of asthma.  Last year it was my sinuses.  And this year my eyes have been so watery it sometimes blurs my vision. 

The AP article suggests that it only seems like each year is "the worst pollen season ever."  Indeed, the pollen forecast for the next four days shows only moderate levels of grass, oak and mulberry pollen.  However, with the weather as nice as it is, I've been spending more time outdoors, allergies be damned.  And the air conditioning hasn't run in days, allowing the pollen that is there to accumulate.

There is also this potential trend to watch out for.  Global warming theory predicts a longer growing season and with it, a longer pollen season.  Let's hope that prediction doesn't come true.

Links:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110514/ap_on_re_us/us_allergy_season
Allergy forecast from Pollen.com

A Bird of Prey and a Contortionist

Here's where I demonstrate why my radio colleague Jennifer Roberts calls me a "bird nerd."

I stumbled upon this amazing video from the BBC of a goshawk squeezing its way through progressively smaller holes.  Enjoy.

Link:
The Animal's Guide to Britain

Comet Fly-By of the Sun

In this amazing video from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, a comet approaches the sun and appears to hit it.  However, scientists say it's impossible to tell if the comet actually strikes the sun; the ejection of coronal mass at the same time may just be a coincidence, they say.


Link:
Goddard Space Flight Center on Flickr

Rattling in Virginia Beach

I always enjoy mornings at work when there is a bit of a mystery solve.  Today's mystery:  what was the booming noise that was heard at 7:30pm Tuesday, May 10th, from Suffolk to the Eastern Shore, a distance of more than 50 miles?  Some people said they felt it...a few said it sounded as if something thumped against the front door.

The usual suspects were contacted:  the Navy, the Air Force, NASA's Wallops Island Research Center, and the U.S. Geological Survey.  Scientists said it was not seismic or weather related.  The military and NASA said it wasn't them; a spokeswoman for Ocean Naval Air Station said a sonic boom from a Navy jet wouldn't have been heard all the way in Suffolk.  

However, a search of the Virginian-Pilot's archives finds a similar incident from 1997, when booming noises were heard from Newport News to Suffolk.  The Navy reported then that the sounds were sonic booms from  two F-18's that were flying off Cape Charles.  Here's the teaser text from the article.

Archive searching finds more incidents.  A rumbling was reported in Hampton Roads in 1999.  Earthquakes and sonic booms were ruled out.  Here's the teaser text.

In 2002, several neighbors of Oceana Naval Air Station reported cracked windows and damaged ceiling tiles during the annual Oceana Air Show.  The Navy said it was caused by a confluence of jet noise and a special effects explosion.

But sometimes the cause of the mysterious noise is obvious.  It was just over two years ago that thousands watched a meteor steak across the night sky, passing right over the Virginia Beach Oceanfront and generating several sonic booms.  Here's that article from the March 31st, 2009 edition of the Virginian-Pilot

More Generics Coming Soon

Some of the biggest names in prescription drugs, including Lipitor, the biggest selling drug of all time, will be available in less expensive generic form this year, the Chicago Tribune is reporting.

And if you think generics are less effective than prescription drugs, think again.  Generic drug makers are required by the FDA to use the same active ingredients and work the same as their name brand counterparts..

Say Goodbye to the Verizon White Pages

The State Corporation Commission has approved Verizon's request to stop automatic delivery of its residential white page listings.  Here's what it means...

• Verizon will continue to deliver the business and government white pages and the business yellow pages.
• A customer can still request a residential phone book or CD-ROM of listings.
• Verizon will save an estimated 1,600 tons of waste a year.  That's more than 3-million pounds of wasted paper.
• Your driveway will continue to be filled with regular deliveries of the Verizon Yellow Pages, Talking Phone Book, Superpages and others.  

Remember, if you don't need it, you can always recycle your telephone directory.

Oil News from All Angles

Today has been one of those days when a story on a single topic develops from all angles;  so much so that I could have devoted an entire newscast to that topic.  Not wanting to do that on-air, I'll focus my attention here.  The topic:  oil.

The House of Representatives approved a bill Thursday that would require the opening of areas off the Virginia coast for oil drilling within a year.  Details here

While the House was voting on the bill, Governor Bob McDonnell was visiting a gas station in Henrico to push Congress and the President to end the drilling moratorium.  The governor said oil exploration would help reduce America's dependence on foreign oil and would generate revenue.  However, the Washington Post reports Virginia would not earn royalties under the measure.  Details here

Meanwhile, some analysts were predicting job growth in April could be hurt by the rising cost of gasoline.  It turned out to be unfounded;  the Labor Department reported the economy added a better than expected 244,000 jobs.  Details here

And the price of oil fell by $9.00 per barrel on Thursday in part, analysts said, due to reduced demand for gasoline.  The reason for lower gasoline demand?  You guessed it...the high cost of gas.  The AAA's Fuel Gauge Report lists the average price for a gallon of self-serve regular at $3.98, the first time in weeks there has not been a day-to-day increase.  Details here

Neat how all the pieces fit together, isn't it?

