Billy Faletti

The eyes of betrayal

i'll get back on this eventually lol

my soft social media strike is taking a hiatus folks

Drone photo courtesy Brian Emfinger and used with permission.

The CSSL/NTP assisted the US National Weather Service (NWS) with their upgrading of the official rating of the June 2025 Enderlin, ND tornado from EF3 to EF5.

Announced by the NWS today, it’s the first EF5-rated tornado in the US since 2013.

Details here: uwo.ca/ntp/blog/202...

Image B. Emfinger

just casually ending the ef5 streak too why not

General exam during a government shutdown with no access to my office and immediately finds two of the friendliest kittens ever. I am never before seen levels of toast

I either need to stop going on walks or start going on a lot more

The Univ. of Nebraska’s Dept. of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences has established a webpage soliciting the community’s help in saving their program. Their hearing in front of campus admin is next Friday, Oct 10th. Please consider sharing why they’re essential!

eas.unl.edu/save-earth-a...

Thanks!

Thanks Matt!!

Swept almost everything off my plate before my general exam starts this week and instead of stressed I feel...freer than I have in years

keeping my tropicaltidbits tab open for moral support in these trying times

UNL is proposing to cut the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, which would eliminate the undergraduate and graduate meteorology programs. Please consider sharing the importance of our department with UNL through this link: apc.unl.edu/fall-2025-bu...

i just let a bad compute node deprive me of 90 minutes of sleep i swear to god

If you are

(1) a graduate of UNL's Earth and Atmospheric Sciences department
(2) a research collaborator
(3) a partner who has worked with meteorologists in NE
(4) a grateful NE citizen who appreciates meteorologists keeping you safe

please write a letter to support UNL EAS before it gets cut<1/2>

I've been privileged to know and have worked with many brilliant students, faculty, and alumni from UNL's meteorology program over the last several years. It may be a smaller program, but they have an outsized impact on the field. We can't afford to lose a program like this, especially right now.

It’s ok to put the phone down.

Q: but what if a full Epstein investigation also takes down Bill Clinton?????

A:

I wrote about the cancellation by NOAA of the ~$75M contract to procure the next phased array weather radar R&D instrument. Meanwhile, at least $245M of contracts using federal and state funds have been executed for this "facility" which lasted about 8 weeks. #priorities apnews.com/article/flor...

NOAA cancels procurement of new phased array weather radar test article Further stalls important weather research program

Important weather science news tonight: NOAA has canceled procurement of the next phased array weather radar R&D instrument. Along with the obvious blow to PAR weather research, it is consistent with other moves by admin to push forward quickly with NOAA cuts. More: https://tinyurl.com/my8hx8j6

these people just fundamentally believe that only they have the legitimate right to political power www.gelliottmorris.com/p/new-house-...

Four years ago today in Wisconsin, this brief tornado spun at 17 billion quintillion gazillion miles per hour, breaking the sound barrier or something like that

(Audible "crack" can be heard emanating from the collapsing vortex ~0:17, I believe one of only 2 videos that captured it)

“GPT-5 is the first time that it feels like talking to an expert in any topic — a Ph.D.-level expert,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said.

I'm as big a fan of private weathertech as anyone, but these aren't the backbone of our weather observations. There's also a definite overpromise/underdeliver as far as operational utility. This isn't to minimize the important work, but it's unfair to characterize the extras as a viable replacement.

Just a wild evolution, what I'm guessing(?) is breakdown induced by the highly contracted vortex in the first photo

Watertown tornado drilling nearly straight vertically shortly before morphing into a quasi-steady-state, helix-shaped vortex for several seconds.

Full video edit of the Watertown, #SDwx tornado up. It's rare I get a "video tornado" these days. This is the first time I've had chase video up within a week since...before grad school.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZh-...

***times 1800, one for each South Dakota stovepipe

I can't

Just a relaxing summer lake day yesterday