Climate

A Dead Satellite Could Ruin Weather–And Tornado–Prediction For Years

While extreme weather events seem to come and go more often than ever, our ability to forecast them does at least help us minimize risk to human life. But an impending weather satellite outage could make events like yesterday’s devestating tornado even harder to predict—for up to three years. http://gawker.com/the-biggest-most-destructive-tornado-in-history-just-508956719 The US relies on two…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe May 21

Everything you need to know about the five ice ages of Earth (including ours)

Did you know that as our climate warms, we are actually returning to a more typical weather pattern for the Earth? That’s right — we are living in an ice age, which means the temperatures and ice caps we think of as “normal” are actually extreme aberrations in the history of our planet. Image via…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 8

Report: Global temps are the highest they’ve been in 4,000 years

It’s global warming, stupid. And how. In an extensive study published in today’s issue of Science, researchers report that today’s global temperatures are warmer than any point in at least the last 4,000 years, and show no signs of declining: analyses of weather patterns since the end of the last Ice Age presage that the…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Mar 8

Watch thirty epic hours of snowstorm Nemo in just sixty seconds

Last Friday, a hulking blizzard snowstorm overtook the Northeast. Few places were as hard-hit as Boston, parts of which were shrouded in more than thirty inches of snow by Saturday morning. This timelapse video, shot by Beantown resident jere7my tho?rpe between Friday 2/8/13 and Saturday 2/9/13, packs 30 hours of snowfall, plowing, shoveling, and disappearing/reappearing…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Feb 11

This machine helped predict the weekend’s giant blizzard

All up and down the east coast of North America, news of an incoming blizzard has been brewing for days. Before it hit, people from New York and Connecticut to Ontario knew in advance to expect over a foot of snow. We take this kind of accurate forecasting for granted, but we shouldn’t. Our ability…

io9 Annalee Newitz Feb 8

Among Independent voters, belief in climate change actually shifts with the weather

A newly published study by climatologists and sociologists at the University of New Hampshire suggests the views of Independent voters on anthropogenic (i.e. caused by humans) climate change are as capricious as New England weather. Write researchers Lawrence Hamilton and Mary Stampone, who conducted the study (emphasis added): Statewide data from 5,000 random-sample telephone interviews…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jan 25

Get It Straight, People: It’s Winter Storm Gandolf, Not Winter Storm Gandalf!

Right now, the northern plains are getting buffeted by a massive winter storm that the US media has nicknamed “Gandolf.” Which has led to a lot of speculation about certain gray wizards being involved with extreme weather events in North America. But we’re here to set the record straight. This is not a misspelling of…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jan 11

The coming Australian water wars

Things are about to go Mad Max in Australia — except the studded-leather mutants will be fighting over water, not gas. The continent is suffering an unprecedented heat wave, punctuated by out-of-control wildfires. Earlier this week, International Space Station engineer Chris Hadfield, captured images of the southern continent’s fires from space. Meanwhile, Australian weather forecasters…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jan 9

Australia Is So Hot They Had to Add New Colors to Their Weather Maps

It’s super-hot in Australia right now: there are massive bush fires happening spontaneously and it’s 95°F in Sydney at midnight. In fact, the Australian bureau of meteorology has recorded the highest ever known temperature in Australia—and as a result, it’s had to add new colors to its weather maps. The purple spot in the center…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Jan 9

How much nose hair would you need to protect you from your city’s pollution?

Fun fact: research suggests that people with more nose hair (that is, nose inside their nostrils, not hairy noses, though we’re not entirely sure the two aren’t unrelated) are less likely to develop asthma than those with less-bristly nose-holes. Why would we bring this up? To help you make sense of the image up top.…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Dec 11

Why Aren’t We Afraid of a Tsunami Hitting San Francisco?

