Podcasts about American Meteorological Society

We talk to Meghan Klee about the importance of forecasting in risk mitigation and utility resourcing, the challenges of gender and generational barriers in the workplace, and the importance of balancing soft and technical skills.Episode transcript Hosted by Emma Collins and Kelly SavoieEdited by Johnny LeTheme music composed and performed by Steve Savoie Visit AMS Career Resources on the web! Contact us at skypodcast@ametsoc.org with any feedback or if you'd like to become a future guest. Copyright © 2025 American Meteorological Society

Grand événement - À la recherche d'un Avenir Commun DurableL'IA et les mathématiques pour la météorologie et la climatologieAI and math for meteorology and climatologyCollège de FranceAnnée 2024-20255 mai 2025Grand événement - AI and math for meteorology and climatology - Laure Zanna: Reshaping climate modelling with AILaure ZannaKeller Professor of Applied Mathematics, NYU CourantRésuméWhile AI has been disrupting conventional weather forecasting, we are only beginning to witness the impact of AI on long-term climate simulations. The fidelity and reliability of climate models has been limited by computing capabilities. These limitations lead to inaccurate representations of key processes such as convection, cloud, or mixing or restrict the ensemble size of climate predictions. Therefore, these issues are a significant hurdle in enhancing climate simulations and their predictions.Here, I will discuss a new generation of climate models with AI representations of unresolved ocean physics, learned from high-fidelity simulations, and their impact on reducing biases in climate simulations. The simulations are performed with operational ocean model components. I will further demonstrate the potential of AI to accelerate climate predictions and increase their reliability through the generation of fully AI-driven emulators, which can reproduce decades of climate model output in seconds with high accuracy.Laure ZannaProfessor Zanna is a climate physicist in the Department of Mathematics at the Courant Institute, and the Center for Data Science, NYU. She holds the Joseph B. Keller and Herbert B. Keller Professorship in Applied Mathematics. Her research focuses on understanding, simulating and predicting the role of the ocean in climate on local and global scales. She combines theory, numerical simulations, statistics, and machine learning to tackle a wide range of problems in fluid dynamics and climate, including turbulence, multiscale modeling, ocean heat and carbon uptake, and sea level rise. Since 2020, she is leading M²LInES, an international collaboration sponsored by Schmidt Sciences dedicated to improving climate models using scientific machine learning. In 2020, Prof Zanna received the Nicholas P. Fofonoff Award from the American Meteorological Society "for exceptional creativity in the development and application of new concepts in ocean and climate dynamics", and was the 2022 WHOI Geophysical Fluid Dynamics principal lecturer.

Guest: Alan Sealls, AMS President-ElectFor decades, broadcast meteorologists have been the trusted voices guiding us through hurricanes, tornadoes, and everyday forecasts. But behind every great weathercaster is a deep passion for both science and communication. Few embody that balance as well as Alan Sealls—a highly respected meteorologist, educator, and soon-to-be President of the American Meteorological Society. As we head into more uncertain times, Alan will certainly have a lot on his plate in 2026 as he manages the relationship between academic, government, broadcast, and private meteorologists all across the country. How will his tenured career translate to get this done? Let's ask him right now on Weather GeeksChapters00:00 The Journey of a Weather Geek03:07 Career Trajectory and Passion for Meteorology06:04 Navigating Challenges in Meteorology09:00 The Importance of Education and Communication12:00 Lessons Learned in the Broadcasting Industry15:05 Community Engagement and Impact18:04 Secrets to Effective Communication and Teaching20:57 Engaging Communication in Meteorology22:21 Approaching Severe Weather Coverage25:42 The Impact of Technology on Meteorology27:54 The Future of Broadcast Meteorology30:01 Leadership and Representation in Meteorology34:13 Exploring African American Contributions to Meteorology39:57 Alan Sealls' Literary ContributionsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We speak with a KC-135 pilot and licensed airframe and powerplant mechanic who runs a business specializing in aircraft maintenance, avionics upgrades, and aircraft management. In the news, budget cuts at NOAA's Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Office, a ruling in the so-called “toxic uniform” lawsuit against American Airlines, wildlife hazards, the Swiss Global 7500 aircraft, ATC retirement age, and Air Force restrictions on pregnant pilots. A KC-135R Stratotanker taxis down the flight line in an alert response during a Nuclear Operational Readiness Exercise (NORE) at McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base, Tennessee, April 6, 2025.(U.S. Air National Guard Photo by Staff Sgt. Jesse Hanson) Guest James Spearman is an aviation entrepreneur who owns James Spearman Aircraft LLC, an FAA Part 145 Repair Station specializing in aircraft maintenance, avionics upgrades, and aircraft management. He is also an active KC-135 Stratotanker pilot with the Tennessee Air National Guard who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in December 2024. James holds a CFI, A&P with Inspection Authorization (IA), and Seaplane ratings (ASES, AMEL, ASEL). He has over 1,000 flight hours in a range of aircraft, from the KC-135 Stratotanker to a Cessna 140, and holds type ratings in the Boeing 707, Boeing 720, Beechjet 400, and Mitsubishi MU-300. James graduated from Middle Tennessee State University with a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Maintenance Management. In our conversation, James describes flying the KC-135 Stratotanker in a night-time combat mission and experiencing a loss of electrical power. He and his crew managed to compensate and return safely to base.  We also look at how he started his aircraft maintenance business, the type of work performed, and his commitment to a high-level white-glove service. James' aircraft maintenance company works primarily on Cirrus airplanes, and he is also a Diamond Aircraft authorized service center, an Epic service center, and a Garmin avionics dealer. Seaplane discovery rides and ICON A5 training are offered through Iconic Air & Sea Adventures. James also produces the The James Spearman Show podcast. Eleven Airmen from the 134th Air Refueling Wing receive the Distinguished Flying Cross on December 7, 2024 at a ceremony on McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base, Knoxville, Tennessee. The ceremony highlighted the critical role played by the recipients during a coordinated defense effort in response to one of the largest missile and drone attacks in history, when Iran launched a massive assault on Israel involving over 300 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and unmanned aerial systems. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Senior Airman Ben Cash) Aviation News Stand Up for NOAA Research – The Time to Act is Now A Statement from the American Meteorological Society, in partnership with the National Weather Association, says “The administration's 2026 budget passback plan, currently under consideration, eliminates NOAA's Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) Office and its 10 research laboratories and 16 affiliated Cooperative Institutes, and moves the few remaining research efforts to different NOAA departments. If enacted, the passback would close all of NOAA's weather, climate, and ocean Laboratories and Cooperative Institutes.” The organizations are asking concerned citizens to reach out elected representatives and share concerns. Find Your Representative Find Your Senator Judge Throws Out ‘Toxic Uniform' Lawsuit Against American Airlines After Nearly Eight Years Of Litigation The class action lawsuit, first filed in 2017, alleged that uniforms given by American Airlines to pilots, flight attendants, and other employees caused rashes, hives, breathing difficulties, and headaches. After nearly eight years, the federal judge threw out the lawsuit against American Airlines and former uniform manufacturer Twin Hill in a summary judgment,

We talk to Micki Olson about effectively communicating weather warnings to the public, the challenges of advocating for yourself as an expert in your field, and collaborating and learning from others.Episode transcript Hosted by Emma Collins and Kelly SavoieEdited by Johnny LeTheme music composed and performed by Steve Savoie Visit AMS Career Resources on the web! Contact us at skypodcast@ametsoc.org with any feedback or if you'd like to become a future guest. Copyright © 2025 American Meteorological Society

Kari Hall is an Emmy Award-winning meteorologist for NBC Bay Area's morning newscast, Today in The Bay. Kari holds a degree in Geoscience with an emphasis in Broadcast Meteorology. Her career has spanned the country, from covering Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Gustav with KATC in Louisiana; to covering tornadoes and snowstorms at WKYT in Kentucky; to serving as Chief Meteorologist at News 12 in Connecticut. She is a member of the American Meteorological Society and a leader with the Climate Reality Project. She has won two Emmy Awards for her weather and climate coverage.

We talk to Dr. Annareli Morales about the Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science (SOARS) Program, building connections with experts in the atmospheric sciences, and the importance of local government work.Episode transcript Hosted by Emma Collins and Kelly SavoieEdited by Johnny LeTheme music composed and performed by Steve Savoie Visit AMS Career Resources on the web! Contact us at skypodcast@ametsoc.org with any feedback or if you'd like to become a future guest. Copyright © 2025 American Meteorological Society

As the new administration in the US continues to make cuts to government agencies and scientific funding, NOAA – the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been particularly trimmed. This week the professional organisation for weather forecasters – the American Meteorological Society has published a statement pleading for clemency, arguing that the whole US Weather Enterprise is at risk. It's current president elect, veteran weather broadcaster Alan Sealls describes how it's not just US weather forecasts that appear bleak.As the journal Science Advances publishes a special edition highlighting areas of women's health research, we speak with two researchers who may have found a link between menopause – or perhaps hormonal changes – and the age it occurs, with Altzeimer's Disease. Madeline Wood or the University of Toronto and Kaitlin Casaletto of UCSF describe how synaptic health – the fitness of the brain - at death seems even to be less attenuated in women who used hormonal therapy during their menopause. It is not however, yet suggested they are causally connected. But we do connect research vessel Polarstern to have an update from Autun Purser and Nottingham University's molecular biologist Liz Chakrabarti on their nearly completed voyage to the Weddel Sea, in the challengingly chilly Antarctic. They are gathering data and surveying the fauna on the sea floor below what is mostly covered in 3-4 meters of ice. The Icefish they see there are some of the only vertebrates not to have haemoglobin – nor even red blood cells – in their blood. So how, we wonder, do they actually move oxygen around their bodies? Maybe when the team publish their findings – which they are racing to do - we'll find out.Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Alex Mansfield Production Coordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth(Image: National Hurricane Center Monitors Hurricane Beryl's Activity In The Caribbean. Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Tonight's Guest WeatherBrain is a seasoned broadcast meteorologist and weather anchor at KGW-TV in Portland, Oregon.  He brings a wealth of knowledge and a passion for weather to his viewers daily.  His forecasting career has spanned nearly 30 years, taking him from the hurricanes of south Texas to the lake effect snows of Michigan, the tornadoes of the Ohio valley and yes, the hard to predict weather of the Pacific Northwest.  Rod grew up in Missouri and graduated from Mizzou. He later earned his certificate of broadcast meteorology from Mississippi State. Soon after, Rod earned the seal of approval from the American Meteorological Society and the National Weather Association. He later served on the NWA certification board for more than five years.  Rod Hill, it's great to see you and thanks for joining us! Also, Bruce Jones joins us to discuss the importance of NOAA Weather Radio and its integration in order to save lives.  Welcome back, Bruce! Our email officer Jen is continuing to handle the incoming messages from our listeners. Reach us here: email@weatherbrains.com. Figuring out the puzzle as a synoptic weather forecaster (18:30) Advice for TV meteorologists with job security concerns (25:30) Uncertainty for the future in operational meteorology (28:00) Where will traditional television stations be a decade from now?  (37:00) Current morale and level of fear and uncertainty in the NWS offices (53:00) Complexities of Pacific Northwest weather (01:02:30) Social media strategies (01:09:45) The Astronomy Outlook with Tony Rice (01:16:03) This Week in Tornado History With Jen (01:19:50) E-Mail Segment (No segment this week) National Weather Round-Up and more! Web Sites from Episode 996: Midland Weather Radio Portland Weather - Rod Hill on YouTube Portland Weather Picks of the Week: Bruce Jones - Mount Washington Observatory records more than 160 mph wind gusts James Aydelott - Okie J's snowshoes on Facebook Jen Narramore - Out Rick Smith - NOAA: Meeting the Moment Neil Jacobs - Out Troy Kimmel - Foghorn Kim Klockow-McClain - Pillow Shaker for Weather and Emergency Radios - SHKR100 Bill Murray - Natural Disaster Survey Report - Mississippi Delta Tornadoes of February 21, 1971 James Spann - New Study Exposes Gap in TV Station Online Weather Coverage Strategy The WeatherBrains crew includes your host, James Spann, plus other notable geeks like Troy Kimmel, Bill Murray, Rick Smith, James Aydelott, Jen Narramore, Dr. Neil Jacobs, and Dr. Kim Klockow-McClain. They bring together a wealth of weather knowledge and experience for another fascinating podcast about weather.

