Weather Blog – from Shade Tree Meteorology

May 21, 2019May 21, 2019

Great Plains Severe Weather and Tornadoes: May 20, 2019

A storm system moving into the Great Plains this past Monday resulted in an outbreak of severe weather, including flooding and some tornadoes, across portions of Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma. Thankfully, none of the reported tornadoes did extensive damage or caused widespread injuries. This was thanks in part to the fact that the tornadic storms did not hit major metropolitan areas, but also largely due to excellent communication of risk and appropriate preparedness actions by the National Weather Service. Let’s take a closer look at how this event unfolded…

May 16, 2019May 14, 2019

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a…weather balloon?

If you follow us on Facebook, you may have noticed the the Albany National Weather Service made regional headlines last week. Why? Because a weather balloon which was launched from the office here in upstate New York made its final descent onto a driveway in Rhode Island! Thus, we thought it would be a good time to go over what exactly IS a weather balloon (and what you should do if you find one in your driveway!).

May 9, 2019May 9, 2019

Odisha: A Leader in Disaster Preparedness

Tropical Cyclone Fani made landfall in India around 9:30 AM on Friday, May 3 as one of the country’s strongest tropical cyclone in twenty years. Technically Tropical Cyclone Hudhud in October 2014 was somewhat stronger, but Tropical Cyclone Fani was a vastly larger system with a lot more water being carried along with it. At Fani’s peak intensity, maximum sustained wind speeds were around 150 miles per hour with gusts to around 190 miles per hour. Wind speeds were over 124 miles per hour when Fani made landfall in Odisha – home to 46 million people. Approximately 14 districts in Odisha have been affected by Cyclone Fani, over one millions people were evacuated from the storm, and approximately 900 cyclone shelters were set up for those who were displaced.

View of Fani as seen by the Japanese Himawari 8 satellite

May 3, 2019May 2, 2019

Recap: New York State Severe Weather Awareness Week

If you follow us on Facebook , you may have noticed our series of severe weather safety posts this week. This week is Severe Weather Awareness week in New York State. With the season changing, early May is a great time to review safety practices for a variety of severe weather which can occur during the spring and summer months.

April 25, 2019April 25, 2019

Looking back at U.S. Climate in 2018

Although most people tend to look back and on the past year around the holidays and at the beginning of a New Year, I also like to reflect back once spring has truly sprung. The sun illuminates our days even longer, the world is full of beautiful new blooms, the birds are chirping, and it seems that everything is truly “new” again. So for this week’s blog, I thought that this would be a perfect time to look back at 2018 and really take in all that happened across the U.S. weather-wise.

April 19, 2019April 22, 2019

Wild Weather Extremes: April 2019 Snow and Severe Weather

When meteorologist educators teach students of all levels, one of the first things we do is to distinguish the difference between weather and climate. Technically speaking, weather is the day-to-day conditions that describe the state of the atmosphere, while climate is an average of weather conditions at a particular place, generally averaged over a 30 year time period. In my classes, I always say that the best way to remember this distinction is that ‘weather impacts your daily life’. Many disruptions to people’s lives were caused as a result of a very dynamic spring weather pattern which has been present over the continental United States for the last few weeks.

April 11, 2019April 11, 2019

California Super Bloom: The Striking Spectacle Drawing in Droves of Tourists

A wetter than average fall and winter (thanks, in part, to heavy rains from an atmospheric river event that led to flooding along the Russian River) pulled California out of its drought last month for the first time since December 2011. Above-normal snowpacks were observed along the Sierra Nevada Range and throughout much of the West as well. In fact, on April 2, 2019, only 6% of the contiguous U.S. was in drought – one of the smallest drought footprints across the continental U.S. on record. These wet conditions from the past months, combined with cool daytime temperatures and cold nights allowed for a rare super bloom of wildflowers in the Anza-Borrego Desert .

April 4, 2019April 11, 2019

The Pollen Count: How Weather Conditions Affect Seasonal Allergies

As I sit here writing this week’s blog post, I continue to hope that *writing* about springtime will mean that actual springlike weather conditions will occur outside my (deceptively) sunny window. Now that it is April, seasonal allergies are in full swing for many, even up into the northern parts of the United States where full leaf-out is still a few weeks away (see our blog post on phenology for more information on that). Although most of us allergy sufferers are fully aware that there is a seasonal pattern to allergies, it is less commonly known why some seasons are just terrible, while others aren’t as bad.

March 28, 2019March 28, 2019

Historic Widespread Flooding to Continue Through May

NOAA issued its annual Spring Outlook (April – June 2019) last Thursday, March 21, 2019 which includes outlooks for temperature, precipitation, and flood risk. As those living in the upper Mississippi and Missouri River basins including Nebraska, Minnesota and Iowa are still recovering from recent monumental and devastating flooding, forecasters have declared that above-average spring rain and snow will likely worsen flood conditions through May.

Missouri 111 in Craig, Missouri . Photo courtesy Missouri State Highway Patrol

March 21, 2019March 20, 2019

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).