Category Archives: GLOBE Protocols

Hail and Thunderstorm Updraft Strength

This blog was written just before departing for the GLOBE Learning Expedition meeting in South Africa. I’ll be posting some additional blogs about the meeting in the coming weeks. In the meantime, after you read this blog, check out the … Continue reading

Posted in Atmosphere, Backyard Science | 2 Comments

Land Use: How Important for Climate?

According to the most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, land use change has a relatively minor impact on the recent rise in global average temperature. Yet, as stressed in an earlier set of blogs on Iowa … Continue reading

Posted in Climate, Climate Change, Land Cover | Leave a comment

Will there be more tropical cyclones in the future?

At a recent meeting, someone commented to me that the “global-warming folks” must be wrong, since we haven’t had a strong hurricane season since 2005, and weren’t they saying that a warmer climate means more hurricanes? Since we had work … Continue reading

Posted in Atmosphere, Climate Change | Leave a comment

“Fropas”

One of the most exciting weather phenomena is the passage of a front, called a “Fropas” (FROH-pah) by meteorologists. Especially a strong cold front. A front is simply the boundary between a large mass of cold air and a large … Continue reading

Posted in Atmosphere, Backyard Science, GLOBE Protocols | Leave a comment

Wind Power

The cost of using fossil fuels has gone up – we paid over $4.00 a gallon for gasoline for the first time this weekend. But of course there is the no-longer-hidden cost of what the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse … Continue reading

Posted in Atmosphere, Carbon, Earth as a System | Leave a comment