Scott Robeson

@indianaclimate

Climatologist, statistician, and geographer | #FirstGen | UDel and UBC grad | Grower of food and lover of plants and birds | Partner of

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Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· 17d

First fig

A white man’s hand holding a small ripe Ronde de Bordeaux fig with several more figs on the tree in the background.

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· 18d

Smoky conditions with moderate haze make me wonder if that's what the sky would look like on every "blue sky" day if geoengineering via solar radiation management were to take place. Here's a simulation for a clear day with 4 W/m^2 of cooling via sulfate aerosols. Source: simulatesrm.github.io

Simulation of how the sky hemisphere would look differently under a solar radiation management scenario.

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· 18d

Smoke from these western fires, combined with those in Ontario and Minnesota, will be making the skies across much of eastern North America very hazy in the next few days. Smoke-related air quality will mostly be ok in the east.

Vertically integrated smoke forecast for Sunday afternoon, 26 July 2026.

Near-surface smoke forecast for Sunday afternoon, 26 July 2026.

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· 19d

Close to 100 pounds (45 kg) of mild/sweet Candy onions drying on the porch. We still have the storage onions to harvest. #garden

Three large orange boxes overflowing with onions on a picnic table in a screened in porch

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· 20d

Ahhhhh

Fire and Smoke Map for 22 July 2026, showing most of the Great Lakes and Northeastern states of the US in the "Good" category.

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· 24d

Wearing an N-95 mask to grill eggplants in the wildfire smoke today. Now thinking I should do this whenever I grill.

A man in a white t shirt wearing a mask in front of an outdoor bbq grill covered in marinated eggplants.

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· 24d

Looks like our first dose of poor (smoke-related) air quality tomorrow, southern Indiana people.

HRRR forecast for near surface smoke on Sunday afternoon

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· 25d

Not much on CoCoRaHS from yesterday's 1+" event in town. Looks like the airport reported 0.62".

Daily precipitation around Monroe County, Indiana on the CoCoRaHS map, showing mostly zeroes and one 0.05" total.

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· 26d

Made me think of this, which I use when discussing causality in stats class :)

April 1 Letter to the Editor about wind turbines causing it to be windier.

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· 26d

I noticed this grid of sensors in Chicago and it turns out it's a relatively new and impressive network set up by the Chicago Department of Public Health, the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health, and some others. This clearly shows there's no escaping the wildfire smoke outdoors.

AirNow map of PM2.5 sensors across the city of Chicago, showing a grid-like pattern of Clarity Open Air sensors. All are currently in the Very Unhealthy or Hazardous category.

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· 26d

And CiCoRaHS reporting is sparser in summer, so will be interesting to see if this gets picked up there. This morning’s reports:

Map of precipitation stations around Monroe County, Indiana, showing very few around Bloomington

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· 27d

In addition to air conditioning, today I'm thankful for a blue sky.

An image of a wooded hillside with wildflowers in the foreground and a nice blue sky above.

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· 29d

Brutal combo of temperatures in the 90s (mid 30s C) and very poor air quality coming to much of the Great Lakes and mid-Atlantic later this week. #ClimateChange

Map of forecast air temperatures for eastern North America on Thursday 16 July 2026, showing widespread 90+ F values

Forecast for near-surface smoke late Wed / early Thu on 16 July 2026, showing very poor air quality across the Great Lakes and areas east of that.

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· Jul 9

"Reinvigorating historic spaces" (yes, this room used to be a swimming pool) learningspaces.iu.edu/explore/room...

Two images of Student Building 015 on the IU Bloomington campus, one showing it as a swimming pool and the other as a collaborative high-tech classroom.

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· Jul 8

Daily sea-surface temperature time series for the Niño 3.4 region during 2026 (red line) compared to all other years from 1981 onward. The last major El Niño event in 2015 is the thick gray line. 😟 Source: climatereanalyzer.org/clim/sst_dai...

Graph showing daily time series of sea-surface temperature in the Nino 3.4 region of the tropical Pacific. Each year from 1981 to the present is shown. For the last few weeks, 2026 has the highest values ever recorded.

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· Jul 8

Simpler is definitely better for presentations. For me, it depends on how interrelated the subfigures are. My main gripe is that many are nearly independent. Here's one with many subfigures but they're all connected so it works:

Complex figure showing the various properties of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:EM_Spectrum_Properties_edit.svg

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· Jul 8

At what point does the approach of having many figures within a figure become too much? Here's an example of "one figure" that has 7 separate subfigures, several of which have many subpanels. 🧪

A "single" figure from an article that 7 subfigures, some of which have many subplots within them.

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· Jul 4

Here's the area around the stadium. Not much green space, but at least there's a decent size solar car park just north of the stadium.

3D satellite image of the area around Philadelphia Stadium looking NNW toward downtown Philly at the top. The area is mostly impervious surfaces.

