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Everything Weather Podcast
A conversational, educational, & educational weather podcast about everything weather. Exploring the world of weather, now every other Monday.
Everything Weather Podcast
Forecasting the Future of Extreme Weather with Dr. Alyssa Stansfield
Join Kyle David on the Everything Weather podcast as he chats with Dr. Alyssa Stansfield, an assistant professor at the University of Utah specializing in tropical weather, precipitation, and climate modeling. Dr. Stansfield shares her fascinating journey from experiencing Hurricane Sandy in high school to her current research on extreme weather events and their impacts. Learn about her insights into hurricane rainfall, flash flooding in Southern Utah, and the challenges of climate change communication.
Dr. Alyssa Stansfield's Contact Info:
Email: alyssa.stansfield@utah.edu
https://alyssa-stansfield.github.io/
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About the Everything Weather Podcast
A weekly podcast where we talk with people about the weather world, explore and discuss everything weather and the many things that connect to it, and have a little fun along the way. The podcast is hosted and produced by Kyle David, a meteorologist and digital science content producer based in New Jersey.
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Hello and welcome to the Everything Weather podcast, where we talk with people about the weather world, explore and discuss everything weather, and have a little fun along the way. I'm your host Kyle David, and today we're excited to have Dr. Alyssa Stansfield on the podcast. Dr. Stansfield is an assistant professor in the department of atmospheric sciences at the university of Utah, specializing in tropical weather, precipitation, and climate modeling. Hi, Dr. Stansfield and welcome to the podcast.
Alyssa Stansfield:Hi, thank you so much for having me.
Kyle David:Absolutely. Before we get into your weather story, talk a little bit about what you do at the University of Utah, I've got a fun game for you. Okay. We've got Rank These. So I've got a weather themed and a non weather themed one. I'll give you the weather themed one first. Rank these five cities based on their weather. So you can blindly rank each of these cities from one to five, one being the best, five being the worst. First up, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Alyssa Stansfield:Ooh. I do like Salt Lake's weather so far. It's a little hot in the summer, but I don't mind the heat too much. Right now it's really cold, but I tend to like the drier winters, so I'm gonna, I'll go two.
Kyle David:Okay, two, that's interesting. You like the winter weather out there?
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, I mean, I'm a skier, so I do like some snow, especially when it's in the mountains, and I just like the dry. Winter better than the damp winters in the Northeast.
Kyle David:That's fair. And that's ski country. So you're in a perfect spot out there.
Alyssa Stansfield:Yep.
Kyle David:All right. Next up, Tampa, Florida.
Alyssa Stansfield:Ooh. Okay. Yeah, definitely humid. I grew up in New Jersey, so I'm used to the humidity, and yeah, I don't, I guess I don't mind the heat that much, although it'd probably get annoying after a while, so I'll give it a three.
Kyle David:Hmm, okay. So we have Salt Lake City, two, Tampa, three. Next up, Portland, Oregon.
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, so I've never lived in the Northwest, Pacific Northwest, but I think the constant cloudiness and like drizzly weather would get me down in the winter. So I might give it the five.
Kyle David:Oh, poor Portland, Oregon. Yeah. To be fair, I think I'd probably put it five too. I don't like wet, dreary weather constantly. So I'm with you on that one. Next up, Chicago.
Alyssa Stansfield:Okay. Pretty cold. It can't be my one, so I guess it'll have to be the four, and I don't know what I'm gonna get for the one now.
Kyle David:That's the fun of this game. Alright, give the number one spot to this remaining city, Philadelphia.
Alyssa Stansfield:Okay, near where I grew up. I'm from New Jersey, from Wall, New Jersey. So, although it's maybe not my favorite, I like Salt Lake City weather now, I'm okay with giving it the one.
Kyle David:Yeah, it's hometown weather, so you're familiar with it. So it's not like you put Portland, Oregon at number one.
Alyssa Stansfield:I know what to expect.
Kyle David:Definitely. All right. I've got one more for you. This one is non weather themed. Rank these five breakfast foods. So first up we have pancakes.
Alyssa Stansfield:I like pancakes, especially like chocolate chip pancakes. Mmm. Yeah, I'll give pancakes a two.
Kyle David:Ooh, strong two. All right. And there's a good pancake place, I don't know if you know it, in Princeton called PJ's.
Alyssa Stansfield:Mmm, I haven't spent too much time in Princeton now, so I haven't been there.
Kyle David:Ah, well if you're in New Jersey, I'd recommend it. Okay. Alright, next up, bacon.
Alyssa Stansfield:Bacon's pretty good. Mmm, yeah, it's so salty, it really hits the spot sometimes. I might have to give that the one.
Kyle David:Wow, okay. Give bacon the number one spot, alright. Hey, that's fair. Alright, next up is oatmeal. Ooh.
Alyssa Stansfield:I actually do eat oatmeal in the morning, a decent amount. I like to put some fruit on it, but it's like not the most exciting thing. So let's go four.
Kyle David:Okay. Next up is scrambled eggs.
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah. Eggs are okay. I feel like they're very like solid, like filling. I guess I'll give them the three. I didn't, I don't think I use the three yet.
Kyle David:No. So you put them above oatmeal.
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, I think so.
Kyle David:All right. So that leaves the number five spot and unfortunately it is bagels.
Alyssa Stansfield:Ooh, yeah, bagels are so fun fact is my high school job was working at a bagel store every summer for like five or six years. I worked at the bagel store over the summer.
Kyle David:Really? Okay.
Alyssa Stansfield:Bagels probably should be higher for me, but oh well.
Kyle David:If you could swap one of them, would you put bagels at one?
Alyssa Stansfield:Maybe they'd go two. And then bacon and bagels go together, you know, bacon, egg, and cheese.
Kyle David:With salt, pepper, ketchup on that? Yeah, yeah. Oh, for sure. Now you're making me hungry. Alright, let's stop talking about food and get into more about the weather. So, everybody I have on the podcast, I talk to them about their weather story. Which, in the business, we talk about the day's weather, what's the day's weather going to be. But for this, I Interested in learning more about each person's upcomings and how they got interested in the weather. So, Dr. Stansfield, tell me, what got you interested in everything weather?
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, so my weather story goes back to probably my senior year of high school, actually, which was 2012. And so that was the year that Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey. And so I grew up in Wall, New Jersey, and I'm really close to the beach. After Hurricane Sandy hit, thankfully, my house and our stuff was okay, but I knew a lot of people that did get displaced from their homes and lost cars and belongings and stuff. Also, we were out of school for two weeks after Hurricane Sandy, because of the travel disruptions, flooding, power lines, trees. Uh, so that really made an impact on me. And so my senior year of high school was also when I was like thinking about what to major in college. At that, being just interested in Hurricane Sandy and I was like, oh, is this to have to do with climate change? Is this going to happen more in the future because of climate change? Hurricanes hitting New Jersey, that's relatively rare. And so yeah, I saw that Rutgers had a meteorology program. And so I Just thought that was really cool. And so that's what made me choose my major. I was always interested in science. I thought for a while I wanted to maybe major in like marine biology or oceanography or environmental science, maybe. So I was always going to do something science y, but after Hurricane Sandy, that was what really piqued my interest in doing meteorology.
