What An Emmy-Winning Meteorologist Wants You to Know About Weather & Climate Change

Most discussions about climate change focus on melting glaciers and rising sea levels, which are both important— but what about its direct impact on you? In this educational episode of Skincredible, Dr. Lisa Swanson is joined by Emmy Award–winning meteorologist Felicia Combs of The Weather Channel (Bio linked below). The conversation dives into the reality of climate change, and why we should all pay attention and hopefully do our part to help combat it. We will all be reminded of how COVID shutdowns temporarily improved air quality and what that tells us about our ability to impact our environments directly. Whether you're a climate skeptic, a health-conscious individual, or just curious about the future, Felicia offers practical and engaging insights you will learn from. 

Felicia breaks down the difference between weather and climate in a way that really makes sense, she also explains how a changing climate may contribute to stronger hurricanes, shifting tornado patterns, intensifying droughts, and even increasing airplane turbulence. From wildfires in unexpected places like Georgia to rapidly intensifying hurricanes in recent history, this episode connects the dots between science, daily life, and the future of our planet.

In this episode we also explore the human side of extreme weather—what happens after storms pass, how communities rebuild, and why climate impacts extend far beyond the headlines. Plus, we tackle common misconceptions, the role of misinformation, and what individuals can realistically do to make a difference.

To wrap things up, Dr. Swanson and Felicia lighten the mood with some jokes about bunkers and a little bit of hope for what feels like a very daunting topic. This episode is eye-opening, informative, and empowering—and might just change the way you think about the forecast.

Don’t forget: Wear your sunscreen—no matter the forecast.

Keywords

Dermatology, weather, climate change, storms, changing weather, hurricanes, greenhouse gasses, melting ice caps, melting glaciers, tornadoes, climate, fires, environment, environmental risk factors, extreme weather, extreme storms, The Weather Channel, Lisa Swanson, Felicia Combs

Links, Attachments

Felicia Combs BIO

Chapters

00:00 Welcome and Introduction

01:45 Is Climate Change Real?

03:05 Connecting Weather & Long Term Trends

05:00 Warming & Fossil Fuels

06:15 When We Started Noticing Changes

07:20 Pandemic & Changes in Environment

10:44 Tornadoes, Wildfires, Droughts

14:27 How hurricanes are Formed

15:44 Storms Intensifying More Quickly

17:15 Lives Impacted Due to Major Natural Events

19:00 Meteorologists In Storms

22:00 Insurance, Trickle Down Effects

25:25 Felicia’s Journey to Becoming a Meteorologist

26:13 Preparation, Not Fear

28:00 Turbulence in Clear Air & Flights in General

29:44 Delta Meteorologist Partnership

31:02 Vermont, Safest Cities? 

32:50 Climate Modeling, Predictions

35:32 Paradise Show, Super Tsunami, Ash

37:30 Cloud Seeding, Silver Iodide 

39:40 CO2 Removal, Basalt, Seaweed, Kelp

42:30 Bluey Pitch

43:04 Thank You & Closing

43:28 Bunker 5 Things You Would Take

The information shared on this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for personalized medical advice. Always consult your  physician regarding your health.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to Skin Credible, where we tell you what you should know about your skin and how to blow. Because your skin's incredible.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Hello, everybody, and welcome to this thrilling episode of the Skin Credible Podcast. I am your host, Dr. Lisa Swanson, and I have a very special guest with us here today. Somebody outside of the dermatology world and spectrum. We are talking to a world-famous Emmy-winning meteorologist. I want to introduce you guys to Felicia Combs. She's a broadcast meteorologist on air with the National Network, the Weather Channel. The Weather Channel, TWC. And she shares her passion for the weather with viewers. Felicia, welcome.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

I'm so excited to be here. I'm so excited to talk to you about this, Dr. Swanson, and um humbled by that introduction. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

We know each other through a common denominator. Your husband, George, is in the dermatology world with me. And so we were talking about the podcast, and I was talking about really being passionate about climate change. And he's like, I know somebody who you'd love to talk to.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

Yeah, you know, he was probably like, if you please talk to her about it, maybe I'll have to hear less about it because every day there's a there's something new that I'm I'm telling him about.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

I love it. Well, we're so excited to have you on. And the first question I wanted to ask is a relatively basic one. Is climate change real? There are some deniers, client climate change deniers. What's your response to that question?

SPEAKER_02 1:52

You know, I say that it's almost something we don't even debate anymore in my in my field. It would be, and what we we equate it to is people who believe the earth is flat at this point. You know, right. Um most I'd say most people who are in denial um maybe have different motivations for being in denial. You never know what those motivations might be. But um we can't combat feelings and emotions with science, no matter how hard we try. So the focus has shifted from trying to convince people that climate change is real to, you know, if you if you still don't believe, um, we'll give it some time and and and Earth will probably make you believe.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

One of my favorite shows of all time is Parks and Recreation. Leslie Nope is my spirit animal. And in one episode, she's trying to convince the town of Pawnee that they don't need big buckets of sugary soda. And she says, All I have on my side is facts and science. And people hate facts and science.

unknown 2:55

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Yes, and people love soda.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

Yes, and people do love soda, they don't want it to go anywhere. Um, how can meteorologists kind of communicate the link between daily weather and long-term climate trends? How do you shape that in your forecast at all?

