← Ologies with Alie Ward
Ologies with Alie Ward
Tempestology (HURRICANES) Part 2 with Dr. Kim Wood & Matt Lanza
01:01:45
The info storm continues! Part 1 covered the anatomy of a cyclonic storm, the bizarre histories behind the category system, and where hurricanes come from, but this week’s conclusion with Matt Lanza and Dr. Kim Wood gets you covered on emergency preparation for any disaster occasion, climate change trends and despair, the latest on the government funding drama, if you should trust a waffle house more than a weather person, and literally what is on the horizon in the future. Also: Sharpiegate. Read Matt Lanza’s tropical weather forecasts at The Eyewall and Houston-based forecasts at Space City Weather Follow Matt Lanza on Instagram and Bluesky Visit Dr. Wood’s website and follow them on Google Scholar and Bluesky Donations went to the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country's Kerr County Flood Relief Fund More episode sources and links Other episodes you may enjoy: Meteorology (WEATHER & CLIMATE), Oceanology (OCEANS), Nephology (CLOUDS), Disasterology (DISASTERS), F...
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- [00:00]
Alie Ward
It's that time of year again, Back to school season and Instacart knows that the only thing harder than getting back into the swing of things is getting all the back to school supplies, snacks and essentials you need. So here's your reminder to make your life a little easier this season. Shop favorites from Staples, Best Buy and Costco, all delivered through Instacart, so that you can get some time back and do whatever it is that you need to get your life back on track. Instacart, we're here. Hi, we're Emoji Health, your long term weight loss solution. We'll connect you with a board certified provider to discuss your unique goals. Eligible patients can Access custom formulated GLP1 medications at an affordable fixed price delivered to their door monthly. Take our free eligibility quiz@joinmochi.com and use code AUDIO40 at checkout for $40 off your first month of membership. That's join mochi.com results may vary. Eligible GLP1 patients typically lose one to two pounds per week in their first six months with Mochi when combined with a healthy lifesty.
- [01:00]
Kim Wood
Today's episode is sponsored by Pearle Vision. You know how you're like, I have to get a physical once a year. You gotta go to the dentist. A lot of people are like, my eyes. I forgot. Even if no one in your family wears glasses, you could have underlying issues. This is where Pearle Vision comes in. It was the first place of its kind to bring easy access to comprehensive eye exams and glasses all in one place. And now, over 60 years later, Pearlevision has doctors throughout the US, Canada and Puerto Rico. And they're making sure that you see your best and also that you look your best. Because they have cool glasses there. You can book an eye exam online and I love that they have an option to book an appointment for up to three people. So you can just gather your fam or your friends. Head to Pearle Vision. From my eyes to yours. Nobody cares for eyes more than Pearl. Visit pearlevision.com for more information. Eye exams available by Independent Doctors of Optometry at or next to Pearl Vision. Doctors in some states are employed by Pearl Vision. See you at the eye doctor. Oh hey, it's still your ex boyfriend who pretended he didn't know how to wash the cast iron, right? So he just didn't. A.L.I.E. ward and this is part two of a smooth Sail Through Rough Weather. This is ologies. This is hurricanes, typhoons or cyclones. We describe the difference in part one and in part one we met Dr. Kim Wood, who's an associate professor in the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Arizona, and also Matt Lanza, a Rutgers trained forecast meteorologist and a writer and editor for Houston's highly respected, deeply beloved meteorological outlet Space City Weather. And he's also a co founder of the website the Eyewall. And we covered how fast hurricanes go, with the threshold for a category one being 74 miles an and Kim blew open my mind explaining that if you stuck your hand outside a moving car window, think of that force. A Category 5 as covered in Part 1 is at least 157 mph or 252 km an hour or higher. Catastrophic indeed. So when you're thinking about these wind speeds, like I can't imagine. Okay, but before we dive into this part too, thank you to patrons of the show who make Ologies possible. You can join for a dollar or more a month and send questions for theologists vi patreon.com ologies thank you to everyone out there in merch from ologiesmerch.com you can get hats and shirts and totes and you all can find each other in the wild. And thank you to everyone who leaves a review for me to read, which helps us so much, keeps us up in the charts and I read all of them like a little sad lonely elf alone in a dark room. Including this review this week from Cuisini who wrote that they enjoy Ologies so much that quote, maybe you're stalking me and created this podcast just for me cuisine. Maybe you're me from another dimension. Wouldn't that be nice? Okay, if you need 400 or more ologies episodes, we got em. Just go to ologies.com they're all neatly sorted into topics. You can find as many as you like. Also, if you do not like my sometimes filthy mouth, we have a spinoff show called Smologies and you can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. It's for all ages, kids, safe, shorter versions. They're at the link in the show notes or wherever you get your podcast, smologies. Okie dokes. Let's dive into part two of Tempestology. It's all about how to prepare for hurricane or really any disaster that comes your way. The very latest on weather and climate science funding where you should retire. What's waffles got to do with it? And what happens if you forge a hurricane map on international TV? We'll hear from professional disasterologist and icon Dr. Sam Montano about the current Climate of Things and some of her reflections on equity and disaster relief and what you should do now in case something hits ya. So back batten down the hatches. Let's barrel headfirst into cyclonic Systems with tempestologists Dr. Kim Wood and Matt Lanza. And when it comes to peril in general for animals, ecosystems, people, is it the flooding or is it the abrasive quality of these sustained winds? Like, what is it that is so, I guess, scary that requires so much kind of foresight.
- [05:38]
Matt Lanza
There's a couple complicating factors here. So you're going to have widespread trees, fallen on roads, power lines down, all kinds of infrastructural elements that we rely on for day to day life has been thwacked. And often these places, waters may have receded, but then you've got all these damage, soaked places, mold issues, all kinds of things. So the impacts are felt far and wide for a long time. So the water can be bad from that perspective, but kind of in the moment, the power of water cannot be underestimated because one foot of moving water can knock over a person. So, you know, just add feet and you're adding impact. You've got the winds on top of that. So it's hard to kind of differentiate the water from the wind in that context, especially if you also get hit with a tornado warning at the same time. Because getting away from water, you go up in a house. Getting away from tornado, you go down in a house. Well, what do you do when you have both? I. Yeah, that's one reason why evacuation can be encouraged for some of those most vulnerable areas, but not everyone can evacuate. But then you have a situation like Hurricane Florence in 2018, where it dumps a lot of rain.
- [06:52]
Kim Wood
Oh, my God.
- [06:53]
Matt Lanza
Yeah. So it's. It really is a multifaceted hazard, highly dependent on where you're located. Harvey demonstrated that with its ridiculous 5ft of rain record. I can't wrap my head around 5ft of rain.
- [07:10]
Kim Wood
I can't. I can't even. I mean, I live in la, so I can't wrap my head around a couple inches. It's like everyone cancels their plans.
- [07:16]
Matt Lanza
Yeah, we got 2 inches of rain last night and we're like, what? Where'd all this come from?
