Expressions of Opinion and Fun things

General Weather Topics

1. A diatribe about a problem with the scientific integrity of the national severe local storms reports database (15 February 1998)
2. An essay about another side to severe storms (01 August 1998)
3. A combined tutorial and diatribe about weather modification, especially cloud seeding for suppression of severe weather (27 September 2000)
4. An essay (rant?) about models, research, and forecasting (25 October 2000)
5. An essay about prejudice in meteorology (24 April 2002)
6. My Pet Peeves page (moved over from my "work" site) (23 August 2003)
7. A tutorial about how to use the virtual correction in sounding diagnosis (moved over from my "work" site) (03 August 2005)
8. An essay with my thoughts about Hurricane Katrina and its message. (11 September 2005)
9. An essay about Meteorological Education (13 March 2006)
10. An essay about meteorological "apples and oranges" (10 April 2006)
11. An essay about Global Climate Change (20 April 2006)
12. An essay about "stratiform precipitation" associated with convective systems (moved over from my "work" site) (24 September 2006)
13. A physical discussion about PVA and vertical motion (moved over from my "work" site) (24 September 2006)
14. A discussion of what's wrong with "overrunning" as a concept (moved over from my "work" site) (24 September 2006)
15. An explanation of how NWS rawinsonde winds are computed using radiotheodolite data (moved over from my "work" site) (24 September 2006)
16. A discussion of the meaning of the word "normal" applied to the weather (moved over from my "work" site) (24 September 2006)
17. A physical discussion of isentropic potential vorticity (moved over from my "work" site) (24 September 2006)
18. A physical discussion of conditional symmetric instability (moved over from my "work" site) (24 September 2006)
19. An interesting problem concerning Coriolis force (moved over from my "work" site) (24 September 2006)
20. An essay about the use and abuse of conceptual models in meteorology (moved over from my "work" site) (24 September 2006)
21. A sort of diary of my interest in the time-dependent behavior of deep convection - not for the mathematically challenged! (moved over from my "work" site) (24 September 2006)
22. A FAQ List of questions often asked by precollege students (11 November 2009)
23. Moved over and updated my thoughts regarding the American Meteorological Society (16 August 2010)

Weather Forecasting Topics

1. An answer to some criticisms (and rumors of criticisms) of a conference paper about the future of forecasting (31 March 1997)
2. An ugly rant about NOAA and NWS management (31 March 1997)
3. An essay about the skills forecasters will need in the future that has been moved off my Federal Website (31 March 1997)
4. A diatribe about the "NOAA" Weather radio, based on listening to it during my 1998 storm chase vacation (27 June 1998)
5. An essay about operational forecaster training (29 October 1998)
6. A rant about NWS idealism (12 January 2003)
7. An essay about the qualities of a good forecaster (02 March 2003)
8. An essay about the future role of humans in forecasting (11 May 2003)
9. An essay about the use of climatological information in probabilistic forecasting (14 August 2003)
10. An essay about a forecaster's defining moment (08 March 2005)
11. Two tutorials about probability forecasting, one a primer, and the other concerning the use of probability in forecasting convective storms (both moved over from my "work" site) (03 April 2005)
12. An essay about variables and indices (19 March 2006)
13. An essay about forecasts and their users (moved over from my "work" site) (24 September 2006)
14. An essay about the rise and fall of X. William Proenza at the National Hurricane Center (10 July 2007)
15. A rant about recent trends in NWS "Service Assessments" (21 December 2007)
16. An essay about the use of probability in weather forecasting (02 November 2008)
17. An essay about the research-operations interaction (09 May 2009)
18. An essay about improving severe weather warnings (20 February 2013)
19. An essay about some trends in the NWS (27 October 2014)
    

Tornado-Related Topics

1. A description of some unpleasant realities associated with tornadoes (12 March 1997)
2. An essay about violent tornado probabilities and other musings (01 May 1998)
3. A rambling essay on my thoughts about the tornadoes of 03 May 1999 (08 May 1999)
4. The full text of a lightly-edited guest editorial for the WeatherZine (27 August 1999 issue) on the topic of "Are warning lead times the most important issue in tornado events?" (31 August 1999)
5. An essay about construction and reconstruction associated with natural disasters like tornadoes (11 September 1999)
6. An essay about the the safety of cars in tornadoes (11 January 2003)
7. A proposal for reducing tornado fatalities (01 March 2003)
8. An essay about my scientific tornado thoughts (moved over from my "work" site) (18 May 2003)
9. An essay about problems with sample size in looking at tornado data (17 April 2004)
10. An updated set of scientific tornado thoughts (12 March 2005)
11. A tutorial about vorticity (moved over from my "work" site) (07 April 2005)
12. An essay about how a tornado is defined (moved over from my "work" site) (15 May 2005)
13. An essay about the historical record of tornadoes and the new "Enhanced Fujita Scale (07 May 2006)
14. My Tornado and Storm Chasing FAQ list (moved over from my "work" site) (04 June 2006)
15. An essay about tornado records (moved over from my "work" site) (24 September 2006)
16. An essay about the 2008 tragedy at a Scout Camp in Iowa (18 June 2008)
17. My version of "tornado precautions" (18 June 2008)
18. Another updated version of tornado thoughts (09 August 2008)
19. An essay about what I think it would take to improve tornado warnings (18 September 2008)
20. An essay questioning the ownership of the EF-scale (02 November 2008)
21. An essay discussing what data need to be collected to assess societal imacts of storms (11 April 2009)
22. A rant about unfulfilled promises regarding tornado warnings (11 July 2009)
23. An essay about Call-to-Action statements in severe weather warnings (20 October 2009)
24. An essay about my impressions regarding VORTEX2 (18 July 2010)
25. Comments about an article on weather hazards in the USA (27 August 2010)
26. A speculative informal article on why the atmosphere needs supercells and tornadoes (17 February 2011)
27. An essay about the space-time distribution of tornadoes (19 May 2011)
28. An essay about false alarms for tornado warnings (28 May 2011)
29. A listing of tornado myths and my reactions to them (14 January 2013)
30. Comments about an Interview with Mike Morgan (22 October 2013)
    

