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NOAA reported this morning (link) that the World Meteorological Organization has retired the storm names “Matthew” and “Otto” from their list of storm names. You probably remember the impacts of Matthew, which hit the East Coast and caused incredible damage to eastern North Carolina as well as brought rain to the coasts of Georgia and…
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Recent rains in California have not only provided a superbloom of wildflowers but have provided desperately needed rain for the vineyards there. The Los Angeles Times reports: “It’s hard to imagine what might have happened to the region without this season’s rains. Record low rainfall levels, coupled with record average temperatures in an age of…
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The Vegetable Growers News this week published a story describing the calculations needed to determine if it is worthwhile to put in an irrigation system to help protect against drought. The calculations needed include consideration of a number of factors, including the frequency of drought, the cost of the equipment, and how climate is likely to…
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People frequently mix up weather and climate when they discuss the impacts of climate change. For example, you can still get a snowstorm (weather) as the winters get warmer (climate). The Christian Science Monitor has a good simple explanation of some of the differences in this article from early March. As you’ll see, the relationship…
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While the National Hurricane Center’s web site indicates no tropical storm development in the next five days, there are signs in several of the computer forecast models that something tropical may be brewing in the Atlantic Ocean off the East Coast. If the forecasts are accurate, then we could see the first tropical-type storm of…
Posted in: Tropical weather -
The Washington Post had a light-hearted (I think) opinion piece this week about “phenology anxiety”, which is essentially worrying about early signs of spring and what they might mean for your garden and back yard. People with this anxiety watch carefully for signs of the arrival of spring in the timing of birds, buds and…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
Here is a link to a fantastic video of a supercell thunderstorm simulated by a supercomputer. The work was done by Dr. Leigh Orf, who was a graduate student at University of Wisconsin-Madison at the same time I was. He is now doing these super in-depth visualizations of supercells and discerning how they form and…