Kyle David:I'm curious, what made you stay in the Garden State as opposed to going outside of New Jersey for just studying meteorology?
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, I liked being close to my family. I lived at Rutgers, but it was only a 50 minute drive, which was nice. I also got a scholarship to go there, so money always helps. About 50, maybe an hour from Wall to uh, New Brunswick. Yeah.
Kyle David:All right. That's not a terrible commute, but going back to your story with Hurricane Sandy, I, I want to talk about that a little bit for a second. What was that experience like for you being down there in Wall, New Jersey, pretty much close to the shore, getting to experience a rare phenomenon for the state of New Jersey?
Alyssa Stansfield:It was really interesting and sad in many ways. So my house that I grew up in was About a five minute drive to the ocean. So it really is pretty close. Thankfully, my house is on a hill, so we didn't get any flooding or we had a couple of trees fall down. Thankfully none hit the house, but first of all, we lost power for a couple of days, I think three or four days. We didn't have power. So. You know, our refrigerator wasn't working. We had to try to keep things cool. I remember my dad like grilling up all this stuff because you could just use the propane grill. Um, and we had to use candlelight like at night. So we went to bed really early because you can only do so much by candlelight. No TV or anything. And so and then after a couple days like we got our power back thankfully and I was able to go see my friends and I remember going to my friend's house who lived in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, which is a little south of me and even closer to the ocean. And we were walking around a little bit. Stuff was still flooded. I remember seeing so many boats on people's front lawns because the water just rose so high, it drifted the boats onto people's front lawns that were not even anywhere close to the water anymore. So I think just seeing those impacts, yeah, on people's real lives and Just my life being impacted, maybe even in a small way, like not having high school for two weeks, it was pretty crazy. And so, yeah, that just got me really interested in it and just not even hurricanes, but just the weather in general and climate change and how these. Yeah,
Kyle David:I think Sandy influenced a lot of people to go into some sort of sciences or emergency management. I could definitely say that was the case for me. That was an influencing factor. Now, in the intro we had talked about you specialized in tropical weather. Would you say Sandy influenced you in the direction of studying tropical weather more?
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, I would say definitely so. I knew I wanted to go to grad school. I specifically looked for professors who did research involving hurricanes because that's what got me interested in. The atmosphere and meteorology. So I was hoping to get to study hurricanes in grad school. And thankfully I found my PhD advisor at Stony Brook and ended up doing research on hurricanes.
Kyle David:So you went from Rutgers to Stony Brook and now you're at the university of Utah. You've been all over the place in terms of your studies. Got you interested in going to Stony Brook and then eventually to the university of Utah.
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah. So I. I knew when I went to Rutgers, I just knew I wasn't too interested in broadcast meteorology, just felt it wasn't for me, and then we got to practice forecasting a lot in our classes at Rutgers, like doing the weather challenge, and I think at some point we're even kind of forecasting for those locations for grades, and so I got to practice forecasting for various locations around the U. S. for the next day, couple days, and I think in doing that, I also realized that Day to day forecasting also wasn't what I really enjoyed. I think I would have been fine if I ended up doing that, but it just didn't get me super excited. So then I ended up doing some undergraduate research with Dr. Ben Lintner at Rutgers, because he was my undergraduate advisor. I got to do a little bit of research on moisture in the tropics and profiles of moisture. And so getting that research experience and up that world to be of, oh, hey, you can do research for your career. That seemed really exciting to me. And so that's why I ended up applying to go to grad school.
Kyle David:Now, real quick, before we get into more about your research experiences, I want to go back to the weather challenge, the forecasting challenge, that everybody who's studying meteorology has to Uh, take part in, they have to forecast for a location for, I think it's like two weeks at a time.
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, something like that.
Kyle David:What would you say is your best and worst forecast with the forecasting competition?
Alyssa Stansfield:Oh gosh, I don't remember it too well. I'm gonna be honest, like I wasn't good at it, was the other thing. I just didn't have the natural kind of talent at it. So, one location I particularly remember we were forecasting for was somewhere like western Nebraska. And, We all did really bad forecasts because we didn't realize how quickly like the winds can pick up there. So the winds were like so fast and I think all of us like forecasted it really bad. So that may have been my worst one, but yeah, that's the one I remember specifically. But like I said, I wasn't super excited by it and I also wasn't very good at the forecasting. So I think that kind of deterred me away from doing that as a career.
Kyle David:If it makes you feel better, when I did the forecast competition, we also did a location, I think it was Scottsbluff, Nebraska. We also all struggled because of winds, we'd pick up so quickly.
Alyssa Stansfield:It may have been Scottsbluff, yeah, I don't remember exactly where it was, but.
Kyle David:Yeah, that and, oh gosh, Saginaw, Michigan. There was a winter system, and winter forecasting is a lot of fun, depending on how you look at it.
Alyssa Stansfield:Oh yeah. It's tough. I mean, I respect the people who do it because they do it really well and way better than I could do it.
Kyle David:For sure. It's a lot of different moving parts and stuff. But, going into your research and going to Stony Brook, what did you learn there during your time at Stony Brook that you transferred over to your time there? In your current position at the University of Utah.
Alyssa Stansfield:That's a good question. I learned so much. Going to Stony Brook was exciting. It's a good atmospheric science department, and they have people who do research in a lot of different things. So I got to learn and take classes from these experts in so many different topics related to not only atmosphere and meteorology, but there were people who did, uh, like oceanography research and interactions with, like, other parts of Earth's climate system. I also took a tropical meteorology class, which was really exciting to me because I went to research hurricanes and I got to learn about not only hurricanes, but other types of tropical waves and like why they form and move the way that they do. And I thought that was really cool. And I think another thing I learned was like, when I went into grad school, I knew I liked hurricanes. And I originally thought I wanted to go try to work for the National Hurricane Center. After grad school, I thought that was the career way I wanted to go. In going to grad school, what's cool is you get to go to these conferences. So, like the American Virological Society annual conference, where all these experts get together and give presentations, and you can meet people from so many different universities and companies and organizations. And so I actually got to, at one of those conferences, talk to someone who worked for the National Hurricane Center, and he said that about half of their year is like forecasting and they do shift work in forecasting the hurricanes and then the other half is they leaned a lot into public communication and improving people's preparedness for hurricanes. And so knowing that, then I realized, I was like, Oh, I don't really know if I want to do forecasting and shift work with forecasting six months of the year. Because again, even though it was forecasting hurricanes, which I'm interested in, it was still forecasting. And yeah, shift work means you have to stay up all night sometimes. And I'm not a night person. I'm a morning person. So I didn't know how that would work either. So then I realized, okay, maybe working for the National Hurricane Center, at least as a forecaster. may not be the path that I want to go down and so then that kind of got me interested in other careers and I thought about going to work for like NOAA or NASA or NCAR the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado or being a professor and Then I realized I liked working with students. So I got to mentor some undergraduate students during grad school and also as I progressed through grad school I got to help the younger grad students in my group with coding problems and any class questions and stuff like that. So I realized I liked mentoring and helping students and so that kind of got me interested in becoming a professor, so. After grad school, I applied for a postdoc position, which is basically like a continuation of doing research with Kristen Rasmussen, uh, in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State. And so that's where I began to make my Journey west in the US and I lived in Fort Collins, Colorado for two years and then got my job here at the University of Utah
Kyle David:Interesting. So real quick. What made you want to change from Colorado to Utah?
