Floridians should brace themselves for a wet and wild winter, all thanks to El Nino.
The weather pattern happens every few years when the Pacific Ocean warms up around the equator. This year’s is one of the strongest El Ninos on record.
Craig Fugate, a former Floridian who once headed the state’s emergency management operations and who is now the Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator, said the last time Florida saw such a strong El Nino, dozens of people died from tornadoes.
“You just don’t think of Florida as a tornado-prone state,” said Fugate.
This month, the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program marked its 1000th space station Amateur Radio event, continuing a string that started 15 years ago, when the program established the first permanent ham radio presence in space. The inaugural ARISS contact took place on December 21, 2000, between a member of the ISS Expedition 1 crew and youngsters at Luther Burbank Elementary School near Chicago. Several pupils and a teacher got to chat on 2 meters with “Space Station Alpha” Commander William “Shep” Shepherd, KD5GSL. The contact had a rocky start. Attempts by the school a couple of days earlier had been unsuccessful, despite extensive technical preparations hampered by snowstorms and sub-freezing temperatures. That contact marked the first use of the special NA1SS call sign for a school contact. 
