1990
1/8/90
IAN AND KELLEY WITTMEYER claim that the best tornado video
appears in the movie "The Wizard of Oz"
1/16/90
CO-WINNERS 1) RAY ZEHR upset rabid Bronco fans by
switching to weather channel during commercials of game;
2) BEN BERNSTEIN for his suggestion that it would be "cool" to have
tornado symbols on his Norlarco checks
1/22/90
DAN MUNDELL called a squiggle on the bowling sheet an 'F3'
1/29/90
STEVE HODANISH was watching tornado videos to prime himself
for chase season (only 90 days to go) AND commented on the damping of the
'wave' at Moby Gym
2/05/90
BEN BERNSTEIN said that a truck making a left hand turn was
making an 'anti-coriolis' turn
2/12/90
DOUBLE WEENIE SCOT RANDELL 1) 'MTRLGY' license plate;
2) noted resemblance of value of $1 million (wrt time) to plot of backscattered
cross section of a water droplet (wrt alpha)
2/12/90
SUPPLEMENTAL WEENIE TOM PETERSON comments on a blue sky:
"isn't that lovely Rayleigh scattering"
2/19/90
CHARLOTTE ATWATER dreamed that, by using a method similar to
that used for analyzing a droplet distribution, one can determine who in a
volleyball game will get the ball next (whew!)
2/26/90
PAUL DEMOTT wants to write a paper on cirrus cloud
modification by methane over feedlots
3/05/90
IAN BAKER referred to himself as "skew T" Baker
3/05/90
SUPPLEMENTAL WEENIE
BEN BERNSTEIN referred to Baker as "Tephigram" Baker
3/05/90
SPECIAL GUEST WEENIE GREG STUMPF knew locations and dates
of tornados shown in a Rush concert video
3/12/90
LOUIS GRASSO his answering machine message: "sorry I can't
answer the phone right now, but I tripped over a vortex tube and fell into a
bundle of tensors"
3/19/90
STEVE HODANISH ordered 'SVR WX' vanity plates for his car and
sprained his wrist because he whipped the check off so fast when it was
approved
3/27/90
JASON NACHAMKIN demonstrated the continuity equation by
opening and closing doors in the stairwell
3/27/90
SUPPLEMENTAL WEENIE IAN BAKER went to the liquor store
and asked for a 12-pack of 'PBL' (Planetary Boundary Layer, as opposed to
PBR-Pabst Blue Ribbon)
3/27/90
SUPPLEMENTAL WEENIE TOM PETERSON when asked if he was
going to Paul Demott's dissertation defense, said "no, i'm supersaturated
wrt cloud physics"
4/03/90
SUSAN CUSHING was savvy enough to point out that the radar
echos that the weather channel said were over Roanoke were actually further
east
4/03/90
SUPPLEMENTAL WEENIE RAY ZEHR just got a digital
wristwatch that displays the barometric pressure
4/09/90
IAN WITTMEYER wants the current obs to be shown on the
'Diamondvision' board at Nuggets games
4/09/90
SUPPLEMENTAL WEENIE DARREN JACKSON noted high positive
value of V'T' bar in back of van on AT 541 field trip, due to heater on
high setting
4/16/90
GREG STUMPF heard that Neil Peart of Rush likes the
weather, so he's going to ask him to go chasing
4/23/90
KEN HARDING put 'PDX' instead of 'Portland' on his NBA
playoff pool sheet
4/30/90
IAN WITTMEYER says that when one walks up to the third
floor they "gain potential energy and add vorticity to the system"
5/08/90
BILL GALLUS/MIKE VESCIO BLINDLY chased the first Colorado
watchbox of the season
5/15/90
"Dr. AgI" Paul Demott-nuff said
5/21/90
IAN WITTMEYER referred to the new players on the 'Cyclones'
softball team as "disorganized cloud clusters"- not yet true cyclones
5/25/90
SUPPLEMENTAL WEENIE BILL GALLUS commonly referred to at
local photo shops as 'Tornado Guy'
6/01/90
STEVE HODANISH had to be restrained after seeing the North
Platte sounding at approximately 1030
6/06/90
DEER TRAIL LOCALS said that the 6June90 storm wasn't "dark
enough or low enough" to spawn a tornado (the storm that hit Limon)
6/06/90
SUPPLEMENTAL WEENIE
MARTY CONIGLIO (CHANNEL 4) presented dramatic new findings pertaining
to the effects of radiative heating/cooling on
severe thunderstorms during prime-time Denver
newscast (subsequent publication in MWR)- he
said that the heating of the cloud suppressed
the updrafts until after dark when the cooling
would cause the updrafts to take off. He also
said that cloud top was at 78,000 feet, and that
there was a 200 F temperature difference between
cloud top and the surface
6/11/90
SHEILA LONG fulfilled a lifelong ambition to get on the
weenie board by commenting on the ability of UV radiation
to penetrate a cloud deck give a person a sunburn
6/13/90
SUPPLEMENTAL WEENIE KELLEY WITTMEYER noticed the
similarities in structure and appearance between an ice cream cone and a
striated laminar supercell updraft
6/14/90
IAN WITTMEYER has a process name 'ITS A 3000 J/KG DAY'
rebuttal: well it WAS, damn it!
