I’ve Been Thunderstruck

I recently had to take a defensive driving class online. One of the things they do to make sure you’re not skimming the material is to place random sentences in the text, and then quiz you on them later. Below is a list of those random bits of information that I was able to learn about, in addition to understanding how to be a better driver!

• A frog is a mechanical switching device on a railroad track.
• Bob Denver was a teacher before Gilligan’s Island.
• A car operates at maximum economy at speeds between 25 and 35 miles per hour.
• Half an ounce of gasoline is used to start the average automobile
• Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com was originally going to name his web venture Cadabra.
• The last twelve cylinder car produced in the United States was the 1948 Lincoln Continental.
• The student who designed the Nike swoosh logo was paid $35.00
• Honey is used as a center for golf balls and in antifreeze mixtures.
• Thermometers were once filled with brandy instead of mercury.
• The highest selling domain name is business.com for $7.5 million.
• White light is a mixture of every other color in the spectrum.
• The Concorde jet guzzles 300 gallons of fuel per hour while idling.
• The wing flaps of a Boeing 767 come from Italy.
• The household refrigerator was patented in 1899.
• Cross-dressing Corporal Max Klinger on the sitcom M*A*S*H wore size 10 pumps.
• Gray lenses in sunglasses best protect the eyes against the Sun’s rays.
• At age 14, Bill Gates formed a company that sold traffic counting systems.

I actually missed one question pertaining to these tidbits. They gave a list of colors, and which was not part of white. I believe the answer to be Black. Just as White is the reflection of all the colors combined, Black is the absorption of all the colors in the spectrum. But, I still managed to pass that lesson!

I came across an interesting post today, called The Dreams of which Stuff is Made. This is the sort of thoughts about our physical world that totally get me thinking about just how amazing all this really is. Consider these few items, and then head over to the post for more :

• Tightly coiled in the nucleus of every cell of your body is six feet of DNA bearing your genetic code. Since the body has around 10 trillion cells, there are about 10 billion miles of DNA inside you.
• With your eyes, you can see the past. Look at the North Star and you are looking at 1300 A.D. Today’s light left that star nearly 700 years ago.
• Right now, as you remain “still,” you’re moving 400 times faster than a bullet. You are traveling 1,000 miles an hour with Earth’s daily rotation, 67,000 mph with Earth’s yearly journey around the sun, 550,000 mph with the solar system’s revolution around the Milky Way, and 1.3 million mph with the galaxy’s motion through the universe. A bullet goes about 3,000 mph.

I try and talk with people about this stuff all the time, but I can tell they just don’t get how amazingly complex this world…this universe…really is. They get angry when an email doesn’t reach them in 2 seconds, but never stop to think of how amazing that process really is. Or they take the light from stars for granted, not realizing what they are looking at could actually be gone.

Take some time to think about the universe, and what’s really going on. Fun stuff!

For those of you living in Arizona and New Mexico, and who own Garmin GPS receivers, I have created a mapset called Southwest Trails that you may find useful on your outdoor adventures.

Southwest Trails is a transparent map overlay that you can put on your map-enabled Garmin GPS receiver. This allows you to see, and follow, trails using whatever maps you normally would on your GPSr…be it topo maps, City Navigator, or any other sort of map that you have on your GPS. Using data provided by The Trails Co-Op, as well as my own data and user submitted data, I hope to build an extensive mapset of trails across the Southwest. This should help make your outdoor experiences more enjoyable, and more safe.

Using Southwest Trails on your Gamin GPSr extends your ability to have a fun, safe time in the wilderness. No longer are you contrained to adding a few trails or tracks to your GPSr, limited by the design of the device. Since Southwest Trails is a complete mapset, you simply load it with all the other maps you want to have on your device, and any trail in the mapset is available for your use at all times. Now, the only limitation is the number of trails that come with Southwest Trails! It’s my hope that Southwest Trails will enhance your wilderness enjoyment, and keep you safe on your travels.

Southwest Trails is available for both Windows and Mac users. The current version, v0.51a, is available for download at Outdoor Resources.

The monsoons have arrived in Southern Arizona, and I’m loving every drop of rain, every bolt of lighting and clap of thunder. We have had some AWESOME storms so far! I’m out trying to take some decent lighting pictures…you can check out the latest pics here (proudly hosted at SmugMug!).

As a novice storm chaser, I’ve been learning a lot about what it takes to actually form a thunderstorm each day. Fortunately, some local weather forecasters (ErinJordanKOLD, PickeringKOLD and ChuckGeorgeKOLD) have been providing daily storm updates on Twitter, and have parsed out some science knowledge at the same time. One of the things they constantly mention, and which is an important component of thunderstorm formation, is dew point.

According to Wikipedia, “dew point is the temperature to which a given parcel of air must be cooled, at constant barometric pressure, for water vapor to condense into water (all links courtesty of copying from Wikipedia).” Dew point is also associated with relative humidity, in that a high relative humidity indicates that the dew point is closer to the current air temperative. As noted above, dew point is given in degrees (for instance the current dew point temperature in Tucson is 51F). A relative humidity of 100% means that the dew point temperature (temp at which dew forms) is equal to the current temperature, and that the air is maximally saturated with water (can hold no more water, and thus condenses).

Dew point is important for reasons other than storm formation. The higher the dew point, the more uncomfortable it feels outside. In periods of high relative humidity and high dew points, the ability for sweat to evaporate from the body decreases, which reduces the cooling effect related to sweating. That tends to make us hotter, and makes being outside a bit more dangerous.

That’s all good info, but I really wanted to know how dew point influences thunderstorm formation, because I simply love those storms! With an estimated 40,000 thunderstorms occurring world-wide on any given day, and the high occurrence of such storms in areas where factors influence dew point, there must be a correlation, and a direct one at that.

Turns out that dew point plays a great role in thunderstorm formation. There are three factors - moisture, instability, and a lifting mechanism - that contribute to thunderstorm formation. Typically in the Southwest United States (Arizona in specific), dew point levels are very low…in the teens or lower. But each summer a shift in air flow occurs, drawing moisture up from Mexico. That infusion of moisture into the atmosphere leads to higher dew points, and when they have reached the mid-50s for three consecutive days, then the monsoon has officially begun!

Dew point is essentially the low level moisture that actually fuels thunderstorm development. Severe thunderstorms are more likely to occur when the dew point is 55F or higher, providing more potential fuel for the storm as the dew point increases. There are other moisture factors as well, which change in significance as you move higher in the atmosphere. But, for purposes of this discussion, it’s the low level stuff that counts.

So, there you have it. The more moisture in the lower levels, the higher the dew point, the greater the chances of a thunderstorm developing!

Filling station and garage at Pie Town, New Mexico (LOC)

Originally uploaded by The Library of Congress

I came across the Library of Congress collection of photos on Flickr today, and was browsing through some of them. These images are all copyright free, with no known restrictions on their use…which means you can use them for anything at all (but don’t take credit for taking the picture…that would be wrong). But, I digress. I thought this picture was cool because I like the old style gas stations, and because it would be sweet to live in a place called Pie Town!

Here is a link to my 12 of 12 for May 2009. The subject this month is the Esmond Station train wreck of 1903 in Esmond, AZ.

It’s always easier to talk a good talk than to walk a good walk! The proof is in the pudding, as they say.