Climate science
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Today parts of the Southeast are experiencing freezing rain, sleet and snow in some locations. This storm is expected to move up the East Coast and bring blizzard conditions to the Washington DC area. Paul Huttner of Minnesota Public Radio posted an entry on his blog this week reminding us to look for the beauty…
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The State Climate Office of North Carolina posted a blog entry this morning describing two big cold air outbreaks that affected the Southeast in the past. They point out that temperature drops of 30 F or more can occur as cold fronts pass through the region, bringing damaging freezes and wintry precipitation to the area.…
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I am often asked about the difference between temperatures measured from surface-based instruments and satellite-based temperature measurements. This article in The Guardian (if you can get past the politics) does a good job of explaining the difference between the two ways of measuring global temperature and some of the shortfalls of each approach. The biggest…
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If you are looking for ways to explain El Niño to producers or your parents or children, you might be interested in two recent resources on El Niño that I found online. The World Meteorological Organization has a simple 3-minute video tutorial which explains what El Niño is and how it affects global climate at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v92Iqihct98.…
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One of the comments I often hear from people who are dubious about a warming climate is that the change is occurring naturally due to increases in the sun’s output. But is this really true? We do know that solar output is a factor in long-term changes in climate. For example, the wax and wane…
Posted in: Climate science -
If you think that we are cold in winter because that is when Earth is farthest from the sun (as a study showed many Harvard students believe), then you will be surprised to know that today is Perihelion, the day of the year when the Earth is closest to the sun. (Aphelion, the point on…
Posted in: Climate science -
Today, December 21, the winter solstice will occur AT 11:48 pm EST. Historically this marks the shortest day of the year and the start of astronomical winter (meteorological winter already started on December 1). You can read more about it at EarthSky here, including links to what a solstice is and why the latest sunrise…