Just four more days until in-person registration closes! Register today: sea.ucar.edu/iss/2026/

My latest for @science.org on the fraught future of NCAR as NSF's deadline nears. It can still go so many ways.

The official NOAA stats out this week confirm that winter 2025-26 was the warmest on record across a huge portion of the western and central U.S., which has contributed to extremely low mountain snowpack & worsened the CO River crisis. Meanwhile, record March heat is in forecast.

Registration is open for the 2026 Pythia Cook-off! Join us in-person at the NCAR Mesa Lab in Boulder, CO June 15-18, 2026. projectpythia.org/pythia-cooko...

The American Academy of Actuaries warns that dismantling NCAR would degrade the catastrophe models insurers depend on to price climate risk—driving up premiums and threatening coverage availability nationwide. "Uncertainty carries a positive cost." www.riskmarketnews.com/trumps-clima...

NSF Update Funding curve overall. A little bit of progress in the past week, but only a little bit. Now by Directorate... 1/11

Great piece out today in Physics Today on historical origins, contemporary relevance, & fundamental irreplaceability of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, which remains at imminent risk of dismantling for partisan political reasons.

...I just... www.nsf.gov/news/transit...

if the Colorado snowpack numbers from SNOTEL stations (52% of median) aren't low enough for you, they get even worse when looking at data across all elevations. Using the University of Arizona's SWE dataset, we're now below one-third of the usual snowpack (32.5%) as of February 9. #cowx

One more reminder about our open faculty position! We'll begin reviewing applications in a few weeks.

@agu.org has a tool to help you submit a comment to NSF on the importance of NCAR: agu.quorum.us/campaign/154... #SaveNCAR

Stop by our @ncar-ucar.bsky.social town hall at 12:15 today. #AMS2026 Check out: NSF NCAR’s Advanced Computing, Data Services, and New AI Ecosystem Road Map for Earth System Science @ 106th AMS Annual Meeting ams.confex.com/ams/106ANNUA...

Very exciting to share that @climatecentral.org is hiring a Climate Data Scientist to join a new climate services effort focused on advancing predictions of risks and hazards on seasonal-to-decadal timescales. The application closes on February 9, 2026 at 5pm ET, & the description can be found here:

The extreme cold across eastern N America is due to the Alaskan Ridge regime, which on average brings the coldest winter weather to this region. Is this happening more often? No. During the modern warming era, there has been no observed trend in the occurrence of this regime at this time of year.

NSF just posted their Dear Colleague Letter regarding the restructuring of NCAR. www.nsf.gov/funding/info...

“In short, the atomic ensemble time scale at our Boulder campus has failed due to a prolonged utility power outage. One impact is that the Boulder Internet Time Services no longer have an accurate time reference.” groups.google.com/a/list.nist....

14 two-year postdocs for academics of any nationality who cannot continue their research due to US politics. Do share if you know of such.

The Call for Proposals for #SciPy2026 is now live! pretalx.com/scipy-2026/cfp If you have questions about @scipyconf.bsky.social just ask and be on the lookout for proposal writing office hours!

Uhhhh, yikes ☹️ www.nsf.gov/news/intent-...

“The changes permit as few as one outside review rather than the current minimum of three, end the routine use of expert panels to discuss those individual reviews, and give program managers greater authority to recommend which proposals should or should not be funded.”

In case you want to share with your networks, this is a good article by the NYT on the broad scope of work done by NCAR and some of the key discoveries (e.g., microbursts and aviation accidents).

Do you love to write code or teach others about data-centered Earth Systems Science? Interested in the interplay of science and data? The NSF Unidata Summer Internship program is looking for you! Apply by February 6, 2026 to work with us next summer: buff.ly/5nsLdRu

Wowza! The votes keep streaming in! Next #Headwaters match up for #CatchmentCup2025 is: Nsimi vs Fudoji & Kiyu Experimental Watersheds! Vote here: www.agu-h3s.org/rivercup Check out facts below: Let us know if you work at any sites or have visited we would love to see more photos!!!

The Advanced Study Program’s Graduate Visitor Program Fellowship is accepting applications! This fellowship allows graduate students to work on their thesis, dissertation, or final project equivalent, with guidance from NSF NCAR scientists and engineers.

Attention Teachers and Educators! Have the NWS visit your classroom virtually! Presentation topics include weather, climate, space weather, hydrology (rivers) & tsunamis, and are available in English and Spanish. weather.gov/education/sc... #BackToSchoolNOAA

🌍 The MMM lab at @ncar-ucar.bsky.social is running experimental realtime forecasts with a global 3.75-km MPAS model. Goal: Highlight the power of global km-scale models for weather prediction from local to planetary scales, incl. tropical cyclones. 👉 project.mmm.ucar.edu/real-time-fo...

