Hurricanes: What's Next? Teach-Out
Hurricane Hunting with Jeff Masters / Lesson 1 of 1
Hurricane Hunting with Jeff Masters
30 minutes
Jeff Masters, Ph.D., is the Director of Meteorology for the Weather Underground. Jeff grew up in suburban Detroit, and attended the University of Michigan, where he received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Meteorology in 1982 and 1983, respectively. While working on his Master’s degree, he participated in field programs studying acid rain in the Northeast U.S. and air pollution in the Detroit area. In 1986, he took a position teaching weather forecasting to undergraduates at SUNY Brockport in New York, then later that year moved to Miami to join the Hurricane Hunters as a flight meteorologist for NOAA's Aircraft Operations Center. While working on his Ph.D., he co-founded The Weather Underground, Inc. in 1995. He wrote much of the software that ingests and formats the raw NWS data used on the website, and created most of the imagery on the tropical page. Jeff currently serves as Director of Meteorology and on the Board of Directors for the company.
Jeff contributes frequently to his popular weather blog, Category 6.
In this conversation, Perry and Jeff will cover the following topics:
- The instrumentation types and data assimilation techniques used in hurricane modelling.
- Current expectations for modelling errors (geographically and chronologically), and how that modelling is improving over time.
- How best to monitor weather information sources (including social media) during a hurricane.
- Alternative frameworks for measuring hurricanes beyond the Saffir-Simpson (five category) model.
- The wind and pressure dynamics of a hurricane’s eye.
- How ocean warming impacts the frequency of hurricanes.
- How NOAA’s Hurricane Hunters navigate hurricanes to conduct their measurements.
They will also field several questions from University of Michigan students.
Please keep in mind that this segment was filmed in September 2017 and may be slightly out-of-date. We hope that you find all of the content in this Teach-Out engaging and informative!Reflection Questions
Perry and Jeff touch on the role of warming oceans in the increasing frequency and magnitude of hurricanes. (We will explore this topic further with Perry in future segments.)
What do you see as the role of climate change in the recent surge of extreme weather events around the globe? Feel free to reference the videos or other sources for specific examples.
What future do you want to see for the earth's climate, and what can be done to realize that future?