Weather Geeks

Guest: Dr. Rick Knabb Introduction:  As we approach the midpoint of the 2023 Atlantic Hurricane Season, we just experienced the landfall of Hurricane Idalia: a major hurricane. With much of the season still ahead of us, we're joined today by The Weather Channel hurricane expert, Dr. Rick Knabb, to discuss the storm and what to expect going forward into the rest of the season. See Privacy...

Guest: John Valliant While this year’s wildfire season in the United States hasn’t really picked up steam, the wildfires in Canada have taken over the headlines.  Not just because of the extent of the fires, but because of the smoke they are emitting that is wafting into the U.S. and causing some of the worst air quality seen in years.  This has been forcing Americans to pay attention to...

Guest: Dr. Sundararaman Gopalakrishnan With the Atlantic hurricane season in full swing, a new hurricane forecast model is ready to improve forecast accuracy as well as increase our understanding of tropical cyclones. Joining me today is Dr. Sundararaman “Gopal” Gopalakrishnan, senior meteorologist and leader of the modeling team that is behind NOAA’s newest hurricane forecast model. The Hurr...

Guest: Lieutenant Commander Valerie Gardner, Chief of Behavior Health and Wellness at the National Weather Service Forecasting for natural disasters brings one level of stress, and the aftermath can raise it to a whole new level of challenges. There is a lot of attention on the well-being of the people affected by these natural disasters…but what about those making the forecasts? Li...

Guest: WDSU New Orleans' Chief Meteorologist Margaret Orr For over 40 years, viewers in New Orleans have tuned in and watched Margaret Orr deliver their forecast on their local news, eventually becoming her station’s chief meteorologist in 2009. Throughout her career, she’s covered numerous landmark weather events in southeast Louisiana and earned her viewers trust as not only a meteorologist...

Guest: Liz Leitman Introduction:  You are probably familiar with severe thunderstorm and tornado watches. The storm prediction center and its predecessors have been issuing them since the 1950’s to alert people that thunderstorms may develop and bring damaging winds, hail or tornadoes. About a hundred of these are issued every year. Believe it or not, the first convective watch...

Guests: Fred Malik, IBHS Introduction:  After severe weather barrels through a town and destroys everything in its wake, there are stories of survival and perseverance. But then, these communities are tasked to rebuild. But are they rebuilding correctly? Are the new homes being built going to keep the owners more safe than they were before, or do they have to experience the ter...

Guests: Jim Minick Introduction:  Tornadoes are one of the most violent weather phenomena on our planet, the strongest of which have been rated an EF5, or an F5 before 2007 when the Enhanced Fujita scale was put into practice. These incredibly violent tornadoes are uncommon, with the last one occurring 10 years ago in 2013. Today, we’re going to go back even further, and take a look at the de...

Guests:  Jase Bernhardt, Ph. D. Introduction:  They say you have to see it to believe it, and that phrase has been tested time and time again in social sciences, especially in the meteorology field. Can you believe that there is a tornado outside during a tornado warning if you can’t see it if you look down the street? How would you know how to react to certain natural disasters wit...

Guests: Bruckner Chase Introduction:  As we head into the swimming season, many of us are going to be flocking to the beach for a bit of surf, sand and fun! In addition to the fun memories that you’ll be making, there are a few things to be aware of when it comes to keeping yourself safe when heading into the ocean and today we’re going to dive into the topic of rip currents. NOAA has launche...

Guests: Rep. Frank Lucas Introduction:  As we Weather Geeks reside in our science world, sometimes we can be critical of how other industries perceive us and the work that we do. It can be especially frustrating when one of those circles is our own government, where science can become a polarizing issue on opposite sides of the aisel. When they don’t take the science ...

Guests:  Daniel Blackman, Senior Advisor for STEM Recruitment and Diversity at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Introduction:  On November 29th, 2021, President Biden appointed Daniel Blackman to serve as the regional administrator for EPA's Southeast Region Four. In this role, Daniel served as the EPA's lead on protecting public health and the environment for the region sp...

Guests:  Dr. Dalia Kirschbaum, Director of Earth Sciences Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Introduction:  Studying the science of our planet and solving the problems its inhabitants face has been Dr. Dalia Kirschbaum’s mission since joining NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center over ten years ago. Her career has been nothing short of impressive, and since June 2022, she has se...

