Funnel cloud taken around 6:15pm CT looking northwest towards Paw Paw, IL. NWS Chicago #ilwx

Whoa!! Here’s a stunning shot of the supercell near Somonauk in DeKalb County around 630 PM from behind the lens of talented photographers and former WGN interns Kyle Pittman and Logan Bundy! What a night!!! 🌩️🌩️🌩️

THE NEW ALBUM. INVINCIBLE SHIELD. OUT NOW. judaspriest.lnk.to/invincible-shi…

Huge congratulations to WCS PhD student Logan Bundy who just published an outstanding paper on crop conditions in the US. doi.org/10.1002/agj2.2… Ag is an exceptionally sensitive sector to weather and climate! Now out in Agronomy Journal

How have National Agricultural Statistics Service crop condition ratings trended since the 80s? New research published in Agronomy Journal by myself and the NIU WCS team shows conditions have deteriorated significantly across the S Plains, while improvements were seen across the SE. doi.org/10.1002/agj2.2…

Auroras illuminating the night over the Fox River in downtown Batavia, IL.

FLY THE FLAG! 🏴‍☠️ THE HUSKIES TAKE DOWN NO. 5 NOTRE DAME IN SOUTH BEND!!! NIU Football | #MACtion

Full celebration mode! What a week! Advanced Logan Bundy to candidacy, ICECHIP announcement, new paper accepted in WAF (out early next week), and now the biggest NIU Football win in history. So proud! Stay hungry, stay humble! Long live the underdog! Cheers! #GoHuskies

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS tonight from Elburn, IL. #CometC2023A3

Congratulations to former graduate student Kris Kaminski on publishing her thesis work on Future Derecho Potential in the United States! Bottom line: more derecho-like events in future, warmer climate regimes. Kris was advised by Dr. Walker Ashley. doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D…

Some of my PhD work from this week at #SLS31: We ran a 90 member high-res WRF ensemble in a Pseudo Global Warming framework on the infamous Tri-State Tornado outbreak from 1925. Still lots more to unpack on these, but prelim results are interesting 👇 kpittman6.github.io/Tri-State-Torn…

Pasture and rangeland conditions have deteriorated in the West, while conditions improved out East. New research with Victo☈ Gensini, PhD, CCM and Walker Ashley in Agronomy Journal show these 28-year trends for each week, month, and US state using USDA NASS data. doi.org/10.1002/agj2.2…

We are U.S. National Science Foundation funded! ICECHIP will begin in Mid-May 2025. Follow us as we roam the central US in search of hail 🧊🧊🧊

New open access research looking at the relationship between monthly temperature and tornado days. Results suggest surface temperatures during cool (warm) season have a positive (negative) correlation with tornado days. Kim Harold Brooks nature.com/articles/s4161…

The ICECHIP field campaign to study hail in May - June 2025 is considered flexible, allowing deployment and the collection of hailstones from Texas to Montana and east towards the Mississippi River, where terrain permits. Learn more🧊➡️ eol.ucar.edu/field_projects…

Full article here⤵️ doi.org/10.1002/agj2.2…

The AP is tagging along with scientists from Project ICECHIP to chase one of the nation’s costliest but least-appreciated weather dangers: hail. It's rarely deadly, but it causes about $10 billion in damage each year in the U.S. Follow along for the journey.

NIU faculty & students are having a highly productive field season as members of the National Science Foundation-supported ICECHIP field study campaign, the world’s largest ever coordinated effort to study hail. Visit go.niu.edu/jo3dpv to learn more about the project.

After 42 days and 15,000 + miles driven, #ICECHIP completed 24 IOPs across 11 states, including within 75 miles from both the Mexico and Canada borders. This totaled more than 10,000 hailstones collected by our teams while data was gathered on different types of hailstorms!