Climate science
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While I don’t expect to see snowflakes today, other parts of the Southeast are currently experiencing wintry weather including snow and freezing rain. Here is an interesting story from EarthSky on how snowflakes get their shapes. There’s a lot more variety than you might think besides the fluffy dendrites we see in Christmas cards! Read it…
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Thursday, December 21, is the date of this year’s winter solstice, the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. You can read more about it at EarthSky at https://earthsky.org/tonight/years-shortest-season-starts-with-december-solstice. They also have an interesting article describing the difference in sunlight hours at St. Augustine FL and New York City NY at https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/solstice-tale-of-two-cities.
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If you are interested in taking an online class on climate change science, communication and action, you should check out this 3-week class offered from Cornell University which will be offered in January and February. You can get more details and register at https://civicecology.org/course-climatechange/.
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Among the many atmosphere-ocean oscillations that occur in the Earth’s global climate system, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation is one of the longest, with swings that may last 30 years or so between phases. Like the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) which swings back and forth between El Niño and La Niña, it can regulate global temperatures…
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As we enter winter, you might be interested in seeing what the trends in temperature over time are for your state and how they compare to other parts of the country. Climate Central has a easy to use graphic that shows trends in each state for the four seasons. You need to keep in mind…
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NOAA’s Climate.gov site has another interesting entry in their blog this week by Deke Arndt, one of my old friends and fellow climatologists. It shows that sometimes the climate is changing so rapidly, it fools the computers into thinking the data are bad. You will enjoy reading more about how they check for bad data…
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If you’ve been watching the news, you have been seeing some spectacular and scary scenes of fires burning across mountainsides of southern California under the influence of strong winds called Santa Ana winds, which blow down the mountains due to strong high pressure over the western US. If you are interested in learning more about…