Stormtracker 16 Cloud to Ground | Ep. 14

[00:00:07][music] >> Hi everyone. I'm Storm Tracker 16's meteorologist Anthony Border Naro. Thank you so much for joining us on another edition of Storm Tracker 16's Cloud to Ground. With GoJo 29 starting this week, of course, we [music] are keeping a watchful eye on the weather and we hope to see you on the road. The full week ends with the telethon. Our own Ali Gallo has a type of weather [music] we have experienced on previous telethons.

[00:00:34]Here's Ali.

[00:00:40]>> GoJo 29 is wrapping up, but the Saint Joseph Center Summer Festival and Telethon weekend [music] are just beginning. Sister Mary Alice has been involved with the festival since the 90s, starting as a volunteer. This week I had a chat with her about some of her more memorable festival weekends and about how someway, somehow, the weather always plays a role in Saint Joe's biggest fundraiser of the year.

[00:01:05]You know, end of July always brings a variety of [music] weather. So, of course, we know the temperatures are going to be greater than 80.

[00:01:12]Um, there have been years when we do need to put a sweater on beginning and end [music] of the day, but mostly it's extreme heat. And of course, you're on blacktop where the Summer Festival [music] is held now on the grounds of Marywood University with, you know, the tents. So, it's a pretty intense. You have cooking food and things. Severe weather stories, I could remember a time when we [music] were setting up that the bounce house was twirling in the wind and it actually slammed up against [music] a fence. So, um, we don't have a bounce house anymore for that reason for great concern.

[00:01:44]>> [music] >> Um, one year at about maybe a half hour before it was time to draw the chances on the Sunday night, we had severe weather. We [music] actually evacuated into the gym of Marywood University, which they graciously [music] allow us to use the campus and to use the facilities.

[00:02:01]And then [music] there was a telethon year on Saturday. It is a gathering on Saturday of the IHM congregation. So we're attending [music] the meeting and it started to rain. And that particular Saturday it never stopped raining. And so we quickly moved the telethon. We had the telethon, but we cancelled the summer festival. So there was no festival.

[00:02:23]And we did go ahead with the telethon.

[00:02:26]But that was just a really weird feeling because people were answering the phones. [music] It was safe to do so, but the whole grounds it was it was empty.

[00:02:34]>> That was in 2016. This week, 10 years ago.

[00:02:38]It was the first and only time the festival was cancelled because [music] of rain. And it wasn't just rain. It was flash flooding rain.

[00:02:46]Many neighborhoods surrounding [music] Marywood University's campus were underwater, homes were damaged, and streets were closed. This was Greenwich Street on that day in 2016. [music] So many festival volunteers couldn't even get to Marywood's campus.

[00:03:01]One longtime Saint Joe's employee says she remembers the day like it was yesterday. She says she cried thinking the telethon wouldn't happen and that WNEP's audio engineer assured her it would.

[00:03:14]He was right. He got the telethon [music] on the air that year.

[00:03:17]>> Of course a lot of the volunteers couldn't come because there was flooding in different areas. And so the volunteers, the core group, I mean that that's really is >> [music] >> part of the message of the Saint Joe's Summer Festival. These dedicated die hard volunteers who were present, ready to start the priors, ready to start cooking food, opening the sides of their tents. They were saying, "No, we'll we'll stay here. We'll answer the phones." And then the phone [music] people, the telethon volunteers didn't need to come. We spend a lot of time at the Summer Festival rolling the sides up and [music] down.

[00:03:50]So we see bad weather, heavy winds, that the sides of the tents come down, it gets hot, people are saying please put them up. So, >> [music] >> yeah, we've endured a lot of different as you know the weather in Northeastern Pennsylvania for summer [music] can be unpredictable.

[00:04:05]>> And Sister Mary Alice says people show up for the festival, but they of course show up for Joe, too.

[00:04:11]>> [music] >> And people wait in all kinds of weather.

