Adam Sobel
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adamsobel.bsky.social
Adam Sobel
@adamsobel.bsky.social

Atmospheric scientist

Adam H. Sobel is a Professor of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics and of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University. He directs its Initiative on Extreme Weather and Climate. His research area is meteorology with a focus on atmospheric and climate dynamics, tropical meteorology, and extreme weather. .. more

Environmental science 48%
Geology 23%

In this week's Sumner Files, two paintings of the block where #sumnercrane lived from around 1978-86. I use them as a prompt to reconstruct some of his life, relationships and art during this period, a particularly fertile one for him. deepconvection.substack.com/p/the-sumner...
The Sumner Files: East 4th Street, mid-1980s
Two paintings of Sumner's block, and some stories about his place there.
deepconvection.substack.com

Thanks so much @alli-wing.bsky.social ! It's a profound honor to receive an award named for Joanne Simpson, such an important person in the history of our field. I'm very grateful to my nominators, whoever they are, and to the committee!

In this week's Sumner Files: urban landscapes from lower Manhattan, painted in the early/mid 80s, the last years in which #sumnercrane lived in the borough. Diverse in light, color and perspective, by turns sweeping, intimate, and gritty. tinyurl.com/2kkknkm8
The Sumner Files: Urban landscapes, 1982-1986
Scenes from Lower Manhattan, painted during the last years that Sumner lived there.
tinyurl.com
Walz: "What's happening in MN defies belief. News reports simply don't do justice to the level of chaos & disruption & trauma the federal govt is raining down... This long ago stopped being a matter of immigration enforcement. Instead, it's a campaign of organized brutality against the people of MN"

Reposted by Adam H. Sobel

Important opportunity to help save climate and weather science. From the fantastic group who brought you the climate livestream.
#SaveNCAR Update: CO Senators aren't backing down on NCAR protections, so now is the time to call your representatives and force the amendment to a vote: wclivestream.com/act/
In the politics of weather, Senate majority leader Thune attempts to lock down the federal science funding bill "as is" and prevent amendments like the NCAR one being pushed by CO senators. In actual wx, tracking a highly unusual Jan. tropical disturbance in the EastPac. tinyurl.com/48kbkpza

In this week's Sumner Files: zebra centaurs. tinyurl.com/j2fhhxbu #sumnercrane
The Sumner Files: African centaurs, 1998
Zebra-supermodel hybrids.
tinyurl.com

Reposted by Adam H. Sobel

A thorough investigation is being conducted of the deceased victim while the killer was exonerated by Noem before her body was cold.

Reposted by Adam H. Sobel

EPA proposes to stop measuring benefits of environmental regulations, just industry costs.

Seat belts cost car companies money.
Pollution controls on coal plants cost utilities money.
Water quality standards cost industry money.

EPA says ignore the lives they save.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/c...
E.P.A. to Stop Considering Lives Saved When Setting Rules on Air Pollution
www.nytimes.com

It feels a little wrong to post about art at this time. But it's what's keeping me sane. So, here's the weekly Sumner Files, on a major #sumnercrane masterwork, dated 1989: The Shopping Centaurs.
deepconvection.substack.com/p/the-sumner...
The Sumner Files: Shopping Centaurs, 1989
A major Sumner masterwork
open.substack.com
There aren't a lot of resources for what people can do to prevent the destruction of NCAR, so I made this:

#NCAR #climate #climatescience #weather #meteorology #activism #myresources
Our paper exploring the drivers of the November 2023 “Taylor Swift” heatwave in Rio de Janeiro is officially out in WCD! Take a read to learn more about the causes of this record-breaking heatwave and Rio’s emerging risk for extreme heat:

wcd.copernicus.org/articles/6/1...
Physical drivers of the November 2023 heatwave in Rio de Janeiro
Abstract. Because extreme heat has not historically been a major hazard for the city of Rio de Janeiro, the November 2023 Heatwave magnitude and timing were staggering. Here we conduct a case study of...
wcd.copernicus.org
Some reflections after returning back from a conference at which I and 20,000 colleagues learned that the Trump administration intends to dismantle #NCAR. This outrage should not happen. deepconvection.substack.com/p/save-ncar
Save NCAR
Field notes from New Orleans, where I and 20,000 colleagues learned that Trump intends to destroy the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
deepconvection.substack.com
From wildfire warnings to flood forecasts, NCAR's research impacts everyone in America.

President Trump's attempt to dismantle it for political vengeance is beyond reckless.

We will fight against this dangerous scheme every step of the way.

Reposted by Adam H. Sobel

Please write to your congressional reps about the NCAR budget cuts

Reposted by Adam H. Sobel

For those at #agu25 #saveNCAR

12:15pm - Group Photo/Video at the "science strong" wall across from the Plenary Hall at the entrance to the convention center

1:30-5:30pm - drop in interviews at PJs Coffee in front of Hall C - look for the person with the "We ❤️ NCAR" sign.

