The whole ordeal was pretty uneventful.. Until I met Laurie.

She was wearing a pink hat to cover the fact that she had lost her hair.

But what was most memorable about meeting her was her positive attitude.

She told me (in the 4 minutes or so that we talked) that she had originally gone in for a colonoscopy. (If I remember correctly, it was because a family member had been diagnosed with colon cancer.)

After the all clear on the colonoscopy.. Her docs suggested while she was there she should have a mammogram.

And that’s when they found the breast cancer.

Laurie looks like she’s my age. Her kids are older.. Maybe in middle and high school. But my age!

That’s when it hit me .. How lucky I was to have that piece of good news in my hand.

But it was lucky for her, too, that her doctor urged her to get that mammogram.

It actually took me a year to finally do it. My doctor’s office kept calling to remind me and I kept putting it off. I don’t know what I was worried about. I was in and out of there in about 20 minutes. And it DID NOT HURT. I repeat.. DID NOT HURT. Maybe it’s because I breast fed my children.. but it was a piece of cake.

 
So here’s my October is Breast Cancer Awareness message for you. GET A MAMMOGRAM.

Laurie did.. And it saved her life.

It might feel like summer just started, but today marks the official start of the meteorological Fall. It leaves behind a season full of records.

The average temperature during the meteorological summer, which runs from June through August, was 65.2°. That number may not mean a lot to you, but it means that this summer was the 12th coolest on record!

Not only was it cool, but we haven’t had a lot of precipitation. When you don’t get precipitation, it is hard to get severe weather. The only reports of severe weather this summer were on July 27th, when Green Lake County experienced a weak tornado and small hail. It was the first time on record, that there was no report of severe weather in the month of June.

The National Weather Service, in Green Bay, only issued 29 severe weather warnings this summer. The next fewest ever issued in a summer was 83 in 1997.

Of course it is still possible to get severe weather over the next couple of months, but attention will start to shift towards cooler temperatures.

The average high for this time of year is 75°, but by the last day of the meteorological fall, which is November 30th, the average high is only 35°. During the same time period, the average low falls from 53° to 19°.

If you aren’t quite ready for the cooler temperatures, the good news is that warm weather is ahead over the next week. Meanwhile, the Climate Prediction Center, thinks that above average temperatures will continue over the next three months. This doesn’t mean that every day will have warm temperatures, but as a general consensus, the CPC believes that temperatures will trend warmer than cooler.

But even with above average temperatures, the mercury will continue to slide over the next few months, and the form of precipitation will shift from rain to snow. In fact, Green Bay has even seen a trace of snow by the third week of September. However, on average the first measurable snowfall, doesn’t occur till November 11th.

Until Next Time,

Meteorologist Andrew Thut

A Different Kind of Camping

   Welcome back to Packers Training Camp!  It’s a whole new look this year- for everyone involved.  For the players, the new field takes a little getting used to, but the slipping and sliding around of the first day seemed to get a little better on day two of camp.  For the fans, it’s a much better view of camp, as they have a place to watch that is a little more comfortable than dodging the traffic on Oneida.  With the raised stands, they get a better view, and can hear the players better as well.   For the media, it isn’t that much different, though we have a nice afternoon shade spot, thanks to the Don Hutson Center.

   Sunday was offensive penalty day at camp.  Not officially, of course, but it could have been.  False starts, illegal snaps, poor play.  At one point I thought Aaron Rodgers was going to pop someone.  Still, lots of time left in camp to clean that up.  Even with the new system being put in place, the defense looks to be ahead of the offense right now.  Some players have been standing out- Jeremy Thompson looks good in coverage- he told me he lost some weight, trying to get quicker- though he hasn’t be able to get by the likes of Chad Clifton.  No one gets by Chad Clifton in training camp, by the way.  They just don’t.

      Hopefully the kinks will be worked out as they go along.   Hit of camp so far, by the way, Nick Collins giving DeShawn Wynn a forearm shot and de-cleated him!   We’ll hopefully get more fun as the days go on.

     Wimbledon is one of my favorite sporting events of the year.  I generally watch hours of tennis during the fortnight, once even subscribing to HBO (where they used to show much of the early action) just to watch Wimbledon.   I lived in England for four years growing up (and actually went to grade school in the town of Wimbledon for about four months), and though I never got to go to the tournament-the year I was old enough, I got pneumon- I did watch Davis Cup tennis at the facility.  I thought nothing would ever top last year’s finals between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, but this year’s gentlemen’s finals sure came close. 

      Five sets of tremendous tennis, with a fifth set that went longer than many full matches.  That’s some serious drama.  Federer’s win over Andy Roddick cements him as perhaps the greatest player in the open era, with 15 majors, besting the 14 of Pete Sampras.