SPEAKER_02 3:13

You know, so uh my and I I wait for this every single time. Um, when we have a record cold snap, uh, or you know, I'm in Atlanta and now it's becoming more frequent that you get the cold all the way down through Atlanta and you get ice or you get pipes bursting because we're not equipped for it and things of that nature. And people say, Oh, where's global warming now? And you know, you wait for it every time because people are misunderstanding, and this is part of our fault as scientists, you know, it did start as the communication being global warming. And now we call it climate change for a reason because what's in actually impacting people are those weather extremes, which would be these cold snaps where you don't typically get them, or the extreme heat we just had in March. So I think the way that we communicate it now is because you can't say directly, this is definitely caused by climate change. You can't take the the temperature from yesterday and say climate change causes. But when you have a record of extremes that are happening one after another, and people are getting fatigued by weather, you know, weather impacts our everyday. So at a certain point, people have no choice but to understand it and then understand the difference between weather and climate. We explain it like weather is your mood for the day. You might have caught me on a bad day, maybe I'm in a bad mood, but climate is my personality, how you would typically expect me to be. And I think that is a good way that people can understand the difference between daily weather and um years and years of climate. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

And I love that you bring up that we used to, we used to use the word global warming, and then people when it was cold were like, what the heck? And but the the process that's causing climate change is due to the warming of our planet and the warming of our oceans. Is that right?

SPEAKER_02 5:08

Well, it all is uh like a cumulative effect. So our oceans actually um absorb about 90% of the of the extra carbon and the extra greenhouse gas emissions. What's happening is because of fossil fuels, we are just enhancing Earth's natural greenhouse effect. So we need that greenhouse effect to make Earth habitable. It wouldn't be habitable if we didn't have that. But the problem is the fossil fuels are are warming the atmosphere, enhancing the greenhouse effect. And a warming atmosphere can hold more moisture. So you're seeing more extreme rain events. And then the oceans, I think they cover about what, 70% of the earth. Um, I might be a little off on that. But so they are soaking up more of this extra carbon and taking on more of a load than, say, we're even feeling here on land. And that's equating to disruptions in ocean circulations that are very important. It's causing mass coral reef bleaching. It's, you know, making life really hard for a lot of ocean animals. So um, yeah, it is uh it is a natural process that we've enhanced in such a way that we're making it worse.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

And maybe you don't know the answer to this question, and that's okay. When did we start noticing this?

SPEAKER_02 6:26

I can't, I can't actually give you a direct date, but I I know I've seen the progression in my career. And you know, it used to be the hole in the ozone layer, right? It used to be that was like the big talking point. Yeah. And that was that was many years ago. Um, and now it's it's a more direct thing. It's not the whole that in the far-off ozone layer. It is um drought, you know, it's the drought that we're having in the southeast. It's wildfires that instead of having a wildfire season, they're burning year-round. It's hurricanes rapidly intensifying. Lately, it has been more in the headlines, one, because it's become politicized, which I'm not speaking from any political point of view. It's just more of a talking point now for that reason. And so I think that's why it seems like it's happening more now because people are paying much more attention. But I also do think it's happening more. Like we're seeing more instances of climate change now.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Yeah, yeah. Well, and I think we got to witness what can happen when the earth slows down and people don't drive as much during COVID. I remember seeing on the news that there were noticeable differences in air quality and smog, certainly in some necks of the woods, just from us being at home more. And I think that really showed a very direct correlation between humans and these changes.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

Right. I mean, you know, it's kind of hard to, and this has always been something that has amazed me when people maybe read one article that goes along with whatever they feel most comfortable with, and ignore everything else that is out there. And I think COVID, when the whole world kind of shut down, it gives the inability to ignore it anymore. You know, like you see this, you see animals all of a sudden coming out more. The air is clearer, the sky, even in some of the cities, the sky looked different because the air was clearer and people noticed it. So if things like that happened, and you can't deny that humans are are not helping the planet, you know.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Well, and it was amazing to see those changes after even just like a month of shutdown, like a just a month. And I think that really resonated with me as like this is something changeable, and certainly we all have to do our part, but if we're able to see some improvement if we all just take a break from certain activities and things, over just a month, we improve our situation. I think that's actually pretty incredible.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Yeah, and you know, I think that if we could get everyone to do that, that would be great, right? Um, if it didn't take a global pandemic to do that. But we could make incremental changes. And I get where people say, well, it doesn't feel like I can make any changes. Like, what is recycling gonna do? Does it even go to the right spot when I recycle it? Or why would I ride my bike for the day when there are all these people still driving? But um we have to start somewhere, you know. We either have to start somewhere or Earth is going to force us to start somewhere. It's it's one of the two. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Having seen the movie Don't Look Up.