Applications are OPEN for the Faculty Innovator Program, supporting collaborative interdisciplinary projects pairing faculty with NSF NCAR researchers. Applicants will start with the Ideas Lab workshops to co-develop proposals. Due Sept. 15. https://edec.ucar.edu/university-partnerships/innovators

👋 JupyterLab and Jupyter Notebook users: What's one thing you'd love to see improved in JupyterLab, Jupyter Notebook, or JupyterLite? The team is prepping the upcoming 4.5/7.5 releases and wants to tackle some usability issues. Drop your feedback below, this will help prioritize what gets fixed!👇

Still 10 more days to join us in Boulder to cook up some great open-source geoscience Python notebooks!

Celebrating 30 years of our Community Earth System Model (CESM)! 🌍 We’re gathering input on CESM’s national and international impact through a quick survey. 📝 If you’ve used CESM data, models or support resources, your feedback is essential. The survey closes 6/19. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

A great opportunity to learn and collaborate with folks on open geoscience workflows!

Heads up on this vital 100 hour streaming marathon on the value of weather and climate expertise as National Weather Service struggles with staff shortages and reduction in service www.forbes.com/sites/marsha...

Have you ever looked at a weather map online? Or seen a nice visualization of weather forecast model output? If so, NSF Unidata almost certainly made that possible in one way or another. Modern meteorological education would not be possible without the data, tools, and resources they provide.

If you or somone you know has been impacted by federal grant funding cuts, there is a funding initiative supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Kapor and William Grant Foundations that provides modest bridge funding. Please share widely. www.spencer.org/grant_types/... #science #openscience

BREAKING: NSF has frozen all grant funding, as of yesterday. It's unclear when they will resume funding awards, or why the pause has been put in place. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

🔔 Slides & recordings from the 2025 Improving Scientific Software Conference are now available within the online conference program: sea.ucar.edu/iss/2025-pro... Thanks to all who joined us—see you in 2026! #ISS2025 #ScientificSoftware

✨The 2025 NSF Unidata Community Survey is now live! ✨ Share your insights, support community progress. Take 15 minutes to complete the survey, and as a thank you, you'll have the chance to enter a drawing for an NSF Unidata swag bag. 🔗 arcg.is/zLOSW #PoweredByUnidata

📢 We're looking for reviewers for the #SciPy2025 Proceedings! 🚀 🙋‍♀️ If you're interested or want to nominate someone, fill out this short form: forms.gle/kuVdZenq5XrS...

New AMS Statement and Special Report: The Federal agencies in the public sector provide a foundational role in supporting the rest of the weather enterprise. A failure of these systems would be catastrophic. Read the AMS Statement: bit.ly/4lLTdbk

Great opportunity for Earth systems science data folks:

If you provide Earth system science learning at the post-secondary levels or within the workforce, we need your input! Take this quick survey so we can understand your priorities + obstacles to providing education, training & support: www.surveymonkey.com/r/ESS_Needs

I’m keeping a running upperair observation status page on my website. I have additional metadata like reason for degradation, degradation type, when the degradation began, etc. In a coming update you will be able to read those things by clicking on the site. www.stormscale.io/spc/upperair...

2 additional radiosonde sites are temporarily suspending launches, while 6 others are reducing to one launch a day. 14 out of 83 sites now have partial or no launches. The more radiosondes are reduced or suspended, the more noticeable the forecast skill reduction becomes.

Reminder, NOAA/NWS houses the Volcanic Ash Advisory Center. NOAA/NWS reductions in force (RIF) decisions are expected in the next few days.

Applications now open for the Climatematch „Computational Tools for Climate Science“ course! I am a big fan of Climatematch and recommend folks to apply if they want to start with climate data analytics (or help out as a TA!) portal.neuromatchacademy.org

Hi - I'd like to share this story of what is happening at NOAA GFDL, where some of my colleagues and I worked until the mass firings at NOAA last week. "...the birthplace of weather and climate forecasting"

For those who don’t know what NOAA’s Radar Operations Center (ROC) does, they are the tech experts who keep our nation’s weather radars running, 24/7. ROC has a hotline NWS offices can call for help getting broken radars working again quickly. www.roc.noaa.gov

Job opportunity for a Research Software Development to join my collaborators on the @rhodiumgroup.bsky.social Climate Impacts team (and collaborate with me!) www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/41...

I have written a short statement responding to mass firings today of #NOAA / National Weather Service (#NWS) staff (which were concentrated among recent hires as well as highly experienced staff who had recently been promoted). Please see below screenshot & below for full text.