March 4, 2007 March 19, 2007

Had a good visit at Spring Hill Elementary in Jeffersonville on Friday. I was there reading to some second graders for National Reading Day. Met several good folks there including the Mayor, Rob Waiz. I’m not sure if the mayor read the kids his annual budget, but I read Horton Hears a Who and Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Laundry. It was quite fun and it was cool afterward as I went to the river. The river is rather high now and flowing quite strong. With a strong westerly wind, there were white caps and large swells. It gave me some idea of what the river looked like before they went and dammed it up. Most people don’t know but in the early 19th century some people said the Falls of the Ohio was every bit as spectacular as Niagra. I’m not sure about that but its drop in elevation of 23.5 feet over about 2 miles did(does) make for some rough rapids and those rapids and rocks are the reason for Louisville’s existance.

On This Date in History William Henry Harrison was inaugurated President of the United States. He had been governor of Indiana and a famous General. In 1811, he led a mission to put down an uprising by the great Indian chief, Tecumseh. During the War of 1812, in October 1813(go figure the date and the name of the war), He faced Tecumseh again. Tecumseh had organized a bunch of Native American tribes to join with the British against the Americans. Harrison defeated the combatants in Canada and Tecumseh was killed. Legend has it that the great chief put a curse on White men. On this date in 1841, Harrison was inaugurated President. He was 68 years old and the oldest person ever elected President until Ronald Reagan 140 years later. The weather was terribly cold in Washington but Harrison not only insisted on giving a 3 hour acceptance speech outside, he also went on the parade. Harrison caught a cold that quickly turned to pneumonia and promptly died on April 4, 1841. At 31 days, Harrison’s reign as Chief Executive was the shortest of all time. What is known as “Tecumseh’s Curse” was begun. From that point on, every president elected in a year that ends in zero did not live to see the end of his presidency. 1840-Harrison(pneumonia) 1860-Lincoln (assassination) 1880-Garfield (assassination) 1900- McKinley (assassination) 1920-Harding (natural causes) 1940-Roosevelt (natural causes or stroke) 1960-JFK(assassination)…then 1980…again..Ronald Reagan shows up. The man who supplanted Harrison as the oldest President elected also was the President to break Tecumseh’s curse. An assassination attempt by John Hinckley almost kept the tragic streak going but the Gipper made a miraculous recovery to bring to an end one of the more interesting aspects of Presidential history. I think its probably safe to say that no President will ever give a 3 hour speech again nor will they walk in a parade when its 5 degrees outside.

rsymon@wlky.com

March 1, 2007 March 19, 2007

The storm activity really got cranking today….just not much in the Ohio Valley. Wednesday night, there were reports of a tornado in Kansas on the ground for 2 hours or some 85 miles. That’s rather unusual for tornadoes, though not unprecidented and it was part of the profile for the day. The prospects for the strongest weather appeard to materialize in the Dixie States and that has been the case. Locally, the storms that developed in Mississippi helped to cut off some moisture in our neck of the woods as well as keep a lot of clouds in the area. Consequently, temperatures remained steady in the low to mid 50′s and light rain throughout the day conspired with the cloud cover to prevent much destablization. The result was a few t’storms but mainly just a wet day. This situation was never really a cut and dry, slam dunk and now you see the reason why. But, in this instance, the energy available was sufficient to warrant some concern as if you got severe weather, there was a reasonable chance it could border on the remarkable. That was the case for some places that got the strong stuff. So, if you are like most people, you are glad nothing developed. If you are part of the morbid, you’ll just have to wait for the next chance….and that won’ t be around here for awhile. This weekend looks rather chilly.

rsymon@wlky.com

February 28, 2007 March 19, 2007

I spent the day at the Midwestern Bow Echo Workshop. Its a technical workshop put on by the National Weather Service In Louisville for folks in the region. Whole bunch of professional meteorologists from the weather service and academia. I then went to the St. Joseph’s Catholic school for weather class. Scheduling was a tought but it was a good time. Great kids out there. I was impressed with how smart the kids were, in particular the kidnergartners! As for the Workshop, it reminded me of school, which was an environment I rather enjoyed. Kim, Matt and I were the only folks from TV I saw there, though there is another day to go. Jay was not there because he was busy keeping an eye on tomorrow’s weather. Jay will be doing the same thing tomororw and tomorrow is my day off so I will be attending again tomorrow morning but that will be it. I will be at work for the afternoon. See, when there is a good chance at threatening weather, we don’t have days off. And you know what, its not really work when you are doing something you enjoy doing.

