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WilliamRudisill @wrudisill.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

As the "water year" comes to a close, we can start looking at some climate statistics. 2026 is emerging as the warmest year ever observed across the Upper Colorado River basin (not surprising) based on NOAA USHCN data. The red curve is all of the stations in the basin, blue is the Gunnison.

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Abrupt snowmelt due to “snow-eater heat waves” in Western US can cause flooding AND snow droughts, & affects water resources. Since 1850, simulated snow-eaters avg ~3-5 days, with 3-5 events, doubling melt rates. 7 of 11 spring superfloods coincided w/snow-eaters. www.science.org/doi/full/10....

science.org

Snow-eater heat waves of the western United States

Snow-eater heat waves are defined, identified, and shown to nearly double usual western United States spring snowmelt rates.

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WilliamRudisill @wrudisill.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

I wrote a post about the "cold content" of the snowpack, a quantity commonly used in the hydrology and snow science literature to express how close to melting a snowpack is. www.willrudisill.net/science/2026...

willrudisill.net

Cold Content--- in Context

The topic of this post is “cold content”. This is an important quantity in the world of snow science, but sometimes it’s not explained or understood very wel...

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YubaNet @yubanet.com · 08/06/2026

A reminder.

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WilliamRudisill @wrudisill.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

They acknowledge this in the paper — but the theory/analysis they describe does not take into account snow and ice, nor the *effects of seasonality*. For regions — such as western USA — where all/most of the precipitation falls in the cold-season months these are both probably important

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WilliamRudisill @wrudisill.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Just how anomalous was the March heat in California? These are from NOAA US Historical Climate Network v2.5 monthly air temperature data for four stations in the vicinity of Lake Tahoe. This was the warmest March of record, and a full 3 standard deviations beyond the mean. #CAWX

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WilliamRudisill @wrudisill.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

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WilliamRudisill @wrudisill.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

I wrote a post about the March 2026 heatwave and snowmelt. In a normal year, energy from the sun provides most of the energy for snowmelt, but during early spring "snow eater" heatwaves (such as this year's) other factors are likely more important! www.willrudisill.net/science/2026... #CAWX

willrudisill.net

The case for temperature driven snowmelt

Warm temperatures melt snow The March heatwave in the Southwestern USA raises the question — what actually happens to snow when it gets warm? This is a surpr...

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WilliamRudisill @wrudisill.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

willrudisill.net

The case for temperature driven snowmelt

Warm temperatures melt snow The March heatwave in the Southwestern USA raises the question — what actually happens to snow when it gets warm? This is a surpr...

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WilliamRudisill @wrudisill.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

% of Median Snow Water Equivalent (left) vs. % of Median Acc. Precipitation across the WUS (right) for Jan 30, 2026. Much of the low snowpack is attributed to high temps (rain rather than snow) as opposed to purely precip. drought.

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WilliamRudisill @wrudisill.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Interesting hoarfrost crystals in the Sierra Nevada crest near i80— perfectly aligned with the wind direction. No sign of rime, indicating this formed from vapor rather than supercooled liquid water drops. Likely formed after the creation of the AR conditions of Christmas Day. #CAwx

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WilliamRudisill @wrudisill.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Just checked to see if the SNOTEL network data page is online— this is the website header 🫠 www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/da...

nrcs.usda.gov

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Bob Kopp @bobkopp.net · 01/06/2025

26g. DOE budget slashes Biological & Environmental Research by almost 60%, focused particularly on “environmental system sciences, atmospheric system research, earth system modeling, data management, and the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement”

Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
BER supports transformative science and scientific user facilities to harness the genomic potential found in nature, achieve a predictive understanding of complex systems, and provide the fundamental research leading to solutions for the Nation's energy and national security challenges. BER activities in environmental system sciences, atmospheric system research, earth system modeling, data management, and the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement User Facility are terminated. The Request funds:
Justification
• Fundamental Genomic Science as the core basic research effort accelerating the development of non-medical plant- and microbial-based biotechnologies, focused on bioenergy, chemical and biomaterial synthesis, bioproducts and critical mineral recovery.
• Integration of Al systems into research to enable discoveries, accelerate predictive understanding, automate laboratory systems and processes, and rapidly advance biosystems design capabilities.
• New bio-inspired research to design microorganisms and plants with enhanced abilities to extract, separate and concentrate critical minerals and materials.
• New explorations in quantum-enabled technology for non-destructive imaging of biological systems and vastly enhanced sensing of biochemical reactions.
• Continued operation of the Joint Genome Institute and the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory as central scientific user facilities driving BER science.
• Continuation of the Microbial Molecular Phenotyping Capability project as a core capability to accelerate characterization of platform organisms for biotechnology.

