Tag Archives: climate

New Paper: Synoptic Climatology of Rain-on-Snow Events in Alaska

Back in 2018, some internal sophomore research funding through the College of Wooster allowed me to hire Anna Cooke (’20) to begin an investigation into rain-on-snow events in Alaska. Rain-on-snow is exactly what it sounds like: rain falling on top of … Continue reading

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Anatomy of a Record High

Like several towns and cities in the midwest and northeast USA, Wooster, OH broke its daily high temperature record for January 11 last Saturday. Below is a graph of some of the data (made a little prettier in powerpoint) from … Continue reading

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Wooster Records Wettest Year on Record

Last year around this time, I reported on this blog that Wooster had just completed its third wettest year on record. A year later, the “wettest year” record has been broken. With continuous record-keeping beginning in 1900 at the OARDC weather … Continue reading

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Drought in Zimbabwe and Other Climate Woes

One of my colleagues shared this article from Truthout with me because the title was about how Alaska has no sea ice within 150 miles of its coastline for the first time in recorded history of Alaskan sea ice. That’s … Continue reading

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Two Records in Arctic Melt This Summer

There is perhaps a bit too much media hype about July 2019 being the warmest month on record. If you go to the source — the European Copernicus Climate Service article,  the official statement is that “July 2019 was on a … Continue reading

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Lots of Rain v. Many Rainy Days

The other day while on the phone with my sister, she complained about how bad the weather was. “It’s rained like every day since April 1st” was the statement. That was an exaggeration, so she then modified that statement to … Continue reading

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Sometimes a Cold Snap is Just a Cold Snap

On Wednesday, January 30, 2019, The College Wooster closed due to cold. This cold snap was felt across much of the central and eastern USA. The message Wooster staff and faculty received included this statement: “The National Weather Service is … Continue reading

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The Everglades Are All About Geology

If you’ve ever been to the Everglades or even heard of them, you probably are picturing something like this: Or maybe this: In other words, Everglades National Park exists because it is “important habitat for numerous rare and endangered species” … Continue reading

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Using Snow to Predict Sea Ice

One of my active areas of research is trying to find physical links in the Arctic climate system that may help us better predict when seasonal sea ice cover will disappear each summer. Good sea ice predictions are important because … Continue reading

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Climate Monday: The xkcd Earth Temperature Timeline

It’s the final week of the semester, so it’s time for a little fun in the world of weather and climate visualizations.  One of the toughest things that Geologists have to deal with is conveying a sense of time scales. … Continue reading

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