Tag Archives: weather

What Happens When a Plane is Struck by Lightning

In Australia, about 10 people die each year from lightning strikes.  A hundred more gets injured each year.  To be safe, at the first signs of visual lightning or audible thunder – go indoors.  No place outdoors is safe.

How about lightning strikes on commercial planes?  Is it safe to fly in lightning?

Commercial planes are hit by lightning daily and designed to take lightning strikes.  Lightning typically strikes a relatively sharp edge of a plane, like a wingtip or nose, and the current exits via the tail. This happens because an aircraft’s body acts as a Faraday cage.

A Faraday cage operates because an external electrical field causes the electric charges within the cage’s conducting material to be distributed such that they cancel the field’s effect in the cage’s interior. When a lightning strikes an airplane, the energy and electric charge run around the outside of the vessel, protecting the interior from any voltage.

Therefore from a safety standpoint, lightning strikes on commercial planes are not a severe problem compared to turbulence or hail damage which can cause more catastrophic consequences.

Lightning flashes behind a Qantas plane, as captured from La Perouse on October 2015. Photo: Daniel Shaw

Australian Open 2018 Extreme Heat Policy

The Australian Open is a mid-summer event in Melbourne and will always have days of scorching temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius and over.

The tournament’s extreme heat policy calls for the roofs to be closed on the main show courts and play to be suspended on outer courts when the temperature reaches 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and the wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT), which takes into account humidity and wind speed, reaches 32.5 Celsius (90.5 Fahrenheit).

The high temperature Friday marginally reached 40 degrees Celsius, but the wet-bulb temperature remained below the 32.5 Celsius threshold, so play was not halted.

Click on the links for more stories:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-19/australian-open-heat-policy-federer-djokovic-monfils/9342328

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/players-turn-heat-australian-open-weather-policy-52457132

15 top science & tech leaders offer surprising predictions for 2018

Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd, Distinguished Professor at the University of Georgia in Athens and director of the university’s atmospheric science program, said in this article:

“Weather Forecasting is often perceived as guesswork by the public. There is not a meteorologist alive who has avoided jokes about the accuracy of forecasts. But these are misperceptions. The current era of weather forecasts, as witnessed during the society-altering 2017 hurricane season, is quite extraordinary because of rapid advances in meteorological knowledge, satellites, radar systems, and computer models. We now have technology in place to provide significant lead time for landfalling hurricanes, potentially tornadic storms, and multi-day flood events.”

Offshore Weather Services embraces the rapid advances in meteorological knowledge and uses the latest technology in its forecasting services.  OWS clients greatly benefit on the high accuracy of the forecasts and the extended lead time on tropical cyclone events.

Link: https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/15-top-science-tech-leaders-offer-surprising-predictions-2018-ncna814196

Photo courtesy of NBC NEWS

 

Hurricane Irma ploughing Florida

Hurricane Irma is moving north over Florida after making its landfall at the Florida Keys archipelago around 9am local time.  Irma weakened after landfall with maximum sustained winds estimated to be 65kt at 11/0000UTC.  It is expected to weaken further over land and should dissipate from 13th September.

Radar Imagery courtesy of the National Weather Service.

THREE IN A ROW: Hurricanes Irma, Katia and Jose

In a rare event in the western Atlantic, three hurricanes are in a row – Katia, Irma and Jose. The strongest among the three, Hurricane Irma has already crossed the Dominican Republic and left fatalities and massive damages in its wake. Irma remains a threat to Cuba, The Bahamas and southern Florida.

  • Hurricane Katia in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico has maximum sustained winds of 80kt near the centre and is moving slowly WSW towards southern Mexico.
  • Hurricane Irma now west of Inagua Islands has maximum sustained winds of 135kt and is moving WNW skirting the northern coast of Cuba towards southern Florida.
  • The last in line, Hurricane Jose with maximum sustained winds of 110kt is moving WNW towards the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles.

Photos courtesy of the National Hurricane Centre.

Typhoon Hato one of the strongest to hit Hong Kong and Macau

Typhoon Hato is one of the strongest tropical cyclones that hit Hong Kong and Macau in the past 20 years, triggering the highest Severe Typhoon Warning 10 from the Hong Kong Observatory.

The system started as a weak circulation over the NW Pacific well east of northern Philippines on 19th August 2017. It then intensified and moved WNW-NW crossing Luzon Strait on the 21st and the northern South China Sea on the 22nd. Typhoon Hato reached maximum wind speed of 80kt at 23/0300UTC before making its landfall at Macau at 0600UTC.

Typhoon Hato left casualties and massive destruction in its wake.

