NOAA researcher builds device to capture hail size, speed as it falls
NORMAN, Okla. (KFOR) – During severe weather season, we always see hail in the form it ends up in after it hits the ground. However, one federal weather researcher in Oklahoma is changing that with his own invention he built from scratch.
'There is nothing quite like the sound of being in a vehicle getting pelted with six inch plus diameter hail,' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather research scientist Sean Waugh said.
LOCAL NEWS: KFOR's Emily Sutton educates students at 4Warn Storm School
Most people try to avoid damage by keeping their vehicle out of hail.
'You feel it, more than you hear it,' he said. 'It's like a soul reverberating type feel. The truck physically vibrates with every stone that hits it.'
However, Waugh loves being out in the elements. He built the contraption from scratch that they put on top of one of their weather trucks that is entirely designed to be out in hail.
Waugh told KFOR that hail is poorly understood because we only see it after it cracks, breaks completely or melts. So, he put together a lot of wiring, protected by a bullet resistant lens with lights and two cameras inside. Those two cameras detect hail size and speed as it's falling.
'We want to know what real hail looks like,' Waugh said. 'I want to know how fast it's going, that affects the damage that it does to your roof.'
The LED lights inside are 30 percent brighter than the sun to capture video in pitch dark. You actually need eclipse glasses to look at it when directly behind it.
'If you see me in the field with this, you should probably not be there because that is not going to be a fun place to be,' Waugh said.
To originally test it, he used OU Athletics. Both a baseball and softball pitcher took part in it.
'It was an amazing experience to not only test the camera but to see their motion as well,' Waugh said.
OU Athletics made a video showing the camera's tracking their pitches speed and motion. It also tracked the softball pitcher's arm rotation speed when letting go of the ball.
'Her arm is moving at nearly 2200 degrees a second, which is the equivalent of a ceiling fan rotating at full speed,' Waugh said.
LOCAL NEWS: 33rd Calf Fry event kicks off in Stillwater
All of it, along with what radar sees, is designed to help get better detection, forecasting and warnings, which is something that helps all of us.
'All of this improves our ability to protect life and property, which is why we're out here doing this research,' he said.
Waugh said they've been out a lot recently and plan to go out more in the coming weeks as severe weather season ramps up. The truck has been 'operational' for about a year now. All of the information obtained by the cameras go directly to a computer in the back seat. Another interesting fact about it is that everything on the truck is removable.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNN
15 hours ago
- CNN
Shooting at Salt Lake City ‘No Kings' march
Shooting at Salt Lake City 'No Kings' march Officers responded to gunshots at a 'No Kings' march in Salt Lake City, Utah and took three people into custody in relation to the incident. One person was transferred to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. Salt Lake City police said the motive for the shooting was under investigation. 00:26 - Source: CNN Vertical Trending Now 16 videos Shooting at Salt Lake City 'No Kings' march Officers responded to gunshots at a 'No Kings' march in Salt Lake City, Utah and took three people into custody in relation to the incident. One person was transferred to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. Salt Lake City police said the motive for the shooting was under investigation. 00:26 - Source: CNN Storm chaser captures 'unprecedented' view of monster hailstones falling from sky Storm chaser and research scientist Sean Waugh has documented softball sized (or greater) hailstones in freefall with an ultra-high-tech camera mounted on a retrofitted research vehicle. The goal – to study and better understand what makes gigantic hail form, and how to better detect it and ultimately improve severe weather warnings. Sean speaks with CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam while on the road, capturing imagery of this very impactful and expensive natural phenomenon. (edited) 01:47 - Source: CNN Flash flood destroys apartment building An apartment building in West Virginia partially collapsed as flash floods hit the area. The governor's office said at least five people are dead and four people remain missing following the floods. 00:31 - Source: CNN After talking to hundreds of dads, this podcaster shares his two biggest lessons Dr. John Delony speaks to millions of listeners on his popular podcast about mental health, family and relationships. As a therapist, he's used to offering advice to struggling fathers, but we asked him about the biggest lessons he's learned as a dad. 01:32 - Source: CNN Rare deep-sea squid filmed alive for first time Scientists have captured the first-ever footage of the elusive Gonatus antarcticus squid alive in its deep-sea habitat. CNN's Jeremy Roth describes the rare encounter. For more on this story, visit 01:12 - Source: CNN Trump draws boos and cheers at Kennedy Center President Donald Trump drew charged reactions of both admiration and ire at the Kennedy Center's opening night of "Les Misérables." 