Sunday, April 15

It is too hot! I feel like I'm back at summer camp in the cabins with no air conditioning. That is partly due to the fact that the A/C in my dorm is broken (oh joy...) Once again, I am amazed at the speed the temperature can change in Alabama. Four days ago, it was in the low 60s at 6:00 PM, now it's the high seventies at  7:00PM!

Once again, clear skies though. However, I've heard that there have been some tornadoes in other parts of the country. So here is my perfectly legitimate plea to Mother Nature:

Dear Mother Nature,

What's with these mood swings?

I can't handle your hot flashes!

I know menopause is rough, 

but there is no need to lash out 

with tornadic wrath.

Just calm down.

Thanks :-)

Thursday, April 12

Perfect spring weather! I really don't think I belong in Alabama sometimes, and our crazy weather is one of the reasons why. However, today is BEAUTIFUL! This is what April should feel like! Not some crazy weather in the 80s!

The only clouds in the sky are nice, friendly, pure white wispy clouds.

And from some angles you can't see any clouds at all!

We have an outdoor concert at this amphitheater Saturday, I hope the nice weather (and temperature!) hangs on a few more days.

I know that in elementary or middle school I had to memorize some of the different types of clouds, but now I can only think of one: cumulonimbus (and that is thanks to the movie UP, not anything I remembered from school). I wanted to do a quick search on basic types of clouds and refresh my memory.

I found the snazzy chart here.
From this chart, I'm going to assume that the clouds today are either stratus or altostratus (I wouldn't even be able to guess if tehy were about 6,000 ft or not)

Thursday, April 5

This afternoon, I was minding my business and packing to go to Huntsville for a long, relaxing weekend. I was riding with my friend, Trent, who picked me up on his way through Birmingham from Tuscaloosa. He called me when he got to school and rushed me outside, I had no idea what was going on but I did as he asked. As soon as I stepped outside my dorm, I knew something was up the air pressure was strange, it was incredibly cloudy, and it was beginning to sprinkle (none of this had been present just an hour or so previously when I went into my dorm). As soon as I got my stuff in the car and we began to drive, the bottom fell out and the rain POURED around us. As we pulled off campus, I noticed one of the strangest cloud formations I had ever seen.

Trent says that he noticed this when leaving Tuscaloosa. He called it a wall cloud: a HUGE, DARK cloud that just suddenly ends leaving the sun shining through. Here is another view of the cloud.

Notice how the cloud just ends and the sun brightly shines through on the other side! This fascinated me! I've always wondered how far you had to drive before the rain would just stop or if the weather would gradually  become less and less fierce until you reached the end of the storm and it stopped. In this case, it would suddenly end when you reached the end of the cloud! Unfortunately, the end of the cloud was in the opposite direction that we were driving, so Trent and I decided to stop for dinner and wait out the rain. Thanks to our snazzy iPhone weather and radar apps, we knew that if we waited about half an hour, the rain would be either much lighter or gone entirely.

Wednesday, April 5

Today, my Facebook newsfeed was full of pictures of rainbows! I have decided that since rainbows are natural and are related to weather, I wanted to research what caused them. I attempted to take a picture of the rainbow myself, but my photography skills failed me today so I borrowed a photo taken by my friend, Miranda, that she posted on her facebook.

Paraphrased from HowStuffWorks:
Rainbows are created when light enters through one side of a raindrop in the air, is reflected on the other, and then leaves the drop. The raindrop acts as a prism and breaks up the light into a spectrum of colors.

My facebook friends also expressed their wonder at a double rainbow (thanks, I'm sure, to this lovely video). A double rainbow is created when the raindrops in the sky are a certain size that allows them to create two reflections internally. The fact that raindrops have to be a particular size is the reason why double rainbows are more rare than single rainbows.

Friday, March 30

I wanted to check the weather the next day to show if the sudden coolness had any effect the next day.

Up in the left hand corner of the radar screen, you can see that there is some sort of storm system moving in this direction. The change in temperature meant a change in weather, again! The weather, for once, is doing what I predicted! (I am too excited about this. I am so used to checking the weather, planning out what to wear, and having it change and be too hot/cold/rainy for whatever I chose to wear).

Though with these clouds in the sky, I hope I would have remembered an umbrella even without the help of the radar!