This week Emily sits down with Alan Sealls, President-elect of the American Meteorological Society, to uncover the remarkable but often overlooked contributions of African American meteorologists. From pioneering weather observers to modern-day scientists, these trailblazers didn't just forecast the weather—they transformed the field of meteorology. Sealls, a veteran broadcaster, author and educator, shares stories of scientific excellence and perseverance, while highlighting how diverse perspectives in meteorology are crucial for protecting all communities during severe weather events. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We talk to Sean Potter about the tornado that set him on a path toward meteorology, transitioning from broadcasting to working at NWS and NASA, and his book, Too Near for Dreams: The Story of Cleveland Abbe, America's First Weather Forecaster.Episode transcript Hosted by Emma Collins and Kelly SavoieEdited by Johnny LeTheme music composed and performed by Steve Savoie Visit AMS Career Resources on the web! Contact us at skypodcast@ametsoc.org with any feedback or if you'd like to become a future guest. Copyright © 2025 American Meteorological Society

Groundhog Day is coming up this weekend so, move over Phil- the real weather experts are stepping into the spotlight! Join us as we chat with Climate Central meteorologists Bernadette Woods and Shel Winkley, fresh from the American Meteorological Society's annual meeting. They'll share their personal and professional take on our favorite furry forecaster while giving us their takeaways from America's biggest convergence of meteorologists.Then, we're heading to Gobbler's Knob with meteorologist Joe Murgo - the real-life Phil Connors who's witnessed 23 consecutive Groundhog Days! Like Bill Murray's character in the classic film, Joe has seen it all: the pre-dawn chaos, the top-hatted ceremonies, and yes, plenty of Phil's questionable weather predictions. With a perfect blend of scientific insight and hilarious behind-the-scenes stories, Joe reveals how this quirky tradition has evolved from folk custom to cultural phenomenon.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We talk to Ayako Ota about emergency weather reporting in Japan, the differences between weather reporting in Japan and the US, and her current writing projects.Episode transcript Hosted by Emma Collins and Kelly SavoieEdited by Johnny LeTheme music composed and performed by Steve Savoie Visit AMS Career Resources on the web! Contact us at skypodcast@ametsoc.org with any feedback or if you'd like to become a future guest. Copyright © 2025 American Meteorological Society

We talk to Gabby Brown about her research on climate variability analysis and subseasonal to seasonal predictability, her role as President of the Board of Directors for the Climate Consensus, and the importance of being able to effectively communicate research both to the science community and the public.Episode transcript Hosted by Emma Collins and Kelly SavoieEdited by Johnny LeTheme music composed and performed by Steve Savoie Visit AMS Career Resources on the web! Contact us at skypodcast@ametsoc.org with any feedback or if you'd like to become a future guest. Copyright © 2024 American Meteorological Society

John R. Christy is a Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science and Director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He has served as Alabama's State Climatologist since 2000 and is best known for developing, along with Roy Spencer, a global temperature dataset from satellite microwave measurements. For this work, Christy and Spencer were awarded NASA's Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement in 1991 and a Special Award from the American Meteorological Society in 1996. 00:00 Introduction and Overview 00:20 Hurricane Helene and Flooding Analysis 04:02 Data-Driven Climate Insights 04:58 Fresno Temperature Trends 09:04 Urbanization and Temperature Records 10:57 U.S. Historical Climatology Network 14:13 Extreme Temperature Records 24:04 Rainfall and Atmospheric Rivers 27:53 Snowfall Measurement Techniques 28:48 Analyzing Snowfall Trends in the Western US 30:32 Mega Droughts vs. Modern Droughts 32:25 Global Atmospheric Temperatures and El Niño 36:07 Climate Models and Observations 39:56 Hydrocarbons and Climate Impact 42:03 Q&A Session 51:07 Concluding Remarks Slides for this podcast, along with AI summaries of all of my podcasts: https://tomn.substack.com/p/podcast-summaries John's Alabama State Climatologist site: https://www.nsstc.uah.edu/aosc/ ======== AI summaries of all of my podcasts: https://tomn.substack.com/p/podcast-summaries My Linktree: https://linktr.ee/tomanelson1 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL89cj_OtPeenLkWMmdwcT8Dt0DGMb8RGR X: https://twitter.com/TomANelson Substack: https://tomn.substack.com/ About Tom: https://tomn.substack.com/about

We talk to Pam Knox about the impacts of drought on agriculture, her time as an AMS Certified Consulting Meteorologist, and the importance of obtaining skills in different areas to set yourself apart from others in your career.Episode transcript Hosted by Emma Collins and Kelly SavoieEdited by Johnny LeTheme music composed and performed by Steve Savoie Visit AMS Career Resources on the web! Contact us at skypodcast@ametsoc.org with any feedback or if you'd like to become a future guest. Copyright © 2024 American Meteorological Society

We talk to Justin Pullin about Project Hailstone, the AMS Board for Early Career Professionals, and the importance of networking for career development.Episode transcript Hosted by Emma Collins and Kelly SavoieEdited by Johnny LeTheme music composed and performed by Steve Savoie Visit AMS Career Resources on the web! Contact us at skypodcast@ametsoc.org with any feedback or if you'd like to become a future guest. Copyright © 2024 American Meteorological Society

We talk to Cliff Jacobs about his diverse career in the private sector, working with the US Antarctic Program and cyberinfrastructure, and his broad understanding of the success of atmospheric sciences and communicating core concepts in geosciences.Mentioned videos:Video on Cliff's CareerTravelers Research Center PaperExperience with the U.S. Antarctic ProgramCliff's YouTube Channel Episode transcript Hosted by Emma Collins and Kelly SavoieEdited by Johnny LeTheme music composed and performed by Steve Savoie Visit AMS Career Resources on the web! Contact us at skypodcast@ametsoc.org with any feedback or if you'd like to become a future guest. Copyright © 2024 American Meteorological Society

There have already been all sorts of extreme weather this year in many parts of the world and undoubtedly there will be more to talk about in the coming months.  But the American Meteorological Society has recently published its State of the Climate report for 2023 and it was a year for the record books. […]

To stave off the worst effects of the climate crisis we must leverage our greatest ally, the ocean. To do so with the speed needed to meet this moment, we need to build companies—with repeatable, scalable business models—that can achieve global impact. This is our collective challenge, and our great opportunity. Dr. Julie Pullen is an oceanographer and meteorologist focused on climate resilience, earth system prediction, AI, and climate tech. She is currently a founding partner and Chief Scientist at Propeller Ventures, an ocean climate solutions VC fund, and previously served on the leadership team at Jupiter Intelligence, a climate risk analytics startup. Her academic career includes a decade as an ocean engineering professor at Stevens Institute of Technology, a joint appointment with the Department of Energy, and a Fulbright Visiting Professorship in the Philippines. She also has a background as a Navy oceanographer and has held fellowships at Stanford and the Department of Homeland Security. Dr. Pullen is a member of the U.S. Climate Security Roundtable, served on the National Academy of Sciences committee for the National Climate Assessments, and co-authored a chapter of the New York City Panel on Climate Change report. She has held leadership roles in both the American Meteorological Society and The Oceanography Society. Dr. Pullen holds a Ph.D. in physical oceanography, a master's degree in applied mathematics, and a bachelor's degree in physics and math. This episode will make you want to get up and take action. Show Notes: [2:11] - Dr. Pullen began her career as a professor of ocean engineering. She describes the transformative experience that created a shift in her work. [6:08] - Propeller Ventures was created by a team of colleagues identifying what fell into the areas of climate solutions. [10:49] - With the scale and scope that is needed to adapt to climate change, there will never be enough money. There have to be ways to expand climate solutions. [12:47] - Timing really matters. The fund was fortunate enough to grow at a time when people were ready and willing to contribute. [13:31] - The ocean has buffered us from the full brunt of climate change. Our whole climate rests on the ocean. [15:37] - Propeller has invested in several companies to date. Dr. Pullen shares how they were able to find the first few companies to invest in and what she is enthusiastic about in the works. [18:06] - Dr. Pullen describes some of the areas they have been able to shine a light on as opportunities and innovations at Propeller. [20:21] - The community is leaning into quantifying biodiversity. [21:37] - AI tools are extremely exciting in meteorology projections. [24:26] - Propeller invests in companies that are leveraging AI tools in innovative ways. [25:55] - We are at a point where novel ideas are able to make a big difference and ensure that we are leaving no stone unturned. [28:19] - As a former educator, Dr. Pullen is able to connect with scientists in a unique way. [31:23] - How is new technology developed and invested in at Propeller? [35:47] - Reflecting on her career and the careers of her former students, Dr. Pullen shares some advice for those seeking experience in this industry. Links and Resources: Propeller Ventures Website

Guest: Dr. Stella Kafka, AMS Executive DirectorThe world of meteorology is vast, with the options of different career paths spreading far and wide! You don't have to be on TV in order to be a successful meteorologist, nor do you have to work for the government at the National Weather Service. In that same vein, you don't have to be a meteorologist to be involved in the American Meteorological Society, even though it's in the name! Your career may take you in a different direction, but there is always a weather geek in there somewhere. That's why today on Weather Geeks, we have the new Executive Director of the AMS Dr. Stella Kafka on the show to talk about her journey into this position and where she wants to take the organization in the future…See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We talk to Stephanie Herring about the diversity of opportunities in the government sector, the impacts of climate on human health, and learning how your unique skillset can benefit weather, water, and climate industries. Episode transcript Hosted by Emma Collins and Kelly SavoieEdited by Johnny LeTheme music composed and performed by Steve Savoie Visit AMS Career Resources on the web! Contact us at skypodcast@ametsoc.org with any feedback or if you'd like to become a future guest. Copyright © 2024 American Meteorological Society

You May Never See a Hot Summer Day the Same Way Again... Jeff Goodell is a New York Times bestselling author of seven books, including The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World, which was picked as a New York Times Critics' Top Book of 2017, as well as one of Washington Post's 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction in 2017. Goodell's previous books include Sunnyvale, a memoir about growing up in Silicon Valley, which was a New York Times Notable Book, and Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future.  His latest book is the New York Times bestseller The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet - about the impact that temperature rise will have on our lives and our planet.  This program was presented in partnership with the St. Johns Riverkeeper and the Jacksonville Climate Coalition.  Jeff Goodell has covered climate change for more than two decades at Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine, and many other publications. A 2020 Guggenheim Fellow, his work has been recognized by the American Meteorological Society, New America, and the inaugural Covering Climate Change Now Journalism Awards for Feature Writing. He is a Senior Fellow at the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center and serves on the board of the McHarg Center at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design. Interviewer Nikesha Elise Williams is a two-time Emmy award-winning producer, an award-winning author, and producer and host of the Black & Published podcast. Her latest novel, The Seven Daughters of Dupree, was acquired by Scout Press and will be published in 2025. A Chicago native, Nikesha is a columnist with JAX Today. Her work has also appeared in The Washington Post, ESSENCE, and VOX. She lives in Florida with her family. READ THE AUTHOR'S WORK Check out Jeff's work from the Library! THE LIBRARY ALSO RECOMMENDS Other climate change reads: Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World by Katharine Hayhoe Are We Screwed?: How a New Generation is Fighting to Survive Climate Change by Geoff Dembicki The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells --- Never miss an event! Sign up for email newsletters at https://bit.ly/JaxLibraryUpdates  Jacksonville Public LibraryWebsite: https://jaxpubliclibrary.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaxlibrary Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JaxLibrary/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaxlibrary/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jaxpubliclibraryfl Contact Us: jplpromotions@coj.net 

Die Themen in den Wissensnachrichten: +++ Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung sieht keine Gesundheitsgefahr durch Metalle in Tampons +++ Kleine Bewegungsaktivitäten am Abend verbessern den Schlaf +++ Europäer sollten mehr über Unwetter wissen +++**********Weiterführende Quellen zu dieser Folge:Tampons as a source of exposure to metal(loid)s, Environment International, 03.07.2024Evening regular activity breaks extend subsequent free-living sleep time in healthy adults: a randomised crossover trial, BMJ Open Sports & Exercise Medicine, 16.07.2024Global high-resolution growth projections dataset for rooftop area consistent with the shared socioeconomic pathways, 2020–2050, scientific data, 30.05.2024The Violent Tornado on 24 June 2021 in Czechia: Damage Survey, Societal Impacts, and Lessons Learned, American Meteorological Society, 09.07.2024Design and Control of a Table-top Vibration Isolation System With Zero-power Gravity Compensation, ACIN, 18.06.2024Alle Quellen findet ihr hier.**********Ihr könnt uns auch auf diesen Kanälen folgen: Tiktok und Instagram.

