Amid a tumultuous year involving a pandemic, wildfires and heat waves, 2020 brought the most active Atlantic hurricane season since record-keeping began.
Since 2000, about every other year, tropical storms have formed earlier than the official start date of June 1. So should the season open two weeks earlier?
This past autumn we witnessed the beginning of what may be one of the most straightforward examples of climate-induced migration in Central America. Around 10,000 people have already attempted to migrate northward after two devastating storms hit, and many more are planning to leave soon.
Globally, 2020 was a record-breaking year for expensive weather disasters, with 50 hurricanes, fires and other hazards crossing the $1 billion mark for damages.
Ferocious wildfires in the U.S. West, torrential rains in Africa and record heat waves in the Siberian Arctic are all wild weather consistent with climate change, scientists say. And the world can expect even more extreme weather and higher risks from natural disasters as global emissions of greenhouse gases continue.
Fire broke out Thursday morning at a chemical plant in Westlake, La., local authorities said, sending thick smoke over a wide area and prompting shelter-in-place directives for residents in the communities of Westlake, Moss Bluff and Sulphur.
The 2020 hurricane season could be one of the more active seasons on record with twice as much storm activity as a normal year, forecasters say. The NOAA increased the chance of an above average hurricane season from 60% to 85%.
Following a record number of Atlantic Ocean storms over the past two months, including five that struck the United States, government scientists on Thursday updated their forecast for the remainder of the hurricane season, saying it was likely to be extremely active.
Gonzalo is the earliest named “G” storm since the satellite era began in 1966, according to the National Hurricane Center. In the Pacific, Hurricane Douglas is advancing toward Hawaii.
If jet streams are weak enough and a tropical storm floats north, the wild card that dictates its path forward is the Bermuda High, an offshore merry-go-round of air that can snag storms propelled from Africa and send them clockwise: west across the Bermuda Triangle, and up the United States coast.
In August, Donald Trump reportedly asked top national security officials to consider using nuclear bombs to weaken or destroy hurricanes. Now, one member of Congress wants to make it illegal for Mr Trump, or any president, to act on this idea.
Jane Worthington moved her grandkids to protect them from oil and gas wells—but it didn't work. In US fracking communities, the industry's pervasiveness causes social strain and mental health problems.
"I was a total cheerleader for this industry at the beginning. Now I just want to make sure no one else makes the same mistake I did. It has ruined my life."
EHN.org scientific investigation finds western Pennsylvania families near fracking are exposed to harmful chemicals, and regulations fail to protect communities' mental, physical, and social health.
"Once they had the results of our study [families] felt like they had proof that these chemicals are in their air, their water, and making their way into their bodies."
