WeatherBrains

Tonight's Guest WeatherBrain is the Deputy Director of the National Hurricane Center and is formerly with the Environmental Protection Agency.  He oversees the NHC’s Storm Surge Unit, which produces official storm surge forecasts during tropical cyclone threats to the United States, and facilitates post-storm response and recovery efforts. Jamie Rhome, thanks for dropping by tonight.

Tonight's Guest WeatherBrain is a suggestion of friend of the podcast Jay Farlow.  He earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in meteorology at the University of Oklahoma.  He earned his PhD in Atmospheric Sciences and is now a research scientist at the University of Illinois.  His research interests include weather analysis and forecasting, computational fluid dynamics / numerical weather prediction, severe convective storms including thunderstorms and tornadoes; the role of microphysical processes in mesoscale convective systems (MCSs), and hurricane track and intensity prediction.  Dr. Brian Jewett, welcome to the show!

Tonight's Guest WeatherBrain is an internationally-renown Atmospheric Scientist with a PhD in Atmospheric and Climate Sciences from Sorbonne Universités – Paris, France, which ranks 35 globally and 1st in France. After her PhD, Dr. Francis worked for more than 10 years in Academia and Scientific Research at different prestigious institutions in Europe including the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), the Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique (CEA) and the European Commission (EC).  She is presently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences and the Head of the Engeos Lab at Khalifa University in the UAE.  Dr. Diana Francis, welcome to WeatherBrains!

Tonight's Guest WeatherBrain is the Virginian author of eight books, including the nonfiction "Without Warning:  The Tornado of Udall, Kansas"; an account of the 1955 F5 tornado that struck Udall, Kansas.  He's also an English professor and a professional farmer.  Jim Minick, thanks for joining us tonight!

Tonight's Guest WeatherBrain is a renowned speaker, prolific author, and meteorologist at the Bahamas Bureau of Meteorology.  He recently published a book about Hurricane Dorian.  He previously appeared on the show in early 2020.  Wayne Neely, thanks for joining us tonight!

This episode focuses on "OU Nightly", a student-ran and student-lead news program that airs across the state of Oklahoma.  Tonight's first Guest WeatherBrain is a senior at the University of Oklahoma studying broadcast meteorology.  She's from Silver Spring, Maryland and is a senior weather producer for OU Nightly.  Catherine Liberta, welcome.  Also joining us as Guest WeatherBrain is senior OU meteorology student and senior weather producer for OU Nightly.  Colton Williams, thanks for joining us.  Last but not least, joining us as Guest WeatherBrain No. 3 is the research data specialist in the OU school of meteorology.  He manages technology for the School of Meteorology and is an advisor for the Oklahoma Weather Lab and is the weather advisor for OU Nightly.  Shawn Riley, welcome to WeatherBrains!

Tonight's Guest WeatherBrain is a new faculty member in the Department of Geography at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio where she teaches forecasting, mesoscale, and synoptic meteorology.  She earned her undergraduate degree at Penn State University, and earned her Master's degree and PhD at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.  She predominately uses mobile radar data to look at supercells and tornadoes, and emphasizes her analysis on tornadogenesis and tornadic rotation.  She also investigates the role that terrain and variations in landcover play in tornado modification.  Dr. Jana Houser, welcome to WeatherBrains!

Tonight's Guest WeatherBrain has had a lifetime passion for severe weather.  She started storm chasing in 2018, and is a self-taught forecaster.  Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, Good Morning America and the Today Show.   She has a B.A. in Environmental Communication and an M.S. in Technical Journalism and Communication.  She's also a writer, public speaker and educator.  Jen Walton, welcome to WeatherBrains!

Our show tonight comes on the 30th anniversary of the historic Blizzard of 1993.  Tonight's Guest WeatherBrain wrote and directed the new movie "Supercell", which will be released March 17th, 2023 in theaters, in digital and on-demand.  He completed his MFA and BA from USC School of Film in 2011.  He was one of the youngest to ever to direct, edit, and produce an NBC primetime drama show called "Siberia".  In 2015, he created Swipemarket, a creative agency focused on bringing entertainment to Silicon Valley.  He has directed and produced over 200 campaigns for brands including HP enterprise and Intel.  Herbert James Winterstern, welcome to WeatherBrains!

Tonight's Guest WeatherBrain is the Founder and CEO of Climavision, based out of Louisville Kentucky since mid-2021.  He was previously an Aviation Weather Specialist in the USAF, and served in the Washington State and Massachusetts Air National Guard.  He also worked for WSI for over 15 years.  He also served as CEO of Enterprise Electronics Corporation. Chris Goode, welcome!  Our Guest Panelist tonight is a suggestion of friend of the podcast Johnny Parker.  He's the Chief Meteorologist at KVUE-TV in Austin, Texas.  Hunter Williams, thanks for coming on the show tonight.  

Tonight's Guest WeatherBrain is an expert on the Global Lightning Mapper.  He's a NOAA Physical Scientist who splits time between offices at the University of Maryland and Kent State University.  He's a graduate of Ohio State University in 2004 as well as Florida State University in 2007 and 2011.  Dr. Scott Rudlosky, welcome to WeatherBrains!

Tonight's first Guest WeatherBrain is a meteorologist, oceanographer, and science educator turned historian of science.  She authored "Weather by the Numbers:  The Genesis of Modern Meteorology".  She currently works for the Department of Science Education at the University of Copenhagen.  Dr. Kristine Harper, welcome!  Our second Guest WeatherBrain is a mesoscale/outlook forecaster at the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, OK.  She's been at the National Weather Service since 2002, and started her career as a student volunteer at the NWS in Norman.  She's also the first woman to ever issue a convective watch at the SPC.  Elizabeth Leitman, welcome!  Our Guest Panelist this week is is a meteorologist from Texas with a M.S. in Atmospheric Science from the University of Massachusetts Lowell.  He is an advocate for the Wet-Bulb Globe Temperature and is working with legislators in Texas to educate and implement policy changes across the state for heat safety.  In addition, he is a GitHub code developer who has made a a self install script for the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) which has had over 2500 downloads across 80 countries.  Will Hathaway, welcome!

Tonight's Guest WeatherBrain is a suggestion of friend of the podcast Jeremy Bower.  He's the Public Outreach Manager in the Community Engagement section of the American Meteorological Society.  We will be focusing our discussion tonight on the AMS Weather Band.  Gideon Alegado, welcome to the show.

Our show tonight focuses on forecasting and defining snow squalls and what qualifies as a snow squall, why the public should pay attention, and the difficulty of the science of forecasting winter weather events.  Tonight's Guest WeatherBrain is a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in State College, Pennsylvania.  He previously joined us back on show 877.  John Banghoff, great to see you again!  Our second Guest WeatherBrain is also a 30-year veteran meteorologist at NWS State College PA.  He's the Lead Forecaster at NWS State College, and is passionate about winter storms and winter weather forecasting.  Greg DeVoir, welcome!  Our third Guest WeatherBrain is the Science and Operations Officer at the NWS in State College PA.  Michael Jurewicz, welcome!

Tonight's episode focuses on how and why Waymo is essentially employing their fleet of autonomously driven vehicles as mobile weather stations and what it enables. By combining Waymo’s autonomous driving sensor suite — complete with cameras, radar, and lidar —with high-quality ground-truth data from weather visibility sensors, Waymo’s engineers created a new quantitative metric about meteorological visibility that allows the Waymo Driver to generate estimates about the current weather and environmental states it's operating under.