Weather Geeks

Guest:  Dr. Stephen Strader, Villanova University Introduction: Hurricane Harvey...Hurricane Dorian...the deadly Camp Fire...the devastating Super Tornado Outbreak of 2011… These disasters likely bring to mind the powerful images you saw from communities hardest hit by these extreme weather events. In a world with an increasing number of disasters, it’s becoming more apparent that w...

Guest:  Stephen Nesbitt, University of Illinois Introduction: Today we’re happy to welcome Professor Stephen Nesbitt from the University of Illinois. Dr. Nesbitt has his hands in a variety of projects & research interests, including mesoscale and cloud dynamics, radar and satellite meteorology, and tropical meteorology. His extensive field research has taken him to 5 continents...

Guest:  Dr. Marilyn Brown, Georgia Tech  Introduction:  The word “drawdown” is used in multiple fields, from banking to investing, but for today’s episode, the most important use of the word is in climatology. Climate drawdown is the point at which greenhouse gas concentrations begin to decline on a year-to-year basis in order to reach carbon neutrality. The United States still...

Guest:  Dr. Harold Brooks, NSSL Introduction:  The United States is known to produce some of nature’s most severe weather as it allows for just the right ingredients to come together.  As extreme weather becomes a more common occurrence, many have begged the question: Will we see more severe storms and even tornadoes as our world continues to warm?  Today’s guest is Dr. Harold...

Guest:  Dan Lindsey, GOES-R Program Scientist  Introduction:  While the debate of “model wars” continues into the new decade, the satellite technology that the United States has advanced over the years is second-to-none! Being able to see the atmosphere from a top-down view has changed the way that meteorologists around the world can forecast the daily weather. They can see whe...

Guest:  Michael Kane, Water Resources Engineer Introduction: Hydrology is the study of the movement, distribution and management of water on Earth, including the water cycle, water resources, and environmental watershed sustainability. Hydrologists work with other scientists to investigate how water impacts their respective fields, so meteorologists and hydrologists have a special relati...

Guest:  Dr. Peter Bauer, ECMWF Deputy Director of Research & Head of the Scalability Programme Introduction: I need more power…!! Computing power that is. This has been a major focus for numerical weather prediction in hopes of creating more accurate and detailed predictions of Earth’s systems. The highly touted European Model has long been one of the leaders in numerical weather pre...

Guests:  Greg Kopp & David Sills, Western University  Intro:  While severe weather prediction continues to improve here in the United States, a nearby neighbor is currently deep into their most comprehensive tornado study ever! As we travel north of the border to our neighbors in Canada, the team at Western University is conducting the Northern Tornadoes Project, or NTP. This pr...

Guest:  Kim Klockow-McClain Broadcast meteorologists are often the face of severe weather as they are the first people we see when severe weather is expected. However, there is a larger network of people from broadcasters, to emergency managers, law enforcement officers, and state and local officials who must work together to best serve the community before and after a disaster. Today’s guest...

Guest:  Dail St. Claire: Daughter of the June Bacon-Bercey, the 1st African-American Female TV Meteorologist Introduction: If I were to ask a room full of meteorologists who their role model was, I am sure that a handful of them would say the late June Bacon-Bercey. She was the first African-American female television meteorologist, and with that achievement, she broke MANY barriers.&nbs...

Introduction:  A lot of people choose to live in a certain place based on how the winters are. If you love wearing big comfy sweaters and playing out in the snow, odds are you live in the midwestern or northeastern United States. If you would rather turn on your heat for only a couple days in the season and enjoy the occasional chilly, rainy day, then you’d love the south! Rega...

Introduction:  As Weather Geeks, we know that the climate is changing and the Earth has needs that it wants to meet. As human beings, we are also changing and our bodies and minds have needs that they want met as well. Both of these sets of needs cannot be ignored or else there will be ramifications down the line. Scientists who are tasked with tackling and researching climate chang...

Guest:   Keith Stellman, Meteorologist-in-Charge NWS Atlanta Intro: The National Weather Service is a lot more than the blaring alerts on your TV when there is a tornado warning in your area or the notifications on your phone about the severe thunderstorm watch issued for your state. The NWS operates over 120 weather forecast offices across the country and each office is constantly...

