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9 June 2013
Two Views of An Increasingly Wild and Changing Climate
My friend Su Ostro at the Weather Channel, and Dr. Jennifer Francis at Rutgers joined author/journalist Chris Mooney at a Climate Desk Live/WWF event last week. The talk is well worth a watch. I’ve mentioned Dr. Francis and her research frequently here, and here is a chance to see whay her research is getting so much attention among forecasters. Stu is a fellow forecaster, and has a perspective like mine that is rooted in …
4 June 2013
Crazy Weather- Science Looks at Why
This is a re-post from the Yale Forum on Climate Change and the media. The Committee for Station Science at the AMS (I’m the current chair) invited Dr. Francis to address the American Meteorological Society Conference on Broadcast Meteorology later this month, to talk more about her research. I’m looking very forward to hearing the latest on her research. Peter Sinclair’s new Yale Forum video couples interviews with two experts — Rutgers’ Jennifer Francis and Weather Underground’s Jeff …
11 May 2013
The Turbulence of Van Gogh and the Labrador Shelf Current
This is a guest post by Andreas Muenchow at Icy Seas. Vincent Van Gogh painted his most turbulent images when insane. The Labrador Current resembles Van Gogh’s paintings when it becomes unstable. There is no reason that mental and geophysical instability relate to each other. And yet they do. Russian physicist Andrey Kolmogorov developed theories of turbulence 70 years ago that Mexican physicist applied to some of Van Gogh’s paintings such as “Starry Sky:” Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Sky” painted in June 1889. …
27 April 2013
March 2013 is 337th Consecutive Month Above 20th Century Average
From NOAA: While Mother Nature was still giving the United States the cold shoulder during March, many other areas across the world experienced higher-than-average monthly temperatures according to the latest statistics from NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center. The average global temperature for March 2013 tied with 2006 as the 10th warmest March since record keeping began in 1880. It also marked the 37th consecutive March and 337th consecutive month with a global …
13 March 2013
Arctic Storm Fractures Already Fragile Polar Ice
The National Snow Ice Data Center has an update on the Arctic Ice for February out this week. Look at what an Arctic low pressure system did to the ice in the Beaufort Sea. From the NSIDC: During the last couple of weeks of February, a broad area of sea ice has fractured off the coast of Alaska and Canada, extending from Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic to Barrow, Alaska. This …
1 November 2012
What Those Who Understand Atmospheric Physics Are Talking About After Sandy
Asking if Hurricane Sandy was caused by climate change is like asking someone at the South Pole which way is north. This kind of storm could almost certainly form in a world where the CO2 levels have been unchanging and Arctic sea ice levels were stable. That said, anyone who claims Sandy was ( or was not) caused by the changing climate just doesn’t get it. It may be possible …
17 October 2012
Could A Record Warm NW Atlantic Bring A Cold Winter For the Northeast??
Notice how incredibly warm the Northwest Atlantic ocean is now. The warmth stretches well northward to Greenland, and out into the North Atlantic as well. Now look at the 500 millibar height anomalies for September. (The 500 millibar pressure level is about 6 km above the surface and a warmer atmosphere pushes this level higher) The height anomalies are directly related to the warmth of the atmosphere. Notice here how the warm oceans are producing …
30 September 2012
Must See Video on Arctic Sea Ice
Peter Sinclair who writes the excellent Climate Denial Crock of the Week Blog has posted a fascinating video. You will see Dr. Jennifer Francis in this as well. I have mentioned her research frequently here because how the weather I forecast reacts to the loss of ice is a big deal to me. The loss of the ice is a big deal tot he planet as well. Peter has more with an …
10 September 2012
Arctic Ice Is Disappearing and Our Weather Will Never Be The Same
With every passing year it becomes more apparent that the Arctic Ocean sea ice seems to be in a death spiral. The ice area this September is 45% below the levels during September in the 1980’s, and almost certainly it is at levels that haven’t been seen for a thousand years (and likely much more). The melt back this year smashed the record set back in 2007, and we have now reached …
3 August 2012
New Peer Reviewed Science Indicates Arctic Melt is Mainly Due to Humans
While the main stream media has focused on a study that has yet to be peer-reviewed ( and really just confirms a dozen others), the present weather continues to be nothing less than amazing. The records from the dust bowl that most meteorologists (me included ) looked at with awe are tumbling daily. Tulsa, in Oklahoma, ( my hometown by the way) may approach it’s all time high this week. The max …
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.