Hurricanes and Tropical Storms

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      Rare Early June Rainfall Could Reach Phoenix

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      Measurable rainfall in the first week of June has only been recorded 21 times since 1896, according to weather records. The rain would be welcome after a winter of below-normal precipitation.A storm spinning off the coast of Baja California in Mexico on Saturday was poised to dive into the Southwest United States and drag with it remnants of post-tropical storm Alvin.This system, which is uncommonly wet for this time of year, will bring a rare chance for thunderstorms and brief heavy downpours to the region, especially to southeast California, southwest New Mexico and southern Arizona, including Phoenix, Sunday into Monday.The rain would be much welcome in an area with widespread drought conditions after a winter of below-normal precipitation.“For this time of year this is quite unusual,” said Mark O’Malley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Phoenix.The Weather Service’s official gauge for the Phoenix area is at Sky Harbor International Airport. It has recorded measurable rainfall in the first week of June on 21 occasions, with records going back to 1896.“Normal rainfall is zero,” Mr. O’Malley said of the first week in June.There’s a 75 percent chance the airport will record rain on Sunday afternoon or evening, with rainfall chances continuing into Monday.A thunderstorm or two could move over the airport and bring half an inch of rain, or the downpour could hit 10 miles west of the airport, and there would hardly be any rain.This unusual weather setup will bring a chance for rain and thunderstorms to most of the Southwest on Sunday into Monday, including southeastern California, southern Nevada, all of Arizona, western New Mexico, the Wasatch Mountains in Utah and portions of the Colorado Rocky Mountains.“This is a fairly large swath of moisture, so I’d actually say, there’s not just a chance of rain, but rain is likely,” said Peter Mullinax, a meteorologist with the Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center.The chances are highest across southern Arizona, southwest New Mexico and southeast California, and the Weather Prediction Center has put this area under a marginal risk — level 1 out of 4 — for excessive rainfall that could lead to flash flooding on Sunday. A slice of Southern Arizona is at a higher slight risk, level 2 out of 4.Mr. O’Malley said that minor flooding on roadways in the greater Phoenix area is possible.Storms occasionally pass over the Southwest in late spring but they’re usually dry. Rain is more common during the monsoon season that starts June 15 and lasts into September.“These storms come through and you’d never know, other than a little wind,” Mr. O’Malley said. “With this storm, you have that moisture that’s being pulled in from Alvin — that’s the big difference.”Mr. Mullinax said there’s also a strong southerly wind component that’s escorting the tropical moisture northward into the Southwest.Alvin formed over the Pacific Ocean off the coast of west Mexico on Thursday, sending pounding surf to west-central Mexico and southern Baja California. The system has since dissipated and was a post-tropical cyclone over the North Pacific Ocean on Saturday. More

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      Trump’s Federal Cuts Threaten Natural Disaster Support Americans Rely On

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      President Trump’s efforts to downsize the government threaten essential functions that Americans have come to rely on before, during and after natural disasters.States and cities along ​t​he Atlantic and Gulf coasts are ​heading into hurricane season​ with an extraordinary level of uncertainty, unable to ​g​auge how significant cuts at vital federal agencies will affect weather forecasts, emergency response and long-term recovery.They are bracing for the likelihood that fewer meteorologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will lead to less accurate forecasts, and that the loss of experienced managers at the Federal Emergency Management Agency will lead to less coordination and more inaction.Governors and mayors are also anticipating less financial aid, as the Trump administration shifts the burden of response and recovery away from the federal government. Exactly who will pay for what moving forward is a gaping question as disasters become bigger and costlier.“There’s no plan in writing for how FEMA intends to respond during this disaster season,” said Trina Sheets, the executive director of the National Emergency Management Association, which represents state emergency managers. “Things seem to be changing on a daily basis. But there’s no road map for states to follow or to be able to plan for.”FEMA did not respond to requests for comment.The Department of Government Efficiency, the cost-cutting initiative led by Elon Musk, has left agencies that would normally be preparing for a run of extreme weather at this point in the year trying instead to find their footing after leadership changes and staffing cuts.Workers with the Federal Emergency Management Agency looking through the wreckage in Swannanoa after Hurricane Helene, in October.Loren Elliott for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Republicans Would Regret Letting Elon Musk Ax Weather Forecasting

