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Weather
This year has seen many bad records broken when it comes to climate-driven severe weather. We are now several letters into the Greek alphabet for storm names having reached this point (23 so far) for only the second time since storm names began.
Why This Matters: The number of storms is not just a fun fact — it is devastating for tens of thousands of people.
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Hurricane Sally finally slammed onshore along the Alabama-Florida border early yesterday morning after more than a day picking up moisture over the Gulf of Mexico.
Why This Matters: Severe storms like hurricanes Sally, Dorian, and Harvey, but even thunderstorms, are becoming wetter, more intense, have longer staying power, and are harder to predict.
Continue Reading 633 wordsHurricane Sally, now a category 2 storm (winds at 110 mph) has slowed and intensified in the last 24 hours, with landfall now shifting to the east (fortunately away from New Orleans), but crawling toward the Eastern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida Panhandle coastline with its high winds whipping the shore, the storm surge and huge rainfall amounts are expected to last for the next 36 hours.
Why This Matters: As President Trump denies the science, which he literally did today in California, the Gulf Coast gets ready for rainfall totals measured in feet not inches.
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Evacuations have begun as Tropical Storm Sally is picking up strength and heading straight for southeastern Louisiana. Forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) expect it to make landfall as a Category 2 hurricane sometime early on Tuesday, according to CNN.
Why This Matters: Trump voters in Florida are less likely to heed severe weather warnings — they believe conservative media outlets that claim that weather forecasts are exaggerated because the liberal media is hyping climate change.
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We told you earlier this month that Phoenix had broken its record for the most days of 110 degrees or higher — and they just keep wracking them up. The city has now had 50 days when the temperature reached 110 degrees or more, shattering the old record of 33. And now the Gulf states are also experiencing record hot temps this week.
Why This Matters: Heat waves in the summer in the south and southwest seem like par for the course. But they are actually getting worse and are more deadly than other severe weather.
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In the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, more than 400 pipelines and 100 drilling platforms were damaged by the storms and 540 separate oil spills were reported in Louisiana waters. As NOLA.com reported, Nine days after the storm, oil could still be seen leaking from toppled storage tanks, broken pipelines and sunken boats between […]
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