Hope you have a great time! Are you mainly trying to attend track and field or other sports too?

During event finals, our seats were in the athlete section, and we were near the athletes from China and Romania who didn't qualify. It was memorable.

For Atlanta '96, my mom scalped the tickets to Women's Gymnastics. Literally. She found someone online, coordinated via email (or message board?), brought buttloads of cash from PIT to ATL, and made the exchange in a back alley in Atlanta. My mom is a real stickler for rules so it's kinda hilarious.

tl;dr: NIH is running at about 60% of pre-Trump levels and NSF is running at about 20% of pre-Trump levels of funding-outlays (some directorates far below even that). Utterly catastrophic. An unforced disaster for U.S. society, and the world

Interested in hurricanes? I want to introduce TC-ATLAS: the Tropical Cyclone Analysis Tool for Live and Archived Structure. Explore live or past storms without writing a line of code or downloading a data file, building on the capabilities of TC-RADAR: michaelfischerwx.github.io/TC-ATLAS/ind...

📣 Calling all WRF/MPAS users!

@ams-waf.bsky.social is hosting a webinar in a couple weeks about the ongoing transition from WRF to MPAS for regional modeling throughout the community. Please join to hear the perspectives from our fabulous panelists!

Register here: ametsoc.org/WebinarWRFMPAS

Yeah, it moved through so much earlier. Model forecasts showed uncertainty in timing but it was faster earlier than the ens mean. In hindsight, heavy rain and flooded roadways were more impt to message in VA. And the quick shot of snow that ended up delaying/closing schools.

The US is no longer classified a liberal democracy. The special section on the USA, (pp. 33-38) is required reading, especially if you are an elected legislator or member of the judiciary.

Reversing the democracy decline requires resistance from legislative and judicial branches. Demand democracy.

Yeah, this is what I meant for people who build their self worth through their metrics. This is incentivized in academia so there is a cultural/workplace factor. I don't care much about my metrics (it helps that I have tenure). My favepart of my job is advising, so I want to continue doing that!

My sense: some (often pre-tenure) faculty feel so much pressure to publish that they are using AI “for efficiency.” Others build their self worth through their grant funding and h index. These is some overlap, some faculty dapple, but those two groups are embracing AI in their research and writing.

Similar for me. One was a WWII vet on disability, and the other was (also a WWII vet) and a steel worker afterwards. Both had mental health issues and died before I was born.

Congress has appropriated the funds to NSF but OMB is delaying the release. When funds are released, NSF, which has lost almost 1/5 of its staff, will struggle to evaluate proposals. Since they have to award the funds, big projects with established PIs will benefit. This is how US science dies.

Sometimes I wonder what my motivation is at this stage in my career. And it's this. Making sure small-minded men die mad about my inclusion. And propping the door open for as many smart and kind people as I can.

What Americans Lose If Their National Center for Atmospheric Research Is Dismantled - Eos Five ways dismantling NCAR will cost the American people, and two ways to save it.

On a busy day for science policy, it looks like oversight and operations of NCAR’s supercomputing center are transitioning to a third-party operator. www.nsf.gov/news/transit...

Lean more about the costs of dismantling NCAR with this opinion from @carlonimbus.bsky.social.

Thanks for the recap! I’m really sad that I didn’t get to meet you and everyone on the panel in person.

A line graph of the number of NSF awards for 2021-2026 for the Directorate of Geosciences.

5/9

How cold has this winter been so far? The first 2/3 of winter 2025-26 is the 7th warmest on record for the Contiguous U.S.

I personally believe that if GHGs led to global cooling, we would have fixed the problem already.

Group of runners on a cold morning

Picture of an Igloo on VT campus

Group of people inside an igloo

Scenes from a snowy run in Blacksburg this morning

Our public school has been open 12 days since 12/19 too, but with illnesses, our child has had 6.5 days of school. We also had a lot of snow days in December.

It looks relatively warm there 😁

Want to learn about a new composite parameter for forecasting QLCS tornadoes? Come to my #AMS2026 talk at 2:00 pm in 381A! You can also read the journal article about this work at: journals.ametsoc.org/view/journal...

Another image showing the thick layer of sleet on top of snow in Blacksburg

Picture of wintry precipitation scene in Blacksburg VA, with a gloved hand holding a thick layer of sleet.

Wow, I’ve been outside now, and we have almost 2 inches of sleet on top of the snow here in Blacksburg. Sleet has 2-1 or 3-1 ratio to liquid (rain). That’s a lot of wintry precipitation!

Atmospheric sounding for Blacksburg, VA on Saturday evening, January 25, 2026.

Two images are shown. There is an atmospheric sounding for Blacksburg, VA from Saturday evening on the left and a graphic showing ice and snow habits on the right.

I noticed a lot of needles mixed in with the more classic snowflake (dendrite) in last night's snow here in Blacksburg. Model and observed soundings show a similar picture with a cold surface, temperatures mainly between 0 and -10°C within the cloud, and a lackluster dendritic growth zone.

Attention folks in the weather, climate, disaster, wildfire, and Earth science communities: NSF has just published a new "Dear Colleague" letter inviting feedback (by Mar 13) on the proposal to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). www.nsf.gov/funding/...

Flyer for the REMUS program that shows the priority deadline for applications of February 8, 2026. The REMUS program will happen May 26 - July 31, 2026. Contact proj-remus@charlotte.edu with questions!

Are you an undergraduate student interested in gaining research experience this summer? If so, please consider applying to the Research Experiences and Mentorship in Urban Systems (REMUS) program at UNC Charlotte! We are a multidisciplinary REU program that explores many facets of urban science!

From @AGU.org: Senators are working on legislation to save NCAR, but we need extra support for these 8 states. Your Senators in Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas, and Wyoming need to hear from you.