NFCers,
I have saved off a bunch of the radar data and a bunch of streamline data from
the Sept 10-11 event for my personal use and would be willing to share them
with
anyone who wants to see them. They are currently hidden to the world, but I
could make them available if anyone wants to look through them. It was an
interesting event where a frontogenesis area was aligned very oddly for the
Northeast (NW to SE) and that was causing the winds to be out of the NE as
multiple people have noted. I didn't track the frontogenesis zone back to its
origins to learn maybe how this could happen in the future, but might be able
to
do that with some of the data I saved off. That will be at a later date though.
Now to Ted's questions:
I have fond memories of Sept 21-22 1985, but from outside Philadelphia, PA...
wait I was three... (sorry I just had to do that, I will accept all retorts)
My memories are better served up from this website:
http://vortex.plymouth.edu/upairwx-r.html
This is an archive of upper-air meteorological data that goes back to 1957
(just
in case your memory goes back further than mine). This page is a subset of the
Make-your-own maps archive from Plymouth State University found here:
http://vortex.plymouth.edu/u-make.html
So I went back to look at Ted's memories. I am a fan of streamlines for seeing
what is happening in the atmosphere. I checked multiple levels of the
atmosphere to come to some of my conclusions: 1000mb (nearing sea-level), 925mb
(.5-.75km up), and 850mb (1-1.5km up). Let me show you a few of the maps then
you can make your own to play along.
I started with Sept 21, 1985 at 12 zulu or UTC 925mb. It looks like this:
http://tinyurl.com/243kak3
OR zoomed in on the Northeast here:
http://tinyurl.com/256lavj
In these maps, I see an area of weak frontal passage or at the least
frontgenesis (front "birthing" area) just south of Pittsburgh running ese to
wnw. The winds behind the frontal zone are directly from the north or slightly
west of north. 12Z is just before sun-up that time of year, so about the time
I
would expect Ted was out huckin' papers. With the frontal passage overnight, I
would expect the bird numbers to be piled up behind the front in the preferable
wind field. I would suspect that the morning was cloudy with maybe a light
drizzle based on the frontogenesis. Based on the sounding from that morning,
there was possibly some fog or very low clouds that morning (Sounding). I
would
expect that this made the conditions even better, pushing some of the birds
lower. It seems like a perfect day to me for a nice night flight... but wait...
Ted's dates were Sept 21-22, 1985, so we have been looking at the morning
before
the flight occurred not the night of it.
Contiguous US
http://tinyurl.com/2a6v9aq
Northeast
http://tinyurl.com/25oo3s8
These winds are not preferable for what one might want to see for an NFC kind
of
night. Winds from the south or SSW. I am hoping that the answer to this is
that Ted has the wrong dates recorded, but that is for him to decide. If you
want to check the overnight hours, just change the date back one and change the
time to 00Z, that should give you the evening sounding information.
For the meteorologically savvy, we know it is not always possible to create
these kinds of analyses from the sounding network we have in the US, so there
is
definitely some concern about either of the days of data, but it is no
different
than the data we get these days, so believe what you will, with the
understanding that the dataset is not necessarily representative (but there is
no current way to gauge that).
So Ted, I have given you the tools to relive your meteorological past
(excluding
archived radar, which is much more involved and would only be reflectivity not
velocity based on the date). Tell me if you think you could have recorded the
wrong date, or if you think you have the right dates, because that makes for an
even more compelling story if it is the right dates.
Good luck with reliving your past.
Bryan Guarente
Instructional Designer/Meteorologist
The COMET Program
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Boulder, CO
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