- [07:20]
Kim Wood
It's like southwest United States Roll call present. It's dry. It's really dry. But In August of 2023, LA did experience the torrential remnants of Hurricane Hillary on the same day as a 5.1 magnitude earthquake. I was there for both of them. It was a real apocalyptic situation. Also this January, LA erupted into flames. So, you know. But Kim says that the risks are many faceted from winds to rains to the potential of tornadoes. But what about just stuff? Andrew McVeigh wanted to know, is there a hurricane rating defined by the average amount or mass of debris being carried through the air? Is that ever taken into account when warning the public, like if it's going to hit an urban area or obviously with Katrina in New Orleans, the basin of the city had a huge impact in the infrastructure of the levees and stuff. Is that ever taken into account? Is there a warning system that might develop from that?
- [08:21]
Sam Montano
There's one warning that gets issued by local National Weather Service offices when you have a really, a particularly strong hurricane come ashore and it's called an extreme wind warning. And they'll post that when the eye wall of a storm where the strongest winds are starts to move into a particular place, it doesn't have to be urban, it can be rural, suburban, whatever. But whenever those winds are like 120, 30, 40 miles an hour, you're going to get that warning. And that's basically the moment where you have to say you got to be in the safest place humanly possible and you just stay there until it's over.
- [08:55]
Kim Wood
But before we get to the safest place to be, what happens to all of the non humans caught in these storms? Sustainable serenity. And again said, what happens to marine animals during hurricanes? After Milton, a hunter found a sea turtle in a forest in land, Jessica Randolph wanted to know if sharknado could actually happen, but probably not on that scale. But you know, like, do you ever have to work with ecologists about like there's a completely different population of salamander over here because it just got swept up and dropped.
- [09:23]
Sam Montano
Yeah, it's really kind of fascinating when you deal with this. So one thing that's very common, this is extremely common, what'll happen is you get like a really strong hurricane. It goes through like say the Caribbean. You've got a lot of like exotic birds down there and they'll get caught in the middle of the storm. They'll get caught in the eye of the hurricane. You can even see it sometimes on radar. If you look on radar at a hurricane, you'll see what we call ground clutter. But it's actually biological. What will be classified as biological material because it's birds, it's bugs, it's all this different stuff and they get caught in the eye. And so what happens is, you know, the storm let's say hypothetically, storm goes through the Caribbean, comes up through Florida, into the Southeast, and all of a sudden, like in North Carolina, you start getting reports about these ridiculous birds that they've never seen before that have just shown up. And it's because the hurricane left them there. So, you know, it's a fascinating thing. Like, I can, I can imagine, like the sea turtle situation is either because of the. The surge brought the turtle so far inland that, you know, something like that, or it just got picked up because the winds were so strong. Milton was a huge storm. You know, you could get a mini scale sharknado if you have like a strong enough tornado over water that's able to pick something up into the air. The reality is that people think about Twister, the original twister, and you know the scene where the cow goes across and the cow goes across again.
- [10:52]
Kim Wood
I gotta go, Julia. We got cows.
- [10:55]
Sam Montano
Yes, theoretically, sure, that could happen. Does it usually happen? No, it's kind of crazy, but yeah, I mean, theoretically, something like that can happen on a small scale. Hurricanes reshape. They reshape the ecology, they reshape the topography, they reshape the landscape. They're just extremely powerful forces of nature that have been on Earth since the beginning of time. They're part of the system of how things work and what kind of, frankly, makes the earth awesome. To some extent, you know, if you can look past the life and property element of it, you know, obviously it's tragic to see that, but in the grand scheme of things, it's part of the world and always has been.
- [11:37]
Kim Wood
So it's part of the world. But what if you don't want a front row seat? Well, you know, so many populations live near a coast. That's where the water and the fish and the trade is. But when you are watching, let's say, House Hunters International, are you seeing people looking for vacation homes on the beach? And are you thinking, no way, that is way too close to the water. You are in the path of hurricanes. Are you screaming at your tv? You're nodding yes.
- [12:07]
Matt Lanza
Yeah, yeah. So I try to meet people where they are. You know, if I'm having a conversation with somebody about something that they clearly really care about, and I have information that might change their perspective on what they're thinking about, such as retiring on a beach. I try to highlight, like, these are the things that you want to think about. So I shouldn't throw them under the bus. But my parents were thinking about doing something like that, and I was pretty emphatic about the things they would need to consider if they wanted to live in a place like that. And they ended up retiring to Phoenix.
- [12:47]
Kim Wood
So different set of problems, different set of global warming, but it's at least they're close by. Yes.
- [12:55]
Matt Lanza
But yeah, it's tough because I understand the call of the water. There's something special about having easy access to a beach. But everyone needs to assess their own personal level of risk and what they're willing to take, you know, based on their financial resources, physical resources, time resources, that sort of thing. And so when people are thinking about building something really cool in a risky place, it's like, if you're going to do that, think about these, you know, unlikely but increasingly like risky scenarios.
- [13:32]
Kim Wood
Yeah.
- [13:32]
Matt Lanza
So that you go in with both eyes wide open. And if something were to happen, hopefully you've got plans in place so that you can get out of there alive, because that's what matters in the end. Choosing a place to live is hard. Packing up all your stuff is hard. You know, I never want my advice to be, oh, just move. Because it just, it doesn't account for the lives people are actually living. So when you live in a place that has a risk of hurricane impacts, and I say hurricane, but, you know, in general tropical cyclone impacts, the things to be thinking about are, who do you pay attention to? Identify a couple trusted sources, you know. Yeah, you can check the National Hurricane center page on a daily basis for updates. That's great. But it's nice when someone translates that, especially the cone of uncertainty into something that is relevant to where you live, especially from a timing perspective. The watches and warnings start coming up 48 hours out, and so we want people to have taken action before those winds get to them. So that's why things will often be listed as a warning. Even though the center of the storm is still pretty far away, is because the center is the worst part. You want to be prepared before the worst part gets to you.
- [14:46]
Sam Montano
Duly noted.
- [14:47]
Matt Lanza
So take pictures of everything in your house. Have your insurance documents ready if possible, because it depends on people's ability to prepare ahead of time. Have your prescription medication stocked. Think about ways to partner up with other people who may live near you. If maybe you could carpool. Know if you're in a flood risk zone. And this what's. I'm listing all these things off. And that's a lot of responsibility placed right on the person who's like, I don't even know what a hurricane is.
- [15:19]
Kim Wood
What about the walls around you and the roof above you and the water rising at your feet. Jake and Ellie, first time question askers wanted to know how do people hurricane proof their land or house? Like, how can people prepare? Was on a lot of people's minds. Is there. Vanessa Adams wanted to know, is the likelihood of a hurricane hitting you inversely related to the amount of preparation you make for it? Signed a chronic overthinker. Better prepared and have it not happen. But you know, as we're going into this season, anything people can, can do, is it sandbags, is it emergency kits?
