All things geology, climate, oceans, and more
India was the hottest place in the world this weekend. The northern state of Rajasthan was the epicenter of an extreme heat wave that very nearly broke the all-time temperature record for India. A heat dome has been building over northern India for the past few days, turning the region into a furnace. Numerous locations…
The calendar hasn’t turned to summer yet, but skies in Canada and across the U.S. already look like August. Smoke from massive Canadian wildfires has made the sun disappear in Edmonton and turned Friday’s sunrise blood red as far east as Vermont. More than 900,000 acres of Alberta has gone up in flames, the latest…
This has been a spring of angry weather across the U.S. as heat, flooding, and hail pummel the eastern half of the country. But along with the garden variety suffering, devastating tornadoes have also spread across the U.S. from Texas to Pennsylvania. Twisters have ripped through communities across the U.S., killing at least three in…
Few things in this world are as terrifying as tornadoes. The wrath of Mother Nature just shooting from above in a whirlwind of destructive winds and debris is nothing to underestimate. Such was the nightmare that descended this week on the Midwest, where forecasters believe some 53 tornadoes made landfall Monday night, injuring almost 100…
An 8.0 magnitude earthquake rocked northern Peru on Sunday, killing at least one man and causing several injuries, the Associated Press reports. The earthquake, which struck in the early hours of the morning, was centered on a remote area of the Amazon jungle, the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, a vast forest bordered by the Marañón and…
Back on November 11, 2018, a planetwide rumble emanated from somewhere between eastern Africa and Madagascar. This strange signal, thought by scientists at the time to be related to a colossal but hard-to-identify magmatic process, was pinpointed to have come from 30 miles east of the island of Mayotte, beneath the waves. It quickly became…
It’s wildfire season again here in California. One of the fundamental disconnects between the eastern and western regions of the United States is fire. Growing up in New York City, big wildfires were something I saw in very brief flashes on the news before the next story hit. That is to say, I was aware,…
Y’all better buckle up because hurricane season is coming, and federal scientists have predicted it will be *checks notes*… uh, pretty damn normal. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced its annual hurricane outlook Thursday, and they aren’t expecting it to be a wild ride. El Niño conditions, which are expected to persist through…
Eight years ago, the deadliest tornado in U.S. history wreaked havoc on the 50,000-person city of Joplin, Missouri, killing 161 people. On Wednesday night, city residents had to relive the fear of that day as more than two dozen tornadoes ripped through Oklahoma and Missouri, one touching down near Joplin. Three deaths have been confirmed…
The recovery of the ozone hole has been a quintessential environmental success story, as the world has worked largely in harmony for decades to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals. So last year’s discovery that emissions of CFC-11, one of those banned chemicals, was suddenly reversing course came as a shock. Now, scientists have pinpointed the primary…
Atlantic hurricane season officially starts on June 1, but the ocean and atmosphere are paying the calendar no heed. A swirl of clouds and thunderstorms off the Florida coast has a 70 percent chance of becoming a tropical storm in the next 48 hours, according to the National Hurricane Center. That would make it the…
The South saw a few dozen tornadoes over the weekend, but Monday’s conditions are ripe for something much worse. The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued a high alert forecast for tornadoes across parts of Texas and Oklahoma, including Oklahoma City. The storms that could spawn them will also unleash damaging hail and heavy rain…
A dangerous weather setup is shaping up over the Midwest this weekend. Powerful storms could usher tornadoes, hail, and lighting into the region, putting millions at risk. Heavy rain could also cause flash floods as it falls on saturated soil in areas already grappling with historic flooding. May is prime time for severe weather in…
By mid-May, California is usually leaning pretty hard into the summer dry season. But a bizarre series of storms will have weather maps looking more like winter than spring. Inches of rain, feet of snow, and gusty winds will buffet Northern California over the next week and a half. Records could be broken and it…
Scattered clouds gave the sunlight a dreamy quality. Still, it got caught in the ripples of the sluggish river, giving it a slight shimmer as it flowed through the city. The mercury cracked 84 degrees Fahrenheit. Basically the same scenes played out 5,400 miles apart, but while it was just another May day in New…
It doesn’t matter if you live on Earth or Westeros, it’s all going to burn down eventually. I’ll leave the Game of Thrones analysis to io9, especially since I’ve never seen the show. But now that my topical intro has hooked you, allow me to tell you about what’s going on in Mexico. Massive wildfires…
The Antarctic is teeming with microscopic life: Mites, water bears, and roundworms squirm around, invisible to the naked eye. In fact, the Antarctic is full of biodiversity hotspots—and they’re thanks to penguin and elephant seal poop. A new study published Thursday in the journal Current Biology tracked how nutrients from sea make their way onto…
Rivers are the Earth’s arteries, and humans are clogging them with all sorts of junk. In fact, just a little over a third of the planet’s longest rivers remain free from human interference, according to a new study released in Nature on Wednesday. Like the arteries in our bodies, choking rivers could lead to a…
A new concept for providing emergency wifi to areas struck by natural disasters has completed a successful test in Puerto Rico. The system uses rubber duck-inspired devices to create what the developers are calling a “ClusterDuck” network for disaster victims to connect to. It may sound like quackery, but this is a legitimate project backed…
Cyclone Fani is bearing down on India and has forced the largest evacuation in the country’s history as millions flee from the coast. The storm formed in the Bay of Bengal earlier this week and has been gathering steam ever since as it stalks India’s east coast. It’s expected to make landfall on Friday packing…
