Severe Weather Diary: Planning, Documentation, Analysis, and Reflection Phases

Lab: My Severe Weather Diary NATS 1780 A (Summer 2020): WORKING DRAFT - July 14, 2020 Contents Contents Purpose Planning Phase Documentation Phase Analysis Phase Reflection Phase Your Submission Assessment Resources Purpose The purpose of this lab is to document the experience of severe weather with data. The documentation phase is preceded by a planning phase, and followed by one that places emphasis on analysis and then reflection. Planning Phase The purpose of this phase is to plan the documentation phase; considerations at this stage might include: ● Identification of the types of data you will collect/acquire - for each type, the rationale for its use must be provided ● The frequency of your observations - you must include at least 5 substantial entries ● The spatial extent of your observations - are you focused on a specific place, region, etc. ● A plan to include data that predicts what is to be expected - e.g., forecasts of the anticipated event that include precipitation probabilities, amounts (intensities and/or accumulations), timings, locations, etc., storm tracks (e.g., hurricane tracks), surges, etc. ● Your motivation for choosing the type of severe weather you are considering - e.g., this might include the fact that it affects you directly, wherever you are currently located © L. I. Lumb - Sharing prohibited. Violators subject to legal and/or academic consequences. 1 Notes: ● You must select severe weather from 2020. Failure to do so will result in a “Not satisfactory” assessment. ● Strictly speaking, severe weather includes thunderstorms, tornadoes and hurricanes. For those so motivated, this list can be expanded to include flooding, prolonged heat/cold, drought, pollution, space weather (e.g., a solar-induced geomagnetic storm), climatic variability (e.g., El Nino, La Nina). If you would like to consider something severe not captured in this list, please propose your idea via the Moodle labs forum for discussion with the instructor. ● Figure 1 below may assist you in the planning phase - particularly with respect to temporal and spatial considerations. Documentation Phase As set out during the planning phase, the purpose of this phase is to document the experience of a severe-weather event via data. During this phase, you are expected to collect/acquire data before, during, and after the event; examples of data you might want to collect/acquire include: ● Fundamental atmospheric observables (e.g., temperature, pressure, RH, wind speed/direction, visibility, cloud cover, precipitation, …) - available from a weather service or obtained by you 1 2 ● Remotely sensed atmospheric observables (e.g., radar and/or satellite imagery) - available from a weather service ● Severe-weather specific data - e.g., communications (e.g., see Figure 2), in situ measurements (e.g., hydrometeor size, rain/snow rates/accumulations), indications of CAPE and/or lightning strikes for thunderstorms, tracks for hurricanes, etc. ● Visual accounts - from photos to video accounts, ideally of your taking 3 ● Field notes - notes you capture before, during, or after the event, as text, audio and/or video accounts Notes: ● You may collect/acquire data that includes text that does not make use of the English language. If you do, however, you must provide the gist of this text in English - e.g., via a caption, annotations, etc. 1 A weather app on your smart phone or via the Internet, 2 To characterize precipitation during a thunderstorm, for example, you might design, construct and make use of a home-made rain gauge. During the event, you would need to make 5 observations. 3 You may make use of material sourced elsewhere as long as you cite external sources. If you do collect/acquire data yourself, please ensure you do so in a manner that ensures your personal safety. © L. I. Lumb - Sharing prohibited. Violators subject to legal and/or academic consequences. 2 Analysis Phase Based upon the data you collected, tell the story of the severe-weather event you attempted to capture. As much as possible, seek to mimic the style of a professional weather report - a report from a reputable weather service that you might find on television or the Internet, hear on the radio, etc. Feel free to intersperse quotations and data from your sources. To ensure you have effectively told the story, be sure to cover the 5Ws plus 1H - as you did on Lab 1. In your analysis, be certain to consider: ● How well the event met the predictions you gathered? In so doing, elaborate on what was well predicted to that which was predicted poorly. Is there evidence that the event was ‘sensationalized’ to proportions not scientifically justifiable from the data? ● How the event you captured compares with past events of a similar nature in a similar place and at a similar time. Is it exceptional in any way? Are there signs that a changing climate may have resulted in this event being slightly different from typical - e.g., consider the timing, extent, intensity, etc., of the event. Reflection Phase Reflect upon your efforts to capture a severe-weather event; in so doing, reflect upon questions such as the following: ● What was accomplished? What worked well and why? ● What was not accomplished? What might I improve to have better addressed my objectives? ● What did I learn? ● What did I enjoy and/or not enjoy? Reflection is a critical part of the learning process. Please do not seek to optimize your efforts so that everything was accomplished, and there exists no opportunity for improvement; this will not necessarily correlate with an optimized grade! Your Submission You may submit your lab in the form of a point-form written response, a presentation, photo essay, video, mind map, timeline, infographic, annotated Google Map, scrapbook, Milanote, etc. Regardless of the submission format, however, your account must: ● Cover all of the above sections - from planning through documentation, analysis, and reflection ● Consist of date/time stamped entries - it is a diary, after all … ● Strive for objectivity by referencing your sources. © L. I. Lumb - Sharing prohibited. Violators subject to legal and/or academic consequences. 3 Submit your lab online via Moodle. Note: You are encouraged to work together on labs. However, your submission must be original. Translation: Write up your final lab submissions independently, using your own words. Assessment This is a pass/fail component of the course that accounts for 5% of your overall grade. Completing at least 75% of the lab appropriately will result in a “Satisfactory” assessment and a grade of 3.75 out of 5; an “Outstanding” assessment, and a grade of 5 out of 5, will be awarded to those who completed at least 90% of the lab appropriately. Resources Diary, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diary. © L. I. Lumb - Sharing prohibited. Violators subject to legal and/or academic consequences. 4 Figure 1. The relative intensity, duration and extent of mild to severe weather systems. © L. I. Lumb - Sharing prohibited. Violators subject to legal and/or academic consequences. 5 © L. I. Lumb - Sharing prohibited. Violators subject to legal and/or academic consequences. 6 Figure 2. An example of a weather advisory from Environment Canada. © L. I. Lumb - Sharing prohibited. Violators subject to legal and/or academic consequences. 7