FuelGaugeReport.com

Tips on Photoshop

Does your computer at home or at work have a copy of Photoshop on it but you have no idea how to use it?  Join the club.  I've had Photoshop at work for about four years now and as an editor on five radio station websites, I've had to learn how to use it, mostly through trial and error.  It's a very powerful but extremely complicated program.

Recently I began the process of actually learning Photoshop through online tutorials.  Most online tutorials I've seen are written by people who know the software but have no idea how to write or teach.  But after a lot of searching (and more trial and error) I found a set of tutorials that actually teaches.

www.photoshopessentials.com/basics

You'll find step by step instructions for producing various Photoshop effects as well as keyboard shortcuts and background information on why the effect works as it does.

The lightning tutorial showed me how to produce the lightning bolt in this image.  It looks simple but the effect actually involved several steps, including guassian blur and "difference clouds," whatever they are.

Early Morning Musings

The waking hour is such an odd time of day for me.  It's usually around 2:30am that I'll either roll over and go back to sleep or lie there with the most bizarre train of thought going through my head.

Such is the case today, when the subject of my 2:45am musing was, well, George Plimpton.  Yes, the late author and sports writer...that George Plimpton.  I was thinking about people with distinctive accents and his name just popped out of nowhere.

Anyway, his name took my train of thought to 1986, when, as a radio rookie in Lynchburg, I and several other reporters gathered around Plimpton, who was giving a talk later in the day at Sweet Briar College.  I had certainly heard of George Plimpton, having read The Curious Case of Sidd Finch, Plimpton's famous April Fool's Day prank article in Sports Illustrated, a few months earlier.

Each reporter was given a chance to ask a question.  Being an NBA nut at the time, I asked him some roundabout question about his time covering the Boston Celtics in the 1960's.  I knew that Plimpton had written about the experience, but, of course, I hadn't read it.  I'm not into self-loathing, but I'll admit here and now that compared to the 2011 version, the 1986 edition Jim Long was a moron.

So this morning had me wondering...what should I have asked him about that day?  Here's what I came up with.

"Good morning, Mr. Plimpton, it's a pleasure to meet you.  I'm Jim Long from WLVA radio.  My question...video games are made for children, particularly teenage boys, wouldn't you agree?  Why then, are you, a Harvard-educated, stuffy sounding, middle-aged man who is way outside the target demo, the featured spokesman for the Intellivision?"

Well, maybe I would be a little less sarcastic, but you get the idea.  The alarm just went off.  Time to go daydream at work.

Links
George Plimpton at Wikipedia
The Sidd Finch article in Sports Illustrated

Another Post About Gas Prices

Congress returns from a two-week recess today with the rising price of gasoline on the agenda.  The price at the pump has climbed more than thirty cents a gallon in the last month and now hovers just below the $4.00 per gallon level, according the Triple-A's Fuel Gauge Report.  Many lawmakers have seized the opportunity to push for more offshore drilling.  But lost in the politics is the simple fact that we Americans can use less gasoline, thereby saving us money no matter how much it costs.

One of the easiest ways to use less gas...slow down.  It has been proven mathematically that driving faster makes a car less efficient...it's called the road load power equation. Road Load Power = av + bv² + cv³. I'll spare you the math since I don't entirely understand it myself. Here's the synopsis from The Discovery Channel's "How Stuff Works."

"A hypothetical medium sized SUV that requires 20 horsepower at 50 mph might require 100 horsepower at 100 mph."

Having now read that, I know that the guy rocketing down I-264 at 80mph at 4am is expending more fuel and spending more money getting where ever it is he's going than I am.

As the family's "Captain Slow," I'm occasionally made fun of for my slow (careful) driving style.  For me, it's about comfort behind the wheel.  Driving at 60mph in a 55 zone makes me less likely to ride up on another car's bumper, gives me more room to maneuver and more time to react.

That doesn't mean you should drive like a turtle and get in everybody's way.  Research done in the 1960's showed that people who drove at about the average speed of others were involved in the fewest accidents.  The accident rate goes up both for faster drivers and for slower drivers.

Links:

More efficient driving tips from the EPA

The How Stuff Works article

AAA's Fuel Gauge Report

The Solomon Curve article on how speed relates to accident rates.