SPEAKER_02 9:37

Uh, Don't Look Up. Yeah. Oh, yes. That's the one with the the the meteor, the meteor that's gonna hit Earth. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Um I don't know if I just took it to be an analogy to climate change or if it was intended that way, but it's, you know, a lot of the people are just like, we can avoid thinking about this if we just don't look up and see the meteor coming at us. And I think that's us with climate change. Like the people who don't want to institute changes, are afraid to institute changes, don't think that what they do can do will help, maybe don't believe necessarily in all of it. They're just taking the stance of, I'm not gonna think about it, and therefore it doesn't matter and it will go away.

SPEAKER_02 10:19

Yeah, and you know, that that works great until all of a sudden you're experiencing weather that you never expected. And I think that is what is happening with a lot of people. And while why we're seeing the tide change a little bit, to now more and more people are believing in in climate change.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Yes, yes. Well, and just last week from when we're recording this, just last week there were devastating tornadoes in Oklahoma and wildfires in Georgia. Yeah. I don't, I don't you, you live in Atlanta, so you know better than me, but wildfires in Georgia, that seems strange. I have been to Georgia, it's covered in trees, there are rivers everywhere. It does not seem like wildfire country. And then remember when tornado season used to start in like May and June? And here we are in April, and these devastating storms are taking place. Tell us a little bit about how how is climate change actually doing that.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

So the wildfires in Georgia actually have multiple links that um could be correlated to climate change. You know, uh, we we hesitate to say again, like, oh, this is directly caused by climate change, but you can put the, you can take the puzzle pieces and you can say, here are the puzzle pieces, here is the picture they're painting. This is what the picture looks like to us as scientists. So the wildfires in Georgia actually started back with Hurricane Helene. And um, if you looked at the path of Hurricane Helene moving through Georgia up into the Carolinas, Helene made landfall as a category four storm and then was still a category one hurricane as it was moving through Georgia. And what it did was demolished the trees in that region. There is a path of just demolished forests through that area where Helene came through, which translates into dead trees, which is prime fuel for fire. So you have the fires, and then we have an ongoing drought that has intensified in a crazy way just this year so far. So we have the highest two levels of drought that you can have in South Georgia and North Florida. So you have all this dry brush, dead trees from Helene, which was anomalous in itself, and then you have um the drought conditions. We're experiencing the worst drought conditions in the U.S. since the Dust Bowl. So since the 1930s and 40s. And so all of that, of course, comes together to create this perfect storm. And um this is where the huge literally and unintended. Um and, you know, we obviously the reporting that you see are the people who live in South Georgia, and they're saying, we we didn't know what to do. You know, we don't even have alerts set up for wildfires. I think nearly 90 homes burned in in South Georgia from one of the fires and things like that. And so these are the practical applications that are happening, happening that now people are seeing in their daily life that climate change isn't a polar bear starving on an iceberg anymore. It is wildfires in South Georgia. Or the other example is so typically you'll see some tornadoes like April into May, especially across the south. You do not typically see that in Wisconsin, in Michigan, in Minnesota. So far this year, I was I was looking it up for Minnesota specifically because that's supposed to be one of the safest. I saw that. And we had 11 tornado reports in Minnesota in the month of April already. That is unheard of. So the shift of where we're getting even the tornadoes this season is much farther north. It's in climates where you wouldn't typically expect it. So it's all of these things that can't necessarily say, oh yes, climate change definitely caused this. But you're getting hints, right? Like the fact that we have enough instability and energy in the upper Midwest to have tornadoes like this outbreaks in April is something you don't see.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

And with the tornadoes and the hurricanes, and the hurricanes seem more intense and potentially more frequent, it's because the the water is warmer and the air is is warmer, and that creates conditions for these storms to be more significant. Am I understanding that correctly?

SPEAKER_02 14:44

Yeah, so a hurricane, hurricanes feed on on warmth and moisture. They're not like a regular um, like a storm system that moves across the US. We call those mid-latitude cyclones. Those are formed by like clashes and air masses, atmospheric dynamics, but a hurricane specifically feeds on the warmth of the ocean waters and um the moisture in the air. So uh when you have a warming atmosphere, when the atmosphere can contain more moisture and the um ocean is warming, well, now all of a sudden you have hurricanes that are are super fueled, and you have hurricanes that can contain more rain. So you're getting these big, huge rain events more often. Um, you're also seeing storms rapidly intensify, which I think personally is one of the most dangerous aspects that we're seeing these days with hurricanes.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

Yeah, oh, definitely. It seems like you hear on the news, oh, there might be a hurricane headed here, and like, oh, it doesn't look like that big of a deal. And then like the next day, they're like, oh my gosh, evacuations need to happen. This is intensifying so much, so quickly.

