Latest news with #ChrisFisher
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Stormy weather for Palm Beach County on July 4 as hurricane center watches area for development
A drooping cool front expected to loiter over Florida is forecast to make for a soggy July 4th holiday and potentially stir a weak tropical cyclone to life. The National Hurricane Center said on June 30 that there was a 20% chance of something tropical or subtropical developing over seven days along the weakening front. But forecast models have wavered in recent days and where the tropical system could form is unclear, possibly over the warm Gulf Stream waters east of the state, over Florida or in the Gulf of Mexico, now renamed as the Gulf of America by the U.S. government. 'There are still some ensembles showing development but it's less than it was a couple of days ago,' said Chris Fisher, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami. 'But for us in South Florida, it really doesn't make that much of a difference because there will be plenty of moisture and it's looking like a fairly unsettled weekend.' The NWS has a 30% to 60% chance of rain in South Florida each day through July 3, but that picks up to 70% through the day and evening of July 4 with showers in the morning and thunderstorms possible later in the day. More: Hurricane Season 2025: How the hurricane forecast cone changed this year A south to southwest breeze could keep rainfall pinned to the east coast on Friday with the Weather Prediction Center forecasting up to 4 inches of rain for parts of Palm Beach County into Saturday morning. Still, Fisher said July 4th may not be a total washout. 'It's something we're going to have to monitor as the week goes on,' he said. And while rain could hamper outdoor festivities, Fisher noted that it's sorely needed in Palm Beach County where 20% of the of the county is still in extreme drought and 55% is in moderate drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Palm Beach County is the only area in Florida where there is extreme drought. Rainfall as measured at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach was 13.4 inches below normal for the year through June 29, making it the 6th driest year in 126 years of records. July usually is the driest rainy season month for South Florida — just 5.6 inches of rain is normal for West Palm Beach compared to 8.5 inches in June — as Saharan dust plumes increasingly make their way across the Atlantic Ocean to dry out middle portions of the atmosphere. Alex DaSilva, lead hurricane forecaster for AccuWeather, said a layer of Saharan air combined with cyclone-killing wind shear will keep anything tropical that forms along the stalled front on the weaker side. More: Lightning injures 8 in Florida, kills one in different events as summer storms roil the state 'I'm thinking it won't blow up into a hurricane or anything massive,' DaSilva said. 'The rain would probably be the primary factor in whatever develops at the current time.' If a tropical or subtropical storm forms, it would be named Chantal, and would follow the short-lived Tropical Storm Andrea, that formed east of Bermuda on June 24, and Tropical Storm Barry, which was named June 29 but quickly fizzled after making landfall in Mexico as a tropical depression. Andrea and Barry put this season so far above average as far as the number of named storms. The typical second named storm doesn't form until July 17 with the third named storm forming, on average, on August 3. 'Out in the Atlantic, it looks really quiet,' DaSilva said referring to tropical development in the main runway between Africa and the Caribbean. 'There's a lot of dust, a lot of shear and a lot of cool water off Africa.' Kimberly Miller is a journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate, weather, and the environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@ Help support our local journalism, subscribe today. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: National Hurricane Center watching area near Florida for tropical development
Business Wire
26-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
AV's Wildcat Reaches Key Milestones in DARPA's ANCILLARY Program's EVADE Demonstration
ARLINGTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AeroVironment, Inc. ('AV') (NASDAQ: AVAV) announced today that its Wildcat uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) has achieved a series of development milestones in support of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Early VTOL Aircraft Demonstration (EVADE). Wildcat has successfully completed VTOL-to-forward-flight transitions, validated its core flight and propulsion systems, and begun integrating critical mission payloads—demonstrating rapid progress toward an operationally relevant capability. 'In a matter of weeks, we've gone from system integration to full forward flight transitions, all while validating key subsystems. This is what innovation at operational speed looks like.' Chris Fisher, AV's vice president of MacCready Works Novel Systems Share Wildcat is a Group 3, tail-sitting vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft designed for launch and recovery from ship decks in denied and distributed maritime environments. Its compact footprint, autonomous launch and recovery, and robust flight performance across high sea states make it a flexible and scalable solution for contested littoral operations. 'Wildcat reflects the spirit of MacCready Works - breakthrough thinking, accelerated timelines, and deep mission alignment,' said Chris Fisher, AV's vice president of MacCready Works Novel Systems. 'In a matter of weeks, we've gone from system integration to full forward flight transitions, all while validating key subsystems. This is what innovation at operational speed looks like.' Within this fast-paced program, innovations include a new Visual Precision Landing System (VPLS), an AVACORE™-enabled integration of Government Furnished Software and testing of a new modular autopilot and AI compute module all of which feed back into AV's existing product lines including the JUMP ® 20-X, P550™, and others. Recent flight testing included the expansion of Wildcat's hover envelope and the first successful transitions to forward flight using the full-scale test platform. Key systems—such as a heavy fuel propulsion system, fuel, and flight control—were validated in both hover and level flight, with aerodynamic performance confirmed across a range of airspeeds and flight profiles. These results reflect the maturity of the design and the pace of advancement within the EVADE framework. The EVADE initiative accelerates DARPA's AdvaNced airCraft Infrastructure-Less Launch And RecoverY (ANCILLARY) program Phase 2 plan, which the agency initially projected to conduct flight testing in late 2026. AV is now integrating mission-critical payloads that will enable Wildcat to support ISR, communications, and other tactical effects from a single, modular platform. In the next phase of flight tests Wildcat will perform simulated maritime missions—transitioning between hover and forward flight while executing payload-driven tasking in representative operational scenarios. Designed and developed by MacCready Works, AV's advanced development team, Wildcat embodies the company's commitment to solving the hardest challenges in autonomy, edge operations, and next-generation air dominance. About AEROVIRONMENT, INC. AeroVironment ('AV') (NASDAQ: AVAV) is a defense technology leader delivering integrated capabilities across air, land, sea, space, and cyber. The company develops and deploys autonomous systems, precision strike systems, counter-UAS technologies, space-based platforms, directed energy systems, and cyber and electronic warfare capabilities—built to meet the mission needs of today's warfighter and tomorrow's conflicts. With a national manufacturing footprint and a deep innovation pipeline, AV delivers proven systems and future-defining capabilities with speed, scale, and operational relevance. For more information, visit SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT Certain statements in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are made on the basis of current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, economic, competitive, governmental and technological factors outside of our control, that may cause our business, strategy or actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, our ability to perform under existing contracts and obtain additional contracts; changes in the regulatory environment; the activities of competitors; failure of the markets in which we operate to grow; failure to expand into new markets; failure to develop new products or integrate new technology with current products; and general economic and business conditions in the United States and elsewhere in the world. For a further list and description of such risks and uncertainties, see the reports we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We do not intend, and undertake no obligation, to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
