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You are browsing the archive for November 2014 - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.

29 November 2014

Using Your Smartphone to Improve Weather Forecasts and Warnings

You need to download an app called mPing. mPing is a free app developed by scientists at the University of Oklahoma (My alma mater!) and the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma, and it’s aim is to improve forecasts and weather models by letting everyone know what type of precipitation is falling on you right now. You might say, that we have radar for that, but in reality, radar …

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26 November 2014

El Nino Modoki Style

I just finished a rather detailed piece for my station’s website about El Nino and long range forecasting. If you really want to understand what an El Nino is, and how it can help make a long range forecast, then it’s worth a read. Click the image below to read it. I warn you that it is long form, and there are 4 videos embedded that you really should watch. …

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24 November 2014

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 …

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23 November 2014

Funny, Scary, Fascinating, and Geeky. What You Missed in Science This Week.

I am going to start doing a weekend post here with links and images from the world of geek that caught my eye this week. First up is Will Marshall and the TED talk below. Data is the fuel that science runs on, and he has figured out a way to harvest a LOT of it.   Guess what body of water is the 4th fastest warming on Earth? This …

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21 November 2014

2014 On Way to Hottest Year on Record

My friends at Climate Central produced an excellent video that you should see and share.

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20 November 2014

And This Weeks Most Scientifically Illiterate Post on Twitter Goes To…

The Heartland Institute long ago proved that they are not among the scientifically literate, but today they posted a real “LMAO fall in the floor laughing” tweet on their twitter account. Let’s talk about just how preposterous this is, and how it shows an absolute total lack of the ability to reason. So, here are 10 reasons why my little dog Riley has greater critical thinking skills than anyone who …

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19 November 2014

Western New York Buried By Lake Effect Snow Blizzard

You could hardly put together a better synoptic weather set-up for a HUGE lake effect snow event than what happened today in Buffalo. A mid-January type outbreak of Polar air rushing across the Great Lakes (that are still “November warm”), and the result is nearly 4-5 feet of snow in Western New York.Travel is totally stopped to the South (and southeast) of Buffalo this evening, and heavy lake effect is …

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18 November 2014

Seeing with Your Own Eyes- What You Can’t See with Your Own Eyes

This is a pretty amazing video from NASA Goddard. Worth a watch!

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14 November 2014

Indian Summer For The End of November?

There are growing sign,s that after one more blast of even colder air next week, we will see some much warmer air over the Central and Eastern U.S. as we head into Thanksgiving. Indian summer may be on the way! The forecast below is based on an average of many long-range model runs of the Climate Forecast System. Research shows that an average of model runs provides a more accurate …

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13 November 2014

Some Really Good Science Journalism

I saw three pieces of REALLY good science journalism today, and (in case you missed one or all three) here they are. I usually give top marks on science journalism to the BBC, but the best reporting (BY FAR) today on the Rosetta Probe and it’s Philae Lander came from MSNBC host Rachael Maddow. Well worth a watch: Next is a piece by my friend Bob Henson (who is trying …

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