The 91探花 has long boasted one of the country’s top programs in atmospheric sciences. Now, the 91探花is also teaching undergraduates how to share that knowledge online and on TV as a broadcast meteorologist.

The , launched in winter quarter, is open to students from across the university who are taking or have passed a prerequisite introductory courses in atmospheric sciences.

“We’ve been talking about this idea for a few years now, and it’s exciting to launch this course,” said primary instructor , the lead forecaster at KOMO-TV. O’Donnell graduated from the 91探花with a degree in atmospheric sciences.

In the new class, students will learn to communicate weather information in a number of ways, including the use of a 鈥済reen screen鈥� 鈥� a bright-green screen that forecasters stand in front of while talking and gesturing, with maps and graphics added digitally.

“It’s surprisingly hard to work in front of the weather wall,” O’Donnell said. “It’s kind of like a funhouse mirror where things feel awkward and backward. You see the green behind you, and then you have TV monitors to the side. You have to look at the monitor to see the graphics.”

While some stations have gone to large digital screens, many newsrooms prefer the green screen because it offers better-resolution graphics.

“The reason why we still go to all that trouble is it still looks so much more crisp on TV,” O’Donnell said.

The course also covers the history of broadcast journalism and provides practice presenting on TV, radio and online. Follow the students’ forecasts on Twitter at .

“Communication of weather information is important for societal decision-making,” said co-instructor , a 91探花professor of atmospheric sciences. “The range of communication options for weather information 鈥� television, online and social media, smartphones and more 鈥� has greatly changed over the past two decades, and students must learn to master their various tools.”

Mass has a popular that got 450,000 hits during the recent January snowstorm, and a on KNKX. His book, “,” is on the class reading list.

The three-credit course will include hands-on experience and discussion of tools such as weather blogs, Twitter and weather-related . Students will also visit KOMO-TV’s newsroom and Seattle’s National Weather Service office.

“Broadcast has become so much more than just television,” O’Donnell said. “Social media has become a huge way to broadcast weather information, and it’s more popular than ever. Today the National Weather Service is also communicating directly with the public, and those accounts often have very large followings.”

For many years KOMO has offered an internship in which students, most from the UW, learned the ropes at the weather desk. O’Donnell and Scott Sistek, a web meteorologist at KOMO and 91探花graduate, mentor the students presenting forecasts and writing blog posts. The new course will provide an instructional foundation for those students and others who are interested in exploring the field of weather broadcasting and communication.

“I think weather is something that’s stayed interesting to people because it’s so impactful in people’s lives,” O’Donnell said.

The 91探花class joins existing broadcast meteorology instruction at schools including Pennsylvania State University and Mississippi State University. The instructors hope to also launch a summer offering that would be accessible to journalism students at Washington State University and other schools.

For more information, contact O’Donnell at sodonnell@atmos.washington.edu and Mass at cmass@uw.edu.

A novelist’s thoughts on storytelling, a geologist’s soil restoration strategy, an environmentalist’s memoir, a celebration of Latino music influences, a poet’s meditations on her changing city 鈥�

Yes, and a best-selling author’s latest work, a podcast reborn as a book, a collaboration of world-class violists and even tales of brave Icelandic seawomen 鈥� at this festive time of year, 91探花 faculty creations can make great gifts for the Dawg on your shopping list.

Here鈥檚 a quick look at some gift-worthy books and music created by 91探花talents in the last year or so 鈥� and a reminder of some perennial favorites.

Charles Johnson, “.” Johnson, National Book Award-winning author of “” and longtime professor of English, discusses his art in a book stemming from a year of interviews. “There is winning sanity here,” the New York Times wrote: “Johnson wants his students to be ‘raconteurs always ready to tell an engaging tale,’ not self-preoccupied neurotics.” Published by .

Marisol Berr铆os-Miranda, Shannon Dudley and Michelle Habell-Pall谩n, ““ An extraordinary exhibit at the Smithsonian and Seattle’s Experience Music Project (now Museum of Pop Culture) comes to life as a book, detailing Latino influence on American popular music from salsa to punk, Chicano rock to the Miami sound. Berrios-Miranda is an affiliate associate professor of ethnomusicology, Dudley an associate professor of music and Habell-Pall谩n an associate professor in the Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies. It’s a dual-language volume 鈥� English on the right side, Spanish on the left. And as a bonus the authors have created an American Sabor on iTunes and Spotify; the book flags specific songs with a playlist icon. Published by 91探花 Press.

