THIS IS A PIC OF A JET BREAKING THE SOUND BARRIER………….THIS CAUSES AN AUDIBLE SONIC BOOM, IT IS ALSO A VISUAL PHENOMENA.

IN THIS DAY IN AGE, THIS EERIE IMAGE THAT OCCURS WHEN THE SOUND BARRIER IS BROKEN, IS STILL NOT FULLY UNDERSTOOD BY SCIENTISTS.

THIS ARTICLE IS WRITTEN BY ROBERT ROY BRIT, THE EDITORIAL DIRECTOR OF www.livescience.com

The breaking of the sound barrier is not just an audible phenomenon. As a new picture from the U.S. military shows, Mach 1 can be quite visual.

This widely circulated new photo shows a Air Force F-22 Raptor aircraft participating in an exercise in the Gulf of Alaska June 22, 2009 as it executes a supersonic flyby over the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis.

The visual phenomenon, which sometimes but not always accompanies the breaking of the sound barrier, has also been seen with nuclear blasts and just after space shuttles launches, too. A vapor cone was photographed as the Apollo 11 moon-landing mission rocketed skyward in 1969.

The phenomenon is not well studied. Scientists refer to it as a vapor cone, shock collar, or shock egg, and it’s thought to be created by what’s called a Prandtl-Glauert singularity.

Here’s what scientists think happens:

A layer of water droplets gets trapped between two high-pressure surfaces of air. In humid conditions, condensation can gather in the trough between two crests of the sound waves produced by the jet. This effect does not necessarily coincide with the breaking of the sound barrier, although it can.

The aircraft carrier was participating in Northern Edge 2009, an exercise focused on detecting and tracking things at sea, in the air and on land.

RAINFALL TRENDS NOW THROUGH JULY 7:

Few isolated showers/t’showers are still possible today through late tomorrow evening.

The general trend over the past 24 hours has been to shift the heavy, tropical rains southward & confine them to a band from Nebraska to Georgia for the July 5-7 period for us.

This is due to:

1.  The trough over New England hanging on longer, keeping us in a dry, Canadian northwest flow longer & thus shifting the tropical moisture south & generally keeping it at bay.

2.  That northwest flow is unusually strong for this time of year.  Stay tuned to future outlooks, as some models even push ALL OF THE RAIN south of us for late next week.

3.  If ALL of the rain stays south, we could end up dry until at least July 11……….that is just a possible scenario.  Let’s wait & analyze the new data this evening & over the next few days to see what happens.

These totals projected may even be too light & this does not take into account the heavy rains falling in that region July 1-4.

Totals could approach 7″ by July 5 to our southwest.

This is due to:

1.  Deep tropical moisture & possible tropical depressions arising near the southern Mexican Coast & deep moisture in the northern Gulf moving into the U.S.

2.  Slow-moving frontal boundary stalled across the southern half of the U.S.

3.  Rather slow-moving storm system ejecting out of the Rockies over the next few days.

Rainfall Totals June 30-July 4:

Rainfall Totals July 5-7:

There are clusters of convection in the Pacific & northern Gulf.  Given this pic was taken near noon, much of the intense convection over that tropical moisture has not yet flared up for the day.

These wind gusts of +30 mph we are experiencing are a bit rare for late June outside of t’storms!

Usually the main wind flow & pressure gradient pushes north by late June-July, preventing really windy days with sunny skies…………….I would expect this more so in March, April & May.

Also rare, are the dew points in the 40s that are RAPIDLY drying out our soils.

For many of you, you could use some rain as these dry winds & soil moisture update from plants is quickly drying topsoils………………..

Another relative rarity??  We did not receive a significant severe weather outbreak from this abrupt weather change.  Usually when these stronger jet stream winds make a bee-line southward as a deep trough swings through the Corn Belt this time of year (along with the surface cold front) a widespread severe weather event hits us hard…………….

