Meteorology Matters

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Leonardo da Vinci is remembered as one of history’s greatest artists and inventors. But his contributions to understanding the atmosphere are far less familiar.
More than 500 years ago, Leonardo was investigating the physical forces responsible for wind, moving water, clouds, and atmospheric moisture—centuries before modern weather forecasting emerged.
His surviving notebooks reveal designs for an early hygrometer that used cotton and wax to detect changes in humidity, a wind-measuring instrument, and remarkable investigations of swirling water and air.
But Leonardo’s meteorological interests went much further.
In the Codex Leicester, he explored evaporation, condensation, the origins of mountain springs, and the movement of water through the natural environment. Other manuscripts preserve observations about wind, cloud movement, fluid vortices, and the physical processes that shape our atmosphere.
What did Leonardo actually discover? Which scientific instruments did he design? How accurate were his explanations? And how do his investigations connect to the science of meteorology today?
This episode of Meteorology Matters examines Leonardo’s scientific work, separating documented achievements from centuries of exaggeration and exploring the connections between his investigations and the later development of atmospheric science.
Presented during Italian American Heritage Month, this installment continues our series recognizing Italian and Italian American figures whose scientific contributions deserve greater attention.
From Renaissance Italy to modern meteorology, discover how Leonardo’s questions about the natural world remain relevant more than five centuries later.
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Hurricane Isaias delivered one of the most fascinating forecasting challenges of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season. Artificial intelligence helped meteorologists anticipate where the storm would strike, but as the hurricane weakened before landfall, a dangerous concentration of winds developed on its western side.
Why did a weakening hurricane produce destructive gusts exceeding 100 mph? How did Google DeepMind’s forecasts compare with the European AI forecasting system and traditional hurricane models? And were emergency responders prepared for what followed?
In this episode of Meteorology Matters, we reconstruct Isaias from its development in the Gulf of Mexico through rapid intensification, its Category 3 peak, increasing vertical wind shear, and its October 9 landfall near Destin, Florida.
We investigate the National Hurricane Center’s use of increasingly influential AI guidance, comparing Google DeepMind, ECMWF’s Artificial Intelligence Forecasting System, and NOAA’s specialized hurricane models. We’ll examine where the predictions succeeded, where uncertainty remained, and why forecasting a hurricane’s track is different from anticipating destructive winds in individual communities.
We also investigate the National Weather Service’s assessment of a sting jet on the storm’s western side, aircraft and radar observations, unusual gust factors, and the limitations of conventional hurricane wind-swath products.
Then we follow Isaias beyond landfall as flooding, tornadoes, and the storm’s transition into a midlatitude system spread its impacts far inland.
Finally, we examine the human consequences: power restoration, damaged homes, insurance, disaster assistance, and the obstacles survivors may face over the coming weeks and months. How did Florida’s emergency management system perform? What assistance has the federal government authorized? And what do FEMA workforce reductions mean for disaster readiness?
Hurricane Isaias provides a revealing test of modern meteorology: our ability to forecast where dangerous storms will go is improving, but predicting every localized hazard and protecting the people in their path remains extraordinarily difficult.
Meteorology Matters explores the science, history, and human consequences of weather.
Created and produced by meteorologist Rob Jones.
https://meteorologymatters.com
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Before satellites, radar, and computer models, Italian scientists were helping transform how humanity observed, measured, and predicted the weather.
In this special Italian-American Heritage Month episode of Meteorology Matters, we trace centuries of scientific breakthroughs, from Galileo’s early temperature experiments and Evangelista Torricelli’s invention of the mercury barometer to the pioneering meteorological observing networks established by the Medici family.
At the center of the story is Father Angelo Secchi, the Italian Jesuit scientist whose work at Rome’s Collegio Romano helped revolutionize weather observation. After spending time at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Secchi developed advanced meteorological instruments that eventually reached observatories around the world, including Havana, Cuba.
There, Father Benito Viñes, a Spanish Jesuit and pioneering hurricane forecaster, issued one of history’s first publicly documented hurricane forecasts in September 1875. Their remarkable scientific connection provides an important chapter in the evolution of tropical cyclone forecasting.
We’ll also explore Luigi De Marchi’s early research into atmospheric circulation and vorticity, Cesare Emiliani’s revolutionary discoveries about Earth’s ancient climates, and the contributions of American meteorologists including former National Weather Service director Louis Uccellini, National Hurricane Center specialist John Cangialosi, and broadcaster Rob Marciano.
