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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️

@tornatrix.bsky.social
2.4K followers 446 following 1.4K posts

Assoc. prof at Purdue specializing in severe wx & radar. Storm chaser since 2001. All opinions expressed here are solely mine and not my employer's. She/her

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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I’ve been at the @ncar-ucar.bsky.social members’ meeting the last few days, hearing from interim UCAR President Eric Barron and others about how UCAR and NCAR are weathering the metaphorical hurricane of the last two years. I came away grateful that clear-eyed leaders are at the helm.
A white haired man wearing a suit speaks at a podium labeled “UCAR.”
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
‘Tis the season for our annual EAPS 22700 KLAF Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS) field trip! My students measure the instruments to check compliance with WMO and NOAA guidelines. Thanks to Purdue airport staff for letting us visit and escorting us around the grounds!
A group of women measure the height of a hydrothermometer enclosure.A group of men measure the opening on a heated tipping bucket rain gauge.Twelve people in front of an ASOS under overcast skies.Fifteen people in front of an ASOS under mostly cloudy skies.
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
LinkedIn’s dimensionality problem with academic job ads never fails to amuse me. Really, LinkedIn? I’m the “top candidate” for a professor job in Relativistic Heavy Ion Physics? Not exactly a “hum a few bars and I’ll fake it” kind of field.
LinkedIn email screenshot that reads,
“Jobs where you are the top candidate
physics world
Assistant/Associate
Professor of Experimental
Relativistic Heavy-lon
Physics
Physics World • West Lafayette,
IN
Assistant Professor in
Radiology
Applied Quantum Computing Group • Tippecanoe County, IN”
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Pretty decent lightning show with this one. All staccato flashes - too fast for my iPhone camera #inwx
A cloud lit by lightning
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The 3rd lesson in the MetEd Radar Meteorology series has been released! With @comet-meted.bsky.social, “Radar Signal Processing and Doppler Spectra” I attempt a low-tech explanation of how radar I&Q signals turn into reflectivity! Free registration required: learn.meted.ucar.edu#/online-cour...
Screenshot of the front page of the lesson, which reads 
“Online course
Radar Signal Processing and Doppler Spectra
1h 15m - 1h 30m”
And a start button.
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Sunrise on the radar farm
Four radars under an orange sky
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
UCAR recently amended its complaint over the proposed NCAR breakup. One of my colleagues pointed out a particularly damning section re: NSF’s sloppy nonresponse to FOIA requests for responses to the March 2026 DCL (to which thousands, including me, replied). news.ucar.edu/133087/ucar-... #SaveNCAR
Screenshot of part of page 47 of the amended complaints, which reads: “123. Thereafter, UCAR requested a meet-and-confer call with NSF to discuss the
agency’s inaction on its requests. On August 18, 2026, UCAR met with an NSF FOIA officer
via videoconference. During the meeting, NSF admitted it had not conducted any search for
records responsive to either request. It appeared, moreover, that the NSF FOIA officer had never
even reviewed the requests at all—he began to do so in real-time while sharing his screen. As he
read the requests, the NSF FOIA officer feigned confusion regarding the meaning of plain words
and reiterated that NSF would not take action on UCAR’s requests because they were not
“perfected.” When UCAR explained that its requests were clear and supplied all the information
required under FOIA, the NSF FOIA officer declared the requests denied, stated that the requests
would be closed within 30 days, and asserted that UCAR had no administrative appeal rights.”
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Timeline cleanse #Caturday
Two cats sleeping in a blue bean bag chair
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Reflecting on a fantastic week at the #AMSMadisonSummit. In addition to seeing so many people and places that were formative in my education, I proudly watched my students share their research. I also made new friends and collaborations. That’s what these meetings are for! #32SLS
Jake Beitcher and I, accompanied by current AOS students Nick and Caden, on the roof of the AOS&S building during our alumni tour. Photo by Scott Dyke, UW AOS&S communications director.A partial reunion of the 2006 NCAR ASP colloquium, “The Challenge of Predicting Convective Storms.” Thanks to Russ Schumacher for gathering us and sharing this group picture.Friday morning Purdue and Purdue-adjacent group photo.Video night. Photo shared by Marissa at AMS.
