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Spring Equinox and the National Phenology Network

Spring officially began at 5:58 PM EDT yesterday, and for many of us across the country, it can’t come soon enough. Although the weather may not yet feel like spring (portions of the Northeast US may see accumulating snow within the next few days!), we can definitely notice a difference in the sun. Did you know that the sun angle we see now is the same sun angle we see in mid-October? We are also seeing the days lengthen by about 3 minutes per day in upstate New York (the exact time differs slightly from place to place).

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Severe Weather/Tornado Recap and Preparedness Weeks

This past weekend, the United States experienced its most deadly tornado outbreak since May of 2013, when a large tornado killed 24 people in the town of Moore, Oklahoma. On March 3, 2019, a series of tornadoes tracked across the U.S. Gulf Coast, impacting Alabama, Georgia, the Florida Panhandle, and western South Carolina.

Courtesy: CNN.com
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Spring Thaws and Maple Syrup

Fall foliage in the Adirondack Mountains of New York.

When most people think of maple trees in the Northeast, the image above comes to mind: a beautiful array of striking colors at their peak in September and October. But for some people, maple trees conjure up another image- the muddy, springtime season of maple sugaring. Maple sugaring season begins in the early spring, just as the trees are beginning to wake up from a long, cold winter.

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Arctic Blast and Snow Squalls: January 30, 2019

As I sit writing this post today, it is currently 52 degrees with bright, sunny skies at the Albany International Airport. Temperatures in central New York and Pennsylvania are in the low 60s, and the frigid arctic air that was making national headlines just a few days ago seem like a distant memory (at least until one remembers that it is early February and winter is far from over in the Northeast!). While the coldest of the cold air impacted the Midwest and northern Plains, those of us here in the northeast U.S. got a quick blast of the frigid air between January 30 and February 1. Continue reading “Arctic Blast and Snow Squalls: January 30, 2019”

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Ellicott City’s Hometown Hero: A Story of Resilience in the Wake of Extreme Flash Flooding

Ellicott City, Maryland is a historic town of around 70,000 that was founded by four brothers in 1772 and is home to the Ellicott City Station – the oldest surviving train station in the United States. The landmark Ellicott City Station isn’t the only thing that Ellicott City is known for though. After enduring two historic “1-in-1,000-year” rain events in two years that garnered national headlines, the residents of Ellicott City are becoming known for their resilience, community, and dedication to preserving their home – in spite of all odds. Continue reading “Ellicott City’s Hometown Hero: A Story of Resilience in the Wake of Extreme Flash Flooding”

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Northeast Winter Storm January 19-20, 2019

At the time of this writing, the northeast United States is in the grip of a frigid air mass in the wake of a winter storm which brought widespread snowfall, along with a variety of mixed precipitation, to the Eastern Seaboard. While today’s winds and associated below-zero wind chill factors are a topic for a future blog post, today we focus on the physical mechanisms which are responsible for creating various types of frozen precipitation. Continue reading “Northeast Winter Storm January 19-20, 2019”