6/18/90
DR. COTTON made the comment "can't you just feel that
albedo change?" when his jogging path changed from a dirt surface to a
flint-ridged one
6/23/90
STEVE HODANISH reminds us all that, while chasing "we are
NOT here to look at rainbows"
6/27/90
BEN BERNSTEIN noted that, when 3 people dove towards the
center of the volleyball court for a ball, they fell in a 'Fujita
configuration'
6/27/90
SUPPLEMENTAL WEENIE IAN WITTMEYER says that Phoenix's
population is undergoing an adiabatic expansion during a heat wave
7/10/90
BOB DATTORE plugs in his weather radio while working on the
lawn so he can hear tornado warnings
7/16/90
JEFF COPELAND named three of his dogs after letters of the
Greek alphabet and one after a Montreal weatherman
7/16/90
SUPPLEMENTAL WEENIE SCOT RANDELL says that pretty soon
Copeland will be able to make the potential vorticity equation out of
his dog's names
7/16/90
SUPPLEMENTAL WEENIE PAUL DEMOTT has renamed a peak
near LaVeta pass "that low Froude number mountain"
7/16/90
SPECIAL GUEST CELEBRITY WEENIE JIM BENNEMAN (CHANNEL 4)
thought that saturday was a day from "the weather hall of fame"
7/16/90
SUPPLEMENTAL WEENIE RAY ZEHR says that instead of
saying "ahh-feel that adiabatically warmed air" (Meyers) one should
say "ahh-feel that theta e minimum air"
7/23/90
CHRIS LANDSEA commented on special effects in
Schwartzenegger movie (buildings blowing up) by noting the pressure
gradient between inside and outside walls on Mars
7/23/90
SUPPLEMENTAL WEENIE BEN BERNSTEIN says that when atmos
people crack jokes, the cymbal crash at the end of the 'rim shot' should
be replaced by a thunderclap
7/23/90
SUPPLEMENTAL WEENIE PETER OLSSON commented on the
geostrophic adjustment of a volleyball hit high into the air
7/23/90
QUOTE OF THE WEEK IAN WITTMEYER "water vapor is the sex
of the atmosphere"
7/30/90
OFFICE #101 mesoscale convective weather nerds
7/30/90
SUPPLEMENTAL WEENIE PAUL DEMOTT while driving through
thick fog in San Francisco said "at least 0.2 grams per cubic meter"
8/06/90
IAN BAKER Mark Branson noted that there are a lot of different
church names (i.e. Shepherd on the Hill) and said "we could name our own", to
which Baker replied "what about Our Lady of Perpetual Vorticity?"
8/13/90
MIKE MEYERS commented on Bernstein's hair, which was
sticking up, by saying "you have an overshooting top"
8/20/90
BILL COTTON jogging on a hot day in a northerly breeze said
"let's run on the left to avoid the thermal advection from the asphalt"
8/20/90
SUPPLEMENTAL WEENIE IAN BAKER when Branson was playing a
computer baseball game, said that Branson was doing research on the effect of
dew point variations on fly ball trajectories
8/27/90
KELLEY WITTMEYER wants to name the new baseball team the
'Denver Cyclones'
8/27/90
SUPPLEMENTAL WEENIE KEVIN MANNING wants to see a
broadcast meteorologist named 'Captain Vortex'
9/04/90
CO-WEENIES: 1) KELLEY WITTMEYER at the Bronco game she
commented on the possibility of dust blown up from the infield at Mile High
stadium to act as condensation nuclei; 2) CHARLOTTE ATWATER remarking on the
tendency of the Subdudes to schedule outdoor concerts during periods of
thunderstorms she said "they should call themselves the 'Sub-Cloud Dudes"
9/11/90
IAN WITTMEYER dubbed curls in the back of wife's hair 'wake
vortices'
9/17/90
PETER OLSSON noted 'dampening effects' on Moby wave during
CSU volleyball match in CU section as analogous to "40-60 day oscillation"
9/24/90
CHRIS JOHNSON said that Kelley W.'s new hairdo looks
like a cumulonimbus with a rain shaft in the back
9/24/90
SUPPLEMENTAL WEENIE BEN BERNSTEIN said that the albedo
in Hughes Stadium changed when Ray Zehr took off his shirt
9/24/90
CORPORATE WEENIE AMERICAN HARVEST CO. introduced the new
'Jet Stream Oven'(tm) with patented 'cyclonic cooking' action
9/24/90
SUPPLEMENTAL WEENIE RAY ZEHR says that from the 'Jet Stream
Oven' you can get "positive vorticity advection steaks"
10/01/90 TROPICAL WEENIES 1)STEVE HODANISH csu-atmos
Called the BOQ (Batchelor Officers Quarters) the QBO; 2)BILL GRAY Wanted a 'Z'
to be added to the letters on top of the International Trade Center on Guam so
that the letters on the bank would read 'ITCZ'
10/08/90 ERIK RASMUSSEN csu-atmos
noted that since his child's expected due date
is during chase season that child will be born rotating cyclonically.