We talk to Brandon Katz about modeling weather phenomena, the importance of networking and work-life balance as a meteorologist, and the economic impact of climate change. Episode transcript Hosted by Emma Collins and Kelly SavoieEdited by Johnny LeTheme music composed and performed by Steve Savoie Visit AMS Career Resources on the web! Contact us at skypodcast@ametsoc.org with any feedback or if you'd like to become a future guest. Copyright © 2024 American Meteorological Society

This week Megan Kate Nelson and Kate Carpenter drop in to talk about Kevin Costner's new American epic, Horizon. Our reviews (and our drinks) are mixed but this is such a fun episode as we talk not only about where Horizon succeeds and fails but also about what Costner's career has to say about The West in general. This one is fun.About our guests:Megan Kate Nelson is a writer, historian, road cyclist, and cocktail enthusiast.And starting in September, she will be the 2024-2025 Rogers Distinguished Fellow in 19th-Century American History at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. While she is there, she will be finishing her new book, “The Westerners: The Creation of America's Most Iconic Region.” She is the author of The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West (Scribner, 2020), which was a Finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in History.Her most recent book, Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America was published by Scribner on March 1, 2022, the 150th anniversary of the Yellowstone Act, which created the first national park in the world. Saving Yellowstone has won the 2023 Spur Award for Historical Nonfiction, and is one of Smithsonian Magazine‘s Top Ten Books in History for 2022. She is an expert in the history of the American Civil War, the U.S. West, and popular culture, and have written articles about these topics for The New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, The Atlantic, Slate, and Smithsonian Magazine.Kate Carpenter is a PhD candidate in History of Science at Princeton University whose research focuses on the intersection of environmental history and history of science. Her dissertation is a social and scientific history of storm chasing in the United States since the 1950s. It draws on archival sources, scientific publications, photographs and videos created by storm chasers, popular culture, and oral histories to examine how both professional meteorologists and weather enthusiasts created a community that became central both to our understanding of severe storms and to the cultural identity of the Great Plains.Kate holds a 2023-2024 Charlotte Elizabeth Proctor Honorific Fellowship from Princeton University. From 2022-2023, her work was supported by the Graduate Fellowship in the History of Science from the American Meteorological Society, and in 2021-2022 she held the Taylor-Wei Dissertation Research Fellowship in the History of Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma History of Science. She has also been awarded travel fellowships including the Andrew W. Mellon Travel Fellowship from the University of Oklahoma, the Summer Dissertation Grant from the Princeton American Studies program, and two awards with outstanding merit from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Women's Council Graduate Assistance Fund.

In this episode of What the Weather, Max check in from his broadcast conference in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Hosted annually by the American Meteorological Society, this broadcast meteorology conference is a place where meteorologists from all across the nation meet and to discuss and learn how to communicate pertinent weather information to their viewers in the best way possible. Max discusses what he learned from his experience and what he will bring back to the First Alert Weather Team!

We talk to Max Thompson about forecasting customer demand, the impact of a warming climate on the power grid, and how renewable energy is changing the energy industry. Episode transcript Hosted by Emma Collins and Kelly SavoieEdited by Johnny LeTheme music composed and performed by Steve Savoie Visit AMS Career Resources on the web! Contact us at skypodcast@ametsoc.org with any feedback or if you'd like to become a future guest. Copyright © 2024 American Meteorological Society

We talk to Kim Klockow McClain about discovering the intersection of meteorology and social science; creating social science positions within the weather, water, and climate industries; and mobilizing people and ideas to positively impact communities. Episode transcript Hosted by Emma Collins and Kelly SavoieEdited by Johnny LeTheme music composed and performed by Steve Savoie Visit AMS Career Resources on the web! Contact us at skypodcast@ametsoc.org with any feedback or if you'd like to become a future guest. Copyright © 2024 American Meteorological Society

In This Episode Guest: Joel Myers, Founder of Accuweather Storm Chaser Safety Tip - Team vs Solo Chasing Lightning Round - True or False Historic Figures #weatherfools - We present the fools doing stupid things in weather situations Storm Chaser Names Announce Next Guest(s) Check out our Patreon page for exciting ways to support our podcast and interact with us more!  www.patreon.com/stormfrontfreaks Our Guest: Dr. Joel Myers Dr. Joel N. Myers, Founder and Executive Chairman of AccuWeather, He is a proven visionary leader, founding the company in 1962 and successfully establishing AccuWeather as the largest and fastest-growing weather media company as well as a global leader in weather-related big data, business, and predictive analytics. He received the American Meteorological Society's 2018 Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Advancement of Applied Meteorology and the National Weather Association's 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award. He has recently released his book, Invisible Iceberg: When Climate and Weather Shaped History.   For more storm chaser/spotter safety tips, visit the weather.gov ACES Weather Spotter Safety Program Follow us on YouTube.com/stormfrontfreaks and our Twitter (@stormfrontfreaks) and Facebook (Storm Front Freaks) accounts for news when we go live with Storm Front Freaks Outbreak coverage of storms, tornadoes, hurricanes and blizzards #weatherfools Links Phil - Because Your Window is a Safe Place to Film a Tornado From Phil - Swim Lessons Required Phil - Small World/Flat Earth Storm Chaser Names Sheet Submit your questions or comments about this show to questions@stormfrontfreaks.com or on our social media accounts and we may read it on our next episode! Next Episode…from the Dominator 3 to our studio, Team Dominator storm chaser and social media specialist, Edgar O'Neal will be here.  We'll be LIVE Thursday, May 23rd at 9pmET/8pmCT on YouTube while the audio podcast will be available that weekend on your podcast player. Twitter: @stromfrontfreak Facebook: @stormfrontfreaks Instagram: @stormfrontfreaks TikTok: @stormfrontfreaks YouTube "RAW":  YouTube.com/stormfrontfreaks Credits Opening Music: Brett Epstein Closing Music: Gabe Cox Other Music: “Pecos Hank” Schyma from El Reno Blues

Dr. Roy Spencer has an extensive scientific pedigree. He's a principal research scientist at the University of Alabama - Huntsville, and the US Science Team leader for the AMSR-E aboard NASA's Aqua satellite. He's been lauded by the American Meteorological Society for his groundbreaking work monitoring Earth's temperature fluctuations. So when he expresses a scientifically-backed hypothesis that climate change is part of a naturally-occurring cycle and that human impact is small and possibly negligible, it carries a great deal of weight. Instead, he's been mocked and challenged by untrained activists, and even had his own job explained to him by a reporter on national television. Today, he joins the program to discuss his work, as well as his concerns about activism- and ideology-driven government weighing down scientific research. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/victoria-taft/support

We talk to Bill Sjoberg about forecasting in the military, the challenges of making the right call, and keeping the human element in modern meteorology. Episode transcript Hosted by Emma Collins and Kelly SavoieEdited by Johnny LeTheme music composed and performed by Steve Savoie Visit AMS Career Resources on the web! Contact us at skypodcast@ametsoc.org with any feedback or if you'd like to become a future guest. Copyright © 2024 American Meteorological Society

In this episode, Julie and Tom dig into 2024 weather patterns, looking back at the el niño that occurred in the last six months and the upcoming la niña. They meet with Zach Hansen, Climate Weather Science Team Manager, who discusses where to plant ahead of these future weather patterns and tools that can help you forecast. Brad Coleman, former President of the American Meteorological Society, also sits down with them to discuss what the different patterns look like for an el niño versus a la niña. Listen to hear more about how farmers should plan for these upcoming weather patterns.

In this podcast we have a wide-ranging discussion about the importance of weather to business and government operations around the world. Getting actionable weather forecasts has never been more important. We learn how these forecasts can be both pinpoint and actionable by incorporating what is about to happen with your operational procedures to both protect people and property. The podcast guest is Jonathan Porter, who is AccuWeather's Senior Vice President, Weather Content and Forecast Operations and Chief Meteorologist. He is one of AccuWeather's most accomplished subject matter experts. In this key leadership role, he blends his background in meteorology, weather news, and information technology to oversee AccuWeather's team of over 100 highly experienced expert meteorologists, including some of the most gifted and talented weather forecasters assembled from around the world.Jon is also a broadcast meteorologist, routinely appearing on the AccuWeather Network as well as thousands of media interviews on major networks all around the world on a wide variety of weather and climate topics.Jon joined AccuWeather in 2004, after graduating from Pennsylvania State University with a degree in Meteorology and minor in Information Technology. He has held a series of demanding and progressively more responsible positions within the company. A Connecticut native, Jon has always been interested in weather and decided that he wanted to be a meteorologist in the fourth grade. Growing up, he was always fascinated with East Coast snowstorms.Jon is a Professional Member of the American Meteorological Society. He was appointed and served 7 years on the US government National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Environmental Information Services Working group, a federal advisory committee. Jon frequently delivers presentations at conferences and professional meetings – specifically focused on the exchange of weather data and warnings.This episode is sponsored by Bent Ear Solutions which offers comprehensive capabilities and deep industry knowledge necessary to help you solve the most complex issues of your organization. We advise public and private organizations on an all-inclusive approach to disaster preparedness that addresses governance, planning, operational procedures, technology implementation, training, and exercises in order to achieve a successful and sustainable program. Eric Holdeman is a professional emergency manager who is passionate about providing information that can help families, businesses & governments become better prepared for disasters of all types. Hear first hand expert insights from Eric on his Podcast, Blog & EricHoldeman.com.

We talk to Jan Null about the importance of integrity, giving back to your community, and staying connected with a variety of experts. Episode transcript Hosted by Emma Collins and Kelly SavoieEdited by Johnny LeTheme music composed and performed by Steve Savoie Visit AMS Career Resources on the web! Contact us at skypodcast@ametsoc.org with any feedback or if you'd like to become a future guest. Copyright © 2024 American Meteorological Society

Iisha Scott at NBC ChicagoIisha Scott on instagramIisha Scott on LinkedInAisha's Favorite BooksThe Alchemist: A fable about following your dreams by Paulo CoelhoThe Year of Yes: How to dance it out, stand in the sun, and be your own person by Shonda RimesIisha Scott is an award-winning, Certified Broadcast Meteorologist at NBC Chicago. Her career has taken her from the southeast to the Mid-Atlantic and now the Midwest, covering everything from hurricanes and tornadoes to blizzards.Iisha is a proud Norfolk State University graduate where she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Mass Communications. She also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Geosciences and Broadcast Meteorology from Mississippi State University.Iisha is a member of several organizations including Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, National Association of Black Journalists, National Weather Association, and the American Meteorological Society. 

June Bacon-Bercey was a true pioneer in meteorology. She had many groundbreaking firsts including being the first female with a meteorology degree to give a tv weather report and the first female granted the Seal of Approval from the American Meteorological Society. This week, we speak with June's daughter, Dail St. Claire, about her inspirational career and life. We learn what fueled her passion for meteorology from an early age and how she balanced her successful science career with motherhood.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We talk to Ginger Zee about the realities of climate reporting, finding your "why", and the challenges women face in the weather, water, and climate industries. Episode transcript Hosted by Emma Collins and Kelly SavoieEdited by Johnny LeTheme music composed and performed by Steve Savoie Visit AMS Career Resources on the web! Contact us at skypodcast@ametsoc.org with any feedback or if you'd like to become a future guest. Copyright © 2024 American Meteorological Society

Each year, The American Meteorological Society's Annual Meeting is the ultimate gathering for the weather community. Researchers, forecasters, and storm chasers alike come together to share their work, network, and try to solve some of meteorology's greatest challenges.  The 104th AMS Annual Meeting just wrapped up in Baltimore, Maryland. Two members of the Lee Weather Team, Meteorologist Sean Sublette and Meteorologist Joe Martucci, were in attendence and they share their thoughts and reactions on this week's episode. The two discuss the talks that stood out to them the most, the work they presented, and what it's like being at a meeting with so many other meteorologists. They also chat about who they met and who might be a guest on a future episode! We want to hear from you! Have a question for the meteorologists? Call 609-272-7099 and leave a message. You might hear your question and get an answer on a future episode! You can also email questions or comments to podcasts@lee.net.Check out our sponsor, WeatherCall NexGen!Receive precise, location-specific weather alerts via phone, text, or email. With over a decade of experience, WeatherCall delivers pinpoint accuracy for your exact address, ensuring no surprises. Explore the WeatherCall difference today! Visit: https://weathercallservices.com/lee-enterprises About the Across the Sky podcast A weekly podcast discussing all things weather and climate. The podcast is hosted by the meteorologists of the Lee Weather Team: Matt Holiner of Lee Enterprises' Midwest group in Chicago, Kirsten Lang of the Tulsa World in Oklahoma, Joe Martucci of the Press of Atlantic City, N.J., and Sean Sublette of the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia.

