iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Is that Pete Best revving his engine and heading down the street?

Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I am very honored to have worked on a Fire Environment tool with the Norman NWS WFO and Oklahoma Forestry Services that combines weather and fuel threats into one map. Maps are now live on the Mesonet website and app. www.mesonet.org/fire-managem...

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Also, as we left to go outside, the 9 year old yelled..."Love you. I hope you don't die!" She has zero confidence in our wood chipping abilities.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Two things I hope: 1. My wife isn't angry at me. 2. My wife hasn't seen Fargo.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

My daughter wants to work for animal rescue operation when she is older. Today, she rescued an injured juvenile Mississippi Kite on our property and took it to Wild Care. I am a proud dad today.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Great evening for taking my daughter to her first rodeo.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Experts gave OU almost no chance (5.9%), but they won the World Series against some really good teams. But go ahead and tell me how meteorologist are always just guessing what the weather will be like. #BoomerSooner

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Had a great time today talking meteorology, instruments, and research with the 43 finalists to be Team USA (4 person) at the Earth Science Olympiad. Some of the best discussions and questions I have ever had. Team USA will be a strong team with these bright minds.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Am I starting to sparkle or am I starting to grow fur?

Person standing in front of the sign fir Firks, Washington.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

My current location just issued a Heat Advisory for a high of....84F. I am NOT in Oklahoma and enjoying every minute.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Meteorological dark web? Back alley behind local WFO office?

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

I just got my one-of-a-kind, limited edition, rare, University of Oklahoma School of Meteorology faculty trading cards. I wonder if I will see any of these on eBay?

Trading cards of OU School of Meteorology Professors.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

If you can, please donate to help the students in the college. givesooner.org/pages/colleg...

givesooner.org

OU Giving Day

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Timeline Cleanse: My dogs are part of a fundraising campaign for the University of Oklahoma's College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences. I am not sure how the photographer got these shots amongst the craziness of the photoshoot.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Kiddo to me: "You know what your hair looks like? A tornado because it has swirls and is grey." Ouch. Hit with the truth bomb at lunch.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Love how that information is displayed in one image instead of 3-4. Something I can share with my non-weather folks without needing much explanation.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

Up in Chicago with a few thousand of my new friends celebrating St. Patrick's Day. My daughter loves interacting with the "funny people". She is getting her first experience of fun drunk people and is ready for the parade.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Having a university bus hit your meteorological research area due to a vehicle accident was not on my agenda for today.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

My university's marketing department came and took photos of my instrumentation class. Here are a couple of me in action. Be on the lookout in the near future marketing items from the University of Oklahoma with more photos of the class.

Students and professor installing weather instruments on a station.

Professor talking with a student using a laptop out in the field.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Nothing like watching USA win Olympic gold with your daughter. Core memory created.

Father and daughter watching Olympic hockey together.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Sadly, my child would point out this one.

Picture of WFO followers focusing on a 67 region.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

This hits a little too close to home.

A text exchange between a child and parent.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

Anyone want any Girl Scout cookies? My daughter is selling again this year so she can spend a night at a museum. I love that she chose that goal. You can also find me at the NWC or go to digitalcookie.girlscouts.org/scout/olivia...

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

A new year of Univ. of Oklahoma meteorology students learning to install, wire, and program weather stations in my course. This year the stations are built with the National Weather Center watching over them.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

I got excited for a moment until I realized it was our black labrador.

Camera notification of a "dark colored bear".

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Packed house for the first day of Measurements class at the Univ. of Oklahoma. Record setting enrollment. Looking forward to teaching all of them the joys and pains of dealing with meteorological instruments.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Had a wonderful day teaching professors, scientists, and students from Peru on how to build and deploy weather stations. This station was deployed to study the micrometeorology and soil conditions under cedar groves.

Me standing in a forest with a weather station and Peruvian scientists and students.

Peruvian scientists assembling a weather station.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

Had a great day installing micrometeorological and soil stations at the University of Oklahoma's Kessler Atmospheric and Ecological Field Station with students and faculty. This is just the beginning of the suite of sites at the field station to collect data for current and future research.

Me standing in front of meteorological stations out in a field.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

Another calendar year in the books. 2025 ranked 7th out of the past 19 years that I have been tracking rainfall at my house in Norman, OK, USA. A very wet spring was countered by the very dry fall and winter.

Multi-year time series graph of rainfall from 2006-2025.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Some days you are out in the elements and some days you are in the cozy lab configuring weather stations for an upcoming deployment. These stations will be part of a research micronet and also training for international partners.

Multiple weather stations being configured in a lab.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Had a great time being pied in the face for helping raise money for weather disaster relief in Jamacia and Alaska. What a great cause and excited to see students, faculty, staff, and others contribute to the efforts.

Me all dirty after being pied in the face.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

Had a great time video chatting with kindergarteners about hurricanes and the weather. They had some great questions and Hurricane Melissa is giving them a real-time demonstration of the power of a hurricane.

Kindergarten children watching a meteorologist on a video chat talking about hurricanes.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

Breaking edge technologies in their respective eras almost 100 years apart.

Model-T cars parked in front of the National Weather Service.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

So a relative of mine is making headlines on all of the news networks right now. I guess I should turn off notifications on social media for a bit.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Please share and/or forward to anyone you think might be interested.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

The School of Meteorology and College of Atmos. & Geog. Sci. at the Univ. of Oklahoma is looking for a Researcher with experience in field work and instrumentation. Message me if you need more information. Apply at the link below.

ou.taleo.net

Researcher

Click the link provided to see the complete job description.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

I had a great time this week talking with kids from three classes (Kinder, 2nd, and 5th grade) out in Oconee County, Georgia about being a meteorologist, fun weather information, and interesting places I have traveled doing my job. It gives me so much joy seeing the curiosity of our next generation.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

Had a wonderful time talking to the amazing people associated with the Oklahoma Homeless Alliance on how they can use weather data to assist our unhoused population. They were quite interested in Wet Bulb Globe Temperature and its utility.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

The answer is....and I am not kidding....two more corn snakes. My wife is going ballistic.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

Giant wolf spider last night and a corn snake tonight found in the bedroom. What critter will join us tomorrow night? #CountryLiving

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

It was the AI response at the top of a Bing/CoPilot search. I guess they use the Prometheus model. Interestingly, I just redid the search and it comes up with correct information and sources.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Swing and a miss on AI response to a weather history question on lowest mean sea level pressure in Oklahoma for March 2019. Another example for me to share with my students on using AI. It didn't even double check itself on units or reasonableness of the response.

AI generated response with the wrong information.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

I got a spam text on Saturday with which I decided to have fun. I think I am blocked now. They are no fun to play with anymore.

Spam text message with reply of a dog on the phone.

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Dr. Brad Illston @bradillston.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

Michigan fans in shorts is an impressive level of pasty white.

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