So, lets get to it. This system is similar to last weekend’s EXCEPT…we will have a warm front moving up ahead of the cold front. Remember last week we never warmed. This time, the warm front will surge early Thursday morning. As it moves through, we could see showers and t’storms. Along a warm front, it is not unusual this time of year to get elevated storms, or storms that start much higher in the atmosphere and therefore may bring wind and lightning with some rain, but rarely do you get severe weather from elevated storms except for hail. The warm front will open the door for warm moist air and strong southerly winds. High will push to the upper 60′s in spite of clouds. Then, I betcha we get a line of thunderstorms by late afternoon. The data from various sources supports the idea of strong winds. That will be the biggest risk. However, some data indicate that tornadic activity is not out of the question. If I were you, I’d keep it tuned to WLKY 32 cause you know we’ll be all over it and let you know the score. In this situation, we probably won’t have a good feel as to the real probability of strong storms with potentially strong winds or the probability of really nasty stuff. Either way, at least some stronger activity is likely. Looks like severe weather season is starting early. Still think its a good idea to go over your safety procedures at home, work and school. If you have any severe weather questions..and I know you do…feel free to email me below.

rsymon@wlky.com

Louisville History and the Insights of Mike Weaver aka The Weav March 19, 2007

Not a whole lot to report today. Been pretty busy trying to get a manuscript for submission to either the Ohio Valley or Kentucky Historical registry magazines. The topic is Louisville in the 19th Century and its transformation from a Northern city to a Southern city. I decided to look into that when I saw at the Filson Club a quote that said at the end of the Civil War, Louisville was a Northern City by 1900 it was a Southern City. Found some rather cool stuff. Hopefully you’ll be able to read all about it. I find Louisville to be a extremely interesting city as its been around for so long. One thing that people should know but don ‘t really hear much about is that the 1974 Tornado was not the only big bopper to hit the city. In fact, in my research, I found a number of times where Louisville was affected by a major tornado. There was one instance I remember regarding a tornado coming across the river and sinking a couple of dozen barges. But the big one that people forget about is the 1890 tornado. I believe it was March 24, 1890. The twister started near Parkland and ended up at the water tower. That water tower is a new one, rebuilt after the 1890 tornado knocked it down. The tornado killed some 120 people and destroyed well over 500 homes, several schools, numerous businesses and some churches. At Cave Hill cemetary, if you look around you can find a whole bunch of graves with the same date of death. That is what caught my attention as I knew that meant something catastrophic had to have happened. I am told that Cave Hill had funerals every hour for over a week following the tornado. If you do the math, 24 hours times 5 days would equal 120, so I suspect they took some breaks over the late night hours. In any event, though we are not in Tornado Alley, we are vulnerable and the last time I can recall a big ole tornado in the area was the Bullitt County tornado in 1996. So again, as I mentioned the other day, be a good boy scout and be prepared ahead of time and know your safety procedures at home and at work.

Hey, this weather system that looks so similar to last weekends is still on the mark except for one wrinkle. The warm, moist air looks as if it may lift a little farther north into the Ohio Valley. Thursday afternoon as the cold front approaches, I think our chances for thunderstorms will be greater than last weekend and the prospects for something worthwhile have increased. But, at this point there is nothing that really jumps out as far as causing great concern. I’d be more wary if I lived in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Of course, Jay will be all over this and report any changes one way or another. So stay tuned.

Mike Weaver sent me a comment regarding the Heroes of Texas. He said ” I don’t know what kind of a ball player Davey Crockett was, but Earl Campbell was the best running back I ever saw.”

