WRAL WeatherCenter Blog

Three planets line up for rare show

Thu, 23 May 2013 05:31:45 -0400

Each night this week, Mercury will slide above and Jupiter will move down to join Venus. By Sunday, this will form the closest grouping of planets we will see for more than 10 years, and you wont need a telescope to enjoy it. Your best opportunity to view this collection of planets is about 45 minutes after sunset.

Engineers struggle to fix deep-space observatory

Wed, 15 May 2013 18:26:07 -0400

Mission managers with NASA's Kepler space observatory announced Wednesday that a second reaction wheel failed, a problem that inhibits the ability to aim and threatens to end the mission.

Low tornado count continues

Wed, 15 May 2013 08:09:00 -0400

Back around the beginning of April, we checked in here on what had proven to be an unusually quiet severe weather season to that point.

Space station built to weather battering from space rocks

Wed, 01 May 2013 09:35:30 -0400

International Space Station Commander Chris Hadfield shared a photo this week of a small hole in one of the solar arrays providing power to the station. The hole was created by what NASA calls Micrometeoroids and Orbital Debris (MMOD). The more lyrical Hadfield called it "a small stone from the universe."

iControl radar gets an update

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:59:24 -0400

Those of you who use the iControl radar feature on our web site may have noticed a different look recently as we've implemented a new version of the display, powered by HTML5 rather than Flash. In general, the same features are available in the display as you were used to in the past, with a couple of small changes or additions that will hopefully add to its utility, in addition to making it available in similar form on many different platforms and devices.

Many opportunities to spot ISS this week

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 07:08:52 -0400

This week is shaping up to be a good one for spotting the International Space Station (ISS) as it passes over North Carolina.

NC State researchers: 2013 to have active hurricane season

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 16:13:58 -0400

Top researchers at N.C. State have concluded that the Atlantic Basin, which includes the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico, is bound to have an active hurricane season.

How to watch a rocket, weather permitting

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:32:05 -0400

A rocket launch planned for Wednesday is expected to be visible from much of the Mid-Atlantic including central and eastern North Carolina, weather permitting. The 133-foot Antares rocket will launch on a test flight from the Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) on Virginia's Eastern Shore.

'Halftime' weather report for April

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 07:41:59 -0400

With Tax Day behind now us, the numbers are in for the first half of April. After a very cool March, we've seen something of a pattern shift and turn-around through the first two weeks of this month.

Yuri's Night: 52 years since first human in space

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 07:45:33 -0400

Today is a special day in space history. On this day 52 years ago, 27-year-old cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space.

Winter statistics wrap-up

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 07:33:10 -0400

We're finally feeling more springlike (with a touch of summer-ish weather on tap for midweek) after a very cool March and beginning to April, but how did we do through the winter that we finished off at the end of February? It turns out to have a been a moderately warm winter overall, with a relative dearth of snowfall but pretty typical amounts of precipitation, at least at the Raleigh-Durham airport.

Communication blackout: Mars rovers work on, out of contact with NASA

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 13:23:52 -0400

The Mars solar conjunction places the sun directly between Earth and Mars about every 26 months. This puts communications between the planets at risk, prompting NASA officials to place a moratorium on commands sent to the rovers on the Red Planet.

Has the cold suppressed severe storms?

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 09:19:22 -0400

The title is a question we've received recently, given that we've gotten through March and into the start of April without much in the way of severe watches and warnings in central NC, which often begin to ramp up a little as we head this far into Spring.

Space rock similarities indicate ancient planet movement

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:47:05 -0400

Scientists at NASA's Lunar Science Institute (NLSI) near San Jose, Calif., announced this week that our Moon and large asteroids have more in common that was previously thought.

Ice spike in a bucket...

