Weather Academy
Updated: Jun. 27, 2022 at 6:57 AM CDT
|By Sheena Martin
Today on the Weather Academy, we’re going to be discussing cloud types.
Updated: Jun. 20, 2022 at 6:15 AM CDT
|By Sheena Martin
Happy first day of summer. There’s no perfect time than now to talk about the reason for the seasons.
Updated: Jun. 13, 2022 at 5:59 AM CDT
|By Lucy Doll
For the last few weeks, we have been talking about El Niño and La Niña climate patterns. Today I want to focus on La Niña and how it can affect hurricane season.
Updated: Jun. 8, 2022 at 2:31 PM CDT
|By Lucy Doll and Sheena Martin
La Nina and El Nino have a drastic effect on our weather patterns, especially during hurricane season. This week on the Weather Academy we demonstrate how La Nina and El Nino impact ocean currents in the Pacific and how that relates to our forecast.
Updated: May. 30, 2022 at 5:51 AM CDT
|By Sheena Martin
This week on the Weather Academy we’re going to be talking about climate patterns, and how warmer than average and cooler than average sea surface temperatures can impact our weather all around the globe.
Updated: May. 23, 2022 at 6:21 AM CDT
|By Lucy Doll and Sheena Martin
Last week on the Weather Academy, we went back to the basics and talked about the water cycle. And today, we’re gonna be doing a hands-on experiment demonstrating the water cycle on a smaller scale.
Updated: May. 16, 2022 at 6:01 AM CDT
|By Lucy Doll
Understanding the water cycle and how it works is the key to understanding weather.
Updated: May. 15, 2022 at 4:39 PM CDT
|By Lucy Doll and Sheena Martin
Last week on the Weather Academy, Sheena taught us all about how rainbows form and the key ingredients that we need in order to see them. This week we are going to be using those ingredients to create our own rainbows!
Updated: May. 2, 2022 at 5:53 AM CDT
|By Sheena Martin
Let’s dive into how they form and the ingredients you need to see them.
Updated: Apr. 25, 2022 at 6:07 AM CDT
|By Lucy Doll and Sheena Martin
This week we’re going to be building our own severe weather safety kit to take into our safe place. A severe weather safety kit is a collection of life-saving tools that you’ll want to have with you when severe weather strikes.
Updated: Apr. 18, 2022 at 6:05 AM CDT
|By Lucy Doll
This week we’re going to be continuing on our topic of severe weather and focusing on storm-safe places. Your storm-safe place is where you go when warnings are put into place for your area.
Updated: Apr. 11, 2022 at 5:59 AM CDT
|By Sheena Martin and Lucy Doll
We're continuing to learn about wind on the Weather Academy. This week, we will conduct an experiment to make an instrument that measures wind called an anemometer.
Updated: Apr. 4, 2022 at 6:06 AM CDT
|By Sheena Martin
This week we continue our topic on severe weather by talking about different types of wind damage. There are many different types, but today we highlight the few we can experience here in the ArkLaMiss.
Updated: Mar. 28, 2022 at 6:06 AM CDT
|By Lucy Doll
Today on the Weather Academy, we discuss severe weather risk categories. The threat of severe weather is back in the forecast as we head into this week. You’re likely going to hear us as meteorologists talk about the different types of severe weather outlooks issued for our region.
Updated: Mar. 21, 2022 at 5:57 AM CDT
|By Lucy Doll
Today we are talking about one of the deadliest weather phenomena, flooding. Flooding was the second-highest cause of weather-related deaths behind the heat in the last ten years.
Updated: Mar. 14, 2022 at 6:13 AM CDT
|By Lucy Doll and Sheena Martin
Last week on the Weather Academy we learned all about how hail forms in a thunderstorm. Today we will be conducting an experiment that will give a hands-on application of hail formation.
Updated: Mar. 7, 2022 at 5:54 AM CST
|By Sheena Martin
This week on the Weather Academy we take a trip inside of a thunderstorm to learn about hail formation.
Updated: Feb. 28, 2022 at 5:58 AM CST
|By Lucy Doll and Sheena Martin
Last week, we learned all about how tornadoes form, so this week, we will put that knowledge to the test by making our tornado in a bottle. This is a fun and simple experiment that clearly illustrates how a vortex forms.
