Let's Talk About The Weather: 10 Fascinating Tempest News Interviews

Each month columnist Ann Marie Gardner interviews some of the most fascinating figures in weather and related fields. Here, we've collected ten of the best conversations from the past year. 

gardening tips from a pro 

Adam Choper is a horticulture teacher and manager of the outdoor gardens at the New York Botanical Garden. He shared some gardening pro tips, tricks to outsmart the weather, handy garden tools, and a few key things every new gardener should know. Read More >>>

"The most important thing I teach is: Know the weather and know the plants. If you're going to take a gamble, make sure it's an educated gamble. If you're a homeowner and want to plant a flowerbed that will cost thousands to fill out, don't!!" 

Get your flood risk report

Matthew Eby is the founder of the First Street Foundation, a non-profit research group that has turned flood risk into a useful consumer tool. Their new report is a bombshell, building on their database and quantifies the risk of floods to homeowners in the U.S. Read More >>>

"Over 4 million homes will face annual financial losses from flooding that are 4.5 times their current NFIP premium, and that will increase to 6.2 times over the next 30 years. Said another way, 4.5 million homes could have their insurance go from roughly $980 a year to $4,400 a year." 

All about avalanches

Meet Stephan Harvey, the researcher behind the White Risk avalanche app, which offers a dizzying and comprehensive exploration of avalanches through illustrations, maps, 3-D graphics, and videos showing the mesmerizing devastation of avalanches. Read more >>>

"You cannot buy expensive equipment and consider yourself safe. You have to be educated and know how avalanches happen, what triggers them, and how to travel safely through avalanche terrain." 

Everything old is new again

Andy Hudson-Smith is a Professor at University College London, where he teaches an innovative lab course at The Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis. He explains how weather data is breathing new life into classic weather instruments. Read more >>> 

"There is something nice about using the most modern technology, like the Tempest Weather System, but displaying the data in an analog way. There is something about the mixing of the worlds that’s intriguing." 

2020: A Good year for bad weather

WeatherFlow's Chief Science Officer Marty Bell talks about some of the wild weather of 2020. From fires and hurricanes to extreme heat, Marty unpacks what the year's extreme weather might mean for 2021. Read more >>>

"Technology will aid us in overcoming many climate change impacts, but based on recent history, extreme weather-related to climate change is going to be a challenge that will require collaboration between the public, private, and academic sectors in the global weather enterprise."

Smart home tech over the years

Engineer and smart home technology expert Jay Basen talks about how far smart homes have come since the 1980s and provides some tips for using weather data to make your smart home...smarter. Read more >>>

"You could buy plug-in modules at Radio Shack that could control your lights. The module would put little blips on electric currents running through your home. But if you put on a blender or a vacuum cleaner the whole thing would blow and stop everything in the house from functioning."

microclimate research

Professor Peter Blanken's overall research objective is to better understand the effects of atmospheric conditions on living organisms and water and carbon cycles. We talked with him about the weather and learned more about why gathering data about microclimates is increasingly essential to scientists, researchers, and just about everyone else. Read more >>>

"I think awareness is the key. If you were to get your own weather station and put it in your backyard, you automatically become more aware of what's going on. They make you more curious about what's happening in your backyard, compared to a mile away or an hour away."

forecasting a hurricane

Meteorologist and hurricane specialist Bryan Norcross discusses his scariest hurricane moment, hurricane forecasting, and why hurricanes seem to be getting more severe. Read more >>>

"By far the scariest (moment for me) was Hurricane Andrew. I knew that people were dying in Dade County that night; there was no question. That was a terrifying experience for myself and my city."

AMS PRESIDENT TALKS CLIMATE CHANGE

Jenni L. Evans is the ultimate multi-tasker. Professor of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science at Pennsylvania State University, she also directs PSU’s Institute for CyberScience while serving as President of the American Meteorological Society. Read more >>>

"Now, more than ever, meteorologists need to collaborate broadly with town planners, local government, and community groups to help society become more resilient by taking on these bigger problems that have weather at their core."

public-private weather collaboration with the WMO

Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, talks about the importance of the public-private weather initiative and the WMOs shift from talking about the weather to focusing on climate. Read more >>>

"For some in the private sector, it’s a political issue. For WMO it’s fact-based, based on measuring and calculating – not a matter of opinion. This message has been clear since the ’80s. WMO organized the first climate conference in 1979 and seeing the impact already has been eye-opening."