Guest: Ken Graham The National Weather Service needs no introduction here on Weather Geeks and last year, a new director was appointed to lead the agency in charge of disseminating vital weather information across the U.S.. Ken Graham is joining us today to look back at his first year as head of the NWS as its 17th director and if his name sounds familiar, it’s because he’s been a guest of the pod...

Guests: Dr. Mike Brennan From June 1st to November 30th all eyes in the weather world turn to the tropics. The 2023 Hurricane Season will be the first as the National Hurricane Center Director for our next guest. Mike Brennan is the new director of the National Hurricane center, a role he began in April of 2023. Mike‘s tropical weather knowledge and 15 years of experience at the NHC makes him the...

Guests: Jamie Winterstern Introduction:   If you found your passion for meteorology or storm chasing through severe weather focused movies or shows, you will love this episode of Weather Geeks! Our guest on today’s podcast is Jamie Winterstern who wrote and directed the movie 'Supercell' that was recently released in mid-March to kick off the severe weather season.  Jamie is the you...

Guests: Vice President Kamala Harris, Dr. Marshall Shepherd, and Dr. Isaiah Bolden All of us Weather Geeks know how important our changing climate is for the future of our world. It is going to shape our lives and our children's lives if we do not take action soon, and that action needs to be more than on a personal level. We need our government bodies all the way up to the White House t...

Guests : Weather Geeks Team Description : One of the biggest metrics for tracking extreme weather events that impact our country is quantifying them as “Billion Dollar Disasters.” Earlier this week, NOAA announced that 7 separate billion-dollar disasters have occurred so far in 2023. Every month of the year so far has had at least one disaster, ranging from winter events to tornadoe...

Guests: Dr. Steven Thur Introduction:  When extreme weather events rear their ugly heads, our first concerns are naturally with people and property.  But sometimes, we tend to forget the impacts on the environment around us and the animals that also inhabit the same spaces we live and breathe. The impact on their environment also leads to huge impacts on the economies around their habita...

Guests: Rear Admiral Ronald J. Piret Introduction:  The United States Navy is stationed all over the globe and requires accurate weather and ocean forecasting in order to operate to achieve their mission as well as assist other branches of our military. Today we want to dive into that complex operation and shed some light on the over 2,500 Sailors, Scientists, Engineers and Technicians at the...

Guests: Rep. Eric Sorensen Introduction:  In the United States, our congressional representatives and senators play an important role in how the conversation and actions on climate change occur in our country. Yet, for the most part, those same individuals don’t have a background rooted in meteorology or climate sciences. Representative Eric Sorensen seeks to change that and become the first...

Guests: Joel Gratz Introduction: “ Never miss a powder day.”  Those coveted days with deep, fresh, powdery snow on the slopes.  That was a mantra turned into a successful snow forecasting business.  Today on Weather Geeks, meet Joel Gratz - an entrepreneurial meteorologist who has figured out how to optimize forecasting mountain snow.  Find out how he sees forecasting and...

Guest: Helen Roberts You’ve seen the warnings: "Don’t drive through floodwaters." "Evacuate when officials ask during hurricanes or wildfires." "Tornadoes can strike any town, even if they’ve never hit your town before." "Heat is the biggest weather-killer." These are some of the messages meteorologists put out there in extreme weather events. Today on WeatherGeeks…we delve into why these extreme...

Guests: Weather Geeks Team with Dr. Greg Postel As the sun set over the Magnolia state on Friday March 24th, Mississippian lives were changed forever. A charged supercell cut across the midsection of the state, spawning a tornado that caused EF4 damage in the towns of Rolling Fork and Silver City and then EF3 damage in Amory, all over the course of a few hours while many slept. Whil...

Guests: Dr. Victor Gensini & Dr. Harold Brooks In the minds of many, Spring may be king when it comes to tornadoes, but we know they can happen any month of the year. We also know during the colder months, we tend to observe certain types of tornadoes and severe weather in favored parts of the country. Today we will be joined by severe weather experts Dr. Harold Brooks from the National S...