Will school close tomorrow? Ask meteorologist Steve LaPointe!

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8th graders had the opportunity to learn about weather from one of the region's leading meteorologists, CBS 6 meteorologist Steve LaPointe. LaPointe spent the morning of Thursday, March 8 sharing his knowledge of global warming and meteorology with an eager audience.

LaPointe explained that meteorology is one of the fastest growing sciences. Data used to forecast our weather grows exponentially each year. Crunching that data with powerful computers and adding the observations of local weather spotters enables today's forecasters to generate highly detailed computer models to predict the weather. Advanced computer graphics, doppler radar and new production techniques even change the way weather is presented on the television broadcast.

LaPointe began by answering a wide range of student questions.

Highlights of his answers:

• Global warming — Scientists all agree that the earth is warming. Unfortunately, they do not have enough information to determine whether that change is a natural occurrence, a manmade disaster, or some combination of the two. He warned students to be very careful about believing everything they hear about global warming on the news or in the movies. Our planet is warming slowly and steadily, but changes—like major weather shifts or increases in sea level— will not happen "overnight."

• Color of lightning and the sky — When lightning strikes on the horizon, dust particles in the air diffuse and bend light. Like light passing through a prism, different wavelengths (or colors) reach our eyes. So, lightning in the distance appears to have an orange shade. When lightning flashes nearby, there is less dust between our eyes and the lightning. As a result, the lightning appears pure white. The same principle applies to the red colors we see on the horizon at sunrise and sunset.

• El Niño — El Niño describes abnormal warming of the sea surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The higher water temperature alters weather patterns and produces higher than normal precipitation in the western and southern U.S. When this warm, moist air pushes north and collides with cold artic air during the winter, it produces high snowfalls.

LaPointe also talked about forecasting two recent local storms, the February 14th snowstorm that dumped almost three feet of snow in Canajoharie and the March 2nd storm that fizzled. He explained that the differences in the storms are examples of why precisely forecasting the weather is an impossible task.

• Forecasters hit the February 14th storm on the nose. Conditions were ideal for a typical Nor'easter. Warm, moist air off the Atlantic met a strong, cold air mass over our region. The storm became nearly stationary, dumping as much as 4"-6" of fluffy snow per hour. Not all areas saw similar snowfalls. Areas like the Connecticut River Valley in Massachusetts received less than a foot of snow because the westward advancing weather dropped into the lower elevations warming and drying the air mass. As the front approached higher elevations like the Adirondack and Catskill Mountains, the front cooled and produced higher snowfalls.

• The March 2nd storm was a forecaster's nightmare. Original estimates called for as much as 12" of snow over parts of our region. As the storm advanced, however, factors changed. Temperatures became warmer than expected and the storm tracked slightly away from our region. Despite schoolchildren's hopes, snow was limited. Instead, the area saw a nasty mix of rain, freezing rain, and sleet.

At the end of his talk, Lindsey Dolin and Kelsey Aldi presented LaPointe with a black and gold Canajoharie Cougars shirt and a personalized Steve LaPointe cloud on behalf of the class.

LaPointe's visit was part of a combined 8th grade meteorology lesson. Mr. Murphy's science class studied weather and climate. Mrs. Schaffer's Language Arts class created projects and wrote essays based on their weather knowledge. Integrating the curriculum in the classes helps students stay focused on a topic and shows how skills learned in one class are important in other areas of study.