Guest: Dr. Falko Judt, Research Meteorologist at NCAR In tropical meteorology, the term ‘rapid intensification’ describes a tropical cyclone that does just that: it rapidly intensifies. The official definition is a tropical system whose maximum sustained winds increase by at least 35 mph in a 24-hour period. Sometimes though, it’s much more intense. In 2023, Hurricane Otis in the Eastern Pacific saw its winds increase by 115 mph in less than 24 hours before slamming into Mexico as a rare Category 5 storm, while Hurricane Idalia intensified by 55 mph from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurric ..read more

Guest: Dr. Amy McGovern, University of Oklahoma We as humans all have biases whether we like to believe it or not, especially when it comes to meteorology. You may have heard of confirmation bias, Dunning-Kruger effect, survivor’s bias, cognitive dissonance and more! However, humans aren’t the only ones who are susceptible to bias: it has been shown in newly-evolving AI. How can we nip these glitches in the bud before they could potentially get out of hand? Our guest today Dr. Amy McGovern from the University of Oklahoma is working to tackle that exact problem… See Privacy ..read more

Guest: Dr. Baker Perry, National Geographic Explorer  When it comes to the highest places on Earth, the Rockies, the Andes and of course, the Himalayas come to mind. And while hikers have scaled these peaks, real-time weather data is scarce at these high altitudes. These are not highly populated areas, so why would we need to have weather stations installed in these remote frontiers? Joining us today to explain why and what it means for not only our understanding of the present climate, but the past as well, is National Geographic Explorer Dr. Baker Perry. See Privacy Policy at https://ar ..read more

Guest: Dr. Nicole Mölders, Professor at University of Alaska Fairbanks If you grew up in a colder climate, your parents always told you that you have to dress in layers, all the way down to your socks! But if you grew up in a warmer climate, you were told to wear lighter fabrics and colors so the sun’s heat wasn’t too intense on your body. These are more than just pieces of advice that have been passed down through the years, they have foundations in science! On Weather Geeks today, we have Dr. Nicole Mölders, who is the leading expert on the intersection of weather and fashion ..read more

Guest: Dr. Stephan Rasp, Senior Research Scientist at Google As technology continues to improve, weather models are becoming increasingly more accurate in the short term due to increased computing power and increased resolution. But how can we quantify that increase in accuracy? It seems like a basic question, but one that isn’t so easy to answer....without the assistance of machine learning!. Joining us today is Stephan Rasp, to talk about WeatherBench, an open-source framework that aims to help answer the questions on weather model accuracy. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy a ..read more

Guest: Dr. C. Alex Young, NASA Heliophysicist You may have noticed there’s been plenty of conversation concerning the closest star to us over the past year or so. From the total solar eclipse in April to the increase in solar storms as we approach the solar maximum, the sun has been getting plenty of attention. So we wanted to take a deeper look into our celestial neighbor and what better way to do that than to invite Dr. Alex Young, a heliophysicist, on the weather geeks podcast! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not ..read more

Guest: Craig Ramseyer, Assistant Prof. at Virginia Tech When a drought is depicted on TV or in movies, you’ll usually see parched farmland with wilted crops and a distressed farmer in denim overalls looking over them. What about the drought that resides in the column of air above our heads, what does that look like? Well, there hasn’t been a TON of research on that aspect of drought…until now with my guest today! Craig Ramseyer is utilizing a newly proposed drought index to predict and measure flash droughts in the Caribbean, which aims to trigger policymakers to enact drought m ..read more

Guest: Madison Condon As much as you’d want to stop drinking out of plastic straws or hop on public transportation, there is only so much that one person can do to help save our environment and curb the effects of climate change. A lot of the responsibility comes down to our political and financial leaders. We have to hope that they have the right information provided to them to make critical decisions about our planet’s future, and if they don’t have that information, they may not be asking the right questions and thus getting the wrong answers. We have a special guest on Weath ..read more

Guest: Evan Bentley Episode Intro: In the world of meteorology, the letters “SPC” carry a lot of weight. From severe weather to flooding and fire, the Storm Prediction Center covers almost everything under the sun! Today’s guest has spent the past several years on staff at the SPC as a mesoscale-assistant/fire weather forecaster. He has brought his years of forecasting to Norman, Oklahoma and today he joins us on Weather Geeks… Welcome to the show Evan Bentley…. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ..read more

Guest: Dr. David Wilmouth Episode Intro: On January 15, 2022, a massive eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano occurred, sending literal shockwaves around the globe and releasing millions of tons of material into the atmosphere. This eruption was unprecedented in the modern satellite era in terms of how much water vapor was injected into the stratosphere and just how far into the stratosphere it penetrated. Here to talk about the impacts of the eruption on the stratosphere is Dr. David Wilmouth. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at ..read more