Weather Geeks

Guest: Dr. Daniel SwainIntroduction: If you’re not from California, what is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of its weather?  Severe droughts?  Constant wildfires?  75 and sunny every single day?  In any given year, those could all be correct!  But what about over the past 30 years to create a climate normal?  That’s where our guest today comes in… Dr. Daniel Swain is a climate scientist at UCLA and he’s been researching California’s weather patterns and finding the connections with our changing climate. From atmospheric rivers of moisture to raging wildfires, we’ll discuss why California and the West are so susceptible to these phenomena, and we’ll reveal the challenges that can come from studying these diverse, beautiful landscapes. 

Guest: Dr. Aaron Bernstein, Harvard UniversityIntroduction:  We all know that climate change has been detrimental to the health of our Earth, with increased deforestation and melting ice caps. But what about our own health? Or our children’s health? My guest today is Dr. Aaron Bernstein from Harvard University, who focuses on the health impacts of the climate crisis on children’s health and advancing solutions to address its causes to improve the health and wellbeing of children around the world. We are going to discuss this issue, especially related to our current COVID-19 pandemic and how that disease has a connection to our changing climate.

Guest: Marc Collins Chen, OceanixIntroduction:  When a hurricane is fast approaching, experts always say that you have to fear the water, whether it’s rain coming down from the sky or the surge from the ocean or the flood from the rivers. What if I told you that my guest today has created a concept that would make you flock to the water and live a safer life from hurricanes? Marc Collins Chen is the CEO of Oceanix, a company that builds floating structures that can hold up to thousands of residents. Could Oceanix’s plan be the future of hurricane and climate change protection?

Guest: Dr. Adam Sobel, Columbia UniversityIntroduction:  Most of the time when we bring someone on to Weather Geeks, they have a certain niche or a specific craft or an interesting line of research to discuss with us. But today, I have a guest with me who does it all! Dr. Adam Sobel is a professor of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics and of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University. He teaches everything from tropical meteorology to climate thermodynamics to differential equations, so he’s certainly going to teach us Geeks a thing or two... about a thing or two! 

Guest: Ryan Stauffer, NASAIntroduction:  The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how we all live our lives, both in the present and in the future. We’ve all been stuck in our homes and adopted teleworking techniques in order to reduce as much time as possible with other people that may be sick. With these changes, we have noticed some positive impacts to our environment, including animals flocking to places they normally don’t and improved air quality in major cities. Today we’ve brought in Dr. Ryan Stauffer from NASA to discuss how this quarantine has impacted our current pollution output and how it is modeled out in the future.

Guest: Ivona Cetinic, NASA OceanographerIntroduction: NASA does a lot more than mapping our solar system...they have also been mapping our oceans for over 20 years! The ocean is extremely important in our Earth’s health, circulation, and economy, so it is equally as important that our ocean is in good health too! In 2022, NASA will be launching the PACE mission, which stands for Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem, to further advance their understanding of our oceanic and atmospheric health. Today’s guest is Ivona Cetinic, who is the project science lead for Ocean Biogeochemistry on this mission and has devoted her entire career to better understanding our world’s oceans.

Guest: Bernadette Woods - PlackyIntroduction:The proper communication of climate science is just as important as communicating it at all! In an ever-changing world, keeping up with communication techniques is extremely important. The intersection of television and science has never been more vital than today! On this episode, we’re joined by Bernadette Woods Placky, Chief Meteorologist and Climate Matters program director, a division of Climate Central. As an Emmy Award winning on-camera-meteorologist Placky, can help us fully understand the line between proper and poor climate communication techniques!  

Guest: Dr. Stephen Strader, Villanova UniversityIntroduction:Hurricane Harvey...Hurricane Dorian...the deadly Camp Fire...the devastating Super Tornado Outbreak of 2011… These disasters likely bring to mind the powerful images you saw from communities hardest hit by these extreme weather events. In a world with an increasing number of disasters, it’s becoming more apparent that we need to work to understand our own vulnerabilities so we can prevent future disasters. Today’s guest is Dr. Stephen Strader, Assistant Professor of Geography and the Environment at Villanova University. In addition to his knowledge of the atmosphere, his work also focuses on the hazards and risks associated with extreme weather. We’ll discuss the various tools he uses to determine areas at risk, as well as ways we can understand and prepare our society to reduce future effects of disasters. 

Guest: Stephen Nesbitt, University of IllinoisIntroduction:Today we’re happy to welcome Professor Stephen Nesbitt from the University of Illinois. Dr. Nesbitt has his hands in a variety of projects & research interests, including mesoscale and cloud dynamics, radar and satellite meteorology, and tropical meteorology. His extensive field research has taken him to 5 continents for more than 20 field campaigns! One such project required his team to travel to Argentina & Brazil to study some of Mother Nature’s fiercest thunderstorms. We’ll also learn more about the great Atmospheric Science program at Illinois and learn about new and exciting projects he has planned in the future.

Guest: Dr. Marilyn Brown, Georgia Tech Introduction: The word “drawdown” is used in multiple fields, from banking to investing, but for today’s episode, the most important use of the word is in climatology. Climate drawdown is the point at which greenhouse gas concentrations begin to decline on a year-to-year basis in order to reach carbon neutrality. The United States still has to take many steps in order to achieve drawdown, but there are many teams of brilliant scientists across the country that are putting solutions on the table to make this goal attainable. One of those brilliant scientists is my guest today, Dr. Marilyn Brown from Georgia Tech.