The severe weather event did occur……………we just missed it………………below are the severe reports from Saturday evening.

The black boxes near St. Louis are winds of 80 mph.  The blue symbols are largely damaging winds of 60-70 mph.  The green symbols are large hail.

Thank you to everyone who came out to this year’s Relay for Life! It was an overwhelming experience to see the survivors take the first lap and to hear some of their stories.

It was moving to see all the luminaries circling the track at Jefferson High School.  There was one in honor of my mother who passed away December 2007 from cancer, one for my grandfather who recently passed away, and one in support of the Dan Ferguson family.  Dan is a horseback riding friend who diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski read a proclamation supporting Relay For Life. Tony agreed to talk with me about his mother who recently died of cancer in a Public Service Announcement (which is an earlier post on my blog). I am grateful he and his family agreed to share their story about Jane Roswarski. I hope it helps others to see they are not alone.

Thank you to all the teams who raised money and walked the track throughout the night. The goal of Relay for Life is to offer support survivors, remember those who have died, and continue the fight against cancer. 

COOLER, DRIER NORTHWEST FLOW WILL SHIFT TO A STORMY, HOT, HUMID PATTERN BY JULY 5………………..

JULY 4 STILL LOOKS DECENT WITH ANY STORMS & SIGNIFICANT HUMIDITY & HEAT HOLDING OFF UNTIL JULY 5…………….

Projected Rainfall June 29 (Today) – July 4 (Saturday):

Overall Rather Dry, Cooler-Than-Normal to Normal Temperature Regime with Comfortable to Tolerable to Humidity Levels:

Projected Rainfall July 5 (Sunday) – July 7 (Next Tuesday):

Tropical Humidity, Hot with Heavy T’Storms Possible:

COOL, NORTHWEST, CANADIAN FLOW REGIME WILL ENSUE THIS WEEK AS UPPER LOW STALLS & CUTS OFF OVER THE GREAT LAKES & NEW ENGLAND…………..

TYPICALLY THIS WIND BELT TO OUR NORTH IS MORE PROGRESSIVE THIS TIME OF YEAR………..THIS IS AN UNUSUAL PATTERN FOR EARLY SUMMER………

THIS IS A SPRING-LIKE, HIGHLY AMPLIFIED UPPER JET STREAM PATTERN WITH A DEEP TROUGH IN THE EASTERN UNITED STATES WITH CHILLY, CLOUDY CONDITIONS WITH BRISK NORTHWEST WINDS & INSTABILITY SHOWERS…………………….

MEANSWHILE, THE WEST WILL SIZZLE IN HEAT & DROUGHT………….

IN BETWEEN FROM THE HIGH PLAINS TO THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES, SPRING-LIKE WIND FIELDS WILL PROMOTE SEVERE T’STORM CLUSTERS AS THOSE HIGHER WINDS THAT ONE WOULD EXPECT FARTHER NORTH, OVERSPREAD AN AREA OF VOLATILE INSTABILITY.

MONDAY:  Pink indicates cumulus cloud development:

TUESDAY:  Pink indicates cumulus cloud development.  The darker pinks are indicative of cumulus clouding over the sky more.  The reds indicate the development of mostly cloudy to cloudy skies in the afternoon as cumulus/even stratocumulus fill in the blue sky:

WEDNESDAY:  More cumulus development clouding over the sky:

In this cumulus development each day, few showers/t’showers are possible as cold pockets up in the troposphere (lower, weather-making layer of the atmosphere) pivot in around the upper low spinning over the Great Lakes & New England: 

As these cold pockets spin around, marginal instability of up to 500 Joules/kilogram (in blue) will promote vertical cumulus development.  Notice where the higher instability fields set up (in yellow & orange) from the High Plains to the southeast where severe t’storm clusters will set up.

