Across the Sky Lee Enterprises Podcasts

Inflatable bounce houses have become a staple at birthday parties and other celebrations around the world. It doesn't take much wind for them to be blown over though. Since 2000, there have been at least 136 wind-related bounce house incidents worldwide, resulting in 489 injuries and 28 deaths. Perhaps just as surprising, many states in the U.S. have inadequate or no regulations regarding bounce house safety.

How much wind does it take to blow over a bounce house? What weather events are causing these incidents? How can we make bounce houses more wind-resistant and what can you do to help ensure your children stay safe? Dr. John Knox from the University of Georgia joined the podcast this week to answer these questions and share more of his research on this unique topic.

More information


Read the research: Wind-Related Bounce House Incidents in Meteorological, Regulatory, and Outreach Contexts
Weathertobounce.com website: Information on past incidents, policy information, and safety recommendations for your next bounce house rental.

We want to hear from you!

Have a question for the meteorologists? Call 609-272-7099 and leave a message. You might hear your question and get an answer on a future episode! You can also email questions or comments to podcasts@lee.net.

About the Across the Sky podcast

The weekly weather podcast is hosted on a rotation by the Lee Weather team:

Matt Holiner of Lee Enterprises' Midwest group in Chicago, Kirsten Lang of the Tulsa World in Oklahoma, Joe Martucci of the Press of Atlantic City, N.J., and Sean Sublette of the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome, everybody to the Across the Sky podcast, our Lee Enterprises National Weather Podcast. I'm Joe Martucci based in New Jersey. Along with me this week, meteorologist Sean Sublette over in Richmond, Virginia, and Matt Holiner in Chicagoland. Here we are talking about bounce houses and the weather. Bounce houses were first invented in 1958. I think all of us here on the podcast have been in a bounce house.

You've probably been in a bounce house before, but there are some weather concerns with bounce houses. In fact, somebody in a whole research study on this wind related bounce house incidents, it's not just that one viral video you see on TikTok or Instagram of a bounce house flying in the air like it's a cow in the tornado and one of those bad weather movies.

It is a is a real deal here. There have been 209 injuries in the United States from 2000 to 2021, from bounce houses in relation to the weather actually knocking over to bounce house or causing it to fly around. And three fatalities, unfortunately. So for this episode of the Across the Sky podcast, we are talking with the lead researcher of this project, John Knox.

He's coming up right now. And we are really happy to have on John Knox to talk to us all about the bounce houses in the wind, in the weather, a very relatable podcast. I think it's going to be John is a Josiah MIT Megs excuse me distinguished teaching professor of geography and undergraduate coordinator of the Atmospheric Sciences Program at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, where he's been on the faculty since 2001.

John has authored over 65 peer reviewed research and education articles, is also the coauthor of the award winning Introductory College level Textbook Meteorology Understanding of the Atmosphere. He is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society. That is a big deal for everybody listening, and he has many former and current students, including ABC News chief meteorologist Ginger Zee, Colorado State University, atmospheric sciences professor and Jeopardy!

Tournament of Champions winner Rush Schumacher. And more. So John, thanks for joining the podcast here. We really appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for inviting me

The devastating impacts of hurricanes on land are well known, but they cause changes to the oceans as well. While conventional thinking tells us that a hurricane cools the water after it passes, that's only partially true. The surface cools, but the deep ocean? It actually heats up.

With the peak of hurricane season upon us, Sally Warner, Associate Professor of Climate Science at Brandeis University and Noel Gutiérrez Brizuela, a Ph. D. graduate from the University of California, San Diego, join the podcast to discuss their research on what happens as the storms move over the ocean and what it means for climate change.

Read more at The Conversation: Hurricanes push heat deeper into the ocean than scientists realized, boosting long-term ocean warming, new research shows

We want to hear from you!

Have a question for the meteorologists? Call 609-272-7099 and leave a message. You might hear your question and get an answer on a future episode! You can also email questions or comments to podcasts@lee.net.

About the Across the Sky podcast

The weekly weather podcast is hosted on a rotation by the Lee Weather team:

Matt Holiner of Lee Enterprises' Midwest group in Chicago, Kirsten Lang of the Tulsa World in Oklahoma, Joe Martucci of the Press of Atlantic City, N.J., and Sean Sublette of the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome, everybody to another episode of the Across the Sky podcast hosted by our Lee Enterprises weather team. I’m meteorologist Joe Martucci, based at The Press of Atlantic City on the Jersey Shore. Here it is, hurricane season. It's been hurricane season since the beginning of June, but now we're really starting to ramp it up the peak of hurricane season right around September the 10th.

And this episode, we're going to talk about hurricanes. We're talking about it's impacts on warming the ocean and the deep ocean. And that's actually some research that really hasn't been done much in the past. We have to researchers Sally Warner and Noel Gutiérrez as well, who are on to talk to us about it here. We have Matt Holiner in the Midwest on the pod, Sean Sublette at the Richmond Times-Dispatch and Kirsten Lang at the Tulsa World.

