Dorian J. Burnette

@djburnette.com

1366 Followers 863 Following

Associate Professor of Atmospheric Science, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Memphis | Historical reconstruction, dendroclimatology, extreme events, storm chasing Website: http://www.djburnette.com

Warming stripes for Memphis, Tennessee from 1850 to 2025. Each year is depicted as a separate stripe. The stripes are colored blue if the year was cooler than average. The cooler it was, the darker the blue color. The stripes are colored red if the year was warmer than average. The warmer it was, the darker the red color. There is a trend toward more and darker red stripes at Memphis.
Tornado
Lowering, possible wall cloud. Rising motion observed on right side
Poor contrast lowering distant.
Shelf cloud. Scud clouds (right) showed modest rising motion, but fell apart in less than a minute of our arrival.
Canvas Update statement from the University of Memphis reads: Today, Thursday, May 7, Instructure — the company that owns and operates the Canvas platform — disclosed that a second security incident has resulted in a breach that has made Canvas inaccessible. Students whose final assignments and tests were impacted will be given additional time to complete their coursework. Here is the latest update from Instructure: "Instructure has placed Canvas, Canvas Beta and Canvas Test in maintenance mode. We anticipate being up soon, and will provide updates as soon as possible." The University will also provide additional updates as soon as possible. At present, these incidents are being investigated and otherwise addressed by Instructure, assisted by third-party security experts and law enforcement. UofM ITS will continue to monitor the situation and work with Instructure to determine the impact on our community. Further information will be made available on Instructure's status page: status.instructure.com. For more information on how this impacts the UofM, visit: memphis.edu/its/security/instructure-canvas-breach-may-2026.php.
Image showing two robots doing construction on a ship with a note saying "Canvas is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance. Check back soon."
Struggling towering cumulus cloud.
US flag constantly in motion due to stiff south wind.
2223 UTC (4:23pm CST) surface observations over the southcentral U.S. show a number of locations in Deep South Texas over 90 degrees F and a several locations cracking 100 degrees F.
Map of snowfall totals from the National Weather Service showing 12 or more inches of snow from Maryland northeast to southern Maine. A number of locations over Rhode Island and southeast Massachusetts reporting 30+ inches.
Time series of consumer price index (CPI) adjusted to 2026 billion dollar weather and climate events and CPI adjusted cost from 1980 to 2025. Data from Climate Central.
Ed Cook will receive the Roger Revell Medal.
Satellite image of Hurricane Melissa with the eye just off the southwestern coast of Jamaica.
Observed and forecast stage of the Mississippi River at Memphis gauge. Forecast shows a steady decline through the end September with values falling below the low water threshold of -8 ft.
Biodiversity stripes illustrating a 73% decline in global biodiversity from 1970-2020.
Rocky Mountain bristlecone pine tree at Mt. Goliath, Colorado. Photo by Ana Carolina Barbosa.
Wall cloud
Bluesky t-shirt reading "Mundus Sine Caesaribus" (A world without Caesars)
Supercell thunderstorm.
Bluesky t-shirt reading "Mundus sine Caesaribus" (a world without Caesars).
Public Information Statement National Weather Service Memphis TN 212 PM CDT Fri Apr 4 2025 ...Memphis Operational Status Update... We have a tremendous backlog of storm reports that still need to be posted. Due to the ongoing warning operations and the extremely high volume of partner coordination, briefings, and media interviews, we simply haven't had the bandwidth to post them in real-time. We sincerely ask for your patience as we continue to balance the delivery of critical, life-saving information during this multi- day event while also working to mitigate staff fatigue. We are only half way through what is a marathon. Please know that all reports are being carefully documented and will be posted in the coming days. At this time, we have made the decision to hold and post Local Storm Reports in bulk rather than releasing days-old reports during active weather. Our concern is that trickling in outdated information could unintentionally add confusion to an already chaotic operational environment. Additionally, we plan on focusing on warnings and communication and will forgo the issuance of any Special Weather Statements for sub-severe storms this afternoon and tonight. Thanks for your continued support, and please keep the real time reports coming as they are critical to the warning process. Stay safe and take care of yourselves and others around you.
Tornado watch for portions of extreme southeast Oklahoma, northeast Texas, extreme northwest Louisiana, and much of Arkansas until 9 pm CDT. Hazard Information: Several tornadoes and a couple of intense tornadoes likely. Widespread large hail and scattered very large hail to 2.5 inches in diameter likely. Scattered damaging winds likely with isolated gusts to 75 mph possible.
Four panel of base reflectivity, storm relative velocity, correlation coefficient, and normalized rotation product showing a tornado debris signature near Lake City, AR
