Welcome to 2025!

Welcome to 2025! I hope everyone had a great holiday break. (Hopefully you got a break!)

I'm extremely happy to introduce the new format for ITT. ITT's first publication was in 2011 as a way to provide additional resources to earth educators. Members received a printed magazine quarterly. This was very successful, but there was a limit to how much information could be published. ITT then transitioned to a fully online publication in 2022. The online magazine format accommodated more articles, larger articles, and more pictures. We have taken the evolution of ITT one step further in 2025.

The new format for ITT will take things a couple of steps further! Articles will be published online as they come in, rather than quarterly. This is especially useful for information that is time sensitive. In addition to all of the benefits of an online publication, we are also adding a discussion feature and subject tags. The subject tags allow readers to search for particular content (ecology, oceanography, etc.), education level or article type (sections, awards, etc.) This makes it easy to jump to articles that are relevant to you. The discussion feature encourages educators to compare experiences and ask questions.

Winter is finally here!

Winter finally took hold throughout most of the country last week. The Midwest and East Coast experienced a strong Cold Air Outbreak. A Cold Air Outbreak is a dense, cold air mass that makes its way southward from the Arctic. One-day snowfall totals were as high as 18 inches from Kansas to Virginia. Some locations were seeing more than an inch an hour. The Cold Air Outbreak even reached into Florida, where they had temperatures in the 40's (F) in Miami. There were avalanche alerts in Colorado. The desert southwest with high winds, rain and snow. Wind gusts were as high as 100 mph in several location across the country.

In California, colder months bring the Santa Ana winds. Santa Ana winds are caused by a high pressure over the Great Basin, which creates strong downslope winds that come off of the Santa Ana Mountains. Sinking air warms and downslope winds can be extremely strong. These winds increase the risk of forest fires and make them uncontrollable. As of this writing, Los Angeles is facing four forest fires made much worse by the Santa Ana winds. My heart goes out to everyone impacted. You are in our thoughts.

In addition to the dangers of winter, it can also be quite beautiful. In addition to the snow, the atmosphere exhibits phenomenal optical effects. This picture was taken in Red River, New Mexico on January 9, 2015. One of my former students sent me a picture from Wisconsin that looks very similar. Ice crystals in the atmosphere reflect, refract and diffract sunlight into this amazing display. In the lower-48, we typically see sun dogs, sun pillars and halos. More information about these features can be found from the National Weather Service.

Have a wonderful start to the year! -- ITT Editor, Redina Finch