     What strikes me is the similarities between Sampras and Federer.  Both had big serves, tremendous ground strokes, great net play, and couldn’t play on clay.  Sampras never did get his French Open, while Federer got his this year.  I had the chance to hang out with Sampras at an event in Houston years ago when he and Andre Agassi were trading titles after Agassi’s comeback, and found him very low key, focused and polite.  However, you could tell there was a burning desire to win that went with it.

      Tennis isn’t a sport that a lot of people follow like they used to.  However, it has what I love about sports: the man on man competition, hand-eye coordination, 140 mph serves, power and finesse, no ties; it’s great.  Perhaps the personalities just aren’t as compelling, but the tennis is just as good.  Hopefully Nadal’s knees allow him to be the main competition to Federer for the next couple of years.

   The Packers had their OTA today on Clarke Hinkle Field, and here is a running diary of some of what went on.  Conditions: Sunny, but breezy and chilly.

11:15 am- WR Donald Driver is here!  He’s decided to make an appearance after last week getting thrown about the media with possible contract renegotiation demands.  Seemed to be healthy, and made some nice catches.

11:20- C Scott Wells is in a t-shirt and isn’t practicing.  He is going to have a tough time keeping his starting job this year, I think.  Jason Spitz has looked sharp at center, and with the talent they are bringing back on the offensive line, Wells could be the odd man out when all is said and done.  Needs to get healthy first, however.

11:30- K Mason Crosby gives a wave as I walk by.  Kickers are interesting people.  They are very serious about their craft, but not as serious about their job.   They (kickers) are the butt of a lot of camp jokes, but the get that, and are ok with it.  I don’t know if the other players consider them “football” players as they stretch and kneel on the other side of the field, but Mason is as good as they come.

11:35- A fan drives down Holmgren and honks his horn the ENTIRE length of the field, all the way to the end.  Players don’t even look up.  Impressive honking dedication, however.

11:37- A bus of school kids comes by, with kids hanging out the window screaming for the Packers.  I mean, no where else in the country would have a scene like this, right?

11:40- If you haven’t had a chance to get down to the open OTA, you have missed a very impressive afro by Nick Barnett.  I don’t think he has cut his hair since his knee injury.  He isn’t practicing, but I wonder if his helmet size has increased, he has so much hair…

11:45- Just tweeted from camp.  Ain’t technology grand?  If you haven’t signed up to follow us on Twitter, do it!  Search “fox11sports” to find us.

11:48- OL Josh Sitton just stopped past to get a drink, and I can see what he has been working on in the off-season: A ‘fro of his own!  I think with Mark Tauscher out of the picture, Sitton and Alan Barbre are competing for “most unruly head and face of hair” in camp.

11:50- Ball security drills.  Cool new one for the offensive line: a bunch of blocking pads are piled up with a ball beneath them.  It’s a fumble recovery drill, and at the whistle the big O-lineman dives into the pads to find the football.  I find myself thinking this would be a fun game for my 5-year-old’s birthday party next week.

11:55- Have a nice conversation with former NFL, AFL QB and Sturgeon Bay grad Chris Greisen about his career.  Our daughters were in pre-school together.  He is going to try out for the new UFL, which has their draft later this month.  Just four teams, with a six week schedule, then a championship game, playing between September and November.  He’s hoping to be able to hook on.  He says they pay pretty well:  $30-200 thousand for just six games= not bad.  Best of luck to him!

12:00- The noon whistle blows, and RB Deshawn Wynn fumbles a kick off return.  I don’t think the two were related.

12:05- Special teams session going on, and ST coach Shawn Slocum isn’t happy with the preparation of the players.   Justin Harrell is urged to please take a gander at the playbook a little more often, though not in those exact words.  This is a family friendly blog, after all.

12:12- Individual drills are starting, and I’m watching the RB’s.  New FB Quinn Johnson (5^th round pick) seems to be the guy they pick on, since he’s the only rookie.  First, Edgar Bennett gets him to jump off-sides, which gives everyone a chuckle, then hitting the sled, he gets in trouble for pin-wheeling his arms before laying into it, provoking chants of “He’s winding up!” from the rest of the players.  Johnson has to do the drill again! 

         I also have to remark that Ryan Grant looks considerably thinner as opposed to the end of the season.  Don’t know if that is on purpose, or just an off-season weight.

12:20- Checking out the Offensive Line drills.  Sitton is a very technically sound lineman, in the drills, at least.  He gets praise from the coaches, and I think will start at the right guard spot this year, if Spitz plays center.   New lineman TJ Lang (3^rd rounder) gets some good encouragement from coach James Campen.

