Wow What a Cold!

Winter is going to hit us hard this week. The image below will explain why:

The Red line that is extending its way into the Alabama and Mississippi is the 540 pressure line of the upper atmosphere. This line is equivalent to roughly 32 degrees at the surface. It is generally pretty impressive to have that line extend that far south, but what is more amazing is the 510 pressure line. This line is usually associated with extremely cold temperatures that can easily dip below freezing with wind chills in the negative double digits. That 510 line of air usually hangs around in northern Canada. If it ever rears its ugly head it would usually affect only the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. This extremely cold air looks like it will be sticking around for the next couple of days. The brunt of that air should exit the region by January 25th, which is when we may see our first shot of precipitation for much of the Midwest pending any lake effect snow that may happen.

I know it is the middle of winter and everyone is most certainly prepared but here are some essential items if you need to trek around campus or walk for your car to the office.

I hope everyone has a nice week. Stay warm out there the extreme cold will only last a matter of days!

Weekly Weather Update: Jan. 14-21, 2013

For the week of January 14:

An extremely cold air mass has pushed its way southward into the Western and Central United States on Monday. This was a large departure from the unseasonably high temperatures experienced by much of the Eastern half of the country. The sharp temperature contrast between these two air masses can clearly be seen extending from Texas and into E. Canada on the 850 millibar temperature chart below:

Along this steep temperature gradient, persistent rainfall is expected to occur in areas west of the Appalachian from Monday through Wednesday. A strong high pressure located in the Atlantic will block the eastward progressing trough, allowing for moisture from the Gulf of Mexico to funnel its way into areas such as Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia. The overrunning moisture along the frontal boundary will bring moderate to heavy rainfall, likely leading to localized flooding issues in these areas. Below is the three-day quantitative precipitation forecast from the HPC:

Into the weekend, latest models hint at a low pressure system developing in the Alberta province and swinging southward into northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Moderate snowfall and gusty winds could be expected within this region on Saturday/Sunday. The storm can be seen in central Wisconsin on this four-panel chart for Saturday afternoon:

Stratustatus will keep you posted on all the potential weather events this week. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Have a good week!

Super Sweet Anvil Cloud

Cool looking cloud I saw on my way home from class this past fall.

The Status of the Stratus

       I will have to write this rather quick due to the fact I have some errands to run in the next hour so here me out. Stratustatus is moving along as we continue to bypass obstacles that may have set us back a little. We are begining to understand how the business environment operates and it is a great learning experience.

       Stratustatus will hopefully have some form of a logo next week (fingers crossed). We have also went along with the addition of a splash page through the website Launchrock. This site is a very neat way to assist in the promotion of you business startup. The look of  and user interface of this page is not the best and will get better I promise.

       This semester looks to be a tough one with the amount of credits (20) that I will be taking. We also hope to launch this application by the end of this semester. I will have a good idea of a launch date when more progress has been executed. That being said the Stratustatus Team will be busting our butts to make our weather app sucessful.

       We are possibly planning to let some individuals test the app before its release to recieve honest and genuine opinions about its user interface, mobility, and flow. This will be a crucial in the output of our final project. Lastly, we plan on getting some promotional events developed around our launch date.

       For anyone that reads this I thank you for your interest in our company. More updates will be given in the upcoming weeks. Be sure to sign up on our webpage here as a way to express your interest in BETA testing.

Thanks for all the support,
Nick Hesterman
CEO of Stratustatus LLC