The material below is from Chapter 24 of the Complete Idiot's Guide to the Arctic and Antarctic ©by Jack Williams, 2003. It offers some background on the Feb. 7, 2012 announcement that the Russians had succeeded in drilling into... »

Journalists like to joke that one shouldn't let the facts get in the way of a good story. Some journalists seem to take this joke  as a guide to spinning a good yarn. A yarn that in the old days would... »

Jack Williams was among the 10 men and women who offered teachers ideas for using meteorology  in the classroom at the 2011 National Weather Association Teachers' Workshop on Oct. 17 in Birmingham, Ala. Williams offered suggestions on how teachers could use... »

Q: Several years ago, you wrote a short article for USA TODAY about heating degree days. I have depended on that article, and its links, to monitor the heating and cooling degree days in my area.  Now, I cannot access... »

Q: Cross-cut figures of hurricanes show a structure like a jelly roll turned on end and sliced through the middle.  Are these rings all connected in a continuous spiral or are they multiple rings? (I suspect they are continuous.) Also, how... »

Until I watched the preview DVD of "Earth: The Operators' Manual" a couple of weeks ago, I had never viewed a television program about climate change that I particularly liked. PBS stations began airing the show on April 10--with some showing it... »

Q: What is your favorite source for near real time surface wind visualizations in the mid Atlantic region. I need the information for balloon flight planning in the field. Curt, Falls Church, Va. A:  I’ve yet to find any really good... »

The Washington Post is jumping headfirst into using weather to attract readers; something television stations have been doing since the 1960s but that newspapers have mostly ignored. In his Dec. 10 Sunday column Andrew Alexander, the Post's Ombudsman,  said: "Many readers have... »

With Hurricane Alex no longer a threat to the people and vessels working to stop and clean up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, reporters, newscasters, editors, and other news people can take a breather and think about ways to... »

Q: Do tornadoes occur in south-west Arizona, including in the Yuma area? Chris,  Yuma, Ariz. A: A few tornadoes have occurred in Yuma County in the past, which means that they can  occur in the future. Nevertheless, the record shows they... »

If someone were still paying me to write about weather and science, here are some of the questions I'd ask about a possible Gulf of Mexico hurricane and and the huge oil spill. A story with the answers to even one... »

Q: Are The AMS Weather Book Supplementary Texts available as a whole, in one digital file, such as a PDF file (or perhaps even in hard copy)?  I would like to print and to keep those supplementary texts with my... »

Q: I use RUC soundings for flight planning, but I am befuddled by the following: When I enter a station, load the Op40 soundings, and hover with my mouse over the loaded graph I see  bold numbers on the far-left... »

Q: Hello Jack. I was wondering if anyone ever turned in an answer on your "official seasons" proposal from last summer. I am doing my senior research project on the seasons, and would like to know what you found out.... »

Joanne Simpson, a world-renowned atmospheric scientist who led the way for today's many women meteorologists, died on Thursday, March 4, in Washington, D.C. She and her husband Robert (Bob) Simpson, who survives her, were a rare example of a wife... »

Q: Hi, I enjoyed "Rise Up" in the March 2010 AOPA Flight Training magazine.   I wonder about  the danger of those weather balloons and noted your  comments about there being "no danger" as it's floating down under parachute. But... »

From the afternoon of Friday, Feb. 5 through the afternoon of Tuesday Feb. 9, I spent roughly eight hours shoveling snow, thanks to the record-breaking "Snowmageddon" that brought two to three feet--in some cases even more--of snow to the Washington,... »

My story on "The volcanic-Climate Connection," which was published in the January-February 2010 issue of Weatherwise magazine, focuses on how a few extremely large volcanoes in the past have cooled the Earth for a few months. At the end of the... »

Q: In your article in the January 2010 issue of AOPA Flight Training, you say: "If the lines on a weather map showing air pressures of 500 millibars and 496 millibars were straight and parallel, the PGF and Coriolis forces... »

The Atmospheric Science Librarians ... »

The New Year has brought us a blizzard of stories about frigid temperatures and snow storms, but I've been unable to find any stories that closely examine what's going on. I had been wondering whether I just hadn't looked hard enough... »

The strong winds and bitter cold that the new year 2010 brought to large parts of the United States has put wind chill in the news. This, like any outbreak of cold, windy weather, offers high school physics teachers in places... »

