The telltale sign was obvious to the two researchers: rain was spiralling in a tight vortex of wind that in minutes would become a tornado. The adjacent red area revealed rain moving away from the radar. The bright green area identified wind-driver, raindrops moving rapidly towards the radar. Inside the control room of the experimental Doppler weather radar at NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) in Norman, Okla., the storm showed up as a color-coded mass on the radar's television screen.Įxamining the monitor, NOAA researchers Don Burgess and Ken Wilk saw the closely spaced red and green areas near the edge of the storm. Some of the energy was reflected by raindrops in the storm back to the radar antenna. The pulses, measuring 10 centimeters (4 inches) in wave length, penetrated a large thunderstorm some 50 miles to the southwest. Steadily, the 30-foot diameter radar dish rotated, sweeping the Oklahoma prairie with a narrow pencil beam of radio frequency pulses. The following article by Don Witten appeared in the Winter 1984 edition of NOAA Magazine. (National Severe Storms Laboratory photo) This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.Above: Research Doppler radar near Norman, OK in 1970, with WSR-57 radar seen to the right. “I often call it the Instagram holiday for New York City.”Ĭopyright 2023 The Associated Press. “In this era of social media, it’s a gorgeous picture,” Faherty said. Weather permitting, fans will flood the streets and point their phones and cameras at the fading light. The best-known urban “henge” other than New York's is Chicagohenge, which happens during the spring and fall equinox.įaherty said she prefers Manhattanhenge because New York has more iconic skyscrapers and the Hudson River to the west provides “a visual break in the landscape of buildings.” Other cities where streets align with the sun on certain days include Boston and Toronto. There are are also sunrise Manhattanhenge days in December and January, but those have not drawn crowds for reasons including the hour and the chill, Faherty said. “All we need is for it to be clear at sunset.” “We have had luck in the past when the weather clears,” said Jackie Faherty, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History whose sold-out lecture on Manhattanhenge on Thursday will be followed by a free public viewing party. Devotees line thoroughfares like 42nd and 34th streets to watch the sun's disc sink below the horizon, perfectly framed by the gleaming towers. Manhattanhenge attracts its own Druids when it happens for two nights around Memorial Day and another two in mid-July. He was inspired by Stonehenge, where tourists and modern-day Druids camp out on the summer solstice to watch the rising sun align with the prehistoric stones. It was Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the museum's Hayden Planetarium, who coined the term Manhattanhenge to describe the phenomenon. “I tried but it’s not going to happen today,” said Kevin Andrade, a restaurant server who had the day off and waited in hopes of a fiery sky show on West 23rd Street. With gray, gloomy weather socking in the horizon at Wednesday's sundown, fans of the spectacle will have to hope the clouds part Thursday. NEW YORK – There's only one more chance this year to possibly take in Manhattanhenge, the biannual alignment of the setting sun with the city's east-west streets that brings New Yorkers out of their apartments to watch it bathe the urban canyons in a rosy glow.
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