Climate science
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NOAA is now predicting a 90 percent chance of a strong El Nino lasting into the fall and most likely through the winter. What does that mean for impacts across the country? Cliff Mass has an excellent blog posting on this subject at https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2015/06/a-strong-el-nino-develops-what-does.html. Even though his blog is directed towards the Pacific Northwest, you can…
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Climate.gov has a great new entry on their “Beyond the Data” blog. Deke Arndt of NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information writes on the value and the problems that come with ranking data year by year. You can read it at https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/beyond-data/second-place-really-first-loser. Here’s the cartoon that goes with it:
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The National Hurricane Center reported today that a tropical disturbance off the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico is 80 percent likely to become a tropical depression in the next few days. This area, currently called Investigation 91L, is expect to strengthen over the warm Gulf of Mexico and could develop into a tropical depression and perhaps…
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NASA released a satellite time-lapse video earlier this week showing this year’s return of the monsoon rains to India. You can view it at https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/nasa-sees-the-start-of-indias-monsoon-season. The official start of the monsoon season this year was June 5, a little later than usual. A strong heat wave in the days before the delayed start of the…
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In NOAA’s latest “Beyond the Data” blog entry, Deke Arndt talks about the impacts of an El Nino year on the likelihood that 2015 may be the warmest year ever in recorded history. He presents the graph below, which shows the temperature differences from the long-term average, for each month starting in 1982. Bars in…
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Now that summer is well and truly underway, it’s a good idea to review the safety information for heat-related illnesses. The National Weather Service has provided a handy guide at https://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/heat/index.shtml. This information is important for anyone who works with kids outside as well as those who are managing outdoor workers like farm hands or foresters.…
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A new study released by NOAA last week shows that in El Nino years, the number of tornadoes and hail storms decreases compared to non-El Nino years. As you might expect, in La Nina years, the opposite of El Nino, severe weather increases in the Southeast. Note the split between the Florida peninsula and more…