We talk to Jason Samenow about taking a chance to pursue a passion, keeping one finger on the pulse of ever-changing weather, and staying versatile in weather reporting in the age of social media.Episode transcriptHosted by Emma Collins and Kelly SavoieEdited by Johnny LeTheme music composed and performed by Steve SavoieVisit AMS Career Resources on the web!Contact us at skypodcast@ametsoc.org with any feedback or if you'd like to become a future guest.Copyright © 2023 American Meteorological Society

Climate change is increasing flood risk worldwide.  Climate change is intensifying flood risk around the world, with potentially devastating consequences for communities and infrastructure.  As the planet gets hotter, the atmosphere's capacity to hold water vapor increases, leading to more frequent and intense precipitation events in certain regions.  Extreme rainfall events can overwhelm stormwater and other drainage systems and result in dangerous flash flooding. A 2021 study published by the American Meteorological Society found that for every 1°C rise in global temperature, the intensity of extreme rainfall events increases by 7 percent.  Sea level rise, driven by melting glaciers, is also causing coastal flooding and erosion in many parts of the world.  Sea levels could rise by an average of 10 - 12 inches in the U.S. in the next 30 years (2020 – 2050)—as much as the rise measured over the last 100 years (1920 - 2020).  By the end of the century, sea levels could be as much as 3.6 feet higher than they are today, putting nearly 200 million people at risk.   These changes are already having real-world consequences. In 2021, severe flooding in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and other European countries killed over 200 people and destroyed entire towns.  In the United States, severe coastal flooding from Superstorm Sandy was partially caused by unusually high storm surges attributed to sea level rise.  While these challenges may be daunting, there are concrete actions we can take now to increase our resilience, such as greater investment in flood control infrastructure and natural interventions to mitigate flood risk.  These and other solutions are discussed in more detail below.   A recent study indicates that climate change is increasing the risk of a “megaflood” in California.California has experienced great floods every century or so for many millennia, according to historical and climate records. The last great flood in California was in 1862, which inundated a 300-mile-long stretch of the Central Valley, including highly populated areas such as Sacramento.  The “Great Flood of 1862” is widely considered the benchmark for a “plausible worst-case scenario” flood in contemporary California. Recent research suggests that climate change has already increased the risk of extreme floods in California, and that it is likely to significantly increase the risk of even more extreme floods in the future. A 2022 study by UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain and fellow researcher Xingying Huang found that despite the recent prevalence of severe drought, California faces a broadly underappreciated risk of severe floods. The study indicates that climate change has already doubled the risk of a present-day megastorm, relative to a century ago, and more than tripled the risk of a trillion-dollar megaflood like the Great Flood of 1862.  It further found that larger future increases are likely due to continued warming.  These ominous findings have direct implications for flood and emergency management, and climate adaptation activities.Governments should implement strategies to mitigate and adapt to the growing risk of floods.According to Dr. Swain, addressing flood risk is a societal challenge that requires action at the local, state, and federal government levels. He recommends action to assess flood risk, strengthen flood control infrastructure, implement natural interventions to mitigate flood risk, and explore innovative approaches to flood management: Assess flood risk: FEMA's flood maps, which are now known to be woefully inadequate, should be improved and updated.Strengthen flood control infrastructure: Weaknesses in levees, dams, and urban flood conduits should be identified and rectified through research and funding.Implement natural interventions to mitigate flood risk: Long-term flood risk mitigation may involve natural interventions such as floodplain restoration or moving levees away from the river, giving rivers more room to expand without flooding highly populated cities or critical infrastructure.Explore innovative approaches to flood management: Forecast Informed Reservoir Operations (FIRO) and Flood Managed Aquifer Recharge (Flood-MAR) are innovative approaches that could drive advances in flood management. FIRO involves using high-quality weather forecasts to dynamically operate reservoirs and water releases, while Flood-MAR involves leveraging flood flows to store water in natural aquifers underground (which can have the added benefit of returning water to depleted aquifers).Who is Daniel Swain?Daniel Swain, Ph.D., is a climate scientist who holds joint appointments at UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, the Capacity Center for Climate and Weather Extremes at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and as the California Climate Fellow at The Nature Conservancy. His research focuses on the dynamics and impacts of the Earth's changing climate system, with a particular emphasis on regional climate extremes such as droughts, floods, and wildfires. Dr. Swain's work includes understanding the processes driving severe droughts and "megafloods" in a warming climate, as well as the climate-related factors behind increasingly severe and destructive wildfires in the American West. He also engages in extensive science communication and outreach efforts, including authoring the Weather West blog, providing real-time perspectives on California weather and climate, and working with media outlets to ensure scientifically accurate coverage of climate change.Sources:NY Times, The Coming California Megastorm (August 12, 2022)The Public Policy Institute of California, Commentary: Catastrophic Floods and Breached Levees Reveal a Problem California Too Often Neglects (April 7, 2023)PBS, Climate change increasing chance of ‘mega storm' in California, scientists say (Sept. 6, 2022)Journal of Climate, Changes in Annual Extremes of Daily Temperature and Precipitation in CMIP6 Models (2021)NOAA, 2022 Sea Level Rise Technical ReportIPCC, Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, Chapter 4, Sea Level Rise and Implications for Low-Lying Islands, Coasts and CommunitiesWorld Economic Forum, The Global Risks Report 2020United Nations, 2021 floods: UN researchers aim to better prepare for climate risksBBC News, Europe's floods: Lessons from German tragedy (2021)NOAA, Climate.gov, Superstorm Sandy and Sea Level RiseSwain, ARkStorm 2.0: Climate change is increasing the risk of a California megaflood (2022)Scientific American, The Coming Megafloods (2013)Science, Climate change is increasing the risk of a California megaflood (2022)Smithsonian Magazine, Federal Flood Maps Are Outdated Because of Climate Change, FEMA Director Says (2022)The Washington Post, America underwater: Extreme floods expose the flaws in FEMA's risk mapsThe Nature Conservancy, How Nature Can Help Reduce Flood Risks: Conservation is an economical way to avoid costly flood damages. In some areas the benefits are 5x the cost (2020)For a transcript, please visit https://climatebreak.org/recharging-aquifers-with-flood-waters-with-daniel-swain/

About this conversation: Dr Judith Curry is the President and co-founder of the Climate Forecast Applications Network (CFAN).  She is Professor Emerita at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she served as Chair of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences for 13 years. Her expertise is in climate dynamics, extreme weather, and prediction/predictability. Judith is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Geophysical Union. Following an influential career in academic research and administration, Judith founded CFAN to translate cutting-edge weather and climate research into forecast products and services that support the management of weather and climate risk for public and private sector decision-makers. Judith is a leading global thinker on climate change. She is frequently called upon to give U.S. Congressional testimony and serve as an expert witness on matters related to weather and climate. Her influential blog Climate Etc. addresses leading-edge and controversial topics about climate change and the science-policy interface. Her new book is Climate Uncertainty and Risk - Rethinking the climate change problem, the risks we are facing, and how we can respond. The conversation explores the biases in climate change research and the impact on funding and career advancement. It delves into the history and ethics of science, highlighting the presence of personal motives and professional rivalry. The need for a broader intellectual and moral foundation in scientific education is discussed, emphasizing the importance of ethics and philosophy. The conversation also addresses the power politics involved in science and medicine, leading to a lack of trust in these fields. This is a fascinating conversation and I hope you enjoy it. Links Website Climate Forecast Applications Network Website Website Judith Curry Website Twitter/X Judith Curry X account Book Climate Uncertainty and Risk IMPORTANT NOTICE Following my cancellation for standing up for medical ethics and freedom, my surgical career has been ruined. I am now totally dependent on the support of my listeners, YOU. If you value my podcasts, please support the show so that I can continue to speak up by choosing one or both of the following options - ⁠Buy me a coffee⁠ If you want to make a one-off donation. Join my Substack To access additional content, you can upgrade to paid from just £5.50 a month Doc Malik Merch Store⁠ Check out my amazing freedom merch To sponsor the Doc Malik Podcast contact us at ⁠hello@docmalik.com⁠  About Doc Malik: Orthopaedic surgeon Ahmad Malik is on a journey of discovery when it comes to health and wellness. Through honest conversations with captivating individuals, Ahmad explores an array of topics that profoundly impact our well-being and health. You can follow us on social media, we are on the following platforms: ⁠Twitter Ahmad⁠ | ⁠Twitter Podcast⁠ | ⁠Instagram Ahmad⁠ | ⁠Instagram Podcast

Colt and David sit down with meteorologist Danielle Breezy.Danielle Breezy is the Chief Meteorologist for WKRN News 2 in Nashville, TN.  Originally from Philadelphia, Breezy began her passion for weather in the 8th grade when a local TV meteorologist visited her school.  After graduating from Cornell University she had stops at Salisbury, Oklahoma City, Dallas and Boston before landing in Nashville in 2016.  Breezy received the American Meteorological Society's June Bacon-Bercey Award for Broadcast Meteorology in 2022 for exceptional life saving coverage during the March 2-3, 2020 Middle Tennessee tornado outbreak and sustained efforts to educate the community about severe weather safety.  She also received the Edward R. Murrow Award for her continuing coverage called “Tennessee Strong: Aftermath of Deadly Tornado Outbreak” which was from that same outbreak.  In her spare time, she finds herself giving back to the Nashville community with organizations such as the Nashville Wine Auction, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, American Red Cross, the Nashville Humane Association, The Rally Foundation and many others.Website: www.daniellebreezytv.comInstagram: www.instagram.com/daniellebreezytvTwitter (X): www.twitter.com/daniellebreezyFacebook: www.facebook.com/daniellebreezytvYouTube: www.youtube.com/@daniellebreezytvSupport the showCheck out our socials and follow us!Facebook: www.facebook.com/TwangTownPodcastInstagram: www.instagram.com/TwangTownPodTwitter: www.twitter.com/TwangTownPodWe would love your support to continue to bring listeners amazing content!Cash App: www.cash.app/$TwangTownPodBuzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2232176/support

