Dr. Kim Hannula

Birdland - Weather Report

This is a Memorial Day snowpack. One could ride a bike to Silverton today.

This is a good visualization for the status of the Cascade snotel sites (just to the south).

nwcc-apps.sc.egov.usda.gov/imap/#versio...

The Spud Mountain snotel site is not far north of here.

nwcc-apps.sc.egov.usda.gov/imap/#versio...

A dry dirt road leads toward a long, high mountain. There is some snow on the peaks and down steep gullies, but not much.

West side of the Twilights from lower Old Lime Creek Road. A visual to go with dismal snotel data. (And the heat dome hasn't arrived yet.)

Partly to make @landdesk.bsky.social sad.

Map of projected temperature anomalies next Thursday across the western U.S. from the ECMWF ensemble. The entire map is bright red and pink, indicative of extreme to record-breaking March warmth. Some location will be 25-30F degrees above average, with a few locations warming over 35F (!) above average.

All signs continue to point to an exceptional, long-duration, and record-breaking to (in some cases) record-shattering March heatwave initially centered across U.S. Southwest but expanding to much broader region next week. This is effectively a full-on summer heatwave in March.

If you're a recent PhD with expertise in Indigenous knowledge systems, check out this cool postdoc opportunity here at UMaine through the Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science:

I started flonase last week, when I became concerned that juniper pollen might spread early. (It's always earlier than I expect, and spring winds up from the desert bring pollen even before the snow melts.)

And Allan Keeton isn't here.

I miss Usenet.

This is Tiktaalik, rendered in bread! ⚒️

The greatest risk of AI in higher education isn’t cheating – it’s the erosion of learning itself Automating knowledge production and teaching weakens the ecosystem of students and scholars that sustains universities, raising existential questions about their mission.

theconversation.com/the-greatest...

[V2cam] Kīlauea volcano, Hawaii (east Halemaʻumaʻu crater) YouTube video by USGS

Here, an eruption — a live, Hawaiian eruption.

Calling all undergraduate geoscience students 📣 Need funding for your research project? GSA Section Undergraduate Research Grants can help support fieldwork, lab work, and more.

⏰ Applications due 10 April

🔗 Find your Section and apply: geosociety.co/Undergrad_Grants

Backups rule.

I only spent four years doing my PhD.

It wasn't enough. There was a lot that I needed to learn before going on the job market, and I didn't learn it. I was a worse scientist and teacher for leaving too soon.

There are locals who oppose solar/wind/batteries/EVs because they want the money from oil and gas to come back (creating local wealth and cheap energy).

I wish I had written the letter to the editor saying that we could have cheap energy or oil jobs, but not both. And we could easily have neither.

This years's first Watch Duty fire notification just came through.

(Near the NM border, already contained. But still. It should be dumping snow.)

View of stickers laid out at an EarthScope exhibit booth overlain with a red to purple gradient and the text "We're Hiring" linking to earthscope.org/careers

Have a background in geoscience and experience in science communication? We're hiring a Science Communication Associate I (remote, US) to assist in daily and strategic communications.

Learn more & apply ➡️ https://earthscope.org/careers/

I'm glad I drive a Bolt, and I'm getting more solar panels installed this month...

Normal faulting in the desert makes the most spectacular vistas. (See: east side of the Sierras.)

The drive from Del Norte to Poncha Pass is the most gorgeous drive in a gorgeous state.

Groundwater, ugh, typos.

We need to ban construction of data centers in all Colorado River Basin states. (There's enough transfer of water from the Colorado basin to other basins - South Platte, Rio Grande, the whole Arizona project - that I don't care if groudwater or other rivers are being used. It's connected.)

The reason the Middle East has so much oil is the same reason it’s all stuck there now A continental collision trapped oil within what is today Iran. The same collision explains why that oil is trapped behind the Strait of Hormuz now

Fascinating new piece by @sipappas.bsky.social looking at the geology behind the geopolitics:

🧪

Enabling Fieldwork for All (EFFA) Framework: Supporting physical, social, financial, and psychological safety in the field Comprehensive review of fieldwork safety literature across disciplines yields synthesized recommendations.

Excited to share a new paper written by a AAAS Policy Fellow I mentor, Dr. Lisa Walsh.

“This review synthesizes literature on fieldwork safety across scientific disciplines, highlighting four facets of safety for leaders and researchers to address: physical, social, financial, and psychological.”

I've stayed at the Kingman KOA in a Sprinter van. It was fine as an overnight stop.

Reporter, Nature News Job Title: Reporter, Nature Location: Washington DC or New York (Hybrid Working Model) Application Deadline: March 27, 2026 About Springer Nature Springer Nature is one of the leading publishers of re...

JOB OPENING! If you want to work as a reporter with Nature's US news team, this is a VERY RARE opportunity. The beat is physical sciences/energy & environment/technology. DC or NYC location. Deadline 3/27. Join our awesome team! #journojobs

springernature.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/es/SpringerN...

Best profile picture ever.

It feels like, the more people love to do something, the more upset they get about it being done with AI. Writing from most of the SFF writers I follow, art from the artists, coding from you... and, I mean, using AI to look at ROCKS for me. (Or to teach. Or even to GRADE, or write recommendations.)