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You are browsing the archive for August 2015 - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.

31 August 2015

When Comedians Are Doing The Job Reporters SHOULD be Doing

It’s not just John Stewart and Stephen Colbert, now you can add  Bill Maher who called out Rick Santorum, when he made a ridiculously false claim about climate science. Santorum “claimed” that a study showed 57% of scientist had doubts about whether CO2 controls our climate, and Maher responded with (quoting here) “I don’t know what ass you’re pulling that out of..” A little research online leads to the answer …

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27 August 2015

There is A Watershed of Reality Coming

For those who work in TV newsrooms, today was a nightmare come true. You may not realize it, but TV News is a rather small business. At least two people in our newsroom know someone who works at WDBJ TV in Roanoke, (I am one of the two) and what happened today has long been a real fear among reporters and anchors. Almost all of us know of folks who …

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26 August 2015

Four Physics Videos Everyone Should Watch

I really love the fact that physicists are sharing physics so widely online. There are some fabulous videos that will blow your mind, and teachers, you really consider spending some time in class watching them. So, with that in mind, here are some of my fave videos. Being a geek, I even knew the one about tides, but I can tell you that many meteorologists do not! I still remember …

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25 August 2015

Smoke From Western Fires Spreads Across the U.S.

The image above shows the smoke from the wildfires burning across Washington, Oregon and Northern California. It is possible this smoke will reach the Eastern Seaboard, behind a late summer cool front that is exiting the coast today. The visible image below clearly shows the smoke plumes from the Washington fires this afternoon. A patch of dense smoke is also visible today courtesy the NASA Terra satellite over Newfoundland.

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New Trouble Brewing in the Atlantic

Wind shear has pretty much put an end to what was Hurricane Danny but we may have new trouble on the way. A strong tropical wave in the Atlantic is showing signs of becoming a depression and numerical guidance is indicating that it will likely become a tropical storm. Since winds are already gusting to near tropical storm force, once a closed circulation appears, the storm will likely be upgraded …

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21 August 2015

Hurricane Danny May Be at Peak Strength

Danny now has winds near the center at 115 mph, but it is actually a rather tiny storm. Latest model runs continue a west-NW track but dry air is just to the north and wind shear will begin to impact the storm in about 48 hours. This should weaken it and the latest hires numerical model guidance shows just that. The intensity forecast from the HWRF model shows it weakening …

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20 August 2015

Update on Hurricane Danny

Latest water vapor wavelength IR images show a large area of rather dry air ahead of Danny, and it looks like this will continue to impact the tropical cyclone, as it approaches the Windward islands early next week. By Sunday, the storm will also begin to run into more wind shear in the troposphere, and this will (at the least) keep it from strengthening as well. The Hurricane WRF model …

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Storms and Rumors of Storms

  AOL (People are still on AOL???) faced a “storm” of criticism in the weather community today for a horribly misleading headline about Tropical Storm Danny. The headline stated that the first hurricane of 2015 might strike the U.S shoreline soon. First of all, there have been a lot of hurricanes in the Pacific this year, and numerous super typhoons in the Western Pacific. It is far,far, to soon to …

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18 August 2015

Tropical Storm Danny Forms in the Eastern Atlantic.

Every 6 years there is the chance that I get a hurricane named after me,and this year is looking good. Tropical Storm Danny has formed and is slowly strengthening. Model guidance is all in rather good agreement, especially the dynamical models that tend to have the best skill. Wind shear is strong to the north of the system, but it will likely stay south of the shear until it approaches …

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17 August 2015

Good Read in Sci Am about the Political Psychology behind Political Correctness

I normally would not take the time to just link to an article on Sci. American, but two reasons. One it’s fascinating psychology, and 2. Someone told facebook that this article in Sci-AM should be blocked- and they did! I figured away around it and sent FB a message as well. This is actually a new tactic used by folks that do not like something, they label it as porn …

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