Stormy Weather #447

November 10, 2017

This week on we take a closer look at weather forecasting, meteorology, and the science (and art) of predicting severe weather patterns, both locally and more broadly across the planet. We speak with Rick Smith, Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Norman, Oklahoma, about how local weather forecasting and severe storm warnings work. And we talk with Chris Huntingford, a climate modeller at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in the UK, about how we're trying to model an entire planet's climate with much greater detail than ever before to try and get a clearer picture of where we're headed.

Guests:

  • Rick Smith
  • Chris Huntingford
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Guest Bios

Rick Smith

Rick Smith is the Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Norman, Oklahoma. The office provides warnings and weather forecasts for the western two thirds of Oklahoma and eight counties in north Texas. Rick manages NWS Norman's decision support services, and hazardous weather preparedness and outreach programs. Rick and the NWS Norman staff work closely with the media, emergency managers and other state, county, tribal and local government officials to ensure that communities in central and western Oklahoma and western north Texas are ready when hazardous weather threatens.

Chris Huntingford

Chris Huntingford is a climate modeller at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. His research focuses on the climate system, and trying to help with the effort of determining how it might be altered as levels of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations rise.