David R. Montgomery, “.” Montgomery, a professor of Earth and space sciences, won praise for his popular 2007 book “.” Several books later he returned in 2017 with this view of environmental restoration based on three ideas 鈥� “ditch the plow, cover up, grow diversity.” said Montgomery’s well-expressed views “will convince readers that soil health should not remain an under-the-radar issue and that we all benefit from embracing a new philosophy of farming.” Published by .

Margaret Willson, Willson is an affiliate associate professor of anthropology and the Canadian Studies Arctic Program. In her years working as a deckhand she came across historic accounts of a woman sea captain known for reading the weather, hauling in large catches and never losing a crew member in 60 years of fishing. “And yet people in Iceland told me there had been few seawomen in their past, and few in their present,” she said. “I found this strange in a country of such purported gender equality. This curiosity led to the research and all that came from it.” Published by .

Estella Leopold, “.” Leopold is professor emeritus of biology and the youngest daughter of , who wrote the 1949 classic of early environmentalism, “.” She returns to scenes of her Wisconsin childhood in this follow-up, describing her life on the land where her father practiced his revolutionary conservation philosophy. Published by .

David Shields, “.” Shields is a professor of English and the best-selling author of many books, starting with his 1984 novel “.” In 2017 he brought out this collection of essays that the New York Times called “a triumphantly humane book” and him “our elusive, humorous ironist, something like a 21^st century Socrates.” The paper’s praise continued: “He is a master stylist 鈥� and has been for a long time, on the evidence of these pieces from throughout his career. . . All good writers make us feel less alone. But Shields makes us feel better.” Published by .

Joseph Janes, “.” The year 2017 saw Janes’ popular podcast “” become a book under a slightly different title. Janes is an associate professor in the Information School who writes here about the origin and often evolving meaning of historical documents, both famous and less known. Some of his favorite “documents” are Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s fictional list of communists, the Fannie Farmer Cookbook and the backstory to what’s called the Rosie the Riveter poster. Published by .

Frances McCue, Well-known Seattle poet, teacher and self-described “arts instigator,” McCue is a senior lecturer in English. She was a co-founder of Hugo House, a place for writers, and served as its director for 10 years. Those experiences fuel this book of poems about the changing nature of the city. “This is Seattle. A place to love whatever’s left,” she writes. Published by .

Scott L. Montgomery, “.” Scientific research that doesn鈥檛 get communicated effectively to the public may as well not have happened at all, says geoscientist Montgomery in this second volume of a popular 2001 book. A prolific writer, Montgomery is a lecturer in the Jackson School of International Studies. “Communicating is the doing of science,” he adds. “Publication and public speaking are how scientific work gains a presence, a shared reality in the world.鈥澛� Published by .

Odai Johnson, “.” The true cultural tipping point in the run-up to the American Revolution, writes Johnson, a professor in the School of Drama, might not have been the Boston Tea Party or even the First Continental Congress. Rather, he suggests, it was Congress’ 1774 decision to close the British American theaters 鈥� a small act but “a hard shot across the bow of British culture.” Published by .

Here are some recordings from 2017 involving faculty in the 91探花School of Music:

Melia Watras, “.” Music professor Watras offers a collaboration from of world-class violists performing and sharing their own compositions with each other. Her own playing has been described in the press as “staggeringly virtuosic.” Richard Karpen, School of Music director, is among several guests. The title comes from the number of strings on the instruments used: two violas, one violin, and the 14-string viola d’amore. .

Cuong Vu 4-Tet, “.” A live collaboration between Vu, 91探花Jazz Studies chair, and renowned jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, who is an affiliate professor with the School of Music. Recorded in 2016 at Meany Theater, Vu and Frisell were joined by artists in residence Ted Poor on drums and Luke Bergman on bass. Released on .

Craig Sheppard, “.” Sheppard, longtime professor of music and a world-class pianist, plays sonatas and mazurkas by Frederic Chopin recorded live at Meany Theater in February 2017. The Seattle Times said of an earlier Chopin concert of Sheppard’s that his playing featured “exquisite details 鈥� it was playing that revealed layer after layer of music in each piece, as if one were faceting a gemstone. Released on .

