Emergency Alert - WV Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management

[C/MSgt Lunsford]

This Message is regarding all West Virginia CAP

This Message has been posted just in case you have not received an email from the DOS of WV Wing.

To All:

The WV DHSES  (West Virginia Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management) has issued an Emergency Alert to all agencies for the possibility of action during the coming weekend due to an expected heavy snow storm that is expected to impact the eastern panhandle and the mountains of eastern WV.  Also for possible flooding in some of the southern rivers, such as the Big Sandy, Tug and Upper New River.

All WV Squadrons should prepare to respond to any call for help.

Watch your e-mail for possible alerts or calls to action.

Gene

Lt Col. Eugene Thorn, CAP
Director of Emergency Services (DOS)
WV Wing, Civil Air Patrol

To all on the Eastern Panhandle... be safe and be ready to get the Call.

[Flying Pig]

Weeeeeeellllll, shoooooooooot!

[Smithsonia]

Has the local weatherman cleared OPSEC? If not, we shouldn't disseminate this Homeland Security bulletin.

[BuckeyeDEJ]

Ed, I hope you're kidding....

The last huge flood in West Virginia was in 1985, and it was absolutely horrendous. Thousands of acres of fertile farmland in the eastern panhandle became strewn with rocks; the poultry industry over there suffered for a while, too. Millions of dollars in damage was reported to structures of all shapes and sizes; among other notables, the visitors center at Seneca Rocks was destroyed. There were some deaths, and even a cow stuck (somehow) in the understructure of a bridge, its legs hanging down over a river.

That flood hit the eastern panhandle as well as the north-central counties, though from my vantage point at the time (in Buckhannon, squadron 47081, now since deactivated), it was mostly to our east, from Elkins and Phillipi on.

Better have your hipwaders and a pack ready, Cadet Lunsford. You might wind up in Grant, Hardy or Pocahontas counties before it's over. Stay warm and dry.

[C/MSgt Lunsford]

Well here comes that snow... I'll post a picture sometime around.

[Smithsonia]

BuckeyeDEJ;
Regarding my previous post, of course I was kidding. Frankly we in snow territory think most of you Atlantic Seaboarder guys are a little too serious about some snow. As an example, The Cheyenne River Indian reservation has no power heat and water for several weeks due to a chain of blizzards and it hasn't even made the national news once.
http://yankton.net/articles/2010/02/04/news/doc4b6a574c47f19850681887.txt
Proving the closer you are to a media center the more coverage you will get and frightened you will become.

[BuckeyeDEJ]

BuckeyeDEJ;
Frankly we in snow territory think most of you Atlantic Seaboarder guys are a little too serious about some snow...

"Atlantic seaboarder types?" 'Scuse me — I'm in Florida. More like Gulf of Mexico surfboarder type! No snow here, not since a couple of weeks ago (for an hour or so)... and before that, 1978.

[C/MSgt Lunsford]

I believe we are up to 20 inches.

[SarDragon]

Oh the weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
And since we've no place to go
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

It doesn't show signs of stopping
And I've brought some corn for popping
The lights are turned way down low
Let is snow, let it snow, let it snow

When we finally kiss goodnight
How I hate going out in the storm
But if you really hold me tight
All the way home I'll be warm

The fire is slowly dying
And my dear we're still goodbye-ing
As long as you love me so
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow



All the way home I'll be warm
All the way home I'll be warm

The fire is slowly dying
And my dear I'm still goodbye-ing
As long you love me so

Let it snow, Let it Snow, Let it snow
Let it snow, Let is snow, Let is snow
Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow

[C/MSgt Lunsford]

I promised Pictures, so here you go.



Images provided by NASA

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

[Nick]

Heh, wow ... that's, um, some pretty good lake effect.

[C/MSgt Lunsford]

Heh, wow ... that's, um, some pretty good lake effect.

It was almost blizzard like. 

[SarDragon]

Heh, wow ... that's, um, some pretty good lake effect.

Not really. The lake effect storms go north across the top of the Appalachians and whack New York and New England, and spill down from there. There's rarely any big snow south of central NJ.

This storm came around the lower end of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and headed north. This is a typical weather pattern that I've watched since I moved to NJ in '59.

[BuckeyeDEJ]

Heh, wow ... that's, um, some pretty good lake effect.

Not really. The lake effect storms go north across the top of the Appalachians and whack New York and New England, and spill down from there. There's rarely any big snow south of central NJ.