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 08:58:24 -0400

A viewer named Harrell sent us a question about a 5-gallon bucket that had collected rain water for a week or so in advance of a rather cold morning that occurred on Monday, March 4th. When he peeked in the bucket that day, he was not surprised to see that the water had frozen, but was surprised to see a very well-formed triangle, about one inch on each side, sticking up out of the remaining ice an inch or so above its surface. He sent us a few pictures of the bucket and its interesting phenomenon, which I've posted here.

Jupiter visible in daylight this week

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 17:46:20 -0400

You've probably seen the moon during the day but have you spotted a planet? The remainder of March offers a good opportunity to see Jupiter in daylight.

Rising sun creates 'Raleigh-henge'

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 07:11:53 -0400

A Stonehenge-like phenomenon happens when the sun rises just a bit north of due east nicely between the buildings and shines straight down the east/west running streets.

Tough forecast for St. Patty's Day

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 08:15:36 -0400

Once in a while, the weather pattern setting up across the area makes it really difficult to pin down a forecast with any kind of real confidence, and this far out that is how it's going so far for the upcoming weekend, especially as we head into Saturday night and Sunday. The culprit is a combination of fairly flat westerly flow aloft and an approaching cold front that looks as if it will slip into central NC from the northwest Saturday night and then waver north to west, stalling at times but with a variety of solutions from computer models as to where the boundary lies at any given time.

Rare chance to view comet with naked eye

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 18:15:38 -0500

A new comet was discovered June 2011 and will be visible in North Carolina after sunset. Comet C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS) came close to Earth earlier this week but was still over 100 million miles away - neither it nor other expected comets pose any threat to Earth.

Snow in March...is it rare?

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 08:31:02 -0500

Our chance of snow overall drops off rapidly going into March, but it remains a month in which an occasional storm is quite capable of producing significant snow here.

Space station catches Dragon by the tail

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 15:31:30 -0500

Moving things around in space isn't easy. Move something the wrong way and it keeps going and going.

Astronomers track comet on path for Mars

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 09:56:34 -0500

Based on preliminary tracking data, Comet 2013-A1 is expected to come very close to Mars in late October 2014.

Not those other "jinks," but...

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 09:13:22 -0500

We like to pass along some educational web sites that may be good for kids and educators from time to time, and one came to our attention recently that is run by some of the NASA folks who also take care of the program for geostationary weather satellites, the ones that are the ultimate source of the loops of cloud cover and water vapor content that you see us run during weathercasts, in addition to a lot of other capabilities that play a role in the observation and forecasting of weather across the western hemisphere.

Meteor, asteroid making headlines Friday

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 13:37:52 -0500

Today has turned into a big day for rocks flying toward Earth from space. Scientists have been anticipating today's pass of asteroid 2012 DA14 since it was discovered a year ago by the Observatorio Astronómico de La Sagra (OLS) in the Andalusian mountains of Southern Spain. We also awoke this morning to news of a meteor streaking through the sky above the Urals region of Russia.

A near-normal Valentine's Day...

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 07:27:08 -0500

We're coming up on what looks to be a very nice Valentine's Day tomorrow, and for the time being it appears it will be very typical, at least in terms of coming reasonably close to the "normal" temperature conditions for the day.

Asteroid visit not unusual, not dangerous

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 16:54:51 -0500

A rocky asteroid about 150 feet wide, will pass within 17,200 miles of Earth on Feb. 15, at 2:24 p.m.

The winter so far...

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 08:15:50 -0500

For the purpose of climate records, "winter" is considered to be December through February, although we of course do get some wintry weather on fairly rare occasion as early as October (only a trace of snow reported late in the month a couple of times, with the earliest occurrence of 1 inch or more being 1.2" that fell on November 12th, 1968) and as late as April (Raleigh got 10 inches of snow on April 3, 1915 and 1.8" on Apr 18, 1983). We now have two of the three months of climatological winter in the books for 2012-13, and the first image above provides a look at the numbers so far for RDU. As you would imagine, they confirm it's been a mild winter so far, with the average high for those two months 4.2 degrees above normal, and the low 5.1 degrees above normal. The overall mean temperature is 4.6 degrees above normal, and ranks as the 5th warmest at RDU for Dec-Jan out of 69 years.

