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You are browsing the archive for January 2012 - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.

30 January 2012

Is Putting The Heat On Skeptical TV Weathercasters A Good Idea?

Forecast the Facts is a new campaign with the aim of putting some public heat on climate skeptical TV weathercasters.  The issue here isn’t whether or not their statements (if quoted accurately) were opposite to the overwhelming science, because they are without question. Instead, the main question is whether this is the right way to tackle the problem. I’m uncertain this is the right way to go about educating the skeptical …

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26 January 2012

A New Image of Our Lonely Speck In The Great Enveloping Cosmic Dark

  NASA has used the new NPP Satellite to produce a new “Blue Marble” image that is nothing short of awe-inspiring. The NPP was launched back in October and I wrote about it then here. The fist Blue Marble image of Earth was taken by the crew of Apollo 17 on the way to the Moon in 1972. I like to show this image to students and ask them to …

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25 January 2012

Alabama Meteorologist Sets ABC News Straight On Warnings

  James Spann is the lead meteorologist for the ABC affiliate in Birmingham, Alabama and heard something that disturbed him greatly on the ABC national newscast Monday. The story was on the deadly tornado that struck the Birmingham metro area earlier that morning and Diane Sawyer’s script had the words “struck without warning”. I saw that broadcast myself and cringed, but James Spann did something about it. He contacted ABC …

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23 January 2012

Two Dead In Birmingham, Alabama Tornado

An EF 3 tornado (winds near 240 km/hr/150 mph) hit Jefferson County Alabama early Monday morning (see previous post). Two are dead, and the damage is quite severe with over 100 injuries. The tornado hit in the middle of the night, when many people were asleep. It was a good bet that there would be a deadly tornado somewhere late Sunday into Monday, because the upper level storm system was …

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22 January 2012

January Tornado Outbreak Imminent

A rare significant outbreak of severe storms and tornadoes is looking more likely later today in the region from Little Rock to Memphis, and into West Alabama. The Storm Prediction Center here in Oklahoma has posted a moderate risk. Those are rare in January. The upper level trough is negatively tilted, and this will cause the wind field to be very favourable for roating supercell storms. Negatively tilted troughs always …

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20 January 2012

La Nina Alone Is A Bad Predictor of Winter Weather

  I spent last week at probably the most informative weather seminar I’ve ever attended. The Glen Gerberg Weather and Climate Summit was at Breckenridge,Colorado this year and everyday was packed with great material for weather and climate geeks. Dan Leonard of WSI Corp. did an in-depth talk about long-range weather prediction, and the techniques they use to make these forecasts for their clients. You can see all of Dan’s presentation …

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19 January 2012

I love it when a forecast comes together…. (Told ya so!)

Halley Martin in Seattle sent me this today. 8 inches at noon an still snowing she says. Thanks Halley! SNowfall totals courtesy of the NWS in Seattle,Wa. SNOHOMISH…………… LAKE STEVENS 1 NW 9.0 STANWOOD 4 S 8.7 STANWOOD 1 N 6.0 LYNNWOOD 3 N 5.5 BOTHEL 4 NNW 4.0 EDMONDS 3 S 4.0 MILL CREEK 2 NE 3.6 EVERETT 4 S 3.5 MONROE 3.0 EVERETT 2 N 2.7 SNOHOMISH 2.5 …

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17 January 2012

Will Seattle Get Buried-Probably So!

  La Nina patterns can sometimes bring heavy snow to places that see it rarely. One of those places is the Pacific Northwest, to the west of the Cascades. So far, this winter has been very atypical of a La Nina year and the reasons why are fascinating (and will be the subject of my next post). The pattern is now looking more like what we usually see and it …

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Our Impact on The Planet

Dr. Jim White at INSTAAR at the Univ. of Colorado showed this video at the Glen Gerberg Weather and Climate Summit last week. The background is the DMSP city lights image and the video runs 24 hours showing air traffic across the globe. If someone tells you that we humans are too insignificant to affect the planet, then show them this video. Claiming that we humans cannot impact this planet …

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16 January 2012

Colourful Cirrocumulus

Yea, I know I spelled it the British way, but it got your attention did it not! Let’s just say it is my way of pointing out that we live in a world now that is much smaller than it was. I just spotted some beautiful iridescence in some cirrocumulus clouds here in Oklahoma City. This little reminder that sunlight is made up of a beautiful spectrum of colours, is …

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