As I reflect, it was Severe Weather Preparedness Week— March 6-10, 2023. We have already had severe weather this year, but it will become more frequent now that spring is around the corner. Sometimes when thunderstorms are forecast, you will hear weathercasters talking about the atmosphere being...
We are bound to have fog from time to time. I still remember when I was in my late teens and insisted on going to see some friends when I could barely see the edge of the road. My parents were not happy. Some areas, such as San Francisco or London, have fog more often. The cause of fog can depend...
California has recently been slammed with extreme rainfall and snow in the high elevations, along with high winds. Media have attributed these events to an atmospheric river, but what does that mean?
What is an atmospheric river?
The ones that affect California occur when the polar jet stream...
Winter precipitation is on its way. Rain, snow, sleet, and freezing rain are all potential types of precipitation. Rain is liquid water, while the other three are frozen at the end of their atmospheric journey.
So, if snow, sleet, and freezing rain are all frozen water, what’s the difference?...
We all have been hearing about the mega-drought occurring in the west. California has been hard hit, with many of its lakes at record lows. Water managers in that area always hope for a good winter precipitation season to replenish some of the water that is sorely needed. While most of the moisture...
Forecasting day-to-day weather and predicting what climate will be five years or 50 years from now have very different outcomes. Both processes use most of the same land, water, and sea parameters, but the range for climate forecasts can also vary due to human activity. For climate forecasts,...
A large underwater volcano recently erupted in the South Pacific. Volcanoes can send huge amounts of gases and ash into the atmosphere. Very large eruptions can affect the climate.
In 1815, one of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in the last several thousand years occurred in the South Pacific...
In December, I provided a weather quiz post, the second one I’ve done. Here are the answers. How did you do this time? Let me know! We’ll try another quiz later in the...
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 will likely...
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 every few years. A La Nina event occurs when there is a...
As I write this article, corn has tasseled on about 80% of fields in Central Illinois. Apologies to those with corn pollen allergies!
Corn, just like other plants, experiences evapotranspiration (ET). Evapotranspiration is when water is taken up by corn plants,...
Early spring in Illinois can be a battle between the last of cold winter weather and the mild air of spring. On relatively rare occasions in March, we can experience warm, muggy air that normally doesn’t reach us until April or May. When this occurs early in spring, it’s best to be on guard for...
I’m now at the point in my life where I know others look at me and think I’m old. For truth in advertising, I’m currently 61; actually 61 ½, but the pleasure in saying the ½ left many decades ago.
I can talk about my weather experiences with a sense of sage nostalgia. Case in point, I lived...
Many people have heard of Jim Cantore from The Weather Channel. He is even more of a weather geek than I am. In February 2011, the Midwest was hit with a very strong winter storm, and Cantore was in in Chicago reporting on its effects there. During one of...
You’re watching a local weather forecast or checking it online when you notice it says temperatures will be 'above normal or below normal.' But what does this actually mean?
Normal is Average
In most cases, the word 'normal' is used in place of 'average.'
Average Daily Temperature...
Two words people have learned to dread in the past few years is "polar vortex." People may not know a lot about what that is, other than it usually means we may be in for some bitterly cold temperatures.
The worst outbreak in my experience was December 23, 1983. I had just finished my graduate...
