Summer 2024 was officially the Northern Hemisphere’s hottest on record. In the United States, fierce heat waves seemed to hit somewhere almost every day. Phoenix reached 100 degrees for more than 100 days straight. The 2024 Olympic Games started in the midst of a long-running heat wave in Europe that included the three hottest days […]
Kids born in 2020 worldwide will experience twice the number of wildfires during their lifetimes compared with those born in 1960. In California and other western states, frequent wildfires have become as much a part of summer and fall as popsicles and Halloween candy. Joan Casey, University of Washington and Rachel Morello-Frosch, University of California, […]
Warm water in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico can fuel powerful hurricanes, but how destructive a storm becomes isn’t just about the climate and weather – it also depends on the people and property in harm’s way. In many coastal cities, fast population growth has left more people living in areas at high […]
In its recent opening weekend, Twisters marked the biggest start ever for a natural disaster movie with US$80.5 million in North American box office revenue. The popularity of the film indicates disaster movies remain an important popular culture phenomenon. By Jack L. Rozdilsky, York University, Canada The Conversation As an associate professor of disaster and […]
Tropical Storm Debby was moving so slowly, Olympians could have outrun it as it moved across the Southeast in early August 2024. That gave its rainfall time to deluge cities and farms over large parts of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. More than a foot of rain had fallen in some areas by early Aug. […]
Wildfire blowups, fire whirls, towering thunderstorms: When fires get large and hot enough, they can actually create their own weather. Kyle Hilburn, Colorado State University The Conversation In these extreme fire situations, firefighters’ ordinary methods to directly control the fire don’t work, and wildfires burn out of control. Firefighters have seen many of these risks […]
Once again this year, a prolonged heat wave is slated to engulf much of the United States. People in the Southwest, Southeast, and Plains could be at particularly high risk of dangerous and possibly deadly heat this week, with the potential for coast-to-coast impacts by mid-August. In western states, already reeling from devastating wildfires, the heat […]
Less than a month into summer 2024, the vast majority of the U.S. population has already experienced an extreme heat wave. Millions of people were under heat warnings across the western U.S. in early July or sweating through humid heat in the East. Mathew Barlow, UMass Lowell and Jeffrey Basara, UMass Lowell The Conversation Death […]
Electricity is essential to just about everyone – rich and poor, old and young. Yet, when severe storms strike, socioeconomically disadvantaged communities often wait longest to recover. That isn’t just a perception. We analyzed data from over 15 million consumers in 588 U.S. counties who lost power when hurricanes made landfall between January 2017 and […]
Spring 2024 was unnerving for people across large parts of the U.S. as tornado warnings and sirens sent them scrambling for safety. More than 1,100 tornadoes were reported through May − a preliminary number but nearly twice the 30-year average at that point and behind only 2011, when deadly tornado outbreaks tore across the southeastern […]
Hurricane Beryl was the latest Atlantic storm to rapidly intensify, growing quickly from a tropical storm into the strongest June hurricane on record in the Atlantic. It hit the Grenadine Islands with 150 mph winds and a destructive storm surge on July 1, 2024, then continued to intensify into the basin’s earliest Category 5 storm […]
If the National Hurricane Center’s early forecast, released May 23, is right, the North Atlantic could see 17 to 25 named storms, eight to 13 hurricanes, and four to seven major hurricanes by the end of November. That’s the highest number of named storms in any NOAA preseason forecast. Jhordanne Jones, Purdue University The Conversation […]
Spring 2024 was unnerving for people across large parts of the U.S. as tornado warnings and sirens sent them scrambling for safety. More than 1,100 tornadoes were reported through May − a preliminary number but nearly twice the 30-year average at that point and behind only 2011, when deadly tornado outbreaks tore across the southeastern […]
Bye, June. Each day is getting shorter as we march to autumn (or so I keep telling myself). Still, it’s hard to believe next week is the Fourth of July! And since the team is taking both the holiday on Thursday and Friday off, you can look for Week En Review to hit your inboxes […]
The heat wave that left more than 100 million people sweating across the eastern U.S. in June 2024 hit so fast and was so extreme that forecasters warned a flash drought could follow across wide parts of the region. Mathew Barlow, UMass Lowell and Jeffrey Basara, UMass Lowell The Conversation Prolonged high temperatures can quickly […]