We all use weather forecasts to help get us through our days and plan ahead. The same is true for corporations. Whether it's for planning outdoor maintenance or business continuity, weather forecasts play an important role in day-to-day operations. Mark Elliot, the principal meteorologist for AT&T, has his hands full helping a major telecommunications company maintain operations in any conditions. Before joining AT&T, Elliot spent the first two decades of his career as an on-camera meteorologist at The Weather Channel. Though different, it turns out the two jobs have a lot in common. In this episode, Elliot shares stories about his time at The Weather Channel, discusses what he does in his current role for AT&T, and explains why meteorologists are becoming an essential part of more and more companies. We want to hear from you! Have a question for the meteorologists? Call 609-272-7099 and leave a message. You might hear your question and get an answer on a future episode! You can also email questions or comments to podcasts@lee.net. About the Across the Sky podcast The weekly weather podcast is hosted on a rotation by the Lee Weather team: Matt Holiner of Lee Enterprises' Midwest group in Chicago, Kirsten Lang of the Tulsa World in Oklahoma, Joe Martucci of the Press of Atlantic City, N.J., and Sean Sublette of the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia. Episode transcript Note: The following transcript was created by Headliner and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically: Joe Martucci: Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of, the Across the Sky Podcast, a Lee Enterprises podcast. We appreciate you listening, whether it's on your favorite podcast platform or on your favorite local news website. We are talking about the phone companies in weather. Believe it or not, phone companies hire meteorologists. And we thought there would be no better person to talk to than then Mark Elliot, who is the principal meteorologist for AT&T, of course, one of the country's biggest phone companies here. He's also been on the Weather Channel for nearly 20 years. You can still see him there on occasion. And join with me to interview him. We have Matt Holiner in the Midwest and Sean Sublette down in Richmond, Virginia. Kirsten Lang is out for today. Guys, how's it going? Matt Holiner: Going pretty good. Yeah. Matt Holiner: I really enjoyed this interview because I got to reconnect with Mark a little bit. I actually got a chance to work with him in my, brief summer internship at the Weather Channel in the summer of 2013. And, he was typically in the afternoons. I was most often in the mornings, but I got to work all the shifts, so I did get a chance to work with him there. It was good talking about the experience of being at the Weather Channel because it is just an amazing place if you're a meteorologist to work at. But also hearing why he made the shift from being at some would call it a dream job at the Weather Channel to working for At T, and the change that came with that. It was a really interesting conversation. Sean Sublette: Yeah, I like that as well. The things that he learned at the Weather Channel, how he was able to apply those and his new job and the rationale for making the jump and just trying to understand, well, why does AT&T need a meteorologist? And once you stop to think about all the hardware that's scattered all about the country and it's outside, then it all begins to add up. But, yeah, so he has a lot of interesting things to say about that. So it's a good episode. Joe Martucci: Yeah, good episode. We're excited to show you here. So let's dive into it. Mark Elliot is principal meteorologist at AT&T Joe Martucci: You're listening to Mark Elliot on the across the sky podcast. We are here with our special guest for today on the across the sky podcast. Mark Elliot, principal meteorologist at at and T, which we're going to talk plenty about. You may know him from the Weather Channel, where he has spent nearly 20 years in front of the camera talking to audiences all across the country. He's still doing some freelance work. Now, he is a graduate of Rutgers University, which I might just say is the best university on the planet. But we'll let other people decide that one. And got his master's of science at, Georgia Institute of Technology, also known as Georgia Tech. Mark, thanks for coming on the podcast. We appreciate it. Mark Elliot: My pleasure. Thanks for the invite, guys. Joe Martucci: Yeah, no, absolutely. We're looking forward to diving into everything. Corporate meteorology is a growing, exploding part of the field Joe Martucci: But I do want to ask this, because and I'm even thinking about this know, if I put my non weather hat on. Why would AT&T need a meteorologist? What are you doing there? I, know it's important work, but can you explain what's going on? Where did the motive to have a meteorologist at AT&T come? Mark Elliot: And, you know, even stepping back from, like, not necessarily anything specific to my current job at AT&T corporate meteorology is a growing, exploding part of the field. That these companies are realizing that it is a strategic advantage, it's a monetary advantage to have forecasters, to have meteorologists with experience that can talk about these complicated patterns, complicated science, and put it onto the company level, talking about how weather will directly affect them. It's slightly different from what you'd get from, the National Weather Service or from a National Weather Channel. It's more those places, while they have access to where the weather will be, don't necessarily have the same access to the company's internal data of where their stuff is, what's there, what's important, how are each one of those assets affected by the weather? And once you start thinking about it that way, it makes a lot of sense for companies big and small to have some sort of weather connector, weather service of some kind that is giving them information, and AT&T recognized that as well. Joe Martucci: How many people work? Are you the only meteorologist there? Do you have a team? How does that work? Mark Elliot: We're a small but mighty team. I'm not the only one, but, it's one hand or less that is, making up, the lot. We do a lot of work with just a small number of people. We're talking about United States, Mexico, areas around the world where there might be data connections under the ocean. Yeah. It's a global reach, as you can imagine, for a company with that name. Sean Sublette: Yeah, for sure. Mark, one of the things, and again, I don't want you to give away any kind of secrets or anything like that, because I think in our own minds, we can understand. Okay, well, anything from space weather, of course, affects communications, as well as heavy precipitation, or any other kind of thing that affects telecommunications. That's kind of where my mind is. And as you alluded to, this is becoming a growing field. We already know that this has happened a lot in the financial industry, in the energy industry over the last ten to 20 years. In particular, use that information to leverage your position against your competition. How does the weather affect a telecommunications company like AT&T? Sean Sublette: what other kinds of things, without you giving away too much, how does the weather affect a company like AT&T or any telecommunications company? over what I kind of mentioned. Mark Elliot: Yeah. And you're right. you're right and more right. Almost every type of extreme weather could have an extreme impact. And so it's our job to basically forecast the risk. It's not necessarily a weather forecast, it's a risk forecast. And then we have other teams that go out there, and they are trying to take that information and mitigate or minimize that risk as much as possible. So, first things first. It's about for these companies, companies big and small, that have corporate meteorology. It's about protecting the people, right? You want to make sure your people know what they're getting into day by day. So first on the list is people. Second is probably places the assets that are fixed and are out there, whether those are buildings, whether those are communication towers. In my case, any type of weather that could affect something sticking up into the air, whether that's a building or a tower or anything else. And obviously, you don't need me to tell you what that might be. Lightning, tornadoes, extreme wind, flooding, all really important to those fixed assets. And then there's mobile assets, things that are moving around. Whether it's company fleets, they need to know what they might be driving into. it's really far and wide, I would say. I think a lot of corporate meteorologists and AT&T included, we focus a lot on Tropics because they are such big players when they come into an area. But also wind in general, strong wind can have an outsized influence. Tornadoes, while really important, as we know, are really small scale. And so they often can be really troublesome and problematic and destructive in those local areas. But for a national scale, they might not be as important, right? It's all about perspective and what that individual company needs at the time. How do you handle the lightning situation with all these cell phone towers? Matt Holiner: And Mark, I'm curious about the lightning, because I would imagine the most common thing that you might have to deal with are just general thunderstorms. Not necessarily severe thunderstorms, but just regular thunderstorms that have lightning and all those cell phone towers. So what goes into the forecast? And, are there any special preparations to try and protect those towers ahead of time? And then what happens when those towers inevitably do get struck by lightning? How do you handle the lightning situation with all these cell phone towers sticking way up in the sky, certainly attracting some lightning, right? Mark Elliot: They're big, tall, pointy objects. And it's what we've always said, like, don't be the tallest object out in the field, and yet that's what towers are. That's what our buildings are. and so we use the same technology that any tall building would have. There is lightning, mitigation on top of these tall, pointy objects, just like the Empire State Building is struck multiple times a year, and yet the building is still there. A lot of these towers have lightning rods of some kind in order to ground them. So that the charge can flow through and not destroy everything. But there's also always all kinds of alerts that go off if things go wrong. And so then the tech teams can go back out there and figure out what went wrong and fix it up. Meteorologists are constantly monitoring the weather across the country Joe Martucci: So this sounds to me is this like a 24/7 kind of job where you guys are always looking out for what's happening across I'm assuming the whole country, right? Mark Elliot: The weather doesn't really stop right for that's true weekends and holidays and you know what you're getting into when you sign into this field. We are not really staffed 24/7, but we're also not staffed either. I mean, when it's a big event, we're going to be up watching it anyway. So we might as well be helping the company through it, kind of thing. US meteorologists, we get not excited, but we study this. We want to see what's happening when big weather happens. And so if we were going to be up watching it, we're going to be forecasting for it, kind of thing. If people in the business are interested enough in it, you better believe the meteorologists in the business are interested in it too. But what I will say is that a lot of our work happens very early. I'm not a morning person by nature. I don't know if you can see it in my eyes or hear it in my voice. But we start roughly 05:00 A.m. Every day in order to get the bulk of our forecasting work and risk analysis done before other decision makers get up and start making their plans because the weather affects those plans. And so my busiest time of the day is often that five to eight a M Eastern time frame. And yet the company doesn't work on those hours. And so there will still be meetings and special projects and all kinds of stuff for someone on the West Coast after their lunchtime and next thing you know it you've hours. You know, it's it's not a job that has fixed nine to fives. It's not an easy role to slide into if that's the goal. Are you doing longer term climate risk also as a company? Sean Sublette: So let me jump in next we talk about those short term threats, whether it's a, ah, winter storm, ice, snow, wind, lightning, tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, all that stuff. But are you kind of evolving also into a longer term climate risk? Like, hey, we've got these assets on the coastline or near the coastline. Are we worried about those for 10, 15, 20 years? Are you doing kind of this longer term climate risk also? Mark Elliot: As a company, yes. As me, not as much. I'm involved in some of those discussions. But there's an entire other team that is looking at long term climate risk. In fact, there's some great partnerships with AT&T and argum National Labs putting out publicly available climate risk down to the location. So it's called Climar Climber Climmrr. And it's publicly available. It's from AT&T Labs, basically At T's Innovators and the Argon National Laboratory. And you can put in, an address if you have a building, if you have your home, and you want to know what the climate risk may be there, for that location in the years to come. We've made it available because we think that should be a public good, as AT&T made that choice to put that out there for everybody. And then, of course, we use that data both in short and long term ways. We can use it in the short term to be kind of an extra data point. If we're looking at flooding, like, will this cause flooding to our assets? Well, we can take one more piece of data. Know, you have the Ero from the Weather Prediction Center. You might have the flood risk from FEMA as part of your decision making, but maybe you also bring in the Argon National Laboratory. And it's saying in 50 years there's pretty much no risk here because of local elevation or because of small scale changes that might be even more fine tuned than your FEMA data. That can help us lower or raise even a current day's forecast of risk at a location. So we're using it. And then, of course, for long term site picking, if you had a choice of putting a new building here or here, and one of them is saying, this is going to be underwater in 20 years, and one is saying it's not. That's an added piece of data that you can start to use the data. Part of this is really important in the long run. Mark Elliot: Trying to communicate risk in Mexico was a challenge for me Matt Holiner: So, Mark, besides the early mornings and the occasional long hours, what would you say is the most challenging part of your job? Mark Elliot: Oh, challenging part. I mean, I didn't do a lot of international, forecasting at the Weather Channel. Right. It was very much us. Based. Trying to figure out the right way to communicate risk in Mexico was a challenge for me because I'm not a Spanish speaker. if you're doing forecasts internationally, you don't have the same kind of available data that you would be used to using if you were looking at a front approaching the US. Or coming through the US. Watching typhoons in the West Pacific was not really in my day to day, and now it, was, I'd argue, interesting and a new challenge because of it. Matt Holiner: And is there any part of the world that AT&T is not concerned about? Or do you literally have to look. Mark Elliot: Across the whole globe? Matt Holiner: Or is there some area that you can say, you know what, we can skip that part of the forecast. Mark Elliot: It's different. we care about it differently. I'm not spending a lot of time in, say, Central Europe, but we know those patterns influence what happens downstream, and eventually it comes to us anyway. So if you're not at least paying attention to where there's big pattern changes know, really life threatening weather. Communication is life saving. And so if we have the ability to help a community because of destructive weather, AT&T is probably going to be there in some way. And once our people are there, we're forecasting spot forecasts for wherever they are. So if the weather gets bad enough and our people are going to help, whether it's reestablished communication or whatever the case may be, we're also involved so that while they're there, they're getting spot forecasts from, us. Joe Martucci: Awesome. Well, we're going to take a brief break here and we'll come back on the other side with more from Mark Elliot on the across the sky podcast. Mark Elliot started at The Weather Channel right after graduating from Rutgers Joe Martucci: And we are back with the across the sky podcast hosted by the Lee Enterprises weather team. I'm here with Matt Holliner and Sean Sublick. Kirsten Lang could not be with us today. Mark Elliot is with us here. He is our guest for today principal, meteorologist at AT&T and longtime meteorologist at the Weather Channel. We'll dive into this a little bit, so, and correct me if I'm wrong, Mark, I think you started at The Weather Channel right after Rutgers. Is that true? Mark Elliot: It is, pretty rare. Joe Martucci: That's what I was going to get into, because from my perspective as a meteorologist, the Weather Channel is like the I just, it always feels like something you work towards for a while and you get that moment. I mean, it's great you started there right off the bat, but I have to ask, how did you do it? Mark Elliot: Yeah. So, it's a combination of really hard work and a little bit of luck. I mean, let's face it, it requires a little bit of both. Joe Martucci: Yeah. Mark Elliot: I will credit Rutgers as you should. Go ahead, Joe, jump in there. Joe Martucci: All right, we got an R. We got an. Mark Elliot: Yeah. Joe Martucci: Yeah. Mark Elliot: I will credit Rutgers and Rutgers meteorology for really giving me the opportunity to be able to be seen by the Weather Channel. So here's how this went in kind of a short form version. So at Rutgers, and I guess before and after I was a bit of an overachiever, I did the double major program at Rutgers, which meant that my electives were things like organic chemistry for fun. Joe Martucci: I'll tell you why, you know, as well as imark organic chemistry at Rutgers is not an easy class. I know a lot of people who took it and did not do so well on the first go around on that. So that's a toughie at Rutgers. Mark Elliot: Non a grades at Rutgers. I, mean, it wasn't too far down, but I had a, huge GPA, I had two different majors, and I did all of these internships while at Rutgers. At Rutgers sanctioned and helped organize. So I had a TV internship at News Twelve New Jersey. I had a National Weather Service internship at Mount Holly at the New Jersey office. I was doing research within, or at least data collection and analysis. I don't know if I'd really call it research, looking back on it, but for the Rutgers Pam site, so the photochemical assessment, monitoring. So