Severe Weather News

November 20, 2024

Top Headlines

Mixed Forests Reduce the Risk of Forest Damage in a Warmer Climate

Nov. 20, 2024 — Forests with few tree species pose considerably higher risk of being damaged and especially vulnerable is the introduced lodgepole ...

Artificial Intelligence Can Be Used to Predict River Discharge and Warn of Potential Flooding

Nov. 19, 2024 — Researchers have created a method that uses artificial intelligence to more accurately predict short-term river discharge using historical data from two hydrometric stations on the Ottawa River along ...

Will Agricultural Weeds Finally Claim the Upper Hand in a Changing Climate?

Nov. 19, 2024 — A few years back, a group of weed scientists showed that soil-applied herbicides are less effective against agricultural weeds in the context of our changing climate. Now, the same research group has shown the same is true of post-emergence (POST) ...

Improving Hurricane Modeling With Physics-Informed Machine Learning

Nov. 19, 2024 — Researchers employ machine learning to more accurately model the boundary layer wind field of tropical cyclones. Conventional approaches to storm forecasting involve large numerical simulations run on supercomputers incorporating mountains of ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:24pm EST

American Soil Losing More Nutrients for Crops Due to Heavier Rainstorms

Nov. 18, 2024 — Phosphorus, a nutrient in soil essential for sustaining most forms of life, is increasingly disappearing from land as it is washed into waterways throughout the United States, according to a new ...

Climate Change and Eye Maladies

Nov. 16, 2024 — Clinical visits by patients suffering ocular surface eye conditions more than doubled during times when ambient particulate matter from air pollution was in the atmosphere, signaling a possible ...

NASA Satellites Reveal Abrupt Drop in Global Freshwater Levels

Nov. 16, 2024 — The Earth's total amount of freshwater dropped abruptly starting in May 2014 and has remained low ever since. The shift could indicate Earth's continents have entered a persistently drier ...

Linking Data on Genetics, Traits and Environment Gives Crop Breeders a Wider Lens

Nov. 13, 2024 — The interplay between the genetic makeup of crops and the conditions in which they grow is difficult to untangle. A research team aims to help ...

Extreme Weather Accelerates Nitrate Pollution in Groundwater

Nov. 13, 2024 — Extreme weather from climate change, including droughts and heavy rains, may increase the risk of nitrates from fertilizers ending up in ...

Facing the Wind: How Trees Behave Across Various Forest Settings and Weather Events

Nov. 12, 2024 — A recent study on Cryptomeria japonica plots shows that trees dissipate wind energy by switching between two swaying behaviors at specific wind ...

Microplastics Impact Cloud Formation, Likely Affecting Weather and Climate

Nov. 7, 2024 — Scientists have spotted microplastics, tiny pieces of plastic smaller than 5 millimeters, in some of the most pristine environments on Earth, from the depths of the Mariana Trench to the snow on Mt. ...

Measurements from 'Lost' Seaglider Offer New Insights Into Antarctic Ice Melting

Nov. 8, 2024 — New research reveals for the first time how a major Antarctic ice shelf has been subjected to increased melting by warming ocean waters over the last ...

Some of the World's Least Polluting Populations Are at Much Greater Risk of Flooding Fueled by Climate Change

Nov. 7, 2024 — A new study has exposed for the first time how inhabitants of the smallest countries globally, contributing least to climate change, already bear the ...

How Much Climate Change Is in the Weather?

Nov. 8, 2024 — Only a few weeks ago, massive precipitation produced by the storm 'Boris' led to chaos and flooding in Central and Eastern Europe. An analysis shows that in a world without the current level of ...

How Prisons Fall Short in Protecting the Incarcerated from Climate Disasters

Nov. 8, 2024 — A new study paints a grim picture of how blistering heat, wildfire smoke and other extreme weather events impact Colorado's jail and prison ...

Hurricane Helene's Gravity Waves Revealed by NASA's AWE

Nov. 7, 2024 — On Sept. 26, 2024, Hurricane Helene slammed into the Gulf Coast of Florida, inducing storm surges and widespread impacts on communities in its path. At the same time, NASA's Atmospheric Waves ...

Climate Change Parching the American West Even Without Rainfall Deficits

Nov. 6, 2024 — Higher temperatures caused by anthropogenic climate change turned an ordinary drought into an exceptional one that parched the American West from 2020--22. A study has found that evaporation ...