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Is there any *less* reassuring phrase in the English language than “Rest assured, …”?
Screen shot of part of an email containing a bulleted point: “Rest assured, your physical card and number will stay the same.”
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Tim Marshall kindly sent me this picture of myself introducing my talk this afternoon.
A woman standing at a lectern, next to a screen displaying a slide which reads, “Who Gains the Most From Severe Storms Field Work Experiences?”
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
I was honored to visit @uwmad-aos.bsky.social for an alumni-only tour over lunch today! I finally got my #RooftopSelfie. I also found my senior thesis still in the library. I still have some Badger blood left in me! #AMSMadisonSummit
Me standing in front of the AOS&S building sign.The spine of my senior thesis from 2001.Me on the AOS&S rooftop with the Madison skyline in the background.In one of my old classrooms (1411) which looks very different today than it did in 1999.
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
P158 with both presenters! @lgrose24.bsky.social @maliyah-wx.bsky.social
Two women standing next to a science poster entitled “Digitizing Purdue’s Role in Tornado Science: Preserving Materials from the 20 March 1976 West Lafayette, Indiana Tornado”
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
P158 is now up for your perusal!
A woman standing next to a scientific poster titled, “Digitizing Purdue’s Role in Tornado Science: Preserving Materials from the 20 March 1976 West Lafayette, Indiana Tornado”
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
My office for the morning #AMSMadisonSummit
A spacious lakefront lobby with numerous tables and chairs
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Holy roost rings, Batman! #32SLS #inwx 🐦
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Mandatory Spotted Cow #32SLS @meteodan.bsky.social 🍻
A woman holding a cup of beerA man holding a cup of beer. There are umbrellas and a lake in the background.
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Surely, that can’t be a mesovortex east of Indianapolis! It is an adorable mesovortex. And don’t call me Shirley.
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
There's no feeling of validation quite like having your paper cited as "inspiration" in another paper. doi.org/10.1175/BAMS...
Screenshot of an article reading, "The surveys were designed to gauge participants’ self-evaluated skills and background knowledge relevant to the field campaign, as well as their motivation and career perspectives. We drew inspiration for some of our questions from those used by Tanamachi et al. (2020), but the final items and scales were tailored to the KPOP-MS context and were not formally validated through psychometric testing. A comprehensive list of survey questions is available in the supplemental material." The line "We drew inspiration for some of our questions from those used by Tanamachi et al. (2020)" is highlighted in yellow.
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Looks like I should have waited a few minutes b/c I could have gotten a more equivalent screen shot, including a large cargo vessel passing between the lighthouses. I want to hold all the other independent variables constant, dammit.
A dim orange sun shines through smoky skies over two lighthouse piers. A large outbound freighter ship (CSL Laurentien) passes between them.
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
The AQI in Duluth, MN, one of my favorite places to visit, is 928 this morning. Below: What Duluth Canal Cam looks like this morning vs on a recent partly cloudy day. The other Duluth Harbor Cams live streams show similarly noxious scenes: youtube.com/@duluthharbo...
Smoky skies over two lighthouse piersClear, blue skies over two lighthouse piers. A large cargo ship is sailing out between them.
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Ugh. My condolences. Not that far from you, Duluth’s air looks like you could cut it with a knife. Live 📺: www.youtube.com/live/HPS48TM...
Smoky skies over two piers with lighthouses
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Lengthy, but comprehensive and well-documented analysis of how Project 2025 attempts to straitjacket American science have borne out. Like the Borg, the enemy is adapting in the face of effective defense. substack.com/home/post/p-...
Screenshot of a passage from the linked article by Dr. Joel Widder, which reads: "The administration has learned from its 2025 legal defeats, and the OMB grantmaking rule is the clearest evidence of that adaptation. Where 2025’s grant terminations were struck down in court for being carried out through informal memos lacking reasoned explanation, the May 2026 OMB rule pursues the identical underlying objective — political control over which science gets funded — through the formal notice-and-comment rulemaking process, which if finalized would carry the force of law and be far more durable against legal challenge. This shift from executive fiat to codified regulation may prove to be the most consequential and hardest-to-reverse development of the entire eighteen-month period, precisely because it is designed to survive the courts that blocked its predecessors."
