Weather With Enthusiasm !

Simcha Lefton

Weather with Enthusiasm is a podcast about weather, atmospheric extremes, and climate (including little ice age)  created by Simcha Lefton. Documentaries and/or other interesting weather phenomena are released daily at 3pm Sunday - Friday and 10pm on Saturday.   Should you choose to become a member this material (the next weeks episodes)  will be made available to you immediately.   The show features passionate weather analysis, with a special focus on the Midwest, while also exploring major weather and climate events from around the world. Topics include storms, heatwaves, Arctic heat, climate change, the Dust Bowl, historical weather extremes, and occasional imaginative retellings of biblical weather events as if covered by a modern weather service. For the first five years, the podcast was entirely hosted and delivered by Simcha Lefton, with no AI content. Beginning in April 2026, the feed expanded to include some AI-generated episodes and segments, including daily Chicago zmanim and sunrise/sunset times, hyperlocal forecast episodes with detailed weather explanations, and documentary-style episodes. All AI content is clearly recognizable and part of the same broader project: making weather information and atmospheric storytelling more engaging, accessible, and wide-ranging.  There is also a focus on storm chasing including most likely location of triple-point (as of April 2026).  Whether you’re here for Midwest weather, Arctic anomalies, historical climate perspective, or creative weather storytelling, Weather with Enthusiasm brings it all together in one feed. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/weather-with-enthusiasm--4911017/support.

  1. The Frost Forecast Explained

    1H AGO

    The Frost Forecast Explained

    Episode breakdown Part 1 — Why dewpoint matters more than air temperature, and the math of why a 36°F low with a 39°F dewpoint produces dew, not frost. Part 2 — Wet-bulb temperature as the pro forecaster's tool, and why surfaces can touch the wet-bulb value rather than the air temperature on calm clear nights. Part 3 — The big surprise: why wet soil cools harder than dry soil. All three mechanisms — evaporational cooling, higher emissivity (0.95–0.98 wet vs. 0.88–0.92 dry), and the surface coupling effect that lets wet soil's bulk heat reservoir actually pull cold deeper rather than rebounding at the skin. Part 4 — The river paradox: moisture pump versus drainage trap, and the five factors that determine which wins (wind, water-vs-air temp, valley shape, season, watershed size). Part 5 — Concrete contrast: Des Plaines River at Lincolnshire (narrow, wooded, modest evaporation, drainage wins) vs. Kankakee River at Kankakee (broad floodplain, strong evaporation, no cold sink, moisture wins). Then Antioch and the Chain O'Lakes, with the explanation of why small inland lakes don't protect like Lake Michigan does. Part 6 — Tonight's frost map across the LOT CWA: high-confidence frost in Antioch and Lincolnshire, moderate confidence in rural McHenry/DeKalb/Lee/Iroquois/Newton/Jasper, and confident "no frost" in the urban Chicago neighborhoods, lakefront suburbs, and Kankakee city. With the explicit reassurance that West Rogers Park porch tomatoes are safe. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/weather-with-enthusiasm--4911017/support. This episode includes AI-generated content.

    15 min

About

Weather with Enthusiasm is a podcast about weather, atmospheric extremes, and climate (including little ice age)  created by Simcha Lefton. Documentaries and/or other interesting weather phenomena are released daily at 3pm Sunday - Friday and 10pm on Saturday.   Should you choose to become a member this material (the next weeks episodes)  will be made available to you immediately.   The show features passionate weather analysis, with a special focus on the Midwest, while also exploring major weather and climate events from around the world. Topics include storms, heatwaves, Arctic heat, climate change, the Dust Bowl, historical weather extremes, and occasional imaginative retellings of biblical weather events as if covered by a modern weather service. For the first five years, the podcast was entirely hosted and delivered by Simcha Lefton, with no AI content. Beginning in April 2026, the feed expanded to include some AI-generated episodes and segments, including daily Chicago zmanim and sunrise/sunset times, hyperlocal forecast episodes with detailed weather explanations, and documentary-style episodes. All AI content is clearly recognizable and part of the same broader project: making weather information and atmospheric storytelling more engaging, accessible, and wide-ranging.  There is also a focus on storm chasing including most likely location of triple-point (as of April 2026).  Whether you’re here for Midwest weather, Arctic anomalies, historical climate perspective, or creative weather storytelling, Weather with Enthusiasm brings it all together in one feed. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/weather-with-enthusiasm--4911017/support.