For more stories:  https://www.hongkongfp.com/2017/08/23/3-dead-2-missing-macau-typhoon-hato-leaves-flooding-destruction-wake/

Tropical Cyclone Forecast Track issued to OWS Client 23/00UTC

Himawari-8 Vis Satellite 0300UTC 23 August 2017

Damage of Typhoon Hato at Macau
Source: Hong Kong Free Press

OWS receiving live Himawari-8 images

On the 03rd July 2015 OWS became the first commercial weather forecasting company in the Australian / Asian region to directly receive and process the new Himarawi-8 weather satellite transmissions. The  JMA Himarawi-8 satellite will eventually replace the MtSat satellite that has been providing global satellite imagery for over a decade. The new H-8 satellite produces global images every 10 min in 16 frequency bands. This a great improvement on the 1 hour global images and 5 frequency channels produced by the MtSat  satellite and will mean even greater accuracy in weather analysis, squall and tropical cyclone forecasting from the OWS forecasting team.

 

APPEA OFFSHORE CONFERENCE 2015 – Melbourne, Australia

2015-APPEA-logo-webOffshore Weather Services will have a stand at the APPEA 2015 Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition being held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on May 18-20, 2015. This is a great opportunity to come and see what world leading technology Offshore Weather Services brings to the weather forecasts we provide to the offshore industry and a chance to talk to our friendly Marketing team comprising Phil Atkinson, Angelo Portelli and Aila Aguilar about the wide range of weather and oceanographic products and services we can provide for you.

We will be located at Booth 374 so please stop by for a chat. For meeting request please click the link below.

http://www.appeaconference.com.au/exhibition/exhibitors/?view=236

The APPEA Oil and Gas Conference & Exhibition is the largest oil and gas event in the southern hemisphere with delegates coming from Australia and around the world to attend. The APPEA 2015 Conference program includes international keynote speakers, case study presentations, technical updates and panel discussions.

The Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA) is the peak national body representing Australia’s oil and gas exploration and production industry this website. Amongst the 80 full members are key leaders in the Australian oil and gas industry, accounting for an estimated 98 per cent of the nation’s oil and gas production. APPEA also has more than 230 associate member companies that provide a wide range of goods and services to the upstream oil and gas industry.

2014/15 Australian Region Tropical Cyclone Outlook

Offshore Weather Services (OWS) predicts average to below average frequency of Tropical Cyclones over the Australian Region for the 2014/15 Tropical Cyclone Season.  Neutral El Nińo Southern Oscillation conditions are expected to persist, with weak El Nińo conditions possible early to mid season.  These conditions should cause about or slightly below average frequency of Tropical Cyclones over the region, about 5-10 expected, with 2-7 becoming Severe Tropical Cyclones.  Slightly fewer coastal impacts are also expected.

Request the detailed outlook here

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    Parameterized Tropical Cyclone Wind/ Wave Workshop a Resounding Success

    The Parameterized Tropical Cyclone Wind / Wave Workshop held on 22 August 2014 at the AMDC Building, Swinburne University brought together meteorologists and oceanographers from academia, public and the private industry from Australia and overseas.  Organised by Dave Duncalf, OWS Manager for Research and Development and Alex Babanin,  Director Centre for Ocean Engineering, Science and Technology Swinburne, the workshop aimed to discuss developments in tropical cyclone, wind and wave modelling and extreme weather conditions associated with tropical cyclone events.

    A tour of the of the Offshore Weather Services Forecasting Centre in Melbourne by some of the attendees was followed by a brief bus ride  to Swinburne University newly opened AMDC Building at their Hawthorn campus where the main talks and discussions were to take place. After introductory speeches by OWS Managing Director Peter Wellby, Alex Babanin and Swinburne University Deputy Vice-Chancellor George Collins, Professor Ian Young, Vice Chancellor Australian National University started the workshop  with his talk, “A Parametric Model for Tropical Cyclone Waves.”

    Other speakers include, Simon Caine and Dave Duncalf (OWS), Noel Davidson, Jeff Keppert, Andrew Donaldson and Jason Brownlee (Bureau of Meteorology), Kevin Walsh (Melbourne University), Alex Babanin and Stefan Zieger (Swinburne University), Jessica Sweeney (RPS MetOcean) and Joanna Burston (Griffith University).

    The workshop was well attended  and considered to be very informative and a good informal forum for the exchange of ideas on these two idifferent but interrelated  topics.  OWS would welcome the opportunity to make the forum a regular occurrence where the latest advances in meteorology and related studies are discussed.  OWS in its commitment to utilise the latest technology in it’s marine and aviation forecasting services will continue to support events such as these.OWSWS-14

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