When a 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck off Japan’s eastern coast early Friday morning, we all feared a tsunami. But San Francisco gets earthquakes all the time, and we’re not scared of a tsunami there. Why? When news broke of a 7.3-magnitude earthquake off the eastern coast of Japan early this morning, our first reaction was to…

Tech News Dan Nosowitz - Popular Science Dec 10

Find out when your house will be overtaken by rising seas

Sea levels are on the rise. Is your home at risk of being submerged in the next 10, 50, 100, 300 years? The New York Times is featuring a great interactive applet that will help you find out. Unlike Surging Seas (the similarly themed applet launched by the folks at Climate Central earlier this year),…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Dec 3

Watch an amazing time lapse movie of Central Park changing color with the seasons

This video is a bit slow to start, but those who hold out for the 30-second mark will be richly rewarded. What an absolutely stunning use of the timelapse medium. Filmmaker Jamie Scott describes his process: One of the most striking things about New York City is the fall colors and there’s no better place…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Nov 28

What Is an Atmospheric River?

A gigantic storm is set to hit the West Coast later today, bringing with it over a foot of rain. It’s what meteorologists call an Atmospheric River—but what is that, exactly? An atmospheric river is a meteorological phenomenon… You guessed it! It’s not a river at all. It’s a weather event, a serious one, that…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Nov 28

NASA’s Beautiful Climate Picture Makes You Forget Extreme Weather Is Possible

The world is utterly beautiful, especially when seen through the lens of picture of global aerosols—the solid and liquid particles that float around in our atmosphere. You’re familiar with dust, but what do it and all the other floating bits look like from the heavens? We notice these particles when they scatter and absorb sunlight.…

Tech News Leslie Horn Nov 14

What destroyed the Maya? We have a new clue, in the form of an ancient stalagmite.

The Maya civilization was among the most advanced in history, and its disintegration has perplexed researchers for ages. One of the most compelling theories to date suggests that a shifting climate, playing puppeteer to sociopolitical marionettes, had a devastating role in the Maya’s downfall. Now, researchers have combined remarkably detailed climate data — recorded in…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Nov 8

Why Can’t We Stop a Hurricane Before It Hits Us?

Hurricane Sandy has caused untold billions of dollars in damage and insane casualties. And we saw the “Frankenstorm” coming, for days in advance. We can send people into space and put vehicles on Mars – why can’t we stop a hurricane in its tracks, before it comes to our major population centers and starts rolling…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Oct 31

GIFs From Last Night

gifsfln: Seth Meyers on the Steroid Era of storms. Seth Meyers just nails it with regards to Hurricane Sandy, albeit in front of an empty studio – what with the superstorm, and all. Here’s the full quote: None of the debates did they mention climate change. And I feel like every six months the worst…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Oct 31

Will scientists now be more inclined to admit that climate change is causing extreme weather?

Now that the damage inflicted by Sandy is becoming apparent, the blame game has begun – and the finger is being pointed directly at climate change. And in fact, as Mark Fischetti writes in SciAm today, the disaster is finally emboldening scientists to standup and call it like it is. Scientists have been cautious when…

io9 George Dvorsky Oct 30

Google Maps predict the future of Frankenstorm in real time

If you want to track potential damage from Frankenstorm in real time, or find the nearest shelters, Google has put together a fantastic crisis map for the New York City area. It’s a constantly-updating record not of where the storm has gone, but of where it’s likely to go based on the data that’s coming…

io9 Annalee Newitz Oct 28

A Dead Satellite Could Ruin Weather–And Tornado–Prediction For Years

Everything you need to know about the five ice ages of Earth (including ours)

Report: Global temps are the highest they’ve been in 4,000 years

Watch thirty epic hours of snowstorm Nemo in just sixty seconds

This machine helped predict the weekend’s giant blizzard

Among Independent voters, belief in climate change actually shifts with the weather

Get It Straight, People: It’s Winter Storm Gandolf, Not Winter Storm Gandalf!

The coming Australian water wars

Australia Is So Hot They Had to Add New Colors to Their Weather Maps

How much nose hair would you need to protect you from your city’s pollution?

Why Aren’t We Afraid of a Tsunami Hitting San Francisco?

Find out when your house will be overtaken by rising seas

Watch an amazing time lapse movie of Central Park changing color with the seasons

What Is an Atmospheric River?

NASA’s Beautiful Climate Picture Makes You Forget Extreme Weather Is Possible

What destroyed the Maya? We have a new clue, in the form of an ancient stalagmite.

Why Can’t We Stop a Hurricane Before It Hits Us?

GIFs From Last Night

Will scientists now be more inclined to admit that climate change is causing extreme weather?

Google Maps predict the future of Frankenstorm in real time

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