Meteorology Matters

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September 2026 Nor’easter: Could This Become a Sandy-Like Storm? Sep 24, 2026

Show notes

A powerful early-season nor’easter is developing off the U.S. East Coast, with the Northeast facing an extended period of coastal flooding, high surf, strong winds and heavy rain from Friday through the weekend.

In this episode of Meteorology Matters, we take an inside look at what is actually happening with this unusual September coastal storm and why its evolution deserves close attention.

We examine the latest forecast guidance from the major numerical weather models, ensemble guidance and Google DeepMind’s WeatherNext AI system, including the growing uncertainty over the storm’s track, intensity and how long it may linger near the Northeast coast.

Could this system develop subtropical or hybrid characteristics as it strengthens over unusually warm Atlantic waters? We explain what would have to happen for an initially extratropical nor’easter to acquire more tropical-like characteristics, and why that is very different from the evolution of Superstorm Sandy.

We also compare this storm with Sandy not because they are the same type of storm, but because both involve a powerful coastal cyclone interacting with the complex geography and ocean environment of the Northeast. We examine the potential for coastal flooding, storm surge, beach erosion, damaging winds, heavy rainfall and inland impacts across New Jersey, New York, Long Island, New England and the I-95 corridor.

Then we look beyond this individual storm.

The Gulf of Mexico is currently presenting an unusual oceanographic puzzle: extremely warm sea-surface temperatures alongside less impressive subsurface ocean heat content in some areas. We examine how stratification, Loop Current variability, warm-core and cold-core eddies, and changes in ocean circulation could help explain that discrepancy and what it could mean for future tropical and subtropical systems.

Finally, we put the entire pattern into the context of the developing 2026–27 El Niño, atmospheric blocking, the jet stream and the possibility of additional strong coastal cyclones later this fall as colder continental air begins interacting with warm Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf waters.

This is not simply a question of whether another “Sandy” is coming. It is a look at the atmospheric and oceanic ingredients that could make the second half of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane and fall storm season unusually active and why the evolution of this September nor’easter may provide an important early test of that pattern.

Meteorology Matters examines the science behind the forecast, separates realistic risks from extreme scenarios, and looks beyond the headlines to understand what the atmosphere and ocean are actually doing.

#Noreaster #Weather #Meteorology #ElNino #NortheastWeather

50 to 180 MPH: Hurricane Polo’s Explosive Rise to Category 5 Sep 23, 2026

Show notes

Hurricane Polo delivered one of the most extraordinary rapid-intensification episodes of the 2026 Eastern Pacific hurricane season — exploding from a 50-mph tropical storm into a Category 5 hurricane, then reaching an astonishing 180 mph with a central pressure of 892 millibars according to NOAA Hurricane Hunter reconnaissance.

In this episode of Meteorology Matters, we examine how Polo intensified so violently in such a short period of time. What happens when exceptionally warm ocean water, deep ocean heat content, abundant moisture, low vertical wind shear, strong upper-level outflow, and a compact inner core all come together? The result can be explosive tropical-cyclone intensification on a scale that remains extremely difficult to forecast.

We also put Polo into the larger context of the 2026 Eastern Pacific season, examining the influence of El Niño, the basin’s elevated activity and ACE, and the striking contrast with the unusually suppressed Atlantic hurricane season.

Then we turn toward the United States and one of the most intriguing questions raised by powerful Eastern Pacific hurricanes: Why do these storms so rarely reach California? We explore the subtropical ridge, typical westward steering, the California Current, coastal upwelling, cooler waters, and the late-September-to-October transition that can make northward recurvature more possible.

Polo is more than a story about an extraordinarily powerful hurricane. It is a case study in rapid intensification, ocean-atmosphere interaction, tropical cyclone structure, El Niño, Eastern Pacific climatology, and the complex steering patterns that determine where these storms ultimately go.

#HurricanePolo #EasternPacific #RapidIntensification #ElNino #MeteorologyMatters

The Great Miami Hurricane at 100: The Storm, the Warnings and “Work or Jail” Sep 18, 2026

Show notes

One hundred years ago, on September 18, 1926, the Great Miami Hurricane struck a booming, vulnerable South Florida and permanently changed the region’s history.

Meteorology Matters reconstructs the storm, the uncertain forecasts and the public confusion surrounding its arrival—including the tropical system that had brought flooding only days earlier and the newspaper headlines that finally warned South Florida a hurricane might be approaching.

But this anniversary is about more than wind, water and destruction. The episode examines what happened after the hurricane, when Miami’s Black community faced discrimination, unequal treatment and demands to perform dangerous recovery work under the threat of arrest—the disturbing history remembered as “work or jail.”

How did warning failures, rapid development, racial injustice and an incomplete historical record shape the way the disaster was remembered? And whose experiences were left out of the familiar story?

The episode also introduces 1926Hurricane.com, a major historical project devoted to the hurricane, its victims, survivors, science and lasting consequences. The website makes landfall at 7:00 a.m. Miami time on September 18, exactly 100 years after the hurricane’s official landfall.

