Pardon Our "Dust"...

Our service provider is changing the server software to a newer version and as a result users of the AC-SKYWARN and AC-EMWIN pages may see some funky things for a little while. Please bear with us. May take a little while to work out some kinks which may pop up.

New AC-EMWIN Server!

We now have a brand new web server!

The Alachua County EMWIN server was switched out with a newer, much faster one this afternoon and y'all didn't even know it! :) Not a beat was missed in the switchover and everything went perfectly and smoothly. In fact, I'm kinda nervous because I'm waiting for Murphy's Law to kick in at any moment. It was as simple as installing all the Windows Updates and then transferring the weather software over to the new machine. Hmm.

The old server was a chugging 1.6 GHz, 32-bit, 256 MB RAM, 20 GB HDD clunker that was completely adequate 8 years ago; but the EMWIN software was getting more complicated as it became continually upgraded over the years and we were starting to experience more some occasional drags and lockups. So we went to TigerDirect and for $239 got a refurbished 3.4 GHz, dual core, 64-bit, 2 GB RAM, 400 GB HDD, 8 USB port monster-engined speedster. :) No more dragging or lockups, and everything works SO much faster.

The server serves both Alachua County SKYWARN and Alachua County EMWIN, and sends weather bulletins to email, pager, cellphone, and to listgroups at UF and on Yahoo, as well as to Twitter accounts, and to Facebook accounts - for FREE as a public service.

The old server will remain in inventory as a backup/standby server.

(Yer welcome!)

Spotter Training Class Notice:Alachua County - December 9, 2010

Two years and eight months since OUR last spotter training class, and eight FLAGLER County spotter classes later, a spotter training class has FINALLY appeared on the NWS-JAX board for Alachua County...

When:
Alachua December 9, 2010
6:00-9:00 pm

Location:
Alachua County Public Health Auditorium
224 SE 24th St
Gainesville, FL

To register, contact:
David Donnelly
(352) 264-6500
Email: DAD@alachua.co.us

Instructor will be Al Sandrik.


A PERSONAL COMPLAINT: Spotters are required to have refresher training every two years. Because of the immature actions of quite a number of Alachua County ham radio operators who have caused a number of pretty serious problems, our own local area spotter program has pretty much disappeared and been dissolved down to a web page only, while Alachua County has been *severely* prejudiced and NWS employees have actually been *afraid* to come down here to give any classes at all for 2-3/4 years. Angie does classes for every *other* county in the NWS-JAX CWA but seems utterly *frightened* to show her face here, anymore. So many bad things have happened. Government officials took actions based on gossip, and now they're responsible for those actions. They made some serious mistakes of judgment and management and they don't know how to APOLOGIZE much less FIX the things that they were duped into doing by the hams. ANY acknowledgement opens them up to a lawsuit. At the same time, FLAGLER County has had it's *pick and choose* of up to THREE CLASSES A YEAR - at least EIGHT since we had OUR last class. ...Maybe more - I'm still researching it. That's an inexplicable favoritism, and it's just not right.

Regardless of what those hams have done, taking it out on innocent people who had NOTHING to do with it all is NOT right. The spotter program, and the training classes, MUST continue, regardless. If NWS is worried for their safety, then they can always get security to accompany the instructors. But spotters *must* be refreshed every two years, regardless. That is an NWS mandate.

Meanwhile, I propose that if the hams are a problem, THEN STOP COOPERATING WITH THE HAMS UNTIL SUCH TIME AS THEY LEARN. The rest of the ham community will be forced to follow through and get ON them. It WORKS. You just need *solidarity* to make it happen. There is a serious problem with the local ham community and it needs to be addressed head on. If need be, I would suggest putting a two-year cessation on all cooperation with ALL Alachua County ham programs, and *force* them to sit down and talk amongst themselves about self-policing and doing the right thing and taking charge when bad apples cause harm to others. Without that, ***there are no consequences*** and nobody has any reason to *stop* what they're doing. PUT YOUR FOOT DOWN...and it shocks people, makes them think. GARS, GARC...these clubs need to be made aware of what their members are doing, and to seriously stop and think about such things, and stop *avoiding* the very serious things that are right in front of their faces. These guys don't like to acknowledge the bad. They're like some abuse victims...they continually turn a blind eye and let the abuse continue to happen, thinking if they just ignore it "it'll go away on it's own". You have to take charge, or you'll just keep getting hit. At this point, their members have caused so much harm that they could face lawsuit and total dissolution.