Alyssa Stansfield:It was just where the job was available I really liked Colorado and Fort Collins as well. But Salt Lake City is better for skiing. We're closer to the ski resorts here And the, the hikes and everything. And it kind of has a similar climate to Fort Collins, but it's like a bigger city. So it interested me as well. So basically I applied for the job cause it was open and ended up getting it.
Kyle David:So it was just a chance opportunity that you got into Utah?
Alyssa Stansfield:Pretty much. I mean, so. Professor positions sometimes are hard to come by, like they only tend to open up like maybe when someone retires or the school gets funding for a specific topic, so you have to be a little bit open if you want to be a professor to like where the jobs are available.
Kyle David:Now, I'm just curious, would there be a place that you would not want to go?
Alyssa Stansfield:I generally am not too interested in going to the Midwest. Generally, I think it's too cold for me in the winter, too cold and windy. And I don't really have any family there or anything. So that was a region that I wasn't as. to go to. I'm more of a mountains or beach kind of person.
Kyle David:Not many beaches out there in Utah, I'll say.
Alyssa Stansfield:No, but lots of mountains.
Kyle David:So a mix up for it. Okay. But I'm curious about the academia landscape because you're the first person I've talked to. On the podcast about research and academics, what is the day to day look like for you?
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, the day to day is pretty different every day. And it depends on the tasks or due dates I have coming up. So I started my position as an assistant professor in August of 2024, so I'm still pretty new. And in the fall semester this year, I didn't have to teach. So my job was getting spun up on all the university systems and I'll obviously meeting the other faculty members in our department and in the university, and also writing research proposals for grants, because that's how we fund graduate students and get money to do our research. So that was a lot of my day in the fall was really doing work, writing these research proposals and doing background literature reviews and stuff like that. And then. This semester I started teaching. I teach my class every Tuesday and Thursday, so that takes a lot of preparation. Making sure I have all the lectures ready and the high exams and homeworks. And then also thinking about writing more research proposals. I always have to be doing that as a professor. And I'm also working with two undergraduate students who are doing some research project with me. And working on recruiting grad students as well. So As a faculty member, we wear a lot of different hats. We're teachers, we mentor students, we have some committee work where we have to sit on committees for our department and for the university, and then we also write research grants and do some research as well. So it's a lot. And every day looks different.
Kyle David:Yeah, that sounds like a lot of different hats that you're wearing, and I want to explore that a little bit later, but I actually want to talk about more of that research, like, proposals, the projects that you're working on with your undergraduate students. We teased it a little bit in the intro, but I want to dive deeper into what you're researching at the University of Utah. So, what are you specifically researching in, at the University of Utah, and what has been the most interesting find so far for you?
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, that's a great question. My research focuses generally on extreme weather and climate, so trying to understand how extreme weather events like hurricanes, mid latitude cyclones, uh, just thunderstorms respond to natural climate variability and anthropogenic climate change. The main tools I use to do my research are models, atmospheric models, like climate models. Or down to very small scale computer models of individual weather events. A lot of my PhD and postdoc research focused on hurricanes, my original interest. And I mostly focused on hurricane rainfall. How is hurricane rainfall changing due to climate change and why? And during my post doc, and now moving to the University of Utah, broadening out to other types of extreme weather, like extreme precipitation in general, how is that changing? What controls where extreme precipitation happens? Another interesting project that hopefully will get funded, we'll be looking at forecasting the risk of flash flooding in southern Utah, which is a really remote region with a lot of national parks. thrown to flash flooding in certain areas in the spring and summer. So trying to work with the National Weather Service to hopefully improve their forecasting of flash flooding.
Kyle David:I didn't know that Utah had flooding issues during the spring and summer, as you said. Can you talk about that a little more?
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, it's very specific, so Southern Utah is very dry, so it throughout the year does get very little rainfall. But in the late spring and summer it gets, like, very small scale thunderstorms associated with the North American monsoon. So basically moisture gets but vected over. The Southwest United States from like the Pacific ocean, mostly. And, um, that moisture, if there's a little bit of like instability and lift, can turn into thunderstorms that are very small scale, but can move really quickly, so they're very hard to forecast exactly where they're going to go. And Southern Utah also has these, uh, structures called slot canyons, so they're very tall, narrow canyons that people like to hike in. And normally that's really cool, but they often have rivers flowing through them. So if a thunderstorm produces a lot of rain at the head of that slot canyon. It can rush down the canyon really quickly and very quickly increase the, uh, rate that the river is flowing and the, the height of the river. It can be very dangerous, especially if it happens to the slot canyons in the national parks that are in Southern Utah, where a lot of people visit in the late spring and early summer.
Kyle David:Yeah. I wouldn't want to get caught off guard by that. That sounds pretty extreme, just a lot of rain. And then all of a sudden it just. The river overflows.
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, it can be very scary and can also like, flood. roads in the area very quickly. So if you're in your car and you see this flooded road, generally don't drive through it because you don't know how deep it is and the water can be moving really fast. So the National Weather Service does a good job in trying to forecast the best they can. How large the risk is for flash floods in those canyons like each day. But again, those thunderstorms are just so hard to forecast. So we're hoping to do some research to try to develop some methods to better be able to forecast those storms.
Kyle David:Interesting and talking a little bit about. That process of getting that project started. And then we can even talk about your current work with tropical cyclone rainfall. What's been the most interesting research find for you so far?
