COBirders, For those that were interested the other night, tonight is another great example of bird migration on radar. Take a look at this image: http://weather.rap.ucar.edu/radar/displayRad.php?icao=KUSA&prod=bref1&bkgr=black&endDate=20120923&endTime=3&duration=0
That is an archived image from 9pm Saturday night. I know these rings around each radar are likely birds/insects/bats (70% probability) based on previous experience with radar meteorology. There are other things going on here that will affect the radar echoes, so not ALL of these echoes are birds/insects/bats (note the probability above). If you want to look at the most recent US radar view (no matter when you click this link), you can click here: http://weather.rap.ucar.edu/radar/displayRad.php?icao=KUSA&prod=bref1&bkgr=black&endDate=20120923&endTime=-1&duration=0 To get a different understanding of this, you can check the local wind flows at migration levels (approximately 1-2 km above ground; 900-850mb [pressure-levels]). You will notice the winds are flowing to the southeast where most of the birds are showing up on radar. This is a good wind direction to get migration. Notice that the winds in Colorado are not really conducive for migration. Sure, some birds will be moving on these winds because they are too bad, but they could be better. Here is the wind imagery to compare to the first radar image linked above: If you read this email before 11pm Saturday, look at this image: http://www.atmos.illinois.edu/~bguaren2/birdweather/nam_stream_900_12.gif If you read this email after 11pm Saturday, you will likely need to look at this image: http://www.atmos.illinois.edu/~bguaren2/birdweather/nam_stream_900_00.gif It is pretty obvious where the birds would "want" to be migrating and where they wouldn't based on the winds. If you want to find the national radar image on other dates, you can find it here: http://weather.rap.ucar.edu/radar/ To find the winds and predicted winds, you can go to this website: http://homes.comet.ucar.edu/~guarente/birdweather/stream.htm Good luck with these tonight, and have fun. There may be a quiz in a day or two about where the radars should be lighting up based solely on the winds. Keep your eyes peeled. Bryan Guarente Instructional Designer/Meteorologist The COMET Program University Corporation for Atmospheric Research Boulder, CO P.S. I have an email out to some National Weather Service contacts about finding the dual-polarization radar imagery online if possible. I will likely hear back by Monday night. If there is any luck with imagery on the web, I will make sure to post to the list with the links. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
