Posted by admin on March 8, 2010
I will warn everyone upfront, this post is going to be long. First of all we are now in Awareness Week, I try to keep it simple and say have access to information and have a plan. Here is a link to the NWS, please check it out and refresh yourself. If you find you can be a bit more prepared, it is never to soon, severe weather can happen anytime. I encourage everyone have a weather radio with s.a.m.e technology. With this you put in your county code, the radio will then only alarm you if your county has a watch or warning. The model I own has the ability to program to alert for just specific watches and warnings. I have mine set to alarm me of a Tornado Warning or Severe Thunderstorm Warning, it also has the ability to sound for other situations like a nuclear spill or even a sunami.
Okay, now to the website and our hopeful successful upcoming storm chasing season. I now have my video streaming account active and working. I have some new/used equipment coming within the next two weeks to help improve the quality of streaming we will offer. Fair warning, with mobile internet the video will be a fairly low bitrate, around 150 Kbps. We will likely only stream when approaching a severe storm, we do plan possibly streaming from the house if we are unable to go mobile. If you go to our chase page you will see I have inserted a “chat” box, this will enable us to communicate with others live while on the road. You do have to sign up and verify your account. Below the chat box is our video screen, if we are not streaming it will just be a black with an arrow. Next to the video stream is a map showing our position tracked via gps, in this box you can even enable the radar button to see where we are in relation to storms. We will try to notify all people signed up for chat that we are heading out. You can also go here and install a notifier, I have not tried it but you will have access to 400+ storm chasers streaming video. You can personalize it to only notify you when certain streamers are live.
I guess that is it for now, look for this week to be in the 50-60 degree range, with 1-2 inches of rain. This is not the “boring” weather of the last couple of weeks, sorry Bob, no golf for you! ;)
Filed under: Ofallon Weather, St. Louis Weather, St. Peters Weather, Storm Chasing, Video and Pictures
Tags: Ofallon Weather, St. Louis, St. Peters Weather, Storm Chasing, Storm Spotter, Thunder, Video, Weather
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Posted by admin on February 28, 2010
Well the weather has really become “boring”, look for temperatures to fluctuate this week, but the trend is looking warmer. Looks like we may have a chance of rain and possible thunder come early next week.
I have been trying to prepare for this years storm season, we are set at home, but I am busy getting things setup for chasing.
I have applied for a live streaming account, I have tested my equipment and I believe we should see live video from the field this year!
I also plan to try and stream video from the house when we are unable to go mobile.
I have a few items left to gather for this years chase season, a portable weather radio, a dash mount for the video camera, and some wiring of extra power ports in the car.
I am currently planning on taking several days off in mid-late May, if weather is still active, it’s possible that I may have a whole week open in June to dedicate to storm chasing.
Filed under: Ofallon Weather, St. Louis Weather, St. Peters Weather, Storm Chasing, Video and Pictures
Tags: Ofallon Weather, St. Louis, St. Peters Weather, Storm Chasing, Thunder, Video
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Posted by admin on February 19, 2010
Well I have been watching the models for the past several day in anticipation of the next two storm systems.
I was/am hoping for a big snow, but it is looking more like a rain/sleet/snow event.
Either way, it appears we are in for some heavy precipitation, we will have to wait to see how it falls.
The models are forecasting just over an inch of moisture through Monday.
However we receive this be careful, if it’s rain we could see some flash flooding, if snow or sleet, it could get deep.
Filed under: Ofallon Weather, St. Louis Weather, St. Peters Weather
Tags: Ofallon Weather, snow, St. Louis, St. Peters Weather, Weather
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Posted by admin on February 12, 2010
Looks like a Valentines snow is on it’s way, perfect for a day snuggled under the covers!
The models have been wavering a bit, I have posted an image of each model output through Monday afternoon. This is still fairly far out for a snow forecast, but we will see what happens.
Filed under: Ofallon Weather, St. Louis Weather, St. Peters Weather
Tags: Ofallon Weather, snow, St. Louis, St. Peters Weather, Weather
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Posted by admin on February 10, 2010
Well I measured 4.2 inches of snow last night, so the NWS forecast of 4-6 inches was spot on.
Look for some more snow Valentines weekend, still to early for amounts, but could be interesting.
I am testing some new forecasting software, look for forecast maps on the site in the next week or two.
I like the NWS snow maps, but I should be able to create my own and have them update automatically.
