Profs and Pints DC presents: “What We Know About Snow,” a meteorologist’s take on the science of snow and snowstorm prediction, with Jeffrey Halverson, professor of geography and environmental systems at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and author of An Introduction to Severe Storms and Hazardous Weather.
Will the weather outside be frightful? Get answers where it’s delightful. Penn Social is the place to go to learn of snow, learn of snow, learn of snow.
Regardless of whether you’re a winter sports enthusiast who welcomes blizzards or someone who spends the season dreaming of an escape to the tropics, you can gain a much deeper understanding of the white stuff with the help of Dr. Jeffrey Halverson, a severe storm expert with the Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang who gave an excellent Profs and Pints talk on hurricanes in November.
A seasoned meteorologist and snow forecaster, he’ll discuss how and when snow is formed, describe the different types of snow out there, and tell you what determines whether the atmosphere generates snow as opposed to sleet or freezing rain. You’ll learn the difference between a nuisance “Alberta Clipper” snow event and a blockbuster East Coast snowstorm, and why some winter seasons feature memorable—if not historical—snowstorms while others have just small snow events or experience “snow drought.”
You’ll gain an appreciation of how the science of snowfall is nuanced and differs markedly in the Mid Atlantic compared to other notoriously snowy regions such as the Great Lakes “snowbelt” or the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada. You’ll learn the pitfalls and common traps that people fall into in trying to predict snowfall using the data from numerical weather prediction models readily available today to casual users.
Dr. Halverson will tackle the debate over whether the American or European weather prediction models do a better job and discuss Artificial Intelligence’s entry into the forecast game. Accounts of the Washington D.C. region’s most historic snowstorms will be sprinkled in for good measure. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Door: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: A bright moment in the aftermath of D.C.’s infamous 1922 Knickerbocker Snowstorm (Library of Congress photo).