Cloud Watcher Weather Watch: Air Masses and Frontal Systems

Grand Island is a mid-sized city in the central area of Nebraska. Originally named La Grande Island by French fur traders, Grand Island is in an area that resembled an island where the Wood River joins the Platte River. The first settlement was in 1857 by German immigrants from Davenport Iowa who believed that Grand Island was the actual “center” of the United States, and they hoped that Grand Island would become the nation’s capital for that reason. Of course, this never happened, but they were close; the actual center of the United States is Lebanon, Kansas which is only 85 miles away.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Air Masses and Frontal Systems

In the summer, Grand Island and Central Nebraska is affected by cT from the Southwest and mT from the Gulf of Mexico; additionally cP will come down from Canada. In the winter, this region is affected by cP with mT; also occasionally a cA will come down from the far north.

This region experiences mid-latitude cyclones with occluded fronts especially in the spring and summer months. Currently, there are no fronts in Nebraska but the latest forecast is for thunderstorms Friday night. These thunderstorms will occur because of the incoming cold front from the west.

Nebraska is in the Tornado Alley, and Grand Island has experienced several severe tornadoes with an F4 in 1980. Additional information about this storm can be found below the blog window.

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Drought resistance is the goal, but methods differ

By Andrew Pollack

Published: Thursday, October 23, 2008

GRAND ISLAND, Nebraska — To satisfy the world's growing demand for food, scientists are trying to pull off a genetic trick that nature itself has had trouble accomplishing in millions of years of evolution. They want to create varieties of corn, wheat and other crops that can thrive with little water.

As the world's population expands and global warming alters weather patterns, water shortages are expected to hold back efforts to grow more food. People drink only a quart or two of water every day, but the food they eat in a typical day, including plants and meat, requires 2,000 to 3,000 quarts to produce.

Monsanto, the biggest crop biotechnology company, says its first drought-tolerant corn will reach farmers in only four years and will provide a 10 percent increase in yields in states like Nebraska and Kansas that tend to get less rainfall than eastern parts of the Corn Belt.

At a recent farm show here called Husker Harvest Days, a few thousand farmers were guided past a small plot on which Monsanto had grown its drought-tolerant corn next to a similar variety without the "drought gene." A transparent tent had shielded the plants from any rain through the hot Nebraska summer.

The results were, to be sure, less than miraculous. Both the drought-tolerant and the comparison plants were turning brown and shriveling, and they were about three feet shorter than the lush green irrigated corn growing nearby. But the drought-tolerant plants, which also contained a second gene to protect their roots from a pest, were a little greener and a few inches taller than the comparison plants, and their cobs were missing fewer kernels.

Monsanto said the improvement was significant. And the Nebraska and Kansas farmers who toured Monsanto's plot, many of them facing water-use restrictions and soaring pumping costs for irrigation, said any improvement would be welcome.

"Drought tolerance to me is the most critical entry point," said Calestous Juma, a professor of international development at Harvard who has advised African governments on biotechnology. "This is kind of reopening the window for genetic modification."

In many areas, lack of water is the biggest limiting factor, and supplies of water for irrigation could be reduced further in coming years in order to supply more water to growing cities and proliferating factories.

Global warming is also expected to lead to drier conditions and more frequent droughts in some parts of the world. Scientists at Stanford, for instance, have projected that corn yields in southern Africa could drop 25 percent by 2030 because of warmer, drier weather.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/23/business/worldbusiness/23iht-23drought.17184603.html?pagewanted=all

Cloud Watcher Weather Watch

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Air Masses and Frontal Systems

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National Weather Service Forecast

Consequences of Drought

Grand Island Tornado 1980