It was it was a good episode. It was kind of it was neat to have Sally, who's in Massachusetts and Noel, who's in San Diego, kind of come together from both coasts for this episode. Before we get going, Matt, Sean or Kirsten, anything we could say before we hop into the interview. But I think for me it was very interesting to dive into how you know and look.

A lot of times what we focus on is the sea surface temperature. The keyword there is surface. And what their research focuses on is what's going on below the surface. And how do the hurricanes we we have a good understanding of how they impact sea surface temperatures. But what their research really focus on is how they're affecting the temperatures below the surface and the long term implications of that.

So just like how this dived a little bit deeper into what we as meteorologists mainly focus on, which is what is happening at the surface. But you really get the full picture of what's going on in the long term implications of you have to dive down and look what's going on below the surface. And so it was really good to talk to them and hear the process about how they were measuring those temperatures as well.

That was very interesting to hear. Yeah, it was interesting to hear about how not just how they did it, the shifts that they had to take to do this, but it's a good reminder of the time scales that we're working on here for their research. I mean, obviously, when we're all meteorologists, we know that warmer water fuels more hurricanes.

But as you alluded to, Matt, we need to talk about the surface and and how far down is the surface be

Hurricane Idalia became the eighth major hurricane to make landfall on the Gulf Coast in the last six years, leaving behind a trail of destruction in its path. On this week's episode, the Lee Weather Team looks back on the storm to discuss what stood out to them the most.

How good was the forecast? Was the forecast communicated effectively? Why did some people choose not to evacuate? What can we learn from this storm before the next hurricane strikes the United States?

Get the meteorologists' perspective in our in-depth review of Hurricane Idalia.

We want to hear from you!

Have a question for the meteorologists? Call 609-272-7099 and leave a message. You might hear your question and get an answer on a future episode! You can also email questions or comments to podcasts@lee.net.

About the Across the Sky podcast

The weekly weather podcast is hosted on a rotation by the Lee Weather team:

Matt Holiner of Lee Enterprises' Midwest group in Chicago, Kirsten Lang of the Tulsa World in Oklahoma, Joe Martucci of the Press of Atlantic City, N.J., and Sean Sublette of the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

 

Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Across the Sky, our National Lee Enterprises Weather podcast. I'm Matt Holiner in Chicago. One quarter of the lead weather team, but the whole game here today, meteorologist Joe Martucci based in Atlantic City. Sean Sublette in Richmond, Virginia and Kirsten Lang in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Together the four of us cover weather across the country.

Yes, not just across the sky, but across the country. And this national weather coverage is new. So if you're listening to this podcast on a Lee Enterprise's website or app, you're probably going to be seeing more forecast videos from us, especially when bad weather is expected. But I think it's safe to say this podcast, this is the first thing that went national and I think it's the favorite part of our jobs.

And nothing is changing here. In fact, each week we continue to see our number of listeners go up. So really, we can't thank you enough for tuning in and subscribing and this week, just like the national weather story for the last week. This episode is all about Hurricane Idalia. The damage is still being assessed, but it is clear that this was another devastating storm for parts of the southeast.

And of course, right off the bat, our thoughts and prayers are with all the people trying to recover from this storm. Now, obviously, lots to discuss here. But to start, guys, let's just go around the horn and talk about the first thing that stood out to you about Dahlia. Sean, let's start with you, because you were doing a lot of updates on this storm for our Carolina properties.

Yeah, I think for me, one of the things that I take home from Idalia is actually how well it was forecast. You know, we are we are in an environment you know, we've been talking about this for a few months now. We've got very high ocean heat content, high sea surface temperatures, basically warm water. But we've had the El Nino going on and there's this whole battle back and forth between the two.

Which one of these impacts is going to be larger? And we kind of said, well, once things get started, they can really, really go. And that's kind of what happened. I mean, the Gulf of Mexico was especially warm, and it is not common for the National Hurricane Center to to talk about rapid intensification in their discussions and their technical discussions as this environment is primed for rapid intensification.

And and by that, we mean something very specific, effectively going up two categories in 24 hours. I mean, technically, it's 35 miles per hour and 24 hours, but two categories, right? So for them to be talking about rapid intensification, which such high confidence, then it comes

After our episode on the Arizona heatwave, one listener wondered why this year's heat was such a big deal. Hasn't it been this hot before? Her thermometer says so.

The problem is, most home thermometers are not very accurate. Official temperature readings are made by carefully calibrated and properly placed weather stations. It's a big undertaking that's more complicated and time consuming than you'd think!

Dr. Kevin Kloesel, Director of the Oklahoma Climatological Survey, joined the podcast this week to talk about what it takes to maintain Oklahoma's network of weather stations, the best way to get accurate weather measurements, and why you shouldn't trust that temperature reading in your car.

We want to hear from you!

Have a question for the meteorologists? Call 609-272-7099 and leave a message. You might hear your question and get an answer on a future episode! You can also email questions or comments to podcasts@lee.net.