Thanx for the insight, Mike. By the way, Earl was the best while he lasted. I’ll bet Davy as middle linebacker might be a good match up though.

On This Date in Weather History Here we are talking about severe weather but, that storm last weekend dumped pretty good snow on the northern plains and Great Lakes before doing some work on the Northeast. In another example of the diverse weather across the nation this time of year, stories of snow abound in the historical record. Beginning Feb. 27 and ending on March 7, 1717, parts of New England got 5 feet of snow with Boston getting 3 feet and just north of Boston 6 feet. For much of March the city of Boston was paralyzed. In 1969, a similar story, A six day nor’easter did the same thing, except on Mt. Washington, 97 inches fell, which is over 8 feet.

On the global warming front though…this same date in 1997, JFK airport got to 70 degrees. There is no report on what or when the previous record for the day was but it was probably the upper 60′s so warm air in the northeast this time of year is not completely unprecidented and only supports my idea that when pitchers and catchers report, expect all sorts of stuff….but don’t expect a Cubs Pennant.

rsymon@wlky.com

Academy Awards; The Louisville Lip Shocks the World March 19, 2007

Tonight is the big Academy Awards. First off, they are calling it “the Oscars.” Its not “the Oscars”, its the 79th Academy Awards and the Academy Award is the Oscar. The website of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says:

“Officially named the Academy Award® of Merit, the statuette is better known by its nickname, Oscar, the origins of which aren’t clear. A popular story has been that Academy librarian and eventual executive director Margaret Herrick thought it resembled her Uncle Oscar and said so, and that the Academy staff began referring to it as Oscar. In any case, by the sixth Awards presentation in 1934, Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky used the name in his column in reference to Katharine Hepburn’s first Best Actress win. The Academy itself didn’t use the nickname officially until 1939.”

Now, they’ve gone so far and called the event “The Oscars.”

Not sure why I get worked up about it since I rarely watch. I see alot of movies on cable but don’t go to too many at the theatres. Think I’m getting old because I just can’t bring myself to pay $7.50 to see a movie. Pretty soon I’ll be saying, “back in my day…” But I do wonder how many people out there are like me who don’t think that the Academy Awards is that big of a deal and more often than not miss the show.

On This Date in Weather History On February 25, 1934 six tornadoes touched down in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi leaving 19 dead. On the same date in 1987, Alpine Arizona received 87 inches of snow.

This weekend we had both types of weather historically noted. Tornadoes in the South and snow in the Rocky’s and significant snow in the Northern Plains. But, you see, when pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training, that is when we start to see severe weather showing up. We have a system that looks pretty similar to this past weekend’s storm system poised to pounce on the US. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out for us; whether or not we get any severe storms or if we just get cold rain like this past system. Odds are it will not be too rambunctious but its worth watching. And its probably a good idea to go over your severe weather a tornado safety procedures with your family. You shouldn’t wait around until a storm is on top of you to try and figure out what to do. If you don’t know, feel free to email me.

On This Date In History On this date in 1964, Louisville’s own Muhammed Ali stunned not just the boxing world, but the entire sports world when he defeated the seemingly invincible heavy champion of the world, Sonny Liston. The 22-year-old Ali was an 8-1 underdog and had brashly predicted he would stop Liston in the eighth round. But Liston, who had twice handily beaten former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson, claimed he had a shore shoulder and did not answer the bell for the seventh round. Ali had won the gold medal at the gold medal at the 1960 Rome Summer Olympics at the age of 18. He later went on to win the title again in similar unsuspecting fashion when he defeated another seemingly indestructable champion, George Foreman, in the Rumble in the Jungle. But the boxing legend of Muhammed Ali was set with his victory over Sonny Liston on this date in 1964 in Miami Beach, Fl.

