Beau Dodson

January 30, 2010: New web-site

admin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:06:19 +0000

I have a new web-site. www.weatherobservatory.com
- forecasts, tower cams, radar, and other can be found there.

We picked up five inches of snow overnight. Not bad for around here. That is a decent snow!

June 30, 2009: Murray, KY Severe Thunderstorm

admin — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:38:59 +0000

Nice cloud tops to my south and southeast this evening. This thunderstorm produced wind damage in Murray, KY. Trees were reported down - along with hail.

Severe thunderstorm near Murray, KY.

Click for larger images

June 21, 2009: First day of summer! HOT.

admin — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 22:40:08 +0000

Welcome to Summer 2009. A hot start for our region. Temperatures are in the middle to upper 90s this afternoon. Heat index values are above 100 degrees. Not the best weather.

A few thunderstorms have been scattered over South Illinois this afternoon - a couple of warnings. Large hail appears to actually be the primary threat. This has all remained north of our counties.

It appears the heat will continue through next weekend. Daily high temperatures will be in the 90s.

June 2, 2009: Cumulus Clouds

admin — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 01:44:45 +0000

Scattered strong thunderstorms over the region today. Some reports of hail and wind near St Louis. I took these photographs in Paducah, Kentucky.

beaudodson.smugmug.com/gallery/8423323_ZbgZV#553294120_pHsuA

May 23, 2009: Cloudy today - some rain moving in from the south

admin — Sat, 23 May 2009 21:55:26 +0000

A low pressure area is moving in from the south. This was the "tropical" low that passed through the Gulf of Mexico over the last few days. It never did fully develop.

The heaviest rains will stay to our south and west.

May 22, 2009: Slow severe weather season

admin — Fri, 22 May 2009 22:07:28 +0000

Although we have had a few severe weather events (the big Derecho a few weeks ago) it has been fairly quiet. The house building continues. Looks like the shingles are almost finished!

Hard to keep a weather blog, build a house, and go to school! Then toss in "life" in general.

The severe weather season was moving along nicely until last week when a ridge developed. The only weather of concern for the coming days is a tropical system pulling out of the southeast United States and Gulf of Mexico. This will spread showers and storms northward into the Tennessee Valley over the weekend. Some heavy rain is possible in some areas. Not expecting anything severe for my counties (West KY, South IL).

Severe weather may pick up again after the 1st of June.

Looking towards the north - weather instruments are ready to roll!

This will be the hatch that goes out the top of the house to the observatory

The weather room - trying to figure out placement of computer monitors.

April 17, 2009: Installing solar pipe - nice day!

admin — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 01:14:28 +0000

Beautiful day - best day we have had so far this spring. One of the few 70 degree days we have had this spring. It has been chilly! See map from yesterday. BRRRR - for April. Dry today - for once. More rain is moving into the region, however, from the west/southwest. We may see 1/2-1" between now and Monday. Just what we don’t need.

Spent the entire day at the farm - fixed some weather instruments - pulled some wires - got everything ready for the rain. We met Jason Hart, from MAAPS, at 11:30 AM. He brought the pipe for the solar panels. It is talled and bigger than I imaged! They concreted it into the ground this afternoon.

I am pretty sure I got a little bit of sunburn today - not much shade up on top of the hill!

Qwest called and it looks like they may have the internet up and running in a couple of weeks. We shall see. They did deliver the router today - so it appears we are looking good for internet.

The guys put the floor down in the kids play-room today. Perhaps by the end of next week the whole house will be in the dry? If we can get some good weather then that could very well be the case. We shall see - it is moving right along, though. Next up will be plumbing and electrical. A couple of weeks until they do that.

I have finals in the coming days - ton of studying to do - homework - study guides. :)

Some photos from today…

THe guys were hard at work today - putting the floor in the kids playroom.

Joe took this photo from on top of the lift

Way up high :) Anemometer.

Joe took this photo - Bobby lifted him up with the lift.

Looking west - southwest

We found this date on the old cistern over where grandmother’s house used to be. Says "1943"

Jason Hark and Joe (another Joe from St Louis) - moving the solar pipe

Bobby and Joe bringing the big pipe for the solar panels

Solar company - MAAPS

Time to dig the hole for the pole

Digging the hole for the pipe

The pipe for the solar panels

Bobby bringing the pipe for the solar

Jason with the pipe in the ground

Here comes the concrete

Bringing in the concrete

Concrete is ready to pour

Pouring the concrete for the solar panel pipe

Finished product

Solar hot water heater arrives

Here come the solar hot water heater

April 10, 2009: Severe weather outbreak strikes our region…

admin — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 05:26:35 +0000

It has been a long 24 hours. Numerous severe thunderstorms struck southeast MO, South IL, West KY, West TN (and many other areas). McCracken County had winds of 80+ mph and Massac County did as well. Lot of damage to structures.

Numerous counties had hailstorms. We had several hailstorms in McCracken County. Graves County had a large supercell with a hook echo pass south of Mayfield. A wall cloud was reported.

Rough 24 hours. Glad it is over.

Spent a lot of time over the last few days at the farm. Jason and Jess Darnall helped put weather instruments up and trench some ditches. Looks like everything is moving along!

Some photos and images from the last few days…

Putting the anemometer on top of the big tower

Jason Darnall and myself - going higher!

In the rain even - and wind!!!!!

And the tower cam!

Trenching the wires for the weather instruments.

Damage in Massac County - storm hit at 1:15 AM in the morning. Lady said it sounded like a freight train.

Concrete brick wall was destroyed.

Tornadic supercell that passed in Graves County, Kentucky - just south of Mayfield, Kentucky (where my sister and mom lives)

Hail in Reidland. Photo sent from Reidland Fire Department. Photo by Justin Adams

Tony Crouch photograph - hailstorm in Mayfield, KY - photo sent at 2 AM

This was the storm that hit us at 1-2 AM in the morning. Widespread winds of 50-70 mph were reported across our counties.

Squall line hitting our counties at 1-2 AM

April 8, 2009: Severe weather threat?

admin — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 05:43:50 +0000

Looks like there will be a chance for severe weather on Thursday night into Friday morning. The SPC has placed us in a slight risk for strong weather. Will have to keep an eye on the location of the warm front and the track of the low. NAM actually shows LI readings of -8 and CAPE over 2000 on Friday.

April 7, 2009: Weather instrument shelter being placed

admin — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 22:13:04 +0000

I put the instrument shelter up today. My friend David Brown, from Canada, is giving me some tips on how to place the thermometers and other. What is funny is that when I was a little kid I built a little weather shelter out of some broken plywood - nailed together - four pieces or so lol - it didn’t have a door or anything like that. It was just a little wooden box! Who would have thought that I would eventually have some real weather instruments up on my old family farm. For that matter who would have thought I would get the family farm back!!!

Hoping to get the shelter legs in concrete soon - I have it tied down with some wire and trailer "tie downs" - pretty deep into the ground. Unfortunately, the weather is going downhill, again. It appears that supercells and/or severe thunderstorms will be possible late Thursday night and Friday morning. Some of the latest data indicates high CAPE values (instability) betwee 6 AM and 4 PM on Friday. There could be tornadoes. Stay tuned.

More heavy weather is possible on Easter Sunday into Monday. Heavy rain could be the biggest threat. The rivers are starting to rise. That is becoming a bigger concern with each passing storm system. The wild weather continues.

It looks like they have the roof going up on the second floor of the house - over the garage today. They will likely start on the rest in the coming days. Hopefully they can get everything in the dry fairly soon. The wet weather is not going to help anyone.

Some photos from today…