We love last-second blizzard warnings during our cross-country drives, absolutely fantastic

There is no way to stop climate change research at NCAR without doing irreparable damage to weather research. "The idea that you can just pull “vital” weather research activities out of a unique, vibrant scientific environment and expect that they will just continue to roll along is ludicrous."

Before the 1990s, plane crashes caused by microbursts used to kill planeloads of people fairly regularly. Dr. Ted Fujita and NCAR scientists figured out how to detect microbursts and warn pilots about them. Since then? Zero airliner crashes from microbursts.

It's almost like they're doing what they said they'd do in a document they published 2 years ago.

actually i didnt need to go into the office this afternoon

I am simultaneously both of them

It turns out that PhD candidate life is much scarier than life beforehand

It's over. Despite the fact that the academic council recommended against it, despite the fact that the program brought in more tuition than it cost, and despite the fact that Nebraskans need & deserve this expertise, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences will be cut. www.dailynebraskan.com/news/adminis...

If we don't trust experts, we all will die Have a good weekend www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC6P...

A top fault of mine prior to this year was not being cynical enough about university leadership across the country

So stoked to finally be attending Main Character University during the Main Character Annihilation administration

All I want for Christmas is for the worst people in the world to experience some consequences

idk not to mention how very nuanced and normal the actual response here was

PhD s̶t̶u̶d̶e̶n̶t̶ candidate (and some celebratory fireworks)

From UNL Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Chair, Clint Rowe, on how the community can help make the case to the Univ. of Nebraska Board of Regents as to why their department should be retained:

It's pretty disorienting knowing how influential UNL's program is in meteorology while seeing this plan advance forward. They send an impressive fraction of their students into successful operational and research careers.

It took 6 months to nail down an edit I don't hate of Arnett...but I did it. Tough lighting and white-balancing act. But lord, what a beauty of a storm.

The factional grifters will hate this, but the Mamdani-Spanberger-Sherrill axis actually suggests the outlines of a broad, emerging Dem coalition organized around both anti-Trump *and* affordability politics, not a party bitterly divided against itself.

Happy first anniversary of that time we had to watch the clocks tick from 1:59 am to 1:00 am again in the middle of a tornado outbreak

Per NOAA/AOML/HRD’s Sim Aberson, the 219 kt reading will be the fastest wind ever measured by a dropsonde if it passes final quality-control checks.

The Braum's Enjoyer

Breakdown of time spent writing: Cohering a logical flow of ideas - 5% Pacing the room - 25% Googling synonyms to words I've already used - 70%

Satellite image of a beautiful midlatitude cyclone over the Great Lakes

This is not allowed. Gaslighting gaslighters nope stop it

Going through an old class project and found my pics of the complete transition from CI to (barely) tornadic supercell of the 4/19/23 Moore storm. Like, starting from the exact cumulus puff out west of Lawton (which was notably wider than its peers at conception)

The eyes of betrayal

my soft social media strike is taking a hiatus folks

The CSSL/NTP assisted the US National Weather Service (NWS) with their upgrading of the official rating of the June 2025 Enderlin, ND tornado from EF3 to EF5. Announced by the NWS today, it’s the first EF5-rated tornado in the US since 2013. Details here: uwo.ca/ntp/blog/202... Image B. Emfinger

just casually ending the ef5 streak too why not

I either need to stop going on walks or start going on a lot more

The Univ. of Nebraska’s Dept. of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences has established a webpage soliciting the community’s help in saving their program. Their hearing in front of campus admin is next Friday, Oct 10th. Please consider sharing why they’re essential! eas.unl.edu/save-earth-a...

Swept almost everything off my plate before my general exam starts this week and instead of stressed I feel...freer than I have in years

keeping my tropicaltidbits tab open for moral support in these trying times

UNL is proposing to cut the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, which would eliminate the undergraduate and graduate meteorology programs. Please consider sharing the importance of our department with UNL through this link: apc.unl.edu/fall-2025-bu...

i just let a bad compute node deprive me of 90 minutes of sleep i swear to god

If you are (1) a graduate of UNL's Earth and Atmospheric Sciences department (2) a research collaborator (3) a partner who has worked with meteorologists in NE (4) a grateful NE citizen who appreciates meteorologists keeping you safe please write a letter to support UNL EAS before it gets cut<1/2>

I've been privileged to know and have worked with many brilliant students, faculty, and alumni from UNL's meteorology program over the last several years. It may be a smaller program, but they have an outsized impact on the field. We can't afford to lose a program like this, especially right now.

It’s ok to put the phone down.

Q: but what if a full Epstein investigation also takes down Bill Clinton????? A:

I wrote about the cancellation by NOAA of the ~$75M contract to procure the next phased array weather radar R&D instrument. Meanwhile, at least $245M of contracts using federal and state funds have been executed for this "facility" which lasted about 8 weeks. #priorities apnews.com/article/flor...

Important weather science news tonight: NOAA has canceled procurement of the next phased array weather radar R&D instrument. Along with the obvious blow to PAR weather research, it is consistent with other moves by admin to push forward quickly with NOAA cuts. More: https://tinyurl.com/my8hx8j6

these people just fundamentally believe that only they have the legitimate right to political power www.gelliottmorris.com/p/new-house-...

Four years ago today in Wisconsin, this brief tornado spun at 17 billion quintillion gazillion miles per hour, breaking the sound barrier or something like that (Audible "crack" can be heard emanating from the collapsing vortex ~0:17, I believe one of only 2 videos that captured it)

“GPT-5 is the first time that it feels like talking to an expert in any topic — a Ph.D.-level expert,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said.

I'm as big a fan of private weathertech as anyone, but these aren't the backbone of our weather observations. There's also a definite overpromise/underdeliver as far as operational utility. This isn't to minimize the important work, but it's unfair to characterize the extras as a viable replacement.

Watertown tornado drilling nearly straight vertically shortly before morphing into a quasi-steady-state, helix-shaped vortex for several seconds.

Full video edit of the Watertown, #SDwx tornado up. It's rare I get a "video tornado" these days. This is the first time I've had chase video up within a week since...before grad school. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZh-...

Just a relaxing summer lake day yesterday

When you take a very tiny, slight, trivial 8-hour detour through South Dakota on your drive from OK to IL... Fought through corn and trees for this view of yesterday's stunner drillbit tornado just west of Watertown, #SDwx.