[00:04:13]So, they're outside whether it's 95°, whether it's [music] raining, humidity, whatever it might be, people are waiting cuz they want to see Joe, they want to see everyone from WNEP who shows up, they want to buy the Go Joe merchandise.

[00:04:24]So, we're appreciative [music] of everyone's generosity and concern for our mission.

[00:04:30]>> Could it be this weekend's weather is looking nearly perfect [music] for a summer festival? Low 80s, low humidity, and lots of sunshine. But Sister Mary Alice says she knows [music] even if that weren't the case, the folks of Northeastern and Central PA would still show up for the cherished summertime tradition. [music] >> I think we're just so grateful for people who keep showing up. Sometimes people say, yeah, it's not the best weather, I'm going to [music] get my food to take home, and of course we appreciate that as well.

[00:04:57]>> The Saint Joseph Center Summer Festival is [music] this weekend here on Marywood University's campus from 4:00 to 10:00 on Friday and Saturday and noon to 7:00 [music] on Sunday. The telethon also this weekend here at Marywood from 7:00 to 9:00 on Friday and from 6:00 to 8:00 on Saturday. Joe Emonds his bike ride Friday evening here at the festival.

[00:05:18]Thanks for joining me this week. I'm Ali Gallo.

[00:05:21]>> Thanks, Ali. Let's hope the only [music] record we break this year is the grand total check for Saint Joe's. Of course, you can go to wnep.com to find out how you can donate. [music] Stick with us. Up next, me and Jeremy take a look at our backyard garden.

[00:05:36]We'll be back in just a minute.

[00:05:40]>> [music] >> Welcome back to Cloud to Ground. I'm Anthony Bordonaro here at Melo Park.

[00:05:52][music] Not that bad of a scenery here.

[00:05:54]Well, we are going to find out how much of a green thumb we have here at [music] NewsWatch 16. Jeremy and I do that when the stars align.

[00:06:08]>> Hey everybody, I'm meteorologist Jeremy LaWon with Anthony Bordonaro.

[00:06:13]Welcome back to another episode of When the Stars Align.

[00:06:17]>> I'm meteorologist [music] Jeremy LaWon.

[00:06:19]>> And I'm Anthony Bordonaro.

[00:06:20]>> And we are here at the backyard garden with a few different things to pick and to show off.

[00:06:26]>> I'm so excited [music] cuz it doesn't feel like that long ago when we started the garden and now we're seeing the fruits of our labor.

[00:06:31]>> Yeah, already. Just over a month after we started planting and many of our plants are either one, two, or three feet tall right here in our backyard raised bed. And wait until I show you the Rapunzel tomatoes. That's going to be really, really tall when it's all said and done. Very excited for it. All right, so first up what we're going to do here, Anthony, is pick some beans.

[00:06:52]And we got three different [music] types.

[00:06:53]>> Three?

[00:06:54]>> Three.

[00:06:55]>> Let's get into it.

[00:06:56]>> All right, Anthony, these are the Blue Lake Bush beans and boy do we have a lot of them. So I'll pick them off camera, but we are really seeing quite a lot of vegetables coming from our bean stalks, which is exciting. And we got to pick things quickly out here because we don't want to spend too much time out in the backyard, unfortunately. I know this is normally [music] our sanctuary, but yes, there is wildfire smoke out here and the air quality index [music] is really struggling. So we'll get into how that affects the beans and the other plants, too, later on in this segment. So I'll keep picking here and then show you the next beans in just a second.

[00:07:29]>> Now, Jeremy, how do we know that these are ready to pick?

[00:07:33]>> That's a good question.

[00:07:35]Um you want to look for [music] a nice long bean. A lot of the time they're they'll be straight like this, but sometimes they're a little curved. If they're [music] about the size of your finger, that's how you know it's ready to be picked. But some of the bean stalks are [music] a little bit smaller like this one and it only produces these smaller looking beans. So, in that case, it's okay to harvest the smaller one cuz it won't get bigger than that. But uh yeah, that's how you know. You want to look for a nice bean about the size of your finger, plump, it doesn't look dehydrated because if you leave it too long on the stalk, it can start to get dehydrated and then taste more fibrous instead of uh juicy like you like [music] a good bean.