This storm came around the lower end of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and headed north. This is a typical weather pattern that I've watched since I moved to NJ in '59.

Funny, I always thought the lake-effect snows were the ones that skipped Cleveland and dumped on Akron, Canton and Youngstown. Or skipped Detroit and slammed Lansing and Grand Rapids.

[SarDragon]

Map showing some of the lake-effect snow areas of the United States.

More here.

[davidsinn]

Map showing some of the lake-effect snow areas of the United States.

More here.

That map sucks. Totally misses our area which is the NW corner of IN.

[SarDragon]

It says "some". Got a better one available?

[C/MSgt Lunsford]

It says "some". Got a better one available?

Wikipedia = FAIL

[SarDragon]

Pretty harsh there, aren't you? Not all articles are great, nor are all as bad as you make them out to be. The one I linked has a lot of good references behind it. I have a couple of weather guesser friends who happen to agree with what's in the article. One of them may have even contributed.

[TACP]

Wikipedia info is good as the sources that provide it, some of which are great. The C/SrA will learn about it in school someday.

[Spike]

Lake-effect can travel as far as 100 miles North, South, East and West so says my World Book Encyclopedia circa 1957.

Guess between 1957 and 2010, weather facts have changed somewhat??

[C/MSgt Lunsford]

Wikipedia info is good as the sources that provide it, some of which are great. The C/SrA will learn about it in school someday.

Actually... our School Board for the county has the Wikipedia Website Blocked on their servers because of inaccurate information. Anyone can go into an article and edit it.

Pretty harsh there, aren't you? Not all articles are great, nor are all as bad as you make them out to be. The one I linked has a lot of good references behind it. I have a couple of weather guesser friends who happen to agree with what's in the article. One of them may have even contributed.

I don't think it is harsh... it is the truth. Why use information that is possibly contaminated by the stupidity of other people. (The ones that add information when they don't know what they are talking about.)

[N Harmon]

Actually... our School Board for the county has the Wikipedia Website Blocked on their servers because of inaccurate information. Anyone can go into an article and edit it.

Does your school have a copy of Encyclopedia Britannica? Because there have been a few studies that say the two are about the same as far as accuracy is concerned.

I don't think it is harsh... it is the truth. Why use information that is possibly contaminated by the stupidity of other people. (The ones that add information when they don't know what they are talking about.)

Perhaps you have not learned the difference between primary and secondary sources. Wikipedia is a secondary source, so you wouldn't rely on it's information for research. However Wikipedia is also a great place to find primary sources since they operate under strict rules for verifiability.

[C/MSgt Lunsford]

Actually... our School Board for the county has the Wikipedia Website Blocked on their servers because of inaccurate information. Anyone can go into an article and edit it.

Does your school have a copy of Encyclopedia Britannica? Because there have been a few studies that say the two are about the same as far as accuracy is concerned.

I don't think it is harsh... it is the truth. Why use information that is possibly contaminated by the stupidity of other people. (The ones that add information when they don't know what they are talking about.)

Perhaps you have not learned the difference between primary and secondary sources. Wikipedia is a secondary source, so you wouldn't rely on it's information for research. However Wikipedia is also a great place to find primary sources since they operate under strict rules for verifiability.

It is the simple fact that Wikipedia can be edited... so there is not a 100% Guarantee that your information will be as accurate as a site that gets it's information from Primary Sources. Wikipedia is just there to make money. Why did the creator of Wikipedia ask for $5,000,000? I do not know... but you don't need that much money to run a website. And when you run that big of a website, then ADs and random donations will cover costs. Not a plea for $5,000,000.

Also it is my simple Opinion that Wikipedia is a failure of info source.

[Spike]

Wikipedia is a business just like google and the rest of information finding resources. 

[Short Field]

I can fully understand why a school would block Wikipedia - students are suppose to learn how to research and not rely on one-stop shopping for "facts".  However, for the casual user, it is fine - with the caveat you really need to search out some other sources if you are seriously interested in the accuracy of the data.

[N Harmon]

Wikipedia is just there to make money. Why did the creator of Wikipedia ask for $5,000,000? I do not know... but you don't need that much money to run a website. And when you run that big of a website, then ADs and random donations will cover costs. Not a plea for $5,000,000.

Uh, the Wikimedia Foundation, the corporation that operates Wikipedia, is a non-profit 503(c) charity. And while running a simple website may be cheap, running one of the top ten websites in terms of traffic, is not so cheap. Oh, and Wikipedia doesn't have advertising.

