Weather, features and articles | Educational Science

Jul 31, 2012

Beyond Wind & Rain: Isaac Could Stir Up Oil

As Tropical Storm Isaac roars over Louisiana and elsewhere on the Gulf Coast, it threatens to disrupt a fragile environment that's still recovering from BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the summer of 2010. By disturbing the sediments in which the spilled oil is buried, near the beach and deeper...

Jun 30, 2012

What's Behind The Record Heat?

Heat is beating records around the country: the first five months of 2012 have been the hottest on record in the contiguous United States. And that's not including June, when 164 all-time high temperature records were tied or broken around the country, according to government records. That's unusual, since the...

Jun 30, 2012

US Heat Wave: First Half of Year Hottest on Record

June weather records are in, and the nation's unprecedented warm spell continues, making this the warmest first half of the year and the warmest 12-month period since record-keeping began for the continental U.S. in 1895. Last month, like many before it, had heat that was above average, and high temperatures...

Jun 30, 2012

Rare Colorado Tornado Is Second-Highest in US History

Most of the time, Chris Kirby chases storms, but sometimes they come to him. During a drive through the mountains this Saturday afternoon (July 28) near his home in Aurora, Colo., to photograph mountain goats and test radio equipment, he got quite a surprise: a rare, high-elevation tornado. Kirby, who's...

May 31, 2012

Spectacular Texas Thundercloud Caught on Video

An ominous cloud formation that developed in the Texas panhandle last week looks like a CGI effect straight out of a summer blockbuster. This tornadic thunderstorm, which formed near the town of Adrian during the evening of May 21 and gave rise to at least one twister, offered passersby with...

May 31, 2012

Tropical Storm Debby Forms in Gulf

Tropical Storm Debby, the fourth named storm of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, has formed in the Gulf of Mexico. Debby formed late yesterday afternoon when it was about 220 miles (335 kilometers) south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. As of this morning, the storm was about 170...

Apr 30, 2012

Storm Chasers: Study Aims to Go Inside Tornadoes

Come tornado season, meteorologist Joshua Wurman spends his life on the road, zooming down highways in search of thunderstorms. This summer, he and his colleagues will turn nomad to launch a first-of-its-kind program aimed at exploring tornado winds — not from the outside but from deep within the tornado vortex....

Feb 29, 2012

Entire Month's Worth of Tornadoes Strike in One Day

In what may be the biggest daily tornado outbreak on record for March, an entire month's worth of twisters struck in a single day. The nation's Storm Prediction Center received 81 reports of tornadoes yesterday (March 2), according to data filtered to remove duplicate reports of tornadoes. For the entire...

Feb 29, 2012

Accurate Weather Forecast For Your Street

Accurate weather forecasts depend on data collected from weather instruments. Lots of 'em. The more data, the higher-resolution the picture of what's going on. But the National Weather Service doesn't have weather instruments on every street. But another place does. Well, almost. The Weather Underground has turned to thousands of...

Feb 29, 2012

Why Much of North America Skipped Winter

For parts of North America, this winter was the winter that nearly wasn't. January ranked as the fourth-warmest for the 48 U.S. states on record since 1895. December, too, was above average, although not as significantly. The final analysis for February is not yet in, but weather watchers expect last...

Jan 31, 2012

What's Behind the Wild Winter Around the World

Winter in the United States this year has been mild — except for snow-buried Alaska — but around the world, winter is wreaking havoc. If you're wondering where's winter, don't look to the blizzard in Denver. That weather is more springlike for the area. Instead look to Europe. Cold weather...

Jan 31, 2012

Colorado's Record-Breaking Snow Seen from Space

From NASA's Earth Observatory: A record-breaking snowstorm struck Colorado in early February 2012, closing an interstate highway, grounding flights, and dropping more than a foot of snow on the Denver area. After moving out of northeastern Colorado, the storm left heavy snow across Nebraska. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)...

Jan 31, 2012

Can You Outrun a Natural Disaster? Hint: No (Infographic)

Ice World: Gallery of Awe-Inspiring GlaciersHurricanes from Above: See Nature's Biggest StormsTop 10 Ways to Destroy Earth ...

Jan 31, 2012

January Brought Warmth and Extremes to the Globe

This past month ranked as the 19th warmest January since global record keeping began in 1880, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The combined land and ocean surface temperature for the month hit 54 degrees Fahrenheit (12 degrees Celsius), exceeding the average for the 20th century,...

Dec 31, 2011

Drought Led to Demise of Ancient City of Angkor

The ancient city of Angkor — the most famous monument of which is the breathtaking ruined temple of Angkor Wat — might have collapsed due to valiant but ultimately failed efforts to battle drought, scientists find. The great city of Angkor in Cambodia, first established in the ninth century, was...