[00:08:12]Anthony, these are the yellow beans. You can see already how they have a different color compared to the green ones. They're very pretty and they're also doing a great job of coming out. We love to see that all of the beans are doing well.

[00:08:23]>> These will keep on producing, right, throughout the >> That's right. Yeah, they'll keep producing as we go throughout the rest of the summer season. You want to get the beans [music] that are mature off so that the plant can keep producing more of these. Uh if you leave them on, then it's putting all of its energy into the fruit of this bean instead of creating new ones.

[00:08:43]And of course, the beans are producing a lot right now, but we also have some tomatoes here, Anthony, where you got some on the Jersey tomato stalk. We have some sun sugars right here. And uh also the early girl coming out, but none of them are ready yet. When they're green, they're still not ready to be picked unless you like fried green tomatoes.

[00:09:00]We're waiting for them to turn red and that should happen within another 2 weeks. Last but certainly not least, we have the purple queen beans and [music] these are my favorites actually because they're just so pretty. Now, Melissa Steininger came out here and harvested quite a few of them. So, I'm not sure if we have any others besides that one to be able to take here, Anthony.

[00:09:23]Yeah, looks like the rest of the purple queen beans are gone. Oh, here's one.

[00:09:27]One additional one. But aren't they pretty? Look at that color.

[00:09:31]>> Yeah.

[00:09:33]Almost forgot the strawberries.

[00:09:34]>> Oh, then I had my Was that a >> you were the one who ate the very first one here in the backyard.

[00:09:40]You know, Anthony, the strawberries have never produced this many ever.

[00:09:44]>> Look at this. Wow.

[00:09:45]>> Six strawberries.

[00:09:49]Yeah, that's all we got.

[00:09:51]>> Six is more than one.

[00:09:52]>> Six is definitely more than one.

[00:09:54]Something really cool here in the backyard garden are these Rapunzel tomatoes. Now, Jerry at Jerry's Floral Seasons told me that his plant grew 7 ft tall. Now, we've had these in the ground for only 1 month and they are already 40 in tall.

[00:10:13]So, we're approaching 4 ft. We're about 3 and 1/2 ft at this point on the Rapunzel tomatoes. You notice all of the flowers here on the tomato plant, the branch itself. What it does is produces a whole line of tomatoes, almost like Rapunzel letting down its hair. So, that's exciting to see. All the flowers will turn into tomatoes at some point and that'll probably happen at some point in August and we'll be sure to provide you updates. But, let's get back inside because the smoke is getting thick out here. We want to tell you how it affects the plants that might be in your backyard, too.

[00:10:47]>> So, Jeremy, we're now inside. We're in our break room. I think it's so funny cuz right to our left and then we'll have the video here. We have cupcakes and donuts. Yeah.

[00:10:57]>> Right next to the most healthy beans ever grown.

[00:11:00]>> [laughter] >> Yeah. But, there is one strawberry on a cupcake that we have.

[00:11:03]>> True. True. We have strawberries berries in the basket. So, a little bit of healthy in the junk food.

[00:11:09]>> Yeah. Yeah. So, next [music] we want to talk about the smoke that we're getting and how that affects the our backyard garden. So, obviously with the smoke, it limits the the sun. It limits [music] the how the sun can penetrate through the smoke and the clouds and get to the plants. So, that limits the photosynthesis that the the tomatoes and all that are [music] can perform. And also with the smoke, it'll it eliminates convection and and eliminates the possibility of storm formation. [music] So, not getting the sunlight and not getting the the water needed.

[00:11:39]>> So, that can reduce the growth of your plants during the summer season if you have wildfire smoke in the air. It can also reduce the size of the fruit. So, like the strawberries we saw they're pretty small, might be because of the presence of wildfire smoke in the sky.

