Tag Archives: lightning

Using Nature to Start a Managed Fire

Photo courtesy Central Arizona Wildland Response Team (CAWRT)

For fire managers, the Pinal Fire burning hundreds of acres near Globe, Arizona,  presents not just a challenge, but an opportunity.

For years, they’ve planned to use a low-intensity burn to restore the resiliency of the fire-adapted ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forest.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Pinal Fire Presents Opportunity

We’re Going to Need New Idioms for This: Record-Breaking Lightning

Cloud-to-cloud lighting.
Cloud-to-cloud lighting. Photo by Fir0002 / Flagstaffotos.

A 200-mile lightning flash and another flash lasting nearly eight seconds have redefined experts’ notions of what is possible for such events.

The new data prompted a World Meteorological Organization committee to recommend revising the definition of lightning discharges.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Record-Breaking Lightning Flashes Help Change Definition Of Lightning Events

The Science Behind Weather Superstitions

Photo of Grounghog Day from Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.
Ignore the shadow of the lowland marmot at your peril! (Or not). Photo by Anthony Quintano.

Weather. It can destroy homes and harvests, shut down entire regions and re-sculpt coastlines in a matter of hours. It’s small wonder we tend to be a bit superstitious about the subject, or that we’re loath to let go of the received wisdom of family, friends and the Old Farmer’s Almanac.

Then again, maybe those old wives tales contain a kernel of truth. Sometimes there’s a reason to the rhyme, as I reveal in this list of …

10 Scientifically Sound Weather Superstitions