mappy

Speaking of CAPE and following up about the skew-T discussion, the amount of CAPE can be directly calculated from the skew-T by adding up the area between the parcel trajectory (along a moist adiabat) and the environmental temperature profile. So, if there's a lot of room between the two, you can know the CAPE is high before looking at the calculated parameters directly.

The "opposite" of CAPE is CIN (convective inhibition) and is also measured in J/kg. CIN occurs when the parcel trajectory will lead it to be colder than the environmental temperature. If the parcel is colder, it's not buoyant in the free atmosphere and needs to be forced to a height in the atmosphere where it is bouyant before it can freely begin to rise. When people speak of a "cap", there means the atmospheric profile has a certain amount of CIN to overcome.

The easiest way for me to understand cap was to think of the atmosphere as a pot with a lid on it. The lid being the cap that needs to come off before any storms can develop and grow in size.

During severe season, what is meant by CAPE?

From wiki, though I am sure a met could explain for you further if needed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convective_available_potential_energy

This is a great idea...I suggested something similar back in the banter thread but didn't get any responses from Mods/Admin about developing a system where mets/other qualified people provide a detailed map discussion during impact events (both cold/warm season) and are then available for a moderated question/answer session.

I think we have enough people interested in providing the discussion that it wouldn't fall on just a few, and I'm sure we have plenty interested in participating on the other end.

It's a broad idea and I'm not sure the best way to implement it, but that can be opened up to others for suggestions?

I guess the easiest way would be to create a thread for red taggers to post in where they can post images of model runs with descriptions of what it is showing. Once the initial "show and tell" is over with, people could ask questions if they don't understand what the met was saying.

Though, it could be time consuming for an already busy met.

What Adam did for me was he would find an hour on the model run, have me open the four-panel images and describe what it was doing and how to see the differences between a current run and the previous run. It was really helpful.

I have done that reading. It is not getting it for me.

I apologize for being so goddamn stupid. My bad for ducking into this thread.

No one called you stupid...

This thread is great - something I would love to see in the future are more in depth explanations of threats and all the pieces involved so those of us who don't fully grasp all the working parts are able to look at a model and figure out what is going on.

am19psu was doing that for me last week with the snow threat, he broke it down for me piece by piece, and after a few model runs I was able to see the different players myself.

I want a repeat

That's beautiful. I cannot say I envy your guests the headache of travel, it sure made for a memorable day and lovely pictures.

Thank you! Some of the guests drove six hours in the snow from the eastern shore to Frederick (where we got married). They were determined to get there! Sadly, we did have about 30 people not be able to make it. But I wouldn't change a thing.

My favorite day ever!

Cool article from the Baltimore Sun about the earthquake... in geology terms

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-quake-timeline-20110823,0,1581033.story

I'd also like to note that my college advisor, GIS professor and eventually the guy who hired me and introduced me to my husband... was quoted in the article.

I'm on the 10th floor and it felt pretty scary. I was writing up a knowledge base on Outlook, etc when I looked up and felt a small vibration at first then I looked around at everybody else looking around with a WTF look on their faces, lol. Then it got worse, I looked outside the windows and saw the windows in the surrounding buildings starting to shake and then the big shake, sort of sideways and my boss came hauling ass out of her office and everybody started running to the stairwell.

The last shake got me and my heart starting pounding. Like I said..to those in earthquake areas, I guess its not a big deal and it may seem like we're blowing this out of proportion..but you gotta realize..most here have NEVER felt that before.

Randy, at least you were smart and left your building. I watched my coworkers scream and run out of the office while I sat in my cube saying "awesome"

Depressing.

So your map in the snowmageddon book is actually yet to come?!?!

Indications are that the Yellowstone Volcano has relocated underneath the DC area. Katie's mspaint entry is going to come true if that is the case.

Didn't feel it up north of Baltimore... The aftershock I mean

Probably true....I'll be stuck with BB, MoD and zwyts. Fun group, huh?

Oh boy....I upset the masses. Sorry folks, didn't mean to upset ya'll. I'll go back to building my super ark now, which will be better than mapgirls ark.

True.  But an asteroid wave in your Ark would be a fun ride.

Quake shakeBay caneArk sink

Yeah, not likely.. On another note, in the realm of things happening in 3'sHurricane - CheckEarthquake - CheckWhat next?Asteroid into the Bay?  <img src='http://208.71.34.143/public/style_emoticons/default/popcorn.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

Lolz to the quake being a foreshock

Good luck to those in the DC area trying to get home!

drop ceiling at work so not too surprising. Maybe I will get tomorrow off if the my building is fooked

Thank goodness you weren't out on the dam today like you were supposed to be!

Some ceiling fixtures partially fell and a couple of things were tipped over in my cube but nothing worse that that. Pictures fell off the walls at home but no biggie

oh wow... yeah nothing like that here.

Based on the descriptions in these threads, that sounds about right-- in the IV-V range.

When you get up into oranges and reds (VII and above) that it starts getting kind of insane.

Mod seems about right, definitely shaking and rattling going on during it. but nothing fell over, at least in my cube.

No such luck. Was working in the Towson office today (next to courthouse). 7 floors up, rather than 20.

And, um, 7 was plenty high up. Talking to clients, dawning realization that it was an earthquake, mostly when the large table began to move.

None of my co-workers at my usual office are answering the phone, so I am guessing they are outside at the moment. Will be curious myself how that felt.

damn, i was really curious to see what you felt. it was pretty wicked 3 stories up.. and yes, everyone was out on the street shortly afterwards. Though buses were still running as scheduled! haha