[00:11:53]Um also, wildfire smoke contains these tiny pieces of soot and ash. That's called particulate matter. We work with meteorology, we learn about this, but we measure it by microns. The diameter of these pieces of particles in the air.

[00:12:08]And some of the diameters of these particles are finer than the diameter of a piece of human hair. So, they're very very small pieces that can get deep into your lungs. And similarly, they can get into the openings where the plants breathe and take in carbon dioxide to create photosynthesis. And that little hole, there's millions of them on the under surface of leaves [music] on plants, those holes are called stomata.

[00:12:31]And some of those stomata can get uh kind of cluttered by the particulate matter from the smoke. So, all in all, the lack of rain, the lack of sunlight that's really strong and direct, and also the clogging of the stomata holes can reduce the growth on plants when you have wildfire smoke that's persistent in the atmosphere for quite a while. So, just some ways that weather affects the plants. It doesn't just affect us humans. Of course, it's best to stay indoors when air quality index is over 150 when it gets into that unhealthy or very unhealthy range.

[00:13:02]>> The plants don't have the option most [music] of the time.

[00:13:05]>> Yeah, unless the human decides to bring the plants in. They can't take themselves up by the roots to come inside.

[00:13:11]But speaking of plants, I wanted to share a really wonderful gift of uh vegetables. There are eggplant on here, radishes, corn. And it was given by Donna from Northumberland. You want to read that [music] note?

[00:13:23]>> You made me read it last time. I I hope I hope I do it justice. So, hi Jeremy. I love watching your weather reports.

[00:13:29]You're the meat and potatoes [music] kind of weather man I like including including the celestial info as well.

[00:13:36]Keep up the splendid work. Love your fashionista [music] qualities, too. Mom and I can't wait to see what you're wearing each night. I know how much you love the garden. I thought of you when [music] I saw this. Wear it in great gardener pride.

[00:13:49]>> I certainly am wearing it in great gardener pride. Thank you so much, Donna, for this [music] fantastic gift.

[00:13:54]I love it. I'll be wearing it on TV tonight. And Anthony, you have something to share, too.

[00:13:57]>> Yeah, I I did a story the other day at Camp [music] Mocking Maquanaqua in Luzerne County in the Back Mountain and they gave me this patch and we'll we'll zoom in and show you. They basically all summer long they're celebrating [music] America's 250th and I just thought it was so cool for them to think of me or something to give me their basically a a camp for girl scouts.

[00:14:19]Our very own John Myers' daughter and Renee Workman's daughter, [music] Cecilia, was there.

[00:14:23]>> her in your news story.

[00:14:24]>> They got me a little bit wet, too, and then they ended up giving me a little gift at [music] the end. So, I I thank you.

[00:14:29]>> the Sour Patch Kids. First they're sour, then they're sweet.

[00:14:32]>> First they wet you up and then they gave you the patch.

[00:14:35]>> I I also let them [music] do that. So, they they didn't they didn't ambush me.

[00:14:39]>> The same way you you let me push you into the lake.

[00:14:42]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:14:43]>> Oh, tell you better tell the viewers that's the truth.

[00:14:46]>> Yeah. Yeah. [music] Yeah.

[00:14:49]And that that does it for this episode.

[00:14:50]Yeah.

[00:14:51]>> Thank you so much for joining us once again here on the plus. We love spending time with you and I love Anthony's segment here that he came up with when the stars align. When our schedules align, we're able to do the segment with you. Donna, thanks for the tie and thanks to those at Camp Maquanaqua for this patch. We'll see you next time.

[00:15:09]>> As you can see, the backyard garden is off to a pretty good [music] start.

[00:15:12]Well, up next is Kurt. He has a climate question from kids right up after this.

[00:15:18]>> [music] >> Welcome back to Clouds to Ground. I'm Anthony Bourdain Arrow. Well, we have a great question [music] coming from kids as Kurt calls class to order. Teach, you got the floor.

