I'm missing #32SLS this year for a family reunion up on Prince Edward Island. Have a great conference! You can catch me at the UCAR Members Meeting and the AMS Annual Meeting instead.

It's been another great summer for fieldwork! When home, I've been working on another type of field work - growing my giant pumpkins! Introducing this year's patch of friendly (soon to be) giants: Hagrid, Sweetums, and Fezzik. Current estimated weights range from 8 to 23 pounds, but that'll change!

AQI over 400 currently in Mount Pleasant. Definitely a day to stay indoors!

FLAG: The Postmaster General confirmed at a Senate hearing that under a new proposed rule, the Postal Service would not deliver mail-in ballots in states that decline to hand over sensitive data about voters to the federal government. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

Postmaster general confirms plan to block ballots in states that balk at Trump’s demands

That it’s even possible that the Postal Service might refuse to deliver ballots unless states comply with Trump’s demands is breathtaking.

ms.now

Happy Caturday! 11 year old Merlin had a burst of kitten like energy playing with his favorite toy this morning.

Looking north from Zion, IL at 6:17 pm CT along the Lake Michigan shore.

🌊🌊🌊

CMU and UIUC teams are near the IL/WI border for our second consecutive day sampling Lake Michigan's influence on thunderstorms using a Doppler lidar, two different radiosonde systems, and a mobile mesonet. Very interesting outflow and lake-breeze frontal structures observed so far!

The spring semester is almost over, which means it's time to get ready for giant pumpkin growing! These seedlings all come from 2,000+ pound pumpkins, so they have some serious genetics in their favor! 🌱🎃

NOAA GOES 18 weather satellite’s Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) instrument detected the atmospheric re-entry of NASA’s Artemis II Orion capsule over the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and southern California just before 23:56 GMT — too cool! #ArtemisII #NASA #NOAA

Science is good. We should fund it.

Reminder

FactPost@factpostnews.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Donald Trump has proposed cutting NASA science funding by 47%. This would be the largest single-year budget cut in the agency's history.

More context on this #Artemis II image: * This is the night side, lit by moonlight. You can see city lights in Spain & Portugal, & a sliver of day at lower right * The Sun is entirely behind Earth, which makes it a kind of solar eclipse, but w/ Earth doing the eclipsing instead of the Moon: ☀️🌍🚀🌕

GOES-19 and GOES-18 captured the prominent exhaust plume left behind by Artemis II when it launched from Florida today. Atmospheric winds dissipated the plume as sunset approached.

Tonight marks 5 years since the Newnan, GA EF4 tornado. I'm so thankful that the tornado missed my brother's home (by less than a mile). I'm keeping the family of the one person who passed in my thoughts.

Obligatory excited gardener post, since these are the first blooms in my yard this year!

The Gulf of St. Lawrence is beautiful from on the ground, too - in both winter and summer. Photos are from the north shore of PEI, near where my husband grew up.

@cira-csu.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Ice drifts in the Gulf of St. Lawrence as cloud streets stream overhead.

The full complaint is worth a read. There are several additional overreaches in there that I wasn't previously aware of.

Paul Voosen@voosen.me · 5mo ago

Just in: UCAR has filed a lawsuit against NSF, the Commerce Dept, NOAA, and OMB to prevent the dismantling of NCAR, alleging "violations of the Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act."

JUST IN: A consortium of universities filed a lawsuit Monday to stop the Trump administration’s planned dismantling of Boulder’s NCAR, alleging that the planned reorganization violates the Constitution and federal law.

Dismantling of Boulder’s NCAR by Trump administration is illegal, universities allege in new lawsuit

denverpost.com

For those short on time, I had Claude do an executive summary of the entire lawsuit and I thought it did a good job (though, if you do have time, the source material is better).

Paul Voosen@voosen.me · 5mo ago

Just in: UCAR has filed a lawsuit against NSF, the Commerce Dept, NOAA, and OMB to prevent the dismantling of NCAR, alleging "violations of the Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act."

Today's cold and damp weather motivated me to get my St. Patrick's Day cooking done early. Guinness beef stew and two loaves of Irish soda bread. ☘️🇮🇪

On the good news side for #saveNCAR, last week the Senate science committee reported the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Reauthorization Act of 2026 (S. 3923) with a @rosen.senate.gov amendment to block NSF from breaking up NCAR for at least 60 days.

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is a cornerstone of U.S. weather science. AMS urges a transparent, community-driven review before restructuring such critical infrastructure. Read our response to NSF's "Dear Colleague Letter": https://bit.ly/4bglx16

AMS Responds to NSF Regarding the Future of National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)

YouTube video by American Meteorological Society

youtu.be

News: Congressman Neguse of Boulder CO region says whistleblower reported to him that OMB is already negotiating specific transfers of pieces of NCAR to private companies, raising legal/ethical issues and undermining NSF process of requesting input on NCAR reorganization. tinyurl.com/2s4jftv3

Boulder Congressman calls for investigation of NSF processes to reorganize NCAR

In weather, significant outbreak of severe storms and potential intense tornadoes expected today, focused on lower Great Lakes region

tinyurl.com

We might be talking about a different hail record than just the Illinois state record…

Steve Nesbitt@70dbz.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Hail 5, to possibly 6 inches reported near Kankakee, Illinois, midway between Chicago and Champaign-Urbana. If verified, would set the state record. (on March 10 no less)

Reminder for everyone to submit your response to the NSF DCL about NCAR by this Friday! Tell your friends. Also call your representatives while you’re at it 😅 agu.quorum.us/campaign/154...

Share your comments on NCAR with NSF

Tell NSF the future that you want for NCAR by 13 March

agu.quorum.us

70s on Monday and freezing rain today. Yep, it's spring in the Midwest.

An impressive view of the tornadic supercell that produced massive hail in Illinois earlier today.

The NSF has provided no evidence to justify dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Doing so would undermine one of the nation’s most vital scientific institutions. @ncar-ucar.bsky.social Read the letter UCS submitted today: 🔗 act.ucsusa.org/3NeWZh1

First 70 degree day of the year! I celebrated by wearing shorts and going for a long walk.