Gettin' there

[cjsmith]

Made it to Tucson last night. I highly recommend the Clarion: free shuttle from the airport, stellar friendly service from everyone we've seen, a free glass of wine, nice chicken-in-lettuce-cups dish at the restaurant.

Today: play chicken with the stationary front hanging over Texas. (I think it's a stationary front. The ones what move funny, slithering sideways like beads pulling off a string rather than the whole line traveling somewhere.) Last night we could have gotten to a point nine and a half hours' drive from our destination; as of this morning it looks like just a few hours, and maybe by the time we get there we'll be able to get there.

Oxygen dep makes me sleepy and makes my head hurt. Fine pilot type I am. Sadly, oxygen cannulas make my nose run.

I am supposed to ask quasigeostrophy to explain the effects of the Texas dryline. I may see the answer in a day or two.

Comments

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

The dryline is 3-4 hours east of us...Amarillo is about the edge of it. Makes for fine flying, I'm sure!

It's the difference between the high (dry) desert and Tornado Alley. Woo.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can imagine the weather it makes. I don't *know*, which is why I was asking Dan, but that kind of boundary can't be calm!

[gdmusumeci.livejournal.com]

Mmm, watch out for hypoxia -- it is no fun and can obviously be extremely dangerous. Have you tried one of the soft face mask things? They're much easier to put up with than cannulas; I've had much better luck with them.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

No kidding, it's a problem -- and I'm a spoiled sea level dweller. Even when I had the cannula (ok, the Oxy-Saver soft cannula-like thing) on, my blood oxygen level didn't get above 85 until I cranked the oxygen past what I was "supposed" to need. Fortunately, Rob was PIC.

(@#$! feet. I would not have the heart and lungs of a couch potato if I could do any FUN exercise.)

I have tried basic cannulas and this kind of Oxy-Saver soft thingy. I've never tried a mask. I wonder if the fittings would be compatible.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

To boil it down, the "Texas Dry Line" is just the boundary between the region where warm moist air moves up from the Gulf of Mexico and runs into warm, dry air coming off the high desert of the southwest. There's little temperature difference, but a huge moisture difference, and in spring and early summer this often causes strong squall line thunderstorms. Anything else you specifically want to know about it? :-)

And you are correct about the stationary front that was over Texas.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, what HAPPENS at that line? "Squall line thunderstorms" is more than I knew; good start. Why wouldn't the two sets of air just sit there, if they're both warm? One wouldn't slide above the other as in a traditional warm/cold front, would it?

correct about the stationary front

Thanks! I always confuse the symbols for stationary and occluded, and I have to watch them move to figure out who's who. I'm glad to hear I didn't botch this one. :-)

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

One wouldn't slide above the other as in a traditional warm/cold front, would it?

All other factors being equal, you're right - they probably would just sit there. But two other things are going on: daytime convection and sloping terrain. The plains slope down from the high desert west to east. Westerlies sweep the dry air down to the east where it overrides the slightly cooler humid air at the surface. This sets up a potentially unstable atmospheric situation with warm dry air above warm moist air. Where the warm air rises into the drier air, condensation and cloud-building occur, and that overriding dry air mass has a lot of room to build tall cumulonimbuses (cumulonimbi?) just east of the dryline.

It's cool to see drylines on radar - insect swarms tend to build along it, followed by flocks of birds, and both of these are noticeable on radar well before the storms build up to the east.

Howzzat? :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Ah! So one IS warmer, at least during the day, and there's some force behind it as well.

Insects and birds follow this thing? Wow, how come?

Thanks!

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

The moist air is a little cooler, but not much. Just enough to cause instability. I'm not sure exactly why insects follow it, unless they don't like the drier air and just kind of "pile up" along the boundary. I do know that the birds are drawn to the insects, though.