The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is proposing to eliminate the entire Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. I strongly encourage you to voice opposition to this cut at the appropriate link in the thread below. More details are available here: budgetprocess.unl.edu/proposed-bud...

Ready for giant pumpkin updates? I wasn't sure if I was going to have a season due to a late start, but I should pollinate a pumpkin tomorrow/Tuesday. The seed for this plant came from a 1454 pound pumpkin, but I'll be happy with 100-200 pounds, especially since time until frost is limited.

the USA built a system of higher education so good that smart/rich people from across the world came here, spending billions to learn here, subsidizing education for Americans while spending money to live in our cities and towns. our government arbitrarily decided we should stop doing that

After getting home from a family visit in the Maritimes, I felt the need to make a seasonal local dish called Hodge Podge. Not bad for my first attempt.

I'm not ready for summer to be over, but I've also started planning this year's Halloween display and thought "why can't we get nice banding like this when it's winter?" when looking at today's radar data.

I can breathe a sigh of relief now that my rain-free forecast verified for an outdoor family wedding this afternoon!

This CNN article shows the local NWS office was in fact providing ongoing realtime support to TX locals during the flooding as I posited in my article this morning even without a full-time Warning Coordination Met . Read more of my perspectives here. balancedweather.substack.com/p/latest-on-...

Michigan Sea Grant is a smart investment: We turned $19 million of federal and state funding into nearly $86 million in direct economic benefits for Michigan in 2018-23 💪

The administration needs to be held accountable for any impacts of reckless NWS staffing reductions. The impacts of sudden early retirements and departures on experience and communication with communities will be felt for years.

Happy Canada Day!

Well, that's a first. I am currently viewing the Wall cloud from the ND supercell from 110 miles away!

We were too far from the ND storm to see much, but it made for a nice pic approaching sunset.

Today was a ferry day from Kearney northward, but my van couldn't resist pausing to check out this nice updraft near Onaka, SD.

It's an honor to be featured by @ametsoc.org for Pride Month. If you're looking for a way to help, I highly recommend joining the AMS Coriolis Committee!

“[NOAA] It is truly an incredible science agency that should be talked about in same breath as NASA. I hope that our society realizes what they have in both of these tremendous entities, and works to keep them vibrant for future generations.”

My team is driving west through the NE Panhandle towards WY to be in place for storms later today. We continued past Chimney Rock without resting. The team is in good spirits, we haven't had to hunt, and nobody has broken their leg or gotten dysentery. (We do, however, need to clean our windshield.)

I've been quiet here while keeping busy with the ICECHIP field campaign since early May. Today's a down day for the campaign, but here's some small hail back home in Michigan.

Not to go off on a tangent, but…

Happy May the Fourth! I usually make faces when I make pancakes, and today's coincidentally looks a bit like Jar Jar Binks.

SAVE THE DATE! In 2 weeks on Saturday, May 17th from 2-4 pm, ICECHIP will be holding a media/field day to display instruments that will go into making this a successful study, including @dowfacility.bsky.social! This event is open to the public. Learn more below👇 www.eol.ucar.edu/field_projec...

This is not a partisan warning. As Jeff Young reported in Newsweek, “The former NWS directors...served..under six presidents, three Democratic and three Republican. Their joint letter marks the first time all of them have come together to issue a public appeal.” revkin.substack.com/p/all-living...

I am so heartened to this seriously AWESOME #SaveNSF website go up today!!!! Has a take action toolkit with: 1. Press outreach templates 2. Social media toolkit 3. Elected official outreach 4. Talking points Check it out and share widely!!!! Likely more to come. www.savensf.com

Once again begging media reports to get the math right. For example, cutting a $5M five-year grant in year 4 isn't saving $1M, but it is wasting the $4M already spent. Stop letting this administration get away with so many lies.

🧪 What the f is going on with NSF right now??? 🚨🚨🚨 There's been so many NSF updates within the past 48 hours that it's hard to keep track. It feels like an onslaught. It *is* an onslaught. But it's still vital to remain focused, organized, and strategic. So here's my recap of past 48 hours...

