This phenomenon is NOT unusual, but it doesn’t always happen. Today, the dry line and the resulting squall-line were perfectly aligned. The data presented a teaching moment that I couldn’t pass up. At the end of the animation, I zoom in so you can see the wind barbs pointing toward the dry line. The air … Read more
April 27th, 2016, will be the five year anniversary of the April 27th, 2011, Super Outbreak of tornadoes that occurred across Dixie Alley in the southeastern United States. Between April 26th and April 28th, 2011, there were 363 total tornadoes. On April 27th alone, there were 219 tornadoes. This outbreak surpassed the 1974 Tornado Outbreak that … Read more
One of the most awe-inspiring forces of nature is lake-effect snow. The amount of latent energy required to produce the lake-effect convection is astounding, and in some situations, snowfall rates can reach as high as 5 to 6 inches per hour. In this article, we discuss the atmospheric physics, dynamics, and thermodynamics responsible for the … Read more
I love this animation. After spending years trying to explain these concepts, along comes high-resolution satellite images sewn together from a Lagrangian perspective to create a fast animation that actually shows the seasons changing as Earth tilts on its axis from equinox to solistice to equinox and so on. Credit: Simon Proud, researcher in the … Read more
If you watched the GA Tech/FSU ACC Championship Game in Charlotte, North Carolina tonight (12/6/14), you may have seen the smoke-filled stadium following the pre-game fireworks show. A heavy fog was already in place, which virtually guaranteed poor visibility of the fireworks; but to make matters worse, the smoke from the fireworks had no where … Read more