By: Becky DePodwin

I was looking for images to include in this post and happened to come upon this tweet exchange with the late Matt Parker. His wisdom continues to influence myself and hopefully many others.

If there’s one thing meteorologists like more than the weather…. It’s commenting on how people react and respond to the weather. I’m guilty of it. You’re guilty of it. We’ve all taken some pleasure in joining in a group condemnation of some poor soul who drove their car around barriers and into flood waters, ultimately ending up sitting on top of their vehicle, shamefully waiting to be rescued.  And that’s one of the better case scenarios.

Continue Reading

Meteorological Twitter has been pretty quiet of late. In fact, the only real “hot-topic” cooking up is about heat—no surprise in the summer months. This subject is revisited every summer and it often has to do with criteria. What constitutes a heat advisory? How about an excessive heat warning? As the weather wise know, answers to those questions vary based on location. But there are some broader points to the heat narrative that inspire further discussion. Scientists always seem to want hard and fast rules—or certain thresholds. Does a certain ambient temperature need to be reached? Should it simply focus on heat index? How does time factor into the equation?

Continue Reading

By: Dr. Josh Eachus

((As seen on wbrz.com))

Louisiana and Mississippi are among the most hurricane prone areas in the nation. Every year, various media outlets, including the WBRZ Weather Team, spend hours piecing together special broadcasts, news reports and online content all in advance of the season. Year after year and story after story, the message is sent, repeated, suddenly jumbled and eventually lost.

Continue Reading

By: Josh Eachus

As early as 1961, Charles Fritz expressed a need for people and pertinent practitioners to understand the anatomy of a disaster in order to fully grasp the human psychological and societal impacts they present. Many associate disaster with earth processes such as weather and climate. However, it is possible for earthquakes and hurricanes to occur without affecting people. If a tree falls…

Continue Reading

By: Matt Bolton

Weather is important to all people, whether they realize it or not. It affects them physically and psychologically on small scales (e.g., in behavior and clothing choice), and on large scales (economies, critical infrastructure, etc.). Within this is the widespread occurrence of extreme weather threats across the United States.

Continue Reading

I’m sick of seeing snow totals maps. Perhaps more than anything else in the industry, they perpetuate a perception that forecasters don’t know what they’re doing. Yet we continue to indulge.

Continue Reading

By: Josh Eachus

At thewxsocial.com, we’re frequently examining the struggle of communicating flood dangers. From Houston to Baton Rouge, we have pointed to countless challenges during heavy rain events that strand drivers and claim lives. Melissa Huffman submits several factors that may constrain action to areal and flash flood warnings like lack of familiarity with the flooded area, to being in a warning message restrictive setting like a vehicle. Perhaps it is all just disconnect from messenger to receiver. I have even suggested an alternate framing of the warning message to circumvent the “I can make it” mentality. But now, another city on the Gulf Coast is instituting a simple road sign that could become flood safety’s biggest ally since “turn around don’t drown.”

Continue Reading