catoctin wx

That's awful. These people are nuts. I watched a few of their videos after the Joplin tornado and I wanted to kill myself

I was waiting for those

Fauquier is closed through October

@dylanmatt: "In retrospect, I resorted to cannibalism rather fast after the earthquake."

Hope my pictures at home are all on straight

That was exciting. Initially concerned about North Anna nuke plant, but I would have heard any news by now about that

It probably should be included in that. I'm a meteologist/atmospheric scientist by degree, but my working title is Physical Scientist. As for the $69,000, that sounds about right for the combination of higher paid govt jobs and lower paid private forcasting (e.g., accuwx) jobs. I was surprised by that one as well. perhaps they are lumping computer graphics folks (who have a tough job market right now) in with the comp sci graduates>?

can anybody figure out why Ed is still posting about petroleum engineers in this thread?

Very cool graphic. I'm honostly pretty surprised that atmospheric science jobs are that highly employed. Although thinking back on it, just about everyone in my graduating class in 2006 got a job or went to grad school (and later got a job) in the field. Also surprised that nuclear engineering is ranked high amongst unemployed, there is a big market for them right now

interesting discussion, especially for those of us who have never witnessed this kind of damage. In understand if you don't want to answer, but do you think the NWS will be putting those higher estimates into a survey report? Or do you think they will likely just be sticking with 200+ mph?

I would think so. The number of buildings that can withstand 210 mph winds is likely pretty small, so the likelyhood of them actually getting hit is tiny. So even if the winds were that high, there is no way of being able to prove it

I don't think he was saying that there are no structures that can withstand those wind speeds. He's saying that if there are none in the path of the tornado, then they have no basis to say that the extreme wind speeds were present.

ok, thanks Josh. I didn't read back through much of the thread, but I thought it might be something like this. It would be nice to get clarification from the NWS on this topic since the numbers are being thrown around in the media. Part of my job is to determine the worse case meteorological conditions possible at given sites around the country. Having wind speeds approaching 250 mph would be a special case for sure.

I have been reading some articles that make statements about the wind speeds approaching 250 mph in this tornado. for example: I'm sure it's been covered in this thread and others, but does anybody have a link to a NWS survey that gives wind speeds this high? I've seen the Greg Forbes post about it, but I didn't see a link to an official survey. All I can find is winds in excess of 200 mph on the NWS site. thanks

seconded. Im sure many of my meteorology friends who are not on the board would be interested in reading the description....with JoMo's permission of course

Glad that you are ok JoMo. The whole board was worried about you. Excellent write up of your experiences this week and how it has been on the ground. Sorry that this had to happen to such good people in Joplin

yeah, I was just hoping for some good news. I'm sure he has plenty of other things to be doing right now

I hate to ask, but any word on JoMo yet?

I'm sure there are people on this board more qualified to speak on the subject than I am, but listening to the recording, my impression is that the first blast was likely the leading edge (gust front, if you will). You can then hear what sounds like hail hitting the building followed by the actual tornado. Even though it was a monster storm, there is no way (IMO) that it was directly over them and it had an eye of any kind. The lull was likely just the time between the gust front and the tornado hitting the building.

I was thinking that a weekday would have been worse. Considering how many schools were completely destroyed, I can't imagine how bad it would have been if they were filled with students

Pretty amazing double rainbow that formed after the storm in Joplin

just from watching the video's, it looked (to my untrained eye) comparable to the Tuscaloosa tornado

seconded. Although I have a masters degree, I would still be making plenty as Met at GS-13 without it. It all depends on the jobs available and a bit of luck finding them

I didn't minor in anything, so I can't really say, but my friends who did it seemed to work out for them. I only said minoring, because double majoring with meteorology as a major would be nearly impossible to get done in 4 years. Minoring in a related science shows a variable skillset that may be of use to some employers. It can also help you get into a grad school depending on what you want to do. A friend of mine majored in Met and minored in Political Science so that he could go to grad school and enventually get a job in the science policy world. without the minor, it probably wouldn't have worked out. a minor in a related field can only help you get employed, I don't see how it could hurt

I would also add that going to grad school (which most get paid to do) and boning up on your programming skills is a great way to go if available. It also allows you to choose a specific direction or area that you can focus on (radar, tropical, severe, etc)