Well folks, it’s happening. The 661-page budget bill is being read aloud, line by line, by a computer program named Eric. Assuming the motion isn’t pulled, this will go on for ~15 hours, and Rep. Bradley (who moved for the bill to be read) can’t leave the chamber except for brief bathroom breaks.
The graph shows the official NOAA CPC ENSO probabilities based on -0.5/+0.5 C thresholds in ERSSTv5 Relative Nino-3.4 index.
ENSO-neutral conditions are present and are favored through April-June 2026 (80% chance). In May-July 2026, El Niño is likely to emerge (61% chance) and persist through at least the end of 2026.
#ENSO #ElNino 🧪
www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/ana...
March 2026 rewrote the record books for early-spring warmth in Colorado. It was warmer than most Aprils. Hundreds of temperature records were set across the state, including a new March record of 99°F. The heat was prolonged, and it was also very dry. Read more in our monthly state climate summary.👇
Graph showing the NOAA Colorado Basin River Forecast Center's forecasts of April to July inflows to Lake Powell from 1991 to 2026, with colored lines showing how each season's forecast evolved from January through July. The latest Forecast, April 2026, is the lowest outlook for this time of year since at least 1991, at 22% of average inflows.
March was...not helpful.
NOAA CBRFC's April 1st (50% exceedance) forecast now has Lake Powell April-July inflows at 1400 KAF, 22% of average.
Only 2002 (963 KAF) and 1977 (1208 KAF) ended up with lower inflows than that. If dry conditions continue through spring, 2026 could drop below 2002.
![Earthset captured through the Orion spacecraft window at 6:41 p.m. EDT, April 6, 2026, during the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the Moon. A muted blue Earth with bright white clouds sets behind the cratered lunar surface. The dark portion of Earth is experiencing nighttime. On Earth’s day side, swirling clouds are visible over the Australia and Oceania region. In the foreground, Ohm crater has terraced edges and a flat floor interrupted by central peaks. Central peaks form in complex craters when the lunar surface, liquefied on impact, splashes upwards during the crater’s formation.
[alt text from NASA]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:62gdkmpwa7xme36getyqnem3/bafkreid6rp25tpuxaceaziwiduvtsnbystj5s542tlmuhcstyuxyfaj7ve)
Earthset captured through the Orion spacecraft window at 6:41 p.m. EDT, April 6, 2026, during the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the Moon. A muted blue Earth with bright white clouds sets behind the cratered lunar surface. The dark portion of Earth is experiencing nighttime. On Earth’s day side, swirling clouds are visible over the Australia and Oceania region. In the foreground, Ohm crater has terraced edges and a flat floor interrupted by central peaks. Central peaks form in complex craters when the lunar surface, liquefied on impact, splashes upwards during the crater’s formation. [alt text from NASA]
#Artemis II lunar flyby images are showing up! 😍
A crescent Earth setting behind the Moon.
Denver Post article: $350 million vision for gondola transit in downtown Denver to be presented People who want to move around downtown Denver could glide in gondola cabins 30 feet above ground if the city were to embrace a businessman’s $350 million plan.
Lyle Lanley from the Simpsons
glides as softly as a cloud, you say? does the businessman look something like this, perchance?
View of the spacecraft (bright, on the left), a dark thin crescent of Moon, and a very small, bright thin crescent of Earth next to it
"Orion, the Moon, and the Earth. EVERYONE, in that picture" - #Artemis II Mission Control.
Time series of elevation and storage for Lake Powell (1963 to March 2026)
Time series of elevation and storage for Lake Powell (1963 to March 2026)
I don’t know what it means that even though it is being re-posted by a verified reporter at a genuine news outlet, I still can’t believe it’s real.
not sure if it counts as a lab tool, but one of the best ways to measure the properties of hail remains the humble hailpad (a piece of aluminum foil wrapped around a square of styrofoam) www.cocorahs.org/Content.aspx...
BREAKING: In response to huge cuts in Trump's budget request, NSF is shuttering its SBE directorate. Staff will be transferred to other parts of the agency and "grants that align with Administration priorities" will be maintained.
That & more w/ @maxkozlov.bsky.social & @edwrdchen.bsky.social
what Clark said
“go back to the moon but this time we have really good cameras” was a fantastic idea
That's home. That's us.
This image of home just came down from the Artemis II crew.
Taken after their translunar injection burn, there are aurorae at top right and lower left, and zodiacal light at lower right.
Credit: NASA/Reid Wiseman
“Funding officially ran out for CIRES Global Monitoring Lab employees on March 24. The university informed 42 employees this week that they would be furloughed without pay on May 15 unless federal funding comes through”
boulderreportinglab.org/2026/04/02/h...
Hopefully everyone is reading this (and maybe it's what @andrewdessler.com is commenting on). It touches on all of these issues and there aren't a lot of easy answers.
ergosphere.blog/posts/the-ma...
some pretty startling numbers in this post… #cowx
The March summary for the Fort Collins weather station that our office maintains is chock-full of eye-popping stats. Highest single-month temperature anomaly in the 130+ year period of record, 8 days warmer than the previous March record, earliest 90° day on record by over a month, and more. #cowx
Significant wildland fire potential outlook for April to July shows areas of above normal risk that expand across the West through the period. the coastal southeast may be at risk through the period.
New seasonal fire outlook dropped. Stay safe this summer, y’all. www.nifc.gov/nicc-files/p...
If you'd like to follow along with the #Artemis II launch, NASA has a live blog here: www.nasa.gov/blogs/missio...
and you can watch the official broadcast on the NASA site here:
plus.nasa.gov/scheduled-vi...
or on YouTube here: www.youtube.com/live/Tf_UjBM...
Alex, this is so great to hear. Congrats!!
“This year is on a whole other level,” said Colorado State University climatologist Dr Russ Schumacher, speaking about the intense heat that began rapidly melting the already sparse snowpack in March. “Seeing this year so far below any of the other years we have data for is very concerning.” #cowx
Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic, CO says snowpack at their high elevation campus is the lowest in their 50 plus years of records: www.rmbl.org/news-press/m...
"Be skeptical of unsourced or questionable-source news stories that you see on social media and try to confirm if they're actually true before sharing them" is excellent advice that does not just apply to April Fools Day.
Only a few days left to apply for student travel grants! Students in undergrad and graduate school are highly encouraged to apply if you're planning on attending the Joint Summit.
Lance Bosart and Morris Weisman in front of a conference poster commemorating the 10th anniversary of the challenge of convective forecasting colloquium
I probably still have this 10th anniversary one sitting in my office somewhere lol
Nice! NHC track forecasts
were more accurate than the 5-year means at all lead times. Intensity forecast errors exceeded the 5-year means because there were so many rapid intensification episodes, but intensity skill (which takes this difficulty into account) “remained near all-time highs.”
do you have similar imagery for 2018? that would be a comparison to a "bad" year within the GOES-R era.
