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26 January 2011
While The U.S. Shivered- Amazing Arctic Warmth
NASA released an image today that shows just how strong the negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) was in January. The warmth in the Canadian Arctic and parts of Greenland was amazing. (So was the snow in the Southeast USA!) Also, notice that extreme East Russia seems to have the highest anomalies. This is also typical of a strongly negative NAO. The negative phase of the NAO was …
22 January 2011
Another Deep South Snow and Northeast Blizzard? This time the NAO is innocent!
Here in the Eastern USA this winter will be remembered for many years if not generations. A white Christmas in North Alabama and Georgia is a less than once in a century event. The two East Coast blizzards the past 4 weeks have been amazing. Now, don’t shoot the messenger but another one MIGHT be brewing. We are in a different pattern now than the strongly negative NAO of a …
9 January 2011
Deep South Snow
It looks like another big snow is about to hit the Deep South. It’s never easy to forecast snow here and this event is no exception. That said, it’s quite possible that this system will produce an event seen once every couple of decades. The images below are the snow forecasts from different numerical weather prediction models. Some have the snow northward into TN, and others lighter and further south. …
27 December 2010
Boxing Day Blizzard Blasts Northeast Coast
Meteorologists call it a bomb. A couple of reasons for that I suspect. 1. The weather map looks like it has a bomb crater on it. 2. The pressure in these intense storms that go up the East Coast usually drops incredibly quickly. In other words, it drops like a bomb. This storm saw a pressure drop of around 19 millibars in 12 hours. The day after Christmas 2010 will …
19 November 2010
The Trip To Grandma’s House Is Looking Cold!
Next Wednesday will be the busiest travel day of the year. This means a lot of questions for weather forecasters like myself. So here’s a bit of what we are looking at as we head into the weekend before Thanksgiving. The surface charts show the coldest air of the season has settled into Alberta and Saskatchewan. At Noon today (Central time) it was -19C (-2°F) in Saskatoon! The surface chart …
22 September 2010
Taking Weather Obs At The Bottom of The World
Ann Posegate, my travel partner to the Pole last January, has a fantastic piece in Weatherwise magazine this month. It’s all about the difficulties of taking weather observations and forecasting in Antarctica. Highly Recommended! I never look at an ob from down there without thinking of the people who are there.. Later, Dan
21 September 2010
Is The Summer Heat Wave About To End At Last?
For those of you in the Midwestern and Southern parts of America you are likely wondering what the heck happened to fall! Temperatures here in Huntsville in Alabama are running 15 degrees above normal in the afternoon! This heat wave actually stretches from Oklahoma all the way into Illinois, into Virginia and deep into Old Dixie. It’s really the same heat wave that existed June through August and brought many …
30 August 2010
You do know they just make it up, right??
I always enjoy reading the stories in the Farmers Almanac. It’s been around for a LONG time and they have good basic astronomical info in it. Although you can get much more precise info from free programs like Stellarium. About this time every year they release their forecast for the upcoming winter. TV stations everywhere gobble it up and do news stories on what the coming winter will be like. …
10 August 2010
Tropical Storm Forming Off of Florida? (Update: Tropical Depression 5 Now)
There are strong signs that the area of disturbed weather in the Gulf is beginning to get organized today. Pressures are dropping and there seems to be a circulation already present. I suspect the the folks at the NHC in Miami will begin advisories on it later today. If it makes it to tropical storm strength it will be named Danielle. While it is a bit early to talk about …
6 August 2010
La Nina is Brewing – It May Be A Strong One
One of the reasons for the forecasts of a an active hurricane season is the predictions that La Nina would develop this summer. Remember that La Nina is an ocean circulation phase that brings unusually cold water to the surface of the Tropical Pacific. Well, it has started and most of the ocean atmosphere models are predicting a moderate to strong event. This has more impact than just the number …
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.