Weather Blogs

No climate scientist has been subject to more attacks on their science and character than Penn State's Michael Mann, originator of the famed "hockey stick" graph of Earth's temperature history. Dr. Mann has an excellent new book called "The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines" that takes the reader on a fascinating journey to the front lines the high-stakes battles between climate scientists and their detractors.

A team of scientists from the University of Hawai’i’-Manoa Geography Department has recently published a rainfall atlas to the state and may have discovered a new ‘wettest spot’ in the islands and thus for the entire United States. In 1992 they set up a rain gauge at a location known as the ‘Big Bog’ on the edge of Haleakala National Park on Maui Island. They had originally estimated the rainfall at this site to be on the order of 180” per annum, but the second year of data (1994) saw an amazing 560” of precipitation fall (176" more than Mt. Waialeale). The 30-year (1978-2007) average annual rainfall was 404" at Big Bog (estimated from 1992-2007 data) vs. 393" at Mt. Waialeale."

On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on, among other things, NOAA's fiscal year 2013 budget proposal. Of a possible $1.4 billion dollars in proposed spending cuts in the Departments of Commerce and Justice, the only thing the House of Representatives cut was a drop in the bucket: $542,000 for NOAA's climate portal website.

As it stands in my mind today, the variability in the North Atlantic temperature behavior is strongly influenced by aerosols in the atmosphere and a trend due to increasing carbon dioxide. If there is oscillatory behavior in the temperature, it is due to increases and decreases in atmospheric aerosols, perhaps on top of a smaller atmospheric-oceanic dynamic variation that still requires explanation. A good step forward, I think.

New blog later in the week!

Response to Spring severe weather events.

Here at the FreshAJ blog, I’m constantly looking to create new, effective ways to help students, graduates, and career professionals get juicy insights into the weather industry.Recently, I’ve received quite a few emails from meteorology students and young professionals asking for feedback on their weather resumes in order to stand out and get an employer’s attention. And I noticed that many of the resumes needed considerable improvement. Even at the student conference at the AMS, the recruiters expressed frustration on many poorly written resumes.So, it got me thinking…wouldn’t it be nice if a weather expert(s) reviewed a resume before it was actually sent it to an employer?

An end to the hurricane season and my AF career!