• Weather

Tropical Storm Bertha Makes Landfall In South Carolina After Flooding South Florida

• #climatecrisis
• conservation
• environment
• Flooding
• rain
• severe weather
• tropical storm

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.

• Weather

April Ties Record, 2020 Could Be Warmest Year and CO2 Levels Highest in 3 Million Years

• #COVID19
• conservation
• El Nino
• heat
• hurricane
• science
• severe weather

April’s global average temperatures tied for the warmest on record, with NOAA predicting there is a 75% chance that this year will be the warmest since temperatures records began in 1880 due to much warmer than average temperatures in northern Asia, especially Siberia, across northern and coastal central Greenland, for parts of Antarctica, areas of Alaska and the Arctic Ocean. 

Why This Matters:  As carbon dioxide levels keep going up it is easier and easier to set warmest month records because it stays in the atmosphere for a long time continuing to heat us up.

• Weather

Severe Weather and Coronavirus: A Bad Combo

• Gulf of Mexico
• hurricane
• Hurricane Harvey
• severe weather
• tornado
• tornadoes

This year’s warm winter through most of the Lower 48 states has been great, right? Yes, but, but, but — the warm weather in the southeast was caused by the fact that the waters of the Gulf of Mexico are about 3 degrees warmer than usual, and that also increases the prospect for a very active spring tornado season and summer hurricane season.

Why This Matters:  It was less than a month ago that a deadly cluster of severe tornadoes hit Nashville.  What if the city had been battling the surge of the virus at the time?

• Climate Change

In Puerto Rico, Battling Coronavirus and Climate Change

• climate crisis
• COVID-19
• hurricane
• Hurricane Maria
• pandemic
• Puerto Rico
• severe weather

There are five confirmed cases of coronavirus in Puerto Rico so far, but the residents of the island are taking big steps to try to prevent the further spread of the disease, such as a strictly-enforced curfew from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. and the closure of ‘non-essential’ businesses like shopping malls or recreation centers.

Why This Matters: Puerto Rico is now home to 3.5 million Americans and it is “one of the world’s most storm-vulnerable regions,” according to the Associated Press.

• Climate Change

We Need To Expand the National Weather Service To Provide More Climate Services

• climate change
• National Weather Service
• severe weather

By Monica Medina, Founder and CEO of Our Daily Planet Earlier this year, I drafted a chapter for a book of “big” new environmental ideas entitled “A Better Planet: Forty Big Ideas for a Sustainable Future.”  In my essay, I propose that in order to brace ourselves for the impacts of climate change that we […]

• Weather

New Polling Shows Americans Believe Weather Disasters Increasing, NOAA Flap Continues

• climate change
• NOAA
• severe weather

Late last week, a new AP-NORC poll of 1,058 adults, which was conducted August 15-18, found that more than 70 percent of Americans believe that weather disasters are worsening (only 4% thought it was less severe) and most of those people blame global warming for that.  Meanwhile, ICYMI, in yesterday’s episode of Sharpie-Gate, the Acting […]

• Politics

Polls Are In Agreement — Reveal Growing Public Concern About Climate

• climate change
• crisis
• severe weather

New polls released this week show increasing numbers of Americans are concerned about severe weather and about climate change. A new poll released yesterday by CBS News found that a majority of Americans think action needs to be taken immediately to address climate change. The Washington Post and Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) also conducted a […]

• Health

Rising Heat and Humidity, a Lethal Combination

• climate change
• extreme heat
• severe weather

Daytime highs across much of the Southern United States have been breaking records this past week but a stifling combination of high heat and humidity is preventing nights from cooling off, creating dangerous heat situations in cities like Houston (also neighboring Galveston where the heat index remained above 100 for 40 straight hours). As the […]

• Animals

Shark Week Starts Sunday, but Its Been Shark and Now Tornado Summer on Cape Cod

• Cape Cod
• great white shark
• severe weather
• sharks
• tornado

Sharks are have frequented the Cape in the past, but this year, according to the local TV station KSBW8, there has been a marked increase in sightings and they are coming closer to humans.  Interestingly, the Boston Globe reported yesterday that those same sharks are rarely sighted in Rhode Island.  

• 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.  

• People

Heroes of the Week: Flood Rescuers

• severe weather
• storms
• tornadoes

Earlier this week, we described the severe weather outbreak in the midwest.  By Thursday, more than 60 tornadoes had touched down in Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa.  All the rain made swollen rivers even more flooded and left many people stranded in their cars and homes.  And the severe weather is not over yet.  According […]

• Weather

Davenport Flooded by Mississippi River, Tornadoes Rock Midwest

• Des Moines
• floods
• Mississippi River
• severe weather
• tornadoes

The Mississippi River broke through a barrier and water rushed into downtown Davenport, Iowa, flooding offices and shops unexpectedly on Tuesday and remained flooded into Wednesday.  CNN reported that the flooding occurred when HESCO flood restraints holding back the bloated river suddenly broke, sending water rushing into the streets creating a lake in the midst of the downtown area, forcing first responders to evacuate people by boat.