I wrote a post about the "cold content" of the snowpack, a quantity commonly used in the hydrology and snow science literature to express how close to melting a snowpack is. www.willrudisill.net/science/2026...

A reminder.

They acknowledge this in the paper — but the theory/analysis they describe does not take into account snow and ice, nor the *effects of seasonality*. For regions — such as western USA — where all/most of the precipitation falls in the cold-season months these are both probably important

Ian Hall@ianhall.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The future of drought isn’t just less rain. Climate change can make land drier even if rainfall doesn’t decrease. Why? Rain is falling in fewer, heavier bursts - causing more runoff + evaporation, and less water stored in soil. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Just how anomalous was the March heat in California? These are from NOAA US Historical Climate Network v2.5 monthly air temperature data for four stations in the vicinity of Lake Tahoe. This was the warmest March of record, and a full 3 standard deviations beyond the mean. #CAWX

Just how anomalous was the March heat in California? These are from NOAA US Historical Climate Network v2.5 monthly air temperature data for four stations in the vicinity of Lake Tahoe. This was the warmest March of record, and a full 3 standard deviations beyond the mean. #CAWX

I wrote a post about the March 2026 heatwave and snowmelt. In a normal year, energy from the sun provides most of the energy for snowmelt, but during early spring "snow eater" heatwaves (such as this year's) other factors are likely more important! www.willrudisill.net/science/2026... #CAWX

I wrote a post about the March 2026 heatwave and snowmelt. In a normal year, energy from the sun provides most of the energy for snowmelt, but during early spring "snow eater" heatwaves (such as this year's) other factors are likely more important! www.willrudisill.net/science/2026... #CAWX

#cawx

WilliamRudisill@wrudisill.bsky.social · 6mo ago

% of Median Snow Water Equivalent (left) vs. % of Median Acc. Precipitation across the WUS (right) for Jan 30, 2026. Much of the low snowpack is attributed to high temps (rain rather than snow) as opposed to purely precip. drought.

% of Median Snow Water Equivalent (left) vs. % of Median Acc. Precipitation across the WUS (right) for Jan 30, 2026. Much of the low snowpack is attributed to high temps (rain rather than snow) as opposed to purely precip. drought.

Interesting hoarfrost crystals in the Sierra Nevada crest near i80— perfectly aligned with the wind direction. No sign of rime, indicating this formed from vapor rather than supercooled liquid water drops. Likely formed after the creation of the AR conditions of Christmas Day. #CAwx

Just checked to see if the SNOTEL network data page is online— this is the website header 🫠 www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/da...

26g. DOE budget slashes Biological & Environmental Research by almost 60%, focused particularly on “environmental system sciences, atmospheric system research, earth system modeling, data management, and the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement”

Without Unidata, the company I co-founded, Weather Underground, would never have come to be.

SNODAS certainly had it's issues, but it remains one of the only only operational snow water equivalent products across CONUS. Not good.

Zack Labe@zacklabe.com · last yr.

This is horrible. I don't even know what to say. Some of our most key polar data. "As a result, the level of services for affected products below will be reduced to Basic—meaning they will remain accessible but may not be actively maintained, updated, or fully supported." nsidc.org/data/user-re...

At this point, it's going to be difficult to keep track of what radiosonde sites are launching consistently or not. You can always check the SDM Administrative Messages to see which radiosondes made it into the models or not: www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/status/messa...

NOAA’s office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research’s main contract for its websites was not approved for renewal, so I’m told we should expect some of them to start to go down. “Lutnick's position on every contract is ‘no’ and agency reps have roughly a minute and a half to convince him otherwise.”

AGU has joined a lawsuit challenging the firing of probationary employees at federal agencies. These actions weaken science, harm public health & the environment, and threaten national security. 🧵 #StandWithScience

NOAA Cuts Leave Wind Chimes As Sole Predictor Of Approaching Hurricanes

NOAA Cuts Leave Wind Chimes As Sole Predictor Of Approaching Hurricanes

SILVER SPRING, MD—As mass firings of career experts and scientists continued to roil the federal government, officials confirmed Friday that cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration...

theonion.com

Trump administration orders NOAA scientists to halt all international work. Staff were told to stop meetings, discussions, emails with foreign colleagues. Freeze affects travel, virtual meetings, and collaborations until political appointees review them. 🐢🌍🧪🦑 www.opb.org/article/2025...

One more example: About 6-7 (?) years ago, google earth got rid if it's integration with 'Picasa' photos — there was a time when you could zoom into a random river canyon in the Altai and find photos that were geotagged at that location. It was really useful geographical information, now gone

Tricia Lockwood@tricialockwood.bsky.social · 2y ago

it’s bad and it’s gotten exponentially worse in the past 6 months. if you write anything involving deep research/old books/forgotten periodicals you’re probably noticing “wiki creep,” because it’s one of the few resources left standing. the internet as an archive is disappearing, has disappeared.

Webcam view from Crested Butte, Colorado. In the distance are radiometers measuring shortwave radiation (solar radiation) and longwave (terrestrial radiation) near the surface. You can watch the effects of overhead clouds on the radiation flux. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkHk...

I recently needed to download some data from the NOAA GML laboratory's sondes in Boulder, CO . The data go all of the way back to the 1960s, so I went ahead and plotted the warming trend. What we see is very clear: warming in the lower atmosphere (1.5C) and cooling in the upper atmosphere.