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24 February 2017
(Geo)science Matters: Snow surveys aren’t just for TV
Everyone (in California, at least) has seen those clips that get run every winter of the snow surveys: people walking out into a white-blanketed meadow to shove a pole into the snow and record the depth. Or, in the case of the 2015 broadcast, walking out onto muddy grass and gesturing sadly at a lack of snow in which to do this. It’s a good photo op, but the broadcasts rarely follow up with much of the science behind the survey.
30 December 2012
I was dreaming of a white Christmas, but geology got in the way
It hasn’t been a very white Christmas where I am right now (northern Virginia), but if you’ve been following my fellow AGU blogger Callan on Twitter, you’ll know that’s not the case in other parts of the state. And it’s definitely not the case back in Buffalo, which has been getting snow from several winter storms recently. That got me thinking about how geology – and topography – conspire to produce precipitation. (I think about this a lot more now that I live in Buffalo, since we tend to get much more snow than where I grew up, and UB has this interesting habit of rarely closing for weather.)
10 March 2011
Archival Gold: National Snow and Ice Data Center Photo Gallery
Most of our snow has been rained into nonexistence in the past few days, but as a last hurrah before spring takes hold, I thought I’d feature photos of very cold and snowy places. The National Snow and Ice Data Center is a part of the University of Colorado at Boulder, and they have a fantastic collection of photos of glaciers, iceburgs, ice sheets, sea ice, snow, Arctic/Antarctic expeditions, and other chilly subjects. Although not a government institution, the NSIDC does allow free use of properly credited photos in their gallery.
1 February 2011
Snow delay
So I was planning on a fascinating post about plants on volcanoes, but I got distracted by the great big snowstorm that’s heading my way. My university has actually cancelled classes in advance, which is impressive considering that they hardly ever close (even when the rest of the city does). Accordingly, getting gas and fixing the weather stripping on my front door had to take priority over blogging this evening, so I’ll work on the plant post tomorrow (and maybe take some snow photos, since we’re going to be getting a healthy helping tonight). Posting resumes tomorrow!
7 December 2010
Let it snow! But maybe not on that volcano…
In honor of the snow (finally) reaching the north of Buffalo, I thought I’d write a post about volcanoes with chilly tops – i.e., ones covered in snow or glaciers. Although we tend to think of volcanoes as ‘hot’ geologic features, it’s fairly common for a volcano to be snow- or glacier-topped. More so for stratovolcanoes (like Rainier in the Cascades, or Fuji in Japan, or pretty much any volcano in Alaska), but it can happen at shield volcanoes too (such as Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa in Hawaii
1 December 2010
Lake effect snow in Buffalo
It’s December, which means that in Buffalo, temperatures are finally starting to settle in to their normal range (we’ve had a bit of a warm time so far this fall). And we have precipitation. The combination of those two usually means that the local weatherpeople, who haven’t had much to report on but rain so far, get to use their favorite phrase: “Lake effect snow”.
Jessica Ball is a volcanologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, researching volcanic hydrothermal systems and stability, and doing science communication for the California Volcano Observatory. She previously worked at the Geological Society of America's Washington DC Policy Office, learning about the intersection of Earth science and legislative affairs. Her Mendenhall postdoc and PhD focused on how water affects the stability of volcanoes, and involved both field investigations and numerical modeling applications. Her blogging covers a range of topics, from her experiences in academic geosciences to science outreach and communication to her field and lab work in volcanology.