User talk:Mkieper

Let me be the first to say hello! Very shortly, someone from the Welcoming Committee will post here, but until then let me give you two hints. Welcome, and I edit but am not an administrator (a highly experienced and trusted editor with some special powers) or a sysop. Finally, you can visit my (or anyone else's) userpage by typing user:Simesa Simesa 00:46, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

Thanks much! I just created a user login yesterday...however before that, in the past month, I have made some significant edits to the Hurricane Katrina page and also other tropical meteorological topics such as the loop current, as an anonymous user. As time permits, I will continue to add current tropical weather information. To reflect the broad reader base of Wikipedia, I'll be providing the information in as non-technical a manner as possible. I'll probably be reviewing and updating existing entries as I can get to them. Mkieper 16:03, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

Hi guys...sorry I have been OOC for so long, but Watching Wilma took up all my extra time. One of the most facinating storms ever, in one of the most facinating hurricane seasons ever (I think the hurricane season of 2005 probably deserves its own page). It is as if every Cat 5 that followed the first one, knew to raise the bar. Five times this season we have seen explosive deepening, starting with the "insane" rate of Dennis, and each time at a remarkable rate until Wilma, setting the new record that I think will take a long time to be surpassed, if ever. That first recon, that found the 901mb...some wild ride. We were all speechless at that jaw-dropping recon msg.

There are still five weeks left in the season. I am pretty certain we will see "Beta." I think my best plan is to wait until Jan, and then revisit everything and work on updating Wiki at that point. Can you spell hurricane burnout, LOL.Mkieper 17:50, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

Since no one has officially done so...
Welcome! (We can't say that loud/big enough!)

Here are a few links you might find helpful:


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If you have any questions or problems, no matter what they are, leave me a message on my talk page.

We're so glad you're here! Tito xd (?!? - did you read this?) 06:02, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Dvorak technique
I wasn't sure why you had removed the link you put into the Dvorak technique until I ran into the same wiki problems it looks like you probably did. Apparently line breaks inside of a wiki-link break them. At any rate, it's back in now. TimL 21:50, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks! Yes, it wouldn't load properly and I didn't know enough Wiki to figure it out. That Franklin and Brown paper was interesting, and definitely rated a link. Much appreciated. Margie 01:45, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

Hurricane Katrina
Thanks for adding information to the Mississippi section of the article. However, since it is a very controversial article, we need to be a bit strict about references. Where did you get the data from? Drop the links on my talk page, and I'll format them correctly to avoid any problems. Tito xd (?!?) 05:20, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

I will try to get some other Mississippi folk involved, and please email me if you are looking for any particular links (after almost a year of research, I probably have them). Margie 01:49, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

Just a question
Hey, rather silly question, would you happen to be the Margie Kieper from Weather Underground? --Core desat  04:08, 13 December 2006 (UTC)
 * That's the first thing I thought when I saw your post at the 2006 talk page - "Margie Kieper?" :P – Chacor 10:30, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Yes, there's not many Kieper's out there. Hi, sorry I am not here very often. I just came by tonight to find a reference to Summit Camp on the Greenland Glacier to answer a question from Steve G. Yes, Jeff asked me to start a blog this past summer, which, after a couple weeks, I realized would be the ideal place to write about Katrina. I read you guys all the time on s2k when reading about the WestPAC storms. I used to have an s2k login but for the life of me I can't remember what it was, so I never log in there anymore. The blog keeps me so busy now I had to abandon plans to try to spend time at Wiki. Which is a shame because I am the biggest researcher (curiosity, mainly -- I should have been a reporter). Margie 02:47, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

Welcome!
Welcome to the Tropical cyclone Wikiproject! I'm glad you decided to join, as we can always use more members - whether you fix small mistakes, copyedit, or write featured articles, any help is great. As a member, you will receive information from the project on various aspects. First, here is a template form letter describing the ideal format for a tropical cyclone article.

