Tonight's show is dedicated to a deep dive into avalanches! Tonight's Guest WeatherBrain is Dr. Ethan Greene from Colorado Avalanche Center. He's also served as the Director of the NW Pacific Avalanche Center. We will cover a basic understanding of avalanches, the geographic responsibility of the Colorado Avalanche Center, launch of forecasting avalanches and how they try to prevent avalanches during the off-season. We will examine how they prepared in this work with the citizens of Colorado and who they collaborate with make this happen. Dr. Greene joined CAIC as the Director in 2005. He grew up in Boulder and learned to ski when he was three. He has worked with snow and avalanches since 1990. He worked as a ski patroller (Big Sky Ski Resort) and as a backcountry avalanche forecaster (Utah Avalanche Forecast Center). He studied meteorology (B.S., University of Utah), mountain weather and snow-drift formation (M.S., Colorado State University), and snow metamorphism and microstructure (Ph.D., CSU). In 2016, he received the Bernie Kingery Award and a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Utah. Ethan has published a variety of articles and has been a member of national and international working groups on snow, weather, and avalanche topics. Ethan lives in Leadville with his wife and two children. Thanks for joining us tonight, Dr. Greene!

Also joining us as Guest Panelist is Mark Staples. He is Director and Avalanche Forecaster at the Gallatin National Forecast Avalanche Center in Boseman. Mark, welcome to WeatherBrains!

Our email officer Jen is continuing to handle the incoming messages from our listeners. Reach us here: email@weatherbrains.com.

• Upcoming AMS Annual Meeting in Houston (03:30)
• Basic definition of an avalanche (08:00)
• What do their field technicians do and what instrumentation do they use? (18:30)
• How the avalanche watch/warning process works (24:00)
• Biggest clients in avalanche forecasting (37:00)
• How does the public get avalanche forecast information? (42:00)
• Canadian collaboration on risk communication (47:00)
• Communicating to young people about avalanche dangers (53:30)
• Smaller avalanche outbreaks vs major events (01:17:00)
• FAR and POD metrics vs avalanche warning metrics (01:19:00)
• The Astronomy Outlook with Tony Rice (01:27:20)
• This Week in Tornado History With Jen (No segment this week)
• E-Mail Segment (No segment this week)
• and more!

Web Sites from Episode 1044:

Alabama Weather Network

Avalanche.Org

Picks of the Week:

Dr. Ethan Greene - Avalanche Explorer

James Aydelott - Impactful snow ahead for Oklahoma and southern Kansas this upcoming weekend

Jen Narramore - Out

Rick Smith - Out

Troy Kimmel - 9 rules for using Forecast Models

Kim Klockow-McClain - Out

John Gordon - Avalanche search and rescue training in Tahoe

Bill Murray - Out

James Spann - NOAA/NWS Space Weather Prediction Center Radio Communications Dashboard

The WeatherBrains crew includes your host, James Spann, plus other notable geeks like Troy Kimmel, Bill Murray, Rick Smith, James Aydelott, Jen Narramore, John Gordon, and Dr. Kim Klockow-McClain. They bring together a wealth of weather knowledge and experience for another fascinating podcast about weather.

Tonight's Guest WeatherBrain is Canadian meteorologist Ken MacDonald. He started his career way back in 1975, and has been an instructor, a forecaster, and a researcher. He is the former Executive Director of Environment Canada. Our second Guest WeatherBrain James Abraham is a veteran meteorologist with almost four decades of experience who has forecasted in British Columbia, the U. S. East Coast and even was former and first Director of the Canadian Hurricane Center. Ken and James, welcome to WeatherBrains!

Our email officer Jen is continuing to handle the incoming messages from our listeners. Reach us here: email@weatherbrains.com.

• Environment Canada basics (08:00)
• Modernization process at Environment Canada (14:00)
• Reformatted warning polygons (19:00)
• Recurring issues with zone forecasts (22:30)
• Canadian meteorology employment/recruiting (28:30)
• Details of 18 month internship after initial hire (34:00)
• Canadian Hurricane Center (35:00)
• The Perfect Storm of 1991 (48:00)
• Total number of TV meteorologists in Canada (53:00)
• Death of linear television (56:30)
• Research efforts across Canada (01:06:00)
• Most difficult places to forecast meteorology in Canada (01:09:30)
• 2025-26 Canadian winter highlights (01:10:30)
• The Astronomy Outlook with Tony Rice (01:14:00)
• This Week in Tornado History With Jen (01:16:45)
• E-Mail Segment (01:18:00)
• and more!

Web Sites from Episode 1043:

Alabama Weather Network

Canada's weather warning system has changed. Here's how.

Meteorologist Occupational Training Program

Picks of the Week:

James Aydelott - The OCS/Mesonet Ticker

Jen Narramore - Jen shoutout on X

Rick Smith - Out

Troy Kimmel - Foghorn

Kim Klockow-McClain - Foghorn

John Gordon - NWS Juneau on YouTube

John Gordon - Juneau, Alaska buried under 80+ inches of snow

Bill Murray - Out

James Spann - CIPS Analog-Based Severe Probability Guidance

The WeatherBrains crew includes your host, James Spann, plus other notable geeks like Troy Kimmel, Bill Murray, Rick Smith, James Aydelott, Jen Narramore, John Gordon, and Dr. Kim Klockow-McClain. They bring together a wealth of weather knowledge and experience for another fascinating podcast about weather.

Our Guest WeatherBrain couldn't make it tonight, so our panel holds a homegrown episode to kick off 2026. Discussions include storm-based vs county-warnings, public storm reports, and a deep-dive into fundamentals of modern-day radar.

Our email officer Jen is continuing to handle the incoming messages from our listeners. Reach us here: email@weatherbrains.com.

• Severe storms possible on Friday in Deep South 1/9/26 (05:00)
• Storm-based warnings vs county-wide warnings (26:00)
• Pete Wolf Charitable Foundation (38:00)
• Helping the general public with radar interpretation (48:00)
• Public storm reports and how often they are used in NWS warnings (53:00)
• MPING (57:30)
• NWS app is needed (59:00)
• Protecting people living in mobile homes during severe weather (01:06:00)
• Threats-In-Motion (TIM) (01:08:00)
• Threat Confirmation Defined (01:14:00)
• Social media AI engagement farms (01:16:00)
• The Astronomy Outlook with Tony Rice (01:22:00)
• This Week in Tornado History With Jen (No segment this week)
• E-Mail Segment (01:24:00)
• and more!

Web Sites from Episode 1042:

Alabama Weather Network

Picks of the Week:

James Aydelott - Out

Jen Narramore - WeatherBrains 224

Jen Narramore - WeatherBrains 998

Rick Smith - The Annual Lightning Report 2025

Troy Kimmel - US Drought Monitor From 2000-2025

Kim Klockow-McClain - Foghorn

John Gordon - Extreme Temperatures Around The World

Bill Murray - Out

James Spann - AEM Releases 2025 U.S. Lightning Report

The WeatherBrains crew includes your host, James Spann, plus other notable geeks like Troy Kimmel, Bill Murray, Rick Smith, James Aydelott, Jen Narramore, John Gordon, and Dr. Kim Klockow-McClain. They bring together a wealth of weather knowledge and experience for another fascinating podcast about weather.