You are browsing the archive for April 2011 - Page 2 of 2 - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.
14 April 2011
The Weather 99 & 146 Years ago Tonight
Two dramatic historical events happened on this day, and while neither was attributed to the weather, knowing what the conditions were is historically interesting. I think it adds some understanding of what it must have been like for those who were present at these events, so here is a re-write from last year on this day: Being a history and science buff, I’ve often wondered what the weather and …
13 April 2011
Huge Dust Storm Shuts Down Kuwait
A huge dust storm today in Iraq and Kuwait today. The visibility dropped so low that oil exports were stopped, and much of the country spent the day dealing with the thick dust. Click the image above to see a nice high resolution version of the image (from the MODIS sensor on the Aqua satellite). Dust storms are common in this part of the world, but this storm was …
12 April 2011
Double Rainbow and Alexander’s Dark Band
We had some nice storms rumble through North Alabama this evening and, just at sunset, the storms passed Huntsville. I expected to receive some rainbow pics and I was not disappointed! A double rainbow is reversed, of course, from the primary but in between the sky will look a little darker. You can see it clearly in the picture on the right. This was first described by Alexander of Aphrodisias …
10 April 2011
Weekend Climate Tid Bits
It’s been an interesting week or so in the climate science arena with papers on climate change in the AGU journal Geophysical Research Letters and Nature. Then there’s that study put together by Dr. Richard Muller to “check” the temperature rise that NOAA/NASA and the Hadley Centre (UK Met. Office) have reported. If you’re still in the rapidly dwindling group of those who think we are not facing a very …
7 April 2011
Coming to PBS: Earth-The Operator’s Manual
Bud Ward, of the Yale Forum for Climate and Media, has organised another climate change seminar for TV weathercasters in Oklahoma later this month. I’m one of the presenters and it’s very humbling to be on the same stage as some of the smartest climate experts in the world. Many on air weather people remain skeptical of the science, but having a chance to listen and ask questions of those who …
Live Eagle Cam! What a wonderful age we live in!
If you’ve not seen the live eagle cam from Iowa then you should definitely check it out. Hatching Bald Eagles live on the web! Click the image above to watch and wonder. The video is courtesy of the Raptor Resource Project.
4 April 2011
Dust Foot from Microburst
A line of heavy and severe storms crossed North Alabama and Middle Tennessee today, with numerous reports of trees and power lines down. During live coverage of the storms, I spotted a dust foot on our live camera on top of the Saturn 5 mock-up in Huntsville. A dust foot is an indicator that a microburst has occurred and that strong winds are very likely. A microburst happens in severe …
2 April 2011
Lies My Teacher Told Me- A Must Read Book.
You may have noticed that under my list of subject categories, I have history listed. Not history of science, just history, and this may seem strange for a blog about science. The reason?? I like history, and from time to time I like to write about it (especially to dispel certain myths). It’s been awhile since I did a history post, but this book is too important to pass up …
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.