You are browsing the archive for December 2015 - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.
30 December 2015
2016 Brings A Changing Weather Pattern, but El Nino and The Hot Oceans Still Rule.
The weather pattern is finally changing. We’ve seen 5-6 weeks of extreme warmth in the Eastern U.S., floods and tornadoes in the south, and in the West, cold and snow. The new year will be different, but it will still be a rather mild and wet El Nino pattern, just not as warm as it has been in Eastern North America. The polar jet will dip down closer to New …
28 December 2015
Bizarre December Weather Continues
The Garland, Texas tornado (on Boxing Day) has been rated EF 4 with winds around 200 mph. The Doppler radar network now using dual polarization made it possible to know that the tornado was on the ground and lofting debris into the air. This is perfect example of how fundamental science research can lead to life saving technology. Below is an update on the Dallas area tornado outbreak from …
24 December 2015
Long Track Tornado In Mississippi in Late December!
The image above shows intense rotation caused by a violent tornado near Holly Springs in Miss. this afternoon. Check out the YouTube video of this long track tornado below. December tornadoes happen but a long track violent tornado in late December is very rare. Highs will climb into the 70’s, and break the record highs in most areas of the Mid-Atlantic and New England Thursday. Thunderstorms are possible as …
22 December 2015
Why Meteorologists Don’t Go By The Same Seasons You Do
To most folks today marks the first full day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, but to we meteorologists, it’s been winter since the first of December. NOAA’s National Climate center has written a nice piece today on why we do it that way. Click the image below to read it, and you will see that it makes a lot of sense. It may not feel like winter int …
19 December 2015
NASA Releases Stunning Image of our Fragile Blue Ball
It was just after Christmas in 1968, when the famous image of Earth-rise taken by Apollo 8 was seen for the first time. Many believe that single image changed the way we humans look at our planet in a profound way, and there is a lot of evidence to support the claim. We have had some incredible images from NASA since but the image above has to rank among the greatest. This was not …
18 December 2015
Global Temperature Record Smashed for the 7th Month in A Row
NASA released the global temperature data today and it agrees with that of NASA and Japan that November was the hottest on record. More from NOAA here: “The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for November 2015 was the highest for November in the 136-year period of record, at 0.97°C (1.75°F) above the 20th century average of 12.9°C (55.2°F), breaking the previous record of 2013 by 0.15°C (0.27°F). This marks …
16 December 2015
Why They Lost- Climate Denial Becomes A Stand-up Comedy Routine
You might think that I’m going to tell you that it’s faked, but no, the graph is absolutely correct! Really! It’s also yellow journalism, and the end to the journalistic reputation of the folks who put it out (Unless they want to retract it and apologize). I added a little value to this graphic that will explain why it’s so egregious. Andy Revkin at the New York Times decided …
14 December 2015
November Hottest Ever, and Christmas Likely To bring Record Warmth in The East
The long-range guidance is showing strong indications that the incredible December warmth in the Eastern U.S. will continue to the end of the month. A blast of cold air will arrive later this week, and linger through the weekend, but after that the temps. will once again soar. The map below shows the average 5 day temperatures from the 21st to the 26th. Highs will be more than 10 degrees …
11 December 2015
The Candle of Knowledge Flickers This Dark December
The Japanese have launched a spacecraft called Hyabusa 2 to look at an asteroid, and as it passed Earth this week (to get a speed boost), it grabbed this shot of the Earth and Moon in one frame. Take some time and look at that picture, and consider that the highest we go now is about a millimeter above the Earth in that image. We used to all the way …
10 December 2015
Historic Chesapeake Bay Island Is Running Out of Time
Most people have probably never heard of Tangier Island, but those who live around the Chesapeake bay have, and it has a long history. The island’s people speak in distinct dialect that may very well be a close approximation of how colonial period Americans spoke. This island is part of the viewing area that I forecast for daily, but new research shows that Tangier is in serious jeopardy. The research …
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.