History
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Watching satellite loops of hurricanes, dust storms, and other atmospheric events has become routine and I see daily examples on social media plus on broadcast television and online. But it was just 65 years ago that the first weather satellite was launched, just a couple of years after the USSR launched Sputnik in 1957. One…
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I can’t recall whether I posted the proposed hurricane names for this year so here I go just in case. EarthSky posted a story about the names for this year here. The story includes some history about when hurricanes were first given names and what storm names were retired in 2024 (hint: there are three).…
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There have been many stories in the news lately about agriculture and climate. Here is a sampling of the ones I thought were the most interesting. The list ends with an interesting video on atmospheric optics, including rainbows, haloes, and many other odd sky phenomena. Catholic Vote: ‘Completely and utterly ignored’: Rural US workers crushed…
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If you have been watching national weather news this week you may have noticed images of tremendous dust storms in western Texas, including El Paso. These dust storms caused visibilities near zero on highways, leading to accidents and health issues there. But you may not have seen the stories about the dirty rain that fell…
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Here is an interesting piece of weather history that you might not have heard of. Back in the 1880s, John Park Finley, a member of the Army Signal Corps (a precursor to the Weather Bureau, which began in 1890) started making tornado forecasts based on his observations of the weather that often occurred when tornadoes…
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I’ve gotten some questions about how the snowstorm along the Gulf Coast this past week has compared to previous storms, especially the large snow event of 1895. This post in The Eyewall provides some great historical context and visuals from previous snowstorms and compares them to the event that just happened. Some parts of the…
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Did you know that onions have been used in the past to predict the next year’s weather? Neither did I. Gastro Obscura has a very interesting article this week describing how twelve layers from a freshly-cut onion were salted and left overnight to see how they reacted to predict what the climate would be for…