Power Grids Supplied Largely by Renewable Sources Experience Lower Intensity Blackouts

Nov. 6, 2024 — New research into the vulnerability of power grids served by weather-dependent renewable energy sources (WD-RESs) such as solar and wind paints a hopeful picture as various countries around the globe ...

Using a Fan and Wetting the Skin Reduces Risk of Deadly Cardiac Strain in Hot and Humid Weather

Nov. 6, 2024 — New collaborative research has shown that using a fan in hot and humid weather reduces cardiac strain in older people, contradicting recommendations from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention ...

Research Reveals How Stormy Conditions Affect Albatrosses' Ability to Feed

Nov. 6, 2024 — Researchers used biologging technology to analyse movements, activity patterns and eating habits of two species of Southern Ocean albatrosses to see how they responded to extreme weather. The study ...

New Trigger Proposed for Record-Smashing 2022 Tonga Eruption

Nov. 4, 2024 — Fifteen minutes before the massive January 2022 eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano, a seismic wave was recorded by two distant seismic stations. The researchers propose that the ...

Study Reveals Acceleration in Pacific Upper-Ocean Circulation Over Past 30 Years, Impacting Global Weather Patterns

Oct. 31, 2024 — A new study has revealed significant acceleration in the upper-ocean circulation of the equatorial Pacific over the past 30 years. This acceleration is primarily driven by intensified atmospheric ...

Temperature at Roque De Los Muchachos Observatory Rose 1.1 Degrees C in 20 Years -- Twice as Much as Predicted by Climate Models

Oct. 31, 2024 — The meteorological data recorded over the past two decades by sensors of the Roque de los Muchachos astronomical observatory facilities point to a rise of 1.1 C in the average temperature. The ...

Global Ocean Oscillations and Climate Change Affect Weather Patterns in the Serengeti

Oct. 31, 2024 — The interactions between global climate change and ocean oscillations -- fluctuating cycles in wind and ocean temperatures -- are impacting weather patterns in the Greater Mara-Serengeti ecosystem in ...

Droughts' Impact on Pasturelands Is Measured in Order to Guide Extensive Livestock Management on Spain's Dehesas

Oct. 30, 2024 — A study using meteorological data and remote sensors, aims to furnish livestock farmers with information to promote more efficient ...

Coastal Flooding During Hurricanes Helene and Milton Tracked

Oct. 29, 2024 — A web-based application that gathers crowdsourced data to identify flooding and inform policy in coastal communities provided scientists with essential data from hurricanes Helene and Milton. The app ...

When Is a Heat Wave Just a Heat Wave, and When Is It Climate Change?

Oct. 28, 2024 — A new study used the 2023 heat wave in Texas and Louisiana as a test case for establishing processes that tease out whether particular weather events are climate change ...

Using Weather Radar to Track Australia's Migrating Birds

Oct. 28, 2024 — Scientists have used data from weather radar not to track storms, but to count birds as they travel across Australian ...

Melting Arctic Sea-Ice Could Affect Global Ocean Circulation

Oct. 27, 2024 — The warming climate in polar regions may significantly disrupt ocean circulation patterns, a new study indicates. Scientists discovered that in the distant past, growing inflows of freshwater from ...

Slowing Ocean Current Could Ease Arctic Warming -- A Little

Oct. 25, 2024 — The Arctic is warming at three to four times the global average. However, new research suggests the slowing of a key ocean current could reduce projected Arctic warming by up to 2 degrees Celsius by ...

Researcher Trains AI to Predict Diarrheal Outbreaks Related to Climate Change

Oct. 25, 2024 — Climate change-related extreme weather, such as massive flooding and prolonged drought, often result in dangerous outbreaks of diarrheal diseases particularly in less developed countries, where ...

Marshes Provide Cost-Effective Coastal Protection

Oct. 23, 2024 — Protecting and enhancing salt marshes in front of protective seawalls can significantly help protect some coastlines, at a cost that makes this approach reasonable to ...

A 'Worrying Confluence' of Flood Risk, Social Vulnerability and Climate Change Denial

Oct. 23, 2024 — In certain parts of the United States, especially Appalachia, New England and the Northwest, the ability of residents to prepare for and respond to flooding is being undercut on three different ...

New Ice Core Data Provides Insight Into Climate 'Tipping Points' During the Last Ice Age

Oct. 21, 2024 — New research from multiple ice cores collected across Greenland with data spanning up to 120,000 years provides new understanding of abrupt Dansgaard-Oeschger events, how they unfold and what that ...