Scott St. George

A line graph showing NSF grant awards made through 2/27/26 for fiscal year 2026 compared with grant awards for fiscal years 2021-2025 for the Directorate of Geosciences.

5/10

A stranger peering out at the audience.

Don Quixote tilting at windmills.

A tom-tom drum.

Purple dominoes in the middle of a fall.

Next week I head to Orlando for a big insurance meeting on natural catastrophes. I will give a short talk on climate-related perils from the perspective of a former academic and government scientist. And I'll do it in my own weird style. Behold! My four most inscrutable slides:

It is shocking how quickly one of the biggest benefits of U.S. higher education, the ability to recruit the best students from around the world, is eroding.

$1,005,000

That is the amount of federal funding that was already funded and withdrawn, plus the funds recommended by peer review and would have been awarded to my research group if the status quo were in place at NSF, NOAA, DOE.

Major actuarial professional organization submits letter opposing proposed dismantling of NCAR Calls NCAR a "cornerstone of the nation’s open, scientific infrastructure for tracking and understanding weather and climate risk" and asks administration to reconsider its plans

A major insurance industry professional organization submitted a letter in support of the Nat'l Center for Atmospheric Research, calling it crucial infrastructure for understanding weather & climate risk, and saying dismantling it threatens US insurance coverage. tinyurl.com/4aaxh22d

The same day DHS announced the surge would end in Minnesota, ICE activity increased in small towns The less densely populated areas outside the Twin Cities make it harder for protesters and observers to organize.

"It’s not hard to see why ICE has expanded its reach beyond the Twin Cities. The qualities that have hindered ICE’s operation in Minneapolis and St. Paul — density and walkability; a large, almost exclusively left-of-center population — are absent here."
www.theverge.com/policy/87871...

If Bad Bunny can cover the history of Puerto Rico, colonialism, transatlantic slavery, hemispheric consciousness, as well as contemporary life and politics in under 14 minutes, you can do your 15- or 20-minute conference presentation with time to spare.

Become our colleague!

The University of Lethbridge is hiring a Canada Impact+ Research Chair (Professor/Associate Professor) in Remote Sensing!

Only candidates who are both working and residing outside of Canada, incl. Canadian expats, are eligible to apply.
uleth.peopleadmin.ca/postings/8951

Affordable Housing Requires Tackling Insurance Costs Buying a house is expensive enough these days. But the costs of owning one have been rising, too — not least because of soaring insurance premiums. As policymakers of both parties have made housing af...

Average homeowners insurance premiums rose almost 25% from 2019 to 2024 in real terms. Such costs have contributed to a slump in the condo market, with prices at a decade low. @bloomberg.com @stevekoller.bsky.social

shorturl.at/Gvss9

Graph showing the NOAA Colorado Basin River Forecast Center's forecasts of April to July inflows to Lake Powell from 1991 to 2026, with colored lines showing how each season's forecast evolved from January through July. The latest Forecast, February 2026, is the lowest outlook for this time of year since at least 1991.

Given the latest NOAA CBRFC inflow forecast for Lake Powell, I dusted off this plot from my Twitter days and updated it.

The Feb 1st outlook for Colorado River flows hasn't been this poor in >35 years. Even if wetter weather ahead, bottom-10 outcome likely.

h/t @glenwoodrek.bsky.social

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again.
#Pinks #ProudBlue

Interviewing a 5-year-old about how they're worried because "bad guys are taking mommies and daddies" is not something I ever thought I'd do.

Thank you, Christi, this is a much more organized and well-thought out version of the same argument I made it internally last week. I do wonder if the mechanism is mostly perceptual - because winter is warmer, more storms seem extreme because they're less familiar than they used to be.

I've seen several Big Climate Accounts™ post about how the recent winter storm was made worse by climate change. It's a convenient narrative.

s
But what is "worse"? Colder temperatures? More snow? More freezing rain? Is there any primary literature supporting the idea of worse snowstorms?

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some of you may be aware that I am completely OCD about how to give a good research talk.

this story may just be the very best thing I've ever read on the topic.

the. best. ever.

is this the same tech that can "look under masks" to show hidden faces? or just make them up...?

There is an old word to describe going to a foreign power and asking for their assistance in breaking up a sovereign country — it’s treason.

Canadians are standing together in defence of this beautiful land. 🇨🇦

Your regular reminder that when folks say "its cold outside where I live, what happened to global warming?" that the world is big, and weather still exists.

I know he was quoting Havel but the bit about the fragility of oppressive systems really made me think Carney was riffing off Nemik’s manifesto.

I'm so grateful @bethhawkins.bsky.social is chronicling the federal occupation's effects on students and families.

Recognizing that all residents - reporters included - are experiencing this firsthand, not just on paper.

bsky.app/profile/did:...

Seriously, schools should hire this 13-year-old as a consultant. He knows his stuff.

A map of the world showing the modeled trend of large hail between 1950 and 2023.

Is damaging hail getting worse? An ESSL-led study published in Nature Geoscience finds that very large hail is modelled to occur most frequently in South America, the United States, and South Africa, but Europe shows the strongest increase in very large hail frequency. doi.org/10.1038/s415...

School has been cancelled tomorrow and Friday across the city of Minneapolis, because our federal government has made it unsafe for children here.

Opinion | Which City Burns Next?

"Increasingly, disaster strikes within an urban envelope, drawing on homes and landscaping for fuel rather than trees and wild brush. These are not forest fires encroaching on human settlement but rather human settlements burning like only forests used to."

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/o...

Unbelievable. The National Weather Service issued a wind warning supported by a hazard map showing places that **do not exist***.

I am really curious why no one in the Winnipeg media has chosen to ask some really basic questions re: the firing of Todd Mondor at U of W.

It's pretty clear to me this is going to blow up in the relatively near future, not sure why no one wants to get ahead of the curve.

I subscribed to Molly's newsletter because (a) I like her perspective on baseball and the world and large and (b) she was the only (only!) US-based sportswriter to say anything nice or positive about the Blue Jays (such a fun team!)

If you like ⚾️ , you should grab this deal right now.

This is one of the most beautiful things I have witnessed, the craft here is impeccable.

FULL SHARE for everybody on Rickey’s birthday