Dear Tropical cyclone editor,

As a member of the Tropical Cyclone Wikiproject, you are receiving this message to describe how you can better tropical cyclone articles. There are hundreds of tropical cyclone articles, though many of them are poorly organized and lacking in information. Using the existing featured articles as a guide line, here is the basic format for the ideal tropical cyclone article. Good luck with future writing, and if you have a question about the above, don't hesitate to ask.
 * 1) Infobox- Whenever possible, the infobox should have a picture for the tropical cyclone. The picture can be any uploaded picture about the storm, though ideally it should be a satellite shot of the system. If that is not available, damage pictures, either during the storm or after the storm, are suitable. In the area that says Formed, indicate the date on which the storm first developed into a tropical depression. In the area that says Dissipated, indicate the date on which the storm lost its tropical characteristics. This includes when the storm became extratropical, or if it dissipated. If the storm dissipated and reformed, include the original start date and the final end date. Highest winds should be the local unit of measurement for speed (mph in non-metric countries, km/h in metric countries), with the other unit in parenthesis. The lowest pressure should be in mbars. Damages should, when available, be in the year of impact, then the present year. The unit of currency can be at your discretion, though typically it should be in USD. Fatalities indicate direct deaths first, then indirect deaths. Areas affected should only be major areas of impact. Specific islands or cities should only be mentioned if majority of the cyclone's effects occurred there.
 * 2) Intro- The intro for every article should be, at a minimum, 2 paragraphs. For more impacting hurricanes, it should be 3. The first should describe the storm in general, including a link to the seasonal article, its number in the season, and other statistics. The second should include a brief storm history, while the third should be impact.
 * 3) Storm history- The storm history should be a decent length, relatively proportional to the longevity of the storm. Generally speaking, the first paragraph should be the origins of the storm, leading to the system reaching tropical storm status. The second should be the storm reaching its peak. The third should be post-peak until landfall and dissipation. This section is very flexable, depending on meteorological conditions, but it should generally be around 3. Storm histories can be longer than three paragraphs, though they should be less than five. Anything more becomes excessive. Remember, all storm impacts, preparations, and records can go elsewhere. Additional pictures are useful here. If the picture in the infobox is of the storm at its peak, use a landfall picture in the storm history. If the picture in the infobox is of the storm at its landfall, use the peak. If the landfall is its peak, use a secondary peak, or even a random point in the storm's history.
 * 4) Preparations- The preparations section can be any length, depending on the amount of preparations taken by people for the storm. Hurricane watches and warnings need to be mentioned here, as well as the number of people evacuated from the coast. Include numbers of shelters, and other info you can find on how people prepared for the storm.
 * 5) Impact- For landfalling storms, the impact section should be the majority of the article. First, if the storm caused deaths in multiple areas, a death table would work well in the top level impact section. A paragraph of the general effects of the storm is also needed. After the intro paragraph, impact should be broken up by each major area. It depends on the information, but sections should be at least one paragraph, if not more. In the major impact areas, the first paragraph should be devoted to meteorological statistics, including rainfall totals, peak wind gusts on land, storm surge, wave heights, beach erosion, and tornadoes. The second should be actual damage. Possible additional paragraphs could be detailed information on crop damage or specifics. Death and damage tolls should be at the end. Pictures are needed, as well. Ideally, there would be at least one picture for each sub-section in the impact, though this sometimes can't happen. For storms that impact the United States or United States territories, this site can be used for rainfall data, including an image of rainfall totals.
 * 6) Aftermath- The aftermath section should describe foreign aid, national aid, reconstruction, short-term and long-term environmental effects, and disease. Also, the storm's retirement information, whether it happened or not, should be mentioned here.
 * 7) Records- This is optional, but can't hurt to be included.
 * 8) Other- The ideal article should have inline sourcing, with the  formatting being preferable. Always double check your writing and make sure it makes sense.

Next is the latest edition of our monthly newsletter.

Number 10, March 4, 2007 The Hurricane Herald This is the monthly newsletter of WikiProject Tropical Cyclones. The Hurricane Herald aims to give a summary, both of the activities of the WikiProject and global tropical cyclone activity. If you wish to change how you receive this newsletter, or no longer wish to receive it, please add your username to the appropriate section on the mailing list.

Storm of the month Cyclone Favio developed well to the east of northern Madagascar on February 12 and moved to the southwest as it developed. The storm did not significantly intensify until February 19 when it was just off the soutern coast of Madagascar, but rapidly intenstified soon after to its peak with 185 km/h (115 mph) winds. Favio turned to the northwest and hit Mozambique worsening the floods already occuring in the country. Favio claimed at least 4 lives and destroyed thousands of homes.

