 |
 |
|
|
Meghan's WEATHER CORNER |
|
June 2009
Recent Posts
Kindergartners Knock My Socks Off! More pics from River Place Elementary Recent Comments
Nice perspective on the new C... Let's just say I would be a h... I live next to the Florence E... I wanted to thank you for mak... What an exciting day the kind... My little guy, Barrett, loved... Meghan, Categories
More KVUE Blogs
|
I'm a meteorologist. I am not an architect or a concert critic. That said, I AM a native North Texan, and I've been to my fair share of Cowboys games and concert events at the recently retired Texas Stadium in Irving. And there is big buzz all around about the history-making inaugural event at the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington this past Saturday night. I was lucky to be in the audience and just had to share. If any of you found yourselves there, too, please weigh in! THE EVENT: 5:30pm, Saturday, June 6th. A star-studded country concert headlined by the "King of Country" George Strait. Fellow artists Reba McEntire, Blake Shelton and Julianne Hough were also on the bill. Lee Ann Womack stepped in at the last minute for Julianne Hough, who was suffering from a yucky bout of strep throat. THE ATTENDEES: My group numbered about 12 and included folks from Austin and Georgetown to Graham and Dallas/Fort Worth. People in the audience drove from Fort Stockton, Lawton, Louisiana and Kansas (and that's just the people that I talked to!). Some of them flew all the way from England! Cowboys owner and general manager, Jerry Jones, was joined by ex-Cowboys coach, Jimmy Johnson. Governor Rick Perry and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison were in attendance, while Troy Aikman and other ex-Cowboy sightings happened here and there all night long. 60,188 was the offical tally. And even with all those people milling about, it never really felt terribly crowded! THE GOOD: Wow. That stadium is simply state-of-the-art. It is a mammoth structure as you make your way to its front doors. It has a beautiful glass skin that reflected the rich blue Texas sky and those giant steel arches seemed so strong and endless when standing underneath them. Through the front doors you'll see the whole place just laid out in front of you in the very open mezzanine breezeway. There seemed to be digital t.v. screens everywhere. Even the vendors were using them for menus and pricing. It's all concrete and steel, with a silver and blue color scheme... of course! There doesn't seem to be a bad seat in the house, thanks to the two much talked about enormous HD screens above midfield. Measuring 159 feet long and 71 feet tall, you can't miss anything from the north and south sideline seats and you could see every pore on Lee Ann Womack's face! The "hole-in-the-roof" was closed to keep out the hot afternoon sun, but it did allow nice natural light into the stadium. The sun shined brightly into the stadium from all around the mezzanine. The "hole-in-the-roof" was opened about three songs in to George Strait's set. It only took 12 minutes for the roof panels to fully open to the starry night sky. The luxury boxes and suites appeared to be quite cozy with every amenity right down to the Kobe beef and leather seating. Even the bathrooms were nice, with not-so-cheap toilet paper and rows and rows of brand new stalls. Everyone knows how important it is to keep THAT line moving! THE BAD: Let's go back to that "walk" up to the front doors. We stayed in nearby hotels, so we got as close as we could by taxi (about 1/2 mile). By personal car, the cheapest parking was $30-40 followed by a mile-long hike. At 4:30 in the blazing June Texas sun... ouch. Traffic was a bit of a mess, but city officials said that early patron arrival and good planning kept it from being the nightmare everyone thought it would be. While he praised Jerry Jones for "thinking of everything," singer Blake Shelton had some pretty cruel remarks when it came to the traffic issue and said he almost missed his set. When we walked in the west entry, Lee Ann Womack was already on stage about two songs into her set. The sound from the breezeway was terrible. Lucky for us, we had amazing floor seats in front of the stage set up on the east endzone. There the sound was good. But, just a short walk back toward the rear floor sections and that sound became muddled and reverberating. I felt sorry for anyone who had paid a steep price for west end tickets. Perhaps all the concrete and steel? All I know is that I have tickets to the U2 concert there in October and I hope the sound quality is much-improved! It was the first event and finishing touches still have to happen before the Cowboys 2009 home opener. That was to be expected. Hour-long waiting times to get consessions were met with serious grumbles as patrons were told "we have hamburgers, but we're out of buns," or "I'm sorry, the only beer we have is hot and it's still $8.00." And those beautiful bathrooms... got a whole lot "less-than-beautiful" when all the toilet paper and paper towels ran out halfway through the 6-hour event. They need more trashcans around that place, both outside and inside, too. It seemed like trash was everywhere on the walk out. OVERALL: It was one amazing night!! The music was incredible and the songs legendary. The new stadium is a sight for sore Cowboy-eyed fans. It blows the old Texas Stadium out of the water. Even after 6 hours of being in there, most people left with jaws still gaping wide open. You can check out all of my pictures in the slideshow on KVUE.com. I can't wait to go to my first Dallas Cowboys game in that huge new house. Bring on the Superbowl, Jerry!!