More info:
The Weather & Climate Livestream
Join us starting May 28th, as meteorologists and climate scientists from across the US share their research and answer your questions.
wclivestream.com
Attacking NCAR is enormously self-destructive for America. NCAR is the leading centre in weather and climate research in the world. We Europeans often travel to NCAR to collaborate, discuss and learn. Hurting the centre will cause damage that is irreversible for years to decades with global impact.
eos.org Eos @eos.org · Dec 18
To help #SaveNCAR, read our update below and visit this @aguscipolicy.bsky.social page, where you can find email text and a call script to share with your representatives. agu.quorum.us/campaign/151...
Some perspectives from our community on what NCAR means to weather and climate researchers:

"NCAR is quite literally our global mothership" @katharinehayhoe.com

"I came to the US over 10 years ago for a postdoc at NCAR. It changed my life..." @climateflavors.bsky.social

#SaveNCAR
Threatening to dismantle NCAR, our premier weather and climate research institute (apparently) because Colorado refuses to pardon someone accused of tampering with voting machines is a sad example of our current kakistocracy in action… www.nytimes.com/2025...
The administration dismantling NCAR is scientific vandalism, much like the Taliban demolishing cultural artifacts.
www.theguardian.com/world/2001/m...

Reposted by Adam H. Sobel

Climate is simply a longer-term average of... weather.

Climate change research is simply the study of changing weather patterns.

NCAR has been at the forefront of weather / climate research and providing essential datasets for decades. It is one of the world's best training grounds for scientists.
NCAR is a unique & valuable asset - far more than a climate model, or observations, or technology, or training ground, or gathering space. It covers weather, space weather, data, climate, paleo-climate, and everything in-between. It's building is an icon, but it's iconic status goes far beyond that.

Reposted by Adam H. Sobel

This is an intellectual war crime.
NCAR is one of the nation's, and the world's, pre-eminent research institutions.

www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...
Trump moves to dismantle major US climate research center in Colorado
The Trump administration is breaking up the National Center for Atmospheric Research, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.
www.usatoday.com

This week on the Sumner Files: the first new audio podcast episode in some months. I spoke to Arto Lindsay again, now in person, after we'd looked through the #sumnercrane archive (in which Arto is well represented, incl. drawings he did for Jack Texas) for a couple hours. tinyurl.com/4tt3f2wv
The Sumner Files, Episode Nine: Arto Lindsay, Again
tinyurl.com

To finish up the series on #sumnercrane and childhood, a few stories on adult Sumner's interactions with the children in his life via art. tinyurl.com/3jwv3ajt
The Sumner Files: Juvenilia, Part 3
On adult Sumner connecting with children through art.
tinyurl.com

In which I show drawings of musicians by child and teenage Sumner, and consider the confluences of music and visual art in his early life. bit.ly/48dE9yB #sumnercrane
The Sumner Files: Juvenilia, Part 2
Drawings of musicians, and the confluences between music and visual art in young Sumner's consciousness.
bit.ly

In which I show some of Sumner's childhood drawings. I consider the influence of comics on his work, and the way youth and age met in it, figuratively and sometimes literally. #sumnercrane tinyurl.com/4vdaacmc
The Sumner Files: Juvenilia, Part 1
On comics, and artistic links between childhood and adulthood
tinyurl.com

In the early 80s, Sumner formed a trio with Rudolph Grey and Arto Lindsay to do paintings & drawings and show them together under one name, Jack Texas. Here I ask: who does this - i.e., form a band, but for visual art - and why? And I document their show, at Danceteria, in 1983. bit.ly/4pf20Dp
The Sumner Files: Jack Texas and the Danceteria show
On collaboration, careerism or its absence, and doing art with one's friends
bit.ly

In the early 80s, #sumnercrane, Rudolph Grey and Arto Lindsay all signed the name Jack Texas to their visual art. Sumner and Rudolph did works based on comic book panels by Sumner's hero, artist Bob Powell, including a couple of Powell's "Cave Girl" character. More here bit.ly/49d6hTq
The Sumner Files: Jack Texas, Bob Powell, and Cave Girl, early 1980s
This week I’m jumping to the early 1980s.
bit.ly
"But perhaps the most consequential long-term loss for federal science is that of institutional knowledge and expertise — and the downstream effects on the training of early-career researchers."

"We lost people with decades of experience and everyone who was very early career, ...”
Dismantling of US federal agencies will ‘destroy science’
From NASA to the National Institutes of Health, federal agencies conduct research that universities cannot. Agency scientists speak out about the irreplaceable facilities, institutional knowledge and ...
www.nature.com

In which I introduce Sumner's art, starting with what I think may be the first paintings I ever saw in my life. In these, Sumner was strongly influenced by his teacher Milton Resnick. He also put in found objects, at least one of which has great personal meaning for me. bit.ly/4hQAGcj
The Sumner Files: Large abstract expressionist paintings, 1960s
This is the first post in which I am presenting any of Sumner’s visual art.
bit.ly