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· Jul 2

There aren't too many trees with edible leaves, but Toona sinensis (Chinese Toon) is one. The older kid, a botanist, got this years ago and it's done well in southern Indiana (USDA zone 6b). It sometimes dies back in winter and the new sprouts produce even more tender leaves at harvesting height. 🌱

A shrubby looking Toona chinensis with many shoots

One shoot of a Toona chinensis tree in southern Indiana

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· Jul 1

Great site for monitoring daily changes in El Nino Southern Oscillation (Nino 3.4) status: climatereanalyzer.org/clim/sst_dai...

Daily time series of sea-surface temperature in the Nino3.4 region of the tropical Pacific. Each year from 1981 to the present is shown for comparison.

Map of daily sea-surface temperature anomalies for 29 June 2026 with the Nino3.4 region of the tropical Pacific highlighted.

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· Jun 30

Zooming into the areas south and west of Eurasia, the Mediterranean, Bay of Biscay, English Channel, North Sea, Baltic, etc. are 5 to 6 °C warmer now compared to late June 1997.

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· Jun 30

Thirty years of planetary-scale warming. Comparing late June sea-surface-temperature (SST) anomalies in 2026 versus those in 1997 (which also was leading into a powerful El Niño event), background temperatures across the world's oceans are profoundly higher now. #climate

Map of sea-surface temperature anomalies on 28 June 1997.

Source: https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/pub/socd/mecb/crw/data/5km/v3.1_op/image_browse/daily/ssta/png/

Map of sea-surface temperature anomalies on 28 June 2026.

Source: https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/pub/socd/mecb/crw/data/5km/v3.1_op/image_browse/daily/ssta/png/

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· Jun 29

Summer reading, courtesy of the Monroe County Public Library

A pile of books on a side table, including How to Feed the World, Clearing the Air, Cold Hardy Fruits and Nuts, Die with Zero, Birds, Crossings, etc.

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· Jun 24

Europe is not a continent, but that terrestrial region is warming faster than many others -- it's already about 2.5°C warmer than its pre-industrial climate. Source: climate.copernicus.eu/esotc/2025

Time series of area-average temperature for several different locations: Arctic, Europe, Global Land, Global in descending order of warming.

Map of the rate of warming across western Eurasia and North Africa from 1996 to 2025.

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· Jun 24

Excellent Sankey diagram from @hannahritchie.bsky.social showing country-level contributions to deforestation via their imports. Interactive version and other years here: hannahritchie.github.io/deforestatio...

Deforestation embedded in global trade in 2023. Production of beef, oilseeds (soy, palm oil), and stimulants (coffee, chocolate) are the largest causes.

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· Jun 22

I've seen this when teaching Climate Change Impacts to non-majors, a group that includes future medical doctors, lawyers, etc. When they see an article like this one, climate change mitigation becomes more real and urgent:

PNAS article titled "Reductions in premature deaths from heat and particulate matter air pollution in South Asia, China, and the United States under decarbonization"

Abstract
Following a sustainable development pathway designed to keep warming below 2 °C will benefit human health. We quantify premature deaths attributable to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution and heat exposures for China, South Asia, and the United States using projections from multiple climate models under high- and low-emission scenarios. Projected changes in premature deaths are typically dominated by population aging, primarily reflecting increased longevity leading to greater sensitivity to environmental risks. Changes in PM2.5 exposure typically have small impacts on premature deaths under a high-emission scenario but provide substantial benefits under a low-emission scenario. PM2.5-attributable deaths increase in South Asia throughout the century under both scenarios but shift to decreases by late century in China, and US values decrease throughout the century. In contrast, heat exposure increases under both scenarios and combines with population aging to drive projected increases in deaths in all countries. Despite population aging, combined PM2.5- and heat-related deaths decrease under the low-emission scenario by ~2.4 million per year by midcentury and ~2.9 million by century’s end, with ~3% and ~21% of these reductions from heat, respectively. Intermodel variations in exposure projections generally lead to uncertainties of <40% except for US and China heat impacts. Health benefits of low emissions are larger from reduced heat exposure than improved air quality by the late 2090s in the United States. In contrast, in South and East Asia, the PM2.5-related benefits are largest throughout the century, and their valuation exceeds the cost of decarbonization, especially in China, over the next 30 y.

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· Jun 19

That is remarkable. Might be mostly from this one CoCoRaHS observer that measured 29" in one day!

Graph of daily precip for one observer in Louisiana.

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· Jun 19

Today was garlic day #garden

Piles of freshly harvested garlic laid on a wooden picnic table on a screened-in porch

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· Jun 18

Before-and-after images of tornado damage from last night's storm in northern Monroe County, Indiana. This is the entrance to Morgan-Monroe State Forest on the Main Forest Road (@l-tulipifera.bsky.social reports that the AmeriFlux tower and site are fine). Photo on right by Steve Scott.

Street View of Main Forest Rd entrance to Morgan-Monroe-State Forest, showing a dense forest landscape despite the leaves being off.

18 June 2026 view of the Main Forest Rd entrance to Morgan-Monroe State Forest, showing many snapped trees.

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate· Jun 17

I learned about strip mowing (once a year) for conservation a while back. We have an old field that would revert to forest, but I'm trying to keep it in an early successional state, which is fairly rare around here, for birds and other wildlife. I mow different patterns in late winter: