Michael French

Today is the last day to submit an abstract to the AMS Madison Summit! #SLS32 ametsoc.org/ams/meetings-e…

Today marks 20 years for me at @NBCConnecticut. I’m grateful every day for this incredible job and for the trust you’ve placed in me and our team through blizzards, hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes. Here’s to the next 20 years.

Quite under the weather but still excited to give my talk in the next session of #ECSS2025!

He also adjusted from his planned projects for me & fostered my desired focus on spending a lot of time reading and thinking in terms of big ideas. That comes at the cost of fewer papers/grants, but it allowed me to form my own identity. I’m grateful for my time as his student.

That includes work ethic, demeanor, personal communication, and scientific writing. I was objectively terrible at all of these and now I’m at least functional. Not an easy task!

I would congratulate Howie on his retirement, but he’d never read this post!🤣 The lessons I learned working for Howie are only tangentially related to storms & tornadoes. The most important things he taught me were about everything else it takes to succeed in what you care about

The latest edition (October) of BAMS highlights our presentation at #AMS41Radar on the relationship between "Immense" supercell updrafts and tornadoes (attached). Working on a more complete paper to submit soon (or in 2026 or in 2027 🤥). Anyway, check it out!

Remembering longtime WTNH meteorologist Geoff Fox who died today following a long battle with cancer.

Congratulations to @ecreightonwx for passing his Ph.D. proposal defense on observing the vertical alignment of supercell mesocyclones. One more (big) step to go!

And my talk on Immense ZDR columns for tornadogenesis prediction is in the next session starting at 4 PM! #AMS41Radar

For those of you at #AMS41Radar, check out poster 109 at 2:30 PM today led by @ecreightonwx who is looking at vertical alignment of mesocyclones in supercells. I promise exhilarating conversation!

@jamesaydelott We do not. Our algorithm only runs on WDSS-ii right now, though @mattwilsonwx runs a version of our approach on Python through SPORK.

@StonyBrook_RAM Do you have a GR2v3 UDP that calculates this realtime yet?

The supercell that produced the Barnsdall, OK EF4 tornado had a ZDR column area of 60 square km (based on our algorithm) ~1.5 km above the freezing level just prior to tornado formation, consistent w/ other EF4 tornadoes. At 300 m above the freezing level, it was 111 square km.

The authors' reply to our comment can be found here: doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-…

New group paper out about ZDR column detection, but really about the appropriate way to evaluate algorithms designed by others (run the actual algorithm😀) and how that wasn't done in a recent paper. Also some commentary about evaluating column algorithms: doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-…

Thanks to the VTSU Lyndon students, it was a great experience!

Many thanks to @JakeMulholland1 for his visit and great @SoMAS talk today on vertical wind shear influences on supercell updraft characteristics. Exciting to have Jake in the SUNY family! (Sorry, I’m bad with photos and only got the last slide 😳)

Call for Papers! The abstract submission and registration for the 12th European Conference on Severe Storms (ECSS2025) to be held in Utrecht, Netherlands, on 17 - 21 November 2025 is open. Find out more at ecss.eu

On my 10th anniversary at @SoMAS I was gifted with…turkeys outside my office! Are they trying to tell me something? 😀

If you were wondering where to show your newest research results on severe storms next year: ESSL & KNMI are proud to announce the 12th ECSS, which will take place in Utrecht, Netherlands between 17 and 21 November 2025. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Great week at #31sls with old and new students, and ticking off a Tues evening talk achievement.