Visit https://1926Hurricane.com

Follow meteorologist Rob Jones on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook. Please like, follow, comment and rate Meteorology Matters wherever you listen.

#GreatMiamiHurricane #MiamiHurricane #1926Hurricane #HurricaneHistory #MiamiHistory #BlackMiami #SouthFloridaHistory #MeteorologyMatters #WeatherHistory

Where Are the Atlantic Hurricanes? El Niño 2026, Record Heat & Possible Mediterranean Cyclone Sep 14, 2026

Show notes

The Atlantic hurricane season has passed its climatological peak without producing a single hurricane an extraordinary modern-era record occurring while much of the planet and its oceans remain exceptionally warm.

In this episode of Meteorology Matters, we examine how a rapidly strengthening El Niño is reorganizing tropical weather around the world: suppressing Atlantic development, helping fuel an unusually active Pacific, and setting the stage for major changes as we move toward winter.

We also look at the extraordinary persistence of summer heat across Europe, exceptionally warm waters in the eastern tropical Pacific and Mediterranean, and a developing Mediterranean cyclone signal that some models suggest could acquire subtropical or tropical-like characteristics.

Then we turn toward the United States: what a very strong El Niño could mean for Southern California, Florida and the Southeast, and the Northeast during the coming winter.

Finally, September 18 marks 100 years since the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926. Meteorologist Rob Jones previews the launch of 1926Hurricane.com, a new historical archive devoted to preserving the storm’s meteorology, photographs, documents, maps and human history. Meteorology Matters will also release a dedicated Great Miami Hurricane centennial episode later this week.

It is an extraordinary atmospheric contrast: one century ago this week, a classic Cape Verde hurricane was approaching South Florida. In 2026, we have passed the statistical peak of hurricane season without even producing the Atlantic’s first hurricane.

#MeteorologyMatters #ElNino #ElNino2026 #HurricaneSeason #AtlanticHurricaneSeason #TropicalWeather #Hurricanes #Medicane #Mediterranean #ExtremeHeat #ENSO #Weather #GreatMiamiHurricane #1926Hurricane #MiamiHurricane #HurricaneHistory

The Weather of 9/11: Hurricane Erin, the Smoke Plume and an Empty Sky — 25 Years Later Sep 11, 2026

Show notes

Twenty-five years after September 11, 2001, Meteorology Matters looks back at the extraordinary weather story unfolding alongside one of the darkest days in American history.

That morning, New York City sat beneath an unusually clear post-frontal sky while Hurricane Erin churned hundreds of miles offshore. After the World Trade Center attacks, satellite imagery captured something remarkable: the enormous circulation of Erin over the Atlantic and the smoke and dust plume streaming away from lower Manhattan in the same view.

This special episode reconstructs the meteorology of September 11th, Erin’s position and intensity, the atmospheric pattern that helped carry the plume southward, what NASA satellites and astronauts aboard the International Space Station observed, and how the unprecedented shutdown of U.S. airspace created a rare opportunity for scientists to study aircraft contrails and their possible effects on temperature.

We also examine how meteorologists and NOAA supported the response and recovery at Ground Zero through specialized forecasts, plume modeling, remote sensing and atmospheric monitoring.

The weather did not cause the events of September 11, but it shaped what millions of people saw, what satellites recorded, where smoke and debris traveled, and even the scientific questions that emerged in the days that followed.

A special 25th-anniversary episode of Meteorology Matters.

Keywords: September 11 weather, Hurricane Erin, 9/11 meteorology, World Trade Center smoke plume, NASA satellite imagery, Hurricane Erin 2001, 9/11 contrails, Meteorology Matters

Hashtags: #MeteorologyMatters #September11 #September11th #911Anniversary #HurricaneErin #WeatherHistory #Meteorology #Weather #NASA #HurricaneHistory

The 1935 Labor Day Hurricane: The Veterans, the Rescue Train & the Strongest Storm Sep 07, 2026

Show notes

On Labor Day 1935, one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to strike the United States exploded into a Category 5 storm and slammed into the Florida Keys with estimated sustained winds of 185 mph and a central pressure of 892 mb, the lowest pressure assigned to a U.S. hurricane landfall.

But this disaster is about much more than the storm itself. Hundreds of World War I veterans were living in federal work camps along the Keys, and an evacuation train sent from Miami reached Islamorada just as catastrophic winds and storm surge arrived.

In this episode of Meteorology Matters, we reconstruct the extraordinary meteorology, the primitive forecasting network that struggled to locate the hurricane, Leonard Povey’s historic reconnaissance flight, the desperate rescue-train mission, survivor accounts, and the controversial aftermath that led Ernest Hemingway to ask, “Who Murdered the Vets?”

More than 400 people died, including roughly 250–260 World War I veterans. Nearly a century later, the disaster still raises a difficult question: how much responsibility does government have to protect vulnerable people when the forecast itself remains uncertain?