Notice in these photos the orange and dusty sky. People in Iraq often have to deal with dust storms called Haboobs or Shamals. A Haboob forms from the outflow boundary of a thunderstorm and can happen frequently in the late Fall and Spring seasons. They can be very dramatic. It appears as a solid wall of flying dirt and dust moving across the landscape. The haboob may also occur in dry climates like Arizona or West Texas. This is a haboob blowing into Taji, Iraq taken in 2006. A Shamal is less dramatic, but can keep dust suspended in the air and reduce visibilities for four to five days. Check out the essay describing these dust storm events written by Michelle Moses, a forecaster at Balad Air Force Base, Iraq. And God bless all of our men and women serving the United States of America all over this world! Today we celebrate the 39th Earth Day. One of the reasons I love the Austin area so much is that Central Texans already do so much to help the environment and keep our earth green. It never hurts to start young! If we can get our children to start thinking about ways to reduce, reuse and recycle, then we have another generation of environmentally conscious and responsible adults to walk in our footsteps. I wanted to show off a few posters I got from my friends at Village Elementary in Georgetown. Mrs. Cothrin's 3rd grade students drew some very colorful pictures to help us talk about Earth Day this morning on KVUE News Daybreak.
It was my first visit to Florence and, wow, did the third grade classes at Florence Elementary ever make me feel welcome! I was greeted with lots and lots of smiles and good weather questions (as always!). The water cycle is a popular topic among second and third grade students. We talked more about it and how it specifically related to our sometimes volitile Texas weather. There was also a good discussion about regular air mass thunderstorms versus severe thunderstorms. Hail was a popular topic, thanks to the devastating hail storm on March 25th. One of the best things about visiting area schools is the wonderful "thank yous" I get from both teachers and students. Take a look at these. Awesome! After last week's $160 million hail storm, one thing is certain... the more eyes on Central Texas skies, the better! If you would like to learn more about storm spotting and severe weather reporting, we have two great opportunities coming up. Join our National Weather Service Meteorologists for a free, open-to-the-public Skywarn Training session near you! Wednesday, April 1st 7pm Wednesday, April 8th 7pm I will be out at the Round Rock training session and would love to meet you there! All attendees are eligible to be a part of the KVUE Storm Spotter Network! Whew... It's been awhile. Perhaps my blogging brain went on a Spring Break adventure without me! Before the break, a short road trip took me to Cedar Creek Intermediate. I received quite a welcome. It was the biggest banner ever posted in my honor and I send a big "thank you" shout-out to the 6th graders who signed it and hung it up! Inside the cafeteria, I came face-to-face with over 300 students. A huge crowd for me, considering there just aren't that many people in the television studio when we do the news every day. It was a good and lively group, with lots and lots of questions. After a quick look at what we call a "resume tape" in this television business, I answered a bunch of questions about my job, my strange hours, my career, my education... even my salary! Yikes... tap dance around THAT one! We got into the crazy Texas weather, too, covering topics from fronts and air masses to tornadoes and hurricanes. It was a really fun day! A special thanks goes out to Laura Haynes, 6th grade science teacher at Cedar Creek Intermediate, for setting this all up. At St. Matthew's Episcopal, the kindergarten class has a "meteorologist for the day" and that student is responsible for telling the rest of the class about the daily weather conditions. Kindergarten! In fact, they've already learned about seasons, layers of the atmosphere, moving air masses, highs and lows, the water cycle and types of precipitation, types of clouds, forecasting symbols and data collection. Whew! Needless to say, my visit Monday was filled with hands in the air and really good weather questions. We got to talk a little about how lightning forms and how tornadoes move and why hurricanes like the warm tropical water. Take a look at these smart (and very cute) cookies! Kathy Dugat's classroom had as much cool weather stuff as I have here in my office! What a fun place to learn and a great place to meet and spend some good time with her very bright kiddos. My favorite thing? The cloud mural haning out in the hallway between classrooms.
We talked about different cloud types together. For example, Stratus are low clouds that make our sky gray and sometimes bring drizzle or sprinkles. Cirrus clouds are formed entirely of ice crystals because they develop high in our atmosphere where it is very cold. Cumulus are also lower level clouds that we see on fair weather summer days. They are puffy like popcorn and, sometimes, if you stare long and hard, you can make shapes out of them. I had a viewer in Fort Myers, FL who sent in two photos of cumulus clouds. One looked just like King Kong and the other looked like Elvis Presley. Sometimes cumulus clouds will grow into tall Cumulonimbus clouds. These can bring beneficial rainfall or even severe weather. Click here for more kid's cloud stuff We also talked about Texas weather patterns and how I put together my forecast each day. What a super audience... they were such good listeners and got some pretty tough concepts, like the Dryline!! The picture at the top is the giant "Thank You" card they gave me after we had to wrap things up. How cool that it's signed by each student? Thanks to you ALL for inviting me. I couldn't resist showing a few more Australia pictures, sent to me by our family friends. While parts of New South Wales are dealing with devastating floodwaters, the heat has been utterly oppressive in other parts of Australia. This recent heat wave in Victoria has caused widespread power outages. Even some trains have stopped running, thanks to tracks buckling in that heat. It's not just the people suffering, though. We showed you the swimming kangaroo. Now, take a look at this cute little koala.
|
|
|
Meghan Danahey
Meghan Danahey can be seen Monday-Friday on KVUE News Daybreak and Midday. |
|
