19 June 2014
Meteorology In The High Mountains Of California
Posted by Dan Satterfield
Dan’s Pic at Mammoth Lakes, CA
I am at the American Meteorological Society’s 42nd Conference on Broadcast Meteorology at Squaw Valley,Ca. We are just outside of Lake Tahoe, and I drove up from Las Vegas, through Death Valley and by Mammoth Lakes. The temperature ranged from 96 in Death Valley to 46 at Mammoth, and when i awoke here in Squaw Valley this morning it was 28 degrees! I thought I’d share some pics of the drive inter-mixed with some interesting tidbits I heard in the sessions today.
In Death Valley, NP. Did you know that more states have laws against leaving pets in hot cars than for leaving children in them! The numbers of deaths is already approaching 15 this year alone. FYI: It only takes 10 minutes for the temperature in a car to approach lethal levels on a very warm day. My pic.
Jan Null of San Francisco State Univ. has some research with medical doctors and has published what is now considered the definitive paper on the subject. He has a great fact sheet HERE. Read it and think about it! There have been 618 deaths since 1998. (Updated data more recent than his website even.)
A dust devil in Death valley. These happen when rolling tubes of air get tilted upright and then stretched as hot air rises rapidly. They have NOTHING to do with tornadoes. My pic.
Bob Henson (on right). His book has the straight science on climate based on the very latest research. You will find it much more fascinating than the politics you hear on cable news show about it, and unlike most of that, it’s true. Picture by Marian Satterfield.
My friend Bob Henson from NCAR had a fantastic talk about climate science, and he has a brand new book out on it as well. He wrote the Rough Guide to Climate Change and this is an updated version published by the AMS. Bobby grew up in Oklahoma City across the street from my wife! The new book is The Thinking Person’s Guide to Climate Change. It’s based on the latest science without the politics. I highly recommend it.
One of the top experts on Climate (Dr. Don Wubbles), was here, and had a very good talk about the latest U.S. Climate Assessment. You can read a summary here. The folks at Climate Central fed us lunch and had an excellent program with updates on the latest research. Among weathercasters on TV who have a degree in atmospheric science/physics, there are very few who are skeptical of the science now. The evidence has become overwhelming.
Greg Carbin from NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center mentioned that new research by Harold Brooks at NSSL is indicating that anthropogenic warming may produce more severe storms. It was thought that while the warmer atmosphere would produce more instability, this would be offset by lessening wind shear. Both are needed for supercell thunderstorms. However, it now seems that the increase in instability (Convective Available Potential Energy-CAPE) will be more important than the drop in shear. That is relatively new science, and a real surprise. There was a study by others who reached a similar conclusion last year.
A lot of talk today about the California drought, which is now the worst in recorded history. I’ll tell you more about that and Earthquakes tomorrow. You can follow along on twitter tomorrow using the hashtag #AMS2014. I will be chairing the session on Station Science tomorrow morning.
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.
Thanks for the explanation for the dust devils. I had no idea how they worked, other than that they weren’t tornadoes.
I highly recommend a stop by the Bridgetender for lunch. Must be nice to have a little topography.