00:29 - Source: CNN The many adventures of the Stanley Cup Winner's of the NHL's Stanley Cup each get to take the cup for a day and do whatever they want with it. CNN's Coy Wire recounts some of the Cup's wildest days out. 00:43 - Source: CNN BTS members discharged from South Korean military One of the world's biggest boybands could soon be making a comeback with six out of seven members of K-Pop supergroup BTS now discharged from South Korea's mandatory military service. The band plans to reunite at some point later this year. 00:47 - Source: CNN Man throws wood boards at police during high speed chase An individual in the bed of a white truck dumped large wooden boards onto the road during a high-speed chase with law enforcement officers in Montgomery County, Ohio. Later, the truck drove the wrong way on Interstate 75 and caused a six-vehicle collision. No life-threatening injuries were reported after the accident, according to the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office. 01:20 - Source: CNN Combs requests mistrial for a second time CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister explains that Sean "Diddy" Combs' defense team requested a mistrial for a second time, which was denied. Combs' team accused the prosecution of presenting false testimony from Bryana Bongolan, a friend of Cassie Ventura's, who testified that Combs dangled her over a balcony. 01:26 - Source: CNN Tennessee sheriff's office airlifts escaped zebra to safety DEK: A zebra, that escaped from its owner in Christiana, Tennessee was captured on Sunday and airlifted to safety by the local sheriff's office. The animal, named Ed, had been reported missing just a day after he was acquired by its owners in Rutherford County. They have since been reunited. 00:35 - Source: CNN Jamie Foxx breaks down during BET Awards acceptance speech Jamie Foxx was overcome with emotion while accepting the Ultimate Icon Award at the BET Awards. He reflected on his 2023 health scare. 00:45 - Source: CNN See what's coming to your iPhone and other Apple devices Apple announced major software updates at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference. Most of the new features won't reach users' devices for a few months when OS 26 releases this fall. 01:49 - Source: CNN Journalist explains 'huge win' for Blake Lively in Baldoni lawsuit A judge dismissed Justin Baldoni's $400 million defamation lawsuit against Hollywood power couple Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, a major development in the ongoing civil litigation between former co-stars Lively and Baldoni. Executive editor for Deadline Hollywood Dominic Patten joins CNN's Brianna Keilar to discuss. 00:36 - Source: CNN Blake Lively's lawyer on Taylor Swift's role in legal fight CNN's Jake Tapper speaks with Blake Lively's attorney Michael Gottlieb about how Taylor Swift was brought into the legal fight between Lively and Justin Baldoni. 01:04 - Source: CNN Coco Gauff reacts to winning the French Open Coco Gauff claimed her second career grand slam singles title, defeating world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the French Open women's final. 00:46 - Source: CNN
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Friday the 13th solar storm could bring auroras to 18 US states this weekend
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Skywatchers in up to 18 U.S. states could witness auroras in the coming days as a "moderate" geomagnetic storm rocks Earth's magnetic field, starting on Friday (June 13). On Wednesday (June 11), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center issued an initial alert for a G2 (moderate) geomagnetic storm starting on Saturday (June 14). On Friday, the center released an updated warning that the storm could begin later the same day. The space weather event is predicted to end on Sunday (June 15) or Monday (June 16). The disturbance has the potential to rise to a G3 (strong) geomagnetic storm over the weekend, according to but this is not guaranteed. Some other outlets have reported that the storm could reach G4 (severe) status. However, these reports have likely arisen from confusion surrounding a statement from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, which was explaining what happened during a different G4 storm that occurred earlier this month, and the upcoming storm will not be anywhere near as intense. Geomagnetic storms are disturbances to Earth's magnetic field, or magnetosphere, triggered by fluctuations in the solar wind. They are normally caused by giant clouds of magnetized particles from erupting solar flares, known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs). However, in this case, the disturbance is being caused by a co-rotating interaction region — turbulence in the solar wind caused by fast-moving streams colliding with slower wind ahead of them — that originated from a large "coronal hole" on the solar surface. These disturbances can squeeze Earth's magnetosphere, potentially causing widespread aurora displays at unusually low latitudes. They