Weather Blogroll

NOTE: I am at another yardsale this weekend (in Milesburg, PA) and will not be online. As during the last yardsale, I'll be reading Mike Smith's "Warnings" book.

On the old version of my AccuWeather.com Blog I had a "Blogroll" where I kept links to blogs that I read (other than those on AccuWeather.com and our commercial competitors, which I obviously keep a close eye on). This is a fairly common addition to blogs but I haven't been able to get it back on the new version of the ad-supported AccuWeather.com. That said, I never maintained it well and, when I started reading blogs with Google Reader, I stopped using it myself. Today I'd like to resurrect it. There are a lot of weather blogs and a lot of weather news out there, and I'd like to give you my idea of which are important (and why).

- Meteorological Musings - This blog is written by Mike Smith, Meteorologist and CEO of WeatherData, an AccuWeather company (in Wichita, Kansas, that I was lucky enough to visit in 2007), but that's not why I read it. Being in the weather business for longer than I've been alive, Mike has a unique perspective on the weather. In fact, he has released a book about his experiences in May called "Warnings — The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather". His blog features opinions on Global Warming, weather news from Wichita, and other important weather tidbits.

- TornadoVideos.Net - Scroll down the page to see the latest blog entry. This is Storm Chaser Extraordinaire Reed Timmer (from Discovery Channel's Storm Chasers). I was thrilled to talk to Reed via telephone for a feature story on AccuWeather.com earlier this month. Last winter, Reed went chasing in South America!

- Weather and Climate Through the Eyes of Mark Vogan> - Mark is one of the most dedicated weather enthusiasts I've ever met. And we did meet, IRL (in real life) when he came all the way over from his home in Scotland to tour AccuWeather.com HQ last winter. His blog covers international weather news and (like me) he loves to quote stats about the weather.

- Metsul.com Blog (Portuguese - use Google Toolbar to translate). South America has its share of exciting severe weather (especially this year) but weather news rarely makes it out of there. I think it's because, unlike Europe & Asia, there are no networks in place to translate the news to get it out to the rest of the world. You can get the real scoop here from Alexandre Aguiar (who I frequently converse with via email) and his group of meteorologists -- with plenty of pictures and maps. Check it out, you won't regret it.

SECC CIMSS Satellite Blog - Two guys named Scott write this blog, one of whom I met in college at UNCA and one of whom I only converse with online (sidenote: I also applied for a job at the University of Wisconsin's SSEC after college). These guys are absolute experts about interpreting weather satellite images and they often post high-resolution images and animations (that you won't see elsewhere) about current weather events.

- Extreme Weather Examiner / Doug's Blog - There are a lot of "Examiner.com" weather blogs out there and frankly, few of them are useful. But Doug Kiesling (aka Lightning Boy / Weather Paparazzi) is (among all other things) an avid storm chaser and he puts up the latest videos from wherever he chases. If there's nothing going on, he'll show some amazing videos he has shot in the past. Doug's (other) Blog gives more personal and frequent updates. I have talked to Doug on the phone before and he will tell it like it is.

Extreme Weather Updates - Many of the people on my blog roll were with me when I ran WeatherMatrix.Net and Chris Burt is no exception. He wrote the book (literally) on Extreme Weather in 2003 and released an updated paper version in 2007 -- but he's been putting additional updates on his website ever since. This isn't a blog persay and doesn't have an RSS feed so you'll just have to bookmark it.

- Watt's Up With That? - This blog, written by Anthony Watts, who has had his hands in almost every sector of the weather business for many years, concentrates something that isn't covered elsewhere. When looking at data for Climate Change (Global Warming) we need to make sure that, above all else, the instrumentation that measures the data, and the data that is recorded itself, is sound. Anyone who has ever dealt with humans or computers knows that both can make mistakes and Anthony has made it his religion to investigate these like a CSI. I guarantee you will be surprised by what you read there.

Other Blogs I Read:

- WeatherWhys Blog (Miles Muzio at Bakersfield Now, always thought-provoking) - Australian Storm Chasers Blog (Their storms rival the U.S. Tornado Alley!) - WGN Weather Center Blog (Chicago TV Met Tom Skilling) - VORTEX2 Talk - (Year 2/2 for Government Storm Chasers) - Wx-Man's Blog (Brian Neudorff is a TV met in Erie, PA) - Valley Weather (Stephen Balena writes about Eastern Canada weather) - WJZ WeatherBlog (I worked with Bernadette Woods when she was at AccuWeather) - The Cookville Weather Guy (Michael Detwiler)