The Mighty Brazos
The Brazos River, at 1280 miles, is the longest river in Texas and eleventh longest in the United States. The Rio Grande is longer, but is only partly within Texas. I spoke at a water conference the...
View ArticleDispatch from AGU: Probable maximum precipitation becoming more probable
Probable maximum precipitation (PMP) is a commonly-used design input value for water projects such as dams for which failure is not an option. It’s estimated, in effect, by assuming that all possible...
View ArticleDispatch from AMS: Providing Cover
My dispatches have been less frequent than I intended, in part because I fell asleep while working and my laptop hard-disk-crashed to the floor. On Tuesday afternoon I attended an informal session on...
View ArticleLast Dispatch from AMS: One Renewable Resource Depletes Another?
I know, I’m already back, so this is not really a dispatch. But I wanted to highlight something special that the American Meteorological Society does there: the Student Conference. The main purpose...
View ArticleSuch a Nice La Nina
After the most severe one-year drought on record for Texas, there wasn’t much to look forward to. A weak to moderate La Nina had re-formed in the tropical Pacific, and that meant another dry winter....
View ArticleFailing Your Midterms
While students here at Texas A&M are preparing for their final examination, the National Research Council offered a midterm assessment of NASA’s, and of necessity the nation’s, Earth-observing...
View ArticleTwenty Times More Likely (Not): The Science
If you’re reading this, you probably pay enough attention to climate news to know that there was major news from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration last week that last year’s Texas...
View ArticleDispatch from AGU: Sea Ice and Winter Weather
One of the hot topics for me at the AGU fall meeting was the Arctic ice melt, and specifically the consequences for midlatitude weather. Arctic ice melt is second phenomenon, outside of global...
View ArticleAll-Time Record-Low Reservoir Levels or Drought-Busting Hurricane?
The reservoir water storage gap in Texas is approaching an all-time record low, but a slow-moving tropical cyclone might make landfall early next week and turn into a serious drought-buster.
View ArticleTexas Cold in Perspective
There’s cold, and then there’s cold. Down here in Texas, lots of thin-skinned folks are complaining about the cold wave, while some other parts of the country have been experiencing seriously cold...
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