Storm Chasing Topics

1. A gripy essay about chaser irresponsibility (17 June 1999)
2. A copy of an essay by Roger Edwards and me about irresponsible media chase practices, along with a reply by a Mr. Paul Bouchereau.
3. An essay about crybaby chasers (21 December 2002)
4. My Chase Safety page (moved over from my "work" site) (23 August 2003)
5. My Storm Chasing page (moved over from my "work" site) (13 August 2004)
6. A presentation about irresponsible storm chasers (25 March 2006)
7. A tribute to the pioneering storm chaser Dave Hoadley (31 March 2006)
8. An essay about risky behavior and storm chasing (05 September 2006)
9. A tribute to the late storm chaser Eric Nguyen (09 September 2007)
10. An essay about chaser convergence (20 May 2010)

Non-Weather Topics

1. An essay about liberal-bashing and another about educational responsibilty (15 October 1998)
2. An essay about my thoughts after 11 September 2001. (16 September 2001)
3. An essay about the Search for Truth (27 October 2001)
4. An essay about the "corporatization" of universities (11 May 2002)
5. A listing of influential books (29 May 2002)
6. A rant about the media (15 October 2002)
7. An essay about funding the Norman Weather Center (3 November 2002)
8. An essay about criminalization of marijuana (27 April 2003)
9. An essay about thieves in Europe (13 August 2004)
10. An essay about gun control (01 November 2004)
11. An essay about how science works (10 November 2004)
12. Extended comments about my recent major surgery (18 December 2004)
13. An angry essay about "dubya" (22 January 2005)
14. An unhappy essay about my Army time in Viet Nam (17 February 2005)
15. A collection of my favorite aphorisms, clichés, and "sage advice" (27 March 2005)
16. An essay about scientific awards (moved over from my "work" site) (06 May 2005)
17. An essay about the decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan (16 August 2005)
18. A short essay about Derek Jeter. (26 September 2005)
19. An essay about Education in general (13 March 2006)
20. An essay about TV science documentaries, especially those about tornadoes (25 March 2006)
21. An essay about an Apocalypse that might be coming (20 April 2006)
22. An essay about environmentalism (03 May 2006)
23. An essay about genetics and racism (27 November 2007)
24. An essay about academic elitism in science (27 November 2007)
25. An essay about digital image manipulation (05 May 2008)
26. A response to an email attachment (05 August 2008)
27. An essay about meaningless arguments (10 December 2008)
28. A rant about another email attachment (19 August 2009)
29. An essay about oaths and moral dilemmas (26 August 2009)
30. An analysis of a tornado 'crockumentary' (01 March 2010)
31. An essay about corporations and Communism in China (30 April 2010)
32. An essay about American troops suffering PTSD (25 May 2010)
33. An essay about National Weather Center communication (21 August 2010)
34. An essay about fame (07 November 2010)
35. An essay on the political spectrum (17 August 2011)
36. An essay on the definition of art (10 January 2012)
37. My "memoirs" about my time in the military (PDF) (21 January 2018)
    

Religion and Atheism

1. An essay about "Intelligent Design" (05 December 2005)
2. An essay about my stand on formal religion (03 October 2007)
3. An essay about religious moderation (14 August 2010)
4. A set of dialogs with religious believers about various topics (22 August 2010)
5. An essay about the Logic of Atheism (27 March 2011)
6. An essay about Christian Persecution in the U.S. (27 July 2011)
7. An essay about the "design" of the universe (14 August 2011)
8. An essay about the evidence to demonstrate the existence of god (16 January 2012)
9. An essay about the need for rational thinking (08 February 2012)
10. An essay refuting the notion of freethought as slavery (12 November 2012)
11. A collection of essays called "Leading Horses to Water" (13 August 2013)
12. An essay about the myth of a loving god (03 December 2013)
13. A response to an essay "False Equivalencies?" (10 December 2014)
    

Fun Items

1. A small item just for fathers with daughters of dating age (16 February 1997)
2. Announcing the premier of a new page, dedicated to Principal Poop and all the staff at More Science High (23 August 1997)
3. A semi-humorous commentary, mostly intended for American young people (11 September 1999)
4. A page of silly names for tornadoes (21 April 2003)
5. A humorous page of new Federal Travel Regulations (13 August 2004)
6. An essay about the bureaucracies and the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics (20 September 2007)

Miscellaneous topics

1. A tribute to the my friend and colleague, the late Joseph G. Galway (02 July 1998)
2. A tutorial about thunderstorm safety issues during hiking and camping (moved over from my "work" site) (24 September 2006)
3. A presentation about communication skills in meteorology (moved over from my "work" site) (24 September 2006)
4. An essay paying homage to my professional mentors (06 October 2006)
5. An essay discussing a recently-formulated career perspective (19 March 2006)
6. A tribute to my friend, Alan R. Moller, on the occasion of his retirement from spotter training. (08 March 2008)