Updraft

Early in my forecasting career, my assignment was to observe and report the weather. Each hour I would parade outdoors to gage the sky and the visibility. Remote equipment recorded other reportable information, such as temperature, dew point, wind and pressure. In the 1990s the National Weather Service deployed Automated Surface Observing Systems at local…

Indonesia is a seismically active place. Earthquakes are a part of life, devastating tsunamis can follow, and volcanoes dot the landscape. You may remember the stories of Krakatau’s massive eruption in 1883. It’s one of the largest eruptions in recorded history. Now, Anak Krakatau or “Child of Krakatau” is dazzling viewers with relatively small eruptions…

If you don’t mind my editorializing, I found the past two days just delightful. Sunday’s maximum temperature in the Twin Cites was just one degree shy of the record high of 64 degrees. Today the mercury once again climbed well above normal for the date. With plenty of sunshine, temperatures reached the middle 50s in…

Welcome to Indian Summer part two. Sunday’s high of 63 was 21 degrees above our average high of 42, and just one shy of the record of 64 set back in 2005! Hope you used the opportunity to get those last few leaves up, and stroll aimlessly down the block. Highs will linger in the…

Edwards, I just finished plowing two inches of partly cloudy! An associate in the snow plowing business couldn’t wait to chastise my lousy forecast. That was five years ago. This morning there was a half inch accumulation of light snow between Cambridge and Duluth that startled motorists and befuddled meteorologists. NOAA uses an array of…

As put together by the Minneosta climate community. Note the Armisitice Day Blizzard at #2, and the Edmund Fitzgerald storm at #7. Minnesota’s Top 5 Weather Events PH

Over the years, meteorologists have come up with ingredients methods to forecast specific weather events, especially winter snowfalls. Such methods are used along with the numerical guidance models produced by the supercomputers. These methods apply a cookbook-style ingredients list that forecasters can use to estimate the precipitation process and apply to the size and intensity…

Here’s a new twist on climate change. Something is sparkling in Greenland these days, and it’s not ice. It seems the rush is on in Greenland for diamonds. Newly exposed rock that was under a sheet of ice several years ago has revealed some impressive diamond finds, including a 2.4 carat rock in a western…

Doppler radar is a great tool to display the saturation occurring in the atmosphere. The National Weather Service meteorologist can place the radar in an operating mode that slows down the rotation and limits the elevation scan. When revolving in this volume scan, wear and tear on the radar is reduced. With regard to atmospheric…

If skies clear enough and you’re brave enough in the cold tomorrow early starting at 5:26am look low in the southeast sky for the Space Shuttle, followed by the ISS 10 minutes later a little higher in the southern sky. Shuttle and ISS sighting for Minneapolis