Monthly Archives: August 2017

Is UW-Madison involved in hurricane forecasting?

Hurricane Harvey is the first hurricane to make landfall in the United States since Wilma hit Florida in October 2005.

Harvey made landfall early Saturday morning as a Category 4 storm with estimated sustained winds of 130 mph and gusts to 150 mph. Continue reading

Category: Meteorology, Severe Weather, Tropical

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Why is the sky blue?

All the attention of today’s eclipse has raised interest in the sky’s color.

To understand why the sky is blue, we need to understand a little about light. Light is a form of electromagnetic energy. This form of energy does not need matter to propagate. Continue reading

Category: Meteorology, Phenomena

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What does the State of the Climate Report tell us?

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its 27th annual State of the Climate report Thursday, and it was full of attention-grabbing news.

Topping the list was the fact that analysis of global temperature measurements revealed that 2016 bumped 2015 as the warmest year in 137 years of record keeping. In fact, 2016 was the third consecutive year of record warmth. Continue reading

Category: Climate, Meteorology, Seasons

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Why does the shadow of an eclipse travel west to east?

The sun appears to rise in the east and set in the west. This happens because of how the Earth spins as it orbits the sun. If you are in space and look down on the North Pole, the Earth … Continue reading

Category: Phenomena

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