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12 December 2018
NOAA’s Says The Polar Freezer is In Defrost Mode
NOAA’s Arctic Report Card came out today but with all the news (that’s barely fit to print) these days, it was easy to miss. Here’s a summary of the major points and an excellent video from NOAA that summarises it. Too bad I’ve not seen it linked on any major news sites. You can read the whole report here. Report Card Highlights from NOAA Surface air temperatures in the Arctic continued to …
29 November 2018
You heard about The National Climate Assessment, but did you read any of it??
You really should. For those of us who read the journal articles, there is really no surprises here. Climate change is not something in the future anymore, it is happening now and in most cases, the predictions made twenty years ago were too conservative. In short, it’s worse than expected. The changes we have seen with a rise of under a degree C are frankly alarming. So start by taking …
22 October 2018
The Coming Storm by Michael Lewis is a Must Listen
You really need to listen to The Coming Storm. This Audible short is about big data, deadly storms, and egregious greed, and I’d give it 5 stars even if I were not quoted in it. (The quote is accurate by the way and I stand by it 100%.) My friend Tim Schmidt (my go-to expert on satellite data) is also quoted and he (and many of my NOAA friends) are …
17 October 2018
Is A Changing Climate Shifting Tornado Alley?
An important paper by Harold Brooks and Victor Gensini is out today, and it looks at how the atmospheric conditions that produce tornadoes have changed since 1979. The data shows a clear shift toward the Southeast U.S. with a decrease in the Plains. This is not good since the increase is in an area of higher population, and in an area where a larger percentage of people live in tornado death traps. These traps are …
12 October 2018
Some Hard Questions No One Is Asking About Michael
Look at what Hurricane Michael did to Florida. This stretch of photos by the NY Times shows a mile of total destruction. I can guarantee you, every one of those homes in Mexico Beach, Florida were built since Hurricane Camille hit the Mississippi coast as a Cat 5 storm in 1969. I bet most were built since Frederick (a Cat 4 like Michael) roared up Mobile Bay in 1979. So the question that no …
20 September 2018
Highly Polluted Water From Florence Flowing Into the Atlantic
Take a look at this image from the NASA Aqua satellite. Look closely and you can see what is likely a toxic stew pouring into the coastal waters. Much of this from coal ash storage areas and flooded pig farms.
13 September 2018
Florence Update
Here is an update on Hurricane Florence. It’s my 11 PM Weathercast Wednesday night on WBOC, here on the Delmarva/Eastern Shore of Maryland. I started with a comparison of the same storm in the 1960’s and how the water levels/storm surge would be different today. Rainfall guidance over the next 84 hours is showing as much as 27 inches (68.6 CM) of rainfall in some areas with over 30 …
8 September 2018
If You Live On The Eastern Seaboard, It’s Time To Worry About Florence
I’ve been pretty quiet here about the tropics this week and for good reason. Long range weather model forecasts are (as John Nance Garner described the office of Vice President) not worth a bucket of warm spit. In addition, tropical cyclones, at the position of Florence earlier in the week, have historically curved north and in only a couple of cases been a threat to the U.S. Eastern Seaboard. So yes, it …
22 August 2018
This is How You Communicate Science
Two separate videos from two different climate experts. Katharine Hayhoe has the rare quality of being an excellent scientist and a great communicator. You should watch her Global Weirding videos on YouTube. (Teachers, these are great resources.) Dr. Hayhoe’s recent video about taking the politics out of energy is superb, and I urge you to share it. I’ll let you in on a little secret: Meteorologists like me who work on TV …
7 August 2018
The Right Answer To The Wrong Question
You’re standing at the South Pole marker at Amundsen-Scott Station, and someone asks “which direction is the South Pole Telescope from here?” “Go north!”, is a correct answer to the wrong question! Here is another wrong question: Did climate change cause the recent Europe-wide heat wave? Did climate change cause Death Valley to have the hottest month ever reliably recorded on Earth? How about the California fires that are still burning (and …
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.