28 December 2005

Observing Location	New York City
Observational Period
Atmospheric Conditions	It has been cloudy all day today and continues so tonight. CSC is on target. Clear Sky Clock graphic When I got home from my meeting at about midnight the streets were all wet down near the subway but there was no sign that it had been raining. None of the cars had water spots on them. When I got into my block the streets weren’t even wet.
Instruments
Observing Party

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Here is my first cut at analyzing the passage of the big low pressure system over the past few days. It is pretty much my last cut as far as the data analysis goes. I want to oove the wind direction chart into the upper chart bit have run out of axes to use for it. I got information on adding additional axes from a message board and am going to work through that process just to expand my brain.

[This is now the final version of the chart with everything crammed into one graph.]

I decided to run my chart over 72 hours because I found that the time would be labeled at repeating intervals along the X axis of the chart. It just so happens that the three days centered on the 26th coincide with the beginning and end of the pressure drop and rise.

The wind direction flipped 180° with the passage of the low. The flip occurred on the front edge while the pressure was still dropping. The wind was more variable in direction but more stable in speed in front of the low. The wind really picked up and gusting started just as the pressure bottomed out.

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It is not looking good for ringing in the new year observing in Central Park. NOAA is calling for clouds to increase all day with a chance of rain in the afternoon and evening. That means I may have to observe the leap second in the rain since the new windows in my apartment prevent me from receiving much in the way of short wave radio signals even with a long wire antenna draped across the window opening.

NOAA graphic