Stephanie E. Zick

How cold has this winter been so far? The first 2/3 of winter 2025-26 is the 7th warmest on record for the Contiguous U.S.

I personally believe that if GHGs led to global cooling, we would have fixed the problem already.

Group of runners on a cold morning

Picture of an Igloo on VT campus

Group of people inside an igloo

Scenes from a snowy run in Blacksburg this morning

Our public school has been open 12 days since 12/19 too, but with illnesses, our child has had 6.5 days of school. We also had a lot of snow days in December.

It looks relatively warm there 😁

Want to learn about a new composite parameter for forecasting QLCS tornadoes? Come to my #AMS2026 talk at 2:00 pm in 381A! You can also read the journal article about this work at: journals.ametsoc.org/view/journal...

Another image showing the thick layer of sleet on top of snow in Blacksburg

Picture of wintry precipitation scene in Blacksburg VA, with a gloved hand holding a thick layer of sleet.

Wow, I’ve been outside now, and we have almost 2 inches of sleet on top of the snow here in Blacksburg. Sleet has 2-1 or 3-1 ratio to liquid (rain). That’s a lot of wintry precipitation!

Atmospheric sounding for Blacksburg, VA on Saturday evening, January 25, 2026.

Two images are shown. There is an atmospheric sounding for Blacksburg, VA from Saturday evening on the left and a graphic showing ice and snow habits on the right.

I noticed a lot of needles mixed in with the more classic snowflake (dendrite) in last night's snow here in Blacksburg. Model and observed soundings show a similar picture with a cold surface, temperatures mainly between 0 and -10°C within the cloud, and a lackluster dendritic growth zone.

Attention folks in the weather, climate, disaster, wildfire, and Earth science communities: NSF has just published a new "Dear Colleague" letter inviting feedback (by Mar 13) on the proposal to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). www.nsf.gov/funding/...

Flyer for the REMUS program that shows the priority deadline for applications of February 8, 2026. The REMUS program will happen May 26 - July 31, 2026. Contact proj-remus@charlotte.edu with questions!

Are you an undergraduate student interested in gaining research experience this summer? If so, please consider applying to the Research Experiences and Mentorship in Urban Systems (REMUS) program at UNC Charlotte! We are a multidisciplinary REU program that explores many facets of urban science!

From @AGU.org: Senators are working on legislation to save NCAR, but we need extra support for these 8 states. Your Senators in Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas, and Wyoming need to hear from you.

I've got thoughts.

WTAF?!

Also, for the love of God, can we not refer to NCAR As a “climate lab?” It does a hell of a lot more than just climate.

The chaos at FEMA gets even deeper - and we should all be concerned Lack of mission clarity, lack of leadership, and battles with the states are all leading to a federal emergency management agency that looks unable to manage itself, let alone emergencies.

The webpage for the agency responsible for disaster management in this country still lists as its director a guy who resigned a month ago, and shows 6 of the other 9 senior positions as vacant. This is emblematic of the situation at FEMA, and we better wake up about it. tinyurl.com/yc5d9uch

The @dtc-community.bsky.social just released a new call for visitor program proposals targeted at early-career scientists and grad students. The focus is on advancing hierarchical system development principles for NOAA’s modeling systems (which can include MPAS)! dtcenter.org/visitor-prog...

Hurricane Melissa a ‘real-time case study’ of colonialism’s legacies Destruction in Jamaica shows why climate justice cannot be separated from reparatory justice, campaigners say

“The storm hit rural Jamaica hardest – people who are poorest, least protected, and historically marginalised. The same communities shaped by slavery, colonial extraction, and racialised policies are now on the frontline of climate disaster.”

www.theguardian.com/news/2025/no...

Map of Jamaica showing percentage of population living in poverty in 2012, which is minimal near the coasts (a few %) and maximized in the hilly interior (~40%). There isn’t even a major highway running that far west. Map source: https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/236781584080916414

Echoing colleagues: Think before you (re)post. #Melissa is about to impact a relatively poor part of Jamaica. I doubt we will know the true extent of the devastation for days or weeks.

Information vacuums fill with disinformation. Expect a lot of “breaking wind” on SM.

Map source: World Bank

#Melissa's landfall intensity of 185 mph/892 mb ties it with the Florida Key's Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 as the record minimum pressure of any TC making landfall *anywhere* the NATL basin. I feel for the residents of #Jamaica 😞

Zoomed in G19 visible meso loop courtesy of @cyclonicwx.bsky.social

The western end of Jamaica where #Melissa is projected to make landfall has the least well-built structures of anyplace on the island. Graphic is from a 2021 paper, "Poverty and hurricane risk exposure in Jamaica": www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Tropical Tidbits | Patreon Creating weather visualizations and hurricane forecast videos

During an event like this a couple of years ago, I decided to become a sustaining member. Highly recommend to anybody who uses Levi’s website regularly!

www.patreon.com/cw/Tropicalt...

Hurricane #Melissa Advisory 24: Melissa Now a Category 5 Hurricane. Destructive Winds and Storm Surge and Catastrophic Flooding Will Worsen On Jamaica Through the Day and Into Tonight. http://hurricanes.gov

This is something we cover in week 1-2 of atmospheric thermo by exploring soundings from the tropics, midlats and poles. The tropical tropopause is higher and colder than it is in other locations. And this is a pretty iconic example!

*** JOB OPPORTUNITY AT UNIV OF FLORIDA IN GIS ***

While I’m at the UCAR Member’s meeting, I’m reminding everyone of the internships, workshops, and other student opportunities that they have available! www.ucar.edu/exhibit/stud...

MS position for Fall 2026 available to study Hurricane Ecology w/ me at #UCF and with @jefferybcannon.bsky.social from @thejonesctr.bsky.social! Funded half time as a TA and half as an RA. See web for details: tinyurl.com/9pm33ttt
Please RT and share with your bright undergrads!!

Investigator Program | HHMI Equipping scientists to push their research fields into new areas of inquiry. Investigators are HHMI employees, and each receives roughly $11 million in support over a renewable seven-year term.

There is the idea of funding people not projects. HHMI does this. www.hhmi.org/programs/inv...

Here is a 4-day track summary of Hurricanes #Humberto and #Imelda, showcasing an example of the #Fujiwhara Effect. They approached and interacted with each other, coming within 465 miles, but did not complete an orbit around a common center or merge before moving back away from each other.
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Right now, I am focusing smaller on my family, faith community, academic department, students, town because that keeps me grounded and sane. Others may have more bandwidth and that is great. The weight is not all on my shoulders & needs to be spread around. And a lot happens at the community level!