SPEAKER_02 15:50

Right. Yeah. I mean, Helene was one of them. Helene was a storm that I watched and I couldn't believe what I was watching because it kind of bobbled around near the Yucatan Peninsula and then was moving through the Gulf of Mexico or the Gulf of America, whatever you, you know, whatever you want to call it. At I at that time, I think it was still the Gulf of Mexico. Right. And um, it um was a category three, which was headed toward Florida. I'm I'm a Floridian. Category three is kind of getting up to there where you're like, oh, I'm not, I'm not sure about this one. Maybe we should evacuate, maybe we shouldn't. But then Helene more than rapidly intensified. So the criteria for rapid intensification is like um 35 mile per hour wind increase in 24 hours. Helene just went way past that to a category five. And now all of a sudden you have people kind of panicking because now it's you know getting closer to land. So the rapid intensification has two problems. Now you have a stronger storm, and then two, now you have people who may have waited because they thought there was a category two, and now it's a category five, and now everyone's trying to rush out on the same evacuation routes, trying to find shelter in the same areas. And um it's a it's a a problem that I think is gonna get worse in the coming years. Right.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Yeah. Well, and I I was speaking with another um doctor who does a lot of work with climate change, and the impact on a person who goes through one of these storms is long-lasting. The storm passes, and maybe the news stops covering it, but it affects their overall life trajectory for for years because of the devastation occurring as a result of these storms. You've covered hurricanes. Have you witnessed that talking with folks who are just trying to start rebuilding their lives?

SPEAKER_02 17:42

Yeah, it it is a common theme uh for being there after the storm hits. Um, that people are like, I didn't expect it to be this bad, you know, looking around, like, where do I even begin? Because it's one thing to make it through the storm, right? And then you are in the immediate aftermath of the storm. Well, then you're stuck there and you you don't have water. You don't have running water, you don't have electricity, you don't have any AC because you don't have electricity. Um, there are no amenities because depending on how bad the storm was, maybe all the gas stations are shut down or inoperable, or they don't have gas because everyone, you know, took all the gas. The grocery stores are shut down because maybe there's no um electricity. There could still be lasting flooding, so they can't get in to fix the electricity. So it's like a multi-step process. You get through the hurricane, you survive the first week or two of those first initial problems, and then it is um, do we even rebuild here? Right. How much does our insurance go up? If the community is small enough, can the community even afford to rebuild here? Think, you know, industries, grocery stores, um, schools, things that everyone needs. So it's a year's, you know, it goes from point of impact to the first few weeks to now we're stretching into years, depending on how bad it is. I was actually um in Asheville for Helene. And um, you know, we knew it was going to be bad. And you go going back to George, obviously he's been through through storms with me, and it it's always the the be safe and all of that. And um, that was the most impactful storm that I've ever experienced. And I got to leave, you know, and and people were still there, and your heart breaks a little bit because you're there with them and you just lived through the point of impact and you're there through the first few days, you know how bad the situation is. Helene in Asheville was something I've never seen. I've been through many hurricanes and I've never experienced the type of being cut off from the outside world, the lack of amenities or anything like being able to even get water. I I've never experienced anything like that. Being able to communicate. I I couldn't communicate with George and let him know what was going on, except when we had our Starlink up. So we would use the Starlink to get Wi-Fi and to get on air because there was absolutely no communication anywhere. So when you experience things like that, you realize that um yes, you have to get through the storm and the initial impact, but then you you kind of leave as the as the broadcaster, and people are still stuck there with you know the mess that's left behind. And it's it's a really sad part of the job.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

I sometimes wonder, like when I'm watching coverage of these storms and I see the lovely meteorologist like yourself, and they're like screaming and they're like drenched in rain, the wind is blowing, trees are like blowing behind them, and they're like, We're in the eye of the storm. And I sometimes wonder, should you be in the eye of the storm? Yeah, you know, I wonder that too.

SPEAKER_02 20:43

Right. Um you know, I think it's like anything that um, you know, we're we feel a purpose. It is our our purpose, and we feel it that we want to let people know what's going on. You know, say you have family in in uh Naples and a storm is hitting Naples, you want to know what's happening. You can't be there in Naples. Maybe you live in Naples and you evacuated, and we are your only link to let you know what's happening to your maybe your home area, how bad it's getting. Um and I I will say, you know, there there are moments where you're like, ooh, this might be getting a little dicey, but we always put safety first. The uh the there have been many times where it's like, okay, it's time to kind of wrap it up and find a safer location. Um and just just to keep the whole crew safe. But as a meteorologist, that's your responsibility. You can't have like your cameraman floating away and in storm surge. So um there's there's been a few times where I've made the call where it's like, okay, guys, it's getting a little crazy here. We need to get somewhere safer. So it's always kind of like balancing that, giving viewers what they want and the information they need and keeping safe.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

Yeah, of course, of course. Well, and you touched on something just a moment ago about rebuilding and And your insurance going up. And you live in Atlanta now, but you're you're Floridian born and raised, I believe.

