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1 week ago | 
dcnewsnow.com | Scott Sumner
by: Scott Sumner Posted: May 7, 2025 / 02:12 PM EDT Updated: May 7, 2025 / 02:12 PM EDT Since “Mother Nature” does what she wants, when she wants to do it, the term “normal” in weather can occasionally be deceptive. I mention this because in meteorology, an inversion is a phenomena in which a layer of warmer air lies on top of cooler air.
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2 weeks ago | 
dcnewsnow.com | Scott Sumner
Sometimes the weatherman will highlight a rare event, while other times the weather will be predictable. One of those uncommon phenomena is known as a “wake low,” and in the United States, these tend to happen most commonly in the Great Plains and Southeast regions. You might be asking why, and it’s because the current weather patterns and thunderstorm activity in these areas can provide the circumstances needed for wake low formation. Lightning streaks across the night sky.
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3 weeks ago | 
dcnewsnow.com | Scott Sumner
During the heat of the summer in the DMV, as per usual, you can set your watch for when to see thunderstorm clouds either created by the microclimates locally (i.e., sea breeze) or through a cold front slicing through the region.
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3 weeks ago | 
scottsumner.substack.com | Scott Sumner
Peter Navarro has a PhD in economics from Harvard University. Kevin Erdmann is a former small businessman without a degree in economics. And yet Navarro is one of America’s worst economists and Erdmann is one of our best. How is that possible? Economics has become a highly technical field. But the most important part of economics remains non-technical, the ability to look at a complex situation and figure out the essence of what is going on.
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1 month ago | 
scottsumner.substack.com | Scott Sumner
There is a great deal of ruin in a nation — Adam SmithHold my beer — Donald J. TrumpThanks for reading The Pursuit of Happiness! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. (OK, I made up the second quotation.)Tyler Cowen occasionally does posts evaluating the way that current events have affected the status of various groups. Because the past three months have been a particularly “current event” rich period, it might be time to make a few preliminary observations.
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1 month ago | 
dcnewsnow.com | Scott Sumner
Given the dmv’s current moderate to severe drought, the parched land might quickly turn to lumber if mother nature decides to get really windy, especially on a bright day. The national weather service will issue a red flag warning for a specific area during certain periods. In essence, a red flag warning indicates that there is a possibility that present or potential future circumstances will result in a higher risk of fire.
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1 month ago | 
scottsumner.substack.com | Scott Sumner
It would be tempting to write a post saying, “Look at all the nonsense in the Trump administration, I warned you.” But that would be too easy. You guys read the newspapers. (If you don’t, this and this are just the tip of the iceberg.)This post will mention a few Trump abuses that I predicted, but I’ll mostly focus on areas where I got things wrong. The National Review is an interesting vantage point from which to examine recent political developments.
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1 month ago | 
dcnewsnow.com | Scott Sumner
During the heart of the winter months, when the coldest temperatures are seen, if someone has to be outside for a prolonged period of time and is not protected, frostbite and especially hypothermia can set in. Due to the fact that the heart, brain, and other organs cannot function as efficiently as they normally would, hypothermia, a potentially fatal medical condition, would occur when the body’s core temperature drops below 95 degrees Fahrenheit.
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2 months ago | 
dcnewsnow.com | Scott Sumner
Given that it is mid-winter and that the DMV has experienced four distinct snow events, I felt compelled to discuss snow ratios. What I am referring to, is the relationship between the amount of snow and water when we use phrases like “light and fluffy” or “heavy and wet” to characterize the snow’s quality. Temperature is the primary factor influencing snow ratios, although other regional and meteorological factors, like humidity, wind, and a storm’s path, also play a role.
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2 months ago | 
scottsumner.substack.com | Scott Sumner
[Note to readers: This blog is 100% organic, with no artificial intelligence added.]Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal policies had three goals: recovery, relief and reform. George Selgin has produced an excellent new book that focuses on the first of those three goals—recovery. Did New Deal policies succeed in getting the US out of the Great Depression? Thanks for reading The Pursuit of Happiness! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. The short answer is no.