From seventeenth-century Florence to the modern National Hurricane Center, discover how Italian innovation, international scientific collaboration, and centuries of observation helped shape the forecasting science we depend on today.
Meteorology Matters explores the science, history, and real-world impact of weather, hurricanes, and our changing atmosphere.
Created and produced by broadcast meteorologist Rob Jones.
Website: https://MeteorologyMatters.com
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Hurricane Isaias has reached Category 3 strength with sustained winds of 120 mph, and time is running out for communities along the northern Gulf Coast. As dangerous winds, storm surge, flooding, and tornadoes threaten Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and areas farther inland, the most important question isn’t simply where the hurricane will make landfall. It’s what you can still do to survive.
What if you’re not in an evacuation zone, but your home isn’t safe? What if the roof starts coming apart? What if floodwater begins entering your house, a tornado warning is issued, or the power goes out and someone depends on medical equipment?
In this special emergency edition of Meteorology Matters, we go beyond the usual hurricane preparation checklist to focus on the final hours before impact, the split-second decisions that can save lives, and the dangers that remain after the storm passes.
We discuss:
How to find and understand evacuation orders, emergency shelters, and transportation assistance.
When to leave an unsafe building and when deteriorating conditions make travel too dangerous.
Where to shelter during destructive winds and tornadoes, including how mattresses, helmets, cushions, and interior rooms can provide additional protection.
What to do if a roof fails, windows break, floodwater rises, or someone becomes trapped.
Special considerations for mobile homes, high-rise residents, older adults, people with disabilities, pets, and anyone dependent on electricity.
Why dangerous flooding can occur far inland and hundreds of miles from the hurricane’s center.
How to survive prolonged power outages, avoid carbon monoxide poisoning, and recognize electrical, structural, and medical emergencies.
Why the hours and days after landfall can be as dangerous as the hurricane itself.
Whether you’re directly in Isaias’s path or preparing for a future hurricane, this episode offers practical, potentially lifesaving information when every minute counts.
Forecast information reflects October 9, 2026. For current emergencies, follow local evacuation orders and the latest National Hurricane Center, National Weather Service, and emergency management guidance. Call 911 for life-threatening emergencies.
About Meteorology Matters
Meteorology Matters explores the science, history, and human impact of weather, from hurricanes and extreme storms to the decisions that shape how communities prepare, respond, and recover.
Created and produced by broadcast meteorologist and hurricane historian Rob Jones, a member of the American Meteorological Society and National Weather Association.
Explore more: MeteorologyMatters.com HurricaneCompany.com 1926Hurricane.com
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Subscribe to Meteorology Matters on your favorite podcast platform, share this episode with someone who may need it, and help get potentially lifesaving information to communities facing the storm.
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The Atlantic has experienced one of the strangest hurricane seasons in modern history. Now Hurricane Isaias is threatening the Gulf Coast, while Tropical Storm Rachel raises concerns about heavy rainfall and flooding in Southern California.
What makes this situation especially unusual is the powerful, already-established El Niño, which continues to strengthen and evolve. Its influence has helped suppress Atlantic hurricane activity, yet a potentially dangerous late-season hurricane is now threatening the Gulf Coast.
We examine Isaias and the evolving threats from storm surge, damaging winds, tornadoes, and potentially serious flooding extending far inland. Could this hurricane produce prolonged rainfall and Appalachian flooding comparable to Hurricane Helene, or are social media comparisons overstating the danger?
We also investigate Rachel’s potential impacts on California, including flash flooding, tropical moisture reaching inland communities, and what the latest forecast guidance suggests about the timing and extent of the rainfall.
Along the way, we explore the historically late development of the Atlantic’s first hurricane, unusually low accumulated cyclone energy, the potential for additional tropical development, and how the current El Niño compares with the strongest events on record.
What are forecasters seeing? Where are the greatest risks? How are communities preparing, and what should residents know about evacuation orders, emergency shelters, and staying safe?
Two tropical systems, two coastlines, and an extraordinary atmospheric pattern connecting the immediate weather threats with one of the most significant El Niño events in recent history.
Meteorology Matters examines the science, the forecasts, the uncertainty, and what happens next.

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