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, that's a great question. So the Southern Utah flash flood stuff is still just a proposal. So we're hoping to get funded to do it and do the research a bit more. Although it has been started by my colleague at the university of Utah, just from funding you already had. I won't speak to that one now, but. I can speak to my research on hurricane rainfall that I did in my Ph. D. and post doc time. One of the main findings of my Ph. D. and something I thought was most important was, we expect to see, generally, an increase in hurricane rainfall with climate change. And that's because we know with climate change, the atmosphere is warming, and as the atmosphere warms, it can actually hold more water in it. So when a hurricane comes through, we expect the hurricane to be able to turn all that extra water into rainfall. And what I was interested in my PhD was, we also expect hurricane intensity to increase. Intensity meaning the maximum wind speeds and the maximum upward motion in the hurricane that produces the rainfall. So I was trying to understand how much of the increase in precipitation or rainfall from hurricanes in the future comes from just that. Increase in moisture in the atmosphere versus an increase in hurricane intensity. And what I found was that actually most of the increase in rainfall from hurricanes actually just comes from the increase in moisture in the atmosphere and very little of that increase is due to a change in hurricane intensity. And so I think that's important because that means that as climate change continues, even if we don't see a big increase in hurricane intensity, we're still going to continue to see an increase in hurricane rainfall. And researchers have already shown that hurricane rainfall has been increasing, and so it will continue to increase even if the intensity of hurricanes. And I think that kind of brings up the point that the risk during hurricane landfalls is not solely from the wind speed of the hurricane, which is what we classify the hurricane on right? Category one through five. That's just based on the wind speed, but actually the most dangerous part of the hurricane and where most of the injuries and deaths come from is water, either from storm surge or from rainfall or both. And so it also gets to the point that we really need to be making sure that people understand that water is the most dangerous part of the hurricane, not the wind speed.
Kyle David:Yeah, the most recent extreme hurricanes and tropical storms have really highlighted that as well. We had Ida for the Northeast. We had Helene for West North Carolina. Part of the Appalachians, it's, it's extreme the amount of rain those events produced. And this is probably not part of your study because it was done before Ida and Helene. But what were some things from those events that you saw play out as expected based on your research? And then what are some things that may have surprised you about those events?
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, those were really interesting. Helene definitely was really devastating and interesting. I think they both just show what we expect as far as hurricane rainfall increases. Like, those storms just dropped an insane amount of rainfall that was going to be pretty impactful no matter what. But, especially in the case of Haleen, when you drop that rainfall on top of soil that's already saturated from rainfall that had fallen the days before, that's when, really, things get dangerous, right? That causes landslides and more flash flooding. So both of those cases back up our thought that hurricane rainfall is going to continue to increase and something to be aware of. I think Helene points to maybe the increased research needed on like inland hurricane impacts. I think most of the time when hurricanes are Are happening. It's the people who live on the coast that are often the most affected and but they're the ones I think that know how to handle usually the storms and when they want to evacuate. And they're thinking about hurricane season. I think Helene surprised a lot of people because most of the impacts were in the inland parts of the states. So Western North Carolina and Tennessee. Those are people that just aren't as used to potentially having to evacuate and really think about Um, preparing their property for hurricanes and knowing what to do. So, maybe we need to put some more research into the risks of, uh, inland hurricane flooding. And more about those, like, predecessor rain events that saturate the soils, and then you have more rainfall on top of that, which is really dangerous.
Kyle David:Maybe a future research project for you and your students?
Alyssa Stansfield:Could be, could be, yeah.
Kyle David:It's definitely going to be interesting to see what comes of that research study. And we haven't even scratched the surface with more of your teaching experience at the University of Utah. We're going to take a quick break right here, but don't go anywhere, we're going to dive into more of that after the break. On this day in weather history, we go back to February 22nd to the 28th of 1969 to one of the most extended and lesser known winter storms in New England's history. On February 22nd, a low pressure system offshore of Louisiana and Alabama was gearing up to take a course paralleling the eastern coast of the United States. States. By the 23rd, it was offshore of the Carolinas and beginning to track north. As it was, it was bringing light snow to parts of the Appalachian Mountains and into the mid Atlantic United States. On the 24th, the system strengthened into a full fledged nor'easter and began to bring snow to parts of the northeastern United States. Much of the snow fell for parts of New England, stretching from Rhode Island and Connecticut to Maine. The nor'easter then stalled off the coast of Maine. Bringing bands of heavy snow to New England for days. However, the Nor'easter began to weaken and shift out to sea by February 28th. Because the Nor'easter brought days of snow, many locations across New England reported massive snow totals. Mount Washington, New Hampshire received just under 100 inches of snow, or around 8 feet, almost half of that snow, 49. 3 inches, fell on February 25th at the summit of Mount Washington. This set a record for the most snow to fall in 24 hours for New England. and the most snow ever recorded from a single storm for the region. The storm also led to the deepest snowpack on record for New England, meaning the total snow on the ground from this storm and from prior winter storms. That record, which stands at 164 inches, or over 13 feet of snow, was set at Pinkham Notch, New Hampshire. Much of the region saw at least 20 to 30 inches of snow from this storm. This included 38. 7 inches being recorded at the Greenpool Hill Observatory, Massachusetts, 28 inches in Concord, New Hampshire, 26. 9 inches in Portland, Maine, and 26. 3 inches in Boston, Massachusetts. Because the storm brought snow to New England for more than four days, it gained the nickname the 100 hour snowstorm of February 1969. Even though the 100 hour snowstorm dropped record breaking snow across New England, it is not as widely known because most of the heavy snow was away from the heavily populated Northeast Corridor. A snowstorm earlier in the month usually gets the most attention when thinking of snowstorms from February 1969. That winter storm was the February 8th or 10th storm, also known as the Lindsay Storm, which crippled the city of New York due to poor preparation for the storm. The 100 hour snowstorm affected February in 1969, though, still holds numerous snow records across New England to this day. Hello and welcome back to the everything weather podcast. I'm your host, Kyle David. And today we're joined by Dr. Alyssa Stansfield. She's an assistant professor at the university of Utah. She researches tropical cyclone rainfall. Climate dynamics, climate change, and she's also mentoring and teaching there as well. We're going to get back into a conversation about her work, things she's learned, but first, I've got another fun game for you, Dr. Stansfield. We've got would you rather, so I've got some weather themed would you rather questions. I also have some Utah themed Would You Rounder questions. So we're going to go back and forth between weather and Utah themed with these. So first up, would you rather be caught outside in a Category 3 hurricane or severe blizzard?
Alyssa Stansfield:Oh man. I think I'm going to have to go Category 3 hurricane because at least I'll be warm. I don't want to be shivering outside in a blizzard.
Kyle David:That's good logic there. Yeah. All right. Would you rather hike Angel's Landing in Zion National Park or Delicate Arch in Arches National Park?
Alyssa Stansfield:So I've actually done one of those. I've done Delicate Arch and it was really cool. And so I've never done Angel's Landing, although I know it's really scary. My sister's done it. It's like a really narrow, yeah, like walkway where you kind of have to hang on to some chains. So that one's pretty scary. But Angel's Landing.
Kyle David:That's not a fair question because you already did one of those. Yeah,
Alyssa Stansfield:that's a cap.