SPEAKER_02 22:07

Uh-huh. Well, not born, but raised. Fl Florida's home. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

Um, well, and I've seen coverage on the news about how Floridians are having trouble getting homeowners insurance. Californians, a lot of them have a real trouble getting homeowners' insurance, which is why those wildfires in California were so devastating on multiple levels, but a lot of them were uninsured because they simply couldn't get covered. And I think as we start to see more and more of these storms, we're going to start to see issues like that spread. What are your thoughts and feelings about that?

SPEAKER_02 22:41

I think that this is where everyone's going to start feeling it, right? Yeah. You know, it's it's one thing if if if Florida keeps getting hit by bad hurricanes or if California keeps burning down in wildfires and you live somewhere that's not being impacted by this. But eventually those costs ripple out. You know, eventually the premiums for everyone go up because, you know, we're, we're, it's one company that covers the entire United States. This, these problems like this, are not stopping in their little localized area where they're happening. They're having rippling effects that are going to continue to go out. And eventually you have ripples coming from California, you have ripples coming from Florida, you have ripples coming from the Great Lakes region, and all of a sudden, it's like we're all drowning in these ripples, right? Because they're just one on top of the other, magnifying each other. Because it's not just homeowners' insurance, right? It's drought is hitting, and now agriculture is suffering, and now prices are going up even more at the grocery store. Um just, you know, multiple, multiple um examples of things like that that will just keep adding up for everyone.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

Well, and also just if your area for whatever reason is difficult or impossible to insure, what does that do to your home's resale value? If you're like, okay, I'm just gonna move because I don't like this situation, well, then what's your house worth if the the future owner is also going to encounter these issues and not be able to insure their home? It a lot of it's really scary.

SPEAKER_02 24:18

Yeah. I mean, the the one thing that I always think about, so we with one of our hobbies, we love this, we love watching HGTV. You know, look look at the how like judge the kitchen that's in the $7 million house or whatever. And um, we love to also watch the ones that are on the ocean. And it always gives me like pause when I see people buying homes right on the water that are like one level, you know, just up from the water. And I'm always like, oh gosh, I hope they, I hope they can get flood insurance there. I hope they check the floodplain. Because, like everything else, the floodplain is gonna be changing. Places that used to be safe from sea level rise aren't going to be anymore. Wildfire danger, all of those things that you try to plan for, and then you're surprised by something, right? So I think that homeownership is gonna become more and more reliant on climate forecasting as well.

SPEAKER_01 25:14

Yeah, yeah. It's it's so fascinating to me, kind of the multifactorial uh impact um that this issue is having for all of us. Um what how long have you been a meteorologist on television?

SPEAKER_02 25:29

Um, let's see here. So I actually started as a journalist and I got a degree in broadcast journalism. Graduated college in 2011, and I was a certified meteorologist by 2013. So it's been 16 years now, or no, 13 years. 13 years.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

Yeah. Um, and and so I mean, from when you started in 2013 to now, what's your overall, if you just think of your duty predicting and monitoring the weather 2013 and then now, what's your experience telling you?

SPEAKER_02 26:05

Um, my experience is telling me that people are paying a lot more attention, whether it's paying a lot of attention to disagree or paying a lot of attention because they agree and they're fearful. And we never want anyone to be fearful. We want people to be prepared. And I feel like my job as a degreed meteorologist, and not to not to like toot my own horn, but it feels more and more important to me because everyone has an equal platform these days, right? So you can get on your Facebook and your uncle from from high school or your friend from high school or whatever has taken an interest in weather, knows how to look at weather models, and now is posting the forecast from the American model two weeks out from today, showing a huge snowstorm in Denver or a huge hurricane hitting Florida. And you're like, oh no. And as a meteorologist, we would be able to say, Well, that's two weeks out. You can't you can't put stock in that. But if if you're not trained for that, then you send people into a panic. People start to not even believe the degreed meteorologist. So I think people who are actually experts in their field have an even bigger weight on their shoulders now, an even bigger responsibility to speak up and be loud and spread the correct information because the people who do not know necessarily what they're talking about are definitely loud and are spreading what their information. So I think it is, especially in the science community, it is so important that we're like, hey, actually, you might not like it, but here are my facts and figures.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

Right. Exactly, exactly. I'm so glad you said that because that really is the mission of Skin Credible is to be a source for good quality, credible information out there to help put some good out in the internet and social media world to try to combat all of that bad information. So I love that you said that. Yes.

unknown 27:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:58

It's so important.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

Um I feel like flights are more turbulent now. Can I blame climate change for that?

