Image of the Day: Who Says Lightning Can’t Strike Twice?
It has been the summer for thunderstorms. Yet another strong storm swept across Toronto, allowing lightning to strike the city's iconic CN Tower, which stands at 1,815 feet in height. The thunderstorm only lasted 30 minutes but that was enough time for lightning to hit the tower on multiple occasions. Richard Gottardo, a Canadian photographer, was… Read More
Image of the Day: Fires Fiercely Plow Through Portugal
Firefighters douse the flames on Madeira, an island off the coast of Portugal. Heat and dry weather on the Iberian Peninsula fed the fires both on the islands and on the Portuguese mainland. Parts of Madeira were evacuated to ensure the safety of the residents. Firefighters from the Portuguese mainland joined forces with Madeira’s firefighters to … Read More
Countdown to July 24 Release of ‘Global Weirdness’
It’s titled Global Weirdness: Severe Storms, Deadly Heat Waves, Relentless Drought, Rising Seas and the Weather of the Future, published by Pantheon. The book is an effort to tell the story of climate science and climate change in a straightforward, low-key way, without apocalyptic proclamations.… Read More
Image of the Day: Somewhere Over the Rainbow
A double rainbow arches over a road in Searchlight, Nev., following a heavy rainstorm. Rainbows form when the sun comes out immediately following a rainstorm. When the light from the sun goes through the water droplets left over from the storm, it bends. Different colors of light bend by different amounts, which allows the formation of the … Read More
NASA Animation: Watching the Earth Breathe
When Charles Keeling first began measuring the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide levels in the late 1950’s, he noted first that they stood at about 315 parts per million (ppm), or 315 molecules of carbon dioxide for every million molecules of air. Soon after, though, he found that the concentrations were rising, thanks to the burning of fossil fuels … Read More
Image of the Day: Population Grows, but the Earth Doesn’t
Commuters crowd a train station in Mumbai. MSNBC reported that 12 million people live in Mumbai, which means it is the city in India with the most people. According to the BBC, in less than 20 years, India could become the most populated country in the world, surpassing China. Wednesday marked the United Nations’ World Population Day. The United N… Read More
Explaining Explosion of Daily Record Highs Easy as Pie
The study used computer models to project how the records ratios might shift in future decades as the amount of greenhouse gases in the air continues to increase. The results showed that the ratio of daily record highs to daily record lows in the lower 48 states could soar to 20-to-1 by mid-century, and 50-to-1 by 2100. … Read More
U.S. Falls Short in Global Energy Efficiency Rankings
The nonprofit American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) released a report this week ranking the top 12 global economies in terms of their energy efficiency. The U.S. was 9th, trailing not only the United Kingdom, which ranked 1st, but also behind the European Union and China.… Read More