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
As part of an academic writing program I completed recently, I was asked to track my "writing energy" on a simple 1-4 point scale every 30 min for a week. I extended it to two weeks, mainly because I'm an overachiever. I have empirically confirmed that I am a morning person.
A graph showing several colorful curves. The main peak is around 9:00 a.m.
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
This TCu has a sun hat on #inwx
Towering cumulus cloud with pileus cap
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
At #AMS2026, Dr. Jessica Schultz predicted we would start seeing widespread critical NEXRAD failures by the early 2030s due to aging infrastructure, obsolete parts, technicians retiring, etc. It looks like these failures and outages are already starting to happen. 🎥 ams.confex.com/ams/106ANNUA...
A graph showing NEXRAD availability projected to decrease below 96% by 2032.
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
"It must be nice to only work three hours a week" is a tired old canard about professors that should be deep-sixed. The professor at the front of a classroom is the tip of a temporal iceberg that includes class prep, grading, email, advising, and far more. Source: www.chronicle.com/article/the-...
Table: How Faculty Spend Their Time
Table with 7 columns and 8 rows. (column headers with buttons are sortable)
	R1/R2	Doctoral/Professional and Masters	Baccalaureate and Special Focus
	Tenured/Tenure Track	Nontenure Track	Tenured/Tenure Track	Nontenure Track	Tenured/Tenure Track	Nontenure Track
Courses Taught	4.7	5.7	6	6.9	6.4	6.3
	Weekly Time Spent
Teaching	40%	56%	46%	57%	49%	55%
Advising	12%	12%	12%	13%	14%	11%
Research	27%	14%	18%	13%	17%	15%
Service	22%	18%	24%	17%	21%	18%
Total (Hours)	45	39.2	44.6	37.8	46.2	40.9
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Norman tried to randomly kill a bunch of my friends last night
Oklahoma Mesonet meteogram showing a 90 mph wind gust around 11 pm on 4 July 2026
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
You may have noticed NWS rolling out new #HeatRisk products this season. They are intended to simplify communicating heat-related health threats using 5 categories (similar to hurricanes). More info here: www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/heatrisk/
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
I drove my husband to a Father’s Day tornado yesterday. Video later!
A tornado under a dark cloud with a gravel road in the foreground.
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
This was literally the only glimpse we got of Mattoon-Charleston, IL tornadogenesis on 18 June 2026. Yep, that skinny funnel on the left was all we saw, looking W. We had to escape because it immediately made an El Reno-style, SE-ward swoop.
A dark cloud base with a funnel cloud on the left, and green rain curtains behind.
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
We closed the books on #SPOTTR 2026 this week. The students continue to be my strength and inspiration! @meteodan.bsky.social @eaps-spottr.bsky.social
A group of people standing under a stormy skyA group of people standing in a fieldA group of people standing on a gravel road watching a dark cloudA large group of people eating dinner at a long table
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Visibility may be an issue for chasers in central/southern IL today, since the orientation of the line will be more zonal than meridional. #ilwx
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Debating whether to launch a sonde today... I'd like to sample some of these huge half-circle hodographs to initialize model runs.
Skew-T diagram showing a moist adiabatic thermal profile and a strongly looping low-level hodograph.Simulated reflectivity from the same time (crosshairs at West Lafayette IN) showing that the sounding was taken in precipitation, hence the moist adiabatic profile
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
It’s not every day I get to see a healthy looking wall cloud on my drive home around 2130 UTC. This one rotated weakly, but didn’t produce any tornadoes. #inwx
Wall cloud above a fence and a grassy field
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Not bad for having not even made the decision to chase until 6:30 pm! This tornado was north of DeMotte, IN around 8:00 pm on 11 June (0000 UTC on 12 June).
A cone tornado under a green rain shaft
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Source: substack.com/@samillingwo...
Substack note by Dr. Sam Illingworth which reads:

