We had some non-typical weather conditions this morning that allowed us to sample the inherent local radon washout. The sky was overcast in gray with a very low cloud ceiling; it looked almost like snow type weather. The wind was still, and the temperature was hovering around 32 degF; the result was the condensation of some very large rain drops.
The rain drops were large enough to leave silver dollar sized "puddles" where they hit the ground and vehicles. The drops fell intermittently for around 15 minutes; and a swipe of the truck returned a reading between two and three times greater than background radiation. The sample was a good example of the Radon daughter content of the local air. At the time of the sample the Jet Stream had still not yet reached Missouri, hence no large Fukushima spikes in radioactivity.
According to the weather forecast, the Jet Stream should start to impact the Saint Louis area around 5pm with some rain followed by thunderstorms starting around 8pm. Based on the JetStream maps and recent previous fallout data, and barring any unusual activity Fukushima or Solar, we expect tonight's storms will probably be radioactive at eight to ten times greater than background radiation
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**449 UTC was about an hour ago and goes until late tomorrow morning:**
ReplyDeleteWARNING: Proton 100MeV Integral Flux above 1pfu expected
Valid From: 2012 Jan 23 0449 UTC
Valid To: 2012 Jan 23 1649 UTC
Warning Condition: Onset
NOAA Space Weather Scale descriptions can be found at
www.swpc.noaa.gov/NOAAscales
Potential Impacts: An enhancement in the energetic portion of the
solar radiation spectrum may indicate increased biological risk to
astronauts or passengers and crew in high latitude, high altitude
flights. Additionally, energetic particles may represent an increased
risk to all satellite systems susceptible to single event effects.
This information should be used in conjunction with the current Solar
Radiation Storm conditions when assessing overall impact.