Sam Brandt @sambrandtmeteo.bsky.social · 17/05/2025For the second time in under a year, I saw a supercell and the aurora within the same day. October 6th, 2024 (left) and May 16th, 2025 (right) 0131
Sam Brandt @sambrandtmeteo.bsky.social · 13/05/2025The beauty of central Pennsylvania's ridges and valleys 051
Sam Brandt @sambrandtmeteo.bsky.social · 11/04/2025Strange to only mention climate in the headline, but this would also effectively kill R&D at NOAA. Do you enjoy America’s status as a top player in numerical weather prediction that provides its world-class data for free? Under this proposal, we would fall behind the world in a matter of months.science.orgTrump seeks to end climate research at premier U.S. climate agencyWhite House aims to end NOAA’s research office; NASA also targeted 062
Sam Brandt @sambrandtmeteo.bsky.social · 04/04/2025How to identify streamwise vorticity on a hodograph, in 60 seconds 1187
Sam Brandt @sambrandtmeteo.bsky.social · 03/04/2025The hodograph parameter critical angle is meant to quantify how streamwise low-level shear is, but it can be misleading due to its non-linear relationship with streamwise %. You don't have to be particularly close to 90° to still have almost entirely streamwise shear. 061
Sam Brandt @sambrandtmeteo.bsky.social · 01/04/2025For me at least, energetics is the most intuitive approach to understanding cold pool dynamics. I've done a writeup about it here: 000
Sam Brandt @sambrandtmeteo.bsky.social · 29/03/2025Despite being an essential part of a severe weather forecaster’s toolkit, hodographs have a notorious learning curve. So, I have put together this 3D animation as a visual aid to help those new to hodographs understand what they’re showing. 109222
Sam Brandt @sambrandtmeteo.bsky.social · 19/03/2025Went to Black Moshannon State Park last night to try out star trail photography for the first time 070
Sam Brandt @sambrandtmeteo.bsky.social · 14/03/2025Lunar eclipse in Boiling Springs last night. For these celestial events, I always try to focus on a unique, zoomed out composition rather than the telephoto shots you see from everyone else. 040
Sam Brandt @sambrandtmeteo.bsky.social · 19/02/2025First central PA aurora of 2025 tonight! Negative bz + low GOES mag does the trick in solar maximum apparently 07113
Sam Brandt @sambrandtmeteo.bsky.social · 15/02/2025I see waaaaaaaay too many people trying to use LLMs as if it was an internet search engines and treating output as genuine fact. It's not a database search, it's a model trained primarily to generate text that sounds like a realistic response to your prompts. 030
Sam Brandt @sambrandtmeteo.bsky.social · 11/02/202522° halo in Dillsburg tonight with a nearly full moon and cirrus associated with an approaching winter storm 020
Sam Brandt @sambrandtmeteo.bsky.social · 02/02/2025Tonight’s Moon and Venus conjunction from Central PA 091
Sam Brandt @sambrandtmeteo.bsky.social · 30/01/2025Some of my best astrophotography. Lunar eclipse from a few years ago, aurora from both the May and October major geomagnetic storms last year, and a comet/Milky Way two-for-one shot 080
Sam Brandt @sambrandtmeteo.bsky.social · 28/12/2024Low-level (~200 m AGL) couplet is tilted at an angle relative to the radial that implies both rotation and convergence. I would surmise that near term tornado risk is thus elevated. 130
Sam Brandt @sambrandtmeteo.bsky.social · 24/12/2024Night and day at Hawn’s Overlook south of Huntingdon, PA 040
Sam Brandt @sambrandtmeteo.bsky.social · 20/12/2024Example of this concept in action today with deepening low pressure off the NE coast 031
Sam Brandt @sambrandtmeteo.bsky.social · 19/12/2024Showing mathematically that baroclinic instability of Rossby waves is expected to occur when there is a horizontal temperature gradient and phase lines are tilted upshear. 0120
Sam Brandt @sambrandtmeteo.bsky.social · 17/12/2024Extra stream flow from rapid snow melt = big hydraulic jumps 040
Sam Brandt @sambrandtmeteo.bsky.social · 17/12/2024Check out my end of the year photography highlights on instagram! www.instagram.com/p/DDiOC9Nysn... 030
Sam Brandt @sambrandtmeteo.bsky.social · 15/12/2024Completely unacceptable road conditions in State College tonight. Despite just 1” with a little sleet mixed in and a temperature that has yet to drop below 31 F, no pre-treatment of any kind (at least nothing remotely effective) was done. Even main roads like Atherton St have become slip and slides. 100
Sam Brandt @sambrandtmeteo.bsky.social · 15/12/2024To begin today’s storm, snow crystal growth is mostly columnar with aggregates of needles dominating. This indicates large ice supersaturations but in the wrong temperature range for dendrites (for now) 020
Sam Brandt @sambrandtmeteo.bsky.social · 15/12/2024Some gravity waves with a phase velocity of zero earlier. Using that fact, along with the assumption that the phase lines have minimal vertical tilt (I.e. m<<k), the Brunt-Väisälä frequency can be estimated from radar observations of background flow and wavenumber! 170
