Freak May Snowstorm Brewing for the Twin Cities? (more soaking rains Mississippi Valley)

Weathering The Irony Of The Sequester “Fix” To Air Travel Delays. The head of the AMS, The American Meteorological Society, Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd, talks about the recent flap over The Sequester and air traffic delays in the larger scope of 24/7 access to reliable, accurate weather information. Here’s an excerpt from his post atFacebook: “…The U.S. Department of Transportation finds that weather can be attributed to 40% of all flight delays. If you want this in economic numbers, ExecutiveTravelMagazine cites an FAA study that “calculated that delays and cancellations from all causes cost passengers $16.7 billion a year. That puts the price tag on weather-related schedule disruptions at around $6.7 billion. “Further, it is clear that weather contributes to a large percentage of aviation accidents and fatalities. Weather risks to flight include thunderstorms, fog, clearn-air turbulence, snow/ice, crosswinds, and wind shear. Many of these processes are not well-understood, which means sequester pressures on research, travel to scientific meetings, and journal access further complicate the safety of our nation’s air travelers in the long run. In summary, I find that many people see the impact of the sequester on FAA furloughs and related travel. However, many don’t seem to stop and think about how critical the national weather infrastructure and agencies are to air travel, yet the continue to suffer under the weight of an ill-conceived sequester. More alarming, weather information is vital to many facets of our daily lives. Our weather enterprise is vital to life, property and commerce in this country and piece-meal fixes are dangerous on many “fronts”. Pun intented…


Weather information that supports air travel does not come from the “weather fairy”…

Weather Service Faces Furloughs During Hurricane Season. The first time there’s a weather disaster and subsequent loss of life that can be linked to a shortfall in staffing levels, God help us – there will be screams of protest. Here’s an excerpt from Florida’sSunSentinel: “…“This could have a detrimental effect on everybody’s public safety,” said Bob Ebaugh, the steward in Miami for the National Weather Service Employees Organization. “Once you start limiting staffing, you start raising the potential for disaster.” He said furloughs could hamper the NWS’ ability to predict wildfire and tornado conditions during the spring and to pinpoint where storms might hit land during the summer. Citing 250 vacancies throughout the Weather Service, Ebaugh said the agency “saves money from not filling those positions, which just caused more stress on the rest of the employees.” This mix of warnings and assurances comes on the heels of an extraordinary year of storms, flooding, blizzards and droughts — 11 separate billion-dollar disasters in 2012, capped by superstorm Sandy. Weather-conscious Florida, where a tourism economy depends on the great outdoors, has the most at stake from any gaps in forecasting…” (Hurricane Floyd image courtesy of NASA).

Slaves To The Algorithm. The joys of data mining, turning noise into something approximating intelligence, even when it comes to which plot lines or actors to put in your upcoming film. Here’s a snippet of a fascinating story at moreintelligentlife.com: “There are many reasons to believe that film stars earn too much. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie once hired an entire train to travel from London to Glasgow. Tom Cruise’s daughter Suri is reputed to have a wardrobe worth $400,000. Nicolas Cage once paid $276,000 for a dinosaur head. He would have got it for less, but he was bidding against Leonardo DiCaprio. Nick Meaney has a better reason for believing that the stars are overpaid: his algorithm tells him so. In fact, he says, with all but one of the above actors, the studios are almost certainly wasting their money. Because, according to his movie-analysis software, there are only three actors who make money for a film. And there is at least one A-list actress who is worth paying not to star in your next picture…”

People love TV content, and we watch over a billion hours a day of linear TV. But people don’t love the linear TV experience where channels present programs at particular times on non-portable screens with complicated remote controls. Consumers click through a grid to choose something to watch. DVRs and VOD add an on-demand layer, at the cost of storage and increased complexity. Finding good things to watch isn’t easy or enjoyable. While hugely popular, the linear TV channel model is ripe for replacement…”

Greenhouse Gas Levels Highest In 3 Million Years. 400 ppm. The steady upward climb in greenhouse gases continues, with CO2 levels closing in on 400 parts per million. Here’s an excerpt from The Sydney Morning Herald: “Carbon dioxide concentrations in the Earth’s atmosphere are on the cusp of reaching 400 parts per million for the first time in 3 million years. The daily CO2 level, measured at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, was 399.72 parts per million last Thursday, and a few hourly readings had risen to more than 400 parts per million. ”I wish it weren’t true but it looks like the world is going to blow through the 400 ppm level without losing a beat,” said Ralph Keeling, a geologist with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the US, which operates the Hawaiian observatory. ”At this pace we’ll hit 450 ppm within a few decades…” (Image above courtesy of Scripps Institute of Oceanography).

What’s Climate Scientist James Hansen’s Legacy? Some answers in this story at The Guardian; here’s an excerpt: “Just a few weeks ago, one of the biggest names in climate science made one of the biggest announcements possible. Dr. James (Jim) Hansen said that he will “retire” from his duties at NASA to focus his energies elsewhere. This is a “retirement” that is anything but. Dr. Hansen has made clear that he will become more engaged in communicating climate science to the general public and he will continue to carry out the high-quality work which he is known for. What does this mean for climate science and the future of the Earth? It is impossible to know now but instead of looking forward, I want to shine a light on what Jim has done for climate science, what he signifies to the larger public, and how he is viewed by current and upcoming scientists…”

Image credit above: “Climate scientist James Hansen is retiring from the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.” Photograph: Murdo Macleod.

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Welcome to the WeatherNation blog. Every day I sift through hundreds of stories, maps, graphics and meteorological web sites, trying to capture some of the most interesting weather nuggets, the stories behind the forecast. I’ll link to stories and share some of the web sites I use. I’m still passionate about the weather, have been ever since Tropical Storm Agnes flooded my home in Lancaster, PA in 1972. I’ve started 5 weather-related companies. “EarthWatch” created the world’s first 3-D weather graphics for TV stations – Steven Spielberg used our software in “Jurassic Park” and “Twister”. My last company, “Digital Cyclone”, personalized weather for cell phones. “My-Cast” was launched in 2001 and is still going strong on iPhone, Android and Blackberry. I sold DCI to Garmin in 2007 so I could focus on my latest venture: WeatherNation. I also write a daily weather column for The Star Tribune startribune.com/weather And if you’re on Twitter, you’ll find me @pdouglasweather