Trapped in a Trough

Over the past week, an atmospheric trough has enveloped the Front Range region and much of the Intermountain West.  Reinforced by a series o...

Toward an Arctic Wall

Heading east on the Great Plains yesterday afternoon, we encountered a dense cloud bank that stretched across the eastern horizon.  It had t...

Northeast Blizzard, Western Heat

As residents of the Northeast urban corridor brace for blizzard conditions tonight, those living along the Front Range or across the High Pl...

Flooding in a Parched Landscape

Over the past week, an atmospheric trough developed off the California coast, sweeping Pacific moisture across that parched landscape.  With...

A Rim of Storms

As this week began, a dome of high pressure was building over the Central and Southern Plains of North America.  Within that dome, sinking a...

A Day for Dust Devils

As I crossed the Great Plains yesterday, intense heat, bright sunshine and calm conditions set the stage for dust devil formation and I enco...

Earth's Mass Extinctions

During the course of life on Earth, which began 3.6 billion years ago, the diversity of species on our planet has been determined by a myria...

Arthur and the Trough

Last evening, as Tropical Storm Arthur churned off the east coast of Florida, a broad dip in the jet stream, known as an atmospheric trough,...

Blocking Highs

Domes of high pressure may sit above an ocean or land mass for an extended period of time, shunting storm systems around their periphery; in...

Spring Fires & Global Warming

Driving back to Missouri yesterday, I crossed the Flint Hills of eastern Kansas.  Most of those grass-covered ridges were charred from recen...

Carbon & Life

While carbon is the fourth most common element in our solar system, exceeded only by hydrogen, helium and oxygen, it is but a tiny fraction ...

April on the Great Plains

Driving west on I-70, I entered the Great Plains of North America several miles west of Topeka, Kansas; there, the rolling, wooded terrain o...

The Nature of Hail

While we dodged tornados in Columbia yesterday, we did experience strong thunderstorms, one of which dropped penny-sized hail.  Fortunately,...

California's Drought

The severe, ongoing drought in California is due to a persistent high pressure ridge over the eastern Pacific Ocean.  Beneath that atmospher...

Basin & Range Atmosphere

Yesterday, the rolling farmlands of Ohio's Glaciated Plain were bathed in sunshine.  As we approached the Indiana line, however, a range...

Evolution on Mars

Now that Curiosity has safely landed on the surface of Mars, its future discoveries are greatly anticipated though, it seems to me, fairly p...

The Long La Nina Summer

The extreme heat and drought across the Central U.S. this summer is courtesy of a La Nina atmospheric pattern that has been in place for alm...

Crossing the Storm

After stewing in the warm sector of our latest Pacific storm for 36 hours, enduring periods of heavy rain, intense thunderstorms and interlu...

A Sherbet Sunrise

Yesterday morning, as I left Denver under clear, cold skies, I was treated to a spectacular sunrise on the High Plains. The mellow but bril...

Ripples in the Sky

Last evening, after two days of clear, cold weather, a shelf of high clouds stretched across the western horizon, lit by the colorful rays o...