Weather, features and articles | Educational Science

Feb 24, 2015

Mysterious East Coast Flooding Caused by Weird Wind Patterns

Mysterious flooding and high tides along the East Coast in 2009 and 2010 now have an explanation: a major change in the Atlantic Ocean's wind patterns and warm-water currents. At the time, the unusually high tides caught people by surprise. Now, researchers know why the ocean was flooding beaches and...

Apr 3, 2015

Huge Colorado Floods Helped Sculpt Mountains

In 2013, heavy rains unleashed devastating slurries of rock, soil and water on cities and towns along the Colorado Rockies. A new study has shown that although these huge floods are rare in human lifetimes, they are responsible for sculpting the steep mountains in this semiarid landscape. While it strikes...

May 27, 2015

Devastating Floods in Texas, Oklahoma Driven by El Niño

Severe floods in Texas and Oklahoma are causing devastation after multiple storm systems battered a formerly drought-stricken area, according to experts. Heavy rainfalls began on Saturday (May 23) and soaked the region through the weekend, leading to nearly record-breaking rains in some southern areas of Texas and Oklahoma. Flash flooding...

Mar 8, 2016

Expect Downpours and Flooding As World Warms

Umbrella and galosh manufacturers may do well as the planet continues to warm — if they can find somewhere dry to build their factories. Findings of a new analysis of storm data and model projections warn that flooding is going to be a worsening problem around the world, with a...

Aug 4, 2016

Dragons and Magical Dirt: Legendary 'Great Flood' Left Real Evidence

With the help of a channel-digging dragon and magical, water-absorbing dirt, the legendary Emperor Yu is said to have saved China from a Great Flood that lasted thousands of years. While this tale is the stuff of myths, with plenty of embellishments added through the years, geologists are finding that...

Aug 17, 2016

What's Causing Louisiana's Historic Flooding?

Tremendous downpours have inundated parts of Louisiana over the last few days, resulting in disastrous flooding and forcing thousands of people from their homes. But what's causing this historic flooding in areas that rarely receive such significant rainfall days? An inland sheared tropical depression is how the National Oceanic and...

Aug 17, 2016

Catastrophic Louisiana Flooding Measured from Space

Intense rainfall is causing widespread and disastrous flooding in parts of Louisiana, and new measurements from a NASA satellite illustrate just how much precipitation has accumulated in this region of the Southern United States. The animation depicts rainfall totals every 3 hours over a 72-hour span, from Aug. 12 to...

Oct 11, 2016

Hurricane Sandy-Level Floods Likely to Hit NYC More Often

Disastrous floods like those seen during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, which killed 159 people in the United States, destroyed neighborhoods in New York and caused an estimated $50 billion in damages, may hit New York City 17 times more often in the next century, a new study finds. Hurricane Sandy...

Nov 21, 2016

Great Molasses Flood of 1919: Why This Deluge of Goo Was So Deadly

A bubbling flood of molasses that sent a towering wave of goo down the streets of Boston in 1919, catching everything from horses to humans in its sticky grasp, killing 21 people, injuring 150 more and flattening buildings in its wake. Now, scientists have figured out why the deluge of...

Nov 21, 2016

Supermoon's High Tides Strand Octopus in Flooded Parking Garage

Coal mines have the canary, endangered species have the panda bear, melting ice has the polar bear, and now sea level rise has … the octopus? Climate change's impact on sea levels has made tidal flooding in Miami more severe, according to scientists. After the supermoon earlier this month triggered...

Jan 12, 2017

'Pineapple Express' Triggers Floods in California, NASA Animation Shows

A NASA animation shows the atmospheric river's rainfall over California and the West Coast from Jan. 7 to Jan. 10. (Image credit: Joshua Stevens/NASA Earth Observatory)A different kind of river has been winding over California in recent weeks: NASA satellites spied a so-called atmospheric river passing over the state, bringing...

Feb 14, 2017

Coastal Cities Could Flood 3 Times a Week by 2045

The lawns of homes purchased this year in vast swaths of coastal America could regularly be underwater before the mortgage has even been paid off, with new research showing high tide flooding could become nearly incessant in places within 30 years. Such floods could occur several times a week on...

May 11, 2017

After the Flood: Author Kim Stanley Robinson Describes Future NYC Underwater

In Kim Stanley Robinson's new novel, New York 2140 (Orbit, 2017), Manhattan lies partially submerged after a 50-foot (15 meters) rise in sea level. The story follows a cast of characters inhabiting one apartment building (more or less) as they commute by sky-bridge or canal, search for buried treasure, try...

May 22, 2017

Doomsday Seed Vault to Get Upgrade After Flooding Incident

The seeds are safe — for now. But a famous doomsday seed vault is scrambling to renovate after melting permafrost penetrated its access tunnel. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault announced on May 21 that it will be constructing new drainage ditches, building waterproof walls and taking other steps to protect...

Jun 26, 2017

Flood Facts, Types of Flooding, Floods in History

In terms of lives lost and property damaged, floods are just behind tornadoes as the top natural disaster. In the United States, flood damages totaled $8.41 billion in 2011. There were 113 flood-related deaths. Floods can affect any area to some degree; wherever rain falls, flooding can occur. As water...