I was getting into field work and figuring out what the big profilers did and what they meant and all this and that was all through Rutgers at the same time. The Rutgers Meteorology Club and kind of my year and right around my year, of being there were the first ones to really organize and start sending student groups to the American Meteorological Society conferences and the student conference in particular. So I saw a table at a conference for the Weather Channel for student internships, and I gave them my resume, which also had know, Weather Watcher, right? The Re weather watcher program, which is TV. It had radio experience from WRSU because I worked, on there and was doing their news team weather reports occasionally. So I had all this stuff on the resume, and I handed it into a summer internship, thinking like, oh, my gosh, ah, this is going to be so amazing. And I didn't even hear a no, right? And I didn't get a yes no, much less a yes. I heard nothing. And I'm like, well, I got nothing. And I'm about to graduate senior year. And I am internally, and rather externally, I think, also panicking. my friends were signing up for grad schools. They knew what they wanted to research. They were getting job offers. They were moving. And I was just applying to job after job after job and not even hearing no's, still nothing. And I applied to National Weather Service Puerto Rico. I was like, I'll learn Spanish. That's not what they wanted, right? But I was applying to anywhere because I liked all things weather. I didn't have a focus. I think that actually hurt me a little bit. I wasn't like, I'm only looking at tropical things. I'm going to go to grad school for tropical meteorology, and I'm going to work at CSU and do long range forecasting. There wasn't a goal like that because I just wanted to be in the field. I just wanted to do something weather. So I was about to graduate, and my in room dorm phone rang. and my roommate answered, thinking it was a joke or a prank or whatever, because somebody called saying they were from the Weather Channel. And once he realized it was real, he changed his tone a bit and got me the phone. And it was for a because I had Rutger's Radio, the WRSU experience, on my resume. it floated around the building for, I think, about a year and a half. And somebody was going on maternity leave. And they said, do you want this job? It starts in August. There is no moving expenses. There is no help finding a place to live. It goes from August to November. It is four days a week max. It is 35 hours a week max. There is no benefits. You cannot work at the month of December or else it triggers you to be full time and you're not allowed to be. So it's literally this, do you want it? And I said yes, I do. And so I went to the Weather Channel for a part time job in radio and stayed 18 years, is the long and short of it. Joe Martucci: Wow, that's incredible on a lot of fronts there. Because even still, even with the WRSU, which is great, I feel like, to get it, as I'm sure a wide pool of applicants, is a big testament to your skills and everything you've done. And obviously, you made a very long career out of it, being there for 20 years, and even still freelancing there now, what's it like working there? I've never been there. I know where it is, but I've never been there. When you're there, does it just feel like, special? Because for the people who are listening, for a lot of us meteorologists, you grew up watching The Weather Channel because you didn't really know anybody who was interested in weather growing up. That was the same for me. I knew nobody that was going to be a meteorologist in their career until I went to Rutgers. So when you get there, is it just like, wow, I made it? Is that how it feels? Mark Elliot: In many ways, at least I always did. I always got that thrill putting on the blue jacket, right? There was something about I didn't care what time it was when I went into the field, you put on that blue coat and you're walking down the hallway of a hotel with no power, and you're like, you got a strut, right? You got a different feel about it because everyone knows that brand. It's one of the most well and well respected brand. It wins the most respected news brand year after year after year after year. But away from that, in the building, it is very mission driven. But people you see on air, on air, because they have mission and purpose, and they're trying to communicate this science and keep people safe. You're soaking up so much weather knowledge communication knowledge Mark Elliot: They look at it, and I looked at it as someone listening right now, we could save their life if we give them the right info, if we give them the right information that they can use and react to the right way or not do the wrong thing, which I think is often more often the case. So that mission, and purpose was very apparent. Like, people knew why we were there. And then you're surrounded in a room of other meteorologists like you. How where else can you go where you have a severe weather question? You can go up to Dr. Forbes or you have a hurricane. that's coming up. And you can go to a director of the National Hurricane Center. You could just be like Rick first name, right? forget Dr. NAB. Joe Martucci: Dr. NAB, tell me what's up. Mark Elliot: What's with this question? That's awesome, having that kind of knowledge base. And then you have the people that we all know that have been there since we've all been watching, right, since it started in the early eighty s, more or less. And you can have a question for Jim about broadcast, or Mike Seidel about field work, or Kelly Cass name, the broadcaster, the longevity of the people there. And, the skill that comes from that is really impressive. And so you're just a sponge. You're soaking up so much weather knowledge communication knowledge. Weather communication knowledge, which is its own little, microcosm of interesting. And it's not just meteorologists, right? You have producers and directors and news gatherers and they're all the best of the best in that room putting a show together. And you're part of that team. And so you're learning how that works and you're learning how it goes, and you're the expert, because it's not just the News channel, it's the Weather Channel. And so your knowledge is important and they value it. So it was really a special place and, it was not something I didn't enjoy anymore. Right. So that wasn't the motivation for leaving there. I still go back. Right. That says something. How many people leave their jobs and still go to hang out because it's still fun for them? Joe Martucci: Yeah, I understand. Did you feel like you missed out by leaving local weather to go national? Joe Martucci: Let me ask you this too, because I do feel like a number of people who are working on the Weather Channel, they might start in local news and then work their way up to the Weather Channel. Did you feel like you missed out maybe by not taking working in that local news setting and going right to national? Or is it something that, hey, I'm at the Weather Channel, I love it here, I'm here. Mark Elliot: A little of both, maybe. I feel like it would be difficult for me to have left the Weather Channel and gone to local because there have been many who have done that. And so I might not know enough to be able to speak to it, right. Because I wasn't in that world long. An internship, is not the same as being a chief meteorologist at a local spot. But I was used to following the weather and my ship changing no matter where the weather was that day. So I would go where the weather could kill you. I would jump around to the middle of the night, I would be in the evenings because there was lots of severe weather. I'd occasionally move to the afternoons and then back to the overnight. I would follow the weather. You don't really do that in local. You've got your set time frame. The weather might be boring for a long stretch in one location, whereas if you're looking nationally, there is always a weather story somewhere. And so for me, it was always like, man, if I had to just look at one market, what would that feel like after looking at a national scale for, as long as I did? You guys can tell me I'm wrong and be like, local, best. And it's super interesting. And we get to do the school talks, and we get to be part of the community, and I would find all the things that I would love about that. But it's very different from looking at a national scale and talking about where the big story is only well, I'll. Joe Martucci: Say as somebody who literally just came from a school visit to talk to you right now, Mark, it's always good to be a part of the community. I do like it that way. But, I mean, hey, listen, again, when you're at the weather mean, you made it. I mean, you're so I know, Matt, you had a question, so, god, I don't want to take up too much. Mark Elliot: Not I'm not putting down local by any stretch. I think I love being in a community that way and being really focused and that kind of thing. but your original question was, do I feel like I missed out on not starting in that route? And I think I did some of those local feel type things at the national network. Right? I came in through radio, and so I was on local radio stations, some of them live and part, you know, people that were listening didn't know I wasn't in their sound booth with their board radio board in front of me. Right. We tapped into it virtually and digitally, but I was kind of part of those local communities. And then again, I'm dating myself a little bit, but video on the Internet was a new thing, and so I was doing local forecasts on your local on the eigth page, I think they actually called it that. How weird is that thinking, back on the days of weather.com, in the early 2000s or so, where kind of mid 2000s, probably when video was coming out on weather, but your local page had a video of just the New York City forecast that was new. And so that was me. They didn't have the full on air people doing that shift all the time because they had their full on air shift to do. So I would be jumping in. So I got some of that trial by fire local TV and local Feel experience at the national network, which was different, but pretty cool to be able to say I did it that way. Matt Holiner: Yeah, Mark, I know exactly what you're talking about, because when I was interning at the Weather Channel, I mean, at the time, it was really cool to me. But I got to do some of those. Joe Martucci: Local web forecasts. Matt Holiner: They let me do it near the end of my internship. I had to do a few sample videos for it to make sure I was good enough. And boy, when my first thing showed up on weather, it was just amazing. As, somebody who is in college to be on weather, it was fantastic. It was certainly not the same as being on the actual Weather Channel. Being on the website was pretty cool. And I felt the exact same way about being at the Weather Channel. Being in that building, and just the knowledge, the immense knowledge of the TV business, but also the forecasting business, meteorology be around, all those other meteorologists. It was a fantastic place to work. When was the moment that you realized you need to make a change? Matt Holiner: So my question for you is, when was the moment that you realized you need to make a change? What caused you to make the shift from being at the Weather Channel, for some people, their dream job, to then switching to a very different role at AT&T? Mark Elliot: I don't know if I did realize it just kind of happened. A lot of it was on a whim. So the real answer is, I was doing my CCM certification, the certified consulting meteorologist, through the, AMS. And I had a mentor who was encouraging me to do that project. I was doing it on my off time, it was COVID time. And so shifts were really strange at the Weather Channel. Times were moving around, some people were working from home, I was working in the studio. But more often than not only at the times of extreme, severe weather, right? Dr. Forbes had stepped away, mostly retired. And I was certainly not taking that role as the severe weather expert, but I was on the expert staff at that point, and often being told to, follow where the severe weather would go, but there isn't severe weather every day. So I was using some of that time to really think about what else was out there and what else was happening. And I was like, I think basically I'm a consultant. I come in now and I talk about just the most extreme weather, and I have to be able to make that digestible, but you have to be able to communicate differently. And you're doing some post analysis reporting, and a lot of things that a consultant would be asked to do. So I'm like, okay, this is different. This is not just a broadcast seal anymore for me. I'm going to try for the consulting meteorologist seal, which the process was epic, some will argue harder than getting the master's degree that I have to get the I won't necessarily swear by that, but it was a long process. It's doable, and it's fulfilling, and it's important. So if you're thinking about doing it, you should for people that are listening. But it's not quick. really by answering one of the questions that comes in the written exam, if you will. I wound up on a wormhole on the AMS site. And I stumbled into this job post for a tropical expert meteorologist that could do communication, and kind of briefing style communications that, could help lead a team to some degree and focus on the big weather stories of the day. And I was like, can do that, can do that, can do that, can do that, can do that. Do you ever see a job post and you're like, is this written about me? And then the kicker was, and it's in Atlanta where I was already living. And I was like, and I don't have to move for it. And so basically it was a thought experiment. And I was like, okay, well, what would it be like if I took a two decades broadcast resume and tried to make it sound like I was doing all these other things? Because I really was. But that's not what you're thinking about when you're doing broadcast meteorology. And there are so many skills that translate from broadcast meteorology to corporate meteorology and many other big data science or communication or PR type jobs. And so I basically said, okay, let's see, I'm going to use this next day. And instead of working on this or that, on my off time, I'm going to redo my resume. It's time to refresh it anyway. I basically was like, this will be fun. What else could I do today? And I applied to this job and I got an interview. And then I wound up getting the job. And then I had a really tough decision because again, I didn't dislike what I was doing. And I didn't necessarily sit there and say, I need to find something else. I don't like this anymore. I'm not interested in this anymore, or I'm not learning more. I'm not making a difference here. It was none of those things. It was a shiny new toy. And after a lot of reflection with myself and my family and asking, could this be a better work life balance for us? Could this be better for my young kids? Because again, I was bouncing around. I didn't know where I was going to be, right? That, could be sent out quickly. I didn't know what shift I was going to be on. I would miss events with the family. It was hard to plan stuff. And we said, okay, maybe this will have a little bit more regularity to it. It's a corporate world after all, and it is different in that way. And so I took the risk. Ah, so again, it wasn't like, I'm going to switch. It was like, I guess I'll switch. So hold on. Joe Martucci: Let me go puke in the corner. Mark Elliot: Because, yeah, it was frightening. It was a big change. I'm still not used to being the new guy. I'm surrounded by people that have 20 to 60 years of experience within at and t, and now I'm here, like. Joe Martucci: I have a year and a half. Mark Elliot: It's very different, but not necessarily in a bad way. Sean Sublette: No, I think you're right. A lot of those skills you do in broadcast do come back, or they're applicable in so many other areas. Communications of risk of scientific principles. You take a very complex situation, and you need to distill it into actionable information. Sean Sublette: One of the things that I've really admired about the weather channel is doing that this is submersive mixed reality stuff, that they continue to do, and I know you had some involvement in some of those as well. take me through as much as you were involved in production and actually recording the things, because I know any of us who have done broadcast meteorology, you're used to standing in front of a green screen and looking at something off camera and getting your bearings, kind of. How is that, in terms of doing IMR and producing and all that? How big is the team for that? For one thing? Mark Elliot: Yeah, there's a lot of questions there. And I guess I'll start with, I was doing some pieces there that were basically IMR before it was called that. Right. So there's a whole series of what was weather wizards that started as, could we open up a kitchen cabinet and do some sort of experiment at home with kids, or for yourself, and learn about the weather through cooking it up in front of you? And so we did a whole series of those, and basically started running out of good ideas. And that was a small team. I came up with a lot of, them. We had one producer, she would come up with several of them as well. We'd script it out. We'd think about what kind of graphics might pop up next to us, but it was mostly filmed handheld down in an experiment that you were doing. And we said, okay, what if the wizardry was not because of dry ice anymore and food coloring? It was because graphics would show up in front of you in the real world. And so we started doing these outside weather wizards that the graphic would be part of the environment that you were in. Thunderstorms would happen next to you, or you'd pan up, and suddenly you'd be up in the cloud, and you'd watch a raindrop change. Snow, sleet, rain kind of thing, as it went back down, and then landed back where I was, next to my shoe, stuff like that. And that technology kept evolving and kept growing all the way up to what's now classic, I guess not classically, but now known as IMR. That immersive mixed reality, where the entire room around you, more or less, is a green screen, and everything can be changed, whether it's the floor, the background, the walls, all of it. When it was a smaller thing, I was writing a lot of them, right? We won tele for the safest room piece, which is basically walking through a house and almost like, what if I was mayhem today? And I just stood back and all this stuff would happen around me, to the house, to the outside, and show people where you really need to be and why. So that won all kinds of awards and really kind of, I would argue, cemented the weather channel on going down this graphically heavy path. Because it is, I remember it, it. Sean Sublette: Was really well done. Mark Elliot: Yeah, I wrote most of that with a team, right. And really the graphics guys on that who are still buddies of