storms
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Supercomputer simulation looks inside of 2011's deadliest tornado
In may of 2011, a sequence of tornadoes roared across the midwestern United States. The incident became a focal point for scientists eager to learn what it is about supercell storms that allow them to form such devastating tornados. It's an important field of study, but a challenging one -- these storms are so enormous there's simply too much data for typical methods to work through. So, what's a atmospheric scientist to do? Use a supercomputer, of course.
Social media users give UK storms the most British names ever
Last month, the Met Office announced it would begin naming the storms that batter the UK and Ireland and asked social media users to put their suggestions in the hat. By giving them a moniker, the weather service hopes that people will track storms when they hit our rainy isles and raise awareness of their impact. That list has now been finalised, and as expected, we've done ourselves proud.
The Met Office wants you to name UK storms on social media
Thankfully, Britain has never experienced weather conditions on the level of Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Sandy. Even so, the island nation is prone to the occasional storm, and to raise awareness the Met Office and Met Eireann, the Irish Meterological Service, is letting the public name some of them. At any point, you can make a suggestion by tweeting the @metoffice Twitter account with the hashtag #nameourstorms or by leaving a post on the Met Office Facebook page. If social media isn't your jam, you can also email pressoffice@metoffice.gov.uk with the subject name "nameourstorms." The suggestions will then be compiled into a master list, presumably with a little bit of curation, and then used in alphabetical order, alternating between male and female names. The system is coming into effect this autumn, but it won't be used for just any storm -- only those with "medium" and "high" wind impacts will qualify. Does anyone else like the name "Sue Storm?"
WoW Archivist: Blizzard's hot and cold attitude toward weather
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Weather has been kind of a big deal this week, at least if you live in the eastern U.S. Though it's an essential part of the planet, weather can be devastating. Azeroth, like Earth, has dynamic weather. It's a feature that makes the game world feel more alive, and one of the few that players love almost universally. Even so, Blizzard's commitment to the immersion of dynamic weather has been up and down over the years. A static start Eight years ago, WoW launched without any weather at all. The game had a day/night cycle, but no other changing conditions. Hillsbrad was always sunny, with no rain to dampen the constant Southshore/Tarren Mill PvP battles. It never snowed in Winterspring, despite the heavy snowfall in evidence. Blizzard was working on weather. Like many aspects of WoW, however, it would take a long time for them to deliver it.
Storm Shield is like having a sophisticated weather radio on your iPhone
Storm Shield, from E.W. Scripps Company, is a US$4.99 app that keeps track of severe weather for you. It supports up to five locations (besides your current location) so you can keep track of family, friends, or your vacation home. If your location (U.S. only) falls inside an alert area from the National Weather Service, you'll get an alarm and an iOS message whether the app is open or not. It has a Follow Me mode, so it knows where you are and will give you alerts even if you haven't pre-set the location. There are several types of alerts available, like fire, wind, hurricane, thunderstorms, ice, snow and more. Because the GPS tracking features can take a hit on battery life, you can set a throttle on the app so you see a scale between location accuracy and battery life. Then you can choose the intensity of the tracking. I think it's best to run the app when you think the weather will deteriorate. Running it all the time will certainly shorten your battery longevity. The app is easy to set up, and it's simple to go change your default location. The app includes a detailed radar map for the whole US which is zoomable. You can view the map in a plain map view or in a more detailed satellite view. You can add layers to show all types of conditions like flooding, tornadoes, high winds etc. There isn't much to argue with here. There are plenty of apps that will give you storm warnings, but this app has warnings as its main purpose, and it handles the job well. With the ability to save multiple locations, it is a pretty handy information tool to have as we approach the time of the years most violent storms in the U.S. The app is not universal, so does not look its best on an iPad, which is a shame because a case can be made to have that same functionality on that larger screen. %Gallery-159707%
First day of hurricane season means new Hurricane apps
Today is the first day of hurricane season in the Atlantic, and Kitty Code has pushed updates to its popular Hurricane and Hurricane HD apps. Hurricane for iPhone allows users to track hurricanes in real time. Not only can you track speed, direction, pressure and your distance from a current storm, you can also browse historical hurricane data all the way back to 1851. Additionally, text bulletins give you all the latest warnings about storms in your area. Hurricane costs US$3.99. Hurricane HD is the iPad version of the Hurricane app. It's just been updated to version 2.0 and sports a major UI change with added features, including the ability to plot multiple storms (past and present) on interactive tracking maps, track hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones world wide, and it offers push notifications for newly formed storms. Hurricane HD 2.0 is $3.99.
First Look: Hurricane HD for iPad
Do you enjoy tracking storms? Ilene Jones, CEO of Kitty Code was kind enough to send over this preview of her Hurricane HD application, a bigger, updated version of the current iPhone version. It offers both Atlantic and Pacific storm tracking. You'll be able to check wind speed, direction and pressure as storms develop and dissipate. The application also offers satellite images, forecasts and advisories among other data. This is a pretty exhaustive video (it runs over nine minutes) and showcases pretty much every storm-related feature you might imagine, all presented using the iPad's extended screen space. We haven't heard anything about a price yet, but it looks like storm trackers will have software to run on the iPad right away.
How to keep raiding when the power goes out
The thing I love most about summer is the thunder storms. Forget the constant days of 90 degree weather making my apartment bake even when the air conditioning is on, it's those storms rolling in with lightening striking a few hundred feet from me that I love. My guild-mates are going to love that too, especially when I'm raiding with them.We've had our first couple weeks of this in game, and already I've heard "Be right back, Tornado," from some guildies living down in Kansas. Luckily everything was okay and no one got hurt, but the fact still remains – we lost our head Mage for 30 minutes, and that's 30 minutes of our life we can't have back!While a Mage having to take a break in the middle of raids isn't a show stopper, having the main tank (my role) go offline is. I've had the unfortunate situation of having that occur a couple days ago. The computer I was raiding on wasn't plugged into my UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply), so I was disconnected from everything when we lost power for about 30 seconds. However with a bit of tinkering around, I was able to put myself in a situation that lets me stay on even when the power hiccups.
Darkmoon Faire Decks: An overview
As I've mentioned before, The Darkmoon Faire is currently in Terrokar Forest, just outside Shattrath City, so if you have decks to turn in or need to refill your private stock of Darkmoon Special Reserve, now's the time to get on it. But if you're still a little bit taken aback by the prospect of gathering all those cards, or wondering if the trinket at the end will really be worth it, we'd like to help you out. In this post, we'll be looking at both the old and new decks and listing some pros and cons of each deck so you can figure out if you want to spend the next month tracking down cards before the Faire shows up in Elwynn Forest in March, or even if you just want to blow your epic flying mount fund on getting a deck before it leaves for the month. We'll start in on everything after the jump.
