As we come to the end of summer and the convective season, we look forward to a "quiet" off-season. However, convective storms still can occur during the fall months, and even the winter months.

During this time of the year, reports from spotters are still very much appreciated. The National Weather Service (NWS) needs your reports any time of day or night, in the summer and winter months. The effort that most of you, as our good neighbors, put into the SKYWARN Program to help your "neighbor" is commendable. Your reports have been timely and assisted us tremendously in issuing and verifying warnings.

I'm sure that when you first became a part of our network, you were excited to become an ally of the NWS. We would like to work with each of you to keep that interest as high as possible. Sometimes our interests begin to wane after a couple of years for whatever reason. The Charleston office wants to rekindle the early flame that you exhibited by conducting follow-up spotter training classes. The classes would be for anyone who has not gone through the training at least twice and received their training before January 1, 1996.

Those of you who have taken the class twice already, may want to schedule an advanced class. It is our hope that we can schedule all refresher and/or advanced classes prior to the 1998 Georgia/South Carolina tornado season (March - May). So do not delay and begin making plans in your group to decide the most convenient time to schedule a class for maximum attendance. You may contact either John Simensky or me at 800-897-0823, or locally at 554-0197. Your cooperation in this matter will be greatly appreciated. A reminder..Please let us know if your address or phone number has changed, so that we may keep our spotters' list current.

Again, thanks for all that each of you do to help us to be the best National Weather Service office that we can be.

Sincerely

Jerry Harrison,
Warning Coordination Meteorologist

1...Letter to Spotters / Warning Criteria
2...Monthly Area Weather Summary and Statistics
3...What is a Radiosonde/ New Telecommunications Bill
3...Hurricane statistics/ SAME County Codes
4...Photos of NWS Charleston and Doppler Radar site
5...Quarterly Spotter Reports / Coop News
Back Cover...County Warning Area Map

June - Record setting low temperatures combined with average daily temperatures up to 15 degrees below normal welcomed the first full week of the month. The high temperatures were also records - record low maximums. A persistent cool spring weather pattern over the Southeast U.S. was responsible for this unseasonal weather. Plenty of warnings were issued and severe weather reports were received on many of these storms. Reports included one-inch hail covering the ground in Charleston County (Airport and Ladson). Heavy rainfall produced significant flooding on several days. A record setting 4.91 inches fell at Charleston Airport on the sixth. Almost ten inches fell in Mt. Pleasant, while other Charleston suburbs north of the city received up to eight inches of rain in a few hours. Flooding affected the usual low-lying areas of Downtown Charleston. Another event on the 28th left six to seven feet of water covering roads in North Charleston's Otranto subdivision. Other severe events (indicated by Doppler radar and local Weather Spotters) included severe thunderstorm winds that knocked down trees and power lines. June was an active month for severe weather, but even on quiet rain free days, readings of 90 degrees or more were infrequent throughout the Lowcountry and Coastal Empire.

July - On July 4th a record high of 99 degrees was set at Savannah. The first heat wave of the season came just in time for the holiday weekend. The temperature reached 97 degrees at Charleston, and high humidity values pushed the Heat Index to dangerous levels of 115 degrees or higher. Severe weather was noted with typical late afternoon seabreeze thunderstorms forming along the coast. Baseball-size hail fell in Bulloch County on the third. One-inch hail was reported on the eighth by a Weather Spotter in Dorchester County. Many severe thunderstorm warnings were issued from the 16th - 18th. Reports included downed trees, power lines, and numerous occurrences of structural damage to businesses (on the 16th) in Savannah and Charleston. In Dorchester County (St. George) a woman was struck by lightning on the 17th. On the 31st, 6.7 inches of rain (2-day total) fell in Downtown Savannah. Totals ranged from

two to six inches throughout Southeast GA/SC. July ended on a cool note with record low maximums and minimums set at the Charleston and Savannah airports.

August - Temperatures again averaged below normal for the fifth month in a row. March was the last month in which readings were (significantly) above normal. August was also a very dry month, as the typical seabreeze thunderstorms did not provide for much rainfall over a significant area. The lack of precipitation or severe weather made for a somewhat quiet month weatherwise. There were a few active days, however. One-inch hail fell in Shulerville (Berkeley County) on the fifth. Police in St. George reported nickel size hail. Numerous reports of downed trees were located in Colleton County. A cold front managed to reach the Deep South, and it was responsible for the severe thunderstorms on this date. This is very unusual for August. A similar weather situation occurred on the 16th with reports of downed trees and small hail in Colleton County, near Walterboro. Other wind damage reports were received from Hampton County on this day. On the 30th, Savannah Airport received one-half inch hail, with some storms along the coastal counties responsible for localized rainfall amounts up to 2.5 inches. Wind damage also affected the Hardeeville area .

June
CHS 82.6  / 67.0 / 74.8     (-3.5)        13.76    (+7.33)
SAV 83.9 / 66.9 /  75.4     (-3.7)          5.90    (+0.24)
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July
CHS 89.3 / 72.2 /  80.8    (-0.7)          8.51     (+1.67)
SAV 90.8 / 71.6 /  81.2    (-0.6)        11.64     (+5.26)
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Aug
CHS 88.3 / 69.7 /  79.0    (-1.6)         2.15      (-5.07)
SAV 89.0 / 69.6 /  79.3    (-1.7)         4.56      (-2.90)
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A radiosonde contains sensors which transmit radio signals to a ground tracking station. The instrument is powered by a small dry-cell battery and is housed in a casing of Styrofoam the size of a shoe box. A Hydrogen-filled balloon provides the lift needed to carry the radiosonde upward, and a three dimensional observation of pressure, humidity, and air temperature is taken. Wind speed and direction are calculated by figuring the instrument's position relative to the ground tracking station. The radiosonde rises to heights up to 20 miles above the Earth's surface and then a parachute carries the reusable instrument to the ground after the balloon bursts. Data that are received by a ground station is transmitted by phone modem to a supercomputer center in Washington D.C. A national and worldwide network of sites that take upper air observations allow construction of forecast maps, graphics, and charts.