Thursday, March 29

This has been a strange year for weather. Last year, it snowed through January. This year it decided to almost skip winter entirely and go straight to being warm! However, this week it has began to cool down. Hopefully this is not a sign of impending rain and storms to come.

Unfortunately, thus far in this blog, I have noticed that changes (especially significant ones) in temperature seem to bring unpleasant weather soon after.

SPRING BREAK March 17-25: Avada's Interlude

Because our assignment was to find something natural on campus to write about twice a week, I decided that for Spring Break I would write about my betta fish, Avada.

Before Spring Break, I was afraid for a while that I was going to lose him. Avada was acting very depressed. For a few days he wouldn't even eat! From my research on Betta fish, I have learned that they eat like pigs! In the wild, they could go days without food, so when they do have food in front of them they eat all that they can. This makes the feeding instructions on my Betta fish food bad advice- it says "feed once or twice daily as much as your fish can consume within several minutes." If I followed these rules, I could easily overfeed Avada and he could die.

Anyway, in order to transport Avada from BSC to Huntsville, I put him in his lovely IKEA Tupperware.

Generally, when I put him in this container he is less active but, strangely, he became more active as the week went on. At one point, I took him to my brother's apartment on (what was SUPPOSED to be except my car decided to be dumb) my way back to Birmingham. My brother also has a Betta fish. When I put Avada's container next to Phillip's fish's bowl, Phillip's fish instantly began to puff out his gills and try to fight Avada. Betta fish are Japanese FIGHTING fish, after all. Avada did seem interested in Phillip's fish, but he never puffed up his gills (which he has often done to me if I got too close to his bowl) and actually began to back away after a while. I thought this was strange, especially considering that Phillip's fish was a little bit smaller than Avada. However, Phillip's fish was a different species of Betta, so that may have something to do with it?

My curiosity about Avada's reaction to Phillip's fish led me to put a mirror next to Avada's container that night. He instantly began to puff his gills and want to fight with himself, even when I used the size of the mirror that magnified!

 Avada continued to be very active the next day, even when I put him back into his bowl that evening. He has been perky and playful since then, even on his return to school this afternoon!

When he was acting so strange last week, I did some research. According to many sites, fish can get depressed. I was skeptical when I read this, but after he had a change of view for a few days, he seems much happier. Maybe he was depressed?

Saturday, March 17

St. Patty's day had some beautiful weather, but unfortunately it began VERY warmly. How convenient was it that the day everyone (including myself) has to move out of the dorm was also so warm--warm enough to make me start sweating on the short walk between Maggie and where my car was parked right by the curb?
But, I digress, the weather this evening was PERFECT! This was very convenient (seriously this time, not sarcastic like before) because my friend Anna and I spent quite a lot of time standing outside downtown in line to get into the Avett Brothers concert.

 I didn't have a chance to check the radar and weather app until after the concert tonight, but if it was still 70 outside at 11:30, you can imagine how it felt that evening when it just started getting dark. The only problem was just a few drops of rain that fell.

Thursday, March 15

I cannot believe that the weather has gone up to the high seventies this week! I just hope this change doesn't bring any tornadoes our way!

Friday, March 9

 I did collect the data to look at the temperature change after rain, but I forgot to post it the next day! However, I still found it important to share this information, so here it is:

It changed from 70s and comfortable outside to 57 (felt colder) all in one night!

The radar doesn't tell us much about the temperature change, but for the sake of continuity (and to double check the temperature) I included it.

Thursday, March 8

One thing that fascinates me about weather is how fast it can change. This morning and afternoon the weather was beautiful! With the exception of a few clouds, you wouldn't think there could be any bad weather coming.

The weather was so nice today that I had a lovely picnic by the lake with a friend during lunch time!

The radar doesn't seem to say much different, though this app only shows a 30 minute period.

However, you look at the weather forecast and it tells a different story.

Thunderstorms predicted? It was warm today, 70 and comfortable outside, I want to trace the change in the weather tomorrow, particularly temperature, and see how the rain affects it.

Friday, March 2

One thing that I don't like about Alabama is our crazy weather. One day it's hot, the next freezing. One day is sunny, the next raining. And all of these crazy temperature changes bring one of my least favorite things, tornadoes.