- [15:54]
Sam Montano
Yeah, the first, first and thing that I think a lot of people don't necessarily think about is where do you live? You live in a place, but what, what's your risk? What, what is your actual risk there? Do you live in a floodplain? Which bayou, which river, which creek drains your land? So do you have to worry about flooding from that thing? Understand the history of a place that you live, talk to your neighbors that maybe live there for a long time. So understanding what your neighborhood is like and what people have been through I think is really important. Everybody that lives in a hurricane prone area should be prepared with a kit. You can go online, go to your local municipal emergency management agency, county, state, local, whatever. They will always have a hurricane checklist. What do you need to do ahead of a hurricane? And it'll tell you, I mean it will lay it out for you, what you should have, what should be in your kit, what do you need to think about? I always tell people, you know, aside from all that, pay really close attention to, you know, if you have pets, what are you going to do with the pets? If you have to evacuate, if you have to evacuate, you've got to make a really quick move, you know, and this can go just beyond hurricanes. This go to like wildfires and other catastrophes as well. What are you going to do about childcare? What do you do if your partner's at work? How are you going to do this stuff? What route are you going to take to get out all these different things. You should be mapping all this out ahead of the season so that when the trigger gets pulled and it's time to do things, you've already got that plan drafted and ready to go and you know what you have to do. I think when I first moved to Texas, one of the things I did was I mapped out an evacuation route from my house to like Dallas. But it was like on all county roads because I had heard the horror stories during Rita of, you know, more people died during Hurricane Rita in the evacuation of Houston than in the actual storm.
- [17:43]
Kim Wood
Oh my God.
- [17:44]
Sam Montano
Because it was, it was just a mass exodus. Nobody was prepared for it. It's a lot different today. There are plans now, there's a lot more preparation, a lot more rules. It should be less chaotic today than it was 20 years ago. But these are all different things you gotta think about. It's just about being in, understanding your risk, about the place that you live. And it's not always made easy for people.
- [18:08]
Kim Wood
And I didn't know this, but via the 2006 paper titled Deaths related to Hurricane Rita and mass evacuation, 2.5 million evacuees along the Texas Gulf coast fled before this Category 5 Hurricane Rita, which killed 111 people. But Rita's path, it narrowly missed some major city centers. So a lot of the deaths were caused from trying to get away from it ahead of time. Overheating in gridlocked traffic, turning the AC off to save fuel in the car, dehydration, people weren't drinking water because they wanted to avoid restroom stops and trying to conserve food and whatever supplies they had. So over half of the deaths from Hurricane Rita were people found in their vehicles. And dozens more were nursing home patients who perished in a bus fire related to the excessive heat and their onboard oxygen tanks, which is awful. Now, Hurricane Katrina, whose 20 year anniversary is coming up on August 29th of this year was also a category 5, also in 2005. But Katrina's death toll was over 1800, not including the people who died later by suicide and stress related health conditions. Now, the hurricane passed, Katrina passed. But the catastrophic loss of life was due to over 50 breaches of these poorly constructed levees along the canals of the city. And these breaches hit lower income areas like the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard's Parish the worst. And in a 2017 article titled Hurricanes hit the poor the hardest by a policy nonprofit institute, Brookings explains that lower income Americans are more likely to live in neighborhoods or buildings more susceptible to storm shocks. And substandard infrastructure in affordable housing units pose greater threats to survival. They're built like shit essentially. And evacuation without transportation or even unexpected fuel and supply costs can mean the difference between life and death. And that was the case in Katrina. And this weekend I watched the five part documentary Hurricane A Race against Time. It was directed by Tracy A. Curry. It was executive produced by sinners and Black Panther director Ryan Coogler. And this documentary details the timeline of the storm with all this old footage. But it also illuminates that Katrina's true horror Is this systemic neglect to protect vulnerable people? And it is impossible to ingest this series or reflect on Katrina without tasting everything that came before and has come after that storm. And I knew that the Levy breaks hit minority and poor communities the hardest, but I watched all five parts of this documentary until three in the morning, all in one sitting. And you're just left wondering, like, why the fuck didn't more people do something? How could they let people suffer and die in broad daylight like that? Where was the drinking water? Where were the boats and the buses and the safety? How did anyone get away with this? How could people far away have helped more? And how can they call people in their own city refugees? And one effect of this documentary, it's on Hulu, is that Katrina's 20th anniversary lines up side by side to today's families torn apart by ICE agents. A textbook genocide in Gaza. LGBTQ people stripped of rights and dignity, even military pensions, reproductive rights blocked, voter disenfranchisement, like the authoritarian seizing of the judicial system and realizing that help is not coming as expected. It's like citizens on the ground helping each other the best they can to survive and just hoping that the people who are paid to help might be ashamed enough to actually step in. But Hurricane Katrina, Race against time, definitely worth watching. So let's go back real quick. We're go to our 2019 disasterology episode with Dr. Sam Montano, who was so moved by Katrina that she moved to New Orleans to see study disaster management, and it made it her career. So here is an Excerpt from that 2019 episode With Dr. Montano going back to recovery. Samantha, remember spent undergrad in Louisiana after Katrina and the floods, and this was a massive catastrophe. Again, 80% of the city flooded. Human bodies floated in the floodwaters for days at a time. Infrastructure was out all over. People left and never came back. So for this episode, I went back and looked up some AP photos of the direct aftermath, and I literally cried over my laptop and then had nightmares. The scale of this tragedy was unthinkable. So what was her experience like there?
- [22:57]
Jessica Randolph
So when I lived in New Orleans, I lived there for four years. I was going to college. So in some ways I was mostly living on campus in uptown New Orleans. You know, you could walk around outside and not really know that Katrina had happened. In the past few years, there were like some signs here and there, but for the most part, things looked quote, unquote, normal. But because of the organizations I work with, worked with, and the other things that I did, I was regularly Spending time in all different neighborhoods throughout the entire city. And, you know, when you live in a place that is going through a recovery, especially of the size of Katrina's recovery, it affects kind of every aspect of your day from, you know, certain roads being closed down because they're still doing construction on those roads, or fixing the sewer lines for the first time since the storm, like, years later, or, you know, trash and recycling not being back, or it being two to three years before the streetcar starts running again. Right. Every different aspect of the city had to be rebuilt. And so you're operating within this space that is not operating at its full capacity. And so that kind of like, that eats at you, that affects your daily life. And even I, who was very much still removed from that, like, I myself was not going through through recovery. I myself was, like, living in, like, a place that was recovered. And even then when I left New Orleans, I, like, felt the difference of moving to Fargo and being in a community that was all put together and operating the way you expect a community to operate. And so, yeah, it definitely eats at you. We also see that in the research in terms of, you know, people's mental health and the way that they stress manifests during recovery. We see an increase in domestic violence, an increase in suicides during recovery among people who are going through that process. And, yeah, it's extremely, extremely difficult to go through, particularly as a survivor of that disaster.
- [25:06]
Kim Wood
Does it ever affect you to see how people respond to certain disasters as opposed to others, or how policymakers or political officials will respond to certain communities affected or certain disasters? Is that ever something that might get your goat?
- [25:24]
Jessica Randolph
Yeah, I'm mad, like, all the time.
- [25:26]
Kim Wood
Okay, that's what I'm thinking.
- [25:28]
Jessica Randolph
Just constantly mad.
