Author Archives: Nate Johnson

I was prompted by a conversation with one of my friends on Facebook to take a look at who’s talking about the most-recently-named winter storm on Twitter and why. Amongst one of the first results was this from an unfortunately … Continue reading →

In an email to NOAA employees this morning, Dr. Jane Lubchenco announces she is returning “to my family and academia” at the end of February.  Full text of the email is reproduced below: “December 12, 2012 Dear NOAA Family, I … Continue reading →

An assessment of the National Weather Service’s performance before and during Hurricane Sandy is moving forward, and that is a good thing. However, there seem to be plenty of confusion about how and why the last effort was terminated. NOAA’s … Continue reading →

Around 1:15pm this afternoon, AccuWeather.com reported the National Hurricane Center was modifying the definition of hurricane warnings in the wake of Hurricane Sandy: Following the criticism of the National Hurricane Center’s handling of Hurricane Sandy and the non-issuance of hurricane … Continue reading →

The crisis surrounding the National Weather Service’s (NWS’s) handling of its assessment of the agency’s performance before and during Hurricane Sandy – including but not limited to the controversial decision not to issue hurricane warnings for the northeastern United States … Continue reading →

Eleven days ago, I recapped the situation surrounding Hurricane Sandy, including the short-lived spin-up of the National Weather Service (NWS) Service Assessment team that would have been charged with investigating how the various arms of the agency performed before, during, … Continue reading →

Noted crisis communication scholar W. Timothy Coombs defines a crisis as “the perception of an unpredictable event that threatens important expectancies of stakeholders and can seriously impact an organization’s performance and generate negative outcomes” (p. 2). What is brewing around … Continue reading →

Mike Smith has made it something of a personal mission to show the world that meteorologists aren’t the bumbling, “get paid to be wrong” Keystone Kops of the scientific community that a lot of people make us out to be. … Continue reading →

If you read this blog, you are no doubt already aware that The Weather Channel (TWC) announced today it will give names to winter storms this year. The reaction from the meteorological community has been broad and quite loud, if … Continue reading →