About the Across the Sky podcast

The weekly weather podcast is hosted on a rotation by the Lee Weather team:

Matt Holiner of Lee Enterprises' Midwest group in Chicago, Kirsten Lang of the Tulsa World in Oklahoma, Joe Martucci of the Press of Atlantic City, N.J., and Sean Sublette of the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome back to this week's recording of the Across the Sky podcast, which is put on by Lee Enterprises and the Lee Weather team. Lee Enterprises is a national publication company with over 70 publications nationwide. And our weather team of meteorologist covers it from coast to coast. Each day on the team we have myself Kirsten Lang in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Matt Holiner in the Midwest, Joe Martucci in Atlantic City, and Sean Sublette in Richmond, Virginia.

Welcome back, guys. Hope everyone has had a wonderful week. You know, this is our first podcast where we're actually going to dive into a question or a comment in this case from a listener. And I want to note that this was made after we talked about the Arizona heat and how hot it had been for days on end.

Deirdre wrote in and she had more of a comment kind of question about this, and she said, hello, I'm a bit confused about the hype about the heat. This summer we visited Arizona in July of 2005, and every day was between 115 and 120 degrees. We were traveling in an RV that had no AC in the cab, so I'm well aware of how hot that is.

But locals told us that this is what summer is like in the Arizona desert. And it wasn't just the spike. The high heat continued for well over a month. So why is this year suddenly different? Yeah, so I thought that was a really interesting point. So I wanted to go back and look at the data from July of 2005 and when I did, I saw that her information wasn't very accurate.

I mean, it's always hot in July and Phoenix, I mean that that's what Arizona is known for and especially that time of year. But I went back and looked at the high temperatures. They were generally between 105 and 110. Again, not cool by any stretch, but the hottest temperature all of that month was 116 and it only happened once.

So I think I think the big deal for for this past July was that every single day was above normal for Phoenix. I mean, every day, no break at all. There were several days when it was, quote unquote, only 101, 100 to 103 in Phoenix, which is a couple of degrees below normal. I think that's that's the key here, is that every single day was hotter than normal and above 110, which is without precedent in Phoenix.

I think that really is is what got everybody's attention. And, you know, I to that point, Matt, I know you and I were talking about this also when she says 115 to 120, you know, where she taking that know she said in the cab. I mean and if that's the case, that's another whole thing, right? Yeah. So that's what got us think

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Heat this summer has not been normal for most of the world. Globally, July 2023 was the hottest month on record, mainly because the oceans are at record-high temperatures.

This week the team talked with climate scientist Zeke Hausfather about the short term and long term reasons why. They also discuss how we get the ocean data, whether that be from satellites, remote controlled ocean floats, and in some cases — seals. Yes, seals.

We want to hear from you!

Have a question for the meteorologists? Call 609-272-7099 and leave a message. You might hear your question and get an answer on a future episode! You can also email questions or comments to podcasts@lee.net.

About the Across the Sky podcast

The weekly weather podcast is hosted on a rotation by the Lee Weather team:

Matt Holiner of Lee Enterprises' Midwest group in Chicago, Kirsten Lang of the Tulsa World in Oklahoma, Joe Martucci of the Press of Atlantic City, N.J., and Sean Sublette of the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Hello everyone. I'm meteorologist Sean Sublette and welcome to Across the Sky our national Lee Enterprises weather podcast. Lee Enterprises has print and digital news operations in more than 70 locations across the country, including at my home base in Richmond, Virginia. I'm joined by my meteorologist colleague Matt Holiner in Chicago. My pals Kirsten Lang and Joe Martucci out of the office today.

Our guest this week is Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist. Very deep into the data, has a wealth of information about how much warming is taking place globally. And we really wanted to pick his brain about what's going on in the oceans this year in particular. There has been so much buzz, Matt, about how hot the oceans are right now.

So we wanted to kind of get into some of the reasons for that. Yeah, that's the headline I think grabbed people's attention. Of course, you know, as soon as there was those 100 degree temperature readings off the coast of Florida, then immediately all the headlines were Hot Tub water and everybody knows what a hot tub feels like. It's like, yeah, I don't think the ocean should just be naturally that hot if it's, you know, not being artificially heated.

But I mean, it is just getting warmer. But I also think that sometimes, you know, and that's the challenge, you know, where there's, you know, still doubt, unfortunately, that comes up with climate change because then certain things get exaggerated because there is something because they're also following that. Lots of headlines about the thermal hailing circulation shutting down. And what I liked in our discussion coming up with Zeke was he really dived into that and explained how likely it is and what's really going to happen, because immediately all the means of the day after tomorrow came and it's like, oh, the ocean current shuts down.

It's going to be a global ice age, you know? Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's talk about what's really going to happen, how likely the circulation shutting down really is. That was just one of the things that we discuss about with them. But it's always good to come back to the experts that really know what's going on rather than just people just throwing stuff out there on social media because there's a there's still a lot of bad stuff on social media.

Yeah. And he talked about, you know, if you've never heard of the thermo heal hailing circular ocean, sometimes it's called the MOOC. It has a lot of different nicknames, but he talks about what that is why it's important. He also addressed that 101 degree water temperature, some some things that are going on with that. And we just talked about where we're climate changes now and how much more warming we should expect.

So lots to get to with our conversation with Dr. Zeke Zeke Hausfather, let's go right to it. Dr