I used this for the last snow storm, it had us pinned for 3-4 inches, so just a bit low, but within reason of any snow forecast error.
Filed under: Ofallon Weather, St. Louis Weather, St. Peters Weather
Tags: Ofallon Weather, snow, St. Louis, St. Peters Weather, Weather
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Posted by admin on February 7, 2010
Well, the storms keep coming, and we keep dodging the bullet! The latest event will possibly start tonight and last into Tuesday morning. Tonight is a bit tricky, we will likely be very close to the edge of a light band of snow. The main part of this storm appears to have Monday afternoon through Tuesday morning as it’s target. The NWS is currently showing about 4-6 inches for most of the area, I say we wait and see what we get.
An update on how much liquid we received from the last storm. I had posted about three days before the storm that the models were showing around .75 inches of liquid. The St. Peters stations received .86 inches and the O’Fallon station received just .48 inches. So close on the St. Peters station and well over for the O’Fallon station.
The two models I currently have access to are predicting around .45 inches for the upcoming storm.
Be safe!
Filed under: Ofallon Weather, St. Louis Weather, St. Peters Weather
Tags: Ofallon Weather, snow, St. Louis, St. Peters Weather
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Posted by admin on February 1, 2010
January’s summaries for both stations are uploaded and can be found in the monthly/yearly archive tabs on the home pages.
Again this week we have a possible snow storm…..It is looking like late in the week, and once again, that far out we are just seeing indications, nothing for sure yet.
Just to give you an indication, one model is currently calling for ~.75 inches of liquid, in the form of snow. That would likely equal 7-11 inches of snow. Again, way to early, I will try to plot the models predications and then what we actually receive.
Filed under: Ofallon Weather, St. Louis Weather, St. Peters Weather
Tags: Ofallon Weather, snow, St. Louis, St. Peters Weather, Weather
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Posted by admin on January 27, 2010
For today, it is possible we could see some light rain and or snow.
For the next 2 days it appears that the main snow is going to stay south. Although I have seen some indications that the moisture could make it further north than the models are predicting. The forecast is for little to no snow in our area, if you go 70-80 miles south the maps are showing 6+ inches. With this tight gradient a small change in the storm track could give us a significant snow. This system needs to be watched close, if the change occurs, the models will likely pick up on it very late in the game.
Next week brings another chance of snow/rain in the Monday-Tuesday time range.
Filed under: Ofallon Weather, St. Louis Weather, St. Peters Weather
Tags: Ofallon Weather, snow, St. Louis, St. Peters Weather, Weather
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Posted by admin on January 23, 2010
Title says it all, looks like we are going to get another shot of rain this weekend. We could see an inch or more, so the ground that already feels like a sponge will only get worse. Saturday afternoon and evening it is possible that we could hear some rumbles of thunder, then to finish off Sunday some light snow, likely no accumulation at this time. Later in the week we could be looking at some accumulating snow fall, stay tuned, I will update as the system gets closer.
In case anyone has forgot, here is what the sun looks like.
Filed under: Ofallon Weather, St. Louis Weather, St. Peters Weather
Tags: Flood, Ofallon Weather, snow, St. Louis, St. Peters Weather, Thunder, Weather
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Posted by admin on January 18, 2010
It seems the St. Peters station has been having some interference issues as of late. Sounds familiar as I had issues with this station at the O’Fallon site. This really escalated over the last week and finally pushed Andy(the station’s host) and I to try and find the cause. The console is located with several PC’s, monitors, a wireless router and wireless phone, not the best location for this low powered unit.
We started by shutting everything down except the console and weather computer. Reception went to 95%-100%!
Time to start turning other items on, computers, no change, wireless access point, little to no change.
Andy then decided to turn the wireless off and plug his cordless phone back in……. Within 15 minutes we were below 50% reception. Everything else is now back on, Andy is going to try and move the phone base to another location.
I have several pages/images uploaded that are not linked on the site, mostly for diagnostics/personal interest.
St. Peters Reception
O’Fallon basement temp/humidity and reception
It appears we have some rain coming over the next week. Keep an eye open, the models are wavering a bit, but it is possible we could get enough rain for some flooding in some areas.
Filed under: Ofallon Weather, St. Louis Weather, St. Peters Weather
Tags: Flood, Ofallon Weather, St. Louis, St. Peters Weather, Weather
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