I confess to being a weather nerd for a long time. I remember play acting as a weatherman back in elementary school. This was when the maps they used on television were either hand drawn or used wooden cutouts to signify the locations of fronts. All the satellite photographs were very grainy, low-resolution, and black and white. Today broadcast graphics have come a very long way. Part of that is due to Paul Douglas, meteorologist for WCCO-tv in my hometown of Minneapolis. I see he even has a blog of his own.
Summer is my second favorite season overall, and the most interesting season to watch the weather. Recently I’ve been watching thunderstorms move along just to the south of Ann Arbor, along the border between Michigan and Ohio.
Earlier this week I found an interesting graphic of global lightning strike at the NASA Earth Observatory. From there it was an easy click to the lightning research site at the Marshall Space Center. There they have pages describing the different satellite sensors used to measure lightning and brief page on the formation and causes of lightning.
It almost makes me want to study atmospheric science.
