Scott Sabol's Weather Blog

The same questions are always asked this time of year right after a hurricane or tropical storm makes landfall in the US.  Is this unusual?  Are hurricanes and tropical storms affecting the US more recently?

To answer this question, check out this graph showing the hurricanes that made landfall over the last 150 years.  You can plainly see that more hurricanes made landfall in the 1910s, 1930s and 1940s then over the last 2 decades.

Why is this? 

Many components go into the formation and track of hurricanes.  El Nino, La Nina and cyclical patterns in the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean over long periods have the most effect.  Could Global Warming play a role?  Possibly but recent studies have refuted this. 

We still have a few more months of hurricane season.  Expect new tropical storms and hurricanes to take the same general track.

If you have a condo in Florida or North Carolina, be alert!

Stay Tuned.

 

Labor Day weekend is here and the hurricane season is heating up...BIGTIME.

Friday was the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall over New Orleans back in 2005.  The damage was some of the worst from any natural disaster in US history. Some blame Global Warming...some blame the government...others blame bad luck.  We can debate them all.  The bottom line:  Hopefully the city has recovered enough to withstand another one because soon-to-be Hurricane Gustav is heading that way.

One note.  One element of Katrina that was never reported was the reason for its rapid intensification.  The catalyst was something called The LOOP CURRENT.  A cyclical current of super-warm water known for centuries between the Yucatan Peninsula and Cuba which was active as Katrina passed over.  Global Warming was not the cause.  Katrina blew up into a Category 5 in less than a day and then made landfall at a Category 3 into a city that had (hopefully not now) an inadaquete levee system. 

Anyway, here are some very cool 3D satellite pictures of Katrina along with a picture taken from a Hurricane Hunter plane as it flew inside the eyewall.

The last one is a SPAGHETTI MODEL of the possible tracks of  Gustav from Thursday mornings weather segment.

Enjoy!

 

Myfoxtampa.com  has a very cool hurricane page that has more information than any other site that I've found. 

MYFOXHURRICANE

It constantly updates real time satellite info, hurricane and tropical storm info and a bunch of other cool stuff.

Have fun!

Scott

Finally, I have some tomatoes from the garden.  Too much rain earlier in the summer and not enough over the last month hasn't been what my garden needed for a bumper crop like last year.  Still, for putting $30 into the garden and getting out almost 35 tomatoes so far with peppers and cucumbers along with it, I say the $30 was well spent.




A few days ago, we all went to the Memphis Kiddie Park in Cleveland.  The weather was perfect!

In case, you are wondering what the FLOWBEE is, it is a haircut device that looks like a cross between a wet-dry vacuum and a leaf blower.

The pictures describe it best!

I think these people are waaay too happy.

The flowbee website:  FLOWBEE

Get ready for a nice change...

No need for the A/C by Thursday as temperatures will be dropping to levels that we normally see in late September.

The upper 80s/high humidity pattern will be replaced by fall-like 70s by Friday.

I'm lovin it!

However....of course there is always a HOWEVER right?

The air might get so cool aloft that the difference between the air aloft (3 miles up) and the lake temperature (which is around 75) might get to such a point where waterspouts could very well form amidst the dark clouds which normally accompany cool air like this.  Heck, we might get a lake-enduced thunderstorm for the same reason that waterspouts form.

Regardless, it will still feel awesome.

Happy National Underwear Day!

Scotty

Typically when I receive a phone call from viewers who say that they had baseball size hail from a thunderstorm, I'm a bit skeptical.  Don't take it personally but we rarely have hail that size here in Ohio.

However, this past Saturday was different.  Severe weather hit parts of the area pretty hard.  Several people emailed photos of, yes, baseball size.  Check out these pictures...

 

Just this morning, Kenny Crumpton was live at the square in Hudson talking about the town and all that it has.  Just as the segment was about to wrap up, my parents both made a surprise appearance with Kenny.  To see my parents on TV in my hometown on the station that I work at while I am doing the weather is one of the highlights of my career.  From a kid who always wanted to be a meteorologist (yes, pretty dorky I know), today marked a time when history came full circle.

It was back in 1988 when I made my first call into Dick Goddard to report the temperature.  Since then, with the support of my parents, family and teachers throughout the Hudson School System, that dream of doing the weather at channel 8 became a reality. 

