While most attention is rightfully on Jamaica with Cat. 5 Melissa...note also the trailing bands of heavy rain pumping into southwestern Haiti's Tiburon Peninsula. Likely rainfall rates of several inches per hour into an extremely flash flood, mudslide prone area.

Lightning flashes within the powerful eye wall of Hurricane Melissa. Incredible imagery this morning of Melissa, a Category 5 storm, south of Jamaica.

Heartbreaking visible image of a potentially generational storm, and a likely reflection of broader trends—greater ocean warmth and depth of warmth, faster intensification rates, slower forward speeds, and greater rainfall rates.

I've been waiting 6 years for this!

How I feel working on the results section for chapter 1 of my dissertation. Writing fatigue is so real!! I'd love to hear some tips for mitigating it (especially the eye strain and headaches)

I have nothing but wonderful things to say about this department! I highly encourage any prospective students to attend this webinar. I am also always happy to answer any questions about DAES/Albany and graduate school in general. 😃

Houston AFD this morning belongs in the AFD hall of fame. forecast.weather.gov/product.php?...

Yesterday my advisor went on Fox Weather to talk about our paper that was recently published in AMS Weather and Forecasting! I'm very honored that my work is being shared so broadly, and that Ryan was willing to go on TV when I was too nervous. 😅

New paper: NOAA research flights are important for improving hurricane forecasts. Wind data from NOAA flights improved forecasts of a storm’s path by up to 24% on average, found Melissa Piper @melissapiper.bsky.social & Ryan Torn. Read more in AMS journal #WeaForecasting: doi.org/10.1175/WAF-...

I've now entered the one year countdown to my (goal) PhD defense! I find cooking to be a fun stress reliever, so I'm going to start sharing things I cook over the next year. If anything, I hope this breaks up the sea of frustrating news that is common these days. Feel free to ask for recipes! 👩🏻‍🍳😊

I'm thrilled to share that my first paper has been published in @ametsoc.org's Weather & Forecasting! This paper is the result of my MS thesis work at @ualbanydaes.bsky.social. I'm very proud of the lessons I learned during the writing & revision process! Link: journals.ametsoc.org/view/journal...

The situation in the weather world is bad right now. -Large private sector company badgering NWS -NWS under direct assault by current government -GOP members of Congress in high weather risk areas believing AI and apps work better than NWS. All of this makes us less safe. Full stop.

Does anyone find themselves stuck in a skill/intellectual/etc gray zone, as in “too smart for the amateurs, not smart enough for the experts”? And debating if it’s an imposter syndrome in their head vs. a real situation?

RIP Airborne Phased Array Radar (APAR) 😞 Many of my colleagues and friends worked on this technology. I had hoped to use it someday. www.eol.ucar.edu/airborne-pha...

BREAKING from @science.org: The Trump admin is seeking to kill nearly all climate research at NOAA, its climate science agency. Its near-final budget proposal would end all NOAA research labs, academic institutes, and regional climate centers. And it wants to fully end the NOAA Research division.

“It was a bust” Nope. Multiple significant tors and fatalities occurred with at least 37 tornado reports so far. Just because you didn’t get your disaster porn in a heavily populated area doesn’t mean the forecast was a bust. Some of y’all need therapy.

A statement from our department regarding the recent NOAA/NWS cuts.

NEW: The Trump admin has informed NOAA that two buildings that are critical for weather forecasting will have their leases canceled. If this comes to pass, it's a really big deal. Includes weather fcst nerve center in College Park, Md.: www.axios.com/2025/03/03/d...

NOAA is the backbone of the US weather enterprise. The rest of the enterprise needs to step up. Support the folks who lost their jobs. Support the communities who lost NOAA personnel. Boost the efforts of the NWS that remains as we get into severe and hurricane season.

The NWS is already short-staffed, making it much harder for the meteorologists who do crucial work to keep us all safe. NWS mets already work long shifts at all hours of the day. We will all be less safe because of this.