The Mountain Broke: What Caused the Nepal–China Flash Flood? Sep 02, 2026

Show notes

The seismic signal initially looked like an earthquake. It was the mountain itself collapsing.

On August 26, bedrock and glacier ice tore loose high above the Nepal–China border, transforming into a rock–ice avalanche, debris flow, and devastating flood. Meteorology Matters reconstructs that cascading disaster, explains why the evidence points away from a conventional glacial-lake outburst flood, and examines how retreating glaciers and warming mountain permafrost may have destabilized the slope without pretending science has identified one definitive trigger.

We follow the human toll, rescue and reconstruction efforts, continuing secondary hazards, and the flood of mislabeled, staged, and AI-generated videos that followed. Then we turn to a very different flash flood in the Grand Canyon to show why a locally catastrophic torrent can destroy critical infrastructure while doing almost nothing to relieve the Colorado River’s long-term water shortage. Two floods, two entirely different mechanisms, and one larger lesson: the condition of the landscape can be just as important as the event that sets a disaster in motion.

How Weather Shaped the Human Body Aug 27, 2026

Show notes

What if some of the features you see every time you look in the mirror were partly shaped by weather experienced thousands of years before you were born?

In this episode of Meteorology Matters, we explore the extraordinary evidence connecting human evolution with temperature, humidity, sunlight, drought, atmospheric pressure and other environmental conditions. From the shape of the human nose and differences in skin pigmentation to curly scalp hair, body proportions and our remarkable ability to sweat, generations of exposure to very different climates appear to have left biological fingerprints on populations around the world.

We also look beneath the surface. Research is revealing genetic differences associated with cold-weather thermogenesis, kidney function and dehydration tolerance in extremely arid environments, and the remarkable physiological solutions developed independently by Tibetan, Andean and Ethiopian high-altitude populations living with reduced oxygen.

But climate does not always change humans gradually. Major droughts, cold periods and other environmental disruptions can alter migration, isolate populations, create genetic bottlenecks and change which inherited traits become more common.

Finally, we look forward. In today’s interconnected world of international migration, intermarriage, air conditioning, medicine and modern infrastructure, can regional climate still shape human evolution? And as extreme heat, drought and disease environments change, could future generations experience selection involving heat tolerance, sweating efficiency, water conservation, metabolism or entirely different traits we have not yet recognized?

Meteorology Matters was created by meteorologist Rob Jones.

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84 Seconds in the Moon’s Shadow: Chasing the 2026 Total Solar Eclipse Aug 15, 2026

Show notes

Meteorologist Rob Jones traveled to Zaragoza, Spain, with only hours of planning to chase the August 12, 2026 total solar eclipse — all for about 84 seconds inside the Moon’s shadow.

What followed was part science experiment, part logistical scramble: sold-out trains and buses, basic hotel rooms approaching €600, rental cars over €800, extreme heat, thousands gathering along the Ebro River, and a first experience of totality powerful enough to explain why eclipse chasers keep coming back.

In this episode of Meteorology Matters, we explore what Rob saw and felt during totality including a vivid red solar prominence and compare his first eclipse with veteran eclipse chaser and meteorologist Matthew Cappucci’s description of the same extraordinary event.

Then we follow the science far beyond the eclipse itself. Why does the Moon perfectly cover the Sun? Why is it moving away from Earth by about 1.5 inches per year? How do tides, the Bay of Fundy, shifting continents, ocean resonance, Earth’s rotation, melting ice and rising seas influence the Earth-Moon system? Can lunar tides affect earthquakes? And why will total solar eclipses eventually disappear altogether?

We also look ahead to August 2, 2027, when totality can last an astonishing 6 minutes 23 seconds.

From hurricane chasing to eclipse chasing, this is a story about what happens when science becomes something you don’t just understand… but experience.

Follow meteorologist Rob Jones on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook, and like, follow, comment and rate Meteorology Matters wherever you listen.

10 Times Weather Changed the Course of History Aug 04, 2026

Show notes

History is often told through kings, presidents, generals, and revolutions—but what if the atmosphere was quietly shaping those decisions all along?

In this episode of Meteorology Matters, we explore ten remarkable moments when weather altered the course of history. From the forecast that helped launch D-Day to the typhoons that confronted the Mongol invasions of Japan, the Bhola Cyclone that accelerated the birth of Bangladesh, Napoleon's disastrous retreat from Russia, the Year Without a Summer after Mount Tambora, the Dust Bowl, the Great Mississippi Flood, Galveston, the Spanish Armada, and the weather-related food crises that intensified the French Revolution, we examine how storms, droughts, floods, volcanic eruptions, and harsh seasons influenced some of history's biggest turning points.

Rather than asking whether weather alone changed history, we explore a more compelling question: How did weather reshape the choices leaders and ordinary people were forced to make?

Join us as Meteorology Matters uncovers the science, uncertainty, and unforgettable stories behind the weather that helped change the course of history.

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