About the Wasatch Weather Weenies

Head Blogger, Jim Steenburgh, Hakuba, Japan

The Wasatch Weather Weenies began on October 1, 2010 as an invitation only blog for discussing the weather and climate of the Wasatch Front and Mountains, western United States, and mountainous regions in general. 

It started out as invitation only because I didn't want discussions to descend to the levels seen, for example, in comments following Salt Lake Tribune articles online.  However, I quickly had so many people asking to read it that I decided to make it publicly viewable and accessible.  Thanks to you, comments have remained substantive and approved for all audiences, and I'm grateful for that.  I'd actually like to see more questions, comments, and suggestions, so feel free to do so liberally. 

I consider the Wasatch Weather Weenies to be an educational blog.  Posts sometimes target a more advanced meteorological audience, others a general audience.  There's plenty of graphs and plots (including meteorological ones like Skew-Ts and time-height sections), not to mention jargon.  If you'd like to learn more, find the subject cloud in the right hand column and click on forecast tools.  There are sometimes pearls of wisdom in there that can be useful for the self-motivated learner (click on older posts when you get to the bottom to delve deeper into the archives).   Alternatively my book, Secrets of the Greatest Snow on Earth, is a good resource.

Please don't consider the Wasatch Weather Weenies to be a weather forecasting service.  I sometimes provide forecast thoughts in my posts, but for the most part, I use forecasting intermittently as a gateway drug to teach people about weather and the challenges of weather forecasting.  In times of hazardous weather, your best resource is the National Weather Service.  When it comes to watches, warnings, and informing decisions to protect life and property, they should be your go-to source. 

Over the past couple of years, I've been using twitter more and more.  It's a great way to share information during high-impact or simply very interesting weather events without having to write up a long post.  Follow me @ProfessorPowder or just take advantage of the tweet scroll in the right column.

The Wasatch Weather Weenies is a free blog, unencumbered by ads.  If you are a regular reader, consider making a donation to our Mountain Meteorology Fund at the University of Utah.  To do so, go to https://umarket.utah.edu/ugive/level4.php?catid=742,  select "make gift", and then "add special instructions" and specify that you would like the gift to go to the mountain meteorology fund.  Donations will then be vectored to the mountain meteorology fund.  The fund is focused on support of student education and research in mountain meteorology and may be used to support international exchanges of students and faculty; to purchase research equipment; to conduct special seminars, workshops or short courses at UU; to fund student travel to national and international conferences, field experiments, workshops and short courses; and to promote other activities or purchases in support of mountain meteorology students. The fund is also used to provide travel funds for scientific visitors who come to the department to present mountain meteorology seminars.

Donation or no donation, thanks for reading.  See you on the skin track, ski lift, or nordic trail.

Best Regards,

Jim Steenburgh
Professor
Department of Atmospheric Sciences
University of Utah