You are browsing the archive for July 2017 - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.
31 July 2017
The Secret Discoveries Scientist Are Hiding
Every cancer specialist has the cure for cancer in his desk, and every climate scientist has proof that carbon dioxide is not causing global warming. Oh, and every physicist has a paper showing Einstein’s theory of relativity is all wrong, and I need to come clean as well since I’ve been hiding a method of dissipating hurricanes for 35 years. All these earth shattering, Nobel prize winning, pieces of science …
28 July 2017
Freak Summer Nor’easter Headed for the Mid-Atlantic
Gale warnings in July are rare along the mid-Atlantic coast, but if a tropical cyclone is nearby, they do happen. But those are rare, and a gale warning for a nor’easter in late July? That does not happen. No way. WAY. A strong trough in the troposphere is indeed going to bring a real fall-like nor’easter to the Mid-Atlantic this weekend with winds gusting nearly 50 mph on the coast. The bigger …
26 July 2017
Summer Heat Too Much for You? NASA has Just the Place for You!
The James Webb telescope is designed to detect light in the infrared portion of the spectrum, and its instruments will only work at a temp. of just a few degrees above absolute zero! But how do you test them?? This is how! The room will keep getting colder and colder. NASA has a live webcam of the room online with a look at the indoor and outdoor temperatures at the …
25 July 2017
Rare Tornado in Queen Anne’s County Maryland
We rarely see tornadoes on the Eastern Shore, but a strong EF 2 (winds near 125 mph) hit Kent Island just SE of the Bay Bridge at 1:30 AM Monday morning. Tornadoes are rare in Maryland and the last tornado in Queen Anne’s County was in 2012. Some of my thoughts about it: 1. Usually, the Chesapeake Bay weakens storms as they cross over it, but when the Bay is …
21 July 2017
The Cognitive Bias Survival Guide
As a reporter in Tampa was doing a story on an Alligator in the road yesterday, someone drove past and screamed “Fake News!” I suspect the gator was real, and the story was factual, but this is happening rather frequently. You might ask how people can be so deceived that they will accept news only from those who tell them what they want to hear. Unfortunately, this is the America we …
19 July 2017
A Different Way of Visualizing The Global Temperature Rise
Gavin Schmidt at NASA GISS posted the graphic below on Twitter Tuesday night and it quickly spread like wildfire. We are used to seeing the graphs with hockey stick endings of the global temperature but showing it in a sequence of normal distributions (bell curves) by month, and ending it with the data of the last two years noted, gives one a new and rather stark perspective. You can see an animation …
15 July 2017
Weathercasters Views of Climate Change Dramatically Shift
The number of weathercasters who are still sceptical of climate change is rapidly dwindling. I’ve noticed this anecdotally and now there is confirmation in a new paper in BAMS that it indeed the case. I know most of the authors of this paper, and it is worth noting that the survey was among weathercasters which include degreed meteorologists with a science background, and those who may have little in the way …
7 July 2017
NASA Satellite Sees Air Pollution from Fireworks on the 4th
Suffice to say, those with asthma and other breathing disorders might want to watch the fireworks on TV next year. I was surprised at how strong the signal was. The fact that independence was declared in early July when the atmosphere is fairly quiet with light winds, means the dispersal will be slow. Even more so when you have a low-level temperature inversion that can trap the fine particles near …
6 July 2017
GOES-16 View of the SAL around Tropical Depression 4.
The image above is from GOES-16 (Ctsy. CIRA) and you can easily see the dry dusty Saharan air to the North and east of Tropical Depression 4. This layer of dusty air is called the SAL for Saharan Air Layer, and it often inhibits tropical cyclones. It’s already impacting TD 4. The new GOES-16 continues to wow we meteorologists. Truly, a new era is underway. Update 12 AM EDT 7 July) …
4 July 2017
Yet Another Climate Myth Is Gone
Update July 5, 2017: Carl Mears (one of the authors of the paper) has written an excellent FAQ about this subject that is well worth looking at. The myth that the satellite temperature measurements do not match the surface temperature record is one of the most enduring climate myths, but it’s now in the dustbin of history. A new paper in the AMS Journal of Climate has produced the latest reliable …
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.