SPEAKER_02 28:05

There has actually been research that says clear air turbulence is increasing because of climate change. Now, uh admittedly, I my specialty is not aviation meteorology, but the the general uh like premises of meteorology are there. So the the jet stream is the current that carries the um the weather systems across the country. And as air south of the jet stream is kind of warming at a higher rate than say air north of the jet stream, well, it's causing the jet stream to speed up or become a bit more turbulent. And that equates to more turbulence when you're flying. The it and you know, more storms and things like that. The storms are fine. You they can see the storms, they can fly around the storms, they've been dealing with storms for years. But an increase in clear air turbulence is the problem because it kind of comes out of nowhere. That is like where you see a lot more of the danger in kind of keeping people safe with their seatbelts buckled because you you don't fly around clear air turbulence because our technology has not caught up with being able to forecast that as well. That is so interesting.

SPEAKER_01 29:17

Long answer short, yes. My instincts were correct. Yeah, I fly all the time, and I'm just like, gosh, I just feel like there's less and less time where the seatbelt sign is off. There's more and more times where the pilots come on and say, we're this is the situations where they can predict it. Like, you know, we're headed into some more turbulent time. I want everybody to take their seats. And I just feel like that's so much more frequent. So I'm glad that I was a bit spot on about that. Um, in fact, I just flew Delta, which living in Atlanta, I bet you're familiar uh with Delta Airlines. And at the beginning of their little video about getting you ready for the flight, they now have a little blurb about the team behind the scenes monitoring conditions. And they even show meteorologists kind of watching all this stuff. I thought that was a very interesting new ad to their um to their promotional kind of get ready for the flight sort of thing.

SPEAKER_02 30:09

Yeah, I just saw that actually. And I I like felt a swarm, the swell of pride. I wanted to be like, hi, hi, I'm a I'm a meteorologist, but um I actually worked with someone. He worked at the weather channel, he was one of our weather producers, so he was not on air and he left to went to to work with Delta, and he's been there and um uh goes and speaks a lot about it. And um it it it seems like they really are investing in that side of things because I mean, you think about it, what causes the most headaches, the most delays, and the most anger? It's it's weather.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

Yes, yes, yes. It made me feel good. I was like, oh, that's cool that they have this kind of behind-the-scenes network trying to make sure that we we are kept safe and also hopefully um don't have our flights canceled and delayed and all that kind of stuff. So I was I thought it was really neat. Um in December 2025, a website called safehome.org published a list of the best and worst worst states for climate change in the U.S. The number one safest was Vermont, then New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Colorado. Idaho, my state, was number 21. Georgia, your home, was number 45. What do you think about that? And should we all move to Vermont?

SPEAKER_02 31:25

I've heard Vermont is beautiful. Um, I don't know if you remember, it was, I believe last year, maybe Vermont actually had some terrible flooding that happened there. And just absolutely, you know, really terrible flooding that happened, and um, you know, communities were were cut off because of the flooding. So I say all that to say that um lists are so fun, but there's really there's really no way, and that's the problem with climate change, right? Um I mentioned Minnesota. Minnesota was one of the that marked one of the safest, and they just have been dealing with a tornado outbreak. So um it the problem with um climate prediction is that it is a science that is based on equations and mathematics and modeling and things of that nature. And you can only take into account what you already know. So these these variables that kind of come out of nowhere um that can change things so much. So I I love the list, but I'm not sure we should all bet ta hedge our bets and move to Vermont.

SPEAKER_01 32:30

Okay, you and George won't be packing your bags and getting ready for a whole bunch of maple syrup anytime soon.

SPEAKER_02 32:35

No, we are not snow people, you know, even though he's from Cincinnati, we uh I think neither one of us are snow people. So um I think there's too much snow in Vermont for us.

unknown 32:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:47

Um, I think you just alluded to this. In my research preparing for this, I read about climate modeling. And you were just talking about kind of climate predicting. I assume they're maybe the same thing. And um, I understand that it's utilizing this new technology to kind of look at weather in the future. What are your thoughts on that so far? Maybe good first steps, but we've got a long way to go. Or what are your feelings overall?

SPEAKER_02 33:12

Well, I feel like they're already kind of up against. Now, I should say this. I think it's great work that they're doing, and I think it's wonderful science. And I hope that we continue to grow that science. I mean, the level of intelligence that the scientists that work on that have far and beyond even, you know, what I have a base knowledge of. But they run up against the same problems that we run up against in meteorological forecast weather forecasting. It's that you can only have the the result of what you get is only as good as the data you can put in. Right.

