Weather and Climate Posts

A Sea Change for Lake Superior: Mishi Bizhiw — Great Panther

This short video explores Ojibwe perspectives and cultural stories associated with Lake Superior, with interviews and artwork by Carl Gawboy and Jonathan Thunder. A version of it will be included in the public television documentary, A Sea Change for Lake Superior.

Climate>Duluth: Melanie Wallace and Bonnie Waltch – Climate Emergency Feedback Loops Films

Climate>Duluth host Tone Lanzillo interviews Melanie Wallace and Bonnie Waltch of Climate Emergency Feedback Loops Films.

Recorded in hybrid style at Duluth Public Access Community Television’s studio in City Hall.

A Sea Change for Lake Superior: When the Ice Melts

Notoriously cold Lake Superior is among the fastest warming of the world’s large lakes. This excerpt from the upcoming public television documentary A Sea Change for Lake Superior documents research at the Large Lakes Observatory at University of Minnesota Duluth investigating how variations in winter ice-cover plays in that change.

The documentary is a coproduction of the Center for Global Environmental Education at Hamline University and WDSE-TV PBS North. It is scheduled for release in December.

Is Duluth Climate Proof?

You may have heard Duluth referred to as climate-proof, but what makes this small Midwestern city resilient to climate change? And is it, in fact, climate-proof? Hear from National Weather Service Duluth Meteorologist, Ketzel Levens, UMD Professor of Physics and Astronomy, and the Large Lakes Observatory, Jay Austin, about the science behind Duluth’s unique climate.

This digital PBS North production is a part of the Climate Across America campaign, an imitative of the PBS science series Nova.

Thundersnow in Duluth

Duluth’s Mollie Johnson captured the sounds of thunder during this morning’s blizzard.

Climate>Duluth: Bruce Jennings of Vanderbilt University

Climate>Duluth host Tone Lanzillo interviews Bruce Jennings of Vanderbilt University. Jennings speaks to Health Policy and the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at VUMC, his former professor and mentor William Patrick Ophuls, Economics for the Anthropocene as well as the Centers for Humans and Nature.

Climate>Duluth: Martha Stephens and Manlio Pertout of THES

Climate>Duluth host Tone Lanzillo interviews Martha Stephens and Manlio Pertout of the Human Exploring Society, which seeks to “talk to and involve everyone, because this connection we all share, plays the most important role in the changes we need to see.”

The Institute for the Study of Light and Water: Another psychedelic weather report

Sunset a silent H-bomb

Now a burning Saturn, now an apricot pastel dab on slate. Sun zips the sky closed behind it as it goes, now dying, now resurrecting in orange creamsicle. Color cosmologies. Gold birch leaves rattle like paper coins. Leaves crunch, clatter, gather against curbs.

Climate>Duluth: Kat Soares of Deep Adaptation Forum

Climate>Duluth host Tone Lanzillo interviews Kat Soares of Deep Adaptation Forum, which offers free events and online platforms for people who are seeking and building supportive communities to face the reality of the climate crisis.

Climate>Duluth: Mark Hertsgaard of Covering Climate Now

Climate>Duluth host Tone Lanzillo interviews Mark Hertsgaard of Covering Climate Now about how the organization collaborates with journalists and newsrooms to produce more informed and urgent climate stories, to make climate a part of every beat in the newsroom — from politics and weather to business and culture — and to drive a public conversation that creates an engaged public.   

Recorded at Duluth Public Access Community Television’s studio in City Hall, September 2022.

Climate>Duluth: Annette Olson of Climate Steps

Climate>Duluth host Tone Lanzillo interviews Annette Olson of Climate Steps about the personal, political and social steps to fight climate change. 

Recorded at Duluth Public Access Community Television’s studio in City Hall, September 2022.

Selective Focus: Presidents’ Day Blizzard of 2022

Somewhere in the range of 17 inches of snow fell on Duluth from Feb. 22 to 23, blowing into tall, fluffy snow dunes. Collected here are a few images from around the region, via Instagram.

Selective Focus: Snow Day 2021

A few select images from today’s blizzardry via Instagram.

Filling Up at the ‘Coldest Gas Station in America’

Back in January of 1997, my friend Keith and I took a drive across Wiscosota and Minnesconsin with my cousin Matt, a California beach boy searching for a real northland winter. Our road trip launched on the eve of the Green Bay Packers Super Bowl XXXIII appearance. A handmade Packer flag crafted from a pillow case was taped to the bumper of Keith’s sedan as we drove 300 miles across frozen farm fields and snow-covered forest to Title Town. The idea was to celebrate an inevitable Packer victory in the shadows of Lambeau Field.

I’ll save our tales of mischief and revelry for another time. This essay is about gas stations – very cold gas stations.

Gas is needed to get from St. Paul to Green Bay in a V-8 Chevrolet. Somewhere in the middle of Wiscosota we stopped at a convenience store and pulled up to a service island. A snowmobile was parked at an adjacent pump and its driver was filling a tank under the seat. Matt’s jaw dropped like he had just spotted Bigfoot munching on a cheeseburger.

“Whaaaaatttt????” he said, as he grabbed a cheap point-and-shoot camera and jumped out of the car.

MPR on Climate Migration and Duluth

MPR reports today on the notion of Duluth as a climate refuge.

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!