Myself, so much harm has been brought to me personally, and to other people, and so many crimes have been committed, that I'm *actually* thinking of bringing a real lawsuit against some people in NWS-JAX *and* against Alachua County government. This is SO BAD what has been done! (sigh)

Meanwhile, reinstate the non-ham *civilian* spotter core - which worked perfectly and HAD no problems because it stayed SEPARATE from the ham community (while still allowing COOPERATION between hams and EM). This is WHY Alachua County SKYWARN was civilian-run and avoided hams and EM...we didn't want the damned politics and egos. WE didn't NEED dues, donations, or grants. We did our job and JUST the job that we were supposed to do: LOOK UP, and REPORT! That's IT! There is NO OTHER DUTY for a spotter! Security background checks, incident command training, EMRISS training, CERT membership, ham membership, emergency management security clearance, classes held inside buildings REQUIRING any of the above...these things are not supposed to be required for a spotter. That's ARES, RACES, etc. Those are totally separate things. SKYWARN can work WITH those groups. But it is supposed to be separate and of it's own. When you try to join it with these other things, problems happen, and there is politics, and unnecessary over-management for something that is supposed to be very simply run.

If THIS class gets postponed, then I *strongly* encourage people to make complaints to NWS-HQ in DC and call attention to it all. This is ridiculous. It really needs to be brought to public attention if these guys can't start getting on the ball and taking charge.

More information about the REASONS for the Alachua County prejudice can be found here:
http://stormspottertodd.blogspot.com/2009/12/whered-todd-goon-dealing-with.html .

Todd

Gust Front Funnel Cloud ('Gustnado')June 29, 2010Gainesville, FL

Date/Time: June 29, 2010, 5:44pm ET
Location: Gainesville, Alachua County, FL



Photo by Dr. Steven A Robicsek, MD, PhD. Taken June 29, 2010 at 5:44pm, from atop the Seagle Building on W. University Avenue, looking west at the Ben Hill Griffith Stadium.

This is not actually a "tornado", but something more like a large dust devil. If you remember your spotter training, a true funnel cloud "hangs pendant from a wall cloud." Gustnadoes are actually not part of or connected to the cloud base. From the New World Encyclopedia...

"A gustnado (gust front tornado) is a small, vertical swirl associated with a gust front or downburst. Because they are technically not associated with the cloud base, there is some debate as to whether or not gustnadoes are actually tornadoes. They are formed when fast moving cold, dry outflow air from a thunderstorm is blown through a mass of stationary, warm, moist air near the outflow boundary, resulting in a "rolling" effect (often exemplified through a roll cloud). If low level wind shear is strong enough, the rotation can be turned horizontally (or diagonally) and make contact with the ground. The result is a gustnado. They usually cause small areas of heavier rotational wind damage among areas of straight-line wind damage. It is also worth noting that since they are absent of any Coriolis influence from a mesocyclone, they seem to be alternately cyclonic and anticyclonic without preference."

This is truly an amazing shot. It's difficult enough to catch any KIND of a funnel here in Alachua County; but to catch one placed perfectly right next to the stadium like this is sure to destine this particular photo for some small amount of fame in the least. Congratulations to Steve on nailing this one! This is a great shot!

I've talked to Bill Quinlan, TV-20 Meteorologist, and he advises that in talking with the NWS they thought they were seeing a convergence of two outflow boundaries in the vicinity. Bill said that he was looking at the radar when this was actually happening and he said that this funnel occured at the very outside edge of the storm, where the outflow/gust front was.

We're not exactly sure just WHERE the funnel is actually touching down...behind the O'Connell Center?...over Lake Alice? It is obviously picking up a lot of dust. We know that the point of photography is at the Seagle Building. And the funnel is located between the southern edge of the west wall of the stadium and the south end zone score board (the building with the antennas on top of it). This narrows things down a bit. But now we need someone at ground level from that area who actually saw it so that they can point to us a differrent specific direction and this will allow us to accurately pinpoint exactly where the event actually occured. So if there's anyone who lives in any of the dorms in that vicinity who actually saw this, please do contact us so that we can try to narrow this down more.

This photograph demonstrates perfectly how there are things out there which can LOOK like a funnel cloud or a tornado, but which actually are not. This is an excellent "look-a-like", and I've been hunting for these kinds of photographs for a while.

(This may well be the first-ever photograph of a gust front funnel ever taken in Alachua County.)

For more examples of severe related photography and videography, see the Alachua County Area Storm Spotter's Field Guide.