If someone is sad that holiday season is over, here is something to celebrate. The earth is the closest it will ever be to the sun for the year!
We all know the earth revolves around the sun. It takes about 365.25 days to do this, or one year.
However, that revolution (or orbit) is...
Seeing the tragic consequences of the December tornado outbreak in the Midwest, I’m sure many folks are wondering if there are ways to make homes more resistant to wind damage, whether it’s straight-line winds or tornadoes. The answer is yes.
How winds interact with buildings
Homes affected by...
A few months ago, I posted a quiz with several weather questions for people to try to answer. It seemed to go over well, so here is round two. I’ll post the answers in a few weeks...
You’ve probably heard these weather terms many times - El Nino and La Nina. They seem to affect our weather and they come and go. Are they normal to occur? Where do they occur? Why does it affect our weather?
What is La Nina?
In this post, I’ll focus on La Nina since that is what...
As I write this, folks just a few miles away are sawing up downed trees and clearing debris from severe wind damage that occurred during a round of thunderstorms passing through the area the night before.
No tornado was observed either by eye or on radar, so it appears to have been caused by...
Looking at the title sounds almost like a 60s rock band, doesn’t it?
Actually, I want to talk about precipitation. You’ve probably heard about acid rain and the environmental concerns associated with it. What it really should be called is “precipitation that is more acidic than normal” ...
We're moving into fall and looking ahead, the outlook for winter temperatures continues the trend toward warmer temperatures.
La Nina
One of the drivers could be a return of La Nina, which you hear about...
The passage of summer to fall happens this year on September 22, which is called the September or Autumnal Equinox.
What is an Equinox and why do we use it?
Equinox basically means “equal night.” It comes from a couple of Latin words. We have two equinoxes yearly, one in March (the March or...
At the writing of this post on September 2, we are in the average peak week of hurricane activity for the Gulf of Mexico. Remnants of hurricane Ida are drenching the East Coast, and a new hurricane is currently out in the Atlantic.
The Earth’s weather is a complex system of winds, moisture, and...
About 6:30 p.m. on August 9, I started getting pictures of ominous storms from my colleague Peggy Doty who lives in northern Illinois. While we were sitting with a nice evening sky in central Illinois, the northern part of the state was...