- [25:30]
Kim Wood
Yeah. Yeah. Just a side note. So we recorded this in late April. The world had just watched France's structural jewel, Notre Dame Cathedral, burn in part to cinders and collapse. Over $1 billion in donations poured out of pockets, and the church reported that most of it was from small personal donations. So, okay, they raised a billion dollars very quickly. Fine. It's Europe. There are so many countries that would chip in. But I just read a recent Travel and Leisure article that noted an estimated 90% of the donations didn't come from Europe. They came from the US So what about Puerto Rico? Hobbled by Hurricane Maria. They got less help from the US Federal government than Texas and Florida did for Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. And as for personal donations, folks gave about 32 million to Puerto Rico as compared to that 1 billion for a Paris church. Hurricane Maria's death toll in Puerto Rico, which is a US territory, is estimated at 3,057 people. So the death toll for the Notre Dame fire, zero. Huge financial discrepancies there.
- [26:41]
Jessica Randolph
Certainly everything about disasters is injustice manifesting. Like who is affected most directly by disasters, which communities are affected, in what ways they're affected, their ability to prepare for disasters, their ability to mitigate disasters, their ability to to recover, their ability to literally survive disasters. All of this is tied to policies that are shaped by race, class, gender. And all of those inequalities come out in the middle of a disaster. And you know, it's those inequalities exist in all four phases. But of course it's during the response that they are kind of most visible and in everyone's face.
- [27:29]
Kim Wood
Mm. Kanye west, sometimes just calling him out on a telethon. George Bush doesn't care about black people back vintage Kanye west, that is. Yeah, the golden days of Yeezy before red hats and proclamations that slavery is a choice. And yeah, this episode with Dr. Montana was recorded in 2019. And in those six years, Kanye or Ye has only spiraled into absolutely unhinged neo Nazi behavior. It's just yet another upside down horror of the last few years. Now in a few minutes we're going to hear again Another update from Dr. Sam Montano on what to do. But yeah, current day disasters.
- [28:08]
Matt Lanza
Kim said so many folks who live in these areas are already barely getting by. And so to assume that they have enough resources to put gas in their car, to have a car, to, you know, you've got folks who may use wheelchairs, you have folks with pets, you have folks with medical conditions, children, elderly, relatives, there's all these different factors that folks need to consider for their own personal risk and risk management. And so when it comes to our agencies, whether it be at the local to federal level, giving us advance warning, the NHC works super hard to make sure information is getting out as best they can, as far out in advance as they can. And right now, current decision trajectories are actually hindering us in being able to do that.
- [29:01]
Kim Wood
Matt echoes that.
- [29:02]
Sam Montano
I always think like the example, like the single mom that's working three jobs, that's got two kids, doesn't have time to go through all these things. So I think it would be nice if communities had almost a welcome to welcome to the town packet. Here's what you need to know. And it would include things like that because all the time we're always talking about how great a place is to live. But the reality is that there's always going to be something. There's always some threat, it's a blizzard, it's a hurricane, it's a wildfire, it's an earthquake, whatever it is.
- [29:32]
Kim Wood
Do insurance companies still call it an act of God or is it an act of nature? I'll have to look that up.
- [29:38]
Sam Montano
Yeah. But you bring up an important topic because insurance industry are the ones that are starting to, they're the market signal that climate change is a problem because everybody's insurance rates are going up. And it's not just because of wildfires in California and Colorado, it's because of hailstorms in Texas, it's because of hurricanes in Texas and Florida and the Carolinas, it's because of flooding. And there are now a lot of insurers that are no longer insuring in hurricane prone areas. They're out, they're done because they know it's too much risk. You talk about money and what gets Americans motivated seems to be money. And that's going to be a thing.
- [30:22]
Kim Wood
Now what about trying to stop a hurricane? What kind of measures historically or in the future? Have people tried to throw salt up there or anything? What could we do?
- [30:32]
Matt Lanza
Unfortunately, when it comes to trying to control something like a hurricane, it is massive. It is releasing so much energy and it is already interacting with the area around it in, I would say, organized, chaotic ways. But the stuff that's happening in the storm can be occurring on really small scales. Like if you look out and you see a single thunderstorm cloud and then you think about all the processes happening within that, that's all happening inside of a hurricane as well.
- [31:00]
Kim Wood
Oh boy.
- [31:01]
Matt Lanza
And so when you think about how could humanity directly affect a hurricane? And we can't, no, we can't nuke them. No, we can't drag icebergs under them. No, no, no. We are indirectly affecting them by warming the climate. But we are not capable of directly affecting something the size of a hurricane.
- [31:26]
Kim Wood
So the prevailing advice from professional tempestologists is to look to your local meteorologist who will have the best handle on evacuation advice and what areas near you may be hit the hardest. And remember that these things are hard to predict, weeks and sometimes even days out, and hurricanes can ping pong around and change course. That surprises even meteorologists. So since part one of this episode went up last week, and part of the reason we spaced out this jumbo episode in two servings is because kind of like an approaching storm about to wallop your whole existence, there have been minute by minute updates. So according to the AP News, since January, when Trump took office, the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency gutted NOAA and the National Weather Service, which are key for the nation's daily weather forecasts, severe storm warnings, climate monitoring and more. So hundreds of NOAA forecasters and other employees have been cutting and National Weather Service offices around the country have had a number of vacancies, the AP reported. Meteorologists have been like that's one way to shoot yourself in the crotch during increasing numbers of climate emergencies to stop funding them. But as of this past Friday, August 6, 2025, apparently the government is looking to hire back 450 meteorologists, hydrologists and radar technicians. Now, many who took what amounted to a forced retirement or buyout are not coming back. And we learned last week that those were usually the scientists closest to retirement and with the most experience. And working under an administration who's looking to like slash mentions of climate change from its official websites and defund studies on global warming means a lot of those scientists do not want to put up with that bullshit. Typically it takes months to even get a government job. And hurricane season is already here. It's been hanging out on the porch most likely to storm through the door in the coming weeks. Right now as I record this, we've got an eye on Hurricane Erin, which as of 1 hour ago from when I'm recording this, which is about six hours before the episode is released. Tropical Storm Erin could rapidly intensify in the coming days, they're saying, and it could be the first Atlantic hurricane of 2025. Stay tuned. But have those 450 positions been filled yet? No, they have not. So the government fucked up weather wise here. It would not be the first time. So in a moment we'll talk about another gaffe that has become the stuff of legends. But first let's donate to a cause of the ologist choosing and this week it's Kim's choice. And they selected the wonderful Trevor Project, which is the leading suicide prevention and crisis intervention nonprofit organization for LGBTQ young people. And they provide information and support 247 all year round. And their website notes that the Trump administration eliminated the specialized suicide prevention support for LGBTQ youth callers through the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. The Trevor Project, however, provides immediate crisis support anywhere in the US Via text chat or phone. And the Trevor project is 100% confidential and 100% free. You can find out more or donate to them at the Trevor Project. So thank you to Kim for choosing them. Hi. This is a reminder that you are a human animal person who needs things like rest and good food. And