Weather, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 30, 2005

Tornado Record Set: No Deaths Since March

A new record has been set for tornado deaths, and the news is all good. For the first time since official records have been kept beginning in 1950, there were no tornado deaths from April through June. Spring is typically the most active tornado season, with 61 percent of a...

Jun 30, 2005

Hurricane Dennis in 3-D

Hurricane Dennis, seen in this 3-D visualization, became a very dangerous Category 4 hurricane Friday as it churned toward Florida. Officials at the National Hurricane Center said sustained winds were near 150 mph. The storm is expected to come ashore along the Gulf Coast Sunday or early Monday. The image...

Jun 30, 2005

Heat and Hype: The Truth about the Scorching Southwest

PHOENIX - The Southwest has been gripped by a deadly heat wave that might seem extraordinary to newcomers, those with short memories, or anyone who pays too much attention to the media. This has gone on a little too long, 41-year-old Arizona native Joe Della Rocca told the Associated Press....

Jun 30, 2005

Hot West Now Faces Fires and Flash Floods

Some 200 locations in the West set daily record highs this past week with little relief in sight. Soon that may be the good news. Changing weather has already dealt another blow: As more moisture moved into the region, clashes in the atmosphere set off lightning that triggered wildfires. Next...

Jun 30, 2005

Avoidable Lightning Deaths Mount in 2005

Lightning has killed at least 14 people and injured more than 100 in the United States since early June, according to a statement issued today by NOAA, parent organization of the National Weather Service. The statistics were based on reports from local Weather Service offices and news accounts. An average...

May 31, 2005

Surprise New Technique Improves Hurricane Tracking

Hurricanes are like giant mixers. The colossal storms suck air and moisture inward at the surface and, when they really get going, pump it out a natural chimney several miles high. Scientists struggle to see exactly what's going on inside a developing storm, and that imperfect view is partly to...

May 31, 2005

Tornado Deaths on Decline

The number of tornado deaths has decreased by nearly half since a network of Doppler weather radars were installed nationwide a decade ago, according to a new study. The radar array has improved forecasts and warning times. The Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D), also known as NEXRAD, was installed in...

Apr 30, 2005

Hurricane Guide: 2008 Season Gets Busy

Hurricane season in the Atlantic Basin, which includes the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. ON THIS PAGE Saffir-Simpson Scale | Deadliest | Costliest Vulnerable States | Busiest Months | 2008 Names THE 2008 SEASON Ike Underscores Foolishness of Building on Barrier IslandsWhy...

Apr 30, 2005

Here We Go Again: Like Wolves, Hurricanes Come in Packs

It doesn't matter what the numbers are. It only takes one hurricane to ruin your year, a whole lot. -- Frank Lepore, National Hurricane Center Like holiday travelers or wolves, hurricanes travel in packs, and this summer is expected to generate more monsters from the same deadly pack that rattled...

Feb 28, 2005

Earth's Lightning Zaps Space, Too

Updated 6:00 p.m. ET Lightning not only zaps the Earth, but it affects our local space environment with flashes from both ends of the electromagnetic spectrum - radio waves and gamma rays, new research shows. We see lightning in the visible, but that's not the only frequency that is emitted...

Feb 28, 2005

Weather So Perfect It's Strange

With extreme weather and a shifty climate constantly in the news, a little moderation might seem strange. Take last year's weather in the Midwest: It was so perfect, it was unlike anything seen in more than a century. Goldilocks weather conditions -- not too cloudy, not too hot, just enough...

Dec 31, 2004

Mudslide Map Aids Californians During Recent Rainstorms

Nature's cruel rejoinder to summer wildfires common in California is sometimes heavy rains that trigger floods and sudden, devastating mudslides and debris flows on charred slopes denuded of brush and roots that bind the soil. With heavier than usual rainfall this winter in Southern California on the heels of extensive...

Dec 31, 2004

A Natural Compass: Rock Cracks Point North

Night has fallen, and you are lost in the middle of an unfamiliar desert. There are ways to find your bearings by looking up at the stars. But how about looking down at the rocks? According to Leslie McFadden of the University of New Mexico, there may be a kind...

Dec 31, 2004

Billion Dollar Weather Disasters

One way to track climate trends is to look at disasters above a given threshold. The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) released last week its list of U.S. weather and climate disasters that have cost more than a billion dollars. During the period between 1980 and 2004, there were 62...

Nov 30, 2006

Clue Found in Mystery of How Raindrops Form

How clouds Now with a Knowing how Until Floating As water To balloon Past One way to Let it For With no They found But that ...