“We taught students to write like machines for a century, then panicked when machines started writing like students.

The five-paragraph essay. The formulaic introduction. The hedging conclusion. We standardised writing until it became indistinguishable from generated text.

AI didn’t kill student voice. We had already buried it under rubrics.
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
The second module in the COMET MetEd Radar Meteorology course is published! "The Radar Equations" demystifies common forms of the single point target and distributed target equations for backscattered power. Free registration required: learn.meted.ucar.edu#/online-cour...
Screenshot of a web site that reads:
Online Course: 
The Radar Equations
1h 30 m - 2 h
Start
Overview:

Description
The weather radar equations quantitatively describe the process by which an electromagnetic pulse departs a radar antenna, interacts with scatterers in the atmosphere, and then returns back to the radar. In this lesson, we derive the radar equations step by step, demystifying each term. Learners will gain a complete understanding of both versions of the radar equation – one version for a single target, and another version for distributed targets – and be able to describe how changes to each variable impact the amount of power the radar receives. These equations inform both the design and use of weather radars and their data.
Objectives

    Define the terms in the radar equation for a single target
    Define the terms in the radar equation for distributed targets
    Anticipate how adjusting terms in the radar equation affects the power received
    Explain, step by step, how the two radar equations are derived
    Convert radar variables and equations between linear and logarithmic units
    Provide typical values of backscattering cross section for common scatterers
    Distinguish between several different variables that are commonly called “reflectivity”

Published: May 20, 2026
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
With the Indiana primary election nearly over, I am very much looking forward to NOT receiving these daily glossy mailers that are paid for by out-of-state super-PACs. 🗳️
Glossy yellow mailer that reads:
LIBERAL SPENCER DEERY IS TAKING INDIANA THE WRONG WAY
X RAISE YOUR PROPERTY TAXES
X SIDING WITH LIBERAL DEMOCRATS
X SELLING US OUT TO CHINA
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
I am immensely proud of my graduate student, @morgancrows.bsky.social, who successfully defended her M.S. thesis this afternoon! Congratulations, Morgan, and look out, world!
A woman with long brown hair standing in front of a scientific poster.
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Source: substack.com/@samillingwo...
Screenshot of a Substack post by Dr Sam Illingworth: 

Training GPT-4 consumed roughly 150 million litres of water. Microsoft's carbon emissions have risen 23% since 2020, driven almost entirely by AI infrastructure.

We are using the most energy-intensive technology ever created to summarise emails and write LinkedIn posts. Every prompt has an environmental cost.

Who is asking whether the output was worth it?
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
The so-called “tornado mop” looks more like a “microburst mop” to me. (Diagram by Dr. Ted Fujita.) I’m also not sure I would want a tornado to clean my house. They tend to spray debris and crud around.
Photo of a “Libman tornado mop” for sale at a store.Picture of the mop, close up and reversedFujita diagram of a microburst, showing winds twisting downward in a helix, then spreading out upon reaching the surface.
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
Feeling immense gratitude for the staff of NWS Indianapolis, for letting my radar class visit their office on this cold, rainy Saturday!
A group of people standing in front of a radar
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Is that a reflection off a nearby tower, KDVN, or are you just happy to see me?
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
We did a 20Z radiosonde launch from West Lafayette, IN #inwx
Skew-T and hodograph diagram
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Quick severe wx setup over C IL/W IN today: CAMs persist storm cluster over C IL->NW IN 22Z Moisture ✅ Warm sector dewpts > 60 F Lift ✅ OFB reinforcing the warm front Instability ✅ C IL mesoanalysis > 1000 J/kg, with ~ 4 hrs of ☀️ left to go Shear ✅ 0-6 km shear > 70 kts approaching from the W
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
PGUA’s blockage patterns literally could not be worse for the Mariana Islands rn #TyphoonSinlaku
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Walking the dog at 5:30 am, the clouds parted just long enough for me to get a clear view of the gibbous moon. 🌖 My thoughts wandered to the four humans out there in a metal container, truly representing the best of us. That’s pretty flippin’ cool. #ArtemisII Image from NASA’s Dial-A-Moon.
Waning gibbous moon against a black sky. From NASA’s Dial-A-Moon web site.
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
I wish @samillingworth.com would post on BlueSky more. His Slow AI Substack is one of my favorites, and absolutely worth the time spent reading. open.substack.com/pub/theslowai
Screenshot of a Substack post from Dr. Sam Illingworth that reads, “A child who grows up with AI answering every question will never learn the patience of not knowing.

The discomfort of sitting with a question used to be developmental. You asked something. Nobody answered immediately. You sat with it. Sometimes the answer came. Sometimes it did not. Both were useful. 

Instant answers do not teach patience. They teach that all questions have solutions. Most of the important ones do not.”
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
I was in Chicago to introduce a film called “A Brief History of Chasing Storms” to a nearly full theater at Northwestern U’s Block Museum. It was a fun evening. A new & completely unsuspecting audience did the VCP dance. More wx-related films to come: www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/cinema/cinem...
Theatergoers looking toward a screen that reads, in part, “Science on Screen: Watching the Weather”
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