By Mark Lynas 31 August 2017 (CNN) – This is what climate change looks like. Entire metropolitan areas — Houston in the United States and Mumbai in India — submerged in catastrophic floods.Record-breaking rainfall: Harvey’s 50-plus inches of torrential deluge set a new national tropical cyclone rain record for the continental United States.They used to […]
By Kathryn Watson 8 September 2017 (CBS News) – Four Texas Republicans on Friday voted against the bill that included aid for Hurricane Harvey recovery in their state, along with a debt limit extension.The House approved the legislation 316-90, in a vote that authorized $15.3 billion in aid for those affected by Harvey, raised the […]
By Elizabeth Kolbert 4 September 2017 (The New Yorker) – On 29 August 2005, at six-ten in the morning, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the border of Mississippi and Louisiana, just east of New Orleans. Katrina had spent days wobbling over the Gulf of Mexico, and by the time it reached the coast it was […]
Dr. Jeff Masters 7 September 2017 (Weather Underground) – Hurricane Irma plowed through the Turks and Caicos Islands (population 31,000) on Thursday evening, as it headed west-northwest at 16 mph towards The Bahamas and Florida. Irma maintained Category 5 intensity with 175 mph winds as its eye crossed the small privately-owned Big Ambergris Cay, but […]
By Molly Rubin 7 September 2017 (Quartz) – For the first time in modern history, three hurricanes in the Atlantic are lined up in the most dangerous of ways, according to Eric Blake, a hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center.The National Hurricane Center (NHC) has issued advisories on Hurricane Irma (currently located north of […]
By Eric Holthaus 7 September 2017(Grist) – The last Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the United States was Andrew, which lashed South Florida with wind gusts of up to 177 miles per hour in 1992. It caused immense devastation and forever changed Florida’s approach to hurricanes.Twenty-five years later, we have Hurricane Irma — […]
By Steven Hsieh 6 September 2017 (The Stranger) – Microscopic particles floating from a haze of wildfire smoke accumulated in Seattle overnight, downgrading the city’s air quality to levels that are unhealthy for everyone outside. At the “unhealthy level,” everyone may begin to experience health effects and should avoid exercising outdoors. The air could be […]
By Alex Dobuzinskis 5 September 2017 (Reuters) – An Oregon wildfire that has damaged landmarks in the scenic Columbia River Gorge slowed its push toward evacuated houses near the city of Portland on Wednesday, officials said. As dozens of blazes raged across the U.S. West, the so-called Eagle Creek Fire near Portland merged late Tuesday […]
5 September 2017 (Global News) – Thick smoke from wildfires burning in British Columbia darkened the sky over Vancouver on Tuesday and prompted an air quality advisory. Footage by one photographer shows the sun blocked out by the smoke on Tuesday morning. Smoke from BC wildfires obscures the sun in Vancouver
By Dana Nuccitelli 5 September 2017 (The Guardian) – Human-caused climate change amplified the damages and suffering associated with Hurricane Harvey in several different ways. First, sea level rise caused by global warming increased the storm surge and therefore the coastal inundation and flooding from the storm. Second, the warmer atmosphere holds more water vapor, […]
