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Category Archives: Severe Weather
What can be learned from the recurrence of extreme weather events?
In 2004, the Boston Red Sox won the World Series for the first time in 86 years and their loyal fans were ecstatic. In the very next year, the Chicago White Sox won their first World Series title in 88 years.
Never in the long history of baseball had two teams that had been denied championships for so long won those long-coveted titles in successive years. This circumstance was at least partially a function of the changes in baseball brought about by free agency — a fundamental change to the rules. Continue reading
Category: Climate, Meteorology, Severe Weather
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How will a warmer planet affect the severity of mid-latitude storms?
In previous columns we have discussed how the phase change of the water substance from invisible, gaseous water vapor into liquid water (through condensation) or into solid ice (through freezing) releases latent heat into the surrounding environment.
This heat can change many aspects of the nature of the mid-latitude storms in which the phase change is occurring. Continue reading
Category: Climate, Meteorology, Severe Weather
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What forced last week’s strong winds?
Our windy Wednesday last week was a notable departure from a winter without many high-wind events.
The strong winds from Tuesday and Wednesday were a result of the passage of an intensifying low-pressure center (mid-latitude cyclone) nearly directly over Madison overnight Tuesday into Wednesday. Continue reading
What is thundersnow?
If you were outside Tuesday shoveling that heavy, wet snow, you may have heard thunder during the storm. Some folks indoors also heard the thunder while it was snowing.
You experienced thundersnow — a weather event that is not too common in Madison. When lightning and thunder occur during a snowstorm, the event gets reported as “thundersnow.” Continue reading
Was the Blizzard of 2016 forecasted well in advance?
The blizzard that affected over 80 million Americans from the Deep South to New England over the weekend was a historic storm in many ways.
Perhaps most obviously, the snowfall totals that it delivered in the so-called Megalopolis (the stretch of cities from Washington, D.C., northeast to Boston) equaled or surpassed records in many locations. Continue reading
Category: Meteorology, Severe Weather, Weather Dangers
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