also modern life doesn't always allow for that. Nature's Bounty is a life hack that we've all been needing. So I take Nature's Bounty. I always have it in my little supplement cabinet. They're high absorption magnesium glycinate. The way to go. It supports your whole body health. I recently traveled without magnesium glycinate. I made your pineapple, Todd. Mother Jarrett walk around Dublin looking for some. I take it every day. And they have a new advanced Menopause relief. It's formulated with ingredients that are clinically shown to relieve menopause symptoms like hot flashes and low energy and anxiety and night sweats. And it's just in one small tablet per day. I got some right here. Have I researched the key ingredients in it? Of course I have. I stuck my face in a whole meta analysis of randomized controlled trials and was like legit. I'm into this. So Nature's Bounty. It's in your nature. Learn more@naturesbounty.com these statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. This is an ad by BetterHelp. I know when it comes to feeling better, how do you know what actually works for you? Using some trusted resources, talking to live therapists can get you personalized recommendations. They have over 30,000 therapists worldwide and Better Help is the world's largest online therapy platform. They've served over 5 million people globally. The thing I like about Better Help is it's convenient when you need to start therapy. Maybe you've never done it before, maybe it's been a while. It can be so overwhelming. And Better Help makes that onboarding really easy. You can take a short quiz, they match you with a therapist and if for any reason you are not vibing, you can switch therapists at any time time. No extra charge, no drama. And Better Help was a resource I've used that I was going through some grief with my dad, some anticipatory grief. It was really helpful to have that online. Easy to schedule outlet. Now, as the largest online therapy provider in the world, Better Help can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse array of experience. Talk it out With Better Help our listeners get 10% off their first month@betterhelp.com that's betterhelp h lp.com ologies okay, I hate to break it to you, but barbecue season is Coming to a close. 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Go to homechef.comologies that's homechef.comologieS for 50% off your first box and free dessert for life. Homechef.comologieDs must be an active subscriber to receive free dessert, but you probably knew that. Ologies is brought to you by Strawberry Me. If your career were planned, how's it doing? Is it neglected? Is it parched? Is it over watered? What's going on? I know you want to keep that alive and career growth is challenging. Inertia is real, but nothing changes unless you change it. I love career coaching. It is absolutely, absolutely changed my life. I wouldn't have started Ologies if it weren't for career coaching and Strawberry Me. Career coaching can help you get out of the career void. Now Strawberry Me, they match you with a certified career coach, a real human. They are not an AI with questionable motives. And your career coach listens. They help identify what blocks you have and then they help you create a plan. And you can learn how to make small steps for a big change over time. And they hold you accountable so you don't just like think about the thing you do. The thing. I met with a Strawberry Me coach and instantly loved her. It's never a bad time to brush up on it. I just started Strawberry Me to get over some fears of continuing to expand. So if you're waiting for the right moment to level up, this is it. Go to Strawberry Me Ologies and claim your $50 credit. That's Strawberry Me slash Ologies. You got this. We're getting into my favorite time of year, which is all black tights and cashmere, which means quints. Whether you're looking for, like new pieces that you're going to fall in love with and wear forever, or maybe you're building a capsule wardrobe because life is overwhelming. Quince has got you literally covered. They have cashmere and cotton sweaters that start at 40 bucks. They have washable silk tops. They have classic denim pants. What I love about them is that their styles are really classic and really buildable, layerable, just polished. And I always feel really confident in them. And the best part is everything with Quint is half the cost of similar brands. They pair directly with the factories and then they pass the savings on to you. I just bought a bunch of stuff from Quint. I got some great new black denim jeans. Got a high necked sleeveless black cashmere sweater. But they have things in plenty of colors, plenty of styles. So elevate your fall wardrobe essentials with quint. Go to quint.comologies for free shipping on your order and yeah, 365 day returns. That's Q-U I N C.comologies to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quint.comologies big fan. Okay, where were we? Yes. Hurricane fuckups. How did meteorologists feel in 2019 with Dorian's map being altered?
- [40:47]
Sam Montano
Sharpie gate.
- [40:48]
Kim Wood
What was going on? Yeah, like, what was the reaction there?
- [40:54]
Sam Montano
Extreme frustration and outrage, to be quite honest. Yeah, you know, it's just, it's so petty. It's so stupid. It's such a distraction from the actual concerns.
- [41:06]
Kim Wood
Okay, so this is officially known as the Hurricane Dorian Alabama controversy. And it involved a press conference in the Oval Office of then president and now President Donald Trump holding up a poster board map of NOAA's predicted cone of uncertainty. That's like where the storm may hit. And it was headed over Florida. Dorian was. And up the Atlantic coast. But someone had taken a black marker to the map and added a hump to the top of the cone to include Alabama. It was likely not a scientist, as all meteorological predictions at that point correctly stated, that Alabama would not be hit. And the president, who tends to sign all of his papers with a black marker, later criticized a reporter for fact checking him. Also, doctoring or altering official weather predictions for publication or by a government official is against the law. And it's punishable potentially by imprisonment, but so are a lot of things that aren't. Now. What was the response like internally?
- [42:06]
Sam Montano
What I Loved was the National Weather Service in Birmingham kind of stood up for, really, their people, to be honest. Like, because it's. They didn't want their people to be scared and they didn't want to panic on their office. They're like, no, this isn't going to happen. This is not a concern for us. And they did a great job of kind of rebuffing that and standing up and doing such a good job. But it's interesting you bring that up because literally today, Andrew Friedman, who is climate writer for cnn, he wrote. He came out with an article that said that two of the NOAA agency employees that led the review into sharpiegate and the discipline review were put on leave today. Yeah. Really? That's what we're up against right now.
- [42:53]
Kim Wood
Oh, yikes. It's just. Yeah, it's so surreal. And I wanted to ask, when we're looking forward to, say, this season, how are you getting that idea of it's going to be a bad one, it's going to be a good one. Is it. And is it just getting worse every year with climate change?
- [43:13]
Sam Montano
Yeah. So the climate change factor is just a kind of a layer of complication that's just added to everything. And, you know, and that could be said for everything beyond hurricanes, too. But from a seasonal forecasting perspective, when you're sitting in the beginning of hurricane season, you're like, all right, how bad is this going to be? You're looking at, what are water temperatures? Are they really warm? Are they really widespread warm? Are they just warm in a certain area? You want to get a sense of, is the fuel going to be there to get these things going as the season goes on? In recent years, it's been kind of crazy, actually, how warm the oceans have been. Like, your initial thought is like, here we go again, another hurricane season here, and this is going to be bad. Then you just do have to think about climate change as well and how that layers into everything. There's a whole body of research on climate change and, and hurricanes and how they're impacted, and it's. It's complicated and frustrating and not great overall. So, you know, you're just trying to. I think we all pad a little bit on top of where things are just because the world we live in today.
- [44:13]
Kim Wood
Yeah. Do you feel like it's not. When you say it's not great, do you mean the research isn't great or it's not looking great? The prognosis is not great, it's not.
- [44:21]
Sam Montano
Looking great, you know, particularly. Yeah.
- [44:28]
Kim Wood
I'M sorry, that's what I was afraid of. But just, yeah, like gallows humor, like so bad. Oh, my God. Okay, yeah, continue.
