Thanks for having me on the podcast this week🎙️ My NPR voice is still a work in progress 😅

This weekend news broke that President Trump has fired members of the National Science Board (NSB), which oversees the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). This independent governing body has advised U.S. presidents and Congress on scientific policies for more than 75 years.

Introducing our Quickly Deployable Python-based Instrumentation (QD-PI)! A little over 2 months of preparation with @liamltwx.bsky.social, but we finally have a working prototype. Thankfully our weatherproofing survived some light drizzle at this year's Engineering Open House 🌧️

Curious what's going on in WoFS at the moment... Looks like the problem has amplified over the last few runs and spans thermo and kinematic fields. First thought was assimilation of a bad surface ob, though not seeing anything obvious in ASOS or OK Mesonet 🤔

Only a few days left to apply for student travel grants! Students in undergrad and graduate school are highly encouraged to apply if you're planning on attending the Joint Summit.

📣 Calling all WRF/MPAS users! @ams-waf.bsky.social is hosting a webinar in a couple weeks about the ongoing transition from WRF to MPAS for regional modeling throughout the community. Please join to hear the perspectives from our fabulous panelists! Register here: ametsoc.org/WebinarWRFMPAS

Hahahahahahaha Goodbye and good riddance 👋

“If O’Neill is confirmed as NSF’s director, the Trump administration will further tighten its control over an agency created by Congress to be independent in its work to advance science.” UCS’s Julian Reyes explains why the Senate should work to block this nomination:

The willingness of administration officials to openly admit to violating the law and engaging in retaliatory actions probably shouldn't be surprising at this point, but it's still shocking to read just how blatant it has been in regards to NCAR specifically

Just in: UCAR has filed a lawsuit against NSF, the Commerce Dept, NOAA, and OMB to prevent the dismantling of NCAR, alleging "violations of the Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act."

Also pretty common to see tornadoes form north of these features... Which this storm is also trying it's best to do.

Classic rear inflow jet signature to the southwest of Champaign, IL. Drop in reflectivity behind the line is a good indicator of a strong downdraft, with the line bowing outward in response to the enhanced cold pool. Likely that Sullivan is about to experience some very gusty winds

The NSF has provided no evidence to justify dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Doing so would undermine one of the nation’s most vital scientific institutions. @ncar-ucar.bsky.social Read the letter UCS submitted today: 🔗 act.ucsusa.org/3NeWZh1

And unfortunately we're faring better than several other NSF directorates...

The Trump administration plans to dismantle NSF’s National Center for Atmospheric Research, potentially closing its main lab in Boulder. UCS's @carlonimbus.bsky.social explains how NCAR keeps us safe and how you can help protect it. Take action: act.ucsusa.org/4ceWei9

Thursday night fun with Raspberry Pi and an Adafruit sensor. Jumped for joy when I finally started logging data from this thing. Now to code up some functional logging software… And build the actual mesonet this is going on…

Mergers don't just result in a decline in local news, but also broadcast meteorology jobs... Far from the most pressing issue facing the world right now, but just another example of companies focusing on nothing besides increasing "shareholder value" 😒 variety.com/2026/tv/news...

I'm constantly trying (/failing) to get this point across. If you're a trained expert in a field, then it may be worthwhile to question the scientific consensus of your peers. If you're not, the scientific consensus is absolutely the best you can do and it's arbitrary foolishness to disregard it.

3 tornado-warned storms along the Illinois-Indiana border currently. Southernmost storm has been confirmed by spotters

Tornado watch creeps closer to Champaign. Set-up hasn't changed much, though WoFS guidance does try to place some storms farther north this evening. Worth watching

Answer: tornado watch well south, centered on the Ohio River.

Severe thunderstorms and perhaps a strong tornado possible across southern IL, IN, and OH this afternoon/evening. Chance we could see some long-track supercells that eventually grow upscale.

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.

Friday fun in the fab lab 😎

As someone who didn't know how to go about submitting a public comment on NSF's NCAR plan, this is greatly appreciated @agu.org Please take some time to fill this out if you're able!

#SaveNCAR www.cpr.org/2026/01/28/s...

Incoming AMS president Alan Sealls, UCAR President Tony Busalacchi, and outgoing AMS President Dave Stensrud talking about the evolving situation at NCAR. #AMS2026

Attention folks in the weather, climate, disaster, wildfire, and Earth science communities: NSF has just published a new "Dear Colleague" letter inviting feedback (by Mar 13) on the proposal to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). www.nsf.gov/funding/...