Here are some other notable recent UW-authored books:

• Research on poverty and the American suburbs in “,” by Scott Allard, professor in the Evan School of Public Policy & Governance.
• Literature meets science to contemplate the geologic epoch of humans in “,” co-edited by Jesse Oak Taylor, associate professor of English.
• A popular science exploration of machine learning and the algorithms that help run our lives in “,” by Pedro Domingos, professor of computer science and engineering.
• A close look at four of America’s electoral adventures in “” by Margaret O’Mara, professor of history.
• A fully revised second edition of Earth and space sciences professor Darrel Cowan’s popular 1984 book, “.” This 378-page paperback is filled with details about Washington state geology.
• The story of a city’s transition from the Ottoman Empire to Greece in “” by Devin Naar, professor of history and Jewish studies.
• A city that “thinks like a planet” is one both resilient to and ready for the future that the changing Earth will bring, says Marina Alberti, professor in the College of Built Environments in “.
• Todd London, professor and director of the School of Drama, follows the professional theater experiences of 15 actors from the 1995 class of Harvard’s American Repertory Theater in “.”
• Dr. Stephen Helgerson, a 91探花School of Public Health alumnus and physician in preventive medicine for four decades, uses the novella form to tell of the influenza epidemic’s arrival in his state in “.”
• On the 500^th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, an exploration of faith that results in the common good in 鈥�,鈥� co-authored by Steve Pfaff, professor of sociology.
• Calm down from holiday 鈥� and tech-induced stresses 鈥� by thinking mindfully with “” by communication professor David Levy.

Finally, still-popular and pertinent books from a few years back include the second edition of “” by Jeffrey Ochsner, professor of architecture; “” by Randlett with Frances McCue; “” by Cliff Mass, professor of atmospheric sciences; and the ever-popular “” by Bill Holm, professor emeritus of art history. All of these were published by , which has many other great titles.

Humans have always been frightened and fascinated by lightning. This month, NASA is scheduled to launch a new satellite that will provide the first nonstop, high-tech eye on lightning over the North American section of the planet.

91探花 researchers have been tracking global lightning from the ground for more than a decade. Lightning is not only about public safety 鈥� lightning strike information has recently been introduced into weather prediction, and a 91探花study shows ways to apply it in storm forecasts.

“When you see lots of lightning you know where the convection, or heat-driven upward motion, is the strongest, and that’s where the storm is the most intense,” said co-author , a 91探花professor of Earth and space sciences. “Almost all lightning occurs in clouds that have ice, and where there’s a strong updraft.”

The recent , published in the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, presents a new way to transform lightning strikes into weather-relevant information. The U.S. National Weather Service has begun to use lightning in its most sophisticated forecasts. This method, however, is more general and could be used in a wide variety of forecasting systems, anywhere in the world.

The authors tested their method on two cases: the summer 2012 thunderstorm system that swept across the U.S., and a 2013 that killed several people in the Midwest.

“Using lightning data to modify the air moisture was enough to dramatically improve the short-term forecast for a strong rain, wind and storm event,” said first author , a former 91探花graduate student who now works for The Weather Company. His simple method might also improve medium-range forecasts, for more than a few days out, in parts of the world that have little or no ground-level observations.

The study used data from the UW-based , which has a global record of lightning strikes going back to 2004. Director Holzworth is a plasma physicist who is interested in what happens in the outer edges of the atmosphere. But the network also sells its data to commercial and government agencies, and works with scientists at the 91探花and elsewhere.

A few years ago Holzworth joined forces with colleagues in the 91探花Department of Atmospheric Sciences to use lightning to improve forecasts for convective storms, the big storms that produce thunderstorms and tornadoes.

Apart from ground stations, weather forecasts are heavily dependent on weather satellites for information to start or “initialize” the numerical weather prediction models that are the foundation of modern weather prediction.

What’s missing is accurate, real-time information about air moisture content, temperature and wind speed in places where there are no ground stations.

“We have less skill for thunderstorms than for almost any other meteorological phenomenon,” said co-author , a 91探花professor of atmospheric sciences. “This paper shows the promise of lightning information. The results show that lightning data has potential to improve high-resolution forecasts of thunderstorms and convection.”

The new method could be helpful in forecasting storms over the ocean, where no ground instruments exist. Better knowledge of lightning-heavy tropical ocean storms could also improve weather forecasts far from the equator, Mass said, since many global weather systems originate in the tropics.

The study was funded by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. , a 91探花professor of atmospheric sciences, is the other co-author.

The UW-based Worldwide Lightning Location Network began in 2003 with 25 detection sites. It now includes some 80 at universities or government institutions around the world, from Finland to Antarctica.

The latest thinking on how lightning occurs is that ice particles within clouds separate into lighter and heavier pieces, and this creates charged regions within the cloud. If strong updrafts of wind make that altitude separation big enough, an electric current flows to cancel out the difference in charges.