Kyle David:Alright, would you rather have 100 degree temperatures with high humidity or 20 degree temperatures with strong winds? And for our international listeners, Fahrenheit. 100 Fahrenheit and 20 Fahrenheit.
Alyssa Stansfield:Ugh, I mean, you know me. I don't like being cold, so I'm gonna have to go the humid and hot.
Kyle David:Really? Okay. Would there be like a threshold that would make you consider otherwise?
Alyssa Stansfield:Maybe, if you're getting like much over a hundred, maybe I'd start reconsidering, I guess, but yeah. I don't know, I'd rather be hot, really, like overheated than cold and shivering.
Kyle David:Yeah, that's fair. I've had a couple of guests say you can take so many layers off, but you can put so many layers on. Right. You can put as many layers on as you can, but you can only take so many off.
Alyssa Stansfield:That's true, yeah.
Kyle David:So, all right, would you rather ski in Park City? Or, as an alternative, go off roading in Moab.
Alyssa Stansfield:Ooh, those are really cool, and I haven't skied in Park City yet, but it does look really cool, because I've seen it from the outside, but Moab also sounds really cool. We're in ski season now, so the temptation of skiing Park City is too much, so I'll go skiing Park City.
Kyle David:Skiing Park City, alright. Would you rather chase a tornado in the Great Plains or a hurricane along the Gulf Coast?
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, I've never gotten to go storm chasing. I know people that do it, obviously, but I've just never gotten to go, so I think I'd want to go tornado chasing, actually.
Kyle David:Now, follow up, would you rather be one of those storm chasers that goes right into the action, or more step back from the tornado and can see the whole thing?
Alyssa Stansfield:I think I'd rather step back a little bit. I'd probably be pretty cautious.
Kyle David:That's fair, and you wouldn't want to damage the rental.
Alyssa Stansfield:No, no.
Kyle David:Alright, would you rather experience a Utah summer with 100 degree heat or a Utah winter with heavy snow? I have a feeling I know which one you're
Alyssa Stansfield:gonna say. Yeah, I mean, I always like the heat. I mean, the snow is nice because that means skiing, but I like when it snows in the mountains. The mountains are right next to Salt Lake City. But sometimes it'll be snowing in the mountains with like no snow in Salt Lake City, so that's the kind of snow I like.
Kyle David:So let's say you have snow in Salt Lake City, where you're at.
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, probably the hundred degree. It's dry, a dry heat.
Kyle David:Interesting. Okay. All right. Would you rather have six months of constant rain or six months of extreme drought?
Alyssa Stansfield:Oh man. I mean, kind of like I said in Portland, like six months of constant rain sounds really tough. The cloudiness. I need to feel like I need to see the sun. So I guess drought. Although it doesn't sound fun either.
Kyle David:Yeah. It's kind of like pick your poison at that point.
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah.
Kyle David:Alright, would you rather live by the Great Salt Lake, or in the high mountains near Logan?
Alyssa Stansfield:Mmm, yeah, I haven't gone too close to Salt Lake yet. We can see it from our university actually, kind of in the distance, but I haven't explored it much yet. And I haven't been to Logan yet either, so that's a good one. Probably Logan. Sounds like a cool spot.
Kyle David:Okay. And I've got one more weather one for you and then one more Utah one. Would you rather be a storm chaser documenting severe weather or a TV meteorologist delivering the forecast?
Alyssa Stansfield:Well, yeah, I never really wanted to do TV, so I think I'd rather be the first one, the Camera person recording the extreme weather.
Kyle David:The storm chaser?
Alyssa Stansfield:Storm chaser, yeah.
Kyle David:Okay. Yeah, I think I'd rather do that too, to be honest. And last, Utah one. Would you rather see a world class concert at Red Butte Garden or a Utah jazz game at Delta Center?
Alyssa Stansfield:Mmm, Red Butte Garden. I've been there, because it's actually kind of associated with our university and we actually get in for free. I haven't seen a concert there though, so I would love to do that.
Kyle David:Alright, well I'll make a, uh, On the fly one, would you rather do a Utah jazz game or a Utah hockey club game. Cause you guys just gained a hockey team out there. I'm more of a
Alyssa Stansfield:hockey fan, so I'll go to the hockey game.
Kyle David:And you're, you're excited that Utah has got their own team now.
Alyssa Stansfield:Yep. Yeah. Super exciting. I'm excited to see what their name is going to be. Cause they haven't chosen their official name yet. So we'll see.
Kyle David:Yeah. I was wondering that, like why they haven't changed the name yet to a mascot.
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah. Well, so they were thinking about, I think Yeti was basically chosen, but then they had trouble with the Yeti cooler company. They couldn't reach an agreement about trademarks or whatever, so now I think it's between keeping Utah Hockey Club, which I'm not a fan of, or the Utah Mammoth, or the Utah Outlaws, are the two other choices. I kind of like both of those.
Kyle David:Utah Outlaws sounds like, um, uh, XFL team, like the United Football League team.
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, kind of.
Kyle David:Well, that's our last would you rather questions. Let's get back into our conversation about you, your work, all the things that you do at the University of Utah. And we touched upon it a little bit earlier, but you mentioned you wear a lot of different hats, you You are a researcher, you're an educator, you're a mentor, and you're also a scientist as well who's specialized in a certain area in meteorology. What part of your work in wearing all those different hats brings you the most joy or fulfillment and why?
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, that's a great question and I will say wearing the hats It's hard. It is a lot of work, but I do think it's worth it 'cause I really do like my job so far. I would say one of my favorite things is that I'm always learning and my job is to learn basically. So my job is to come up with research ideas, go to seminars in my department, learn about what my colleagues are researching, both in my department and at the university and beyond the university. learn from my students. They ask great questions, and I learn a lot from them and what they're researching. I just like learning about new things. I think it keeps things exciting. That's a part of my job I really enjoy. I also, like I said, I really like mentoring and working with students. I find it really rewarding. I like teaching the students about meteorology, atmospheric science, climate science, and seeing them learn new things. I like mentoring and, and getting people experienced with research and seeing what research is like. And then also trying to help them figure out what career, uh, they want to try to pursue. Whether that's National Weather Service or working in the private sector or being an academic. I try to help people find what they're passionate about so they can go to the career that they will enjoy the most.
Kyle David:And on that note, what has been the most rewarding experience mentoring students, and then what's been the most challenging experience for you mentoring students?
