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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.)
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!
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”.
20 December 2009
Talk about a white Christmas!
So in case you hadn’t heard, the East Coast got hit with a lot of snow yesterday. I managed to get back to Virginia from Buffalo pretty early on Friday, so luckily I didn’t get stuck in the mess. But I can’t ever remember seeing this much snow in the DC area before! And especially not all at once…it was pretty crazy to be shoveling the driveway and have an inch …
22 October 2008
Let it snow….?
It’s not even Halloween yet! The snowflakes were really pretty this morning, and it hasn’t stuck to anything, but I’m sort of torn between that giddy-excited-wow-it’s-snowing feeling and being disgruntled because it’s cold and wet and October. Then again, I moved here voluntarily. Happy first day of snow in Buffalo, folks.
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.