Guest: Dr. Harold Brooks, NSSLIntroduction: The United States is known to produce some of nature’s most severe weather as it allows for just the right ingredients to come together.  As extreme weather becomes a more common occurrence, many have begged the question: Will we see more severe storms and even tornadoes as our world continues to warm?  Today’s guest is Dr. Harold Brooks of the National Severe Storms Research Lab, and his research seeks to help answer this very question. His extensive background in severe weather has offered him the opportunity to study these changing trends in tornadoes and severe storms in recent decades. While storms may be getting worse, the exact answers of what we can expect in the future are more complicated than you think. Let’s dive in!

Guest: Dan Lindsey, GOES-R Program Scientist Introduction: While the debate of “model wars” continues into the new decade, the satellite technology that the United States has advanced over the years is second-to-none! Being able to see the atmosphere from a top-down view has changed the way that meteorologists around the world can forecast the daily weather. They can see where severe storms are to provide up-to-the-second forecasts in order to keep people safe. One of the men behind these great satellites is here with me today. Dan Lindsey is a research scientist at NOAA and he was at the forefront of one of the latest major satellite launches, the GOES-16 geostationary satellite.

Guest: Michael Kane, Water Resources EngineerIntroduction: Hydrology is the study of the movement, distribution and management of water on Earth, including the water cycle, water resources, and environmental watershed sustainability. Hydrologists work with other scientists to investigate how water impacts their respective fields, so meteorologists and hydrologists have a special relationship. Meteorologists focus on the water coming down from the sky, and the hydrologists focus on what that water will impact when it hits the ground and where it will end up. What happens when there is too much water and flooding ensues? Hydrologist Michael Kane is my guest today and we are going to talk about that...

Guest: Dr. Peter Bauer, ECMWF Deputy Director of Research & Head of the Scalability ProgrammeIntroduction: I need more power…!! Computing power that is. This has been a major focus for numerical weather prediction in hopes of creating more accurate and detailed predictions of Earth’s systems. The highly touted European Model has long been one of the leaders in numerical weather prediction performance. As the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) prepares to integrate the next generation of supercomputers, model efficiency may suffer as more data is computed at higher resolutions. Current processing capabilities and codes are not adapted to meet these needs. Today’s guest, Dr. Peter Bauer, will outline how they are working with meteorological modellers, computer scientists and hardware providers to make sure the EURO is ready for this upgrade. 

Guests: Greg Kopp & David Sills, Western University Intro: While severe weather prediction continues to improve here in the United States, a nearby neighbor is currently deep into their most comprehensive tornado study ever! As we travel north of the border to our neighbors in Canada, the team at Western University is conducting the Northern Tornadoes Project, or NTP. This project seeks to have profound impacts on tornado and severe weather prediction across the forecasting community, both nationally and internationally. Today on Weather Geeks, we’re joined by the two project leads at Western University; Greg Kopp who is the lead researcher, and David Stills, the executive director on the project. 

Guest: Kim Klockow-McClainBroadcast meteorologists are often the face of severe weather as they are the first people we see when severe weather is expected. However, there is a larger network of people from broadcasters, to emergency managers, law enforcement officers, and state and local officials who must work together to best serve the community before and after a disaster. Today’s guest is Kim Klockow-McClain, a societal impacts researcher from the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies (CIMMS). Her focus is to gather and share the human stories that unfold during severe weather events, and with each interaction, she strives to learn how our network of communicators can improve the warning-decision process.

Guest: Dail St. Claire: Daughter of the June Bacon-Bercey, the 1st African-American Female TV MeteorologistIntroduction: If I were to ask a room full of meteorologists who their role model was, I am sure that a handful of them would say the late June Bacon-Bercey. She was the first African-American female television meteorologist, and with that achievement, she broke MANY barriers. In a time where most of the women giving the weather reports in the morning weren’t trained in meteorology in the slightest, June was determined to follow her passion and that is why she is recognized to this very day. Today I have her wonderful daughter Dail St. Claire with me today so we can celebrate her mother’s legacy...

Introduction:  A lot of people choose to live in a certain place based on how the winters are. If you love wearing big comfy sweaters and playing out in the snow, odds are you live in the midwestern or northeastern United States. If you would rather turn on your heat for only a couple days in the season and enjoy the occasional chilly, rainy day, then you’d love the south! Regardless of the region, scientists have developed a method that can measure how severe the winter has been where you live. It is called the Accumulated Winter Season Severity Index, and I have the co-creator Dr. Barb Mayes Boustead here with me today to discuss it!

Introduction:  As Weather Geeks, we know that the climate is changing and the Earth has needs that it wants to meet. As human beings, we are also changing and our bodies and minds have needs that they want met as well. Both of these sets of needs cannot be ignored or else there will be ramifications down the line. Scientists who are tasked with tackling and researching climate change are starting to experience mental and emotional health issues, because of all the pressures that this monumental event brings. My guest today is Susanne Moser, who is shedding light on these issues, along with the personal challenges that being an on-camera meteorologist in this current age brings.

Guest:  Keith Stellman, Meteorologist-in-Charge NWS AtlantaIntro:The National Weather Service is a lot more than the blaring alerts on your TV when there is a tornado warning in your area or the notifications on your phone about the severe thunderstorm watch issued for your state. The NWS operates over 120 weather forecast offices across the country and each office is constantly issuing local public, marine, aviation, fire, and hydrology forecasts 24/7! The NWS never sleeps because the weather itself never sleeps, and I’m sure my next guest can attest to many sleepless nights on the job. Keith Stellman is the Meteorologist-in-Charge for NWS Atlanta/Peachtree City, and as I know personally, this area rarely has a dull weather day!