GLERL has already lost over 30% of its workforce in the past two months. If OAR continues to be targeted, CIGLR will struggle as well. The result will be no more lake buoys, no more HABs monitoring, and no maintenance of operational lake models for the Great Lakes, just to name a few

This is incredibly cool: if you search for a condition that’s affected your family, the site returns stats on how much NIH has done for that disease, *and* a contact form for reaching out to tell your Members of Congress why you want to see them defend NIH. Pass it on!

Make food poisoning great again!

There are so many ways one could provide context for this data. For example, in the last five years universities have received 52-55% of their research funding from the federal government. That's the lowest percentage since the 1950s. 1/x ncses.nsf.gov/surveys/high...

Happy Earth Day! I took some time today to enjoy nature around my yard, including old birds nests, praying mantis egg cases, and last year's milkweed distributing its seeds.

Several U.S. regional climate centers shut down Thursday — including those in the Midwest, Great Plains and South — after their federal funding from NOAA ran out. Here's why you should care:

Some news. Those of you that utilize the cli-MATE tool from the Midwest Regional Climate Center will no longer have access unless funding is restored before the 17th. A huge loss.

Other people have already said this, but the next step is for courts to enjoin the admin from sending any more detainees abroad. There is no “oopsie we can’t” response for that. I’m not sure anyone in particular can be held in contempt in the current impasse, but that would be good too.

Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions - rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking steps to make sure students can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope others follow suit.

I planted a couple dogwood trees, but I think I'll call them my catwood trees since Peaches helped me plant them.

NOAA just fired us, again 🤡 Retroactive to February 🤡

April 9th, 1953: A long-track F3 (likely a tornado family per independent researcher Thomas Grazulis) trekked 156 miles from Champaign, Illinois to north of Muncie, Indiana. 3 people were killed, and 22 were injured. This tornado is notable for likely having the 1st hook echo scanned by radar.

Huh, that's a first. My flight was overfueled and would be too heavy at landing, so we're hanging out on the runway with the engines revved to burn off some of the fuel before taking off.

Incredible chart of market performance over the first 100 days of the last four presidential administrations, from @jhelvy.bsky.social: jhelvy.github.io/potus-econ-s...

My in-flight entertainment as I head to Tallahassee is the waves over southeastern Indiana.

They are now estimating 2.3 million across the country. Keep it going folks. #handsoff #50501protests

It's hard to believe it's been a decade since my dissertation defense! Does this mean I'm no longer an "early-career" scientist?

I don't care how different our worldviews are, I will never wish a tragedy on someone else. Seeing posts about people deserving a tornado or a flood because they voted a certain way makes me want to rage. That's not how we build community. That's how we get more divided than we already are.

Thunderstorms with freezing rain made for an interesting morning and some weighed-down flowers and branches around the yard. Thankfully, power outages appear to be isolated so far.

I can't recall a time before today when I've been thankful for rain and temperatures in the low 40s. Mount Pleasant is in between power outages from an ice storm to our north and severe thunderstorms to our south.

There is going to be a lot of severe thunderstorms over the next several day. Wednesday, April 2 could be the most concerning day of this very active stretch. Stay weather aware, especially as some areas will be seeing their third or fourth impactful day of the year.

Thunder! 😀⚡️⛈️ 😍

Will it be in the 30s or 60s in central MI this Saturday? There is always uncertainty with temperature forecasts near a sharp frontal boundary, but this sure seems like a good time to have the NWS fully funded so weather balloon launches continue as usual and contribute to better predictability.

This Vis/IR Sandwich and GLM animation shows the typical comma head structure and associated lightning location very well. What a great case study this would make!

Le Monde reporting that a French scientist traveling to Houston to attend a conference was denied entry to US after a search of his phone & computer revealed messages critical of Trump's science cuts, "which [says CPB] conveyed hatred of Trump & could be qualified as terrorism". Computer confiscated

This is a classic example of lightning in the comma head region primarily occurring within dry slot convection, but also near the transition to more stratiform precipitation (presumably with convection aloft). Check out this paper for more details. journals.ametsoc.org/view/journal...