[00:15:43]>> Hi, I'm chief meteorologist Kurt Arrow.

[00:15:45]Welcome back to science class and we have another question and this one involving climate change.

[00:15:51]>> How do you guys learn about the climate change?

[00:15:54]>> That's a great question because you know what? The temperatures are warming around the entire globe.

[00:16:01]Check this out. Got this for [music] you. Global temperatures. This goes back to the 1850s and you see over the last couple of decades how it's gotten red.

[00:16:11]Plus 1.4°.

[00:16:13]How do we know this?

[00:16:15]Cuz we have really cool scientists that explore things like drilling down in the Antarctic. I'm going to show you what I'm talking about. Check this out.

[00:16:25]Have you ever been to the Antarctic, the South Pole?

[00:16:29]Well, those scientists, matter [music] of fact, several countries got together with their leading scientists and they actually drilled down through a place called Lake Vostok. This is Lake Vostok's ice core sample drilling.

[00:16:42]>> [music] >> And what they did was, you were asking how we know about climate change, they drilled down over 2 miles and gathered all of this data from this tube. Now, what's in that data? All kinds of biological stuff. It tells them what temperatures were like [music] and they were able to go down by drilling down over 2 miles 400,000 years of data.

[00:17:05]And what did that data [music] reveal?

[00:17:07]Well, the data revealed that whenever there's an increase in CO2, there's also an increase in temperatures. See this?

[00:17:16]So, your temperature is in the blue.

[00:17:19]Notice carbons are up, temperature's up, carbons drop, temperature drops. See [music] that? But, here's the interesting thing.

[00:17:28]As this data [music] shows, it's not just man-made. This during volcanic eras, you can see the Earth has gone down, up, down, up, down, up, down, and now we're [music] back into that phase of going up. So, it shows a pattern here. It shows a pattern that the Earth is [music] going through cycles, and it goes back 400,000 years. Now, we know for a fact carbon drives up temperatures. So, >> [music] >> the gas cars and stuff that we're using absolutely is driving up temperatures, but it's not just man that is creating the issue. As [music] you can see, we've had periods where carbon has been very high. By the way, if you're wondering what those what they look like, there they are. Those are the actual Vostok ice core sample containers that they measured this [music] from. So, lesson learned, we know carbon will in fact increase the temperature. We know man's footprint in that carbon helps increase [music] the temperature.

[00:18:31]But, what we don't know is all the other periods, how that carbon increased if man was not here. We had volcanic eruptions, and we had other things.

[00:18:42]Well, some of this we're still learning.

[00:18:43][music] So, I hope you learned something today. If you get a chance, Google [music] Lake Vostok ice core samples, and check it out for yourself. I'm chief meteorologist Kurt Aaron. Have a wonderful [music] day. Class dismissed.

[00:18:56]>> As always, the kids bring it with the great questions. Thanks as always. Well, we're going to give our very own [music] Joe Snedeker the last word. We'll be right back on this edition of Storm Tracker 16 Cloud to Ground.

[00:19:08]>> [music] >> Finally on today's [music] Cloud to Ground, Joe has a chance at the last words with today's lightning round. Joe is taking a break [music] from the pedals to give the questions the answers that you want to know most.

[00:19:33]All right folks, welcome to another edition of Cloud to GROUND LIGHTNING EDITION.

[00:19:38]>> LIGHTNING EDITION. [screaming] >> DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS? [music] >> WELL, IT'S THE LIGHTNING round where I answer viewer questions.

[00:19:44]>> Okay.

[00:19:45]>> So remember folks, if you have a question email it. We have fun with this [email protected]. [music] It's only as good as they make it.

[00:19:54]>> But you make it [music] great.

[00:19:56]>> You see, you see what I get from this guy? I love it. All right, so this question I thought I'd use a big official news guy here because I don't know the answer to it and I don't think you're going to either.

[00:20:06]>> You're keeping me humble, you know.

