Time for school already?!?!

I can not believe it... the first day of school is tomorrow in Rockdale County! Where did the summer go? I mean, it still feels like summer, but over the next 2 weeks all the kids in metro Atlanta will head back to school and it will definitely still be shorts weather!

Maybe I am showing my age and maybe I am resistant to a little change, but when I was a kid in Pennsylvania the first day back to school was the day after Labor Day. Granted you did not get out of school until sometime in June, but it was always easy to remember and by the first week in September in Pennsylvania the summer feel outside was quickly ending. But here in Georgia the Dog Days have barely gotten started!

When I moved to Georgia in '86 school started earlier than in PA. We usually went back the last week of August and then got the long weekend for Labor Day. I am not sure where things went crazy, but when did July sound like a good time to end the summer break? I know that no time is a good time to go back to school, but what has changed in my 32 years that says going back to school close to fall is a bad thing? I would think it would be harder to focus in the summer heat! I turned out O.K. going back to school close to Labor Day, didn't I?

I am not sure where I am going with this, but when I was looking at the list of back to school days July 31st really stuck out to me. That means teachers started July 24th in Rockdale County and new teachers there started in mid July!!!! Can you even get school supplies that early?

I guess what I am saying is that kids and teachers... I feel your pain! I wish you all the luck in the world and hope you have a great start to the school year. Look at it this way... only 180 school days until next summer, er, I mean Spring.

--Chris


School Start Dates

Rockdale County: July 31st
Cherokee County: August 1st
Henry County Schools: August 3rd
Hall County Schools: August 4th
Coweta County: August 7th
Forsyth County: August 7th
Paulding County: August 7th
Clayton County Schools: August 8th
Atlanta Public: August 14th
Fulton County: August 14th
Gwinnett County: August 14th
DeKalb County: August 14th
Douglas County: August 14th
Cobb County: August 14th

The Pitter Patter of Little Feet

You've undoubtedly heard the phrase "barefoot in the park"... we'll my little chick-a-dee is taking it to a new level! Not only is she barefoot in the park, she is barefoot in the street, barefoot on the sidewalk, barefoot in the store (if I don't watch her) and yesterday I learn, barefoot in the church.
I realize that it's sort of a given that if you're from Arkansas shoes are an option not a requirement. But she is Arkansas once removed, so I didn't think that the same stereotype would be running so strongly through her veins. BUT IT IS!!!
Trying to keep shoes on her feet is a daily battle. And believe me, I have tried everything... from sandals with Sesame Street Characters to sandals that blink a little red light whenever she steps with them to what I was sure would be the "cure all" - Scooby Doo tennis shoes. But nothing works. Hating to be a slave to current trends and fashion I had to bite my lip when I found myself reaching for the crocs... but at this point I was desperate.
Needless to say, her little sweet feet are a lovely shade of black (on the bottom) when she comes in after a hard day at play. So as a result, most of my evenings are spend scrubbling devil out of those little feet - trying to get the tar off.
The upside to all of this is that I'll only have to deal with it for 2 1/2 more months.... the fall season is just around the corner and the colder temperatures are sure to put her little tootsies back in some covering...........a sock or, if I'm lucky, maybe even a shoe or two.

Fire and Ice

Viewers are kind enough to pass along photos to us here in the StormTracker 46 Weather Center all the time. Many times the photos are of things they shot around here, sometimes they are pictures of a recent vacation, and sometimes the photos are of rare weather events that they find while surfing around the internet.

The latter was the case today as a viewer forwarded the above picture she found on the internet. The above photo was taken along the Idaho/Washington state border and it of an optical phenomenon called "circumhorizontal arc."

Circumhorizontal arcs form when sunlight passes through cirrus clouds. The sight occurs only when the sun is at a very high angle and when the hexagonal ice crystals that make up cirrus clouds must be shaped like thick plates with their faces parallel to the ground.