Weather forecasters attempted to collect data at levels above the surface in the earlier decades of this century so that weather systems could be detected and analyzed. Early methods of upper-air data collection included attaching instruments to balloons and tethering them to the ground. One problem encountered was height limitations. Another was the occasional broken tethered line that caused property damage and lost data. Another method attached weather instruments to airplanes, but the data could not be retrieved until the plane landed...hours or even days later.

The radiosonde's development, like many other inventions, was not confined to the United States. France and Germany developed upper air observing devices by 1921. German scientists conducted a 20 minute flight in 1922, and weather forecasters in France obtained several successful observations around this time period. The Russians designed the most successful type of radiosonde before the mid 1930s. Radiosondes in use today are the result of the combined research efforts of university and National Weather Service (NWS) scientists.

Thanks to the efforts of these early inventors and NWS employees, the radiosonde has helped to produce a successful upper air observing system.

Amendments to the Communications act of 1934 seek to prohibit scanning receivers from being used for frequencies that are allocated to commercial mobile services. If passed, scanners could not be altered to receive such frequencies, nor may they be equipped to decode digital commercial mobile transmissions to analog voice audio. --"Wireless Privacy Enhancement Act of 1997". You may want to contact your congressman's office to find out the status of HR2369.

Tropical Summary

It has been quiet compared to 1995 & 1996. No activity occurred in August, and it has been 34 years since that happened. The first three storms formed off the NC coast. Tropical Storm Danny formed in the Gulf of Mexico and dropped plenty of rain in the Southeast US. It then reformed off the NC Coast and tracked east of New England. Erika, the first major storm of the season formed over the eastern Atlantic on the first week of September. It posed no threat to the US and recurved away from land and east of Bermuda.

These codes are used by radios with SAME technology. Your radio alerts only if your county is warned and the radio is programmed with the correct code. For more info see: 

Bryan, 029 ; Bulloch, 031 ; Candler, 043 ; Chatham, 051 ; Effingham, 103 ; Evans, 109 ; Jenkins, 165 ; Liberty, 179 ; Long , 183 ; Mcintosh, 191 ; Screven, 251 ; Tattnall, 267.

Allendale, 005 ; Beaufort, 013 ; Berkely, 015 ; Charleston, 019 ; Colleton, 029 ; Dorchester, 035 ; Hampton, 045 ; Jasper, 053.

1. Robert & Emily Burn..............................Beaufort
2. Mary Anne Crone...................................Beaufort
3. Donald Crone.........................................Beaufort
4. William Palmer.......................................Beaufort
5. Emil Butt.................................................Beaufort
6. Sonic Restaurant.....................................Beaufort
7. Beaufort Marine Corps Air Station.........Beaufort
8. Shulerville-Honey Hill FD......................Berkeley
9. Sonny Singletary.....................................Berkeley
10. William Clarke........................................Berkeley
11. Cyrus & Sheila Frank.............................Berkeley
12. David Swindell........................................Bryan
13. Cheryl & Ellie Waters.............................Bryan
14. Pat Dixon................................................Bryan
15. Jeffrey Nielsen.........................................Bryan
16. David & Troy Butler...............................Bryan
17. Leonard Bishie........................................Bryan
18. Edward Saxon.........................................Bulloch
19. James Smith............................................Bulloch
20. Russ Trio................................................Bulloch
21. James Woods..........................................Bullock
22. Kathryn Smith........................................Candler
23. Danny McGowan...................................Candler
24. Ronnie Medlock.....................................Candler
25. Jay Clifton..............................................Candler
26. Elda Butts...............................................Charleston
27. Keith Nichols..........................................Charleston
28. John Magwood.......................................Charleston
29. Nancy Phillips........................................Charleston
30. Kiawah Is. Security.................................Charleston
31. Bohicket Marina.....................................Charleston
32. Bryan Todd.............................................Charleston
33. Charleston City Public Works................Charleston
34. Jeremy Cooper........................................Chatham
35. Robert Cabaniss.....................................Chatham
36. Patrick Prokop.......................................Chatham
37. Dorothy Fennell.....................................Chatham
38. WSAV-Savannah....................................Chatham
39. Joseph Coffey.........................................Chatham
40. Mop Top.................................................Chatham
41. Peggy Shoff............................................Chatham
42. William Taylor.......................................Chatham
43. Robert Spires.........................................Colleton
44. Delmer Rowe..........................................Colleton
45. Suzanne Gant.........................................Colleton
46. William Otto...........................................Colleton
47. Walterboro FD.......................................Colleton
48. William Boykin.......................................Colleton
49. Michael Blanton.....................................Dorchester
50. Dorchester FD2......................................Dorchester
51. Old Fort FD............................................Dorchester
52. Colen Campbell............................. ........Effingham
53. Clarence Dean..................................... ..Effingham
54. Anthony Materazzi..................................Effingham
55. Jennifer Bowen.......................................Effingham

Thanks to the weather spotters who provided us
with valuable weather reports for June, July,
and August. It has been an active summer
throughout the Lowcountry and the Coastal
Empire. We look forward to hearing from
all of our spotters in the future. Until next time...Keep an eye to the sky!

Cooperative Network

Bob Simpson - Cooperative Program Manager