MeteorologyNews.com

According to research published recently by the UK Telegraph (Why heave weather makes you fat), the lack of sun during gloomy weather may reduce human production of Vitamin D and, in turn, shut off a mechanism which tells the brain when the stomach is full, resulting in weight gain:

Dieters struggling to shed a few pounds have a new excuse for failing to lose weight – the grey British weather.

Scientists claimed people who were overweight had lower levels of vitamin D, which is created when skin is exposed to sunlight.

The study found that low levels of the vitamin in blood interfered with the function of a hormone called leptin, which tells the brain when the stomach is full.

It means the nation’s waistlines are unlikely to get any slimmer this summer, with forecasters predicting more wet weather.

Researchers at Aberdeen University found that Read the rest

In the wake of the tragedy that struck Little Sioux, IA on June 11th, a photograph of an ominous looking cloud has been making the rounds through email, falsely attributed to the fatal storm that struck the Little Sioux Boy Scout Camp that evening, killing four and injuring dozens. The image going around the internet, often titled “Little Sioux Boy Scout camp twister” was not in fact a photograph of a tornado - it is not even the storm that struck that Boy Scout camp location on the evening of June 11th, but instead of a non-tornadic storm the night before (June 10, 2008) approximately 220 miles away in the town of Orchard in Mitchell County, Iowa.

This image, along with its inaccurate caption, appears to be going viral - reaching millions of viewers via email forwards, message boards, and websites. While the image now appears on dozens of websites with multiple, conflicting captions, the image first appeared through local media websites in Iowa on the evening of June 10th or the morning of June 11th Read the rest

The National Weather Service office out of Wichita, Kansas has put together a fantastic synopsis of the significance of today’s date: June 8th, when it comes to tornado history.

If any date was to be observed as National Tornado Day in the United State it would likely be June 8th. In 1941, an F4 tornado around one quarter mile wide and possessing rotational velocities of 210 to 260 mph roared 42 miles across south-central Kansas from 7 miles southwest of Maize to the Butler/Marion county line 5 miles west of Burns. Eight people were killed, 20 injured, and 5 homes were leveled.

Kansas wasn’t the only state that got in on the action on June 8th. Many other tornadoes, some of which were much more devastating, followed: Read the rest

The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration has completed the deployment of a tsunami warning system for the US by installing buoys throughout the ocean intended to give advanced warning of an impending tsunami.

NOAA deployed the final two tsunami detection buoys in the South Pacific this week, completing the buoy network and bolstering the U.S. tsunami warning system. This vast network of 39 stations provides coastal communities in the Pacific, Atlantic, Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico with faster and more accurate tsunami warnings.

The buoys are ingenous little contraptions, designed to collect an array of quantitative data on the conditions from each site and relay that information back to central data collection and analysis points: Read the rest

In further research that supports the hypothesis that global warming may reduce damage from hurricanes, NOAA published a preview of upcoming research today (Warmer Ocean Could Reduce Number of Atlantic Hurricane Landfalls). New research indicates that increased ocean temperatures will, as expected, increase wind shear over the oceans which in turn, may reduce the number of landfalling Atlantic hurricanes:

A warming global ocean — influencing the winds that shear off the tops of developing storms — could mean fewer Atlantic hurricanes striking the United States according to new findings by NOAA climate scientists. Furthermore, the relative warming role of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans is important for determining Atlantic hurricane activity. Read the rest

The weather channel, a shell of what it used to be, is up for sale. For those that remember, the Weather Channel began in the early 1980’s as a channel devoted soley to the weather: what is happening now (currently) and what the forecast is.

Established in 1982, the channel initially attracted an audience of devoted meteorology enthusiasts. But it has gained a broader following by showing “docudramas” such as Storm Stories which recreate the exploits of people hit by extreme weather. It reaches 96m households.

A “broader” audience? Perhaps. A smaller audience after losing true weather enthusiasts and meteorologists? Likely. They had a solid schedule that repeated every hour, including the local forecasts on the 8s. That is about the only remnant that has remained, with most live programming having been replaced by sensationalistic, tabloid-style programming instead of current weather analysis and forecast discussions. Read the rest

The AP recently ran a piece looking back on the Weather of 2007. The article included many of the stories that made headlines throughout the year, from the Australian drought to the drought in the Southeast US, the Arctic sea ice, and others. The article focused on the extremes that were reached: record highs, precipitation records, storms, etc…

By SETH BORENSTEIN – Dec 29, 2007

WASHINGTON (AP) — When the calendar turned to 2007, the heat went on and the weather just got weirder. January was the warmest first month on record worldwide — 1.53 degrees above normal. It was the first time since record-keeping began in 1880 that the globe’s average temperature has been so far above the norm for any month of the year. Read the rest

According to NASA, we may be on the verge of a new solar cycle initiation - working our way out of the recent solar minimum and toward a maximum that would peak around 2011 or 2012.

The solar physics community is abuzz this week. No, there haven’t been any great eruptions or solar storms. The source of the excitement is a modest knot of magnetism that popped over the sun’s eastern limb on Dec. 11th, pictured below in a pair of images from the orbiting Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). Read the rest

Could it possibly be that polar bears are not as endangered by global climate change as has previously been believed? New research seems to indicate that polar bear populations are thriving in the Arctic, even as the climate warms and ice melts.

A survey of the animals’ numbers in Canada’s eastern Arctic has revealed that they are thriving, not declining, because of mankind’s interference in the environment.

In the Davis Strait area, a 140,000-square kilometre region, the polar bear population has grown from 850 in the mid-1980s to 2,100 today.

Read the rest