As Hurricane Milton made landfall on Florida’s west coast the evening of October 9, a deluge of rain ruptured the city of St. Petersburg’s water main lines. The damage meant that some hospitals in the area—including one with a large neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)—were temporarily cut off from public …
Read More »The Cost of Lightning
It was the terrible prospect of lightning one day striking the historic windmill that troubled Andrew Farrell. A bolt five times hotter than the surface of the sun instantly turning moisture in one of the mill’s timbers to steam, exploding it. What if a raging fire then engulfed the 160-year-old …
Read More »A Rare Coincidence of La Niña Events Will Weaken Hurricane Season
THIS ARTICLE IS republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. The North Atlantic Ocean has been running a fever for months, with surface temperatures at or near record highs. But cooling along the equator in both the Atlantic and eastern Pacific may finally be starting to bring some …
Read More »Your Guide to Surviving Extreme Weather
This story originally appeared on Grist and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. No matter where you live, extreme weather can hit your area, causing damage to homes, power outages, and dangerous or deadly conditions. If you’re on the coast, it may be a hurricane; in the Midwest or …
Read More »Bayesian Yacht Sinking: Climate Change Created Perfect Storm for Waterspouts
The waterspout blamed for the deadly sinking of a luxury superyacht carrying the British tech billionaire Mike Lynch in Italy has been called a freak “black swan” event. But scientists believe this kind of marine tornado is becoming more common with global warming. While the cause of the sinking of …
Read More »The Run of Record-Breaking Heat Has Ended, for Now
THIS ARTICLE IS republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. A 13-month streak of record-breaking global warmth has ended. From June 2023 until June 2024, air and ocean surface water temperatures averaged a quarter of a degree Celsius higher than records set only a few years previously. Air …
Read More »What 'Twisters' Gets Right—and Wrong—About Tornado Science
It’s not hyperbole to say that a significant number of meteorologists working today never would’ve thought to enter the field if it weren’t for the 1996 blockbuster Twister. Meteorology programs around the United States saw a surge in admissions in the years after the movie came out. Following the success …
Read More »How to Build a Hurricane-Proof House
They couldn’t sleep. A hurricane was lashing their brand-new house with a torrent of wind and rain. Deborah Rodriguez and her husband were miles away, snuggled up in a hotel bed, but they could watch the drama unfold in real time: Their smartphones were connected to their home security cameras. …
Read More »Hurricane Beryl Isn’t a Freak Storm—It’s the Exact Nightmare Meteorologists Predicted
Hurricane Beryl’s record-shattering intensification into a scale-topping Category 5 storm has stunned even the most seasoned experts. This storm is the nightmare scenario that meteorologists were worried about heading into the 2024 hurricane season. All the warning indicators were blinking red in the weeks and months leading up to Beryl’s …
Read More »Extreme Hail Storms Are Wrecking Solar Farms—but Defending Them May Be Easier Than It Seems
This story originally appeared on Inside Climate News and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. When a baseball-sized hailstone slams into a solar panel at more than 90 mph, the result is not pretty. We saw this in March, when a hailstorm decimated parts of the 350-MW Fighting Jays …
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