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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 …
1 November 2016
Southeastern U.S. Drought Worsens as Record Heat Arrives
Around 43% of Alabama is in severe or exceptional drought now. Huntsville (in North Alabama) had their hottest Halloween on record Monday with a high of 88 degrees, and it will likely be just as warm or close to it on Tuesday. The drought is a big local story, but it hasn’t gotten much attention nationally. That may be about to change. Records are going to tumble this week from …
26 November 2014
El Nino Modoki Style
I just finished a rather detailed piece for my station’s website about El Nino and long range forecasting. If you really want to understand what an El Nino is, and how it can help make a long range forecast, then it’s worth a read. Click the image below to read it. I warn you that it is long form, and there are 4 videos embedded that you really should watch. …
15 July 2014
Australian Drought Is Likely Result of Rising Greenhouse Gases
A new paper in Nature Geoscience has found that the increasing drought in Australia is very likely due to rising greenhouse gases, and dropping levels of stratospheric Ozone in the atmosphere, and NOT a normal climate fluctuation. Model data also showed that it will likely get worse as greenhouse gases increase over the next century. Key Findings (from GFDL release-see link below) An important new tool for prediction of regional-scale …
19 June 2014
Meteorology In The High Mountains Of California
I am at the American Meteorological Society’s 42nd Conference on Broadcast Meteorology at Squaw Valley,Ca. We are just outside of Lake Tahoe, and I drove up from Las Vegas, through Death Valley and by Mammoth Lakes. The temperature ranged from 96 in Death Valley to 46 at Mammoth, and when i awoke here in Squaw Valley this morning it was 28 degrees! I thought I’d share some pics of …
14 January 2014
The Polar Vortex Gets Its 15 Minutes of Fame
I was asked by the AGU to do a post about the Polar Vortex for the AGU Blog THE BRIDGE. You can read it by clicking on the image below: and then you should read Bob Henson’s piece from the NCAR AtmosNews Journal
27 August 2013
Suomi Satellite Nighttime Visible image of Yosemite Fire
An amazing image here from the incredible nighttime visible sensor on the Suomi NPP satellite. You can see the horseshoe-shaped Rim fire now burning in Yosemite Park. Note the city lights of Las Vegas shining through the high cirrus deck over southern Nevada. As the planet warms in coming decades there is ever growing evidence that dry places like the U.S.West will get much drier still…. More from NASA: The …
17 August 2013
State of Flux- Some Amazing NASA Images Of A Changing Planet
NASA has a bunch of stunning images online showing what a ~1 degree Celsius warming over the last century has done to the planet. Click on the image above for many, many more images. What’s even more amazing to me is the number of people who still believe the planet is not warming, or that this is all a natural cycle. Every possible internal cycle has been looked at. Even …
18 July 2012
Death Valley Low of 107 (41.7ºC) Sets Record For The Planet!
The temperature at sunrise in Death Valley on July 12 was 107 degrees. This ties the warmest overnight temperature ever recorded on Earth. Death Valley also holds the record for the hottest ever in America at 134 degrees, just two behind the planet record of 136 (58ºC) in Libya (but far below the 180 degrees last August, in the queue for Dumbo at Disney World ;).) The heat this summer has been nothing less than amazing and …
27 June 2012
All Time Records Tumble in Rockies and Plains. Fires Threaten NCAR.
The massive heat wave spread from Montana to Louisiana Tuesday with several more all time record highs broken. Hill City, KS and McCook, Nebraska hit 46 degrees C or 115 degrees F. Both, the warmest temperatures ever recorded in those cities. Winds gusted to 40 mph at Denver International and all along the front range of Colorado in the afternoon. Lightning from thunderstorms sparked wildfires and they grew rapidly. The …
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.