You are browsing the archive for July 2016 - Page 2 of 2 - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.
13 July 2016
Is Your Local Weather Reporter Afraid to Mention The Climate Elephant?
Jason Samenow over at Capital Weather Gang (Washington Post) has a great piece today, and it has led to a wide discussion among broadcast meteorologists. I’ve written before about this subject, and while coverage of climate issues has increased dramatically over the past few years, there are some on air forecasters who for one reason or another are loathe (or even forbidden) to mention it. One station in Little Rock …
12 July 2016
Extreme Heat Coming For Much of North America Next Week
The long range model guidance has been giving strong hints that some real heat is on the way next week, and it will cover a large portion of the U.S. and extend into Canada as well. Long range forecasting is best done by looking at an average of several different models and several different model runs over a few days and there seems to be very good agreement that well …
7 July 2016
Nepartak Rapid Scan Loop
Can you spot the gravity waves in this stunning loop of Nepartak from the Himawari 8 Satellite? Click the image to load the loop from Today (Thursday). Transverse cirrus bands are also visible in the image above, and these are indicative of severe turbulence. More on that from the CIMMS Satellite Blog. James Reynolds has video and images of the storm here.
6 July 2016
Monster Typhoon Nepartak Approaching Taiwan
Radar from the Taiwan Weather Service shows the first rain bands approaching Taiwan, Winds are at 150 knots near the center of Nepartak, but it should weaken some before landfall, as it encounters the mountains of Taiwan, and slightly cooler water. It will still be a very dangerous storm though, and it will cross into mainland China, and drop very heavy rainfall over the same area that experienced severe flooding …
Big Trouble Headed to China
Severe flooding has already caused 186 deaths in SE China, and now a super typhoon named Nepartak is headed that way. The storm now has winds of 140 knots, and will pass over Taiwan, and then move into China south of Shanghai in about 2-3 days. It will weaken, but the threat of severe floods is very possible, and they could last for several days, as the storm weakens.. The …
5 July 2016
Wise Words from Richard Feynman About Juno and Jupiter
JUNO is in orbit around Jupiter, and one of NASA’s most difficult missions is so far a success. I ran across this quote while reading Feynman’s Lectures on Physics tonight, and it is so appropriate. Dedicated to the folks at JPL, and all who worked and will study the data, from JUNO. “The stars are made of the same atoms as the earth.” I usually pick one small topic like …
3 July 2016
The Science Behind That Awesome Photo You Saw on Twitter or Facebook
Meteorologist see a whole lot more in this image however, and it even shows the promise of better warnings of severe weather. This is especially true for rural areas/ poor nations that have only a rudimentary severe weather warning system in place. The image was apparently taken from an airliner over the Pacific. You’re looking at a very intense thunderstorm, with an updraft of air that towers into the stratosphere …
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.