Author: Art Rangno

Retiree from a group specializing in airborne measurements of clouds and aerosols at the University of Washington (Cloud and Aerosol Research Group). The projects in which I participated were in many countries; from the Arctic to Brazil, from the Marshall Islands to South Africa.

A short rant about another “hide the decline” incident in the climate domain with a short rebuttal

Advisory If you are queasy, don’t like reading about what the author perceives as “broken science”, hit the back button now. ————————————————————- Background: 1)  The “Hide the decline” phrase alluded to in the title above came out of the “climategate” e-mails.  Specifically, “hiding the decline” was about  climate scientists deliberately hiding a recent divergence between… Continue reading A short rant about another “hide the decline” incident in the climate domain with a short rebuttal

Climate change: what they were saying, 1974

An early anticipation of a possible climate castastrophy One of the great books of our time on weather modification and climate change came out in 1974:  Weather and Climate Modification by Wiley-Interscience Press. It was edited by Wilmot N. Hess, Director of the Environmental Research Labs under NOAA.   Hess oversaw 11 ERL programs.  … Continue reading Climate change: what they were saying, 1974

Yet another nice sunset

This shot, yesterday just after 7 PM.  Light snow (virga) is falling from relatively thick Altocumulus (opacus) clouds.  Just above the horizon you can see some little turrets poking up from a row of cloud bases making those  clouds Altocumulus castellanus. Bases of these clouds, according to the balloon data obtained from Tucson Int AP… Continue reading Yet another nice sunset

In case you missed it…yesterday morning’s sunrise

A belated post, to be sure Yesterday morning’s sounding when the Altocumulus clouds were overhead.  Bases about -18 C, tops -27 C.  Lots of ice visible along with widespread virga.  Whenever you see this much ice in small Altocumulus clouds like these, you should automatically assume that the temperature at the top is less than… Continue reading In case you missed it…yesterday morning’s sunrise

“Stuck Inside of Tucson with the Seattle Blues Again”

Paraphrasing Bob Dylan’s song title, one that had the line, “Stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again”, that great, driving song he did in the 1960s.  See photos of Seattle-like conditions of low-based Nimbostratus below with a temperature of only  37 F (!) right now in Catalina!  Egad.   As you can also see,… Continue reading “Stuck Inside of Tucson with the Seattle Blues Again”

Some iridescence with your clouds? And a photo comparison of our current droughty conditions compared to last April’s green

Yes, we had some yesterday evening in those Altocumulus lenticularis clouds or just “clouds” for most of you.  This delicate “rainbow” coloring in last evening’s clouds is due to the diffraction of light around really small cloud droplets, ones that have just formed, a few microns to 1o microns or so in diameter.  Because the… Continue reading Some iridescence with your clouds? And a photo comparison of our current droughty conditions compared to last April’s green

Cirrus uncinus display; the tops of storms made visible

First, some instructional material:  You should be looking for your camera now, as seen in the first shot! Those Cirrus clouds to the SW are moving at you rapidly (95 kts, 115 mph at 30-35 Kft ASL!), and so there’s not much time!  In this first shot you can already detect some Cirrus uncinus, Cirrus… Continue reading Cirrus uncinus display; the tops of storms made visible