Like any big weather event the storm that spread snow from Tennessee and North Carolina along the East Coast to New England on December 18-21, 2009 is a good source of real-world science lessons. With this storm, as with most winter... »

Q: In your AOPA Flight Training Magazine, January 2010 article you say that the curving path of upper air winds cause air to sink in some areas, creating high pressure at the surface, and to rise in other areas creating... »

Q: I have been reading your column in AOPA Flight Training magazine for several years and I wanted to let you know you have inspired me to become very interested in the weather and especially how it effects my flying.... »

Prince Albert II of Monaco,whose environmental credentials are certainly as strong as those of any head of state, illustrated some of the pitfalls of trying to help people understand science during his talk and following question and answer session at... »

Q: In the November issue of AOPA Flight Training, you discuss extratropical cyclones, including the movement of cold air under warm air and vice versa. If I understand this correctly, the fronts themselves do not discriminate between the cold or... »

Ida,  a late-season hurricane that caused serious flooding along the U.S. Northeast Coast after it was no longer a hurricane or even a tropical storm offers teachers opportunities to hitch science lessons to a big news story. Even students who say... »

Q: Why doesn't an extratropical cyclone continue to rotate around a 360-degree axis, like a hurricane?  I've always wondered why a cold front begins to the northwest of the low center and then dies out on the northeast side. Why... »

Q: My question is about your article in the November  AOPA Flight Training magazine on tropical cyclones.  I'm trying to reconcile two potentially different ideas: first, that a cyclone has swirling air (which I assume to mean the the air... »

Many non-meteorologists, including otherwise well-informed adults, don't realize that weather forecasting is a science. Meteorologists who visit schools with the message, "If you want to become a weather professional, study all of the math and science you can," are sometimes asked,... »

Jack Williams' The AMS Weather Book will be among books by 75 nationally-known authors that will be sold and signed at the National Press Club's annual Book Fair and Authors' Night on Tuesday,Nov. 17, 2009 at the historic club in... »

The stunning images from the wildfires sweeping parts of the Los Angeles area offer a good way to illustrate how science helps us understand the world. Other wildfires in the future will offer similar opportunities for teachers, writers, and broadcasters. The opening... »

NOAA's announcement on August 28, 2009 that nitrous oxide is replacing chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as the most abundant ozone-depleting substance emitted by human activities offers a big challenge to science writers. Making sense of ozone and the substances that deplete it is... »

The Page One Cover Story in the Friday, August 14 issue of USA TODAY, "Woodstock: More of a curiosity than a benchmark in 2009?" (online) is just... »

Q: I am trying to find out how many degrees Fahrenheit the temperature decreases with each 1,000 feet of elevation. Thanks for your response. -Harry, Phoenix, Ariz. A: The exact rate at which the temperature changes with elevation differs from... »

USA TODAY,  ABC News, and probably other news outlets have published reports that Bill Gates and others have filed patent applications... »

The political, diplomatic, and military consequences of climate change can be a minefield for journalists. Lately most... »

Q: Why does... »

With the (Northern Hemisphere) summer solstice coming up Sunday you'll be hearing and reading about June 21 being "the... »

Edith Maslin Ronne, who was one of the first two women to spend more than part of a day in Antarctica and for whom the Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica... »

Most news stories about the June 1 crash of Air France Flight 447 into the Atlantic Ocean mention that it was flying through an area of thunderstorms when it went down, but these stories leave readers hungry for more information. The... »

Monday's disappearance of an Air France Airbus 330 over the Atlantic Ocean has led to speculation that it was hit by lightning.... »

Protecting windows and other openings is vital to making a house more likely to survive strong winds. I go into some... »

The timely updates on severe weather events that most National Weather Service offices now publish on their Web sites are one of the reasons why I say on page 6 of The AMS Weather Book that, “We are living in... »

Story ideas, contacts NOAA story ideas NOAA 2012 news story archive NOAA: News contacts, etc U.S. NWS HPCs six-day forecast maps NWS graphical forecasts HPC Hazards Briefing, maps ENSO briefing NWS Selected Cities (daily highs/lows) Tropical cyclones NHC active cyclones NHC  Eastern Pacific outlook Joint Typhoon Warning Center NHC Tropical Atlantic outlook Unisys Tropical Cyclone... »