Ticker for October 10, 2006

                
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October 10, 2006 October 10, 2006 October 10, 2006 October 10, 2006


Passing of a Legend

Prominent synoptician Frederick Sanders passed away last week at
his home in Marblehead, Massachusetts after a distinguished career
that spanned more than fifty years following the completion of his
doctoral dissertation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dr. Sanders was a trailblazer in the field of synoptic meteorology,
particularly in the understanding of synoptic-scale surface features
such as fronts.

His classic 1955 paper launched the modern quantitative study of
cold fronts (and is still considered one of the best of its kind).
Interestingly, it has an Oklahoma tie-in: the dataset was based
on observations of an April 1953 cold front and pre-frontal trough
that charged through Oklahoma. The following image, taken from that
paper, shows Sanders's concept of that front as it was draped over
the southern Plains. Note the varying width of the frontal zone along
the boundary.



Much of Dr. Sanders's later work focused on synoptic forces that
encouraged pre-frontal troughs (wind shifts) and how these ultimately
worked to weaken fronts.

Dr. Sanders was a subscriber to the Ticker and offered friendly advice
(and corrections!) several times in recent years, and for that we
remain especially grateful.

Special thanks to Dr. David Schultz and Dr. Edwin Kessler of the
Norman Weather Community, who knew Dr. Sanders well and cared to
note his passing as well as his achievements.


October 10 in Mesonet History

Record Value Station Year
Maximum Temperature 93°F HOOK 2020
Minimum Temperature 21°F BRIS 2000
Maximum Rainfall 4.52″ ANTL 2004

Mesonet records begin in 1994.

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