Lunar mission to study its thin atmophere

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 09:47:00 -0500

NASA is preparing to return to the moon, this time to study its atmosphere. The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) will orbit the Moon, studying the atmosphere and lunar dust.

What whitened Wake Forest?

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 08:07:37 -0500

On Sunday morning, we got a couple of reports of possible snow in the Wake Forest and north Raleigh areas, while there was nothing on radar and no indication from computer models that the atmosphere would support a typical snowfall scenario. Nonetheless, Sloane Heffernan drove in from the area and said it appeared there was snow on the ground and crystals in the air, and since that time we've received a couple of photos from the area (shown above) that were taken early Sunday, and the area was impressively whitened during the night and had a very wintry appearance in these shots.

Astronomy Days coming to Museum of Natural Sciences

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 08:07:53 -0500

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences hosts Astronomy Days this weekend. Each year the museum partners with the Raleigh Astronomy Club and NASA to celebrate planetary science with special exhibits, talks and activities for all ages.

Inauguration Day weather history

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 08:04:03 -0500

We've become accustomed to presidential inaugurations that happen around the 20th of January, and the variety of mid-winter weather conditions that go along with that in the Washington D.C. area, but the history of the event and of the accompanying meteorological conditions is even more varied, since for a good while the traditional inaugurations were held in March instead, and there have been enough non-traditional inaugurations due to unexpected successions (by way of resignations, assassinations and deaths due to illness) that the noon temperature at the time of the inauguration has ranged from as cold as 7 degrees (!) for Ronald Reagan's big day in 1985 to as hot as 89 when Gerald Ford took over for Richard Nixon in 1974, which happened in August.

Space spending pays off in earth-bound products, processes

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 18:03:26 -0500

The knowledge gained doesn't leave with the mission either. Research and technologies developed to solve challenges in space are frequently transferred to other uses, often involving small businesses around the country.

Circumhorizontal arc, or something else?

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 07:58:54 -0500

It's always nice to receive photos of weather phenomena, interesting clouds, and optical effects from people in the community, and to identify the type of phenomena and the processes behind it. On December 28th, we got an e-mail from Cassie Mentha, who sent along the first couple of photos you see here, with this note:

Look up: Jupiter, Mercury, "super" moon to return in 2013

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 12:22:38 -0500

The coming year will have its share of astronomical and space exploration events.

Mayan calculations hold up, to a point

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 21:16:37 -0500

The Mayans and their calendars are getting a bit of a bad rap today, undeservedly. They were skilled astronomers and mathematicians who produced remarkably precise astronomical tables.

Gifts for star seekers, weather watchers and wanna-be vets

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 18:56:22 -0500

If your shopping list includes a science-minded kid (or kid at heart), here are some ideas that will inspire without breaking the bank.

Geminid meteor shower to peak Thursday

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 12:14:51 -0500

Earth is currently passing through a debris trail that is a bit of a mystery to scientists. Like other meteor showers, this week's Geminids meteor shower is created as Earth's orbit takes it through a stream of dust resulting in "shooting stars" in the night sky.

Planetary alignment no cause for alarm

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 16:45:16 -0500

Like many hoaxes distributed via the Internet, images showing a planetary alignment above the Great Pyramid of Giza are likely based on a nugget of truth which is being misinterpreted.

Wrapping up a dry November

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 09:09:59 -0500

Hard to believe we're already into December, but now that we are the numbers from November are in, and we can take a look at how it wound up in terms of weather and climate. On both counts, the bottom line was cold and dry when compared to long-term averages.

Jupiter shines brightly above the full moon this week

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 18:11:58 -0500

For the next several months, Jupiter will shine brightly in the evening sky.