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, I'm still pretty new at this, so I'm sure if you asked me in a year I'd probably have totally new answers, but I'll give my answers as they are now. I think the most rewarding or my favorite part with teaching and mentoring students is just really seeing them. understand something really well that they didn't understand before. So I think in class that's the most, um, obvious when. They didn't do so well on the homework, and then I gave a similar question on the exam, and they get 10 out of 10, and they do really well. I think seeing people actively learn and understand things that they didn't know is really rewarding. The hardest part, it's tough, I think the hardest part mentoring students is just the uncertainty around federal funding for climate research right now, because I want them to pursue what they find most interesting and what they're passionate about. And there's just a lot of uncertainty in the federal funding situation, especially about climate change. Um, I think it's hard to talk about that with them and it's hard to mentor when you're so uncertain about things as well. So that's a very current topical one, but that's what's been on my mind about that recently.
Kyle David:Yeah, it's unfortunate to hear that policies have changed. Access to funding and grants for research because research is important, not just for the weather and meteorology, but every walk of life, learning things and bettering life as well.
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, no, totally agree. And research is important. It returns so much to the economy and gives people jobs and makes so many amazing advances, not only in our field, but all the fields and medical fields. Not even just research, it's like the National Weather Service is a federal good here in the U. S. And the return on investment to the National Weather Service is insane. They save so many lives, they help so many people, and I really feel like they are underappreciated sometimes. Give them some love and know that it's hard right now when you don't feel like people are valuing you as much as they should. For all the hard work, they put in.
Kyle David:Big shout out to all the people in the National Weather Service, NOAA, and the emergency management people who are Totally, yeah. doing critical work minute by minute with weather events. And going back to what you said earlier about all of the different applications of research, I'm curious, what's been the most surprising application for your research or anything that you've worked on?
Alyssa Stansfield:I feel like a lot of my Ph. D. research and postdoc research has been theoretical and idealized, so it wasn't like super applied. Although I did, early on in grad school, I was involved in a project with my Ph. D. advisor and a couple other scientists where we did the first, like, public climate change attribution of a hurricane. So that was back, that was Hurricane Florence back in 2018. Before the hurricane even hit land, we were running these model simulations of Hurricane Florence and trying to understand how climate change impacted the hurricane. Because we know, as we said, it's impacting rainfall, maybe the intensity of the storm. And so basically, yeah, we run a simulation of Hurricane Florence as it actually happened in the climate conditions that were in 2018. And then we can run a simulation of Hurricane Florence. under climate conditions as they were in like 1850. So before major anthropogenic climate change. And then we compare those two model simulations and can estimate how much climate change since 1850 like impacted Hurricane Florence. So we found that its rainfall was definitely increased. Not too much of a signal in the intensity, but definitely in rainfall. That ended up getting a lot of media attention because it was a really new method at the time. And since then it's been done on many more hurricanes and the technique and methodology have developed a lot. And so it's a lot better now. That was interesting to be a brand new grad student. I think that was in my second year of grad school and kind of be involved in this study that got so much media coverage and attention.
Kyle David:Now I'm curious, were you interviewed at all for like a publication or?
Alyssa Stansfield:I was not, my advisor definitely was cause he was the lead on the study and I think. He probably shielded me a little bit from the media coverage because media coverage can be a lot. It can be really positive, which a lot of it was, but it also opens you up to a lot of criticism and climate change deniers and people that kind of want to discredit you and stuff. He led the study and it was like his idea, so he should be really the one being interviewed and stuff, but I think he also purposefully shielded me a little bit from that. Because he didn't want me to get the negative impacts that sometimes come with media coverage.
Kyle David:Definitely. And you bring up an interesting point too, that your, your mentor shielded you from the media, not just because it could be a little scrutinous, but also the amount of climate change deniers or skeptics that will challenge you and your work. And since you've done work with climate dynamics, climate change, and how that connects to tropical weather, I'm curious, how do you communicate? That the climate is changing and happening and how that shows in your work.
Alyssa Stansfield:It's really difficult and this is something that particularly interests me, like climate communication to the public. And I think what I've learned, and I've taken some classes and seminars on this topic, like science communication, climate communication. I think the key is trying to relate climate change and its impacts to people's specific lives. That's the most effective way to get them to care. So, for example, if someone is a farmer, you can bring up, have you been seeing more drafts recently in your area? And then talking to them about that, and making it a dialogue, so a two way dialogue, right? No one likes to be lectured at, and people will probably tune out and not listen. So, I think making it a dialogue, learning what people care about and what their values are, and then tailoring your message to that. And I think it's important to know too that some people are unreachable. Some people are so deep in it that you're not going to be able to change their mind. And that's not a flaw on you. It's okay. But I think there are a lot of people that. Can be woken up to this stuff and maybe after they do experience an event like Hurricane Heli and they're more open, like, wow, this kind of stuff didn't used to happen when I was younger. Why is this happening more often? So it's a really tough problem. I think one of the biggest threats to science and our science specifically is like these kind of targeted misinformation and disinformation campaigns that is like purposefully spreading false information. And it's really hard to counter that stuff because it's a lot easier to spread lies than it is to try to correct people to the truth, unfortunately.
Kyle David:Yeah, and I feel like they kind of design it in a way to make it go viral easy because you have certain elements that are used. And that catches on more than the person telling the truth and giving an honest forecast or honest information. Going back to your teaching experience. I'm just curious because you're the first teacher that I've had or somebody who is teaching experience What's been the best question that you've been asked by a student that made you go? Oh, that's a good question And then what's one question that? I don't want to say it's a bad question, but maybe like a funny question or an unusual question.
Alyssa Stansfield:That's a good question. So this is my first semester teaching. I'm teaching a graduate level climate dynamics class. So I have all our first year grad students in our department and they ask really good questions. They ask questions that I don't know the answer to that I have to say, I don't know. I'm going to go look that up and maybe I can give you an answer or show you a paper. Maybe put you to a paper that. can help us get the answer, or maybe there is no answer. Like, sometimes people ask questions like, wow, we don't actually know that. That would be a good research project. I will say that another interesting thing about teaching is that you do get people that have different experiences. So in our atmospheric science program, we have people who come in with bachelor degrees in meteorology and atmospheric science, but also physics and math. And in my graduate course this year, I actually have people who have a background in like nuclear engineering and geology. So, it's really interesting to see. What perspectives those students bring in and what kind of questions they're asking about atmospheric science and meteorology and climate because that's not, they've taken classes on before. I think that makes me a better teacher because I have to think about how can I present this information in a way that is accessible to all these people with different backgrounds.
Kyle David:So you said nuclear physics and geology?
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, geology and then nuclear engineering.
Kyle David:Okay, that surprised me. On that note, did that surprise you? Or was there another background that interested you in?
Alyssa Stansfield:Oh, well, yeah, I was surprised that, I mean, that there were people, grad students outside our department that were taking the class. Because this is usually a class, I think it's usually just made of our atmospheric science graduate students. So it's interesting to see, like, yeah, who else was interested in the class and why they wanted to take it.
Kyle David:Hmm. Interesting. I'm still trying to picture how nuclear engineering connects to climate dynamics.