SPEAKER_01 33:46

And like in dermatology, our dermat dermatopathologists say garbage in, garbage out. Like if you give us a false differential diagnosis and a horribly done biopsy, your report is not going to be good either.

SPEAKER_02 34:00

Precisely. We say that too, garbage in, garbage out. So part of you know, the battle that uh climate modeling is facing, well, we only have observations that go back so far. So um, you only have so much data. And how accurate is the data that you are getting from 1895, you know, when when a lot of people started keeping records, or a lot of National Weather Services started keeping records that and then as we've talked about, the oceans play a big role in in climate, and you only have so many observations from the ocean. I mean, you know, uh it's very hard to get observations from the ocean. So you have a lack of data that you can put in, and then the computer systems, because these have to be, these are very intense mathematical equations based on physics and all of that. And um the computing that has to be done has to be done by like supercomputers. And obviously, as we know, the more supercomputers you're running, you're using more energy, and that's a negative for the environment as well. So there's this very delicate balance of um running these models and predicting future outcomes while also fighting those battles.

unknown 35:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:15

Now, that being said, it's it's great work and they've come leaps and bounds. And I do think that it provides very important insight, like where will drought worsen? How much could sea level rise? But they are fighting the battles of data input and and things like that. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 35:33

I have been watching this show called Paradise. Have you seen it? I I've I've seen it like offered, but I've never actually watched it. Okay, okay, it's really good. It's really good. There have been two seasons, there's gonna be a third season, and they say that's gonna be the last. It's really, really good. But in it, and I don't think this is a a huge spoiler, but in it, they have this super volcano that erupts near, I think, Antarctica, which causes a super tsunami throughout the world, a huge cloud of ash blocking the sun, which makes it cold for two to three years, and a bunch of people live in a in a bunker during this whole time. Uh, is that going to happen?

SPEAKER_02 36:23

Um, you know, if I could answer that definitively, I'd be making a whole lot more money than I'm um and you know, I I tend to be a little bit of a realist, and I'm like, well, I mean, there is that possibility of a super super tsunami from the Canary Islands volcano collapse, you know, all of that. But personally, you know, I think it never hurts to be prepared. If if you have the abilities to find yourself a bunker, then give me your number.

SPEAKER_01 36:53

That was my next question. Should we, should we? Um, I I've heard that these bunkers like exist that you can like buy it almost like real estate. You can like buy a bunker in case in case of the end of the world. And you don't, as a meteorologist, you don't have an end to that information.

SPEAKER_02 37:09

No, sadly, I don't. But man, if I did, if if I ever do, I will let you know. George and I will let you know. We can all go in on a bunker.

SPEAKER_01 37:17

I I need to be the first call. Yeah, okay. Um we talked a lot about drought conditions, um, contributing to the wildfires in Georgia and then to so many other things, the wildfires in California, et cetera. I've wondered about the use of cloud seeding to make it rain or snow. I think that I I heard that China used it in preparation for the Beijing Winter Olympics to make sure that they had enough snow. As a meteorologist, is this something that can be done, should be done? Have you have you heard of it?

SPEAKER_02 37:50

I there has been a lot of talk about cloud seeding recently because um people love to, you know, conspiracy theories are rampant out there. The cloud seeding has caused different things. But the thing about cloud seeding is it can't create a storm. And it's not going to take like uh a regular just thunderstorm and turn it into like a super cell. Cloud seeding is basically putting more particles into clouds that are already there. So you have to already have the clouds. It's kind of like giving the clouds a little extra push to be able to create the rain. So cloud seeding will use silver iodide. I actually wrote that down. That's not my my normal vernacular, but silver iodide is like something they introduce into the clouds that will help the droplets get heavy enough to fall. So that's a lot of times what inhibits rainfall, or we get verga, which is you see it falling from the clouds, but it doesn't actually make it to the ground. But if the droplets are a little heavier, if they've had a little more time to collect um super cooled water in the cloud or anything and they get heavy enough to fall, sometimes that's what cloud seeding can help with. But what it's not gonna do is um like, you know, create giant rainstorms. I think it's something that's worth more study and worth more research, but it is not, to my knowledge and to everything I've read, it is not to the level of like creating rain out of nowhere or anything like that.

SPEAKER_01 39:20

Okay, so the conditions already have to be at a certain level that is favorable to precipitation, and this just kind of like gives it a boost. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And then carbon emissions are considered a leading driver of climate change. You mentioned the burning of fossil fuels, et cetera. Of course, we're trying as a society and a world to reduce carbon emissions, but reduction might not be enough to turn the tide. And there's this idea of like carbon capture, carbon removal, where we can take the CO2 that happens to already be in the air and remove it. And there are a few strategies that I read about, and I wanted to get your perspective as a meteorologist if you have any input or thoughts. So number one, I read about putting basalt powder on crops. It absorbs the CO2 without damaging the crops. Have you heard of this?

