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A/CPB
Weather Forecast for the Birds
Weekly Weather Brief for Migrating Eagles
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Keep a close eye on the weather maps and forecasts to the North while waiting for the eagles to migrate this spring. Here are recommended Weather Maps for Canada
| WEST From the new satellite migration data of the past two weeks, you can see that if any of our eagles had an idea to move North, the weather might have had them think again. There was an above normal amount of precipitation in the northwest. Storm systems kept rolling into Washington like the cars on an autotrain, one after the other. Conditions were not ideal for any eagle wanting to travel North. Interestingly, now that we have some good information on the locaton on the eagles' locations, we might begin to look at whether the weather is playing any role whatsoever on their movement! Here is something to consider. Look at the movement of Eagles #13 & #16. What can you say about each of their movements over the time period from February 8-14? Well if we take a close look, Eagle #16 moved 1 degree North. Eagle #13 moved almost 1 degree (.7 to be exact) South. This is interesting! It appears the weather over early February has had little to do with the direction of their movements of 50-75 miles, or up to 1 degree in latitude. The weather--which has been cloudy and cool with some breaks of sunshine--has not made all the eagles behave the same way. During a period of sun, the eagles might take a quick flight North or South. If the weather is bad they might not want to venture too far away. They are not moving in the same direction during the same times. As for this week, you should see a change in the weather pattern. After Wednesday, the train of storms moving into the west should stop. The weather should actually clear up significantly. All this while temperatures will be running in the 40's which is around normal for this time of year, if not a little above normal. This pattern should hold for a while. Will the eagles move North now that the weather is clearing? Find out next week. |
EAST Since the last satellite data, eagle #F42 has not really moved from her last position. Remember all those storms that hit the northeast over these two weeks? Well it seems that during this time, she's stayed put. After the storms cleared out, slightly above normal temperatures were the weather story toward the latter end of the period. This created more favorable weather conditions for eagle movement. But it might still a bit too early to go North, even with the above normal temperatures. It would be interesting to compare movement this year to past years, as the warmer temperatures might suggest an earlier trek North for the season. As for this week upcoming, there is another major storm moving up the East Coast. (See map above.) This storm will bring heavy rains and strong easterly winds to the northeast by Monday night into Tuesday. Tuesday, the temperatures are sure to drop, and a lot of rain might easily turn to snow. Is the eagle likely to move during these stormy days? Around Thursday, things should quiet down, and the temperatures will gradually rise to slightly above normal. This sounds a lot like what has happened week after week for a while this season. Might our Eagle #42 react the exact same way she has all season? |
Produced by U.S. Satellite Laboratory
Tarrytown, NY
Technology for Remote Sensing in Schools
Glen Schuster, Meteorologist
Josh Danziger, Student Meteorologist
satlab@ns.computer.net