KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31. 2010 / NEWS
STORM (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
THE CHASE
In their storm-chasing quests,chasers hope to find storms that produce violently rotating columns of air called tornadoes. Chasers prepare in different ways.
As a meteorologist, Blair has tools available to him that others do not, such as weather balloons, satellite radio and radar. That equipment gives him extra time to interpret the type of severe storm that might be developing. He can then get on the road days before the storm is expected to occur.
On the other hand, chasers such as Scott Durham, a senior from Kansas City, Mo. and an atmospheric science major, use resources offered on the Internet to determine the exact location and size of the storms they chase.
"Before I head out, I'll go online.
to weather.gov because I find it to be most reliable." Durham said. "I'll find out what the weather is like and look at the satellite to see if there's any other systems coming in that the radar isn't showing."
Durham also uses a severe weather index called CAPE, convective available potential energy, which detects values in thunderstorm environments. Durham said if the value was really high then he could generally expect a severe weather outbreak, which usually leads to tornadoes. Storms are classified by how strong the winds are or by how heavy the rainfall, snow or lightning is; tornadoes and hurricanes have their own set of categories.
Durham has gone out storm chasing six times. He witnessed his first tornado — the paramount
objective for most amateur chasers and atmospheric science majors May 4,2003, outside the Kansas City, Mo. area.
Durham said he spent most of his time storm spotting rather than storm chasing. As a Johnson County storm spotter, he stays in a stationary location while monitoring the severe weather in designated areas.
While out storm chasing, Blair said, they pinpoint an area where they expect the storm to occur.
"At that time what we're looking for is environmental data," Blair said. "Surface observations, temperature, wind speed, dew point and relative humidity, which tells you so much on where to go from a surface perspective."
Because storms are unpredictable,
Blair said it was not uncommon to
have 1,000 mile chase days. One day you might be in the Nebraska sand hills and the next you might be in the Oklahoma panhandle, he said.
"If you do everything else right, all the luck still has to fall into place." Blair said. "The storm is still going to do what it wants to do."
SAFETY
Mechem said that he and his classmates as undergraduates at the University of Oklahoma were conservative storm chasers and that they tried to avoid putting themselves in danger. If a storm develops into a tornado, a storm chaser generally wants to be on the south or southeast side of it.
"I tended to stay near the car"
Mechem said. "Largely because sometimes the back side, or the
He said the two biggest hazards while storm chasing were driving on the roads and lightning.
safer side of storms can get hail and you want to be able to take cover.
"Lightning tends to be unpredictable so you want to be able to have some kind of shelter," Mechem said. "It can be really close and really frequent in these types of storms and it's a big danger."
Durham said, depending on where he was in relation to the storm, he also generally staved in the car. If there is lightning and thunder then there is a chance of getting struck. Remaining inside the vehicle and not touching the frame, will keep passengers safe if the vehicle gets struck, he said.
Blair said education was the No. 1 way to be a safe and successful storm chaser. He said it was not
dangerous as long as chasers had the skill sets to go alone with it.
GET INVOLVED
"It can put you in the right place where you would have a better success rate to see storms," he said.
For those interested in storm chasing, Blair recommends attending a weather service spotter training session. The Topeka National Weather Service has a calendar online with upcoming sessions.
There are also ways to build basic skills from home through online modules and weather observations, he said. For more information and photos visit Blair's website at www.targetarea.net.
Edited by Kirsten Hudson
RECYCLE (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
work.
"Bottles and cans are the ones right now that are the back burners," Benson, a sophomore from Orlando, Fla., said. "Paper is the easiest one to do because of the conveyer."
Benson picks up recycling from around campus and takes it back to sort. But Benson's job is just one of the many ways students are taking a closer look at recycling on campus.
The items Benson and others have separated and bailed for the last 10 weeks were counted for the national RecycleMania competition. The competition ends March 27, and the official rankings of the participating schools will come out April 16. The University is currently seventh out of nine Big 12 schools, collecting 241,807 pounds of recycling.