A bolt of lightning creates an electromagnetic pulse that can travel a quarter way around the planet in a fraction of a second. Each lightning network site hosts an 8- to 12-foot antenna that registers frequencies in the 10 kilohertz band, and sends that information to a sound card on an Internet-connected laptop. When at least five stations record a pulse, computers at the 91探花register a lightning strike, and then triangulate the arrival times at different stations to pinpoint the location.

The network’s shows lightning strikes for the most recent 30 minutes in Google Earth. An alternate shows the last 40 minutes of lightning in different parts of the world on top of NASA cloud maps, which are updated from satellites every 30 minutes. The program is the longest-running real-time global lightning location network, and it is operated by the research community as a global collaboration.

Lightning already kills hundreds of people every year. That threat may be growing 鈥� a recent study projected that lightning will become with climate change.

“The jury’s still out on any long-term changes until we have more data,” Holzworth said. “But there is anecdotal evidence that we’re seeing lightning strikes in places where people are not expecting it, which makes it more deadly.”

On Nov. 19, NASA is scheduled to launch the new satellite that will be the first geostationary satellite to include an to continuously watch for lightning pulses. Holzworth will help calibrate the new instrument, which uses brightness to identify lightning, against network data. NASA also funded the recent research as one of the potential applications for lightning observations.

“GOES-R will offer more precise, complete lightning observations over North and South America, which will supplement our global data,” Holzworth said. “This launch has been long anticipated in the lightning research community. It has the potential to improve our understanding of lightning, both as a hazard and as a forecasting tool.”

###

For more information, contact Holzworth at 206-685-7410 or bobholz@uw.edu, Mass at 206-685-0910 or cmass@uw.edu and Dixon at ken.dixon@weather.com.

91探花 researchers are tracking what the season will deliver to the Pacific Northwest region.

For Washington, El Ni帽o typically brings warm, and often dry, winter weather. That may seem surprising, since the state just experienced a very wet December, according to the latest from the UW-based state climatologist’s office. Many places broke previous records for the month. But that precipitation does not seem to be linked to El Ni帽o.

“We were very fortunate, from a water-supply point of view, to get all that lowland rain and mountain snow when we did, because that’s not always the case during El Ni帽o,” said , Washington’s state climatologist and a researcher with the UW-based .

“And looking ahead, at least in the short term, it looks like there’s not going to be a lot of precipitation.”

The West Coast effects of El Ni帽o tend to peak in January and February and continue to be felt through March. But the Godzilla El Ni帽o in the tropical Pacific doesn’t necessarily mean we need to brace for monster-sized effects in this region.

“There’s not a strict relationship between the magnitude of the El Ni帽o and the magnitude of the response at the higher latitudes,” Bond said. “Sometimes more moderate El Ni帽os seem to have a really big response, and other times the strong ones have a more moderate response. It’s not a one-to-one relationship.”

So far, this El Ni帽o is shaping up to be a textbook event, said , a 91探花professor of atmospheric sciences who has covered the topic on his .

“It’s been following the typical route for a strong El Ni帽o,” Mass said. “Typically, even a strong El Ni帽o doesn’t have a lot of implications for this region in the early winter, but after the first of the year the teleconnections develop and the jet stream splits to bring rainstorms to California and Alaska, with Washington right in the middle,” he said.

“This El Ni帽o is following the typical game plan, particularly the increasing effects after the new year.”

Observations show this El Ni帽o is already weakening in the tropics, Mass said, and models suggest a neutral situation by the middle of summer, and either neutral or the opposing La Ni帽a phase by next winter.

Along the West Coast, El Ni帽o conditions tend to bring higher sea level and bigger winter waves, which together can create more flooding and storm damage along the coast. They also can shift the direction of storm waves to come from the southwest, rather than from the west, which has been shown in past years to alter the shape of beaches in Oregon and California.

How these various factors influence Washington state, though, is less clear, said , a coastal hazards specialist in Port Angeles with the UW-based . Miller discussed the coastal effects of El Ni帽o in a last fall. He will be checking tide gauges to see if average sea levels for the year are unusually high, and visiting beaches to see how they fare this season.

“One of the things I’m interested in doing this winter is better documenting what an El Ni帽o winter means for Washington’s coast, in particular the north coast and the Strait of Juan de Fuca,” Miller said.

In the water, El Ni帽o leaves its mark by both water and air, said , an oceanographer at the 91探花Applied Physics Laboratory who tracks regional ocean conditions.

“During an El Ni帽o year we often have warmer and saltier than normal ocean conditions,” Newton said. “And it’s coming from both the effect of the ocean, which would have those warmer waters, and the effects on our weather, which would be warmer air temperatures and less precipitation.”