Important update about Congressional efforts to prevent the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) from being dismantled. Last week the White House threatened to veto any appropriations bill that protects NCAR. Despite this attempt at intimidation ... (1/ )

The battle to save NCAR has faded from the headlines, but it is not over. www.eenews.net/articles/tak... Call your Congressional reps and ask them to add language explicitly protecting NCAR to the spending package: 5calls.org/issue/ncar-n...

We hear that protection of NCAR from breakup is in peril in the CJS bill - be sure to contact your representatives to ensure that they hear your support!

"They carried her body out, just like by her limbs, they didn’t even have a stretcher," a witness says. "She was carried out like a sack of potatoes."

From @AGU.org: Senators are working on legislation to save NCAR, but we need extra support for these 8 states. Your Senators in Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas, and Wyoming need to hear from you.

Easy way to start voicing support for NCAR and science in general. Thanks AGU :-)

Absolutely not. We'll fight it in the court of public opinion, in the literal courts, in Congress, whatever it takes. I'm sick and tired of these people decimating the institutions that hold this country together. Science belongs to the American people. It's not theirs to destroy on a whim

NCAR and UCAR have released a statement. NSF has not provided any guidance to UCAR or NCAR leadership about this whole situation. news.ucar.edu/133054/ucar-...

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.

Fun to see the snow-covered ground (and relatively warm rivers) show up clearly on satellite thanks to the lack of cloud cover. Not as thrilled about the extremely cold temps we’re getting as a result though…

Sad to see that my colleagues in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at UNL saw their combined department eliminated late this afternoon by the UNL Board of Regents. No more meteorology no more geology at UNL. Words escape me!

Aviation accidents “receive an intense investigation by the NTSB with specific recommendations to improve safety, while events like the July 4th flash flood with 119 fatalities rely on entities like Camp Mystic self-policing themselves and developing their own plans to try to improve safety.”

As villages across the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta clean up from remnants of Typhoon Halong, they face another loss. Public radio and television station KYUK has lost federal funding and plans to make cuts in January. My @npr.org story: www.npr.org/2025/11/14/n...

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:

A few views from IDOT's plows in Northwest Indiana. One in the lake effect band and one in the resulting backup on I-65 😬 511in.org

But they captured some historic data including the 893mb center drop, cementing #Melissa as the 3rd most intense hurricane on record in the Atlantic. Mission for the ages.

That’s…not at all how this works. As the NHC’s wind field image shows, Jamaica is only experiencing tropical storm-force winds right now, with weaker winds elsewhere. The most widespread and longest-lasting impact has and will be extreme rain - for which the prep is rather different than wind.

There's been endless talk about an AI bubble, but less about exactly how, why, and how much it's a bubble. So I turned to the framework put forward by scholars Brent Goldfarb and David A. Kirsch, authors of "Bubbles and Crashes," for assessing tech bubbles. Spoiler: On a scale of 1 to 8, AI is an 8

Atlantic Hurricane Melissa Intermediate Advisory Number 25a ...CATEGORY 5 MELISSA MOVING SLOWLY WEST-NORTHWESTWARD AND EXPECTED TO TURN NORTHWARD LATER TODAY... ...CATASTROPHIC AND LIFE-THREATENING WINDS, FLOODING, AND STORM SURGE EXPECTED ON JAMAICA TONIGHT AND EA... Additional Details Here.

We needed a way to quickly plot skew-ts from our balloon launches out in the field, so I was able to put this together... UI-Sonde is a lightweight GUI modeled after the import sounding functionality of the SHARPpy GUI. I also tried to capture the look of the classic SHARPpy format with a few tweaks

Calling all prospective grad students! 🚨 Come learn about CliMAS during our annual Prospective Graduate Student Webinar - featuring our internationally recognized on campus and online MS and PhD programs. RSVP here to receive a Zoom link: forms.gle/CYsLWz5uoRNm....

Excited to share our new BAMS publication w/ the field! From Facebook to TikTok, weather and climate information has become increasingly digital. Our new BAMS paper charts the rise of digital meteorology, the AMS CDM Seal, and how universities are evolving to meet it. 🌪️🌩️📲 doi.org/10.1175/BAMS...