[00:20:07]>> All right, Bev wants [music] to know, "Your weather people all identify counties in groups such as the northeast, [music] the south central, the central. What determines the counties in each group and what is Columbia County in?"

[00:20:21]>> Ooh, good question.

[00:20:23]>> Because you know, we have our weather breakdown, [music] the northeastern counties, the central counties. Is there on a map an official end to this county, beginning to that county? I'm going to say no. It's just kind of what we informally group. The northeast, [music] I think of Scranton north as the northeast. What do you think?

[00:20:42]>> So for me, cuz I mainly work out of like Lackawanna [music] County, as soon as I cross into Susquehanna County, that's like entering the northern tier.

[00:20:50]>> You're right. You're right.

[00:20:51]>> But then going out towards like Wayne, Pike area, that's >> Oh, that's northeast.

[00:20:56]>> like the [music] western a little bit.

[00:20:58]You're getting a little >> No, Wayne and Pike, you're talking east, northeast.

[00:21:01]>> talking east. That's our eastern [music] section. And then out west is like Centreville County, those kind [music] of spaces.

[00:21:08]>> Columbia County, but then Columbia County is like, yeah.

[00:21:11]>> It's more southern tier, [music] in my opinion, cuz it's right around Schuylkill, Montour.

[00:21:16]>> That's why this is interesting. We There is no official designation.

[00:21:20]>> Right. It's kind of up for your own interpretation.

[00:21:23]>> Professionally.

[00:21:24]>> Yeah. But so when we make the weather [music] breakdown, northeast, south central, it has a little bit to do with elevation. We think of the Pocono Plateau, >> Right.

[00:21:31]>> elevated area, generally [music] over 1,500 ft east of Scranton, but some people put like Jim Thorpe [music] in the Poconos, some people put Monocacy in the Poconos, others don't. It's all loose. There's no official designation for this stuff.

[00:21:45]>> No, and I but I think that's the fun of it all.

[00:21:47]>> That is.

[00:21:48]>> Create your own [laughter] spaces every once in a while.

[00:21:51]>> the next one >> [music] >> is all opinion-based. Are you ready for this one?

[00:21:55]>> I'm excited for this one.

[00:21:56]>> We just had a heat wave.

[00:21:59]Which do you people prefer, a heat wave or a cold snap? She says this, "Would you rather" I want your opinion on this.

[00:22:07]Five days of [music] 98° or five days under 10°?

[00:22:12]>> Ooh, five days of 98° or above. GIVE ME THE HEAT.

[00:22:15]>> YES! YES! YES! I WIN. BONNIE WORKING THE CAMERA, SHE LOVES WINTER, she loves skiing, she's saying no. Here's how I can settle that really quickly.

[00:22:25]Would you be able to stand outside for say 2-3 hours in 98° for five days in a row? [music] >> Yeah, I think so.

[00:22:33]>> Try that.

[00:22:34]Try that under 10. You'd be dead in an hour or two.

[00:22:38]>> At least.

[00:22:39]>> Yeah. So those people claim to like the cold, they're liars. It kills. I can hang out here in 90° easily, right?

[00:22:45]>> Little water jug next to you, just hanging out.

[00:22:48]>> If it were 10 below zero and we were naked, [music] we'd be dead.

[00:22:52]>> We would be.

[00:22:52]>> That's a disturbing thought.

[00:22:53]>> I I had to pause for a second.

[00:22:55]>> [laughter] >> Keep the questions coming, some fun, some scientific, [music] some dealing with the official guy here with designations, WEATHER AT WNEP.COM.

[00:23:07]>> [laughter] >> AND WE'LL HAVE SOME FUN WITH IT.

[00:23:11]>> [laughter] >> THANKS JOE FOR THE EXPLANATION, [music] AND THANKS for putting one pedal in front of another all week for the kids at Saint Joseph Center. We're rooting for you all the way. Please go to wnep.com [music] to donate if you can.

[00:23:24]We hope you had some fun and maybe even learned a thing or two with us. We'll see you next week.