You are browsing the archive for June 2013 - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.
30 June 2013
Why Depending On Facebook for Severe Weather Warnings is A Bad Idea
James Spann (meteorologist for the ABC affiliate in Birmingham, AL.) spoke at the AMS Conference on Broadcast Meteorology last week, and made an interesting point about using social media for weather warnings. Be very careful! Young people especially tend to get most of their news and information from mobile devices, using social media apps etc. During the record tornado outbreak in April 2011, many viewers had no power, or were …
27 June 2013
Could You Have Done This While In High School??
I’m at the 41st Conference on Broadcast Meteorology here in Nashville,TN this week. It started Tuesday with a fantastic short course on climate change (which I will write much more about later), and today was also superb. The highlight for me today was a talk by Matthew Cappucci entitled Gust Front Related Waterspouts. Matt is not a meteorologist who has been working on front of a camera for many years …
22 June 2013
Full Disk View on the Summer Solstice (Northern Hemisphere)
The sun reached it’s farthest point north of the Equator today (at 5:04 GMT). While you have surely noticed the shortening shadows at midday, you can clearly see it on the GOES image taken at sunset Eastern USA time tonight. Notice the 24 hour daylight at the top of the World and the complete absence of sunlight over Antarctica. Here in Maryland, tomorrow will bring 3 seconds LESS sunlight than …
21 June 2013
Read this before next week (It may save you from saying something silly).
There are rumors that President Obama will announce initiatives regarding climate change next week, likely dealing with the carbon dioxide output of power plants and perhaps other things. I know nothing of the particulars, but I do know there is overwhelming and conclusive evidence that we are running out of time to reduce our CO2 emissions. That said, I don’t know whether this plan is a good one or not. …
20 June 2013
5 Things to Know About Carbon Dioxide
Bob Henson, at The National Centers For Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder has written an excellent piece in UCAR Atmospheres on CO2. Well worth a read. Click the image below:
19 June 2013
Two Highly Repected Scientific Views On The Effects Of A Warming Arctic
This is a re-post from the Yale Forum on Climate Change and the Media: Over the past year, Jennifer Francis, Ph.D., of Rutgers University has produced compelling evidence of links between the rapid reduction in Arctic sea ice and extreme weather events in the Northern Hemisphere. Her hypothesis — that the reduced temperature gradient between Arctic and temperate zones causes the jet stream to slow — was examined in early …
Tornado Over Denver Airport Today
..and from Meteorologist Nate Johnson, the view from the terminal Doppler Radar at DIA. The radar was so close to the tornado you could see the precipitation wrapping around the vortex!:
18 June 2013
GOES 13 Weather Satellite Hit By Micrometeoroid
The GOES 13 weather satellite problem a couple pf weeks ago was apparently caused by tiny meteorite travelling several kilometers per second. From the National Environmental Satellite Data Information Service (NESDIS to we meteorologists): NOAA returns a healthy GOES-13 to normal operations as GOES-East June 10, 2013 GOES-13 Satellite–Artist’s Rendering NOAA today officially returned the GOES-13 spacecraft to normal operations, after tests showed a micrometeoroid, likely hit the arm for …
15 June 2013
Amazing One Minute GOES 14 Images of Severe Storms Crossing Mid Atlantic Thursday
When the new GOES R satellite is launched in two years (unless budget cuts intervene), we will have high resolution one minute images available in real time during events like this. The GOES-R will have the capability to do one minute images over two spots at the same time. Not just in visible wavelengths, but in many different channels in the infrared as well, and in higher resolution. Satellite data will become …
14 June 2013
Stormy Night In The Mid- Atlantic
Forecasters (Including me here on Delmarva) had a busy day from North Carolina to DC and Baltimore, as severe thunderstorms brought high winds to the area. Winds gusted to 68 mph near the Bay Bridge at Stevensville in Maryland, and the bridge was closed for a while due to the high winds. Pic below is from Cape Henlopen near Lewes in Delaware. Much of the Delmarva Peninsula saw winds over 50 mph. …
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.