My story on "The volcanic-Climate Connection," which was published in the January-February 2010 issue of Weatherwise magazine, focuses on how a few extremely large volcanoes in the past have cooled the Earth for a few months. At the end of the... »

NEW YORK CITY—The American Museum of Natural History at Central Park West and 79th Street is always worth a visit when you’re in New York City. If you are curious about all of the talk about climate change, the museum... »

Q:  If the temperature is above 32 degrees and the wind chill is below 32 degrees, will water freeze? —Kirsten H., Somerville, MA A:  No. Most people are aware that they feel colder when the wind is blowing, but this is... »

The timely updates on severe weather events that most National Weather Service offices now publish on their Web sites are one of the reasons why I say on page 6 of The AMS Weather Book that, “We are living in... »

Protecting windows and other openings is vital to making a house more likely to survive strong winds. I go into some... »

Monday's disappearance of an Air France Airbus 330 over the Atlantic Ocean has led to speculation that it was hit by lightning.... »

Most news stories about the June 1 crash of Air France Flight 447 into the Atlantic Ocean mention that it was flying through an area of thunderstorms when it went down, but these stories leave readers hungry for more information. The... »

With the (Northern Hemisphere) summer solstice coming up Sunday you'll be hearing and reading about June 21 being "the... »

Edith Maslin Ronne, who was one of the first two women to spend more than part of a day in Antarctica and for whom the Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica... »

Q: Why does... »

The political, diplomatic, and military consequences of climate change can be a minefield for journalists. Lately most... »

USA TODAY,  ABC News, and probably other news outlets have published reports that Bill Gates and others have filed patent applications... »

Q: I am trying to find out how many degrees Fahrenheit the temperature decreases with each 1,000 feet of elevation. Thanks for your response. -Harry, Phoenix, Ariz. A: The exact rate at which the temperature changes with elevation differs from... »

The Page One Cover Story in the Friday, August 14 issue of USA TODAY, "Woodstock: More of a curiosity than a benchmark in 2009?" (online) is just... »

NOAA's announcement on August 28, 2009 that nitrous oxide is replacing chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as the most abundant ozone-depleting substance emitted by human activities offers a big challenge to science writers. Making sense of ozone and the substances that deplete it is... »

The stunning images from the wildfires sweeping parts of the Los Angeles area offer a good way to illustrate how science helps us understand the world. Other wildfires in the future will offer similar opportunities for teachers, writers, and broadcasters. The opening... »

Many non-meteorologists, including otherwise well-informed adults, don't realize that weather forecasting is a science. Meteorologists who visit schools with the message, "If you want to become a weather professional, study all of the math and science you can," are sometimes asked,... »

Jack Williams' The AMS Weather Book will be among books by 75 nationally-known authors that will be sold and signed at the National Press Club's annual Book Fair and Authors' Night on Tuesday,Nov. 17, 2009 at the historic club in... »

Q: My question is about your article in the November  AOPA Flight Training magazine on tropical cyclones.  I'm trying to reconcile two potentially different ideas: first, that a cyclone has swirling air (which I assume to mean the the air... »

Q: Why doesn't an extratropical cyclone continue to rotate around a 360-degree axis, like a hurricane?  I've always wondered why a cold front begins to the northwest of the low center and then dies out on the northeast side. Why... »

Ida,  a late-season hurricane that caused serious flooding along the U.S. Northeast Coast after it was no longer a hurricane or even a tropical storm offers teachers opportunities to hitch science lessons to a big news story. Even students who say... »

Q: In the November issue of AOPA Flight Training, you discuss extratropical cyclones, including the movement of cold air under warm air and vice versa. If I understand this correctly, the fronts themselves do not discriminate between the cold or... »

Prince Albert II of Monaco,whose environmental credentials are certainly as strong as those of any head of state, illustrated some of the pitfalls of trying to help people understand science during his talk and following question and answer session at... »

Q: I have been reading your column in AOPA Flight Training magazine for several years and I wanted to let you know you have inspired me to become very interested in the weather and especially how it effects my flying.... »

Q: In your AOPA Flight Training Magazine, January 2010 article you say that the curving path of upper air winds cause air to sink in some areas, creating high pressure at the surface, and to rise in other areas creating... »

Like any big weather event the storm that spread snow from Tennessee and North Carolina along the East Coast to New England on December 18-21, 2009 is a good source of real-world science lessons. With this storm, as with most winter... »

The strong winds and bitter cold that the new year 2010 brought to large parts of the United States has put wind chill in the news. This, like any outbreak of cold, windy weather, offers high school physics teachers in places... »

The New Year has brought us a blizzard of stories about frigid temperatures and snow storms, but I've been unable to find any stories that closely examine what's going on. I had been wondering whether I just hadn't looked hard enough... »

The Atmospheric Science Librarians ... »

Q: In your article in the January 2010 issue of AOPA Flight Training, you say: "If the lines on a weather map showing air pressures of 500 millibars and 496 millibars were straight and parallel, the PGF and Coriolis forces... »

Does "blizzard" have an official definition? The National Weather Service considers a storm to be a blizzard when it has winds of 35 mph or faster, low temperatures (no specific figure given), and sufficient snow in the air to reduce visibility... »