mine, they did incredible stuff, like two x fours that would crash through a wall and when I bent under a two x four that wasn't actually there, a shadow would go across. Right? Like those little things that really make an IMR feel like IMR. So now it's done mostly back inside. But you've seen some of these things where walls of water come into an actual town and show you what that actual town could look like if storm surge happened or if a flash flood happened. You can't feel what that's like without that, you're not going to go there when that's happening. And so it's those graphical entries into that world that are really effective communication tools. Like 9ft of storm surge. Okay, who cares? That's not the right answer. But 9ft is suddenly above an actual building and you've seen that building and you know how high that is. That's a totally different communication thing. So as those have got more and more elaborate and more and more people were doing them, the teams got bigger and bigger. Lots of graphic artists, lots of writers. I only did a couple of those official IMRs. The whole staff was then brought in to do more of them because they were epic, right? And everyone wanted a chance to be able to be in that room and they should have been. And I'm glad that we all were. They're really great communication, tools. I think Stephanie Abrams did one with wildfire. Like, you're not going to be in a forest to see what it's like when a wildfire goes a football field a second, but we were able to show that with graphics and her standing there on the little silver disc. And then a lot of those ended with a climate story. Like how is this type of extreme weather changing as the world is changing? Are we getting more of these, less of these? Is things happening faster or slower? You can't show that without a graphic. And so to have that graphic happen around you was really epic. they're really cool pieces. When we have hurricanes or snowstorms, how do you guys determine who goes where? Joe Martucci: Mark, I want to ask you one more and then we'll get you out of here. Because this is maybe I'm just curious about this myself, but when we have hurricanes or snowstorms, how do you guys determine who goes where? How does that happen? Are you in the meeting for that? Who's deciding that? Is it a lot of discussion? Is it pretty easy? Mark Elliot: It is a war room. There's a whole bunch of people yeah, from the very higher stuff, people, that are in charge of TV, in charge of storytelling, to the people that are in charge of scheduling and VPs of talent. And then meteorologists are in the room, producers are in the room. I mean, it is a whole fleet of people. And the meteorologists have a say, as well. even all the way down to, like, you're sent here and you're there and you're like, I think the storm is changing. I think we need to be mobile to be here. All of that is still like, you're in constant communication. And the best part of being at a place like the Weather Channel for field work is that you have a building worth of people watching your back, that you have people back there that are focused on safety. And if you ever said, like, I can't do this broadcast, I'm not safe here, or for security reasons, for weather reasons, for anything, it was never a question. It was always like, yes, we'll do something from the studio, we're not doing it live. it was never asked, why you were never pushed to do something where you said, it's not safe here. Joe Martucci: interesting. I always love seeing the map where it shows everyone, like, your face and everybody's faces and where they are on the coast for a hurricane or snowstorm. Mark Elliot: I thought that was always real on a weather. I always think it's interesting when meteorologists talk about how they got started Joe Martucci: Anything else you'd like to add before we wrap it on up? I mean, this was great. We love hearing from you. Mark Elliot: I mean, I always think it's interesting when meteorologists talk about how they got started or what made them interested in weather. And, so many people I've talked to about this cite, a tree falling. I know that is tied to my experience. I don't know if you guys have any of that in your kind of origin story, but I think if you're the right age kid and something that seems permanent, like a giant tree can fall in front of you, or near you or hit something, you know, that also should have felt permanent as a young kid. I think it does something to our brains. Like, I never looked back, after watching a tree ball for why I wanted to do weather. It was always my answer, what do you want to be when you grow up? And it was weatherman. And the second part of that is my dad was involved in national preparedness, emergency preparedness for the VA hospital system, which in recent times, has turned into more like cybersecurity and terrorist act and stuff. But back in the early eight, late eighty s and early 90s, that almost exclusively meant where could weather disasters happen? And so he would be sent into areas that had weather problems. And I would watch the Weather Channel because there was a channel on that was talking about where my dad was. And so I just never stopped. I still haven't stopped. I still watch it as a viewer, even when I'm not there every day. So, yeah, I think that the origin story of trees falling or family connections are really important to young minds and how they get into the science of weather. How'd you get into weather? We should have asked that earlier Joe Martucci: Yeah, and we should have asked that earlier, and I apologize. How'd you get into weather? I say this all the time. I said it when I was at school earlier. It's something that for a lot of people, you know, at a young age, and you definitely are in that category, and it's hard to just fall into weather. I feel like I don't really see too many people who just fall into weather as a career. Mark Elliot: Well, I wasn't sure what I wanted to major in, and I took an Elements of Meteorology class and I just kept going. It's usually not that Elements of Meteorology because I had to fulfill my one science requirement and I never looked back. Right. Or I always wanted to be a meteorologist. I guess I should have followed that. People actually make careers of this. or, I am a meteorologist and I've known since I was yes. Joe Martucci: Yeah, that was me. I mean, really, one of the first things I ever remember in my life was about wanting to be a meteorologist. Anyway, Mark, we really appreciate the time, really insightful. We got to hear about your AT&T career, your Weather Channel career, more about you. So thanks a lot, we really appreciate it and we'll chat with you soon. Mark Elliot: Yeah, thanks for having me. Anytime. If you, come up with more questions again, I used to talk for a living, so I'll talk some more. Joe Martucci: Well, keep that in mind. For sure. Companies are realizing the value of having a meteorologist Joe Martucci: Awesome interview with Mark Elliot. He has many stories, as you would if you, worked for the Weather Channel for 20 years and working at the one of, if not the largest phone companies I know, I always see the commercials about is it AT&T or Verizon? Or is it T Mobile sprint. Now, I'm not too sure, but point is, his job is very important at T, like Sean said at the know equipment and tech all across the globe. It's a big, you know, I'm glad that he's enjoying it. So, Matt, what'd you think? Matt Holiner: Yeah, when you're working for a big international company like AT&T, what stood out to me was when he mentioned that one of the most challenging parts of his job is not just forecasting for the US. Anymore, which he had plenty of experience with at the Weather Channel. But that's all the Weather Channel has to worry about is the US. But AT&T, this is a global company, and they have assets across the globe. And so they're going to be concerned about the weather happening all over the planet. So a huge mean in some ways. His job almost got even bigger. Now he has to look the entire planet worth of weather. That is just a huge responsibility on him. But you know that I think this is also I always bring this up. I think we need more meteorologists, and I think we're seeing that. I think companies are realizing the value that having a team of meteorologists working for especially these really big companies, because they know specifically what they want and what weather information they need, and then they can go to their meteorologist. Rather than having to contact the media or the National Weather Service, they have a team working on what they know is most important for them and where their assets are located and getting these really specific forecasts. So I think this is something that we're probably going to see more and more, especially starting, of course, with these really big companies, but maybe even more medium sized companies actually thinking about getting some meteorologists because the weather has an impact on so many businesses. So I think this, isn't going to be an exception, these companies having their own meteorologists. I think we're going to see more. And more of it. Sean Sublette: Yeah, I agree. This kind of comes under the umbrella of weather risk management. The forecasting has gotten so much better in the last 20 years. But there is an overload of data, right? So you need a professional to go through the data that's important. Distill the most critical information to your business, and help those decision makers within a business manage risk. be sure your resources and your hardware are safe, and that's not something you can get. I love my brothers and sisters in broadcast meteorology, but you're not going to get what you need in a two and a half or three minute weather forecast if you've got a lot of assets that need protecting. So I think that, there's a lot of growth in there and the whole weather risk and ultimately climate risk management as well. So it was really nice to hear Mark talk about that as well, share some of those Weather Channel stories. Joe Martucci: Thanks again, Mark. We appreciate it. Always good to have another Rutgers guy on the podcast, too, if I may end. Across the Sky has a full slate of podcasts coming up on Mondays Joe Martucci: All right, so we have a full slate of podcasts coming up for you on the following Mondays. Sean, do you mind if I turn it over to you to talk about next Monday's episode with Mike Mann? Sean Sublette: Yeah. So a, very special episode we've got we're going to record next week, drop it, a week or so after that. Mike Mann. world famous climate scientist. He has written several books. The most recent one is called Our Fragile Moment. I had a chance to preview it a couple of weeks ago. It's an exceptional book. If you've always wondered, how do scientists know what the climate was like, 1000, 100,000, 10 million years ago? He walks through all of that in a very nice, easy to digest book. So we're going to talk to him about that book, and what else he's working on in the podcast next week. So very excited to have Mike Man on. Joe Martucci: Yeah, we're happy to have him on. And then on the 23rd, we're going to have Paul James from HGTV Fame here to talk about the science of changing leaves. And I think we're going to have a winter forecast for you on the 30 October as well. November 6, we're going to have, someone talk about tips to prepare older loved ones for extreme weather. That's with Dr. Lauren Sutherland from Ohio State. And then we got another big one. Sean keeps landing all these big podcast guests for us. Sean, this is the first time I've. Sean Sublette: Said this publicly, so I think most people who are into science have heard of Neil deGrasse Tyson. He likes to say your personal astrophysicist. He's got his podcast, he's got the Star Talk thing. He's got cosmos. He's all over the place. He's going on a book tour. He's going to be down here in Richmond. And I have scored a 15 minutes interview with him. It's going to be a little ways away. I'm going to do it in November. But we will turn that into a podcast as well. So I am uber excited about that one. Joe Martucci: We're over the mood. Sean Sublette: I am over the mood and the stars excited to talk to him. I only have 15 minutes, so I got to make it count. Joe Martucci: If he's going to talk for 15. Matt Holiner: Minutes, I'm sure we'll have plenty of commentary and plenty to digest from that 15 minutes because he is fantastic to listen to. Sean Sublette: Yeah, I, went through his new book when I think you all knew I Went to Italy. I read his new book on the flight over and back to Italy. And I will tell you all this because your meteorologist first chapter of his new book talks all about, the lowest, layers of the atmosphere. So he talks all about the atmosphere first. The book is called To Infinity and beyond. So he basically starts with the ground and works up. So, of course, you've got to start in the atmosphere before you get to outer space. So we talked about that, which I thought was just terrific. So, yeah, it's a couple, ah, three, four weeks away. Joe Martucci: yeah, that'll be our November 13 episode right now. So you can circular your calendar for that one. And of course, all the other ones we have coming out on mondays, too. So for John Sublette, Matt Holiner and Kirsten Lang, I'm meteorologist Joe Martucci thanks again for listening to the Across the Sky Podcast. We'll be back with you next Monday.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Global warming too hot for you? Just go to the mall. Join Nebula (and get 40% off an annual subscription): https://go.nebula.tv/deniersplaybookBONUS EPISODES available on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/deniersplaybook) SOCIALS & MORE (https://linktr.ee/deniersplaybook) CREDITS Hosts: Rollie Williams & Nicole Conlan Executive Producer: Ben Boult Audio Producer: Gregory Haddock Researcher: Canute HaroldsonArt: Jordan Doll Music: Tony DomenickSOURCESAtkin, E. (2023, August 28). How Vivek Ramaswamy makes money from climate denial. Heated.world. Bennet, G. (1970). Bristol Floods 1968. Controlled Survey of Effects on Health of Local Community Disaster. British Medical Journal, 3(5720), 454–458.Lomborg, B. (2007). Cool It. Vintage.Lomborg, B. (2012). The skeptical environmentalist : measuring the real state of the world. Cambridge Univ. Press.Burakoff, M. (2022a, April 1). Climate Connections: Warmer winters bring challenges for Wisconsin forests. Spectrumnews1.com. Burakoff, M. (2022b, May 12). Flood risks from climate change challenge Wisconsin infrastructure. Spectrumnews1.com. Christensen, J. (2019, March 2). Is it climate change or global warming? How science and a secret memo shaped the answer. CNN. Christenson, M., Thelen, M., Vogt, C., & Meiman, J. (2020). EXTREME COLD IN WISCONSIN: TRENDS, SURVEILLANCE, AND PREVENTION COLD-RELATED ILLNESS TRENDS IN WISCONSIN Climate Change and Winter Weather. [PDF] Cohen, J. (2023, July 19). Excessive Heat Can Kill, But Extreme Cold Still Causes Many More Fatalities. Forbes. DeSmog. (n.d.). Bjørn Lomborg. DeSmog. Dixon, P. G., Brommer, D. M., Hedquist, B. C., Kalkstein, A. J., Goodrich, G. B., Walter, J. C., Dickerson, C. C., Penny, S. J., & Cerveny, R. S. (2005). Heat Mortality Versus Cold Mortality: A Study of Conflicting Databases in the United States. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 86(7), 937–944. Parker, S. G. (2022, April 13). Living with Climate Change: The Polar Vortex | Briefing | EESI. Www.eesi.org.Emory University. (2021, July 8). Global study: 5 million deaths a year linked to temperature changes | Emory University | Atlanta GA. News.emory.edu. Fox News. (2022, August 30). Tucker Carlson Says Global Warming Is Not A Threat But Winter Is. Yahoo Sports; Fox News. Friel, H. (2010). The Lomborg Deception. Yale University Press.Gittings, J. (2023, July 31). Tree-defoliating moth having a banner year in Wisconsin. Wisconsin State Journal. Kamin, D. (2023, March 10). Out-of-Towners Head to “Climate-Proof Duluth.” The New York Times. Lake, B. (2019, January 1). Year in Review: 2018 Flooding. WXOW. Masuda, Y. J., Castro, B., Aggraeni, I., Wolff, N. H., Ebi, K., Garg, T., Game, E. T., Krenz, J., & Spector, J. (2019). How are healthy, working populations affected by increasing temperatures in the tropics? Implications for climate change adaptation policies. Global Environmental Change, 56, 29–40. Media Matters Staff. (2021, July 6). Dennis Prager: “The great killer is cold, not heat. ... Global warming has actually been saving lives.” Media Matters for America. MSNBC. (2023, September 10). Vivek Ramaswamy on MSNBC with Andrea Mitchell 8.29.23. Www.youtube.com. NOAA NATIONAL CENTERS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION. (2023, August 9). U.S. climate summary for July 2023 | NOAA Climate.gov. Www.climate.gov. Ohl, C. A., & Tapsell, S. (2000). Flooding and human health. BMJ : British Medical Journal, 321(7270), 1167–1168.Robinson, P., & Lomborg, B. (2022, September 22). The Heat Is On: Bjorn Lomborg On The Summer's Record Heat. Hoover Institution. Senate Budget Committee. (2023, April 26). “There Are 49 Other States”: Witness Fires Back At Johnson For Saying Climate Change Is Good For WI. Www.youtube.com. Svitek, P. (2022, January 2). Texas puts final estimate of winter storm death toll at 246. The Texas Tribune. Twitter, H. S. L. columnist T. (2023, February 16). Will global warming make temperature less deadly? Washington Post. US Department of Commerce, N. (n.d.). Weather Related Fatality and Injury Statistics. Www.weather.gov. Retrieved 2023CORRECTIONSThis episode refers to the Hoover Institution as the Hoover Institute, which is pretty close if you ask us, but that's not actually its name. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In Search of... “The Coming Ice Age” Recorded 29 July 2023 Edited 01 August 2023 Released 16 August 2023 Links: Blizzard of 1977 | Wikipedia Last Glacial Period | Wikipedia Malthusianism | Wikipedia Gifford H. Miller | Wikipedia Scientists Suggest Global Warming Could Hasten the Next Ice Age | 21 January 1992 Cooling During Earth's Last Ice Age | 05 January 1997 Ancient Ice Yielding Secrets Of Climate | The New York Times | 09 August 1981 The History Of Early Polar Ice Cores (PDF) James D. Hays | Wikipedia (PDF) Variations in the Earth's Orbit: Pacemaker of the Ice Ages (PDF) In Retrospect: Forty years of linking orbits to ice ages Stephen Schneider (scientist) | Wikipedia The Night New York's Lights Went Out | American Experience | Official Site | PBS Summer of 1976 (Europe) | Wikipedia 1976 British Isles heat wave | Wikipedia Global cooling | Wikipedia The Myth Of The 1970s Global Cooling Scientific Consensus | Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society | 01 September 2008 How the "Global Cooling" Story Came to Be | Scientific American | 10 January 2014 That '70s myth—did climate science really call for a “coming ice age?” | Ars Technica Music:  “Dark Science” by David Hilowitz “The Truth Is What We Make of It” by The Agrarians     You can find links for everything I Want To Rewatch including our socials, our merch, and how to support the podcast here:  I Want To Rewatch | Linktree

