You are browsing the archive for May 2019 - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.
31 May 2019
Broadcast Meteorology Loses a Giant Today
In 1979 my professor at Oklahoma Univ. announced that we were to have a break from a blackboard full of equations for the day. Instead, we had a broadcast met from KTVY TV in Oklahoma City who talked to us about possibly working as an on-air meteorologist. This was an era when there were few degreed meteorologists doing TV and in fact, it was looked down upon by more than …
25 May 2019
Weather Radar Mistakes Can Often Give Valuable Information
Look at this image below from the NOAA Doppler Radar near Midland TX. What is that strange spike coming out of the storm? We actually have a name for it and you do not see one like that very often. It’s called a 3 body scatter spike. There is no long line of rain falling from this severe storm, and believe me it’s without a doubt very severe. Instead, the …
24 May 2019
Another Climate Change Surprise?
What worries me most about our reckless experiment with the planet’s thermostat is not the predictions of sea level rise and the changes in rainfall patterns etc. What we’d better not ignore are the surprises and there are sure to be many of them. Some new research out this month hints at what might be a big one. Synoptic meteorologists (like me) have gotten much better at forecasting the track …
18 May 2019
Northern Mockingbird: 1 Red Tail Hawk: Nil
This is definitely my first post regarding birds but this is something you have to watch. A Northern Mockingbird goes after a Red Tail Hawk for intruding in its area. This is from the WBOC Weather camera on top of the bell tower at Salisbury University. I shot it with my iPhone on our very large monitor in the weather office. The Mockingbird bothered him for over 30 minutes before …
16 May 2019
Who Is Doing a Good Job Covering Climate?
The NY Times and the Washington Post are among the few major media outlets that I would give at least a B grade on their climate coverage. Most deserve an F, but there are strong signs that this is about to change (See my previous post). This past Sunday the Washington Post magazine had 24 of their climate change covers and it is worth sharing. I talked to a group …
1 May 2019
Covering Climate Change- The Media Pledges To Do Better.
I spent today in New York attending an event for journalists about covering climate change. It was sponsored by the Columbia Journalism Review and it was packed. I was asked to be on a panel early in the day and it’s well worth watching (See below, the event was taped). Although it was mainly an event for journalists, my fellow meteorologists Jeff Bernadelli and Bernadette Woods attended as well, so …
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.