Alyssa Stansfield:I think this person is actually kind of getting a non thesis based master's, so she's working for a company, and I think whatever she does for the company, they thought, oh, it may be helpful for you to understand more about the atmosphere and how the climate system works.
Kyle David:Interesting. You had mentioned earlier that some of the questions that you've been asked You may not know the answers to and you said, Oh, maybe that could make an interesting research question or a research project in the future. What are some emerging research questions that are coming out right now? And what are some questions and projects that particularly set you, excite you right now?
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, that's a great question. There's a lot of exciting research going on in the field in general and at Utah. Elsewhere. I think something I'm interested in and hoping to get into is a little bit more on the impacts of extreme weather on society and the environment. So particularly the impacts of precipitation and extreme rainfall. Can we predict better where this flooding is going to happen and how the flooding is going to change with climate change? Because Understanding how rainfall is going to change is really interesting and helpful, but it's really the flooding that actually impacts people on the ground. So making our predictions of that better, of those actual impacts, I think is something I'm interested in getting into. And that could be pretty interdisciplinary. So like I may want to try working with someone who's like a hydrologist because they understand Flooding and rivers and water transport way more than I do. I come at it more from the atmosphere and rainfall. So maybe doing some like atmosphere hydrology modeling would be super cool. Another project I am hoping to get funded for that I think is really exciting is actually looking at the increasing risk of extreme heat after hurricane landfalls in the southeast U. S. So Hurricane Beryl last year was an example of this, where a hurricane comes through and often it knocks out power for at least a couple days. And so if the hurricane is followed up by a heat wave and people don't have power, that really increases hospital visits and fatalities and damages from the storm. And so the southeast of the U. S. is obviously has hurricane landfalls almost every year and are also pretty at risk for heat waves. And so trying to understand how the risk of what are called compound events, so hurricane landfall plus heat wave is an example of a compound event, how those will, may change in the future is really interesting. And I think that compound events are really kind of a hot topic in the field in general. Also Extreme heat and drought together is like a compound event. Extreme winds plus flooding or rainfall from a hurricane is like a compound event. So, two events that, on their own, may be damaging, but then when you put them together, the damage kind of multiplies. That's something that the field is really interested in now.
Kyle David:And you said you're potentially going to research that a little more?
Alyssa Stansfield:Hopefully. Yeah, I put in a grant proposal, so hopefully if it gets funded I'll be able to research that.
Kyle David:Hmm, and then we'll have to have you back on. We could talk about that a little more because that in itself is interesting.
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, yeah, it's emerging. There's been a little bit of research on it so far, but not too much. I really hope I get funded and can do it because I think it's a really interesting and really important topic.
Kyle David:Definitely. Just to go back a couple steps in our conversation a little bit. We talked about Different approaches, different backgrounds, studying meteorology, studying different things, and I'm curious, how do you see research roles, experiences evolving for students as meteorology becomes more interdisciplinary, like with different backgrounds, like nuclear engineering, as you mentioned?
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, that's a really good question. I think interdisciplinary research and interdisciplinary experience is, It's definitely becoming more valued as I think it should be for students. Maybe that means trying to branch out a little bit when you're taking your classes and maybe if there's something that topic that you're interested in, maybe take a couple of classes in it or do a minor. If you can, if you do meteorology, take some hydrology classes if they have it at your university or maybe I know someone who majored in like meteorology and business, uh, because they wanted to, yeah, maybe. Build some technology or start a business related to like weather and meteorology. So I think interdisciplinary stuff is definitely becoming more prevalent. I think it's super useful in many different careers. Just taking the opportunities to have all these skills across disciplines when you can, I think is important. Science communication, that's an interdisciplinary thing, right? If you're a scientist, but you really are passionate about communicating to the public. Yeah, try to take some. Public speaking and communication classes get that experience.
Kyle David:And on that note, for anybody who may be listening who wants to go into grad school or pursue research, maybe not just in meteorology, but in general, what trends or emerging fields do you think they should be paying attention to right now?
Alyssa Stansfield:With grad school, it's kind of like anything you're interested in. I think people do research in like all kinds of different stuff. It's just about finding the school and advisor that interests you. But AI and machine learning is definitely a trend in the field right now that a lot of people are interested in researching, so that's definitely something that's emerging. Like interdisciplinary research, I think there's more and more people doing that. I think 20 years ago, it'd be hard to find a meteorologist, atmospheric scientist, doing really interdisciplinary research. It was just a lot more rare. I think it's becoming a lot more common, generally.
Kyle David:And on the note of AI, AI is like a very hot topic nowadays. It's being incorporated in not just meteorology things, but All different industries and stuff, and I'm curious, what do you think are some of the opportunities or risks that you foresee for using AI in studying extreme weather events or just in the research field in general?
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, that's a topic we could probably have like three more podcasts on, honestly. Probably, yeah. It's very interesting. And I've been learning a little more and more about like machine learning because it is such a big topic and there's federal funding for it as well. Yeah, there's a lot of opportunities. I think machine learning techniques have actually been in the field for a while. I think they just weren't called machine learning back then. It was just K means clustering and clustering stuff was always used for a while, but now it's fancy and new machine learning, which is fine. The AI, AI specifically, like, I don't know as much about, I'm sure there's a lot of opportunities though. I think generally, thinking about my research in my field, and AI and machine learning, the big challenge is computers can only learn from the data you give it. And we only have a limited amount of data in our field. We only have the weather and climate data going back. In the US we have pretty long records at the ground. But satellites only go back to the 1970s or so. And when you're researching extreme events, well, extreme events are rare by definition, so we don't have that many examples of them. So, a big challenge in machine learning and AI stuff in climate change research is, well, you're training the computer models, the AI, the machine learning, on past data that we have, but we don't really know if that applies to our future climate. We know the climate is changing. Our weather and so many things about the climate system. And so how do we know that training these models on past data, they're going to make good predictions for the future to be honest, they're probably not. And so trying to correct for that maybe is one interesting avenue. In machine learning and AI research that's relevant to our field.
Kyle David:Yeah, I mean, kind of to go back to what you said about the data, you have iffy data going in, you get iffy data coming out.
Alyssa Stansfield:Right, right. And we only can train it on what we have, and we're kind of extrapolating into the future. It's like making predictions on stuff it hasn't seen before. We don't really know that computers do that well on that.
Kyle David:Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see how things unfold in that area. Going back in time now, you've had a whole bunch of career experiences, and looking back now, what's one piece of advice that you would offer to a younger you or somebody who is in the same shoes as you once were?
