• Weather

Barry Weakens But Threat Still Looms

We wrote on Friday that Tropical Storm Barry had the potential to inflict unprecedented damage on New Orleans, and while the storm caused serious flooding and power outages to 700,000 people, the storm has weakened to a tropical depression as it continues to slowly move north through Louisiana. As NPR explained, the National Weather Service […]

• Weather

Barry May Hit NOLA, Poses An Unprecedented Threat

• Corps of Engineers
• flood
• hurricane
• levees
• New Orleans
• severe weather
• storm surge
• tropical storm

On Wednesday, New Orleans got a preview of coming disasters.  Severe thunderstorms that dumped between 6 and 7 inches of rain on the city in just 3 hours prompted tornado warnings and inundated the downtown area with water, causing transportation snarls and even forcing City Hall to close. Just as government forecasters announced that they expect 2019 to break annual flood records nationwide, the first real storm threat of the season “Barry” is lurking in the Gulf of Mexico setting its sights on the Louisiana coast (possibly New Orleans) but it is still not clear where it will make landfall.  

• Weather

Flash Floods Pound DC Just As Trump Denies Greatest Environmental Threat of All

• climate change
• extreme weather
• flash flood
• Trump
• Washington DC

Yesterday, nearly a month’s worth of rain fell in just one hour in the Washington D.C. metro area–making it one of the area’s top 10 wettest July days ever recorded. As the Washington Post reported, “The sheets of rain, with nowhere to run off, turned major roads into rivers while streams and creeks shot up 10 feet in […]

• Weather

Alaska Shatters High Temp Records

• Alaska
• heat dome
• heat wave
• record high temperature
• weather

On Independence Day, Anchorage, Alaska hit its highest temperature in recorded history — 90 degrees — by five degrees and beat the previous high for the 4th of July by more than twenty degrees, as records were broken all around the state.  However, other cities in Alaska had hit 90 degrees before, but these are rare events, but more records could fall according to Accuweather because Alaska currently sits under a “heat dome” that will last into this week.

• Weather

One “Cool” Thing: Freak Ice Storm In Mexico

• climate change
• ice
• Mexico

On Sunday, residents of Guadalajara, Mexico woke up to find their city under nearly 5 feet of ice that fell overnight as hail.   The region’s Governor, Enrique Alfaro told AFP, “I’ve never seen such scenes in Guadalajara. Then we ask ourselves if climate change is real. These are never-before-seen natural phenomenons,” he said. “It’s incredible.”  […]

• Weather

Man and Machine Chase Tornadoes Across the U.S.

• climate change
• extreme weather
• storms
• thunderstorms
• tornados

By Miro Korenha and Alexandra Patel  As tornadoes increase in range and frequency across the United States, a group of scientists has been using drones to better understand tornadoes and forecast them in an effort to save lives. Project TORUS has mobilized over 50 researchers and students to follow severe thunderstorms and collect enough data […]