Other tropical cyclone activity There were a total of 6 tropical cyclones in the southern hemisphere during February. Five of these, including Favio, were in the South West Indian Ocean.
 * The only other storm in the Australian region was Cyclone Nelson which formed at the end of January in the Gulf of Carpentaria before it hit Queensland.
 * Cyclone Dora was active in January and reached its peak as an annular cyclone on February 3 with 185 km/h (115 mph) winds.
 * Cyclone Gamede was an unusally large storm that prompted the highest level of cyclone warning on Réunion and brought strong winds to the island on February 27, causing a bridge to collapse.
 * Neither Enok towards the start of the month or Humba near its end, had any impact on land.

Member of the month The February member of the month is Miss Madeline. Miss Madeline is responsible for many of the projects featured lists such as List of Category 5 Pacific hurricanes and List of California hurricanes. She has also put serious work into many of our Pacific hurricane articles since she joined the project as one of its founding members. Recently she has worked on 1996 Pacific hurricane season, bringing it from a stub-class article to a Good article candidate.

New and improved articles
 * New featured content: Hurricane Erika (1997), Effects of Hurricane Isabel in Maryland and Washington, D.C., Meteorological history of Hurricane Wilma, 2000 Sri Lanka Cyclone, Hurricane Isabel and List of Florida hurricanes (pre-1900).
 * New Good articles include Hurricane Pauline, Hurricane Isis (1998), 1939 Pacific typhoon season, Typhoon Tip and 1983 Atlantic hurricane season.
 * New articles include Hurricane Isis (1998), Hurricane Debby (1982), Hurricane Adolph (2001), Hurricane Alberto (1982) and Tropical Depression One (1992).

Main Page content
 * Entries from 6 articles: Hurricane Flossy (1956), Hurricane Able (1951), Meteorological history of Hurricane Wilma, Effects of Hurricane Wilma in the Bahamas, Tropical Depression One (1992) and Tropical cyclone basins appeared on the Main Page in the Did you know column during February.

New articles and improvements wanted
 * Articles are wanted on Pacific typhoon, North Indian cyclone, diffluence, Outflow (meteorology) and Central dense overcast.
 * Improvements are wanted to Subtropical cyclone, Japan Meteorological Agency, Intertropical Convergence Zone, 1919 Florida Keys Hurricane Hurricane Ivan and Hurricane Andrew.

Storm article statistics

Comments wanted on project talk Many discussions that potentially have far reaching impact for the whole project are carried out on the project's talk page. However, only a fraction of our active contributors actually engage in those discussions. If you add the project page to your Watchlist and keep an eye on discussions there to monitor upcoming changes, even if you don't participate in those discussions it would help both yourself and the project as a whole. For instance, at the moment the primary infobox templates such as Infobox hurricane are in the process of being deprecated and replaced by new versions which do the role more effectively.

Don't worry if the above seems daunting. You don't have to be an expert. All you need is some skills in researching and writing. The Tropical cyclone Wikiproject is quickly becoming one of the leading sources of centralized information on tropical cyclones; we have dozens of featured articles and almost 100 good articles. As such, we ask that any information you add be sourced. If you don't mind me asking, what area do you plan on working on? There are ongoing projects in each basin and time period around the world, just so you know. If you have any questions, feel free to give me a post. Additionally, the Wikiproject has its own channel on IRC. Just click the link to the left, enter your name, type irc.freenode.net as the server, and type #wiki-hurricanes as the channel. Good luck, have fun, and I look forward to seeing you around. Hurricanehink ( talk ) 18:43, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

Well, thanks for inviting me to join! As I told Titoxd, my time is a little limited right now, but I'll be glad to participate. Margie 12:55, 19 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Excellent! Every little bit helps. Hurricanehink ( talk ) 15:09, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

Re: WPAC
Heya Margie. That should definitely be changed, but I can't find where that problem exists! Could you pass along a link? Cheers. ♬♩ Hurricanehink ( talk ) 02:20, 16 December 2008 (UTC)
 * I see. Well, that table (as far as I know) is the general time period when the storms formed, not necessarily the official season. The same happens with the North Indian Ocean, which also doesn't have an official season. ♬♩ Hurricanehink ( talk ) 06:16, 16 December 2008 (UTC)
 * The table is titled "Season lengths." I'm just going to pass on again that research mets in the field have observed that the information is wrong.  Margie (talk) 01:35, 17 December 2008 (UTC)