Nation's Heatwave is Hurting Corn Crops

We recently ran a story of a local Ethanol plant declaring bankruptcy, citing corn prices as a primary reason. The recent heat wave across the nation’s heartland has been creating problems for more than just the individuals of the heat-stricken states. Corn, a staple crop for the US economy, is in danger of serious damage from the extreme heat. 2011 crops were slated to be especially large to accommodate recent demand, but with heavy rainfall and flooding in the Spring months, planting was delayed. The delay has set the current stage of growth in a very critical period. The corn ideally requires temperatures in the 80s with a stable source of water. However with record-high temperatures in the triple digits and high pressure keeping skies clear, the corn is beginning to wither. On Tuesday July 26th, 35-40% of farmers reported that their crops have been damaged by the heat. Already this has raised the price of corn 12.25 cents to $6.6875 a bushel. Aside from causing an influx in the prices in the corn later in the year, the smaller harvests are expected to raise gas, meat, and dairy prices.

- Weather Intern Tom Bedard

A Historic Heatwave for Central PA

When I was a student at Penn State, I came back to visit during the 1988 Arts Festival and was in town when State College last reached 102 degrees. Being a weather fanatic who knew a lot about the local weather, I knew that I was in town for what may be the only 100 degree reading during my lifetime. The reason why is it takes a perfect scenario to actually reach 100 degrees in our area.

Last week it looked like we may get that scenario and this week it looks like we had a fair chance. Even into the middle of this week we thought it may happen, but it is so hard, we still had to go with the odds and kept the forecast for the upper 90s and mention the century mark. Why? Because so many things could interfere with reaching the mark. History proves the point as we really have only reached there last than a handful of times.

What created this perfect storm to create the heat?

First let's talk about the start of the heat wave itself:

- The South Central states have been in an extreme drought. A dry ground allows for the maximum heating from the sun and helps temperatures to reach as high as they can. Most major heatwaves need these air masses to build in the middle of the nation during such dry stretches.

- A ridge of high pressure in the upper levels of the atmosphere developed over the middle of the nation allowing for a hot air mass to build there and then spread northward and eventually eastward.



But not every major heatwave will send our temperatures past the lower 90s. We needed a lot locally, specifically these things:

- We have been extremely dry. It's hard to even reach 90 in Central PA with a lot of moisture in the ground. The reason why is evaporation takes a lot of energy to happen. When there is evaporation from moisture in the ground, it prevents us from getting as hot as possible. Our vegetation and trees also sap moisture from the ground and put it out through their leaves. Therefore, we would need abnormal dryness to slow this effect and we did have this from late June through now.

- Lastly on top of all of the things mentioned above, we need two more things to help us get to 100. Sunshine and a westerly flow. This westerly flow downslopes from the highlands and this as air descends the increase of pressure allows the air to compress and warm. We had both the sunshine and this westerly flow for the past couple of days.

A Seven Month Thunderstorm?

Can you imagine being stuck in a thunderstorm that lasts up to seven months at the same intensity?  Well, thank goodness we don’t live in the Northern Hemisphere of Saturn.  I figured since not much is going on weather-wise in and around central Pennsylvania, we should take a look at the interesting weather occurring on other planets.  Scientists have been tracking a storm on Saturn since December after a telescope revealed a "Great White Spot," and ever since the spot has held that name just like the Great Red Spot for Jupiter’s hurricane-like storm that has been raging for centuries.  Radio outbursts created by lightning strikes were then tracked and confirmed by the orbiting space shuttle Cassini.  Since then, scientists have been tracking the storm’s turbulent nature and have come to find that the storm takes up an area that is eight times the surface area of Earth.  The storm itself wraps around the whole surface of Saturn, covering 2 billion miles. 

In relation to Earth’s lightning strikes, this storm experiences strikes that are electrically 10,000 times stronger and scientists have recorded ten lightning strikes in a second.  If our lightning strikes turn off our power, I don’t even want to think about the damage a Saturn lightning strike would cause.  This is not the only storm Saturn has seen, but scientists are still unsure how these storms develop; some evidence could link it to the change in seasons.  Take a look at photos of the storm and listen to its lightning strikes here-->   http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cassinifeatures/feature20110706b/

--Weather Intern Jacqueline Layer

Brown Lawn. Just Let It Go For Now

I know a lot of you are staring at a brown lawn and are either tempted to, or are attempting to water it back to a green color. Believe it or not, the best thing at this point is to let it stay dormant. We are in a dry pattern that is not going to break any time soon, therefore, giving your lawn some water may just wake it enough to become stressed. It's okay for the lawn to be dormant. If we get in a wetter pattern, it will come back.


- Think water... Joe Murgo

Dry Weather of Late Just Making it Hotter

June is, on average, our wettest month of the year.  For some spots, though, it was far from that.

Rainfall amounts always vary from place to place, especially during the summer months when thunderstorms only affect small areas.  This month, though, the differences seem bigger than usual.

Here are some of the rainfall stats from June from across the region:
DuBois:  4.62"
Clearfield:  4.03"
State College:  3.67"
Johnstown:  1.47"
Altoona:  0.61"

And with the first 10 days of July in the books, most places have seen less than a quarter inch of rain so far this month. 

Even after a wet spring, the ground has really dried out across much of the area after the recent stretch of weather.  That doesn't just turn the lawns brown, but it starts to affect the weather.

Our weather tends to become more desert-like.  Deserts have hot, dry days followed by cool nights.  When the ground is moist, some of the sun's energy goes towards evaporating the moisture while the rest goes towards heating the ground.  When there is very little moisture in the ground, almost all of the sun's energy goes to heating the ground since there is so little moisture to evaporate.  The result is warmer days, but generally lower humidity.  If you've noticed lately, we have had a lot of very warm and even hot afternoons that aren't all that humid.  We can have humid days in dry patterns, but they generally aren't as frequent and it generally isn't as humid as if we were in a wet pattern.  With the lower dewpoints associated with lower humidity, our nights also tend to be cooler and more comfortable.

It can be difficult to get out of these patterns because thunderstorms thrive in moist airmasses.  With the dry ground and the lower humidity, thunderstorms are less likely to form.

--Meteorologist Brian Thompson

Earth Gauge Report: Saving Water

Water is a very important resource that is becoming scarce at times, especially in other parts of the nation. Summer is the time of the year that we tend to use more water. In fact, although we tend to use more water outdoors during the summer months, up to 70% of the water we need is used indoors. Here are some tips to save water inside of your house:

• Keep a pitcher of drinking water in the refrigerator instead of letting the faucet run until the water is cool.
• Wash summer fruits and vegetables in a bowl of water, and use a vegetable brush to clean them instead of rinsing.
• Scrape, don’t rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher, and wash only full loads.
• If you’re remodeling your bathroom or replacing plumbing fixtures this summer, look for the WaterSense label for products that save water and perform well.

This information is provided by the U.S. EPA’s WaterSense Program. Learn more at www.epa.gov/watersense.