can also cause temporary radio blackouts, damage power infrastructure on the ground and cause satellites to fall from the sky as Earth's atmosphere soaks up excess energy and expands. (Geomagnetic storms are classified using a scale that ranks their intensity from G1 (minor) to G5 (extreme) — which is very rare.) Related: The US isn't prepared for a big solar storm, exercise finds The 18 states that could see auroras starting tonight are Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, South Dakota, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Wyoming, according to Live Science's sister site The aurora could also be seen in the U.K. and parts of Europe. However, there is no guarantee that you will see auroras if you live in these areas, as your view may be obscured by cloudy weather, haze from wildfires or light pollution. RELATED STORIES —We are fast approaching the sun's 'battle zone' — and it could be even worse than solar maximum, experts warn —X-class solar flares hit a new record in 2024 and could spike further this year — but the sun isn't entirely to blame —A mysterious, 100-year solar cycle may have just restarted — and it could mean decades of dangerous space weather Solar activity has been high in recent years thanks to solar maximum — the most active phase of the sun's roughly 11-year cycle of activity, when our home star's magnetic field completely flips. This phase began in early 2024, much earlier than initially predicted, and is likely now coming to a close. But solar activity could remain high for several years to come. In May 2024, Earth experienced a G5 geomagnetic storm — the most powerful in 21 years, with some of the most widespread auroras in the last 500 years — after at least five different CMEs hit our planet in quick succession. This storm was so powerful that it caused tractors and other GPS-controlled machinery to dance from side to side across several U.S. states.
Boston Globe
4 days ago
- Boston Globe
Hurricane season started two weeks ago. Where are the storms?
But one usually arrives before the end of the month, and Phil Klotzbach, a hurricane expert at Colorado State University, said it was unclear when this year's first storm would form. Here's a look at what's going on. Advertisement A storm gets a name when its sustained winds reach 39 miles per hour, and it becomes a Category 1 hurricane when they reach 74 miles per hour. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up A key ingredient for that is warm ocean waters, with temperatures at 80 degrees or above, and Jason Dunion, a meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said many locations across the Atlantic had not quite reached that threshold. 'The waters are still warming, and they're actually a little bit cooler than last year, so we're not seeing some of those record temperatures,' Dunion said. Sea surface temperatures set records last year, which also made hurricanes more likely to rapidly intensify and become more destructive. Saharan dust carried from North Africa is another factor. It travels far across the Atlantic Ocean, creating a layer of dry air in the atmosphere that can suppress storm development. Dunion described the layer as a combination of 'superdry air that inhibits clouds, warm air that helps put a lid on clouds, and thunderstorm development, and a strong jet of winds that acts to tilt and tear thunderstorms apart.' Advertisement This week, a plume of dust spread from the central Atlantic all the way through the Caribbean, for more than 2,500 miles, which is roughly distance between Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. 'It's huge,' said Dunion, adding that conditions in large portions of the Atlantic just weren't favorable for hurricanes because of the dust plume. The season for trans-Atlantic dust begins in June and tapers off in mid-August, just as hurricane activity usually picks up. Dunion calls mid-August the 'switch point.' Klotzbach said wind shear had also been thwarting the formation of storms in the Gulf of Mexico, where tropical storms often form at this point in the season. Wind shear is the change of wind speed and direction with height, and it is notorious for shredding apart hurricanes and keeping tropical storms from developing. Like NOAA, Klotzbach's team at Colorado State released a forecast this spring that predicted an above-average number of storms this year. But if the shear remains elevated for several more weeks, he said, he may scale back his forecast 'substantially.' On Wednesday, Klotzbach's team issued an update saying that, for now, it was standing by its earlier expectation. In a typical season, there are 14 named storms. NOAA has predicted between 13 and 19 this year; Klotzbach's team expects there to be 17. If the storm shear in the Gulf were to weaken and a storm were to move through the Caribbean or the Gulf, 'we certainly have plenty of fuel there to get a robust hurricane,' Klotzbach said. Advertisement In the eastern Pacific, where hurricane season began on May 15 and where storms typically form before they do in the Atlantic, has been off to a busy start. Four storms have formed off the west coast of North America: Alvin, Barbara, Cosme, and Dalila. Both seasons run through Nov. 30.
