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8 March 2018
Look at What the Coastal Storms Have Done to the Chesapeake Bay
It is amazing what we can see from satellite remote sensing now. Check out what the NOAA Satellite and Information Service says about it: The Chesapeake Bay is experiencing high sediment throughout the Bay, due to several different simultaneous events. River discharge from the Susquehanna River at the north end of Bay has been high (more than 100,000 cubic feet per second) for approximately two weeks, and the high winds …
15 March 2017
Properly Communicating Uncertainty Is Just as Important as Making A Good Forecast
There has been a bit of a firestorm in the last 24 hours over an AP report that the NWS decided to stick with its snowfall forecast even after last minute model guidance showed lesser amounts were likely. There’s a story in the Washington Post and Seth Borenstein at the AP broke the story. Here are some thoughts on this based on 37 years of forecasting, and I will say …
4 December 2015
El Nino In A Can
Click the image above to see a video from the GFDL CM2.6 climate model. This is NOT this year’s El Nino. When you start a climate model in which the ocean and the land and atmosphere can interact with each other, weather systems develop on their own. So do hurricanes and blizzards, and yes El Nino events happen as well. This El Nino happened naturally about 80+ years into the simulation. …
13 February 2014
Wild Weather and Forecast Uncertainty
The flooding in the UK is the worst on record in many areas, and the SW mainline rail to Cornwall has washed away. This being just the latest in a series of powerful storms that have blasted the UK and Ireland since early January. Some areas had a months worth of rain last night alone, and some areas had two months worth of rain in two days. The BBC has …
27 October 2013
The Big UK Windstorm You Will Hear About Tomorrow
There are some signs that the low may not reach quite the intensity earlier, but I would not count on that. It may indeed may be one of the strongest storms in quite sometime in Britain. Matt Taylor’s weather broadcast on the BBC is below: Click image to see it. Below is the GFS Model for 3 AM Tuesday morning. The height of the storm will likely be Monday night. …
14 October 2013
The Coastal Storm That Never Ends
Here on the Delmarva, we’ve had 4 days of rain and a lot of it. Over 4.6 inches here in Salisbury, but parts of Delaware have had well over 6 inches. The wind hasn’t been anything like Sandy, or even a strong nor’easter, but it’s been blowing steady at 20-35 mph for four days! Waves and tides are affected by three factors however. 1.Wind Speed (How high are the winds) …
10 February 2013
Buried in Snow The View from Space
This blizzard was one of the strongest on record in many areas of New England. The top snowfall total was 40 inches in Hamden Connecticut! …SELECTED STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL IN INCHES WHERE THE EVENT HAS ENDED… …CONNECTICUT… HAMDEN 40.0 MILFORD 38.0 CLINTONVILLE 37.0 OXFORD 36.2 EAST HADDAM 35.5 FAIRFIELD 35.0 TOLLAND 35.0 NEW HAVEN 34.3 GLASTONBURY 33.5 NEW HARTFORD 33.0 STRATFORD 33.0 COVENTRY 32.5 HARTFORD 27.0 …ILLINOIS… BEACH PARK 7.0 …
8 February 2013
Severe Blizzard Bears Down on Boston and Much Of New England
The intensity of the low pressure (a classic nor’easter) will bring gusts to hurricane force along the New England coast. The image below (courtesy of Penn State Meteorology) shows surface winds (in knots) at midnight Friday night. Below is the surface pressures for Late Friday. Meteorologists call a rapidly deepening low pressure system like this a “bomb” because it looks like a bomb hit the weather map! The color bands are a measure of …
8 November 2012
Records Fall as November Nor’easter Dumps A foot of Snow
The November Nor’easter is moving out now, but it left behind 5 inches of snow in New York City and up to a foot of snow in New Jersey and Connecticut. Winds gusted to 40 MPH at Lewes in Delaware, and water levels reach 2-3 feet above normal over portions of the Delaware Bay. Higher water levels of over 3.5 feet were recorded near New York City. Here are some of the records: ..RECORD NOVEMBER SINGLE …
4 November 2012
Odds Increase of Post Election Day Nor’easter In Areas Hardest Hit by Sandy
It’s not a certainty..yet, but the risk of a significant Nor’easter bringing wind, rain and snow to the areas hardest hit by Sandy is increasing tonight. If the overnight model runs come up with nearly the same solution then folks up here will need to prepare for winds over 50 mph. Snow is possible on the inland side of the storm as well as cold air flows into the storm. With damaged dunes along the shore, even a …
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.