About Florian Kroker McCormack | Weather & Meteorology

About Me

I'm Florian Kroker McCormack, a high-school student at Riverdale Country School with a serious interest in meteorology, forecasting, and atmospheric science. I built floriankm.com because I wanted something more useful than a simple weather app: a place where I could compare live NOAA, NWS, SPC, radar, satellite, and model data in one workflow.

My favorite part of forecasting is connecting the dots. I usually start with the big picture, then move through satellite, radar, surface observations, mesoanalysis, short-range models, and ensemble guidance. It is part science, part detective work, and part pattern recognition, which is exactly why I enjoy it.

Research

Weather, soil, and the stem-width response of mature northern red oaks (Quercus rubra)

Field study • 07/27/25 – 09/02/25 • 10-minute sampling

Trees are a natural way to sequester CO₂ from the atmosphere, helping decrease global greenhouse gases and stabilize weather conditions. However, deforestation and climate change are increasingly compromising the conditions trees rely on to survive. This project asked: how do weather and soil variables drive short-term expansion and contraction (tree width) of mature northern red oaks (Quercus rubra)?

We measured wind, solar radiation, air temperature, precipitation, soil water content, soil temperature, matric potential, and tree width every 10 minutes from 07/27/25 to 09/02/25. We hypothesized that precipitation-driven increases in soil water availability would increase tree width, whereas higher radiation/temperature and stronger wind gusts would drive contraction.

Linear regression models support this hypothesis. Soil temperature, solar radiation, and air temperature were all negatively correlated with tree width (p < 0.01), while gust speed showed a weaker negative correlation. Precipitation-driven variables were positively correlated with tree width — most strongly during a large rainfall event on Aug 20, and across the full matric-potential trend.

R² = 0.87

Solar radiation (−)

R² = 0.55

Soil temp (−)

R² = 0.93

Aug 20 rainfall (+)

R² = 0.93

Matric potential (+)

View full research poster →

Meteorology interests

Severe convection — supercell mode, tornado probability, mesoscale convective boundaries, hodograph analysis
Synoptic dynamics — 500 mb pattern recognition, jet-streak dynamics, extratropical cyclogenesis
Winter storms — precipitation type diagnosis, dendritic growth zone quality, snow ratio, banded precipitation
Satellite interpretation — water vapor channels, air-mass RGB, cold-top signatures, overshooting tops
Space weather — geomagnetic storms, Kp index, aurora forecasting, solar wind monitoring

The Dashboard

I use floriankm.com as a single-page meteorology workstation with five main sections:

Main dashboard — NWS point forecast, local diagnostics, radar, satellite, SPC mesoanalysis, model wall, severe weather desk, and marine/tropical tools
Satellite loop — Animated GOES-East loops across 8 sectors and 10 channels including GeoColor, clean IR, water vapor, and air-mass RGB
Space weather — Kp index, DSCOVR solar wind, aurora forecast (Ovation model), GOES X-ray flux, and SDO solar imagery
Marine — NDBC buoy observations, global wave height guidance, and sea surface temperature

All data comes from public NOAA/NWS and related weather sources, with no backend or API keys required.

Contact

Suggestions, corrections, or want to trade a forecast? Reach me at floriangkmcc@gmail.com. Severe-weather season discussions and winter storm setups are especially welcome.