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The most direct way to find your question is to search for the name you used when you submitted it (first name, last name or both). If you did not include a name, then you can search using keywords from your question. Of course, since many weather-related terms are common to a lot of the questions we receive, this may turn up a number of others in addition to your own.

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Answer: You don't say what part of our viewing area you live in, but as an example you can use our Almanac page and the "Get Historical Data" feature to begin your search with any day during that fall. Once you are there, click the "monthly" view, and you can scroll to the bottom and scan through the "Thursday" reports to see what the observed high, low and rainfall values were, then use the "next month" link to move ahead through the fall months. If you see a Thursday that interests you, you can click the date and go to a more detailed hourly listing for that day. Finally, if you think there is another location that would be more representative for you than RDU, you can change weather stations as well.
Nov. 17, 2009 | Tags: cool sites, past weather

Answer: For specifics on your situation, it would be a good idea to have a licensed electrician or grounding specialist take a look and recommend the best course of action. More generally, it is worth noting that if there are a number of trees immediately nearby that are much taller than the mast you installed, that may indeed reduce, but not eliminate the chance that it will be struck. In addition, it is not the case that grounding the unit makes it "attract" lightning. Instead, what you are trying to do in grounding it is provide a path for the lightning discharge to follow that goes around rather than through your home in case a strike does occur. One of our engineers recommends these web addresses as good sources of more information: lecglobal.com/learn/lightning-101/ and lecglobal.com/info/tech-papers/preventing-direct-lightning-strikes.pdf.
Nov. 16, 2009 | Tags: cool sites, lightning, preparedness

Answer: Unfortunately a fireball sighting log hosted by the American Meteor Society has not been updated since late October due to problems with the reporting form. Based on the time of year of your reports, and the overall description, it sounds as if you and your sister witnessed a fireball (very bright meteor), quite possibly associated with the Taurid meteor shower. On the following evening, a Taurid fireball was widely seen in California, and some photos and videos were captured, which you can peruse in the "Weekend Fireballs" section at http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=09&month=11&year=2009.
Nov. 13, 2009 | Tags: astronomy, cool sites

Answer: Your description pretty firmly rules out a comet, as they are distant objects that do not appear to move immediately across the sky at a rate any different than stars, planets and so forth. While a piece of re-entering space debris can't absolutely be ruled out, it seems much more likely you saw a meteor. On that date, three different meteor showers are active, although not at their peaks, and of course a "sporadic" meteor not associated with a particular shower is always possible as well. It is interesting that you noted fairly slow movement and a yellow color. That description is quite consistent with meteors produced as part of the Southern Taurids shower. You can read about that and other showers throughout the year at www.namnmeteors.org/appendixA.html.
Nov. 8, 2009 | Tags: astronomy, cool sites

Answer: Records for those locations are posted at the Southeast Regional Climate Center Web site, available at www.sercc.com/climateinfo/historical/historical_nc.html. They show that for the Rocky Mount Experimental Station, with records stretching from 1914-2009, the highest reading was 106 degrees F on June 27, 1954 and the coldest was -8 degrees on January 21, 1985. The station at Scotland neck maintained records from 1872-1995. During that period, it was as hot as 105 on June 21, 1933 and as cold as -4 on February 1st, 1936.
Nov. 5, 2009 | Tags: cool sites, past weather, records/extremes

Answer: While not exactly the same in long-term averages, the two cities' weather with respect to the type of events you asked about are close enough that other considerations would probably be more important to you, thanks to something of a balance between Raleigh's more northerly latitude and Charlotte's more westerly longitude. In terms of winter weather, both cities average about 4-5 "snowfall events" and about 4-6 "sleet and freezing rain events" per year, with some overlap between those two sets of numbers due to the tendency for winter storms here to produce multiple and rather variable precipitation types. Raleigh averages a little more snow overall, at 7.6" annually versus 5.8" for Charlotte. Thunderstorm days for the region run about 40-50 per year, with Charlotte averaging about 2-3 more days than Raleigh. Most of this information is summarized in various portions of the State Climate Office web site at www.nc-climate.ncsu.edu.
Nov. 1, 2009 | Tags: cool sites, normals, snow, thunderstorms

Answer: Some reports have indicated a bit of an early color season this year, but mostly positive reports regarding the color variety and intensity. Most of the higher elevations have already peaked, with colors spreading quickly to lower levels. The state Department of Commerce provides a weekly set of leaf color updates that you can check on at www.visitnc.com/journeys/articles/fall-color-l-fall-fishing/1/weekly-fall-color-reports.
Oct. 27, 2009 | Tags: cool sites

Answer: There doesn't appear to be any real-time reading from the gage station at that location on the river. You can access near real-time river level and flow rate observations, graphs and projections at newweb.erh.noaa.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=rah&gage=llln7 and by mousing over and/or clicking the site at waterwatch.usgs.gov/?m=real&r=nc. There is an occasional water temperature reading taken upstream at the Jordan Lake reservoir that may be in the general ballpark for the river water, although it is certainly subject to some variation as it flows downstream. When available, that temperature is listed as "Lake Temp" in the daily report published at epec.saw.usace.army.mil/dailyrep.txt.
Oct. 24, 2009 | Tags: cool sites, lakes and rivers

Answer: It is indeed. Just click the "Almanac" link in the gray tool bar near the top of our main weather page, and you will see the sunrise and sunset time for Raleigh, along with twilight and rise, et and phase information for the moon. There is also a link farther down the page to "U.S. Naval Observatory's Sun and Moon Data." At that link, you can calculate sun and moon times for any other date you'd like, and for other locations around the country or the world.
Oct. 20, 2009 | Tags: astronomy, cool sites

Answer: There were clearly thunderstorms in the area on the afternoon and evening of 22 Sep 09, as documented by a series of METAR observations from the Raleigh-Durham airport (see www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KRDU/2009/9/22/DailyHistory.html?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA for a listing). As far as specific lightning strike data goes, that information is not publicly available and must be requested in the form of a fee-based "lightning forensics" report from one of two private companies. See the following addresses for more information. You may want to request that the insurance company provide a report, or cover your cost to obtain such a report, from one or both of these sources that shows whether lightning was observed by their networks within 5-10 miles of your address. If it was, the combination of lightning data and the diagnoses from your telephone and air conditioning repair personnel would seem to make a strong case that lightning caused the damages in question. See www.uspln.com/forensics.html and www.vaisala.com/weather/products/lightning/dataarchivereports/strikenetfax (click the "FAQ" link at this address for more details).
Oct. 16, 2009 | Tags: cool sites, lightning, past weather, thunderstorms