Geobulletin alpha

The Bolt from the Blue That Can Kill You 

Most folks know to get inside when a thunderstorm approaches, and we meteorologists keep telling folks that unless you are in tornado alley, you’re much more likely to die in a flood or by lightning, than a tornado. The word is getting out, because deaths due to lightning have dropped dramatically over the past 60 years. Even so, most folks worry much more about tornadoes than floods or lightning bolts,

A Reverence for Rivers (3): Piling up a heritage of conflict and litigation over water rights 

We only have ONE hydrologic system, dammit! School kids know that (it's in all their textbooks), geologists, geophysicists, geomorphologists, environmental scientists and ecologists, climatologists and meteorologists, resource scientists, most engineers, and a hell of a lot of people on

This Has Meteorologists Talking Today 

An interesting paper came out today, and it has we meteorologists talking. It’s about using sea water temperature patterns in the Pacific to forecast heat waves in the eastern portions of North America. Researchers found that when a certain pattern of water temperatures appeared, there would often be unusually hot weather in the Eastern U.S. about 40-50 days later. A statistical analysis using this method over the years 1982-2013 showed

In Case You Saw This in Forbes- It’s laughably wrong. 

I suspect that some meteorologists are going to get some questions about a propaganda piece in Forbes stating that 2015 was not the hottest year on record. Trust me it was. NASA, The UK Met Office, and NOAA all do their own calculations and they say it was. Not only that, but their methods have been published in multiple papers, in the top journals of science. Forbes, instead of reporting

Paying It Forward At The AMS Annual Meeting 

I’m in New Orleans to attend the 96th annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, and today I spent some time talking with students and young professionals about what awaits them as meteorologists. It’s not an easy task, because I suspect the changes they will see in their careers will be even more dramatic than I have witnessed since I graduated from the Univ. of Oklahoma 34 years ago! As

What A Cold Front! 

A rather incredible surface temperature chart greeted meteorologists this afternoon. An extremely sharp frontal boundary separated very warm weather from unusually cold. Behind the front, temperatures were 10-20 degrees below average, and ahead of it 10-15 degrees above average, and in some spots the departure from normal was even greater. Look at the temperatures at 1 PM EST and you can see that towns in western MS were reporting temps.

How to tell if it will snow or not! 

Satellite image from the University of Dundee, January 2010 Usually I end up writing my ‘In Defence of Meteorologists’ posts after negative incidents – namely, when people complain about them failing to have performed their duty as magical future-telling wizards with 100% accuracy… But this time I’m writing it following a happy incident. It’s snowed

Four Physics Videos Everyone Should Watch 

I really love the fact that physicists are sharing physics so widely online. There are some fabulous videos that will blow your mind, and teachers, you really consider spending some time in class watching them. So, with that in mind, here are some of my fave videos. Being a geek, I even knew the one about tides, but I can tell you that many meteorologists do not! I still remember

Tornado outbreaks forecast for week of April 6; lunar eclipse 

Dr. Greg Forbes of the Weather Channelreviewing large tornado outbreaksJust because I moved out of the Midwest doesn't mean that I have lost my interest in tornadoes! So, to my friends in Illinois, I'm still thinking of you!! Forty one years ago there was a "super outbreak" of 147 tornadoes through Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and surrounding states. All told, there were 147 tornadoes recorded on April 3-4, 1974. This was exceeded only on April 26-28, 2011 when 293 [...]

Milky Rain in Eastern Washington, a donation from Oregon! 

Sample of the 'milky rain' that hit Eastern Washingtonfrom KOMONEWS.com hereSample taken in the rain gauge at the NWS office, SpokaneLast Friday a "white, milky rain" fell across parts of Eastern Washington, Oregon and Idaho, falling on 15 cities and grabbing headlines even in USA Today. Initial speculation about the cause even included the speculation that it was volcanic ash from a distant volcanic eruption. The Walla Walla County emergency management staff attributed the ash to a January [...]

Georgia 4th District Congressional Candidate Involved In Chemtrail Picket of The Weather Channel 

A sitting U.S. Congressman former candidate for the 4th district of Georgia is apparently involved in a demonstration against the The Weather Channel in Atlanta. (I have corrected an earlier version that incorrectly id’s him as a congressman). Why? Because we meteorologists are hiding the truth about those white lines you see behind planes. It seems they are not just frozen water vapor produced by combustion of jet fuel, but instead are

The Governor of New York Owes an Apology to a Bunch of Meteorologists 

The Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, really stepped in it on Saturday. He’s now getting a firestorm of criticism, and he deserves every bit of it, but I want you to understand why before I go into what he said. There is an old rule among weather forecasters, and it goes like this- “Never forecast a record, you will probably be wrong!”. Now I, and many others, have broken

The Thin Line Between A Nobel Prize and a Straight-Jacket 

I’ve written frequently here about conspiracy theories, and it’s something that has long fascinated me (and many meteorologists as well, thanks to the chemtrail folks). I spotted a great piece on the subject today by Katy Waldman in Slate. I must say, that having conversed with these folks in person, and via email for 3 decades, it made a lot of sense to me. So, if you have relative or

Dead Rat Journalism, and The Ethics of Communicating Scientific Uncertainty 

  I spent all day Monday (and part of Tuesday) at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, attending a seminar on the ethics of communicating scientific uncertainty. It was hosted by the Environmental Law Institute with funding from the National Science Foundation, and it brought together a diverse group of lawyers, journalists and scientists. I was one of two meteorologists invited (Jason Samenow of the Washington Post being the other)

If British Airways Offered Jet Service To The Moon, How long A Flight Would It Be? 

Have you ever thought about how long a commercial airline flight to the Moon would take?? It’s actually a good question, and an excellent way of getting your head around the vast distances of just our own solar system. It’s actually an easy math problem, and while not all such questions are that simple, they almost all come with surprising results. Meteorologists frequently get these type questions, and  can tell

A Perspective on The Accuracy of Meteorologists 

This is a guest post by Brad Panovich the Chief Meteorologist at WCNC-TV in Charlotte, NC I know what you are thinking. “Here we go another Meteorologist telling me how great they are”. That is not the purpose of this blog post. I am simply attempting to put what we do in perspective. Plus I’m fascinated by how we perceive certain things about weather forecasting versus other professions we are

How Weather and Climate Models Work- or Why Meteorologists Learn Calculus 

Numerical weather models have come light years over the  last 30 years, and despite what you may think, they make it possible to make very accurate weather forecasts for as much as 5-7 days into the future possible. Have you ever wondered just how they work? It’s not something that you can cover in a few paragraphs, but it is not all that hard to get a basic understanding of

#Not The Polar Vortex 

That message is going around twitter this Friday afternoon, courtesy of many meteorologists. My friend Stu Ostro at The Weather Channel posted a nice graphic about it that is worth

A Busy Tuesday at the Hazardous Weather Test Bed in Norman,OK 

If a thunderstorm has an extremely strong updraft it will push all the way into the stratosphere before weakening. The air actually starts to get warmer in the stratosphere, and a warm bubble of rising air suddenly finds itself colder than the air around it, and will eventually sink back down. So, the higher the updraft penetrates, the stronger it must be. This is why meteorologists are keen to know

Another Snowstorm Heads For The East Coast But The World Is Still Warming 

It looks like another major storm will dump heavy snow from North Carolina to New York Wednesday into Thursday, but it really means very little in regard to climate change. A few of those who think it’s all a big conspiracy will email meteorologists and climatologists with snide remarks like “How’s that global warming” going for you!”, but the only thing a statement like that indicates is how little the