Please invest in Our Daily Planet today, by making a one time or monthly contribution.
We do not charge our readers a subscription fee for our content. We want to continue to grow our readership, particularly among millennials and public servants. Voluntary contributions from readers will help us employ interns and freelance journalists, expand our content, and reach a larger audience.
If you make a contribution of $150 or more, you will become an official “Friend of the Planet” and receive a Friend of the Planet T-shirt or water bottle.
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 words
Tropical Storm Isaias is slowly moving up the Eastern seaboard today, with its biggest risk for damage now in the Carolinas, as the storm remained offshore of Florida causing flooding due to storm surge rather than wind damage. It will be a very wet few days for the East Coast with heavy rains and storm surge, and inland flooding all the way up to New England.
Why This Matters: A new study out last week found what we are seeing play out with Tropical Storm Isaias.
Continue Reading 585 words
The second named storm of the season, Tropical Storm Bertha, strengthened quickly overnight Tuesday and made landfall yesterday morning about 20 miles east of Charleston. On Tuesday, as a result of the storm, Miami experienced more than 7 inches of rain — 6 of which fell in 2 hours, flooding streets across the city.
Why This Matters: Tropical Storm Bertha is following an increasingly familiar pattern of unprecedented amounts of rainfall along with strong winds that persist into the interior portions.
Continue Reading 421 words
The Edenville Dam failure in Michigan causing thousands to evacuate puts a spotlight on a problem that the American Society of Civil Engineers highlighted in 2017 when it gave our country a “D” for dam safety (yep – that’s it’s grade) but this grade has not significantly improved in the last 20 years.
Why This Matters: When we think about the security risks to our nation, we need to start counting infrastructure failure due to climate change as one of the most troubling.
Continue Reading 602 words
Tropical Storm Dorian, a “compact” storm that is expected to be upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane by the time it passes the Dominican Republic and to impact Puerto Rico by tonight or early tomorrow, according to CNN. CNN also reported that a team of over 200 people from nearly 30 different fire departments in South Florida were deployed to the Caribbean and Puerto Rico on Monday, according to CNN affiliate WPLG-TV.
Continue Reading 520 words
Hurricane Season in the Atlantic officially began last Saturday, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is predicting a “near normal” year with nine to fifteen named storms, of which four to eight may strengthen to become hurricanes. Of those, two to four could be major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher. The Pacific hurricane forecast is calling for an above-normal season for both the eastern and central Pacific regions.
Continue Reading 540 wordsSubscribe to the email that top lawmakers, renowned scientists, and thousands of concerned citizens turn to each morning for the latest environmental news and analysis.