[C/MSgt Lunsford]

Wikipedia is just there to make money. Why did the creator of Wikipedia ask for $5,000,000? I do not know... but you don't need that much money to run a website. And when you run that big of a website, then ADs and random donations will cover costs. Not a plea for $5,000,000.

Uh, the Wikimedia Foundation, the corporation that operates Wikipedia, is a non-profit 503(c) charity. And while running a simple website may be cheap, running one of the top ten websites in terms of traffic, is not so cheap. Oh, and Wikipedia doesn't have advertising.

Wikipedia does not directly advertise... but on branched off Wiki's like the famous Call of Duty Wiki, they have ad's all over the place (Look at bottom of page also). These revenues go back to the Wikipedia.

I'm just concerned about the inaccurate information the Wikipedia provides.

Anyway... back on Topic... SNOW.

[SarDragon]

Lake-effect can travel as far as 100 miles North, South, East and West so says my World Book Encyclopedia circa 1957.

Guess between 1957 and 2010, weather facts have changed somewhat??

Maybe, maybe not. The info I provided was general in nature, and not meant to establish absolute boundaries on where you get lake-effect snow. One hundred miles from the edges of any of the red zones on the map does not extend any of these zones into the areas in the pictures showing the heavy snow coverage (DC, VA, WV, MD, DE, NJ), hence the point of my post stating that it wasn't lake-effect snow.

[SarDragon]

I can fully understand why a school would block Wikipedia - students are suppose to learn how to research and not rely on one-stop shopping for "facts".  However, for the casual user, it is fine - with the caveat you really need to search out some other sources if you are seriously interested in the accuracy of the data.

Yup, that's why I mentioned all the references at the bottom. I even checked out a couple of them before deciding to use the info.

Wikipedia is heavily moderated, and all entries get vetted. Malicious changes get fixed pretty quickly.

Most of the science articles are right on, and many of those that aren't have notation to that effect. I see it as a great starting point for learning.

[Krapenhoeffer]

Wikipedia is just there to make money. Why did the creator of Wikipedia ask for $5,000,000? I do not know... but you don't need that much money to run a website. And when you run that big of a website, then ADs and random donations will cover costs. Not a plea for $5,000,000.

Uh, the Wikimedia Foundation, the corporation that operates Wikipedia, is a non-profit 503(c) charity. And while running a simple website may be cheap, running one of the top ten websites in terms of traffic, is not so cheap. Oh, and Wikipedia doesn't have advertising.

Wikipedia does not directly advertise... but on branched off Wiki's like the famous Call of Duty Wiki, they have ad's all over the place (Look at bottom of page also). These revenues go back to the Wikipedia.

I'm just concerned about the inaccurate information the Wikipedia provides.

Anyway... back on Topic... SNOW.

The Call of Duty Wiki (along with MANY other wikis) is run by the Wikia corporation. Uses the same software, but a completely different entity. Wikia is for profit.

Wikipedia isn't allowed to post advertisements, due to their 501(c) status.

Not to mention that recent studies have shown that Wikipedia is more accurate than Encyclopedia Britannica. Do take what your teachers say about the internet with a grain of salt.

[C/MSgt Lunsford]

Lake-effect can travel as far as 100 miles North, South, East and West so says my World Book Encyclopedia circa 1957.

Guess between 1957 and 2010, weather facts have changed somewhat??

Maybe, maybe not. The info I provided was general in nature, and not meant to establish absolute boundaries on where you get lake-effect snow. One hundred miles from the edges of any of the red zones on the map does not extend any of these zones into the areas in the pictures showing the heavy snow coverage (DC, VA, WV, MD, DE, NJ), hence the point of my post stating that it wasn't lake-effect snow.

We do have an ocean right there to the east of us...

[Spike]

^ Most storm systems travel West to East.  Very few systems actually manage to come from the Atlantic all the way to West Virginia, except when Warm air comes down from Canada and pulls the cold air off the Atlantic inland.  They then "mingle" with existing storm centers and may (very rarely) travel on a East to West course.

Jet Streams play a huge factor in storm movement and formation on the Eastern Seaboard.  West Virginia (due to surrounding terrain) usually sees very little Atlantic pressure move in.

This storm that has passed recently is a fluke and not anywhere near the norm.

[Hook]

Spike - Martinsburg, WV is only 70 miles from Chesapeake Bay.....

[Spike]

^ When I measured on the paper map it came out to over 100 miles.  To the Atlantic is almost 150.