Tag: climate
-
Williamsburg’s Colonial Climate: What Can Be Learned from Thomas Jefferson’s Data?
The coronavirus pandemic has turned the modern world on its head, and for the remainder of the 2020 spring semester William & Mary will teach its courses from a distance. This won’t be easy, and the instruction is not going to equal the in-class or the in-lab experience that would normally take place. As I…
-
Let It Rain
I’m teaching Weather, Climate, & Change (pdf) – a COLL 100 course – to 40 enthusiastic students who are in their first semester at W&M. Nearly every day in class, I play the Song of the Day — it’s a musical interlude intended to add some rhythm to class (literally), and the song lyrics connect,…
-
Going Low, W&M’s Keck Lab Measures Its Lowest Temperature Ever
The eastern half of the United States is gripped by intense cold, and William & Mary’s campus is wrapped in snow and ice. Earlier today, the Keck Environmental Field Laboratory registered its lowest temperature ever as the thermometer bottomed out at -16.9˚ C (1.5˚ F). The Keck Lab’s weather station has been operating since 2003,…
-
SNOMI – The Summer Nighttime Outdoor Misery Index
During the summer academic geologists commonly spend time in the field doing research; it’s one of the great things about studying the Earth. I’m fortunate to work on projects from Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains to the deserts of Oman, and at many of our field sites we camp while conducting research. This summer, with the…