12:26- New defensive line coach Mike Trgovac is very hands on, literally.  He just grabbed new tackle BJ Raji (1^st rounder) by the shirt, moving him around to show him what he wanted.  And BJ is not little.

12:47- WR Jordy Nelson has made some very nice catches this session- will he become a bigger part of the team this year?  This is his time if he wants to step it up.  I don’t know if James Jones is as secure as some think, especially if Jordy can string together some good practices.

12:55- OLB (!) Aaron Kampman just looks a little weird playing in an up stance.  But he just knocked away a pass, and OLB coach Kevin Greene went nuts!  I think it is going to be fun to see Kevin Greene on the sidelines this year.   He has said he doesn’t remember much of his NFL career (“I’ve had a lot of concussions,” he told me a couple of months ago.), but he has the passion, that’s for sure.

12:58- C Jason Spitz just threw a cut block on BJ Raji, who jumped up to complain, but realized no one was going to listen to him.  Welcome to the league, rook!

1:10- Last play of the OTA, S Aaron Rouse gets the pick of QB Brian Brohm.  Back-up QB’s didn’t have a great day.  But hey- that’s what practice is for!

I don’t know about you, but it seems like it always rains over Memorial Day weekend. This thought has sparked my curiosity to do some research on the weather over past Memorial Day weekends.

It turns out that it does rain on most Memorial Day weekends. Since 1975, 76% of the holiday weekends have recorded rainfall on at least one day, whether it is Saturday, Sunday or Monday. That leaves 24% of the weekends completely dry.

In the past fourteen years we have only seen one completely dry weekend, that was in 2003. Ironically the following year was the wettest Memorial Day weekend since 1975. Here is the list of the wettest Memorial Days.

While the statistic do show that rain is common over Memorial Day weekend, that doesn’t mean that all Memorial Day weekends are crummy. Take 2006 for example when the mercury rose to 89° on Memorial Day. In fact on every day that weekend the temperatures topped 80°. It was one of the hottest Memorial Day weekends on record.

Until Next Time,
Meteorologist Andrew Thut

      Phil Mickleson is a study in contrasts in his golf game.  He’s a gambler who goes for amazing shots, making some of them, but a player who plays with precision around the greens.  He’s a player who has won dozens of tournaments, but a brain freeze cost him a US Open.  However, there is no doubt where his priorities lie.  When his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, he did not hesitate, immediately cancelling all plans, including playing on the tour, to be with his family.

     Mickleson’s family has grown up in front of golf fans, starting with finishing second to the late Payne Stewart in the US Open in 1999, with Payne cupping Phil’s face in his hands, telling him just after Stewart’s winning putt went down not to worry about the title, that it would never mean nearly as much as the impending birth of Phil’s first daughter.  From there to the sight, over and over, of Phil’s wife and little girls running onto the green to help him celebrate a tournament win, including three majors.

      I’m not a huge Phil fan, but I absolutely applaud his dedication to his family and wish his wife Amy the very best in her recovery.  Here’s hoping all goes well, and we see Phil back on the course soon, back to a normal life with a wife who is cancer free.

Many Americans view Memorial Day as the unofficial beginning of summer and Labor Day as the unofficial end of the season. “Unofficially” speaking this summer will be the longest possible.

Memorial Day, which is on the last Monday in May, is on its earliest day possible this year, May 25th. Meanwhile, Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is on its latest day possible, September 7th.  The key word here is unofficial.

Meteorologically speaking, summer occupies the months of June, July and August in the northern Hemisphere… but it still isn’t the official start of summer. One look at the 2009 calendar reveals that summer officially starts on June 21st. It marks the summer solstice and the astronomical and official start to summer.

To understand the way the seasons work, let’s back track to the first of spring. On the vernal equinox the northern and southern Hemisphere’s receive an equal amount of light, and days occupy nearly the same amount of time as the nights.

But on the day following the vernal equinox, the northern Hemisphere will begin to tilt towards the sun. By the time the summer solstice arrives (June 21), the earth tilts as far towards the sun as possible. This marks the longest day of the year. In Green Bay the sun will rise at 5:07 AM and set at 8:40 PM, which converts to over 15 hours of daylight.
But on the very next day, the northern Hemisphere will begin to tilt away from the sun, and we will slowly head towards another long Wisconsin winter… sorry I had to bring it up.

So as you fire up your grill this weekend, and soak in all of the activities that Memorial Day weekend offers, remember that while it will feel like summer, the official start to the season is still a few weeks away.

