The United Nations wants to make sure every person on Earth can receive early warnings ahead of disastrous weather events. It set a goal of hitting that target within five years in an announcement last week. Early warning systems are needed urgently to save lives as climate change makes extreme weather even worse, UN officials said. Such […]
The floods that devastated the east coast of Queensland and New South Wales during February and March have been completely unprecedented. As reported by the Associated Press (AP), the amounts of rainfall that have fallen over a short period are staggering, causing devastating flooding to whole communities and the death of 22 people. The repair […]
With tornado season in full-swing, it’s worthwhile to look back at the United States’ impressive tornado history. According to the NOAA, the U.S. averages over 1,000 tornadoes a year, far more than any other country in the world. Some of those tornadoes can be exceedingly deadly and destructive, hitting a 4 or 5 on the Enhanced […]
A massive reservoir known as a boating mecca dipped below a critical threshold last week raising new concerns about a source of power that millions of people in the U.S. West rely on for electricity. Lake Powell, which covers northern Arizona and up into southern Utah, fell to below 3,525 feet (1,075 meters). This puts […]
Love it or hate it, Daylight Savings Time may just be here to stay. As Reuters reports, the U.S. Senate has just passed legislation that would make daylight saving time permanent starting in 2023, which would end, once and for all, the sleep depriving twice-annual changing of clocks in a move promoted by supporters advocating […]
July 2021 was Earth’s hottest July since global record-keeping began in 1880, 0.93 degrees Celsius (1.67°F) above the 20th-century average, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) reported. Since July is also the hottest month of the seasonal cycle, that meant that July 2021 was “more likely than not the warmest month on record for the globe […]
In 2021, a disastrous winter weather onslaught over the central U.S. brought heavy snow, freezing rain, and severe cold to Texas and surrounding states February 12-20, killing 246 people and causing $23 billion in damage. Dubbed the Texas “Snowpocalypse,” when all was said and done, the storm turned out to be the most expensive winter […]
According to NASA, our Sun is a huge ball of electrically-charged hot gas. This charged gas moves, generating a powerful magnetic field. The Sun’s magnetic field goes through a cycle, called the solar cycle, which lasts 11 years. Every 11 years or so, the Sun’s magnetic field completely flips. This means that the Sun’s north […]
If you look closely at ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) regions, you can nicely see the developing cold “waveforms”, as the pressure patterns are creating strong easterly surface trade winds. These drive the wind-driven ocean surface cooling, and peak cold anomalies are now focused more towards the eastern regions. Since early October of 2021, there […]
As history shows, La Nina can have an important influence on the Spring tornado season in the United States. And usually not in a good way. It is also partially responsible for the winter-time tornado outbreaks across the United States. From the top 5 most active tornado years, 4 were actually La Nina seasons. At […]