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, that's a great question. I think what I came up with is that expertise is really built over time. When I was just starting out maybe as an undergrad or when I was first starting my research as an undergrad, I think I was frustrated and like so much I didn't know and didn't understand because I was just starting my education. Learning and building up that knowledge takes a lot of time. Like, the professors that we learn from, and the professors in my department that are more experienced than me, they've been doing this for so long, they've, they have so much experience, they've taught these classes so many times. So, you're gonna make mistakes at first, and you're not gonna understand things, and that's okay. Because everyone is like that. Like, coming up with great ideas and, and learning concepts, yeah, just takes time and, and repetition. So, like, I feel like I am teaching my climate dynamics class, and I feel like I'm almost now fully understanding some of these topics that I first learned about in grad school, but I feel like I really didn't understand them that well. And now after thinking about them and learning about them multiple times, now I'm like, oh, okay, I like really understand what this means now. As I said, expertise is built over time. and repetition. Be patient. Don't get frustrated and maybe lean on the people around you who do have a lot of experience. So for me, that's the professors in my department who are more senior and have been doing this job for a long time for people at the weather service. That's those forecasters that have been working there for 20 years and have so much experience and learn from them and ask questions. And yeah, just know that everyone feels like unsure and makes mistakes, especially when you're first starting.
Kyle David:Definitely some good advice there. Well, Dr. Stansfield, I got one more little segment for you before we get into our whether or not trivia. I leave the floor open to you. Is there any myths that you want to bust? Some questions that I haven't asked that you want to touch upon? Any other final parting thoughts?
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, I think I'm going to comment on our, as we talked a little bit about, our just like current situation with the federal government and kind of general doubt in government workers and people who do research on climate and so many other topics is that I think we, the majority of people, know what good work you do and how important you are and it's really easy to get distracted by the negative comments and hate and I think we know how important the research and the work is and so just keep doing it as much as you can. Don't give up. We need people making great forecasts and helping out in emergencies and communicating science to the public and doing the things they're passionate about. I think this is like advice to maybe myself and to a lot of people out there. It's just like, yeah, don't give up and keep doing. What you're passionate about.
Kyle David:There's some very good parting thoughts there. Well, Dr. Stansfield, that is the last question, but not the end of the interview. We still have our weather or not trivia. This is the fun game where I, where I get to ask you some weather themed and non weather themed trivia questions. With that said, are you ready to get into it?
Alyssa Stansfield:I think so. Let's see how this goes.
Kyle David:Alright, let's kick it off. This is Whether or Not. First question is related to Avatar The Last Airbender. Which nickname was given to the character Iroh? Is it A. The Breath of the North, B. The Emperor of the East, C. The Dragon of the West, or D. The Son of the South?
Alyssa Stansfield:Ooh, I know this one. It is C. The Dragon of the West.
Kyle David:Final guess? Yes. You are correct, it is the Dragon of the West. Love that character, by the way, and I love that show. Yes,
Alyssa Stansfield:he may be my favorite character. Yeah, I recently, so I watched that show back when it was like first premiering on Nickelodeon. I don't remember how old I was, and then I was so excited when it came on Netflix again, because I feel like so many more people watched it. And I watched the whole thing again, like two or three times. So I've seen it quite a few times.
Kyle David:I think I saw it a few times when I had the DVDs in our house for the TV show. And I got to watch that again on Netflix at some point.
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah.
Kyle David:But. All right. Got that one. Next up, this is whether or not your next question is related to tropical weather. Which hurricane season holds the record for most tropical storms in a hurricane season in the Atlantic? Is it a 1933 B, 2021 C, 2005, or D 2020?
Alyssa Stansfield:So the most tropical storms Yes. Is where kids say, oh, I mean, I, I. 2020 has the most storms altogether. I'm pretty sure now. So I guess I'm going to guess 2020. I just feel like that's maybe the most educated guess.
Kyle David:Final guess 2020?
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah.
Kyle David:You are correct. It is 2020 with. 30 tropical storms.
Alyssa Stansfield:Wow. Yeah. That was a crazy year. I remember how record breaking 2020 was like in 2020 wasn't it's almost like hard to keep track of all the storms. There's so many of them.
Kyle David:It went Greek too.
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah. Yeah. I remember it went into the Greek, Greek characters.
Kyle David:All right. This is whether or not your next question is related to Olympic volleyball. Which country won the first women's volleyball gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics? Was it A, the Soviet Union? B. The United States, C. China, or D. Japan.
Alyssa Stansfield:That's a tough one. I mean, those are all, usually those teams are all pretty good at volleyball, women's volleyball. Hmm, back in, what year was it? 19
Kyle David:1964, at the Tokyo Olympics.
Alyssa Stansfield:I want to hope it was the U. S., but I'm not sure if that's my guess. I'm gonna guess the Soviet Union.
Kyle David:Final guess?
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah.
Kyle David:You are incorrect. It was Japan.
Alyssa Stansfield:Japan. Oh, the home team. Okay.
Kyle David:Yeah, I don't think that's happened too many times in Olympic history.
Alyssa Stansfield:Yeah, that's pretty rare.
Kyle David:Yeah, interesting. All right. This is whether or not your next question is related to mountain weather What is the correct definition for a Chinook wind? Is it A, a cold wet wind that brings heavy snowfall to mountain areas? B, a warm dry wind that descends the eastern slopes of mountain ranges often melting snow rapidly? C, a type of thunderstorm common in the Rocky Mountains? Or D, a high altitude jet stream that Affects air travel over the mountains.
Alyssa Stansfield:I know it's a wind coming down the mountain. I think it's the dry, the warm, dry wind. So I think that was B.
Kyle David:Final guess is B, warm, dry wind? Yeah. Yeah. You are correct. It is a warm, dry wind that descends the eastern slope of the mountains. Alright, this is whether or not your next question is related to Rocky's hiking. What is the name of the highest continuous paved road in North America that passes through Rocky Mountain National Park? Is it A. Peak to Peak Highway, B. Trail Ridge Road, C. Mount Evans Scenic Byway, or D. Pikes Peak Highway?
Alyssa Stansfield:It's either B or C, but you mentioned Rocky Mountain National Park, and I know Trail Ridge Road is in Rocky Mountain National Park. So I think I'm gonna go B.
Kyle David:Final guess is Trail Ridge Road? Yeah. You are correct. It is Trail Ridge Road. Nice. And with that, that is the last whether or not trivia question and the end of our conversation. But before we go, how can people stay in touch with you and the awesome work that you're doing Dr. Stansfield?
Alyssa Stansfield:Oh yeah, so my email, so if you want to contact me, my email is Alyssa. Stansfield at Utah. edu. That's the best way to contact me. I also have a website that kind of goes through my research. It has my papers I've published and stuff, so that website is alissa stansfield. github. io.
Kyle David:And we'll make sure to include your email and your GitHub page in the show notes for everybody to go and find that. Well, Dr. Stansfield, thank you so much for coming on to the podcast, and thank you to the listener for listening to the Everything Weather podcast, and we'll catch you on the next episode.
Alyssa Stansfield:Thanks so much.
