Meghan Danahey: January 2009 Archives

I confess... I am a weather geek, but I am also passionate about education. I love to spend time in local classrooms talking about weather and my television career. I feel it is so important for children to have dreams, goals and the confidence to pursue them. I am so lucky to get to visit with area students from time to time and, hopefully, inspire one or two of them along the way.

Teachers, administrators, volunteers in all the local schools... hats off to you! Your dedication to students and education in Central Texas is a daily responsibilty. I have so much respect for you all. I have no idea how you do it!

Looks like I'll get a little insight tomorrow. I am honored to be a participant in the Round Rock ISD Principal for a Day event. After the Daybreak show, I will head to Caraway Elementary to meet with Principal Shelly Hohmann. I'll spend the morning shadowing her and learning what it might be like to walk in her shoes.

I will also get to do a special weather presentation to the third grade classes.

I'll be giving a LIVE report from Caraway during the Midday show from 11am-12pm. Can't wait to see how the day turns out! I'll post some fun pictures and details right here early next week.

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My audience was diverse last week at Hyde Park Elementary School. I talked to 1st, 4th and 6th grade students. I got a great question about sleet versus snow. Relevant, too, I thought, as we are in the dead of winter and winter snows or ice storms are still a threat to Central Texas.

So, what is the difference between those winter precipitation types anyway?

It all has to do with the temperature profile in the atmosphere. In the winter months, most of this precipitation in the clouds begins in the form of snowflakes since the atmosphere is so cold. Let's follow a couple of these snowflakes on different journeys down to the surface of the earth.

Journey #1 - Snow: Our snowflake falls out of the cloud. Temperatures directly underneath that cloud are below freezing. Temperatures all the way to the earth's surface are below freezing. This snowflake would remain a snowflake all the way to your rooftop. If temperatures have been very cold or below freezing for a few days around Central Texas, then the ground is quite cold and the snowflake may stick around long enough to grow into a snowman in your yard!

Journey #2 - Cold Rain: Another snowflake in a cloud across town starts falling. Temperatures are below freezing for a few hundred feet, but then the snowflake encounters warmer layers of air where temperatures are above freezing. This snowflake will melt in that warmer air.

If temperatures remain above freezing all the way to the surface, then this melted snowflake will eventually hit your rooftop as a cold rain drop.

Journey #3 - Freezing Rain: Let's take that snowflake from Journey #2 that ended up a cold rain drop. If that same cold rain drop hits something on the earth's surface that has a temperature below freezing, then it will freeze after it hits that object. Bridges, overpasses, trees, power lines... all these things can have temperatures that are a lot colder than the ground, so they are the first objects to "ice over" during a freezing rain event. The slippery ice can cause numerous accidents on overpasses and the weight of the ice can collapse power lines all over town. Freezing rain, or "ice storms" can be very dangerous and costly.

Journey #4 - Sleet: Sleet is very common in Texas. We are so far south that winter storms have to battle many layers of warm air in our atmosphere. Let's see how that affects our snowflake. Once again, it falls from the cloud and stays a snowflake for a few hundred feet. It moves through a layer of air that is above freezing. It melts, or partially melts, but then moves through another layer of air where temperatures are below freezing again. Our snowflake, turned cold rain drop, will then re-freeze into a little ice pellet as it falls to the earth.

Unfortunately, the temperature profile in the South Texas atmosphere can be quite tricky! Rarely is it ever this simple. Usually, we see a mixture of all of these precipitation types, because the temperatures can dip below or rise above freezing in multiple layers of the atmosphere in different parts of town!

Whew... sure is a hard thing to forecast as a meteorologist!! Bring on March!

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Science Day at Village Elementary School in Georgetown looked like a ton of fun for the kiddos. When I first arrived on Friday afternoon, I followed sounds of laughter spilling down the third grade hallway and I ran into a classroom full of students having balloon races.

It was my second trip to Village. Back in November, I was invited to come up and talk to the third graders about landforms, air masses and thunderstorms. I am always amazed at the smart questions I get from all of the students I talk to. These bright, eager third graders had so many good ones!

Mrs. Rainey's class sent me the coolest thank you notes and I got to show a few of them off on the air. In this picture you can see just a few. From the top left going clockwise, they are from Ruby, Grayson, Campbell, Emilee and Sandy J.

This go 'round, we talked a little more about air masses and cold fronts. Since it was over 80 on Friday and we had a strong cold front coming early Saturday, the timing was perfect! We also got to bring in their memory of the water cycle and apply those concepts to the Texas climate.

As usual, I had lots of good tornado questions and some good questions about hurricanes. One student asked a great question about the desert climate. He wondered why it could be so hot during the day, but so cold at night. That allowed us to talk about how the sun's energy heats the earth and how heat is allowed to escape at night. We also got to bring in clouds and how they affected that incoming/outgoing heat.

So many questions, so little time together! If you have more questions, post them here. Thanks Village Elementary students and teachers, especially Mrs. Jennifer Cothrin, for inviting me. Hope to see you all soon.

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