Updated: Feb. 21, 2022 at 5:59 AM CST
|By Lucy Doll
We are continuing our topic of severe weather today and will be learning all about tornado formation. By definition, a tornado is a rapidly rotating column of air. But how do they form? Today we dive into that topic.
Updated: Feb. 14, 2022 at 6:06 AM CST
|By Sheena Martin
This week on the Weather Academy, we are focusing on thunderstorms, specifically the different types of storms that we see here in the ArkLaMiss. We have four categories: single cells, multi cells, squall lines, which we see quite a lot here in Louisiana, and supercells. They all have different characteristics, and they can all produce different types of severe weather.
Updated: Feb. 7, 2022 at 3:54 PM CST
|By Lucy Doll and Sheena Martin
Spring severe weather season is just around the corner here in ArkLaMiss so we headed out to ULM to talk to Dr. Todd Murphy about how the Atmospheric Science department will contribute to one of the largest and most comprehensive severe storm field campaigns to date.
Updated: Jan. 31, 2022 at 6:27 AM CST
|By Lucy Doll and Sheena Martin
Last week we learned all about snowfall forecasting. We typically don’t see a lot of snow here in the ArkLaMiss. And when it does snow, it usually doesn’t stick long enough to have much fun with it. That’s why we decided that we will be making our very own snow this week and having a snowball fight.
Updated: Jan. 24, 2022 at 5:55 AM CST
|By Lucy Doll
This week, we are talking about my favorite type of precipitation, snowfall! Typically here in the ArkLaMiss, we see snow once or twice a year, but it doesn’t like to stick. However, we see plenty of the other types of winter precipitation. So let’s dive into the science behind snowfall.
Updated: Jan. 17, 2022 at 6:27 AM CST
|By Sheena Martin
Explaining what a bomb cyclone is and the types of weather that it causes.
Updated: Jan. 10, 2022 at 6:33 AM CST
|By Sheena Martin and Lucy Doll
Today we’re gonna be doing an experiment that’s going to help demonstrate the power of pressure. This will be a refresher before we dive into next week’s topic of bomb cyclogenesis.
Updated: Jan. 3, 2022 at 3:36 PM CST
|By Lucy Doll
We’re talking about the polar vortex this week on the Weather Academy. Now we hear the words polar vortex a lot in the news, or even as we discuss our forecasts, especially in the wintertime, the polar vortex is happening all year round.
Updated: Dec. 27, 2021 at 10:58 AM CST
|By Sheena Martin
We are talking about wind chill this week on the Weather Academy. It’s a term that you typically hear us talk about on cold and windy mornings or just days in general when it’s going to be breezy. But do you really know what wind chill is? Let’s dive into it!
Updated: Dec. 20, 2021 at 5:57 AM CST
|By Lucy Doll and Sheena Martin
We typically don’t see a white Christmas here in Louisiana, but that’s not going to stop us from trying to make our own. Today on the Weather Academy, we’ll be making crystallized snowflakes that you can hang on your Christmas tree.
Updated: Dec. 13, 2021 at 5:54 AM CST
|By Lucy Doll and Sheena Martin
This week on the Weather Academy, we will be conducting an experiment that will allow us to see frost forming up close and hopefully give us a better understanding of why frost forms.
Updated: Dec. 6, 2021 at 6:11 AM CST
|By Lucy Doll
We are diving into a new topic on this week's Weather Academy, frost! We will frequently wake up to see frost coating the grass, leaves, and sometimes even our cars in the morning during the winter. Today we go over the three main factors of frost development.
Updated: Nov. 29, 2021 at 9:09 AM CST
|By Lucy Doll and Sheena Martin
In this week's Weather Academy, we head to Kiroli Park to talk with West Monroe Parks and Recreation Director Stuart Hodnett about how weather affects fall foliage.
Updated: Nov. 22, 2021 at 12:14 PM CST
|By Sheena Martin and Lucy Doll
This week we’re going to be doing an experiment to show the different chemical pigments that are left behind once the leaves change color and the chlorophyll breaks down.
Updated: Nov. 15, 2021 at 6:43 AM CST
|By Sheena Martin
Now that we are in the season of fall, the leaves are putting on an impressive fashion show. So what better time than now to talk about why leaves change colors.
