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You are browsing the archive for severe weather Archives - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.

17 March 2023

Note to AP and Fox News: A Storm Hit California, Not an Atmospheric River

An atmospheric river is a plume of moisture that often shows up well on Satellite images over large oceans. If I see one associated with a storm, I know that it will likely be a very wet one with increased rainfall. There are a few famous ones as well, like the Pineapple Connection which will sometimes bring tropical air from the Equatorial Pacific into a storm approaching the U.S west …

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3 September 2021

Two Connected Images

The New Jersey State Climatologist posted a map of the rainfall from Ida Wednesday night. Look at these rainfall totals! Now, Look at this graph from Dr. Brian Brettschneider. He posted this on Twitter today. It might surprise you to know that August was the 543rd month with global ocean temps. above the average for the 20th century.  The planet is about one degree C. warmer than it was one …

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23 October 2019

Of all the Mistakes A Local News Outlet Can Make- This is The Worst

When a tornado moved right through central Dallas Sunday night, almost every TV station was in wall-to-wall coverage. The tornado was visible in lightning flashes, and this was not a “possible tornado”. It was confirmed, on the ground, and doing damage. Major damage. Yet, Dallas station KXAS did not break into programming for some time, and it was not because their meteorologists were asleep. They were tracking the storm and …

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25 May 2019

Weather Radar Mistakes Can Often Give Valuable Information

Look at this image below from the NOAA Doppler Radar near Midland TX. What is that strange spike coming out of the storm? We actually have a name for it and you do not see one like that very often. It’s called a 3 body scatter spike. There is no long line of rain falling from this severe storm, and believe me it’s without a doubt very severe. Instead, the …

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13 November 2018

The Cloud That Appears on Top of The Most Dangerous Storms

We meteorologists knew that the new GOES satellites would be revolutionary, and a new paper presented at an AMS conference on severe storms is a good example of just that. It’s about a cloud signature visible on high- resolution imagery that can lead to more lead time on severe weather warnings and fewer false alarms. It’s called an AACP: Above Anvil Cirrus Cloud, and when a forecaster sees one on …

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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 …

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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 …

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28 May 2018

Don’t Blame Mother Nature for the Devastating Flood in Ellicott City, Maryland Sunday.

Just last summer the Baltimore Sun had this story about the historic clock on Main Street in Ellicott City, Maryland. It was rededicated after the devastating “1000-year” flood of July 30,2016 that made national news. That clock was swept away this evening during the second 1000-year flood in two years in the city. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has declared a state of emergency and rescues are still underway as I write this.  …

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30 April 2018

Tornado Causes Significant damage in Belgium. Another in Northern France

It snowed in Normandy today, but a strong cold front yesterday brought severe storms and supercells to Belgium and France. It’s very rare to have spring tornadoes in this area and rare anytime to have a tornado strong enough to do significant damage. England has had one of its warmest April’s on record, and though temperatures now have dropped back some, it’s still rather mild for early May.  So far the spring …

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5 January 2018

Thoughts and Images of The Great Blizzard of 2018

Working on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, you might imagine I have been rather busy over the last few days and that is beyond an understatement. I was brought to work today in a four-wheel drive jeep and I have 11″ of snow on my sidewalk! This was a memorable storm and perhaps what makes it more so is how fast the pressure in the storm dropped. The pressure in the …

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