GUEST OVERVIEW: Dr Judith Curry is President and co-founder of the Climate Forecast Applications Network. She is Professor Emeritus at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she served as Chair of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences for 13 years. Dr Curry is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Geophysical Union. She is frequently called upon to give Congressional testimony and serve as an expert witness on matters related to weather and climate. https://judithcurry.com/ Twitter: @curryja

Today's Episode Dr. Raj talks with meteorologist  Dallas Raines about his personal meteorological journey, thrilling storm-chasing adventures, and exciting new work in the realm of children's books.  Today's Guest  Dallas Raines is a chief meteorologist who has been forecasting the Southland's weather for ABC7 since July of 1984. Dallas has The Seal of Approval from the American Meteorological Society. He also has been awarded the elite Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal (CBM) from The AMS. The personable Earth scientist has earned numerous awards for outstanding coverage of weather events including: Best Weather Presenter/ World Competition in Paris, Golden Mike Award for Best Weathercast in Southern California, Best Weathercast by Associated Press, Overall Excellence by LA Press Club, Most Popular On-Air Newscaster by KIIS Radio, and Outstanding Coverage Award for Hurricane Frederic by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  Dallas has an undergraduate degree in communications and earth science. He continues to take graduate-level courses in climatology. He loves storm chasing and has tracked many powerful storms and tornadoes across the Midwest in Tornado Alley. Dallas is a committed philanthropist. He concentrates on the welfare, care, and interests of children. He has authored a series of children's books to introduce weather and geographic concepts to young readers. "Chester and The Hot Air Balloon" by Dallas and Dannie Raines. Reading to children is one of Dallas' greatest joys. Dallas is an avid athlete, enjoying hiking, tennis, golf, and weightlifting. He also had the privilege of being a walk-on quarterback for FSU. Dallas also enjoys automobile road racing; he has his SCCA Regional License which allows him to compete at The Willow Springs track.  Fun fact: Dallas Raines is his real name and he was born to do the weather. About Dr. Raj Dr Raj is a quadruple board certified physician and associate professor at the University of Southern California. He was a co-host on the TNT series Chasing the Cure with Ann Curry, a regular on the TV Show The Doctors for the past 7 seasons and has a weekly medical segment on ABC news Los Angeles. Want more Dr. Raj? Check out the Beyond the Pearls lecture series! The Ultimate High Yield Bundle: The complete review of high-yield clinical medicine topics necessary for graduate medical education board exams including NBME, USMLE Steps 1/2/3, ITE and ABIM Boards. You can also listen to the Beyond the Pearls podcast. Check out our other shows: Physiology by Physeo Step 1 Success Stories The InsideTheBoards Study Smarter Podcast The InsideTheBoards Podcast Produced by Ars Longa Media To learn more about us and this podcast, visit arslonga.media. You can leave feedback or suggestions at arslonga.media/contact or by emailing info@arslonga.media. Produced by: Christopher Breitigan and Erin McCue. Executive Producer: Patrick C. Beeman, MD The information presented in this podcast is intended for educational purposes only and should not be construed as professional or medical advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An Open Letter Asks AI Researchers To Reconsider Responsibilities In recent months, it's been hard to escape hearing about artificial intelligence platforms such as ChatGPT, the AI-enabled version of Bing, and Google's Bard—large language models skilled at manipulating words and constructing text. The programs can conduct a believable conversation and answer questions fluently, but have a tenuous grasp on what's real, and what's not. Last week, the Future of Life Institute released an open letter that read “We call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.” They asked researchers to jointly develop and implement a set of shared safety protocols governing the use of AI. That letter was signed by a collection of technologists and computer researchers, including big names like Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Tesla's Elon Musk. However, some observers called the letter just another round of hype over the AI field. Dr. Stuart Russell, a professor of computer science at Berkeley, director of the Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public, and co-author of one of the leading AI textbooks was a signatory to that open letter calling for a pause in AI development. He joins Ira Flatow to explain his concerns about AI systems that are ‘black boxes'—difficult for humans to understand or control.   NASA Announces Artemis II Crew For Next Moon Mission This week, NASA announced the four person crew of the Artemis II mission to the moon: Commander Reid Weisman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. The crew has three firsts for a moon mission, the first woman, first person of color and first Canadian. While these Artemis II astronauts will not actually step foot on the moon, it's an important milestone for NASA's first moon mission since Apollo. Ira talks with Swapna Krishna, host of the PBS digital series, Far Out about this week's announcement and the future of the Artemis mission.   Will Rising Temperatures Help Batters Swing for the Bleachers? As the planet warms, melting ice and shifting seasons aren't the only things changing—the traditions of baseball may be affected as well. A report published this week in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society finds that warmer air temperatures are connected to a slight increase in the number of home runs hit in major league baseball. The effect, the researchers say, is due to a decrease in air density at warmer temperatures, which allows a hit ball to fly slightly further than it would in cooler air. So far, the effect is small. After correcting for other factors, the researchers say they can attribute about 500 additional MLB home runs since 2010 to warmer temperatures. Most of the observed increase in home run hitting isn't attributable to the climate. However, they say, each additional one degree Celsius increase in temperature may lead to a two percent increase in home runs. And while ballparks with an insulating dome won't see big shifts from increased temperatures, open-air parks with a lot of daytime games, such as Wrigley Field, will see more significant effects. Christopher Callahan, a Ph.D. candidate in geography at Dartmouth and lead author of the report, joins Ira to talk baseball and climate.   This Video Game Prioritizes Restoring An Ecosystem Over Profits If you've played Rollercoaster Tycoon, Cities: Skylines, the Civilization series—even Animal Crossing—you're probably familiar with this gameplay pattern: extract some kind of resource from the land, industrialize it into a theme park or a city, and (step three) profit, ad infinitum. But Terra Nil, a new game from the studio Free Lives, fundamentally challenges this oft-used game loop. Instead of maximizing profit at the expense of the local ecosystem, the player's focus is to make a healthier, natural one instead. You start with a barren wasteland (one that you assume has been completely desolated by human activity, perhaps the aftermath from one of the previously mentioned games), and with the help of advanced eco-tech—like wind turbines, soil purifiers, irrigators, and more—restore it to a thriving, diverse ecosystem. The player's ultimate goal is to take all the tech they used to restore the land, recycle it into an airship, and fly away, leaving no human presence behind. SciFri producer D Peterschmidt speaks with Sam Alfred, the lead designer and programmer of Terra Nil, about how Free Lives designed this “reverse city-builder,” how the studio took inspiration from the flora of their local Cape Town, and how he hopes the game challenges players how they think about traditional gameplay systems and their effect on our world.     Workout Worms May Reveal New Parkinson's Treatments Scientists built an exercise pool for tiny worms. Why? A team of researchers at University of Colorado Boulder are looking into ways to help treat people with Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases. They're turning to tiny collaborators, C. elegans, worms which measure just one millimeter in length. These scientists wanted to see how exercise affects brain health by putting a bunch of these worms in an exercise class—in a tiny pool. Ira talks with the co-author of this fascinating new research, Dr. Joyita Bhadra, post-doctoral researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder.   Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

Tonight's Guest WeatherBrain is a suggestion of friend of the podcast Jeremy Bower.  He's the Public Outreach Manager in the Community Engagement section of the American Meteorological Society.  We will be focusing our discussion tonight on the AMS Weather Band.  Gideon Alegado, welcome to the show.