- [44:38]
Sam Montano
I thrive on gallows humor. So that's the only way you can in this industry, I think it's like.
- [44:42]
Kim Wood
All you can do. Like the fuck, you know, so it's so like all signs point to. It's not looking good.
- [44:50]
Sam Montano
Yeah. We're seeing more cases of storms that intensify rapidly and it's happening right up to landfall. Now, it used to be the conventional wisdom, particularly in the Gulf, was, you know, a storm would peak in intensity as it approached land, it would start to level off a little bit and, you know, you'd have a bad storm. That's that. But what we've seen so many times in the last six, seven, eight years is these storms that just throw on the accelerator, they slam on it, and they never hit the brakes until they hit land. And so you're getting all these storms that are coming ashore at their maximum intensities. And that's why we've seen category fives, category fours, litter the whole Gulf coast since 2017. The research kind of backs this up. This is not something that should be considered out of line going forward that this is going to become kind of more the rule than the exception, I think. And yeah, it's really. It's what the.
- [45:42]
Kim Wood
What?
- [45:42]
Sam Montano
Yeah, you know, and it goes beyond that.
- [45:48]
Kim Wood
Well, if you are paying any attention to what's happening in the United States. For any listeners who might have blissfully been unaware, Emily Knudsen, Maddie Julian, both first time question askers, wanted to know. Emily asked, how will cuts to the National Weather Service impact our ability to track hurricanes? Maddie wanted to know, how screwed are we this hurricane season because of the funding cuts to NOAA and the lack of satellite data? Alison Clark said, hate to be a bummer, but how bad are things expected to be in future storms as a result of these recent cuts to weather services? So, I mean, part of why we're like laughing through tears is it's, it couldn't have taken a worse turn here in terms of protections, understanding of it. Like, it's, it's seems surreal. What is going on with those programs? Is there any hope? Are there ways that scientists have been able to hold on to data or hold their positions or like what's going on inside? Is it as bad as the headlines? Is it not as bad as the headlines?
- [46:49]
Sam Montano
Yeah, it just is. It's something. I don't know what. Yeah, no, but in all seriousness, like you know, we're recording this in late July and I mean like tomorrow something could come out, some edict and the whole thing changes. So as it stands today, there have been a number of cuts throughout the course of the year. We had basically like not forced retirements, but heavily encouraged retirements with scare quotes. We've had people that have left early.
- [47:18]
Kim Wood
Yeah.
- [47:19]
Sam Montano
So number one, you've lost a whole heck of a lot of experience from the National Weather Service. You've lost for the young, younger people in, in NWS now they've lost mentorship and things like that, things that will help them to, to get better as, as time goes on. So that's, that's unfortunate. And there's, you know, that ship sailed. Right. So we, that, that's done. Because of the staffing cuts, they can't launch weather balloons as frequently in some parts of the country. That's a problem because then you lose some of the inputs to weather model data that are really important. And like you think about what's 2025, we're still launching weather balloons. But the reality is that's one of the most critical inputs to weather models is, is getting this truth from the upper atmosphere. You know, you launch a weather balloon, you take all these readings and all that stuff kind of gets ingested into models. And the models do better. They're, they're based on what the atmosphere looks like in a 3D perspective. And that's what helps because no one lives 20,000ft up. The issue is that the proposed budget for 2026, I mean it just took, it took a machete to Noah. And what people don't realize is that all this research is so critically important to our understanding of weather and our understanding of weather forecasting related to hurricanes. One of the proposal, the proposed cuts was to eliminate the Hurricane Research Division, which is run in Miami. And you do that and your forecasts aren't going to get any better. They may even regress. So.
- [48:46]
Kim Wood
Fuck, dude. Yeah, now, like now, now of all times to do that. Also like the president lives in South Florida most of the time.
- [48:57]
Matt Lanza
Correct.
- [48:58]
Kim Wood
Like, right. Is that, that seems counter intuitive for.
- [49:03]
Sam Montano
It'S, it's, it's counter everything.
- [49:05]
Kim Wood
Yeah. I asked his astrologist, Dr. Sam Montano what is happening and she sent me a note titled Monday Morning Email of Doom. I will read it to you. So Sam says the quick summary of what's happened is that the Trump administration has begun gutting FEMA with continued threats to eliminate the agency entirely. And about 2,000 FEMA employees have left the agency or been fired since January. Perhaps most concerning, she writes, is the agency is undergoing a brain drain, with key experienced leaders leaving in droves, and the most recent is a guy who was in charge of FEMA's Urban Search and rescue teams. The administration has taken away funding for state and local mitigation projects, preparedness efforts and ongoing recovery efforts. And Sam says, I can't give you exact amounts because they're stopping funding in piecemeal ways. So it's almost impossible to track. But it's into the billions of dollars and there are ongoing lawsuits about it. Unclear how this will play out. She says Trump has yet to formally nominate someone for the Senate to confirm to lead fema. So they put in this guy David Richardson as the temporary head, she tells me he is, and I cannot stress this enough, completely unqualified. He has zero emergency management experience, didn't know there was a hurricane season, and also has terrible fashion sense. Now. Dr. Montano had hyperlinked those last words and I couldn't click them fast enough. And it led me to her July 2025 blog post, which informed me that Richardson didn't show up in Texas until nine days after the recent July floods, which have killed 135 people and counting. Incomprehensible, she says. Nine days. Nine days now. Sam's blog post also furnished photos of Richardson in collared shirts unbuttoned to below his nipple line. And she offered the description of his arrival in Texas. This man rolled in looking like some washed up mobster coming off a three day bender at the club. It's giving creepy old divorced dad at the bar scamming on young women. This is the wardrobe of the sleazy Guy Olivia Benson SVU's Mariska Hartigay interviews when a socialite ends up dead A public service ad for Cover your drink, she continues. He was wearing what appears to be a Cartier watch and the dumbest hat I have ever seen. I know this is a tired exercise, but can you imagine, she says, if the former director had shown up in western North Carolina over a week late wearing a $7,000 watch? Can you imagine? Dr. Montano continues. It might seem like I'm just being mean, bullying a grown man like this and all, but his fashion choice is actually indicative of all the problems with Richardson serving as the head of fema. Think Miranda Priestley's cerulean sweater monologue from the Devil Wears Prada. His actions have demonstrated a complete disregard for the culture of the profession, a lack of respect for disaster victims and an abdication of duty toward disaster survivors and emergency managers, and he has once again demonstrated that he does not take his job seriously and has no interest in bettering fema. He is sloppy, unprepared, self involved, a poor communicator, unperceptive and ignorant. Okay, again, Sam is a professional disasterologist who has been doing this much longer than David Richardson. Okay, back to Sam's email Monday morning email of doom again talking about current senior official performing the duties of FEMA administrator at female David Richardson the biggest problem is that perhaps because FEMA is under the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem has effectively taken the agency over. This is causing all kinds of ethical problems and bureaucratic hurdles. The Trump administration's plan, which aligns with Project 2025, is that states are going to need to be responsible for their own disasters. The problem, of course, is that states do not have the people, budget or expertise to be able to do that effect effectively for big disasters and catastrophes, she continues. This is probably much more than you're interested in. No, Dr. Sam Montano, it is not. But there was a big new nationwide survey of local, state