rsymon@hearst.com

February 24, 2007 March 19, 2007

Interesting day weatherwise this Saturday. Here we were getting phone calls from people being scared by somene calling for severe thundestorms and we kept on saying rain. Well, we certainly did get our rain…but it rained hard enough to drag down cold air aloft that turned that rain into Snow!! Okay, it didn’t last long but was neat while it lasted. I think the average time of snow in Louisville was 4.67 minutes. We had a number of calls concerning the snow and we had some here, as did the observers at the Airport. I think the only place in Jefferson County that didn’t see any snow was at the National Weather Service office. They looked as hard as they could but never saw a flake, though they did report some nearby lightning. The lightning and thunder was not much of a surprise. We expected that as we knew about the colder air aloft. Water by nature is a negative charge. When it becomes frozen, it becomes positively charged. When the positive charge of the frozen precip becomes a sufficiently great enough difference between the ground or the wet part of another cloud, then it gives off a spark….a giant spark we call lightning. In this case, it was weird but there was sufficient ice in some places where it was snowing that we had thundersnow for a brief time. Again, not a big deal but it was cool.

Want to thank the kids at the Cabbage Patch and the folks at the National Active and Retired Federal Employees(NARFE) of Louisville. I went to the Cabbage Patch this week to spend time with the kids in the bible study. I talked about the weather and tornadoes and why its important to follow the rules to get either in a basement or an inside small room like a closet or bathroom in the event of a tornado. At NARFE, I spoke on Wednesday about Global Warming. The basic message was to keep a sharp eye on what is said in the media and consider all opinions and the sources of those opinions as you make up your mind on where you stand. At both places, I had some great questions and a good time.

This Date in History In the 1830′s, Mexico included present day California, the Southwestern US, part of Colorado and Texas. Ex-patrioted Americans came to Texas to settle. They decided they didn’t like the rules of the Mexican government (one was the Mexican anti-slavery laws) so they tried to revolt. The Mexican General Santa Anna sent his army into Texas to regain order. 186 men at the Mission at San Antonio de Bexar found themselves surrounded by Santa Anna’s army of several thousand. That mission was known as the Alamo and on this date in 1836, Alamo commander William Barret Travis received a demand by Santa Anna that the men surrender. In true Texan manner, Travis replied with a cannon shot. The eventual demise of the Alamo helped create the legends of Travis, Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie. They are all recognized as heroes of Texas. Today those ranks have swelled by the likes of Nolan Ryan and Earl Campbell. But the boys at the Alamo will always stand tallest, for their bravery and the time they bought for General Sam Houston to build an Armby that would eventually win Independence for Texas in April of that year. So high in esteem are the Alamo defenders that John Wayne made a movie about them and played the role of Davy Crockett.

Tomorrow…its one of the greatest days for The Greatest.

rsymon@wlky.com

February 22, 2007 March 19, 2007

For many of you youngsters, you only know of President’s Day as a day off from school but are not aware of how it was derived. When I was a kid, we got February 12 for President Lincoln’s Birthday and February 22 for George Washington’s Birthday. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday is January 15 and when it was decided his date of birth should be commemorated, it was thought there were too many Federal Holidays so, the decision was made to combine Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthday and call it President’s Day. I fear what may be lost is the notion that all Americans know the date of birth of the Father of the Country. So I am doing my part by reminding you that February 22 is Washington’s birthday. He was born in 1732 and would be 275 years old, had he not succomed to the flu in 1799. It has been suggested that the old General and first President would have lived through his ailment had it not been for the doctors. A common practice at the time for treating an ailment with a fever was to use leaches to suck out the bad blood or simply open cuts on the patient and let him bleed. Seeing as they didn’t have any leaches around Mount Vernon in December of 1799, the did the cutting routine. The story goes that the doctor wanted to stop the bleeding process but General Washington insisted that the wounds be reopened. Perhaps this is where Sylvester Stallone came up with the line “cut me, Mick” for his first Rocky movie. In any event, on December 14, 1799 George Washington died and speculation is that he died not from the symptoms of a cold or the flu, but instead from being bled to death.

