Weather Geeks

Guests: Dr. Jon Martin & Dr. Michael Morgan - Professors, University Of Wisconsin-MadisonDescription: They can cancel school, shut down airports and the big ones can even paralyze cities for days...winter storms track all across the country ever year. They are complicated weather systems where details of temperature structure, pockets of dry air and subtle bands of intense snowfall make all the difference between a few flurries and feet of snow. University of Wisconsin - Madison professors Dr. Jon Martin and Dr. Michael Morgan join us today to discuss why winter storms behave the way they do, how we can understand them better and how a shrinking cold pole in the northern hemisphere might alter these storms in the near future. Get ready weather geek fans...we are really going to roll up our sleeves and get into the details of winter storms!   

Guest: Steve Bowen, Director (Meteorologist), Aon When natural disasters strike they can impact just about every aspect of life... The ultimate cost of such disasters is a science of its own and no one is more familiar with those costs than those charged with insuring all that is important to us. Today we’ll talk with Steve Bowen, Director and meteorologist at Aon, to look back at the weather related disasters of 2018...plus…fascinating conversation that will explain how Mr. Bowen utilizes analytics to help communicate & prepare the world for the risks associated with a future that promises to bring more and more extreme weather events.

Guest: Dr. James McClintock, Endowed University Professor of Polar and Marine BiologyUniversity of Alabama at BirminghamThis week on Weather Geeks we go to the bottom of the earth….Antarctica! A white desert covered in snow and ice. But did you know plants and algae make up an underwater forest at its edges and that these plants can be used to develop drugs to help with cancer and the flu?! Dr. James McClintock from The University of Alabama - Birmingham joins us to discuss why studying this part of the world is important and why so many people are making the trip down to Antarctica to learn more about the region and experience climate change in action. 

Guest:  Gabriel Sassone & Jacques Kerner - Avalanche StudiosDescription:Today on Weather Geeks we dive into a world where extreme weather is the most dangerous game. Video games continue to push the bounds of depicting accurate atmospheric physics in virtual worlds. But how are these gaming “engines” built? How is weather recreated in a virtual world? We’ll get the answers from Gabriel Sassone and Jacques Kerner from Avalanche Studios, which recently released Just Cause 4, a game where weather is not only a main character but a core element of the story and how you play. The experience is amazing, the weather is realistic, and the process to get there is fascinating.

Guest: David Inmon, UPS Airlines MeteorologistDescription:It’s that time of year again! Millions of packages will be delivered this holiday season. One of the busiest companies getting packages from here to there is UPS and we are joined today by David Inman, an airlines meteorologist with the company. So, just how does weather play a role in meeting the delivery deadline? How are logistics changed as a result of the forecast? And how about this time of year… does the pressure ramp up, especially if the surface pressure dives down? All this and more.

Guest: Dr. Richard Alley, Evan Pugh Professor, Penn State UniversityDescription:Oftentimes, when a scientist explains their work to the public there is a breakdown of communication. The person listening gets lost in the complex explanation and foreign terminology. But there are small handful of amazing scientists that have an incredible ability to communicate... keeping the audience engaged and wanting more. And today we are joined by one such person, Dr. Richard Alley from Penn State University. We are going to talk glaciology, meteorology, and climatology and I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

Guest: Tom Niziol, Winter Weather Expert at The Weather Channel. DescriptionThe first snowstorm this year for New York City should not have been this memorable. A manageable 6 inches of snow come down in a hurry, but the region was gridlock early on in the event. Was this a forecast fail? A communication calamity? Or pitiful planning? The Weather Channel Winter Weather Expert Tom Niziol has spent decades forecasting and communicating winter weather. He joins us today to talk about this event and the handful of others where winter weather seems to catch cities by surprise. Just what can be done to prevent the situations from happening again?

Al Roker has been giving forecasts for ‘your neck of the woods’ for over 20 years...He is America’s Weatherman, appearing on the TODAY show, Nightly News and a host of other television and news shows over the years. He has a knack for channeling his on-air charisma into many different media platforms, including penning a New York Times best seller, dishing out award-winning cookbooks, and lending his voice to critically-acclaimed movies. In this week's Weather Geeks podcast we learn about Al’s deep passion for weather, how he continues to evolve with the ever-changing media landscape and how he manages to balance it all.

Guest: Clark Schweers, Principal; BDO Forensic Insurance and Recovery PracticeDescription:Natural disasters happen every year all across the country changing the lives of those directly affected forever. Just look at this year’s hurricanes, the deadly and destructive wildfires in California...but there is also an indirect effect to these disasters that ripples across the country and hits the wallet of nearly every American. Clark Schweers joins us today from BDO Global to breakdown how weather and natural disasters have lasting impacts for millions, well after the rebuilding has begun and in some cases fully completed.

Guest: Dr. Judah Cohen, Director of Seasonal Forecasting at Atmospheric & Environmental ResearchDescription:Colored leaves are on the ground and some flakes have already fallen. Winter is just around the corner and everyone is wondering how cold will it get? How much snow will fall? Today, Dr. Judah Cohen gives us a sense of what we can expect. We dive into seasonal forecasting and examine how today’s weather can provide clues into next month's weather. What is El Nino’s role? Why is Siberian snow cover important, and why do we need to pay attention to the stratosphere...thousands of feet above where planes fly? We’ll break it all down as we discuss the 2018-2019 winter outlook.

Guest: Harry Enten, Senior Writer and Analyst, CNN PoliticsDescription: Millions of Americans will be voting this November for their favorite candidate. When they head out to the polls some will enjoy sunshine, others will get cold and rain, and maybe even a few folks will see snowflakes. Weather might even keep some people from even heading out the door. Just how does weather affect elections...and more generally politics? Today, we’ll pose these questions and more to Harry Enten from CNN Politics. Harry has a passion for both weather and for politics. We'll look back at what history has taught us and what the future may hold for the intersection of weather & politics. 