and territorial emergency management agencies, and the TLDR is that there are not anywhere near enough people and funding for local, state and emergency managers to meet the needs of their communities. What that means is emergency managers can't do enough to try to prevent disasters and to prepare for them, so when those disasters inevitably happen, the response and the recovery won't go well in italics. Dr. Montano stressed to me, we are not there yet. But if these federal changes continue and state and local governments don't dramatically increase funding, we are on a trajectory where public sector emergency management will collapse. So why should people think do? Sam says. Call your reps if you live in America. Tell them to demand that the administration nominate a qualified FEMA administrator. Urge your reps to pass legislation to make FEMA independent from the Department of Homeland Security. And also for anyone who doesn't even live in the United States right now, take as many individual actions to prepare yourself for disaster with the resources that you have. The usual things like stockpiling extra food, water, medications, having a family, communication and evacuation planning money set aside for an emergency. If you can buy flood insurance, Sam says. Please, please, please buy flood insurance, she says. Also be proactive about getting disaster alerts and warnings. Make sure your phone settings allow for government emergency alerts. She adds that this is the screeching sound your phone makes when there's a tornado, etc, which can get a bit annoying, she says. But you really need to keep it turned on. You should also google your city or town or county or country and emergency management and see what other emergency alerts you can opt into. You can also follow your local emergency management agency on social media. Check in with your friends and family and neighbors and make sure they've done all those things too. Especially, she says, consider grandparents, elderly neighbors or other people in your life who might need a little extra help during a disaster. She says prepare for federal assistance to be delayed or much less than in the past and advocate for community wide preparedness where you live. Sam says, look into your local emergency management agency's budget, she says, I bet they do not have enough money so go to a town council meeting and advocate for increasing their budget or taking on more local mitigation projects. Also, you can urge local climate groups to include disaster advocacy in their climate work. So we're going to link all those actions and advice via our website@alieward.com ologies tempestology, which will be also linked in the show notes and Also check out Dr. Montano's disasterology episode and follow her on bluesky and Instagram @samlmontano. She is a force for good. More good.
- [56:09]
Sam Montano
Now here's the good news. The good news is that Congress, sometimes they can be the grownups in the room and weather generally is a very bipartisan issue. You know, weather affects everybody. They don't care who you voted for. Everybody in their district doesn't want to be accused of cutting, you know, something that impacts weather forecast that leads to a tragedy in their town. So the Senate came together and said no, we're not going to do these cuts, sorry. In fact we're going to actually increase funding to know a little bit and we're going to keep all this other, all these agencies that you want to eliminate, all these research agencies that you want to eliminate, we're going to keep them all. Okay, good. But the House actually came back and said yeah, actually we're going to increase the funding. So the hope here is that eventually when all is said and done, this will be a moot point. The funding levels will hopefully be at least the same as they've been, if not a little bit higher. And you know, all is hunky dory and well with the world. But hope is not always a strategy. It's even remains to be seen whether or not, you know, the administration even wants to play by the rules and do what Congress has them with. So we're living in an interesting time. I don't want to say we're screwed because I think that that's, that's a little strong.
- [57:28]
Kim Wood
Okay.
- [57:30]
Sam Montano
But suffice to say, I, and most other meteorologists I know we're all concerned.
- [57:36]
Kim Wood
Yeah.
- [57:36]
Sam Montano
Deeply concerned and troubled by what's been.
- [57:39]
Kim Wood
Happening and funding these science agencies, even if they're working on climate science, behooves everyone.
- [57:46]
Sam Montano
If you are the most fiscally disciplined individual and you believe that we should be very, very fiscally conservative as a country, that's fine. But you're saving like literally, like next to nothing. But the cost that you're incurring because of that is significant.
- [58:02]
Kim Wood
Yeah.
- [58:02]
Sam Montano
And you know, you're risking, you're playing with fire, literally and figuratively, and you don't want to do that.
- [58:09]
Kim Wood
And the cost other than human life. So, from FEMA's own website, based on 2018 analyses, natural hazard mitigation saves $6 on average for every dollar spent. And remember that this was a 2018 study and numbers have trended upwards when it comes to savings. FEMA's report also acknowledged the social and the psychological downstream effects of disaster and noted that some mitigation benefits include the reduction in domestic violence, the conservation of heirlooms and photos, and the preservation of community and culture. And those benefits can be extremely difficult to quantify. And so they were omitted from the analyses. So that 6 to 1 is definitely a conservative estimate. Like if every hurricane had like a price tag, so it actually hit home with people, you know, like, oh, this is how much this hurricane is going to cost. People might care more than just categories or even lives, which is astonishing and horrifying. But I think we've become, especially in America, we have become so used to mass casualties in a, in a way that's just pretty horrifying. But one thing that America still runs on is money. And it's, it's interesting to think, damage wise, what that might do.
- [59:22]
Sam Montano
It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet.
- [59:31]
Kim Wood
Should you go by the Waffle House Index or no?
- [59:34]
Sam Montano
The Waffle House Index is undefeated. You have to go by that right when you're making your mental forecasting ensemble of how things are going to go. You have to use the Waffle House as an input. No question about it.
- [59:48]
Kim Wood
So the Waffle House Index refers to the 365, 247 purveyors of breakfast and diner foods that dot the Midwest and the southern United States landscapes. And it was kind of a full guideline that if a nearby Waffle House still open, you're probably safe because they close for no man. It would be amazing if FEMA used this on the ground metric. But wait, they do. Or they did. Under the direction of Obama appointed William Craig Fugate, who told the New York Times in 2012 that, quote, waffle House has a very simple operational philosophy. Get open, they never close. They run 24 hours a day. So if the local Waffle House is business as usual, things are fine. Now if they have a limited menu, their power might be iffy. And if they have shuttered the doors for a storm, you better get your ass to shelter, too. That is the Waffle House index. Now, the New York Times article also laments that after its poor handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, FEMA was the Homer Simpson of federal agencies, a symbol of pitiful incompetence. It's a good thing that Katrina did not hit a nuclear reactor, though. I know that there's so much that is challenging about being a tempestologist in the year of our Lord 2025, the year of our Beyonce 2025. What's the hardest thing about it?
- [61:13]
Sam Montano
Oh, that's a good question. The hardest thing, what I'm learning is effectively reaching people. You think you've got a method of communicating with people, but, you know, as a scientist, sometimes you assume people know more than they do, sometimes you expect people to know more than they do, and you've just got to be so aware and cognizant of that. So it's not just even thinking about the forecast and the weather and the science. It's thinking about the lingo that you use to convey something, because one word can be very different than another. We are constantly learning, constantly learning how to deal with it and communicate to people. And it's a fun process, but it's hard. It's hard and you feel a responsibility to do it right. So anytime you come up short in that or something gets misinterpreted, you feel kind of sucky, you know, even if you did the best you could.
