Birthday of a weather legend:
Anders Celsius: 1701-1744
astronomy was his passion, but he made a major contribution to science with a simplified temperature scale. Instead of the Fahrenheit scale which ranges from freezing of 32F to boiling at 212F, Celsius developed his scale based on 100 degrees. He did attempt to turn things around, and use 0 for boiling and 100 for freezing, but this was reversed back to the way we know after he died.
From a scientific standpoint, this makes the math much easier working with the metric system (based on 10).
In terms of weather, the rest of the world uses Celsius except the USA. Perhaps we are stubborn to change, but the wider variation of numbers does make it easier to explain a range of conditions. It sounds odd to think a warm day in the summer would be 30 degrees C, instead of 86 degrees F. Yet having freezing at 0C does make sense. All upper level data is measured in Celsius and used for all mathematical computer models.
Locally, our rain was a disappointment. At least officially. BWI measured only .16", yet northern sections of Carroll County picked up much more. Manchester recorded 1.28", and is only about 30 miles from BWI. Today will be a reversal of fortunes. The warm air surged in last night, and we were still at 62F at midnight. As the strong winds shift to the northwest, we should stay in the 50s or get colder this afternoon.

Loss of a Legend

I did not know of the passing of this legend until I got a phone call from the WCBM newsroom. They were just asking me about the pronunciation of the man who founded the classification system for Hurricanes. It's ironic to talk tropics during this cold spell, but Herbert I got the news yesterday about a legend in the Weather World. It was a call from WCBM'sSaffir (saph- her) died the day before Thanksgiving at the age of 90. I did not know the man, but I know that in the famed year of 1969, he made a contribution to the field of meteorology by categorizing tropical cyclones based on wind speed, and damage. This was expanded by Robert Simpson - the former director of the National Hurricane Center. This Safir-Simpson scale is still the best way of communicating the strength of a storm today. A sad note: Now he joins the legendary Ted Fujita (founder of the original tornado classification scale), who dies in 1998.
It's the holiday weekend, and we all have our priorities: Thankfulness, shopping, football, and my personal favorite - the return to the cold. I have been spending my free time between the rest above- rebuilding my web page. Sounds like fun, huh? Well, I wasn't sure I was going to post this weekend, despite the fact that ski resorts (Snowshoe, WV) are opening nearby.