Office Pack
Includes:
- White Paper
- Pastel Colored Paper
- Brochures
- Stapled Books
- Envelopes
- Manila File Folders
- Junk Mail
- Greeting Cards
- Heavy Weight Paper
Does not include:
- Newsprint
- Cardboard or Chipboard
GETTING IT IN THE RIGHT BIN
The University's rankings may look low, but Benson said other universities have more established programs and larger facilities. Plus, the University might waste less in the first place.
- Paper or Styrofoam Cups
- Napkins or Tissues
- Food Contaminated Paper
- Magazines or Glossy Paper
- Books with Glued Binding
- Paper Bags
"If a school has lower numbers, that doesn't mean it isn't recycling," Benson said. "The students and faculty might be more aware of reducing and reusing, but it's hard
to measure that."
Corrugated Cardboard
Includes:
■ Corrugated Cardboard Boxes
■ Corrugated Packaging
Does Not Include:
■ Soiled Pizza Boxes
■ Waxy Cardboard
A group of five seniors in the environmental studies capstone course investigated that issue last weekend. In a campus waste audit, Kathryn Boyd, from Wichita; Lydia Gibson, from Prairie Village; Lauren Keith, from Wichita; Ryan Rastok, from Lawrence; and Karin Scott, from Dallas, dug into 88 pounds of trash from the Spencer Museum of Art and Strong Hall to see what could have been recycled.
"It was a different way to look at recycling," Gibson said. "We don't really know the types and amounts of recyclables escaping."
The students found that nearly three-fourths of the material could
Any boxes that have food contamination
have been recycled or composted.
One item filled up more of the seven trash bags than Gibson expected: disposable coffee cups. Coffee cups comprised 15 percent of the trash from the art museum.
Plastic Bottles
Includes:
- Soda Bottles
- Water Bottles
- Other Transparent Plastic Bottles
Does Not Include:
- Milk Jugs
- Detergent Bottles
- Yogurt Cups
- Plastic Bags
"Encouraging people to use reusable coffee cups would help cut that volume in half!" Gibson said.
By the end of the sorting, the group had 16 to 18 large tubs sorted into 17 different categories. Gibson said the goal was for audits such as this to happen every year so progress could be tracked.
To raise awareness, the group is planning a similar event on April 22 with Wescoe Hall's waste, which will be piled outside the building.
"It's going to be a big event." Gibson said.
Another event in April gives students and faculty the chance to see recycling first-hand. Environs, a student environmental group, will hold a tour of the Environmental Stewardship building April 10 from 1 to 2 p.m. Celeste Hoins, Environmental Stewardship Program manager, said that having knowledge about the recycling program on campus could help everyone participate.
Edited by Katie Blankenau
ART (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
Liz Kowalchuk, associate dean of the school of the arts, recorded her voice for the line providing answers to the questions and more information. Kristina Walker, director of education at the museum, said the indoor tour had had 751 callers since it began in August.
"We tend to get more callers on the weekend," she said.
"That really kind of parallels our attendance."
viewers through surveys.
"People have said it's a great way to learn about art, and that it is new and different," she said.
Bill Woodard, director of communications at the museum, said
"I think it's just one more way of making the collection accessible to all of our constituents."
BILLWOODARD Director of Communications
Walker said the program received great feedback from
The top three pieces of art that have received the most calls so far are a big, wired sculpture that is covered with wax, by Petah Coyne, called "Untitled"; a painting by Thomas Hart Benton called "The Ballad of the jealous Lover of Lone Green Valley;" and a sculpture by Luis Jiménez, called "Howl."
he thought the outdoor tour would be really cool.
"I think it's just one more way of making the collection accessible to all of our constituents," he said. "In the case of KU students,
everybody's got a cell phone, and it's a pretty easy way to dive a little deeper into a piece of art that intrigues you."
All of the questions and answers are available online at http://www.spencerart.ku.edu/ear4art.
Edited by Megan Heacock