What happens is light enters through a vertical side face of such an ice crystal and leaves from the bottom face, it refracts, or bends, in the same way that light passes through a prism. If a cirrus clouds crystals are aligned just right, the whole cloud lights up in a spectrum of colors.

This particular arc spanned several hundred square miles of sky and lasted for about an hour on June 3rd when it formed.

A circumhorizontal arc is similar in how it forms to the more common sundog (pictured to the left) which we see can see quite frequently here in Georgia.

Always make sure to keep an eye to the sky. You never know what you will see!


--Chris

The Heat Is On!!

I don't know who coined the phrase Hot'Lanta, but this summer, we are living up to that nick-name. And if you think its been hotter this summer than you remember recently, you're right! In fact, as of today, we've had 13 days in a row where the high temperature has been 90 or above. That hasn't happened in 6 years! Over the past few summers, we've been spoiled with fairly frequent rain, giving us a break from the high heat. But not in 2006.

Just take a look: we average 14 days with highs of 90 degrees or higher in July. Here's the count since 2000:

2000 - 22
2001 - 6
2002 - 17
2003 - 1
2004 - 8
2005 - 10

Not only has it been hotter this July than the past few summers, its been hotter longer. If you have a hot day, followed by a day with a thunderstorm, then another hot day, that's tolerable. However, when its hot day after day, then it really wears on you. So does the fact that we don't just hit 90 for an hour or two; we've been spending 7 to 9 hours at that mark.

This is the number of consecutive days where the high was 90 or higher in July for the past few years:

2000 - 21
2001 - 2
2002 - 8
2003 - 1
2004 - 2
2005 - 1

As of this writing, we're at 8 for July 2006.

If it's very hot in the summer, it's also usually very dry and we continue to see our deficit climbing about as fast as gas prices. We're almost 4 inches short for the year, so we really could use some rain.

Since we haven't had to deal with the high heat in a while, I thought I'd run down some things to keep in mind. Most of this is common-sense stuff.

- Dress in light-colored loose fitting clothing. You don't need additional reasons to sweat and dark colors retain the heat.
- Drink plenty of water. I wish I had figured out that people would actually pay for water in a bottle. Keep it handy and keep yourself hydrated. This is especially important for kids since they're outside running around and don't realize the reason they suddenly feel dizzy or nauseous is because they're de-hydrated.
- Don't drink a lot of alcohol or caffeine. Again, these aid in de-hydrating you.
- Stay in a shady place or in air-conditioning. Duh!?
- Check in on elderly family or friends who may not realize how long the heat will last.

The good news is that this week is, on average the hottest week of the year in Atlanta, so its all downhill from here. Stay cool and safe this summer.

The Great Migration...

Let me just say that I HATE MOVING!!! I don't think I am alone thinking that and I am sure there are many of you reading this nodding your heads in agreement. I dread moving so much I spent 7 years in the same apartment in Macon. When it came time to move up here to the big city it was hard to complain... after all I was living on borrowed moving time since most people move more often than once every 7 years. Still, it was not exactly a fun time. This time I was moving after just 1 year and I think I am justified in complaining.

Moving always takes a lot longer than you think and it seems you spend just about as much time at the chiropractor getting all the knots worked out afterward. Well, as much as I hate moving... imagine it taking over a month! Yep, that's right... more than 30 days. Doesn't the wildebeest migration across the Serengeti take less time? Well, maybe not but in moving time it has taken much longer.

The move started on June 13th. I was moving just a few blocks to a place that was big enough for my wife and I (we got married on June 24th). First it was my stuff. Then was my wife's stuff at the end of the month, and this past week we finally moved all the wedding presents up.

Every time we made some progress by unpacking some stuff... more stuff came up! I guess every dark cloud has a silver lining and in this case we are finally eating off real china and no longer are using plastic utensils.

With my off days being Monday and Tuesday we are optimistic that we will finally be done and we can relax... that's unless we find more stuff to move.

So, if you are moving anytime soon all I can say is good luck and I think I am busy that weekend! :-)

Have a great week!