Guest:  Dr. David Peterson, NASA/Naval Research Lab As millions of acres have been ablaze across Australia in recent weeks, those wildfires have formed incredible smoke plumes that tower thousands of feet into the atmosphere. These “pyrocumulonimbus clouds” can transport massive amounts of smoke and ash into the sky, and some of that smoke has even been found to have circled the globe! T...

Intro:  With the increasing number of climate change impacts being seen across the globe, it is becoming apparent that not all communities are affected equally. Today’s guest has dedicated his career to being a champion for at-risk populations facing environmental challenges, and has even been lauded as the Father of Environmental Justice. Dr. Robert Bullard is an award-winning author an...

Guest:  Chris Fisher, Archaeologist Colorado State University Intro: It is no secret that our Earth is changing, but it may be faster than you’d think! What if we had the ability to see what parts of the Earth were changing day-by-day? How much of the Southeast U.S. coast is shrinking due to sea level rise? Or how raging wildfires in California are changing our landscapes? Well, the...

Guest:  Dr. Marshall Shepherd Intro: As you are listening to this episode, the American Meteorological Society’s annual meeting will be going on in Boston. These large gatherings only happen once a year...but this year is something special! It is the 100th meeting of the AMS, commonly called the Centennial. As I was the former president of the AMS and had to work through the logisti...

Guest:  Dr. Wenyuan Fan Intro: “Stormquakes!” The word that has captured the attention of both the scientific community and public alike. Dr. Wenyuan Fan, a professor at Florida State University has discovered this remarkable way that the atmosphere can actually transfer energy deep into the earth! Something like a hurricane or other strong storm can spark seismic events in the ocean as stron...

Guest: Dr. Louis Uccellini   Intro:  Today on Weather Geeks, it’s all about the National Weather Service turning 150 years old!  We’ll take a look back at 2019, and who better to do it with than with Dr. Louis Uccellini, Director of the National Weather Service! We’ll recap the 2019 Hurricane Season, the forecast advancements we made, and look ahead to the 2020 year for the Nat...

Guest: Heather Zons 2019 was a wild year of weather. From record-breaking spring flooding in the Midwest to another devastating hurricane season, all while the global temperature keeps ticking up and up. And we had over 80 episodes of Weather Geeks talking to scientists from all corners of the country to cover those topics and many, many more! We are using this last episode of the year t...

Guest:  Russ Schumacher, Asst. Professor & State Climatologist Intro: The Centennial State is known for its diverse landscapes. From the snow-covered, Rocky Mountain peaks towering above the High Plains, to the river canyons and deserts below, Colorado has much to offer for any outdoor enthusiast.  But this state also offers up a variety of weather, and 2019 proved to be one for the...

Guest: Dr. Thomas L. Mote, Distinguished Research Professor, UGA Introduction: The Greenland ice sheet has become a hotbed of climate change research in recent decades. The alarming rate of warming being observed has garnered attention from scientists across the globe, including today’s guest, Dr. Tom Mote. He has ventured to the ice sheet himself to observe and measure the rapidly changing landsc...

Guest:  Tony Knap, Director of Geochemical & Environmental Research Group (GERG) at Texas A&M Intro:   The effects of the Gulf Loop Current on tropical cyclone development and intensification is often a major focus of forecasters.  However, this current has much broader impacts beyond tropical cyclones, such as extra-tropical cyclone development and even tornadoes. Toda...

In the middle of one of the busiest travel weeks of the year, two major winter storms are impacting millions of people with snow, wind, and even severe storms. Today we welcome back meteorologist Stephanie Abrams to discuss how these massive storm systems are causing delays and making for dangerous driving conditions. She’ll also provide an inside look at how we’re working behind the scenes to com...

Guest:  Dr. Dalia Kirschbaum Intro: When you think of NASA, odds are you’re thinking of launching rockets into space and landing men on the moon. Well, they do a LOT more than that! My next guest is not a rocket scientist or an astronaut, but she is a valuable member of the Goddard Space Flight Center as a landslide researcher and disaster response coordinator. Dr. Dalia Kirschbaum...