When my family moved to Hudson back in 1977, the population was under 8000 people.  There were only 4 stoplights and farmland was more prevalent than housing developments.  I remember hitting my first homerun at Cascade Park behind the Acme Plaza when I was 6.  I remember walking in the Memorial Day parade with my dad for years and years.  I remember my mom bringing in our TV to Mrs. Johnson's first grade class to watch the first flight of the Space Shuttle.  I remember Safety Town.  I remember the REACH program.  I remember my mom driving us to band practice, ball practice and other after school activities.  I remember my dad as Cub Scout Leader and the pinewood derby race.  I remember going to Saywells after ballgames for ice cream.  I remember the Time Travelers program with the Hudson LIbrary which took us to places that most people never see or might ever see again like the inside of the Clock Tower.  My class was the last to graduate from the "old" high school. (Which is now the middle school)

The town has tripled in size since 1977.  The roads are wider, the traffic is denser, the stores are more numerous.  The school system is among the best in the state.  

I am proud to call Hudson my hometown

Forgot to at it yesterday...

We've had more than 8 inches of rain since June 1st.  As long as you haven't had any flooding recently, this has been great for the lawns and gardens especially mine.

While I was on vacation, my son picked a couple of cucumbers and some broccoli.

This has been a great investment with food prices so high.  It took me about $25 to plant the garden and already, I've recooped about $10 of veggies with more to come.

Next week, the tomatoes should be ready.

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July.

It should stay dry with the exception of a few southern counties today and tomorrow.  They might get a quick shower but nothing real big.

I'll be burning some burgers this weekend...

Scotty

The Detroit Free Press yesterday showed the first pictures of the initial stages of demolition of Tiger Stadium, the former home of the Detroit Tigers from 1912 to 1999. 

Being a fan of the history of baseball and its old ballparks, I can't help but feel saddened.  My sadness is not only from the thought of a grand ballpark like Tiger Stadium meeting the same fate as the old stadium here in Cleveland but the fact that it took the city of Detroit almost 10 years to decide to do it.  Over that time, it sat there falling into disrepair virtually wiping out all hope of the park being transformed into something that would fit its historical legacy.  Small museum anyone?

This reminds me of the day when I went to the old Cleveland stadium in October of 1996, a year after the last down was played before the Browns moved to Baltimore and almost 3 years after the Indians moved down the street to the Jake. 

The weather was cold and cloudy.  I parked at one of the gates and walked in where someone was manning a table.  To his left was a pile of old seats.  I bought one, loaded it into my car and thought, "why not walk around a little."  So I squeezed through a small space between fences and walked out into the centerfield bleachers. 

I could see the Browns lettering in the endzone faded by a year of Cleveland weather. Looking up at the pressbox, I noticed signs hanging down and a bunch of metal facades missing.  It was incredibly errie.  I was the only one in the park.  Talk about freaky...and scary.

Cold chills went through my body.  I remembered that my grandfather was an usher back in the 1950s and wondered if one of those seats piled up in the parking lot was one that he wiped down for a fan.  I remembered my first ballgame back in 1979 sitting in the upperdeck with my dad watching the Indians beat the Yankees 12 to7.

Yet, all of those memories would soon be at the bottom of Lake Erie. 

Yesterday, looking at a picture of Tiger Stadium meeting its fate with a wrecking ball brought back my memories of Cleveland Stadium on that fall evening back in 1996. 

Now if I could just get a seat.....Hmmmm.

Maybe you remember the heatwave back in 1988.  I was, well trying to mow lawns that summer as the mercury hit 104 on June 25th.  Look at Dick's weather journal entry from that month for proof positive!

Click on each link for a snapshot from the page itself and a closeup.

http://media.myfoxcleveland.com/June1988A.jpga>

http://media.myfoxcleveland.com/June1988.jpg>

I've been out of the loop since being on vacation for a week and a half.  Got alot of things done around the house like staining the deck, fixing the invisible fence and other less involved projects.  In between all of that, I had lots of fun with the kids. We went to the pool on Father's Day with grandma and grandpa and my sister and brother.  My son went 100 mph for a good 3 hours and then crashed as most 3 year olds do.

It was nice not to get up at 2AM every morning.  Its amazing what a good nights sleep does for your energy level when you haven't had one in quiet along time.  The kids loved and and so did Tina, my wife.

Here are a few pictures from the last week to include a garden update photo.  I already picked the lettuce once with another one coming in a few days after the soaking rains from Saturday.

Hard to believe but this metal box covered with dust is the first radar here at FOX 8 back in the 1950.

The pictures tell it all!