--Chris

Fireworks... 2 For 1

Since I moved to Atlanta when I was twelve, I have seen my share of fireworks displays over the past 20 years. I remember watching the fireworks at Stone Mountain Park, both inside and from the outside along Hwy 78 (we found you could avoid the traffic and still see the fireworks by parking in some of the parking lots on 78). I can remember watching the fireworks at Fulton County Stadium after the Braves games, and I can remember a particularly wet one at Lenox Square.

Wet was definitely the case this year at Lenox as CBS46 aired the annual fireworks display. There were not many storms on Tuesday, but tell that to the folks at The Ted, Centennial Olympic Park, Stone Mountain, and at Lenox. A complex of thunderstorms developed in S. Atlanta and rumbled north canceling or delaying the fireworks at all the above locations... including ours at Lenox. The fireworks at Lenox went off at 10:15 with a light rain falling.

Despite the rain, we will head out again next year hoping that Mother Nature is on our side. The picture above came from a viewer from Birmingham, AL. It is of a lightning strike in the background as the fireworks go off in the foreground at Turner Field.

Regardless of the weather, I hope you had a fun, festive, and safe 4th of July!


--Chris

Look, Up In The Sky!

No, its not a bird or a plane or that guy in the blue tights and cape. Its the space shuttle. To be more precise, the space shuttle Discovery docked at the International Space Station (ISS). This doesn't happen very often, but when it does, its worth craning your neck to see it. The ISS and Discovery are in a 240 mile orbit above the earth and NASA has a way for anyone to figure out when to see the pair zip through the evening sky. All you have to do is go to http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/ and enter your city and out pops the date and time to look. For the most part, the sighting lasts only for a minute or two and it will appear as a steady white dot. You won't see colored lights like an airplane or any sound coming from the sky. In Atlanta, skies should be crystal clear Friday, July 7 at 10:46 pm and again Saturday, the 8th at 9:34 pm and Sunday, the 9th at 9:57 pm. Saturday's sighting lasts 3 minutes, so its your best shot at actually seeing it.

Photographer Ray Merriman and I dashed outside to see it tonight (Thursday) at 10:24 pm. We were scanning the skies and suddenly, there it was, a bright light with a seeming shaft of light coming out of the top of it. Ray did his level best to keep the shot steady, but in less than a minute's time, the dot faded. Nevertheless, it was quite thrilling.

Good luck sky watcher, I hope you see it!

So far so good!

As you may know, I got married last weekend. The wedding was down at Henderson Village, which is about a half hour south of Macon.

Mauri, my wife, was absolutely stunning! I was speechless watching her walk down the aisle with her dad. I was so glad we held to the traditions of not seeing one another on the wedding day before the ceremony. The anticipation of seeing her was well worth it!

Now that we are married people ask us all the time... how's married life? Well, so far, so good. No fights yet. Of course, I think we might have gotten a lot of those out of the way during our 5.5 years of dating!

Because the wedding was outside, we had it in the evening so it would be a little cooler (highs were near 100!). Being a meteorologist I always cursed people who called fretting about the weather for their outdoor wedding. Often times they would blame me as if I had control of it. Soooo, what did we end up doing??? We had the outdoor wedding. Needless to say I felt the pain and worries of all of those that have called before, but we did make sure we had a rain plan. The wedding was a little warm, but we avoided the rain.

During the ceremony there were two rumbles of thunder. One quiet one and then one that was much louder. I was not sure if it was about to rain or whether that was God's way of objecting! :-)

The evening was so much more wonderful than I ever imagined. I was always in the destination wedding boat, but the wedding is all about the bride and so I went along with what she wanted. When it was all said and done... she was right. It was so much fun to get together with our families and our friends. Of course, I do not think this will be the first time she is right... at least that is what she told me!

So, now we are busy getting settled in our new place here in Atlanta and getting her moved up from Macon. Needless to say we are both very excited to both be in the same town for the first time in a year!

It was a day I will never forget. Thanks for all your well-wishes, thoughts, and prayers!


--Chris