Nurture Nature Center

Have you been tracking this week’s winter storms? The Weather Prediction Center (WPC) has a variety of winter weather tools that you can explore in more detail this winter. One is the Winter Storm Severity Index (https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/wwd/wssi/wssi.php), which displays the severity of potential societal impacts from an approaching or ongoing winter storm event for the next three days. WSSI is based on the official NWS forecast, so it helps translate the forecast into ...an impacts framework. The components of WSSI include snow amount, snow load, ice accumulation, flash freeze, blowing snow, and ground blizzard, or a combination of all six to show overall impact. From 2020 to 2022, NNC will work with the National Weather Service and our research partner at East Carolina University to conduct social science research at 6 sites around the nation regarding how the WSSI is used in decision-making and how its presentation could be improved to be more useful.

This week Jeff takes a trip (literally) to illustrate the scale of the three parts of an atom and discusses the periodic table. Learn how to make your own scale model of your favorite element!

If you live or work in Bethlehem, tomorrow is your opportunity to learn about the draft Climate Action Plan and share your thoughts on what is proposed. Please join the City, consultant WSP, and Nurture Nature Center for this important community effort. You can register for either the 12:00 pm or 5:30 pm session at https://register.gotowebinar.com/rt/8918906682762217999 Additional information about Bethlehem’s CAP planning can be found at: www.BethlehemCAP.org

It definitely feels wintery today! While winter doesn’t officially start until later this month, it’s a good time to plan for staying safe through cold weather, snow, and ice. The National Weather Service provides information on a variety of hazards here: https://www.weather.gov/wrn/winter-at-home-sm. Be #WeatherReady!

Nurture Nature Center would like to thank the Easton Hunger Coalition for their work to address hunger in our community. We are proud to have partnered with on 20/20 Vision: Eyes on Hunger -a collaborative workshop-based response to food justice through the lens of Lehigh Valley teen artists. A part of "Hunger Free in ’23," we hope you will take the time to see this video (and share) about the project and view the artwork that the students created in response to 12 Self-evident Truths on Hunger. Special thanks to Nancy Walters, Emmarose Biason, Keri Maxfield and the young artists and the mentoring artists for their work on this project. We hope it inspires you to take action to help those in need this winter. https://youtu.be/d1AhcnPQtzo

In a previous blog post, Lauren tracked the trash, recycling, and compost she generated in one week to identify the largest categories of waste and how she might reduce her footprint. Since then, she has tried out a variety of strategies to cut down on what gets sent to the landfill. Read more in this week’s Learn by Doing: https://nurturenaturecenter.org//learn-by-doing-reducing-/