Particularly dangerous situation tornado watch until 12 a.m. CDT covering eastern and south-central Arkansas, southern Illinois, southwest Indiana, western Kentucky, southeast Missouri, northern Mississippi, and western Tennessee.
Wall cloud at 6:20pm CDT (2320 UTC) on 30 March 2025. View is south of Greenway, AR, looking northwest.
Dear Faculty and Staff, A memo released on Jan. 27 from the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to heads of executive departments and agencies could have implications for the research enterprise of institutions across the country, including our campus. At this time, many of the potential consequences of the memo are unclear. NOTE: A federal judge has temporarily paused any actions included in the memo until early next week. However, we are not waiting until next week to consider the implications. The University is working closely with our representatives in Washington, D.C., the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC), our partners at other research universities and leadership at federal research agencies to understand all the potential implications regarding the memo. The federal research agencies will be releasing more concrete guidance in the coming days. Unless faculty researchers receive explicit notification from their pertinent funding agency, they should continue applying for and executing their research projects as usual. The U.S. Department of Education has stated this does not apply to student loans, Pell grants and other forms of Title IV financial aid distributed directly to individuals. Please be patient as we gain further understanding of the potential implications and take the necessary steps. Please do not hesitate to contact me as the point person if you have questions or are anxious. Please also avoid taking any unilateral action based on rumors or false information. We will keep our UofM Campus community updated as information and resources become available to us. Jasbir Dhaliwal Executive Vice President for Research & Innovation
...Epilogue (RE)... This is my final SPC outlook, forecast and shift. With a cyclonically swirling storm of memories, I retire mourning the end of a rewarding era, yet ever grateful, blessed with a career of public service devoted to excellence. For a poor kid from inner-city east Dallas, carrying a passion for tornadoes from earliest awareness, and a relentless drive to research and forecast them, it has been everything the dream promised, and more. I hope the American taxpayers have found my time worth their money. Even through this autumnal transition of life's seasons, I'll stay as inspired as ever by the tempestuous sky above -- to observe, photograph and study it, and keep giving back to the science in some way, as long as physically and mentally able. It just won't be on rotating shifts. The forecasting baton passes to another generation of sharp minds, just as the lead crew in the 1990s did for us "young pups of SELS" in Kansas City. The SPC is in great hands. There isn't enough room here to thank everyone from early childhood through OU, NSSL, NHC, NSSFC/SELS, and SPC -- family, friends, instructors, mentors, students, and colleagues -- but be assured I do. Nothing has granted greater career fulfillment than to deliver severe-weather forecasts with detailed, science-based insights, customized for each situation, shift after shift for over three decades, and to write related research papers. Thanks for reading and using them, any or all. Stay weather-aware!
An picture of my Bluesky profile with the handle (my own domain) circled in red.
KVNX base reflectivity image of severe thunderstorms in Kansas and Oklahoma. Colors use a newly published ChaseSpectral color map.
Scheduled post for 31 Oct 2024 at 9 a.m. CDT on X of nothing but a blue butterfly.
Bluesky celebrating 10 million users. I was user #120,519 (first 10%).
Box art of the StarLancer video game released in 2000.
Lights are on at a nearby church in Black Rock, Arkansas during the total solar eclipse.
A weather balloon sounding for Amarillo, TX at 12Z (6 a.m. Central Standard Time). A very strong jet stream is observed with 195 knot winds at the 200 mb pressure level.
Gage height data for the Mississippi River at Memphis, Tennessee is plotted from 1 October 2022 to 10 October 2023. A new all-time record low of -11.01 ft was recorded on 10 October 2023. A line is also plotted in dark red that denotes the minimum operational limit of the gage (-12 ft). These data are preliminary and still need to be verified by the US Army Corps of Engineers.
Figure from IPCC (2005) Special Report showing observed ozone through 2005 and a range of computer model predictions to 2045 with a gradual recovery of ozone predicted.
Meme of Luke Skywalker saying "Amazing. Every word of what you just said was wrong."
A statement from the National Weather Service in Birmingham, Alabama. They note that back on Wednesday "while wind shear aloft was enough to get storms to rotate, the wind shear near the ground wasn't quite enough to get the storms to the next stage--producing a tornado." Due to the environmental conditions, they "did not issue a tornado warning for any of the storms."
Written temperature observations by Thomas Jefferson. On 4 July 1776, the 6 a.m. temperature was 68, 9 a.m. temperature was 72.25, 1 p.m. temperature was 76, and 9 p.m. temperature was 73.5 (all degrees Fahrenheit).