History
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You’ve probably all seen detailed image of individual snowflakes on dark backgrounds taken by cameras attached to microscopes. The first person who made these thrilling pictures was Vermont farmer Wilson Bentley, nicknamed “Snowflake Bentley” for the thousands of photographic plates he made of individual snowflakes up in Jericho, VT. In his lifetime, he photographed over…
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Today is the anniversary of the Great Savannah Fire of January 11, 1820, which destroyed over 500 building and costing roughly $4 million (equivalent to $90 million in 2024) in damages. The fire was caused by months of very dry conditions followed by a day with strong winds from the northwest. The high winds fanned…
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While drought has completely disappeared from California for the first time in years due to heavy rainfall from atmospheric rivers this fall, it is still very much present in the Colorado River basin. The result is drastically lower Colorado River levels, leading to reductions or even cut-offs in irrigation water in areas that depend on…
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I was surprised to read on Facebook today that the Farmers’ Almanac is stopping publication after the 2026 Almanac after publishing continuously since 1818. They did not give a reason for stopping as far as I can tell. While scientists generally don’t consider their weather and climate forecasts to be particularly accurate (they have been…
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If you are interested in natural hazards, you will likely be fascinated by the Tunguska explosion that occurred over Siberia on June 30, 1908. This unusual explosion occurred over a remote area of Siberia, flattening an estimated 80 million trees over an area of 830 square miles. It was accompanied by a fireball and an…
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Watching satellite loops of hurricanes, dust storms, and other atmospheric events has become routine and I see daily examples on social media plus on broadcast television and online. But it was just 65 years ago that the first weather satellite was launched, just a couple of years after the USSR launched Sputnik in 1957. One…
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I can’t recall whether I posted the proposed hurricane names for this year so here I go just in case. EarthSky posted a story about the names for this year here. The story includes some history about when hurricanes were first given names and what storm names were retired in 2024 (hint: there are three).…