Tag Archives: weather

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 …

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Climate Change’s Latest Deadly Threat: Lightning Strikes

Through local papers and word of mouth, volunteer Daya Shankar keeps track of a very specific cause of death. As soon as he receives news of someone being struck by lightning around his neighborhood in Jharkhand, East India, he picks up his motorcycle and heads to the destination. Sometimes he …

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Extreme Weather Poses a Challenge for Heat Pumps

Andreas Bangheri knows how to read the wind. He’s been hang gliding and piloting small aircraft around the mountains of his native Austria for years. And he can tell that things are changing. “The wind is getting stronger and stronger. It’s becoming more of an issue,” says Bangheri, CEO of …

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Last Monday Was the Hottest Day on Record

THIS ARTICLE IS republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. In the past week, Earth’s record for the hottest day was broken twice. Sunday, July 21, was declared Earth’s hottest day since records began, when average surface temperature reached 17.09 degrees Celsius. On Monday the record was broken …

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There’s Another Chance to See the Northern Lights This Week

Remember all the social media posts from a few months ago showing the northern lights, in all their glory, in unexpectedly southern places? Well, get ready to potentially see them again, or for the first time: The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) predicts light displays will again appear …

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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 …

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