13 February 2021
Why Crazy Snow Forecast Go Viral on Social Media
There have been some rather outrageous snow forecasts floating around online this winter, and in the last few days, many have been from Oklahoma and Texas. Make no mistake about it there is a major snow event coming there, but TV forecasters in Oklahoma City posting snow totals 5 days out is certainly beyond the science (and perhaps a good definition for the word irresponsible). You tend to get strong …
9 February 2021
Science Illiteracy and Poor Critical Thinking Skills Really Can be Deadly
I’ve written many times over the years about science illiteracy and the need to teach critical thinking skills to students. Is there any doubt that the last 14 months has emphasised it like nothing else could? Thousands have died because they thought the world’s medical experts were wrong about social distancing/face masks. The politicians who agreed with them and refused to urge their constituents to follow the basic rules during …
4 December 2020
Climate Change Is About to Show Up On Your Local Weather Report
Every ten years the climate “normals” are recalculated. Today, for instance, the normal high is 52 degrees here in Salisbury, Maryland. Most TV weather reports show the average high and low for the day, and I put them on our 7-day forecast graphic, but these numbers are about to change. The normals we use now are based on the 30-year period from 1980-2010, but starting next year we will use …
2 November 2020
The Discussion About Science We Must Have
My friend Ed Maibach researches climate change/energy opinions at George Mason University, and he recently sent me an email with this polling result. Atmospheric science folks like me are very interested in this because of the great disconnect between what the science says and what the public thinks. Natural gas is better than coal or oil, but it’s still a fossil fuel that produces CO2 and something we …
25 September 2020
The Most Important Thing You Can Do About Climate Change
There is a LOT of evidence from psychologists that how we discuss climate change is very important. It turns out that it’s very easy to reinforce wrong beliefs. You can end up leaving someone who is uncertain about how serious the issue is with an even stronger opinion that is not based on facts. How can we do better? Dr.Katherine Hayhoe at Texas Tech University is IMHO the expert in …
17 August 2020
Did We Break the Planetary Temperature Record Sunday? Probably So!
We may have broken the Earth’s high-temperature record today. Furnace Creek, California in Death Valley reached 130 degrees(F) today at 3:41PM PDT. This is the first time since 1913 that it’s gotten that hot in Death Valley, and it may NEVER have gotten that hot there. The World Meteorological Organisation still lists the 134F degrees in Death Valley in July 1913 as the hottest temperature recorded on Earth, but most …
15 August 2020
NWS Office Issues First Ever Fire Tornado Warning
Pyrocumulonimbus. That’s the term for a cumulonimbus cloud that develops when a large wildfire heats the air up so much that a giant cloud develops. They can develop even if the atmosphere is stable since the forcing is all from the heat of the fire below. If there is wind shear in the atmosphere, they can rotate and sometimes produce a tornado. We’ve seen quite a few of these over …
12 August 2020
Severe Crop Damage From Midwest Derecho Visible from Space
The damage from the severe derecho in the Midwest Tuesday is visible from space. Early estimates are that the damage may exceed a billion dollars. Click on the image above for a larger view. It’s not uncommon for the paths of large tornadoes to be visible from weather satellites but the crop damage over such a wide swatch is not something you see every day. The corn crops across this …
11 August 2020
Disease Experts Are Now Getting The Climate Science Treatment
I have to feel sorry for Dr. Anthony Fauci. He has received several death threats and had to hire security for his family. So have other disease experts and the simple reason is that their science conflicts with the political worldview of some politicians and their supporters. The science does not care about your political party, it cares about what you can test and what you can show. If …
31 July 2020
Hurricane Isaias Will Be Wetter and Stronger Because of Climate Change
Hurricane Warnings were just posted for much of Central/South Florida, from the Kennedy Space Center southward to Boca Raton and it looks more and more likely that Isaias will track near the coastline as far north as Delaware. Make no mistake about it, the storm will be worse because of climate change in a myriad of ways. The storm surge and any coastal flooding will be higher because the sea …
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.