Ice Station Housman

The peak of hurricane season is upon us! We discuss some of the storms going on at the time of this recording, as well as some basics about tropical systems. How they work, what sizes they can be and what storm surge is.

• How to help Louisiana Flood Victims
• Midwest Tornado Outbreak
• Deadly lightning strike kills 323 Reindeer

• Tropical Storm Hermine
• National Hurricane Center
• Becky's blog on Hermine-impacts to Delmarva, New Jersey and southern New England beaches
• What are hurricanes?
• Saffir Simpson Scale
• Sea Temperatures

This week's musical outro: "Trying To Reason With Hurricane Season" by Jimmy Buffet.

The photo above is courtesy of the NASA Earth Observatory taken on September 1, 2016. 

On this week's show, we discuss microbursts, recent flooding, the beginning of hurricane season, "rain bombs", and our recent heat wave. Also, Jimmy doesn't accept that we've exhausted all possible planets we could live on...

• Our recent heat wave
• Microbursts
  • Recent photogenic Microburst over Phoenix, AZ
  • Delta Air Lines Flight 191 crash
• "Rain Bombs"
• Historic flooding in Ellicott City, MD
• Peak Hurricane Season is upon us
  • Becky telling you what you need to know to prepare and be safe.
  • 2016 Hurricane Names

• Tatooine
• Westeros
• Arrakis

This week's outro is ""If you Luke father west....if you're Wookiee" Today's Star Wars weather" courtesy of this video.

In a twist on the normal discussion of weather on Earth, the crew of Ice Station Housman takes a journey through the solar system to see what other planet's weather is like. 

The main goal: to determine which planet humans can relocate to in the unfortunate case of Earth becoming inhabitable. 

Introductions- The gang's all here! Joel, Jimmy and Becky tackle the complexities of space together. 

• Mercury: http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/ask/27-What-is-the-weather-like-on-Mercury-
• Venus: http://www.universetoday.com/36721/weather-on-venus/
• Mars: http://mars.nasa.gov/
• Jupiter and moons: Europa and Io: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/jupiter
• Saturn: http://www.space.com/18473-saturn-temperature.html
• Saturn's moon: Titan: http://www.space.com/15257-titan-saturn-largest-moon-facts-discovery-sdcmp.html
• Saturn's hexagon storm: http://www.space.com/30608-mysterious-saturn-hexagon-explained.html
• Uranus: http://nineplanets.org/uranus.html
• Neptune: http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/ask/150-What-is-the-weather-like-on-Neptune-
• Neptune's moon: Triton: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/triton
• Pluto: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/pluto

This week's intro music is "Lucy In The Sky, With Diamonds" by The Beatles.

Our outro music is "Life On Mars?" by David Bowie.

This episode's background image courtesy of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The image was taken by Hubble. Read more information about the photo.

This week Becky, Jimmy, and Joel are joined by Katie Wheatley, GIS mapping expert, to talk about mapping the weather.

Katie's bio on USTornadoes.com

• Geographic Information System - So, what is GIS again? 
• Green Screen Difficulties: A pretty good green screen fail
• The NWS enhanced data display
• A sea breeze vs. a sea breeze cocktail
• Tornado Town, USA by Maggie Koerth-Baker at Fivethirtyeight.com.

This weeks outro-music is "Maps" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

On this week's show we discuss the four day severe weather outbreak from earlier last week as well as what YOU should do in the event of a tornado warning. Jimmy is out this week, so Becky and Joel review a blog post she wrote in early 2015 covering the topic of tornado safety. We also cover the discussion that popped up this week related to the old vs new method for rating tornado severity and highlight a number of intense videos from the past week's storms.

Introductions - Jimmy is out this week at a conference and was unable to co-host - so its just Becky and Joel.

• Becky reviews the severe weather outbreak, day by day.
• How to Prepare for Severe Weather and Stay Safe During an Outbreak
• Insane photo of a very lucky young man who followed proper tornado safety procedures
• Affordable, $25 weather radio
• More expensive, but better quality weather radio

• Fujita Scale (for review)
• Relevant tweet about the discussion

• Katie, Oklahoma Tornado - close video.
• Katie, Oklahoma Tornado - from several miles away.
• Sulphur, Oklahoma Tornado - watch from 4:00 until 6:30 to see the section we were discussing about the storm chaser Tim Marshal deploying a sensor pod.
• Wray, Colorado Tornado - the "photogenic" tornado we were talking about from the very first day of the storms. The Capital Weather Gang posted a good snapshot of photos from this storm as well.

Also, after we finished recording this episode, USTornados.com did a big writeup specifically about the Katie, OK Tornado.

This week's outro music was "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) by Dead or Alive.

This is it...the next

Becky gives us an

Closing music for this

Intro

Follow-up:

Coral Bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef

Topic: Seasons

The Four Seasons: Change Marks the Passing of a Year

How Do The Seasons Work?

How Seasons Work? (video)

99% Invisible, "The Calendar"

Outro Music: "Why Does The Sun Shine?" by They Might Be Giants

Intro

Tornados: a Primer

How do tornadoes form

The F-scale

Predictability?

The Feb. 26 Tornado in Tidewater VA

The "evil meteorologist convoy" from Twister (look at that GMC RV in the back!!!)

Outro music, "Shania Twain - No One Needs To Know" from the Twister Soundtrack.

(Apparently the music video was shot in the house that you saw in the movie Twister that they "aunt"(?) lived in).

This week on the show, El Nino follow-up, listener feedback questions, and winter precipitation. What is the difference between sleet and hail? What is Graupel? What exact atmospheric conditions cause freezing rain? We cover all the answers to these questions and others you might have about winter precipitation.

El Niño Just Made That Mysterious Warm Blob in the Ocean Disappear

The American Meteorological Society's Weather Resources

Winter Weather Precipitation Types

Outro Music: "Looks Like Rain" by Bob Weir.

[Image Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, "NASA Sees Winter Storm Slamming Eastern United States"]

“Let It Go” by Idina Menzel, from the movie ‘Frozen’