Ticker for February 6, 2002

                
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February 6, 2002   February 6, 2002   February 6, 2002   February 6, 2002



It Still Looks Neat, Whatever the Reason

Those who visited the Mesonet station plot this morning were treated
to a rare display of calm winds almost statewide:



Were winds totally calm?  Well, no.  Almost - sort of.

There are three factors at play in this map:

1. For this product, winds are plotted as "calm" when wind speeds
are less than 2.5 mph.

2. We were seeing some freezing precipitation effects on wind
monitors this morning.

3. Winds really were calm or very light at these locations.

A few stations may have temporarily "frozen up" in the wind speed
and/or wind direction category as water on the tower became ice.
The constant wind direction over several minutes seen in these
meteograms just doesn't happen in nature:


 (look closely!)

Another minor headache for the Mesonet's QA manager, but an interesting
phenomenon nonetheless.