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Hurricanes are the most destructive natural disasters in the United States and the most dangerous and destructive storms are hitting the U.S. three times more frequently than they did a century ago.
Now, what are we going to do about it?
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Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, is being consumed by wildfires, with the city of Sydney at risk for the first time, and the government has declared a state of emergency in the region for the next week. Meanwhile, here in the U.S., a massive arctic front has shifted south, bringing bone-chilling cold and snow to the middle of the country today, with more than 67 million Americans are under winter weather alerts and hundreds of cold temperature records could be broken.
Why This Matters: This is more than just uncomfortable weather — it is dangerous. This type of “catastrophic” wildfire risk has never happened before in New South Wales — and the public is being warned not to be dismissive — with officials explaining that these conditions mean that lives are at risk. The same is true for bitter cold here — with snow from the Dakotas to New England over the course of the week, and it is not even mid-November.
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A new study predicts that in the future, continued warming over the western Pacific as a result of climate change promises conditions that will trigger more extreme El Niño events.
Why This Matters: Wetter El Niño years and dryer and hotter La Niña years can have deadly impacts for communities across the world.
Continue Reading 441 wordsStay in the know, empower yourself to be a #FriendOfThePlanet, sign up to receive ODP in your inbox each morning!
Take a look at the Atlantic’s roundup of images from the aftermath of Typhoon Hagibis, the equivalent of a category 5 storm that struck Japan this past week, causing billions of dollars of wreckage in its wake and claiming 66 lives. Not only did the storm sweep away Fukushima nuclear waste bags into the river […]
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Although the hottest story in the media right now is impeachment it’s important not to forget that a worsening drought is affecting Southern states from Texas to Georgia. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has extended a drought disaster declaration to numerous counties in the state due to significantly low rainfall and prolonged dry conditions that continue […]
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The five years from 2015-2019 are going to be the warmest five year period on record according to the World Meteorological Association (WMO) which comes as no surprise given the “symptoms” we have experienced during this period, including sea-level rise, ice loss, and extreme weather. This grim news that climate change is accelerating was made public […]
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A new report put out by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, (IDMC) has revealed that extreme weather events have displaced a record-setting 7 million people in the first 6 months of 2019. As the New York Times reported the IDMC, “which compiles data from governments, United Nations humanitarian agencies and media reports, concluded in a […]
Continue Reading 449 wordsTake a look at ODP co-founder Monica Medina discuss how climate change is intensifying Atlantic hurricanes and how our nation might better prepare for this threat.
Continue Reading 35 wordsEgan Bernal was crowned the winner of the Tour de France on Sunday, riding into Paris on a beautiful evening, but the outcome of the race was arguably changed because of the bizarre weather — including the hailstorm and also heavy rain and mudslides that blocked the road and forced another rare decision — a shortening of Saturday’s stage as well.
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According to a warning from top United Nations officials, climate-related disasters are now happening at a rate of one per week. The rate of climate-related disasters is also increasing in the U.S., according to a new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released yesterday, which said that from 2016 to 2018, the average number of billion-dollar disasters totaled 15 each year, while the average for 1980–2018 was just 6.2 events per year.
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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 […]
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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 […]
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