El Ni帽o’s effects on the ocean will largely replace the phenomenon known as “,” the unusually warm patch in the northern Pacific that influenced coastal weather and marine ecosystems in 2014 and 2015.

That pattern 鈥� which included ocean temperatures of up to 7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than usual 鈥� continues to be a subject of scientific study. A at the 91探花Jan. 20 and 21 will review the unusual pattern of the blob, its effects, whether this event could have been forecast, and also consider how any remnants may be interacting with El Ni帽o.

Although the warm-water blob is now mostly history, climate models project that the coastal winds will be more from the south than usual, resulting in a strip of relatively warm water along the West Coast this spring, Bond said. This phenomenon is related to yet another climate cycle known as the .

“All the models are showing that to be the case, but to varying extent. It looks like it will be warm enough along the coast to have some significant effects,” Bond said. “People are keeping an eye on that, because the ocean has [already] been warm for a couple of years. If that continues, it’s going to have implications for the marine ecosystem.”

###

For more information, contact Bond at 206-526-6459 or nab3met@uw.edu, Mass at 206-685-0910 or cliff@atmos.washington.edu, Miller at 360-417-6460 or immiller@uw.edu, and Newton at 206-543-9152 or newton@apl.washington.edu.

Reporters interested in attending the “” workshop Jan. 20-21 should contact Newton at newton@apl.washington.edu.

“With this approach we could potentially have tens or hundreds of thousands of additional surface pressure observations, which could significantly improve short-term weather forecasts,” said , a 91探花professor of atmospheric sciences.

Owners of certain new Android smartphones and tablet computers can now download the app, which measures atmospheric pressure and provides the data to 91探花researchers.

When some smartphone manufacturers recently added pressure sensors, to estimate the phone’s elevation and help pinpoint its location, Mass saw an opportunity to enhance weather prediction. In the autumn he approached , a Canadian app company that developed a barometer application for smartphones that collects all the data and shares it back with users.

The PressureNet app this week collected about 4,000 observations per hour, with users clustered in the northeastern United States and around some major cities.

“We need more density,” Mass said. “Right now it’s a matter of getting more people to contribute.”

Android devices equipped with pressure sensors include Samsung’s Galaxy S3, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note and Nexus 4 smartphones, and the Nexus 10 and Motorola Xoom tablet computers.

Atmospheric pressure is the weight of the air above, and includes information about what is happening as air masses collide. Precise tracking of pressure readings and pressure changes could help weather forecasters to pinpoint exactly where and when a major storm will strike.

Mass is particularly interested in the center of the country, which is prone to severe storms but includes fewer weather observation stations.

“Thunderstorms are one of the areas of weakest skill for forecasting,” Mass said. “I think thunderstorms in the middle part of the country could potentially be the biggest positive for this approach. They are relatively small-scale, they develop over a few hours, they can be severe and can affect people significantly.”

Tracking storms a few hours out could help people better protect themselves and their property. In the Seattle area, the tool could improve short-term forecasts for wind and rain.

“I think this could be one of the next major revolutions in weather forecasting, really enhancing our ability to forecast at zero to four hours,” Mass said.

Cumulonimbus updated the app’s privacy settings last week so users could allow access to the data by scientific researchers. Since then, the 91探花group has been uploading the pressure data each hour and preparing it for use in weather forecasting models. The data will soon be available to all researchers who want to incorporate it in weather-prediction tools.

A project begun in 2010 by Mass and , a 91探花professor of atmospheric sciences, has explored ways to improve weather forecasts by taking advantage of surface pressure measurements. The current network of U.S. weather stations offers about one thousand air-pressure readings. Adding observations collected by small-scale weather networks and hobbyists, the 91探花team found, improves the forecasts. A weather station in every pocket would offer an unprecedented wealth of data.

A recent by Mass explains more about the 91探花group’s approach. , a 91探花graduate student in atmospheric sciences, will load the smartphone data into a weather-forecasting system. At first the tool will use only stationary data points, but eventually it may include data from devices in motion.

Building the system will take a few months, Mass said. By this summer’s thunderstorm season he hopes the 91探花team will be using smartphone data to forecast storms and compare their results against traditional forecasts.

If the technique is successful, the researchers hope to supply it to the National Weather Service and the weather bureaus of other countries.

The technique could be particularly useful, Mass noted, in countries that have little weather-forecasting infrastructure but where smartphones are becoming more common.

The research has been funded by Microsoft Corp. and the National Weather Service.

###

For more information, contact Mass at 206-685-0910 or cliff@atmos.washington.edu.