Thursday, people had posted on Facebook about the bad weather that was expected for today. After what happened in April of last year, I decided I would pay attention to the warnings this time. Pretty soon after I woke up, I heard that a tornado was heading straight for my hometown and my high school in particular (someone there apparently wasn't watching the weather, the students and teachers were all in the school!). To read more about the storms in Huntsville and read more about the damage to my high school, click here.

I spent most of my time Friday stressing about the weather and reading updates from home, but around 9:00 in the evening, I realized that I should write about it for this journal. Here is the radar and weather update from that time.

It's bizarre for it to be raining so hard and still feel hot outside. That's how it felt all day Friday: hot, humid, and sticky. I hated it. Thankfully, no major storms hit in this area. So, around midnight, some friends and I decided it would be a fun idea to go play in the rain.

UPDATE SATURDAY: Now, it's cold outside! It's so strange that yesterday I was wearing shorts outside and playing in the rain in the dark and today I can't go outside without a sweatshirt. I suppose this is a result of the rain? Or was the cause of the storm a cold front coming here? I really need to research how cold/warm fronts work.

Tuesday, Febuary 28: And Now For Something Completely Different

The strain of beautiful days is over. It's still relatively warm outside, but it's overcast and dreary outside. It has been raining on and off all morning.

Sometimes I just wish that the clouds could all combine and pour all the rain down at one time so we wouldn't have to deal with this on and off all the time. Radars aren't helpful in these situations either...

I guess the fact that the spots are smaller and have separation between them is the sign of scattered showers?

And neither is my weather app, for that matter

I know we need rain, but I just want the sun to come back.

Saturday, February 25

The weather has gotten colder the past few days. I guess all that wind wasn't a good thing, no matter how good it felt. I'm assuming a cold front blew in, if cold fronts can actually be "blown" somewhere. I have always heard that phrase and just assumed that was what it meant, but now I seem to remember something about wind being the fronts moving and not the cause of the movement. Though, that may just be my memory playing tricks on me. I can't remember the last time I discussed weather in a science class anyway.

Despite the cold, Spring must be coming! The snowcone place close to campus reopened this weekend, and some friends and I were not about to let a little chilly weather keep us from our snacks!

I used my phone to check the radar and weather again. The sky remains clear and beautiful, which is fantastic because I have no idea where my umbrella is.

Clear skies! I love it!

The radar picture and the weather app match now! I guess I fixed it. 

I'm still curious about the reliability of this weather app. I didn't notice the cloudiness that it predicted in the hour-by-hour. Then again, I was in Tuscaloosa by 6:00 and the weather could have been different there.

 

I only saw a few clouds, not enough to justify the sad looking picture on the weather app. 

It would be interesting to ask my parents in Huntsville and my friends in Tuscaloosa to keep track of the weather as well. It always seems to be doing the same thing in Tuscaloosa as it is here. Huntsville is further away, so I guess it's understandable that the weather is sometimes different. I wonder how far weather types tend to span, but I assume it always varies. 

Thursday, Feb. 22

For Teaching Science and Health, I am required to keep a science journal in which I write about one or more natural events or objects on campus at least twice a week. Because the weather in Alabama has a habit of changing so frequently (and because weather also has a habit of influencing my mood), I have decided that the weather will be my topic for this journal--at least for a while.

Today (actually this entire week) it felt wonderful outside! I just wanted to lay out and enjoy the nice breeze. In fact, I ate lunch outside this afternoon. The only problem with the weather was the fact that the wind was blowing extremely hard and my napkins and hair were flying everywhere.

Today, at about 3:30 PM, I took these photos at the academic quad.

 

Beautiful sunshine on the quad!

Warm and partly cloudy, just enough to keep the sun out of my eyes.

The wind continued to blow, but it still felt like perfect weather to sit outside. I was curious what the temperature was, and then I realized that because I have a snazzy iPhone now, I can also post pictures of the weather forcast and radar for this area:

 

72! Such a relief from the winter-y weather we had this weekend.

 

Honestly, I just recently learned to read a radar. Looks great today! No rain in sight!

My radar and weather apps don't seem to agree on the temperature. I might have to look into that before my next entry.

Now, it is about 10:30 PM, it still feels nice outside, and the wind continues to blow (HARD!) through my window. 

I hope the weather will remain warm and wonderful, but this is Alabama. I won't hold my breath.