Six to See: Slideshow on Week’s Top Climate News
Toxic algae blooms, binding emissions cuts, policy changes and more in in a slideshow of the week's top climate news … Read More
In Wake of Sandy, NOAA Alters Hurricane Warning Policy
Ahead of the 2013 Atlantic Hurricane Season and in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the National Weather Service announced today that it is changing its policy on the issuance of tropical storm and hurricane watches and warnings. Beginning on June 1, the agency will be permitted to leave these watches and warnings in effect even if a hurricane transiti… Read More
U.S. Dominated Global Disaster Losses in 2012: Swiss Re
The insurance industry had its third-most expensive year on record in 2012, with global economic losses from natural catastrophes and man-made disasters totaling $186 billion, according to a report released March 27 by the reinsurance giant Swiss Re. The total insured losses for the year was $77 billion, which was well below the losses seen in 2011… Read More
Ramifications of Extreme Weather Tops Climate News
Katrina-like storm surges, drought and heavy rains, and what we can learn from the ancient past. … Read More
Warming Has Doubled Risk of Katrina-like Storm Surges
Clearly, the question of how global warming will influence tropical storms and hurricanes, which are nature's most powerful storms, remains a focus of active scientific research. Using a variety of techniques, scientists are honing in on the most likely scenarios.… Read More
Climate Change a Bigger Extinction Threat than Asteroids
As teaching moments go, it doesn’t get much better than this. NASA scientists have known for nearly a year that a small asteroid called 2012 DA14, about 150 ft. across, would whiz past Earth at the nail-biting distance of 17,000 miles or so — significantly closer than the 22,500-mile altitude occupied by geosynchronous satellites. It happened right… Read More
NWS Confirms Sandy Was Not a Hurricane At Landfall
In a technical report released on Tuesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reaffirmed its initial conclusion that Hurricane Sandy was no longer officially a hurricane when it made landfall on Oct. 29 near Brigantine, N.J., just north of Atlantic City. Instead, it was a “post-tropical cyclone” packing hurricane-force winds… Read More
East Coast Faces Rising Seas From Slowing Gulf Stream
Experts on the sea level rise triggered by climate change have long known that it will proceed faster in some places than others. The mid-Atlantic coast of the U.S. is one of them, and the reason — in theory, anyway — is that global warming should slow the flow of the Gulf Stream as it moves north and then west toward northern Europe.… Read More