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Dr. Jeff Masters @drjeffmasters.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Without Unidata, the company I co-founded, Weather Underground, would never have come to be.

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WilliamRudisill @wrudisill.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

SNODAS certainly had it's issues, but it remains one of the only only operational snow water equivalent products across CONUS. Not good.

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Chris Vagasky @coweatherman.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

At this point, it's going to be difficult to keep track of what radiosonde sites are launching consistently or not. You can always check the SDM Administrative Messages to see which radiosondes made it into the models or not: www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/status/messa...

NOUS41 KWBC 171430 PNSWSH Service Change Notice 25-36 National Weather Service Headquarters Silver Spring, MD 1030 AM EDT Thu Apr 17, 2025 To: From: Subscribers: -NOAA Weather Wire Service -Emergency Manager Weather Information Network -NOAAPort -Other NWS Partners, Users, And Employees Mike Hopkins, Director Surface and Upper Air Division Office of Observations Subject: Temporary Reduction of Radiosonde Observations, from Selected Sites, Effective April 17, 2025. Until further notice, the National Weather Service (NWS) may temporarily reduce or suspend scheduled radiosonde launches at selected NWS upper air sites due to staffing limitations or operational priorities. Office(s) will continue to conduct special observations as resources allow and in response to emerging weather events. To mitigate potential impacts, the NWS is actively pursuing alternative sources of upper-air data and adjusting internal staffing and procedures to maintain continuity of service. Additional updates will be provided as needed. Under normal operations, the NWS conducts and/or supports radiosonde observations twice a day from 100 upper air sites throughout the United States, Caribbean, and the Pacific Basin. Radiosondes are sensors attached to weather balloons to provide critical upper-atmospheric data including temperature, dew point, relative humidity, pressure, and wind profiles. These data support weather modeling and forecasting and are complemented by observations from aircraft, satellites, radars, surface stations, and ocean buoys. If you or your organization have any questions about these changes, please contact: Mike Hopkins Director Surface and Upper Air Division National Weather Service E-mail: mike.hopkins@noaa.gov National Service Change Notices are online at: https://www.weather.gov/notification/ NNNN

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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

NOAA’s office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research’s main contract for its websites was not approved for renewal, so I’m told we should expect some of them to start to go down. “Lutnick's position on every contract is ‘no’ and agency reps have roughly a minute and a half to convince him otherwise.”

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AGU (American Geophysical Union) @agu.org · 05/03/2025

AGU has joined a lawsuit challenging the firing of probationary employees at federal agencies. These actions weaken science, harm public health & the environment, and threaten national security. 🧵 #StandWithScience

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Brendan Godley @brendangodley.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

Trump administration orders NOAA scientists to halt all international work. Staff were told to stop meetings, discussions, emails with foreign colleagues. Freeze affects travel, virtual meetings, and collaborations until political appointees review them. 🐢🌍🧪🦑 www.opb.org/article/2025...

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WilliamRudisill @wrudisill.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

One more example: About 6-7 (?) years ago, google earth got rid if it's integration with 'Picasa' photos — there was a time when you could zoom into a random river canyon in the Altai and find photos that were geotagged at that location. It was really useful geographical information, now gone

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WilliamRudisill @wrudisill.bsky.social · 14/02/2024

Webcam view from Crested Butte, Colorado. In the distance are radiometers measuring shortwave radiation (solar radiation) and longwave (terrestrial radiation) near the surface. You can watch the effects of overhead clouds on the radiation flux. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkHk...

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WilliamRudisill @wrudisill.bsky.social · 10/02/2024

I recently needed to download some data from the NOAA GML laboratory's sondes in Boulder, CO . The data go all of the way back to the 1960s, so I went ahead and plotted the warming trend. What we see is very clear: warming in the lower atmosphere (1.5C) and cooling in the upper atmosphere.

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