Updated: Nov. 8, 2021 at 3:18 PM CST
|By Lucy Doll and Sheena Martin
Looking for a way to recycle your Jack-o'-lantern? Well, look no further! Today we will be using chemistry to make oozing pumpkins.
Updated: Nov. 1, 2021 at 6:43 AM CDT
|By Sheena Martin and Lucy Doll
All month we’ve been learning about lightning and thunder, and today we’re going to be creating lightning right here in the studio using mints.
Updated: Oct. 25, 2021 at 7:50 PM CDT
|By Lucy Doll
Earlier this month, we learned all about lightning. But what about the loud boom that usually follows quickly after lightning strikes? Today Meteorologist Lucy Doll dives into the question, what is thunder?
Updated: Oct. 18, 2021 at 5:54 AM CDT
|By Sheena Martin and Lucy Doll
This week is Louisiana Severe Weather Preparedness Week and today will we be discussing the difference between watches and warnings using a very tasty example.
Updated: Oct. 11, 2021 at 5:07 PM CDT
|By Lucy Doll and Sheena Martin
Last week on the Weather Academy, we learned about positive and negative charges during a thunderstorm and how that creates lightning. And this week, we’re going to do some simple experiments to show how lightning works on a small scale using a balloon.
Updated: Oct. 4, 2021 at 6:23 AM CDT
|By Sheena Martin
This week on the Weather Academy, we will be talking about a new topic, lightning. Here in the ArkLaMiss, we get quite a bit of thunderstorm activity which leads to lightning. But do you know how it forms? Today Meteorologist Sheena Martin breaks down lightning formation in depth.
Updated: Sep. 27, 2021 at 6:26 AM CDT
|By Lucy Doll and Sheena Martin
The week on the Weather Academy, we are going to build upon our knowledge of fronts and conduct an experiment that you can easily replicate at home.
Updated: Sep. 20, 2021 at 2:17 PM CDT
|By Lucy Doll
This week on the Weather Academy, we build upon last week's topic and dive into fronts. Fronts can cause a dramatic change in our weather pattern and this week we discuss why.
Updated: Sep. 13, 2021 at 6:53 AM CDT
|By Lucy Doll and Sheena Martin
This week on the Weather Academy we conduct two experiments that help illustrate the power of pressure. Our imploding can and rising water experiments are sure to be a BLAST!
Updated: Sep. 6, 2021 at 1:34 PM CDT
|By Sheena Martin
Today we are talking about high and low pressures. We mentioned these constantly in our forecast, and you see them out of graphics all the time. But you actually know what they mean? Today we will be breaking down what exactly high and low pressure means and what it does to our weather.
Updated: Aug. 30, 2021 at 8:31 AM CDT
|By Lucy Doll
All month long, we’ve been learning about hurricanes. And last week, we built our own hurricane-proof house. But today, we’re going to be learning about the cone of uncertainty.
Updated: Aug. 23, 2021 at 1:08 PM CDT
|By Sheena Martin and Lucy Doll
This week we are challenging you to build a structure out of items that you can find around the house and see if it can withstand a hurricane (or at least our handy box fan).
Updated: Aug. 18, 2021 at 7:00 AM CDT
|By Lucy Doll
On this episode of the Weather Academy, we break down the Saffir-Simpson scale, aka the scale used to categorize hurricanes.
Updated: Aug. 11, 2021 at 7:03 AM CDT
|By Lucy Doll and Sheena Martin
Join us on this week's Weather Academy as we learn about the anatomy of a hurricane by making a hurricane in a bowl.
Updated: Aug. 4, 2021 at 7:02 AM CDT
|By Sheena Martin
This month’s topic for the Weather Academy is hurricanes. We are all too familiar with hurricanes here in Louisiana, but are you aware of how hurricanes are formed?
Updated: Jul. 28, 2021 at 7:08 AM CDT
|By Sheena Martin and Lucy Doll
Hot days can be no fun, but we use the heat to our advantage this week on the Weather Academy! Join us as we harness the power of the sun to cook s'mores in our very own solar oven.
Updated: Jul. 21, 2021 at 3:23 PM CDT
|By Lucy Doll
Share your photos with us of your attempts at our Weather Academy experiments here!