- [62:05]
Kim Wood
But still, what about faves? Let's start with Kim. What do you love about them? Or working in hurricanes.
- [62:14]
Matt Lanza
I have learned so much about nature, about geography, about engineering, about coding, about visualization because I study hurricanes. I have connected with all kinds of people because I study hurricanes and the communities that build around these shared values of investigating fascinating phenomena and distilling that information in ways people can actually act on to make their lives better. Like the fact that I'm talking to you right now is an example of one of my favorite things about hurricanes 20 years ago, me couldn't even fathom that I would publicly speak in any way, shape or form, especially recorded. People could listen to this. Again, like what? But like the way, like, just sharing science is so valuable because it's connecting humans to other humans over things that we don't have control over, but by learning more about them, we can better control what we do in the face of them.
- [63:20]
Kim Wood
That's such a beautiful point. Any advice for someone who thinks that they might want to go into hurricane research or storm research, like, they either want to chase a storm on radar or in an aircraft shaking violently with turbulence and fear.
- [63:36]
Matt Lanza
This might be the weirdest thing. But learn your way around a computer. It's amazing how much data are out there that you could potentially put your own perspective on. If you have a little bit of knowledge of computers, of accessing data and programming languages like Python that are open source. Like, all the visualizations I do are made possible because programs like Python are just. People just post their code to stack, overflow, or GitHub, and they're like, here, take it. And so I've started doing the same thing for other people and equipping yourself with a skill in pursuit of something you're passionate about. That skill can be used in other ways too, but you also have more fun learning it. Because learning is hard if you're doing it in pursuit of this really interesting thing and being able to visualize data, interrogate data, all that kind of thing. It can serve you well in so many ways and also just give you insight into how to interpret what other people are sharing.
- [64:36]
Kim Wood
Oh, that's so smart. I definitely wouldn't have known how to audio edit if it weren't for ologies. I was like, I don't want to learn that. But then I was like, I do want to make a podcast. I'm okay with it. That's great. And what does Matt adore about these storms? Is there a favorite thing you have about studying hurricanes, about being a meteorologist, about what you do?
- [64:57]
Sam Montano
I just. I find it all so fascinating. Hurricane Harvey changed me a lot because it was the first time that I had dealt with, you know, a forecast that I had made, and it was for a devastating event, and so many people I knew were impacted by it personally that it was a little hard to reconcile as a weather geek. A lot of times you can sit and watch these storms from afar and you're like, yeah, that's awesome. That's so cool. And because it's nature, you know, the Reality is it impacts people really hard. So that really kind of muted some of my enthusiasm, sucked the air out of the balloon a little bit.
- [65:30]
Kim Wood
Yeah.
- [65:31]
Sam Montano
But I still am fascinated by it. You learn how to compartmentalize all your emotions a little bit and you go back to just appreciating the science for what it is. And it's just the power of hurricanes is incredible. They are fascinating. They are so impactful, not just at a human scale, but like we've talked about, at just every scale imaginable on the planet. And they're just the most fascinating things that exist. It emphasizes the power of nature over man. And just constantly you're learning something new and seeing something incredible. And I mean, even honestly with climate change, it sucks, it's horrible, it's awful. But I'm here now, I'm doing this now and it's a responsibility to try and understand everything better because it is going to get worse. And it's an opportunity for you to ultimately try and do good for people in a world that is not necessarily doing them good. And at the end of the day, if you could say that you had a positive impact on helping someone prepare for and get through a storm, then great. That's awesome. I feel like I did something good. So.
- [66:45]
Kim Wood
So once again ask delightful people disastrous questions. And thank you both so much, Tempestologists Matt and Kim, for being two of the finest ever. You can follow them at their social media handles. BlueSky MattLanza Kim is Dr. Kim Wood, which are linked in the show notes or our website@alieward.com ologies tempestology we are Ologies on Blue sky and Instagram. I'm Alieward with one L on both. Smallogies are those shorter classroom safe versions of Ologies Classics. Those are available wherever you get podcasts and you can sign up@patreon.com ologies to send in your questions ahead of the recording. Aaron Talbert Admins Theologies Podcast Facebook Group Avileen Malik makes our professional transcripts. Kelly R. Dwyer does the website. Noel Dilworth tracks our unpredictable schedule. Susan Hale oversees it all as managing director and pilots of our always exciting and shaky flight to hit publish are Jake Chaffee and Captain Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio. Nick Thorburn wrote the theme music. Extra help provided by Jarrett Sleeper of mindjam Media, who's also a wonderful husband. And if you stick around till the end of the episode, I burden you with a secret from my heart. And this week it's that I'm I realized I'm always afraid when I'm in stores that people will think I'm shoplifting. The only time I've ever shoplifted once is right out of college when my blood sugar was really low and the line at Rite Aid was so long I was going to be late to work. So I stole a Clif bar, and then I bought one later at Trader Joe's, and I returned the same Clif bar to Rite Aid the next day. Because I'm an individual who is ruled by fear. But nonetheless, I'm also just afraid in general that people might think that I would steal from them. And I realized I was the public library. And I realized it's so freeing because you can look at something stuff without worrying about seeming weird or not buying anything. And then I was like, how fitting that liber means free. Although I just went down an etymology hole and I was like, well, lieber, free library, free borrowing. Also a freedom of the soul. But it turns out that library comes from a root word about tree bark and it's not related to liberty at all. Still, libraries a place to experience liberty liberally. And librarians, I salute you. And I'm not going to steal any books. Okay? Stay safe, please. And if you didn't like that, this got political. I didn't like that science gets political either. I don't like it. They should fund science based on the science that we need and not based on appeasing coal companies and stuff. But what do I know? Enough not to mark a map with a Sharpie. Bye. Bye. Pachydermatology, homeology, cryptozoology, litology, nanotechnology, meteorology, cognology, serology, selenology. I love waffles. Let's go there. Okay, one more secret for you. My garbage isn't stinky if you're, like, impossible. And why are you bragging? It's not me. It's because I have a mill food recycler. You can take your food scraps and your leftover food, your vegetable peelings, whatever. You walk over to the mill, you drop it in. It always reminds me of that scene at the end of Back to the Future where Doc is just putting stuff in the car. It's like that, but for food scraps. You put it in there while you sleep, it dehydrates and churns them up. You can fill it for weeks and it doesn't smell. And it also keeps leftovers out of my garbage so that my garbage doesn't smell or get juicy, which is what you don't want. Your garbage to be. So it transforms your scraps into these nutrient rich grounds. They look like coffee grounds. You can put them in the garden, you can put them in your compost. Milk can even get them to a farm for you. There's no mess, there's no stress and it keeps food waste out of the landfills so it can't create a ton of methane which is a very potent greenhouse gas. So mill makes it easy to do something good and you can get $75 off at mill.com ologies that's mille.com ologies@designer.
- [70:54]
Sam Montano
Shoe Warehouse we believe that shoes are an important part of, well everything from.
- [71:00]
Alie Ward
First steps to first dates from all nighters to all time personal bests from.
- [71:06]
Sam Montano
Building pillow forts to building a lighter life.
- [71:08]
Alie Ward
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