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      One way Donald Trump may try to differentiate his second term from his first is by slashing the federal work force and budget and consolidating and restructuring a host of government agencies.For people who care about weather and climate, one of the most concerning proposals on the table is to dismantle the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The authors of Project 2025, a blueprint for the administration crafted by conservative organizations, claim erroneously that NOAA is “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry” and should be “broken down and downsized.” An arm of Mr. Trump’s team, the Department of Government Efficiency, to be led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, wants to eliminate $500 billion in spending by cutting programs whose funding has expired. That could include NOAA.With the rising costs of and vulnerability to extreme weather in a changing climate for the United States, dismantling or defunding NOAA would be a catastrophic error. Rather, there is a golden opportunity to modernize the agency by expanding its capacity for research and innovation. This would not only help Americans better prepare for and survive extreme weather but also keep NOAA from falling further behind similar agencies in Europe. While the incoming administration may want to take a sledgehammer to the federal government, there is broad, bipartisan support for NOAA in Congress. It is the job of the incoming Republican-controlled Congress to invest in its future.NOAA was established via executive order in 1970 by President Richard Nixon as an agency within the Department of Commerce. Currently its mission is to understand and predict changes in the climate, weather, ocean and coasts. It conducts basic research; provides authoritative services like weather forecasts, climate monitoring and marine resource management; and supports industries like energy, agriculture, fishing, tourism and transportation.The best-known part of NOAA, touching all of our daily lives, is the National Weather Service. This is where daily forecasts and timely warning of severe storms, hurricanes and blizzards come from. Using satellites, balloon launches, ships, aircraft and weather stations, NOAA and its offices around the country provide vital services like clockwork, free of charge — services that cannot be adequately replaced by the private sector in part because they wouldn’t necessarily be profitable.For most of its history, NOAA has largely avoided politicization especially because weather forecasting has been seen as nonpartisan. Members of Congress from both parties are highly engaged in its work. Unfortunately, legislation introduced by Representative Frank Lucas, Republican of Oklahoma — a state with a lot of tornadoes — that would have helped NOAA to update its weather research and forecasting programs passed the House but languished in the Senate and is unlikely to move forward in this session of Congress. However, in 2025 there is another opportunity to improve the agency and its services to taxpayers and businesses.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Body of Tennessee Factory Worker Killed in Hurricane Helene Is Found

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      She is believed to be the last employee who was missing after the plastics plant flooded. Authorities are still investigating the circumstances around the deaths. The remains of a sixth factory worker in eastern Tennessee who was swept away in the flooding brought on by Hurricane Helene have been found, ending a search for what is believed to be the last missing employee more than a month after the storm tore through the Southeast.Officials on Friday disclosed the identity of the body as Rosa Andrade, 29, one of a half-dozen victims of the flood who worked at Impact Plastics, a factory in the close-knit town of Erwin, about 120 miles east of Knoxville.“These people were just reporting to work that morning,” Andrew Harris, a captain with Unicoi County Search and Rescue, said in an interview on Saturday. “We’re trying to provide closure for the families, and obviously grieving with them.”The deluge at the factory on Sept. 27 was part of a trail of devastation caused by Helene, the Category 4 hurricane that hit the coast of Florida on Sept. 26 and decimated neighboring states with landslides and flooding in the days that followed. Helene killed more than 200 people across the Southeast.In North Carolina alone, there were more than 100 storm-related deaths, with damages and recovery efforts projected to cost the state an estimated $53 billion.Although Ms. Andrade is thought to be the last missing person from the factory, Mr. Harris said that search and recovery efforts continue for victims from North Carolina, some of whom are believed to have been swept into Erwin and nearby counties. State officials from Tennessee and North Carolina have suggested that at least a dozen people overall remain unaccounted for in the two states.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Map: Tracking Tropical Storm Kristy

