Michael Lowry

Local 10 Hurricane Specialist and Storm Surge Expert Michael Lowry, wife welcome 3rd child Local 10 Hurricane Specialist and Storm Surge Expert Michael Lowry and his wife, Kait, have welcomed their third child.

Some personal news :)

Some highlights:
-Authorizes appropriations for five years for OAR’s weather labs and cooperative institutes, plus related weather research efforts.
-Renews and authorizes appropriations for five years for VORTEX-USA.
-Furthers HFIP, with a renewed emphasis on social sciences. (1/n)

The NHC post-analysis report for #HurricaneMelissa is out now.

Estimated maximum sustained winds were nudged upwards to 190 mph at #Melissa's peak, tying Hurricane Allen (1980) for the highest ever recorded in the Atlantic, Caribbean, or Gulf of Mexico.

Locations that have seen as much snow as Providence on Monday

I checked the historical record to find places in the Northeast that have seen 35.5 inches or greater snowfall in one day like Providence did on Monday. Finding: very few.

Article on the unique and extreme nature of the storm with @bennollweather.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2026...

Backup lights and backup alarms are also crucial safety features warning others you're leaving a parking space. Pedestrians and other vehicles can't read your mind. Common sense parking lot reform :)

Providence at 37.9 inches thru 7p which should be the storm total. Highest report logged with NWS for the storm so far. Demolished the old record there.

Newark has been sitting under a stationary band all morning and has one of the higher totals in the NYC Metro area at 27.1”, which is very close to their record for a snowstorm.

Blizzard of 1978
vs.
Blizzard of 2026

Providence's biggest snowstorm by the obs

Providence RI up to 32.8 inches through 1p which is the biggest snowstorm on record there. Beats 28.6 inches Feb 6-7, 1978. Records begin 1904. (edited)

Incredible. Even a tropical guy can appreciate this.

Trump officials limit FEMA travel to disaster areas amid funding lapse, emails show It is highly unusual for a government shutdown or funding lapse to impede ongoing disaster recovery efforts.

Breaking news: The Department of Homeland Security halted almost all employee travel amid the ongoing standoff over its funding, restricting the ability of some FEMA staff to move in and out of disaster-affected areas.

The future of Atlantic hurricane tracks » Yale Climate Connections A look at what we know and don't yet know about how climate change could affect the paths of these storms — and the all-important question of how often they'll make landfall.

My comprehensive look at how Atlantic hurricane tracks are changing and will change. One takeaway:
No significant changes in tracks have been reliably detected in recent decades, though there appears to have been a significant shift to the south for storms attaining hurricane strength.

Why changes in a Florida ocean current could wreak havoc worldwide It’s part of the scenario in “The Day After Tomorrow,” but scientists differ over whether or how fast it may occur. A team studying the current toils to bring clarity.

Gift link! 🎁 🔗 wapo.st/4cxArSI

It still floors me that NWS never overcame the app hurdle. The argument 15 years ago was undue competition with the private sector, but I would've expected that barrier to have fallen with the massive uptake in apps vs websites. Even a public iNWS would be a tremendous service nowadays.

Not to mention social media channels *will* call you out on this nonsense

One of the many things I cherish most about my Substack is the ability to control headlines. I'm by no means optimizing eyeballs but integrity matters, especially when headlines are all many ever see. Not only is getting it wrong dangerous in our space but readers see through these gimmicks.

Another destructive decision by this administration.

Weak self-induced cooling of tropical cyclones amid fast sea surface warming - Nature Geoscience Tropical cyclones cool the ocean surface less than previously thought, indicating that current projections may underestimate their future intensity and frequency, according to an analysis of global se...

Hurricanes are getting stronger: This study found from 1992-2021, Cat 1+ hurricanes globally intensified by 1.74 m/s (3.9 mph) over the 30-year period, and that a cold bias in IPCC climate models "probably contributes to an underestimate in projections of major hurricane frequency.”

I've thought the same thing more times than I care to admit lately. Beyond being hard on the eyes and poorly designed, they're often used for sensationalism. Stations pay a lot of money for weather graphics systems. Use them!

Very little rain coming in the next 2 weeks. “With less than 4” of rain since November, the South Florida Water Management District said water levels in the Biscayne Aquifer have fallen dramatically. In some places, levels are the lowest in more than a decade”. www.miamiherald.com/news/local/e...

Breaking: Washington Post gutting its climate team Clean energy dies in darkness. Courtesy of Jeff Bezos.

Among the other outrages in today's news from the @washingtonpost.com, management has gutted the Pulitzer-winning climate team, according to @sammyroth.bsky.social. Their work has been so important — one more reason to be heartbroken today. And pissed. www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/washington...

The journalists at the Post consistently publish some of the best researched and well written pieces. It's a shame to see it overrun with poor management willing to use established, top-notch journalists as collateral damage for their failures.

This was one of my favorite #AGU25 talks this year

A fun case study since there have been 72 million articles on the cold in the east and 4 on the warmth in the west

Read this one in 2025 as well. It's unfathomable what a booming business has been made of homelessness in America. Important (and painful) stories everyone should hear.

With the caveat that it's based on a forecast, per SERCC, this could be among the coldest "January 19 - February 1" two-week stretches on record in the East.

14% of all U.S. government STEM Ph.D.s have left the workforce since Dec. 2024, a huge brain drain. New hires replaced only about 9% of the departures (at 14 of the agencies studied).

00Z HRRR forecasted flat ice accumulations are downright scary. Maximum ice corridor from TX to TN and another maximum in N GA through S Appalachia look to be areas that will see the worst of it with extensive tree & power grid damage. These areas also tend to have high socioeconomic vulnerability.

Do you appreciate @nws.noaa.gov's posts on Bluesky?

Did you know that this account is a pilot program that may or may not be continued and even expanded to NWS field offices?

NWS is soliciting comments here! www.surveymonkey.com/r/PrototypeN...
Press release:
www.weather.gov/media/notifi...

AMS really knows how to pick em!