Shortly thereafter, I realized that this should be a public access blog. There was a great deal of interest in mountain weather, especially in the Wasatch Mountains, and no shortage of material. As I like to say, weather never sleeps.
Readership is growing rapidly, which is great. It keeps me motivated and allows me to connect with far more people than I could in a classroom. We will approach 20,000 page views this month, which is far more than I could have envisioned in October 2010.
After Thursday morning, we enter into yet another long, dry period in the Wasatch Mountains. Please leave a comment and let me know what interests you. I'm always looking for good topics for posts.
The posts dealing with snowfall, snow pack, SWE, and climatology are what interest me the most. I would enjoy seeing a detailed post about the "Timp glacer" and what it really is (glacier or snowfield?).
ReplyDeleteClimatology. Its hot, its cold, its green, its dirty, its republicans, its democrats...or its all anecdotal.
ReplyDeleteI'd enjoy hearing more about the slc valley air pollution since it should be pronounced over this extended dry spell. Who are the major contributors? What are the politics behind it? is there any hope for the future? for example someone told me that air quality will be tied to federal road funding in the future and this may force Utah to clean up its act. I've also hear that certain corporations account for as much as 50% of the air pollution in the valley. Is there any truth to these statements. I love living in SLC for everything it has to offer, but the pollution is enough for me to eventually find a new place to settle down after I finish my education. As you stated in one of your previous posts....with the tourism of the state so dependent on the outdoor industry you would think there would be more effort to improve this obvious problem.
ReplyDeleteI would also like to hear about the air pollution. Salt Lake Valley is popular. Maybe discuss the diurnal movement of pollution and chemical transformations (NOX, Ozone, PM).
DeleteAlso, Uintah Basin and southwestern Wyoming have major winter ozone problems. These areas have thousands of oil and gas wells.
Jim could you discuss more about this trending topic, Maunder Minimum.
ReplyDeleteBen, check this out. http://www.summitpost.org/100-years-on-the-timpanogos-glacier/186144
I suspect the Maunder Minimum is getting a lot of interest for a couple of reasons. One is a recent article in the Daily Mail (a UK publication) suggesting we are entering a grand minimum in solar activity and global cooling (http://metofficenews.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/met-office-in-the-media-29-january-2012/
ReplyDelete).
This article has gotten quite a bit of attention, but has some serious problems, including inaccurate citations and misleading interpretation of prior research as discussed at http://metofficenews.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/met-office-in-the-media-29-january-2012/.
The second is a forthcoming article to appear in Geophysical Research Letters that attributes the Little Ice Age to tropical volcanic eruptions. This article was scheduled to come out today, but I have not had a chance to read it yet. It has gotten some coverage (e.g., http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/30/how-a-climate-nudge-can-produce-long-lasting-impacts/).
Oops...I should have added "and sea-ice/ocean feedbacks to the last paragraph above. So much writing to do, so little time...
ReplyDeleteIf anyone is interested in sea-ice/ocean feedbacks and abrupt climate change then I would recommend looking up papers by Wally Broecker at Lahmont Doherty. Further, he has a 2010 book on the topic called The Great Ocean Conveyor. He is a great writer and his body of work is more than exciting and eye opening.
ReplyDeleteThanks for making your blog public. I heard your talk at the UAC workshop in Nov 2011 and have been a blog reader ever since. I really enjoy your posts. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your blog. I've been reading it frequently this season. Just keep doing what you're doing. It answer most of the questions I have in regard to weather in the mountains. Thanks again
ReplyDeleteFollowing the weather in the Wasatch is like an adventure unfolding in front of you. I've enjoyed learning more about forcasting and the different models. Your blog has increased my awareness of the science being used behind the scenes. Thanks you for the education!
ReplyDeleteLove the blog! I have been a fan since the avalanche meeting. Forecasting is fun, even for non-science types.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to hear the blog is getting so popular Jim! I'm honored to have been one of the first invited to it, and I still read it everyday. Naturally everything about mountain weather fascinates me.
ReplyDeleteI have about dozen blogs in my Google Reader, and this is the one I come to first. I would be interested in more orographic or winter weather posts about other places in the world (esp really snowy places) and how they compare to the Wasatch. As a former Utah skier, I do say I take some pleasure in seeing Utah have a poor winter this year, because that means I'm not missing too much!
ReplyDeleteJim, I am a new reader of your blog and am a winter weather junkie. I majored in Geoscience a loooong time ago having some meterology, so although I do not understand much of the nitty gritty scientific pieces that are available from this blog from what I have seen you do a great job of bridging scientific and laymans needs for understanding the wonders of weather in the Wasatch, thanks!!
ReplyDeleteI do have a question. I am puzzled by what seems to me to be a trend in the weather (nationwide and perhaps globally). I would say that "active" weather seasons (late fall through say May), were characterized by a progressive type of pattern, with the occassional "stuck pattern" (3-6 weeks). Now it seems that all we ever see is "stuck", and stuck seems to stick around for 4 weeks or longer ( I live on the East coast and last year we had 8 solid weeks straight of cold, this year the exact opposite). Is there science that points to this being what one would expect in what seems to be a warming period in the warming and cooling cycles that are our climate?
ReplyDeleteI enjoy your blog and consider it very informative for those of us who are "flatlanders" . The west is best when it comes to terrain induced convergence so continue to include items of that nature. Thanks for your time and devotion to this blog.
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