I am the unofficial bell-toller at St Paul’s Episcopal Church in Duluth, MN. Tonight at 7:10 PM I tolled our largest bell 29 times to honor the 29 souls lost in the Edmund Fitzgerald tragedy.

If you want to keep your gear safe, DO NOT PUT IT IN THE LAKE. One of our buoys was just hit by a vessel (which will remain nameless here).

Villanova's Career Center better be making hay of this.

Found some 136 year old graffiti carved into a rock in the park near our house this evening

I brought two reporters from the local paper along on a buoy deployment cruise last week. Here's a piece from this weekend in our local paper about the impact of federal funding cuts on Great Lakes science and safety: www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/local/p...

Proposed NOAA cuts put Great Lakes research, safety at risk, experts say

A White House budget proposal would slash funding for Minnesota and Wisconsin Sea Grants, Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve, Great Lakes Observing System and others.

duluthnewstribune.com

I'm proud to say that I was a co-author on the last National Climate Assessment (NCA5). I'm sad to say it looks like I was a co-author on the LAST National Climate Assessment. www.npr.org/2025/04/20/n....

Trump administration cancels the National Climate Assessment

The Trump administration has halted work on the National Climate Assessment. It's the most comprehensive source of information about how climate change affects the U.S.

npr.org

Trump on the Great Lakes: "I assume the lakes are all interconnected."

text from my son, majoring in investigative journalism: "Cross my fingers that I get added to the right group chat"

Duluth is being hailed as a climate haven for people fleeing heat waves and sea level rise. But that doesn't mean Duluth isn't changing. And the losses cut deep. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loseth his snow? www.startribune.com/even-in-dulu...

Even in Duluth, winter isn’t what it used to be

And the effects of that change are more than just physical.

startribune.com

Super excited about this most recent publication! Along with a comprehensive survey of observed winter thermal conditions, we hindcast winter thermal structure across the upper Great Lakes for the last 125+ years: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #GreatLakes #GLOS #LakeSuperior

Winter thermal structure across the Laurentian Great Lakes

The formation of winter stratification and thermal structure in general across the Great Lakes varies in character not just between lakes, but interan…

sciencedirect.com

This is a bit of a surprise; while Lake Superior ice cover is on par with 2024- way behind the long term average- the other four lakes are near or even exceeding the long-term average coverage. Superior coverage typically peaks in early March so we still have a ways to go.

I wrote a paper because I was frustrated with there being little in the literature on the basic dynamics of coastal setup and seiches. Existing lit either provided no dynamical insight or required a degree in applied math. I think this threads that needle. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Simple linear models of coastal setup and seiching behavior across the Laurentian Great lakes

Storm surges and seiches are two dynamically distinct behaviors of lakes that contribute to coastal sea level fluctuations on short time scales and ca…

sciencedirect.com