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28 December 2017
Using GOES-16 to Detect and Forecast Cold Temperatures
Just where was the coldest spot in New York state this morning? With weather stations, you could get close, but with the new GOES-16 satellite, you can find the exact spot. Just southeast of Philadelphia NY. The bright green in northern New York is a ground temp. of 234K which is around -39 C. Philadelphia NY, in that area had a low of -39.5C. There are some spots nearby showing -40C (F) …
12 December 2017
Consensus Matters- The Research Says So!
Those of us in science communication can be forgiven for thinking that everyone knows that agreement among scientists on climate change is extremely high. (It’s around 97-99% and the 1-3% who disagree have substantially less experience/publications in the field than the consensus group.) The Hard Truth The hard reality though is that most Americans have no idea the consensus is that strong and it makes one think that if we could …
1 December 2017
Delaware Quake May be Africa’s “Fault”
This is one of those days that illustrate why broadcast meteorologists must learn all of the Earth science they can. An earthquake struck 10 km east of Dover, Delaware at 4:47 PM EST this Thursday evening. The epicentre was in the Prime Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge (A fantastic place to see all kind of birds), and was felt as far north as NY state! It looks likely to equal the largest …
14 November 2017
Attribution Study Shows Hurricane Harvey Floods Becoming Much More Likely
Check out this paper in PNAS today. When the subject of hurricane experts comes up, there are two names that come into the mind of nearly every meteorologist: Kerry Emanuel and Chris Landsea. There are a lot of others, but these two have published a lot of research that gets sourced frequently. Today Kerry Emanuel has what can be called an attribution study on Hurricane Harvey. These studies look at how …
8 November 2017
Millions Along the Eastern Seaboard Will See Antares Launch Saturday
The Antares rocket will launch from NASA Wallops Island at 7:37 AM Saturday to bring supplies to the International Space Station. The weather will be clear and cold across the entire NE U.S. and the launch should be visible all the way into New England and as far south as South Carolina’s beaches. The low sun angle should light up the vapor trail of the rocket as it climbs into …
3 November 2017
Twitter is Chem-trail Central
We’ve reached a sad state when this explanation needs to be written at the beginning of a scientific paper: Introduction The story goes like this: tens of thousands of commercial airliners a day are deliberately spraying some kind of mixture of toxic chemicals—either across the United States or possibly globally—in what would amount to one of the largest covert operations ever. The scheme has been going on for years, perhaps …
4 October 2017
Teaching Kids Science Is Getting Easier
In the past, many people worries that many home-school parents did so because of religious objections to evolution, climate change science and geology. This is still a concern in the science community, but there are nearly 2 million kids being homeschooled now, and I suspect that most just want their kids to be well prepared for college, with high critical thinking skills. I think that’s great. Indeed, the most important aspect …
14 September 2017
It’s Time for a 21st Century Hurricane Scale
Most folks are familiar with the Saffir Simpson hurricane scale and while it’s very useful, it also has some drawbacks. It’s greatest attribute is that the public understands it, but I’m not alone among meteorologists who think the time has come to replace it. We need a new scale that will better indicate the destructive potential of a tropical cyclone, and there are some good candidates out there. The main …
5 September 2017
Fire and Rain, and a Whole Lot of Wind
Big Trouble Coming Irma has become a real monster today with sustained winds at 185 mph. Only one hurricane is known that was stronger. This storm reminds me of the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 with 200 mph wind gusts in the Florida Keys. A reminder, when looking at the NHC track forecasts, you should ignore the center line and focus on the cone, which is based on the average forecast …
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.