SPEAKER_02 40:13

I actually hadn't heard of that, but I I looked it up and um it seems promising. Like it seems like uh kind of like a win-win. The issue would be um the scaling of it, you know, like how how how big can we make this? And would just putting it on the crops be beneficial? But I do think with something that's like not harmful, well, it can't hurt, right? It it can't hurt.

SPEAKER_01 40:42

I feel like basalt powder is probably cheap. There's probably not a huge expense to that. Yeah. And then seaweed or kelp farms. I've heard a couple things about this. That number one, the seaweed in the kelp farms absorb a lot of the CO2 out of the air. And then number two, feeding seaweed to cows reduces the amount of methane they produce. Is seaweed.

SPEAKER_02 41:07

Yeah, who knew cow parts were such a big, a big problem, right? I I just I have just heard about this in recent years. And again, I think it's another thing that's like, well, it can't hurt, right? But then also the flip side of it, you have to uh you have to take into account what real estate are you taking up with the the seaweed or the kelp farms, right? And what are you doing to the environment to get this started? Are you um are you kind of dredging up the seafloor? Are you are you taking over areas that would impact the marine life that's already there? So just like with anything, there are trade-offs that you would have to consider. But if you can do this in such a way that it's not harming the marine life that's already there or the the water where it is, of course, feeding cows, um, feeding cows seaweed, I can't see any problem in that. So I mean, why not?

SPEAKER_01 42:01

Yeah. I heard they like it too. I heard they like it. And when I think of seaweed farm, I think of that movie Ticket to Paradise with George Clooney and Julia Roberts, and that place seemed wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 42:12

So I'm gonna be the worst person for pop culture references ever. George makes fun of me about this all the time because um to get me to sit down and watch TV or a movie is like a a feat of feeding me popcorn or something. So but I'll add that one to my list too.

SPEAKER_01 42:30

Yeah, take it to paradise and then also paradise. Interesting that they both have paradise in the title. And then I would also advocate to watch Bluey. Have you heard of Bluey? The cartoon? Yes, okay, all right. I'm listening, I'm I'm I'm open. Yeah. It's amazing and wonderful. George will tell you I talk about it at conferences, and each episode is just seven minutes. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 42:53

Oh, well, I can do that.

SPEAKER_01 42:55

I have I have the attention span for seven minutes. I I can I email you my list of favorite episodes.

unknown 43:01

Okay, perfect.

SPEAKER_02 43:02

Uh and I I will watch them.

SPEAKER_01 43:04

I thought it'd be fun. In in closing, this has been so awesome. Thank you so much for your time. We really, really, really appreciate it. I think the information you're putting out there is so, so valuable. And I hope our listeners really hear it and spread the word. I I heard that the most important thing you can do to help combat climate change is talk about climate change. Just kind of get that out there. And so hopefully this podcast has helped with that. I thought in our final moments, it would be fun to list five things you would bring to your bump your bunker. So, like the Super Bowl Pino is happening, and you have time to grab five things, not people or pets, like assuming they are taken care of. But what would be five things that you would be like, I need this as I go into my bunker?

SPEAKER_02 43:53

Uh do are toothbrush and toothpaste one thing, or do are those two things?

SPEAKER_01 43:58

I think that's one thing. I think that's one thing. It's like tooth care.

SPEAKER_02 44:01

Okay. Tooth toothbrush and toothpaste, definitely. Coffee, cu plenty of coffee for my coffee maker. My allergy medicine and my supplement supplements. I feel like I would need my vitamins and all of that. Yeah. Gosh. Um, will I have cell phone service? No. No. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 44:18

Then I would bring it around as many books as I can carry.

SPEAKER_02 44:23

Just as absolutely as many books as I could carry. And um my pillow. Like my pillow that I need. Because just like any pillow is not fine. I have to have my pillow.

SPEAKER_01 44:35

It's so true. It's so true. And I feel like that has become more obvious to me as I've gotten older. Like when I was younger, I'd sleep on any kind of pillow. And now my boyfriend and I, we are on our third pillow that we that we are trying out. Yes. To find the perfect one.

SPEAKER_02 44:53

I I the amount of times we've bought me a new pillow, and I'm like, nope, but it's still not working. I still don't work. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:01

Well, thank you so much, Felicia. I think again, I think this will do a world of good. Um, we're saving the planet with this podcast. And I really love the information that we're putting out there. Again, thank you so much. Do you have any other final thoughts to share with our audience?

SPEAKER_02 45:17

Uh wear your sunscreen since I'm on the Skin Credible podcast. Don't forget your sunscreen.

SPEAKER_01 45:22

Thank you, Felicia. Thank you. I did not plan that. That was Felicia on her own. I love it. I love it. Well, thank you so much to Felicia. Thank you, listeners. Thank you, viewers. Um, this has been another great episode of Skin Credible. Please continue to tune in.