You are browsing the archive for August 2016 - Page 2 of 2 - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.
14 August 2016
Catastrophic Flood Event Underway In Louisiana
Thousands of people have been rescued, and thousands of others are trapped by flood waters in Louisiana tonight, as over 20 inches of rain fell starting early Friday and through the weekend. I’m going to post various images/data to put some context into what/why this is happening. These floods are not yet over, and the threat is now increasing in parts of Missouri and Illinois, where up to 6 inches …
12 August 2016
Brutal Heat For the Eastern Seaboard This Weekend.
A weekend of brutal heat is on the way, from here on Delmarva, to DC, and all the way to New York, with heat index values well above 100. Extreme humidity covers much of the Eastern half of the U.S. this Friday evening, and the high moisture content of the air is pushing heat index values into the danger range. The levels of water vapor in the atmosphere are also …
10 August 2016
One Minute Satellite Imagery from GOES 14
The GOES 14 is sending back one minute imagery again. This satellite is a spare but is the only U.S. weather satellite that can send back images once a minute. GOES-R launching in November will be able to send back an image every 30 seconds, at higher resolution, with lightning data as well. This is a sneak peak at the future that will arrive soon!
How You Think- Daniel Khaneman (He won a Nobel Prize for this)
You are a lousy critical thinker. So am I, but if you’ve read Daniel Khaneman’s book “Thinking Fast-Thinking Slow” you are better at it than those who haven’t! His book is not only a best seller, but a must read. How we make decisions is a fascinating subject, and while you may not take the time to read his book and get the details, you should watch his talk at Google …
5 August 2016
Three Great Popular Science Books (and a bonus 4th)
I have not made any book recommendations lately, so it is high time I do. First for my fellow atmospheric science geeks (and those who have a math/physics background), the Tropical Meteorology textbook that was produced by Met-Ed (COMET) is excellent (you will need to register, but it’s free) and I have been enjoying it. I finally have my head around equatorial Kelvin waves! Even high school students (who have …
2 August 2016
State of the Climate 2015 Report Released
Every year at this time the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society publishes the State of the Climate Report. While it will be in the AMS Bulletin that all AMS members receive, the entire report is freely available to the public here: https://www.ametsoc.org/ams/index.cfm/publications/bulletin-of-the-american-meteorological-society-bams/state-of-the-climate/ From the report: The 2015 global surface temperature was 0.42oC-0.46oC (0.76°–0.83°F) above the 1980-2010 average, depending on the dataset. For the troposphere, 2015 ranked between first and …
The Data is In from Ellicott City’s Flood Saturday Night. It’s Incredible.
The NWS in Baltimore-Washington posted an excellent summary of the data from the historic (and deadly) flood in Ellicott City, MD. on Saturday evening. I wrote about this flood yesterday but there is even more data now from flood gauges on area streams and more precise rainfall data. Go here: http://www.weather.gov/lwx//EllicottCityFlood2016 . The stream gauge data shows just how quickly the local streams can rise in an event like this. There has …
1 August 2016
Third Severe Flash Flood In July Hits Maryland/Delaware
The month of July brought 4 major flash flood events to my area. One was very close with over 5 inches of rain where I live in Salisbury,Md. and over 7 inches just to our west. The other was near Seaford in Delaware (and extended into Maryland), and another just south on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, where over 9 inches of rain fell in Accomack County. Then came Saturday night, across …
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.