10/08/90 SUPPLEMENTAL WEENIE GREG THOMPSON csu-atmos
said that when Ben Bernstein was working on his car's carburetor that he was
trying to increase its Gibbs Free Energy.
10/11/90 BOWLING WEENIES 1)SCOT RANDELL csu-atmos
in the seventh frame, said that he had six potential strikes left-therefore his
score was like potential temperature, and could be raised dry adiabatically to
the tenth frame. 2)IAN BAKER in replying to Randell's comment, said that he had
a BASP (bowling available strike potential) of six.
10/15/90 DARREN JACKSON csu-atmos
is taking advanced general circulation for credit and is only auditing
climatology. if he's going to take a class for credit he's going to make it a
tough one-what an SMI (savvy, motivated individual)
10/17/90 SUPPLEMENTAL WEENIE IRV BERNSTEIN (BEN'S DAD)
when Ben told him that if he didn't get his job at NCAR by friday he would be
flipping burgers, dad says: "thats okay, i'm sure that you would move up real
fast and then you could name your own burger, like the mesoburger"
10/22/90 PAUL DEMOTT csu-atmos
commented on the oscillations of a falling water drop in a cold medicine
commercial, that the drop had just been released, and
was not yet at terminal velocity.
10/29/90 THE GROUP AT THE KANANASKIS CONFERENCE ; MARK BRANSON, DOUG
WESLEY, MIKE MEYERS, GREG STUMPF, and BILL GALLUS csu-atmos
these guys had a waitress named 'Rain' one night, someone made the comment when
she had come halfway across the room and then returned to the kitchen, that she
was no longer rain but virga.
11/05/90 SCOT RANDELL csu-atmos
when Charlotte Atwater remarked that she can tell the difference between the
sound of hot and cold water pouring, Scot said
that "she has a remote viscosity sensing device"
11/06/90 SUPPLEMENTAL WEENIE IAN WITTMEYER csu-atmos
wants to get a dog, and name it 'fropa'
11/08/90 SUPPLEMENTAL WEENIE MIKE MEYERS csu-atmos
only wants to get involved with girls on turbulent timescales (he's not willing
to settle down and get synoptic)
11/12/90 JENNIFER CRAM csu-atmos
in an EARLY copy of her dissertation she talks
about 'weak convective inability'- guess those storms just can't get it up
11/22/90 THANKSGIVING WEENIE STEVE HALLIN csu-atmos
taught his toddler to say "mesoscale convective complex"- what happened to
"mommy" and "daddy"?
11/26/90 KELLEY WITTMEYER csu-atmos
when asked what soaps she watches in the afternoons now that she is working only
in the mornings, she replied, "I watch 'As the Planetary Boundary Layer Turns'"
12/10/90 JOHN SCHAEFFER csu-atmos
playing basketball, he told the people running cyclonically around the key to
"stop, or you'll spin up a vortex and we'll all be sucked into the lane"
12/13/90 SUPPLEMENTAL WEENIE SCOT RANDELL csu-atmos
while making his
homebrew, he remarked that he made a 'mesobrew' rather than a 'microbrew'.
12/21/90 PAUL DEMOTT csu-atmos
while driving past the cloud formed by the denver
power plant, he pointed and said "inadvertent weather modification"
12/27/90 CHARLOTTE ATWATER csu-atmos
was studying dynamics for the qualifier, and woke up one night and realized she
was dreaming about how to differentiate
with respect to the static stability parameter