Until Next Time,

Meteorologist Andrew Thut

One of the most damaging thunderstorms in Wisconsin’s history struck the area 9 years ago today. There was a weak tornado from this thunderstorm that briefly touched down just outside of St. Nazianz, but no damage was reported. The damage, however, from this storm was as a result of large hail and straight-line winds. It caused $122 million dollars in damage. Just to give you some perspective, the costliest tornado in Wisconsin’s history caused $84 million (adjusted for inflation) worth of damage. That was the F5 tornado that struck Barneveld in 1984.

You might be wondering how this could happen? But when you put the event in perspective, it makes sense that it was more costly than the Barneveld tornado.  Hail damaged more than 1,000 homes in Omro and Chilton. In addition, most homes in a mobile home park in St. Nazianz were overturned or knocked off their foundation by the straight-line winds.

Most severe weather in this part of the nation occurs in the afternoon and evening, when instability is highest, but this storm struck before noon on May 12th of 2000. The supercell thunderstorm developed to the north of a warm front which was located along the Wisconsin/Illinois border.

Below is a radar image taken at 10:30 am. At this time the storm was producing large hail over western and central Waushara counties. The highest reflectivity represents the area where the large hail fell. Hail the size of baseballs was reported in Red Granite.

The line from A to B represent a cross-section shown below.

As you can see the top of the storm reached nearly 60,000 feet in the atmosphere.

The supercell didn’t lose strength as it continued to advance through Winnebago, Calumet and Manitowoc counties. Straight-line winds reached 80 mph in Chilton, with speeds of 100 mph in St. Nazianz (EF1 tornadoes have estimated wind speeds around 100 mph) In both locations there were also reports of hail larger than the size of a golf ball. The wind-driven hail shredded west facing sides of homes and businesses.

This storm was so significant that its effects were even visible from space. Below is a false color satellite image taken one week after the storms passed. The green areas represent vegetation while the pink/brown color represents urban areas or bare soil. It is easy to identify pink/brown line from Lake Winnebago to Manitowoc, that is the same path the storm took.

Until Next Time,
Meteorologist Andrew Thut

Walk up and down a supermarket’s produce aisle and you’re likely to see a lot of fruits and vegetables labeled “Grown in Mexico.” What if, say, you pick up some peppers from Mexico and toss them in a salad – are you at risk of getting swine flu?
Curiosity about swine flu’s ability to survive on produce inspired one of the questions in this edition of “Ask AP,” a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers’ questions about the news.
If you have your own news-related question that you’d like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to newsquestions@ap.org, with “Ask AP” in the subject line. And please include your full name and hometown so they can be published with your question.
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On “Dancing With The Stars,” are the celebrity contestants and professional dancers paid by the season or the number of shows they remain on?
Bill Hart
Canton, Ohio
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Networks generally don’t disclose what they pay on-air talent, including the professionals on “Dancing With the Stars.”
But the contract of the dancing competition’s youngest celebrity, made public because she’s under 18, shows us that at least the contestants are compensated for sticking around.
In order to participate in this season’s competition, Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson had to have a judge approve a minor’s contract. That agreement spelled out that Johnson receives $125,000 for appearing on the show and the finale, and makes significantly more per week the longer she lasts. For weeks three and four, Johnson will receive $10,000 per week; for the final two weeks, she would receive $50,000 a week.
There are no such public records filed in Los Angeles that indicate how the pro dancers are paid.
Anthony McCartney
AP Entertainment Writer
Los Angeles
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How long do swine flu germs live on produce? I bought peppers from Mexico yesterday, as I do most weeks. I had a very bad flu (102 fever) five weeks ago.
If a worker was sick and did not know it, could coughing or handling the produce, without enough hand-washing, make this a source of contagion?
(And I mean no disrespect to the workers – it is hard to maintain perfect sanitary behavior all the time, while under pressure to get lots of work done.)
E. Bresler
Rhode Island
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Imported produce is not an influenza threat. Flu viruses can live on hard surfaces like doorknobs for only a few hours. And flu specialists say there’s no evidence that any strain of flu has ever been transmitted by any kind of food.
Lauran Neergaard
AP Medical Writer
Washington
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Each year, the flu vaccine is made up of a mixture of “expected” viruses, such as H3N4 plus H5N2. Why don’t they just include everything each year from H1N1 to H5N5?
Fred Clark
Albuquerque, N.M.
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That would be unworkable.
First, there are 16 known versions of hemagglutinin (the H) and nine neuraminidases (the N). But these basic surface proteins aren’t the whole story. There are numerous subtypes of each – with new ones mutating all the time – and the fall vaccine attempts to match the three most-circulating subtypes.
This fall’s vaccine, for instance, includes a version of H3N2 called Brisbane/10.
Lauran Neergaard
AP Medical Writer
Washington
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Have questions of your own? Send them to newsquestions@ap.org.