The position of the upper low to our northeast will keep these clusters & the heat at bay:

Heavy, severe storm clusters look to line up & stay to our west, southwest & south Monday through Sunday (June 29-July 5):

The heat wave will really never go away in the United States, it will just shift south & southwestward as an unusually strong, northwest Canadian flow takes over the eastern United States:

The next good potentical of organized storms appears to be July 5-7 as heat, instability, tropical humidity & decent wind fields aloft arrive ahead of a cold front. 

This appears to be the next time period that we will see 90 again with overnight lows at or above 70 degrees:

If you haven’t read anything lately about the WLFI softball team, there’s a reason.  After starting the season 2-0, we are yet to pick up another win.  We lost our last game by… well, I lost count.  We scored one run in the game courtesy a Laura Kirtley fielder’s choice ground out.  Clearly, we are a play-off team.

2009 DOCUMENTED SEVERE WEATHER PHENOMENA IN THE WLFI VIEWING AREA

TORNADOES:

June 19, 2009:  EF0……..Fulton Co………2 Mi. North of Athens

DOWNBURSTS (MICRO & MACROBURSTS):  Damage pattern fans out from a point after ball of wind descends from storm, hits the ground & fans out.

Microburst-Damage Diameter Less Than 2.5 Miles

Macroburst-Damage Diameter More than 2.5 Miles

1.  May 15-16, 2009: 85 mph Microburst………….Tipton Co……….5 Miles Northwest of Atlanta

2.  May 15-16, 2009:  80 mph Microburst………..Tippecanoe Co………Stockwell to Clark’s Hill

3.  May 30, 2009:  85 mph Macroburst………..Carroll Co………3 Miles Southwest of Burlington

HIGHEST MEASURED STRAIGHT-LINE WIND GUST:

1.  May 30, 2009:  72 mph……..Montgomery Co………..Crawfordsville

HIGHEST ESTIMATED STRAIGHT-LINE WIND GUSTS:

1.  June 2, 2009:  70-75 mph…….Howard Co………Couple of  70-75 mph wind cores estimated in the county, downing “dozens” of trees.

2.  June 2, 2009:  70-75 mph…..Benton Co………Near Ambia

LARGEST HAIL STONE REPORTED:

1.  June 19, 2009:  4″ Diameter or Grapefruit-Sized Hail……….Fulton Co……..1 Mile South of Talma

Second largest hailstone of 1.75″ or golfball-size reported 3 miles north-northwest of Akron on June 19, 2009.

Widespread damaging straight-line winds have been blasting across Illinois.  All of the blue dots indicate damaging wind reports as of 10 p.m.:

Storms continue to produce damaging wind from central Illinois to Oklahoma:

Damage wind threat will be centered over Illinois where red lines indicate appreciable surface instability.  Here, surface instability is waning & increasing surface capping (in blue) will continue to weaken line of severe storms to the west over the next few hours:

Despite greatly diminishing surface instability, some elevated instability (red lines) remains available above the capping, which will still promote some thunder & lightning as the rain approaching.

Also, rain-cooled outflow via the rain/weakening storms could produce wind gusts of 20-35 mph:

No new watch is anticipated & it appears that damaging winds will stay confined to areas just west of the stateline…………in Illinois………….an area hit hard by a huge swath of winds of 60-70 mph over a +200-mile swath.

WATCHES ARE LINING UP TO OUR WEST AS SQUALL LINE EXPLODES…………………

Best potential of widespread damaging winds in Illinois……..

Sporadic damaging wind gusts are possible along & west of a Remington to Monticello to Lafayette to Crawfordsville line.

It appears the severe squall line will be undergoing a general weakening trend as it arrives, but severe gusts are still possible in the afformentioned area.

Severe T’Storm Watch Until 11 p.m. Eastern:

Current T’Storms Warnings for Damaging Wind in Dark Blue:

Severe T’Storm Watch Until 12 a.m.:

Severe T’Storm Watch Until 11 p.m.:

NAM Projections by 11 p.m.: