16th Mountain Meteorolgoy Conference

Where is the best place for a mountain meteorology conference? San Diego, of course!

 



Wednesday morning we were treated with a thunderstorm!! This is unusual for San Diego. Its Hard to believe that our luau luncheon was moved inside.

I presented my research on high wintertime ozone pollution in the Uintah Basin... 

Here's a copy of my poster: http://1drv.ms/1l47DmS

Perseid Meteor Shower

Source: NASA.com

Mountain Meteorology Conference Poster Presentation Preview

Below represents the research I've worked on this summer. Click the image to view the poster I will present at the Mountain Meteorology Conference in San Diego next week.

The Seven Peaks

Seven Peaks isn't just a fun water park in Utah County, there are really 7 Peaks that surround the valley. Can you name them all? Or better yet, have you hiked them all?

McCall, ID

McCall Idaho is my new little paradise. Last week our family went there for a family reunion. It is located two hours north of Boise next to Payette Lake. Below is a LandSat image from July 26, 2014, the week before we got there. It is very green, and the mountains are covered in trees.

We stayed in a lakeside cabin and went swimming, roasted marshmallows, and played lawn games. The cabin wasn't big enough for everyone to sleep inside, so some us slept in tents on the beach, under trees, and even on the the roof of the car port. Each night we got a little bit of rain and saw some lightning. We were lucky and most of the thunderstorms were to our southwest. That meant great boating and sunburn weather for us in McCall every day!

I hadn't been wakeboarding in over five years. This weekend I managed to get up every time the boat pulled me and I didn't get back in the boat until I had a massive headache. Who would have thought water can be hard on your head. With some encouragement from my aunt ("just scream as loud as you can and go for it!!") I got pretty comfortable jumping the wake. The screaming part helped, but don't get so excited about screaming you forget you need to land the board. My sister captured this picture of me right before one of my majestic crashes.

I actually landed this one, but I look very out-of-control.

WRF Beginner's Guide

Linked below are an extensive set of slides I've created that explain how to run successful WRF simulations at the University of Utah. These steps follow UCAR's online tutorial, but gives some additional explanation.

This fall graduate students at the U, including myself, will evaluate WRF performance of simulating cold-air pools (those nasty inversions we get each winter) in the Cache, Salt Lake, Utah, and Uintah valleys.

It's Raining! It's Pouring!

Dual Hurricane

Hawaii hasn't experiences a major hurricane in over two decades. Now, the island state is threatened by two: Iselle and Julio. The MODIS image below shows Iselle on the left and Julio on the right.

Source: MODIS

Both are expected to weaken to tropical storms by the time they reach Hawaii, but Iselle is projected to directly impact the big island. Infrared Satellite is shown below with the projected hurricane path.

Source: Weather Underground

How do meteorologists make the cone of uncertainty? It's a combination of several different weather models. Each model gives a different solution.

Source: Weather Underground

Thunderstorm surround Spanish Fork