UW Oceanography’s Jodi Young named Sloan Fellow

One faculty member at UW Environment was awarded an early-career fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The new Sloan Fellow, announced Feb. 16, is Jodi Young, an assistant professor in the School of Oceanography. Open to scholars in eight scientific and technical fields — chemistry, computer science, economics, mathematics, molecular biology, neuroscience, ocean sciences, and physics — the fellowships honor those early-career researchers whose achievements mark them among the next generation of scientific leaders.

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Feb 18, 2021

Natural Hazards

Q&A: ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system arriving in Pacific Northwest

Field engineers Karl Hagel and Pat McChesney with Mount Hood in the distance.

After years in development, an earthquake early warning system known as ShakeAlert is on the cusp of being released in Oregon and Washington. The system that spans the West Coast was launched in California in late 2019. It launches to the public in Oregon on March 11, the 10th anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, and in Washington in May.

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Feb 16, 2021

Climate

Online tool displays Pacific Northwest mountain snow depth

Snowy road with mountain in the North Cascades

How’s the snow on Northwest mountains this year? Overall a little deeper than normal, but it depends where you look. A new collaboration between the University of Washington and the Northwest Avalanche Center lets you see how the current snow depth compares to past years for nine sites in Washington and two in Oregon. The new mountain snow depth tool is freely available on the Office of the Washington State Climatologist’s website.

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Feb 9, 2021

Pedestrians first: the 15-minute neighborhood

As cities become more densely populated, urban planning has traditionally focused more on improving transit infrastructure to move as many vehicles as possible, helping citizens get from home to work, the grocery store, local coffee shop, health center or nearest park. With so much time spent driving in vehicles, cities are facing growing air and noise pollution, while humans are facing social isolation and numerous health impacts from sitting in a car.

Global warming found to be culprit for flood risk in Peruvian Andes, other glacial lakes

As the planet warms, glaciers are retreating and causing changes in the world’s mountain water systems. For the first time, scientists at the University of Oxford and the University of Washington have directly linked human-induced climate change to the risk of flooding from a glacial lake known as one of the world’s greatest flood risks. The study examined the case of Lake Palcacocha in the Peruvian Andes, which could cause flooding with devastating consequences for 120,000 residents in the city of Huaraz.

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