Guests: The Weather Channel meteorologists: Stephanie Abrams, Jen Carfagno, Chris BruinDescription:Hurricane Michael stormed ashore the Florida Panhandle earlier this month. Lives were upended and changed forever. Millions watched the full fury of the hurricane unfold live on their screens. And today we are joined by three field reporters that covered the storm: The Weather Channel meteorologists Stephanie Abrams, Jen Carfagno and Chris Bruin. We hear their stories as they take us through the before, during and after of live coverage of a category 4 hurricane. 

Guest:Tom Skilling, WGN-TV Chief MeteorologistDescription: From the outside looking in, living in the Midwest during the winter months can be brutal! Frigid temperatures that take your breath away and blizzards that stack snow feet high!  But today’s guest knows a thing or two about Midwest winters...and that is just the tip of the iceberg. Tom Skilling has been the on-air meteorologist at WGN-TV in Chicago since 1978...for those counting, that is 40 years!  In that span of time, it can feel like the media and television industry can change as much as the weather...We’ll talk about those changes and so much more with legendary broadcast meteorologist Tom Skilling.

Guest:Dr. Rick Knabb, Hurricane Expert, The Weather ChannelDescription: Communicating a weather forecasting is tricky task, but the challenges associated with hurricane forecasts bring a whole new set of hurdles. Dr. Rick Knabb, former director of the National Hurricane Center joins Dr. Marshall Shepherd to discuss how to avoid hurricane hype and stick with the impacts when talking to the public. It isn't as easy as you might think...

Guest:Dr. Elizabeth Austin, Forensic Meteorologist, Founder WeatherExtremeDescription: Shoeprints in the snow, the absence of dew, or maybe DNA preserved in a puddle of rainwater....seemingly trivial clues in an active crime scene, but to forensic meteorologists, these are the subtle leads that can put a suspect away for murder. Dr. Elizabeth Austin, a forensic meteorologist who's worked on countless criminal cases, joins us to discuss this fascinating profession and her role in a new series this fall on The Weather Channel called Storm of Suspicion.

Guests:  Dr. Katharine Hayhoe - An Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University, Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People.Dr. Alan Townsend - Townsend currently is director of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research and professor in the Environmental Studies program at the University of Colorado at Boulder.Description: During this week's Weather Geeks podcast Dr. Shepherd had the privilege of talking with Dr. Kathryn Hayhoe and Dr. Alan Townsend, 2 scientists featured in a short-form film series entitled Let Science Speak. Dr. Shepherd was also interviewed for this short-form film series aimed at building a groundswell of bipartisan support for scientists on the front lines of solving our planet’s gravest challenges. Let Science Speak highlights not only what is at risk for our lives, our country, and our planet when science is under attack, but what that means for the humans behind the research, and the

Guest:Jenna Jambeck, PhD. - Associate Professor in the College of Engineering at The University of GeorgiaToday we're sitting down with Dr. Jenna Jambeck, Associate Professor in the College of Engineering at The University of Georgia who teaches environmental engineering with a focus on solid waste. What do you think happens to those plastic bottles and other trash when you toss it? Dr. Jambeck, along with a team of reasearchers, estimates that millions of metric tons of plastic waste entered our oceans in 2010, and by 2025, that amount could increase by 10 fold! We'll discuss various waste management solutions being implemented worldwide and learn how we can improve such infrastructure to keep our planet looking beautiful and trash free.  

Guests: Jen Henderson, PhD - Postdoctoral Fellow with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences in Boulder, CO.  Julie Demuth, PhD - Research Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in the Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Lab Description:Today, we’re excited to welcome Dr. Jen Henderson, a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences in Boulder, CO and Dr. Julie Demuth, a Research Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in the Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Lab. Both are dedicating their research to understanding the social science between severe weather warnings and why people make the decisions they do in the face of potentially damaging and life-threatening weather. Preservation of life is their main mission, and they hope to accomplish this by bridging the gap between sociology and meteorology by leading the charge to find the best ways to communicate life-sa

Guest: Jan Null, CCM - Department of Meteorology & Climate Science, San Jose State University Description:Today, we’re excited to welcome Jan Null, Certified Consulting Meteorologist with the Department of Meteorology and Climate Science at San Jose State University. Jan has spent decades forecasting and studying weather across the U.S., especially in California, and he “prides himself on being able to predict the unpredictable.”  He served as Lead Forecaster at the National Weather Service in the Bay Area for more than 24 years and in total has more than 40 years of experience as an operational and forensic meteorologist, serving as an expert witness in hundreds of cases. Jan has dedicated much of his career to becoming an expert on all things El Nino and La Nina, and he has also been a pioneer researcher studying and raising awareness to prevent hot car deaths involving children.

GUEST: Jim Bridenstine, Administrator of NASADESCRIPTION:From flying high above the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, to being elected as a Congressman of Oklahoma in the U.S. House of Representatives, our guest has dedicated his life to serving his country. Today we’re excited to welcome newly confirmed NASA Administrator, Jim Bridenstine.  Jim hails from Tulsa, OK where he became all too familiar with extreme weather, so he understands the importance of improving our forecasting capabilities. We’ll discuss the major piece of legislation he helped pass to support the expansion of weather research and forecasting. Plus, we’ll hear about his evolution on issues like climate change and how the work at NASA can further our understanding of its impacts. If that’s not enough, we’ll also get Jim’s thoughts on the future of space exploration. Could it include a visit to Mars?