If predicting snow is a tough business, measuring it is no piece of cake either.

A major winter storm is threatening the Washington, D.C., area this week, on the heels of record-setting snowfalls and blizzard conditions in several parts of the United States last month. Are these onslaughts catching people off guard?

Broadcast meteorologists are a leading source of information about the atmosphere for the public, but many avoid mentioning global warming. New research finds barriers that may keep them from addressing the science of climate change on the air.

They’ve been carried by truck into supercell thunderstorms, flown on aircraft into hurricanes, and sliced and diced the atmosphere in myriad ways. Where are research radars headed next, and where will they take science and society?

As a step toward meeting the goal of providing earlier warnings, NCAR scientists and their colleagues are examining what enables poorly organized clusters of thunderstorms to develop into tropical storms and hurricanes.