#MEwx Snow, rain and icing with y our quote for the day and another weather tidbit
You can find my personal weather station list with AMBIENT weather.com as KMEAUGUS22. That stands for Kennebec County in Augusta, Maine that first went on line in 2022. There is a 20 second delay between when the station reads the weather and when it hits the web.
This morning we have clouds with scattered snow showers, slight chance of freezing drizzle and sleet. Highs in the upper 20s with North winds around 10 mph, becoming light and variable.
Tonight we’ll have clouds with areas of freezing drizzle and patchy fog. Freezing rain likely with rain after midnight. Ice accumulation of up to two tenths of an inch with lows in the upper 20s. Winds will remain light and variable.
The outdoor temperature is 18.9°F, the dewpoint is 18.0°F and the wind chill is 5.3°F.
We received roughly 3 inches of snow here over the past 24 hours and it’s still coming down.
Today’s sunrise is 7:05 AM, sunset is 4:01 PM and we’ll have 8 hours 55 minutes of daylight today.
Moonrise is 12:50 PM and Moonset is 1:23 AM. The moon phase is Waxing Gibbous and is 70% illuminated. Our next full moon will be on December 15 and our next new moon is on December 30.
The wind is from the North Northeast between 3.1 MPH and 12.3 MPH.
The Relative pressure is 29.98, the Absolute pressure is 29.78 and rising with a weather graphic indicating clouds and rain/snow.
The Humidity is 96%, the UV index is 0 placing the average person at low risk and the solar radiation reading is 4.8W/m2.
Visibility is restricted depending on how hard it’s snowing where you’re trying to drive.
“To find out a girl’s faults, praise her to her girlfriends.”
Benjamin Franklin
Just FYI --
There are two readings on my new personal Weather Station (which can be reached by clicking here) that I get a lot of questions about. One is the W/M2 reading and the other is the UV index.
What follows is a basic explanation of both readings that I’ve found online. They are by no means an exhaustive explanation, so if you’re really interested in them spend a bit of time with google and sit down with some hot coffee and read about it to your heart’s content.
By the way, my personal weather station is located on the northern most edge of the city of Augusta, Maine. I mention this so that you understand that the usual city-related ozone depletion is minimal (for UV reference) here.
What does the solar radiation reading of W/m2 mean?
Solar radiation is measured atop the meteorological mast at the shore laboratory using an Eppley Model PSP (Precision Spectral Pyranometer). Approximately 99% of solar, or short-wave, radiation at the earth's surface is contained in the region from 0.3 to 3.0 µm, which corresponds to wavelength between the ultraviolet and near infrared. Above the earth's atmosphere, solar radiation has an intensity of approximately 1380 watts per square meter (W/m2). This value is known as the Solar Constant. At our latitude, the value at the surface is approximately 1000 W/m2 on a clear day at solar noon in the summer months. The difference between this value and the Solar Constant is due to transmission loss to the atmosphere. The clear sky value is considerable less in the winter. Clouds can dramatically reduce this value by reflecting the solar radiation back out to space.
The PSP senses this radiation with a thermopile that produces a millivolt signal that is directly proportional to the downwelling solar irradiance. The PSP uses a glass dome that uniformly transits radiation between 0.285 and 2.8 µm. A calibration constant is applied to provide the total solar irradiance in watts per square meter.
Blogger’s note: I understand ‘some’ of the foregoing, but if you’re a really smart radiation geek you’ll get a lot more out of it than I did. Enjoy.
What is the UV index?
If you have read How Sunburns and Sun Tans Work, you know that your skin is sensitive to ultraviolet (UV) radiation. The UV index is a value calculated each day that helps you to know how much UV radiation will reach you if you go outside. By knowing the index value for the day, you can take appropriate precautions. These precautions help you avoid sunburn in the short term and skin cancer in the long term.
The UV index is calculated based on four factors:
- The thickness of the ozone layer over your city (detected using satellites)
- The cloud cover over your city (clouds block UV radiation to varying degrees)
- The time of year (in winter, UV radiation is lower than in the summer because of the sun's angle)
- The elevation of your city (higher elevations get more UV radiation)
The UV index value ranges between 0 and 10, with zero being minimal UV exposure risk and 10 being maximal UV exposure risk. This page lists the proper precautions to take for the different index values.
Here are some interesting links:
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