Oh no Mr. Bill. They blew up the thermometer!

This past week has been a tough one with many severe storms in the region. As Friday arrived I was really dragging and looking forward to some time at home with less humid air this weekend. Then we ran the following story about state police blowing up some weather instruments. It really made me laugh!! Oh the humanity.

The suspicious device blown up by a State Police Bomb Squad Thursday evening turned out to be a weather station. It happened outside the Medical Office Building on the east side of Lewis Gale Medical Center. We were told a visitor contacted authorities after seeing a suspicious object hanging from a tree. Authorities brought out a robot to check it. The device was blown up around 7:00 p.m. At no time was the hospital or any other buildings at Lewis Gale evacuated. Friday afternoon, Salem Police said the package was actually a remote weather station. A hospital employee had attached it to the tree and used putty to weather-proof it. Police say no criminal charges will be filed.

Scanning the weather news

Big storms on Tuesday. Lynchburg picked up more than 2.5 inches of rain at the airport but only 0.2" at our WeatherBug station in Dunbar Middle. The atmosphere is dripping wet and "nature is putting on a big show" according to my mom. As I came across two items in the Roanoke Times this morning it reminded me to mention the dew point. Kevin Myatt's excellent Weather Journal had this entry:

You might be surprised to learn that a day we would consider brutally humid would probably only have a relative humidity of about 50 percent. The true measure of the amount of moisture in the air isn't the relative humidity but the dew point. The dew point is the temperature at which the atmosphere would be entirely saturated, or have 100 percent relative humidity. Air can hold more moisture as it gets warmer, so the higher the dew point, the greater the amount of moisture in the air. Relative humidity represents the percentage of the available space in the air that is filled with moisture. If your gas tank holds 10 gallons and it has nine gallons in it, it is 90 percent full. But if it holds 20 gallons, it is only 45 percent full, even though it is holding the same amount of gas. A dew point of 62 represents the same amount of moisture in the air whether the temperature is 70 or 100. But at 70 degrees, the humidity would be 76 percent, while at 100, the humidity would only be 29 percent. On an extremely hot, humid day locally, our temperature might be 95 with a dew point of 75. The relative humidity would be 53 percent.

Well put Kevin. Thanks for letting me cut and paste. The other item was in the letters to the editor section. One reader wrote that global climate change was a huge left wing conspiracy. What a waste of paper and ink. Planet Earth's climate has always changed, and changed dramatically. The only question now is how much are we involved? Most TV meteorologists don't have that answer, this one included. But take politics out and ask yourself, have you done anything today to keep our planet green?

McCartney, a fast summer and friends.

For Father’s Day this year, my boys got me the new Paul McCartney CD, Memory Almost Full and a Bobby Flay grilling cookbook. Both items are special because they took the time to purchase such thoughtful gifts. Besides my passion for cooking on weekends, I’m a hopeless McCartney fan. Upon first play, the CD was OK but the artwork and liner notes were almost nonexistent. As an old Beatles fan, I cherished the album covers, lyrics and anything extra we could find to give us a behind the scenes glimpse of the group. This thing was weak. Until I realized that McCartney was sending us to his web site where we find not only the lyrics but short audio clips and HIS THOUGHTS BEHIND THE SONGS. Now the tracks jumped to life! How cool it is for a 64 year-old British rocker to be so modern.

A recent visit to Kiawah Island, SC allowed me the opportunity to catch up with fellow meteorologist Bill Walsh. He is the chief meteorologist at WSCS in Charleston, SC. I met Bill years ago at a weathercaster’s workshop in Lyndonville, VT. It was at the 7 day seminar for TV weather-folks that several of us developed friendships that last to this day. The chance to see Bill and meet his family was special. So was the bottle of wine he brought me back from France.

Finally a big thank you to all the Roanoker Magazine readers who voted Robin Reed and SkyTracker 7 Weather as the most accurate forecast. After years of winning Roanoke’s Sexiest Man, I take real pride in this award. We will work hard to keep your trust.