On this 275 birthday of Washington, in Louisville, the weather was spectacular, though it was a bit blustery….too blustery for kite flying. But there was a lot of sun and I see several trees have buds on them. This weekend, a storm system will affect the area. But, you know what, the real story with this will be strong and quite possibly severe storms well out of our area to the southwest and also big time snow to our North. So, if you’re planning on a trip to Chicago this weekend, consider going to Arizona to see the Cubs because Chi-town may get a snoot full of snow. The first round of spring storms will be likely, I would think, across the southern plains. I think someone has been hyping storms around here this week by the number of phone calls and emails we have been getting. We were keeping an eye on the situation but weren’t overly enthused about it and now the possibility is pretty remote. You might see a flash of lightning or hear a rumble or thunder to remind you that spring is not far off, but nothing to move the furniture or rattle the nerves.

On This Date in History On February 22, 1847, they weren’t celebrating Washington’s birthday west of Lake Tahoe. They were celebrating being rescued. Just west of Lake Tahoe is Truckee, CA. You may recognize that name from the daily low temperature reports. In the summer particularly, Truckee is often the cold spot in the country. About 9 miles west of Truckee is Donner’s Pass. That area gets over 400 inches of snow annually. It is one of the few mountain passes that allowed for early travel from the plains to the West Coast. In 1846, a group of settlers were heading West. I’m not sure but I think this mountain pass was not particularly well traveled but was considered a short cut. This group, led by a man named Donner, got stuck near the pass by extreme snow in late November or early December 1846. For weeks and weeks they remained. Many died. On this date in 1847, a rescue party began taking survivors out. Twenty one lucky souls left. The rest were taken in subsequent rescue missions. The final survivors reached civilization in April…5 or 6 months after they had become stranded. Nowadays, if you look at a map, you will find Donner’s Pass, Donner’s Summit and Donner’s Lake to mark the spot of the tragedy. What made this case of human struggle noteworthy was how many of the people survived. Forty-one of the eighty-seven settlers survived. Not all of the survivalists, but many, made it through their horror in the largest case of cannibalism in US history. That is why it is remembered. But, the lessons were not learned. The Southern Pacific Railway decided this “shortcut” was a great place for a railroad, in spite of the snow hazard. On January 13, 1952, the Southern Pacific’s “City of San Francisco” train was buried by an avalanche just west of Donner Pass in Yuba Pass. To give an idea of how deep the snow is, in the 20th century, it still took six days to get to the trapped train. Yet, the track stayed in use until 1996, when the Union Pacific took over the Southern Pacific. All traffic was rerouted about a mile south of Donner Pass to a route with a much easier grade and a 10,000 foot tunnel under the mountains. It took 150 years from the lesson of the Donner Party, but someone finally figured out that in the mountains, man is no match for the weather.

Comments welcome at rsymon@wlky.com

February 20, 2007 March 19, 2007

Welcome to Bob’s Blog….Symon Sez….We will discuss all sorts of stuff…pretty much what’s on my mind. Sometimes it will include weather, but not necessarily. I run across things each day that I find interesting and I will pass some of them along to you as well. For instance, this past weekend, we had snow. But the temperature was about 32 or 33 degrees. So, some of the snow didn’t stick to the ground. At times, the upper atmosphere was such that the snow fell as little snow balls, looking sorta like the insides to a bean bag chair. It also clicked as it hit the surface like sleet. That sort of thing is hard to measure. In the evening, the snow turned to a time of good sized flakes and a nice fluffy cover. Now, at the weather service office, they reported 2.4 inches of snow with two inches on the ground. At the airport, they initially reported 1.4 inches of snow but 2 inches on the ground! How could that be? Well, it turns out, there was an error and a late little snow shower was not included so the airport total was 1.6″, yet it was still two inches on the ground. The reason for that is that according to the measuring guidelines issued by the National Weather Service, observers are to use only whole numbers for reports of snow cover. So, if you have to round the numbers. So, in the case of the Airport, the report of 2 inches on the ground was official, even though the actual measurement was only 1.6 inches! This is an example of how statistics can be skewed by procedural methodology. It is possible such bureaucratic standardization may also affect greater subjects, such as research into the results of El Nino or La Nina and such controversial subjects such as Global Warming.

We’ll continue to look at other things as well, including historical events. The first will be the 160 year annivesary of one of the more “consuming” events in American history that is also directly related to the weather. Stay tuned.

You may send me a comment at rsymon@wlky.com