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      Kristy was a tropical storm in the North Pacific Ocean Monday evening Mexico Central Time, the National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory. Kristy formed from the remnants of Nadine, an Atlantic tropical storm that hit Belize over the weekend and moved across Central America into the Pacific. The tropical storm had sustained wind […] More

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      Map: Tracking Tropical Storm Trami

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      Trami was a tropical storm in the Philippine Sea Tuesday morning Philippine Time, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center said in its latest advisory. The tropical storm had sustained wind speeds of 40 miles per hour.  All times on the map are Philippine Time. By The New York Times What does the storm look like from […] More

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      Hurricanes Spur Pet Adoptions Nationwide. Should You Get a ‘Storm Dog’?

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      Amid major disasters, shelter animals are often sent to other states. And people are more likely to foster and adopt. Here’s what to know.Just days after Hurricane Milton hit Florida last week, about a dozen shelter dogs from a small town in Hendry County had already been flown to Texas. Several dozen other animals, from Pinellas County, had been taken by truck to shelters in Massachusetts and New York.They were part of the country’s latest diaspora of storm animals, dogs and cats scattered across the country by back-to-back hurricanes — Milton and Helene — which wreaked havoc across a vast swath of the United States this fall.Who transports these shelter animals and how does it work? Here’s what you need to know.Shelter animals often end up in faraway states after a disaster. Why?There are Harvey cats in California and Maria dogs in New York.If you have ever heard someone say their dog was rescued from a storm thousands of miles away, you might have wondered how they ended up so far from home.It comes down to a coordinated effort between shelters and national groups like the Humane Society, the ASPCA and the Best Friends Animal Society, as well as smaller public and private agencies.Year-round, these groups work to send animals from shelters facing overcrowding and low adoption rates to ones in other parts of the country where there is more space, and greater demand. When disaster strikes, the pace picks up.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Biden Visits Florida After Hurricane Milton and Calls for Bipartisan Relief Effort

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      The president surveyed damage in Florida and announced $612 million for projects to help the electric grid in areas affected by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.During his visit to Florida, President Biden announced $612 million for six Energy Department projects in areas hit by Hurricanes Milton and Helene to improve the region’s electric grid.Eric Lee/The New York TimesStanding in front of one of the many houses wrecked by Hurricane Milton in Florida, President Biden said on Sunday that the storm was devastating for those who lost homes, businesses or relatives, even as he expressed relief that the storm was not as destructive as anticipated.“Thankfully, the storm’s impact was not as cataclysmic as they predicted,” Mr. Biden said in St. Pete Beach. “For some individuals it was cataclysmic. Not only for those individuals who lost their homes, but more importantly those folks who lost their lives, lost family members, lost all their personal belongings. Entire neighborhoods were flooded and millions, millions without power.”Earlier he surveyed the damage from the air: the shredded roof of the Tropicana Field baseball stadium, mounds of debris lining roads and messages spray-painted on furniture piled outside of homes. One message read “Mayor, Gov, Mr Pres, Small Businesses Need Help Too.” Another simply said, “Help us.”“Homeowners have taken a real beating in these back-to back storms,” Mr. Biden said, referring to Milton and Hurricane Helene. “And they’re heartbroken and exhausted, and their expenses are piling up.”Mr. Biden’s visit to the hurricane-ravaged communities in Florida — his second such trip in two weeks — came as he has been managing various crises, including multiple natural disasters, in the final stretch of his presidency. He used the visit to announce $612 million for six Energy Department projects in areas hit by Milton and Helene to improve the region’s electric grid, including nearly $100 million for Florida. On Friday, he declared a major disaster for Florida communities affected by Milton.Mr. Biden also used the moment to call for bipartisan collaboration to help the areas affected pick up the pieces. In a sign of such unity, Mr. Biden was greeted by Representative Anna Paulina Luna and Senator Rick Scott, Florida Republicans who are frequent critics of the Biden administration, after the president finished his helicopter tour.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More