Weather

Subterms

    More stories

    • 113 Shares99 Views

      in Elections

      Strong Storm in San Francisco Brings a Tornado Warning

      by

      Less than two weeks after a tsunami warning, residents were jolted awake before 6 a.m. to consider a new potential disaster scenario.Powerful storms swept through parts of Northern California on Saturday, knocking down trees, causing widespread power outages and prompting weather officials to issue what they said was the first-ever tornado warning for San Francisco.The warning blared from cellphones around 5:45 a.m., jolting residents across the city from their sleep and into the sudden realization that many had long prepared themselves for what to do in the case of a sudden earthquake, but not a tornado.And it came less than two weeks after a similar alert echoed across the Bay Area warning of a different kind of disaster scenario: an impending tsunami that forecasters worried could strike along a vast stretch of the Northern California coast.That warning had been spurred by an earthquake in the Pacific Ocean and briefly caused a panic as people sought to get to higher ground. The warning was canceled a little more than an hour after it was issued.The tornado warning on Saturday, which was in effect for about 30 minutes, was urgent: “Take shelter now in a basement or an interior room,” it read in part.“That is the first time that we’ve issued a tornado warning for San Francisco,” said Crystal Oudit, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in the Bay Area. She said the service had done so after seeing conditions that tend to favor tornadoes as the storm approached the city.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

    • 100 Shares149 Views

      in Elections

      Millions in Northern U.S. Under Winter Storm Warnings

      by

      Temperatures are expected to plunge after another round of wet, messy, windy weather moves through the Mid-Atlantic, the Northeast and the Upper Midwest on Thursday.Millions of people across the Midwest, Northeastern United States and southern Ontario, Canada, were under winter weather warnings Thursday morning as snow squalls moved through ahead of another blast of Arctic temperatures.After a week of bitterly cold temperatures and days of lake-effect snow, another shot of cold air was sweeping through the Northeast after sending temperatures in parts of the Midwest plunging into the teens, 10 to 20 degrees below normal. Wind gusts up to 50 miles per hour are expected Thursday, bringing blizzard conditions to areas with lake-effect snow and making travel treacherous.Forecasters with the National Weather Service in New York City said that Thursday night into Friday would be the coldest night and early morning of the season, especially after accounting for wind chill.In New York, which experienced one of its warmest Halloweens ever this fall, some welcomed the return of more-seasonable temperatures. At an outdoor Christmas tree lot in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday, Rosie Roop, 25, a hospitality and business student, was buying a wreath. “I’m happy it’s getting colder,” she said. “I just want it to snow.”Ms. Roop said she had worn her puffy coat for the first time this week. “I definitely like the four seasons,” she said. “I have not been a fan of the murky in-between.”The chilly weather inspired Danny Offermann, 28, an assistant principal at a charter school in the South Bronx, to visit a Christmas tree lot and buy a two-foot tree ($60) for his apartment.How Much Snow To Expect More

    • 113 Shares139 Views

      in Elections

      Republicans Would Regret Letting Elon Musk Ax Weather Forecasting

      by

      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

    • 113 Shares99 Views

      in Elections

      Lake-Effect Storm Bringing Heavy Snow to Great Lakes Region

      by

      Forecasters warned that some areas would be “paralyzed” by the snow as some sections of highways in New York and Pennsylvania were closed on Friday.A lake-effect storm in the Great Lakes region that was bringing heavy snow to parts of northern New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania on Friday prompted the closure of highways, disrupting travel after the Thanksgiving holiday, as forecasters warned the storm would “bury” some areas east of Lakes Erie and Ontario.The storm, which began earlier in the week, had already brought more than eight inches of snow to portions of Marquette County in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula by Friday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.Portions of Western New York, such as Mayville on the northern end of Chautauqua Lake about 22 miles north of Jamestown, had recorded 17 inches of snow by midafternoon on Friday, according to forecasters.Watertown, N.Y., where less than an inch of snow had fallen on Friday afternoon, was forecast to get close to six feet of snow over the next three days.Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York declared a state of emergency for 11 counties on Friday.“We are so accustomed to this kind of storm,” Ms. Hochul said in an interview with Spectrum News on Friday. “We don’t love it, but it is part of who we are as New Yorkers, especially western New York and the North Country.”The National Weather Service in Buffalo said the prolonged lake-effect snow “will bury some areas east of both Lakes Erie and Ontario.”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

    • 150 Shares169 Views

      in Elections

      Scenes From the Atmospheric River That Drenched California and the Pacific Northwest

      by

      A gusty, rain-soaked storm swept through the Pacific Northwest and Northern California this week, killing at least three people and knocking out power for hundreds of thousands of customers.The dangerous weather, fueled by the season’s first major atmospheric river from the Pacific Ocean, battered the region starting on Tuesday. Forceful winds wiped out power for half a million customers in Washington. Among the places hardest hit was the Seattle area, where falling trees killed two people. The storm then moved into Northern California, where it disrupted hundreds of flights, flooded creeks, drenched San Francisco and brought heavy snow to parts of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges. On Saturday, a body was recovered in floodwaters in Sonoma County, local authorities said. Though the storm is weakening as it inches south, residents are still reeling from the damage. More than 90,000 customers in Washington were still without power on Saturday morning, along with about 17,000 in California. In the region north of San Francisco, which includes Napa Valley, flooding is expected to continue through Saturday.Here are photos of the storm’s toll this week.Saturday, Nov. 23Hale Irwin/Sipa, via Associated PressCars drive on a snowy highway over Donner Summit in California.ReutersWater rescue teams deployed in Forestville, Calif.Friday, Nov. 22Mike Kai Chen for The New York TimesA cyclist rides through a flooded intersection in San Francisco.Mike Kai Chen for The New York TimesFog rolled in around the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.ReutersFlooding in Santa Rosa caused road closures and detours.Rachel Bujalski for The New York TimesSome streets were flooded in Rohnert Park, Calif.Rachel Bujalski for The New York TimesStaci Harpole looks over a flooded vineyard off Wohler Road in Forestville.Noah Berger/Associated PressA mudslide near a home in Sonoma County, Calif.Rachel Bujalski for The New York TimesFlooding in Santa Rosa, Calif.Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle, via Associated PressLivestock graze on a patch of grass surrounded by the swollen Eel River in Ferndale, Calif.Thursday, Nov. 21Mason Trinca for The New York TimesA giant tree fell on Front Street in Crescent City, Calif.Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesPolice officers help a woman walk through a flooded parking lot in Santa Rosa.ReutersRoads and vineyards were flooded in Sebastopol, Calif.Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesPolice officers wave to a car trying to drive through a flooded parking lot in Santa Rosa.KOMO via Associated PressEmergency crews responded to a downed tree in Issaquah, Wash.Wednesday, Nov. 20David Ryder/ReutersResidents survey storm damage in Seattle.Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Getty ImagesTara Brown surveys storm damage while walking her dog in Lake Stevens, Wash.Noah Berger/Associated PressUtility workers tend to downed power lines in Sonoma County.Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Getty ImagesTiffani Palpong stands in front of her property in Lake Stevens where her son was trapped by downed power lines and trees.Noah Berger/Associated PressIsabella Karamitsos, a U.S. Geological Survey employee, deploys a sensor to measure water flow in Santa Rosa.Kate Selig More

    • 138 Shares179 Views

      in Elections

      Wildfire Grows in New Jersey and New York, Despite Modest Rainfall

      by

      The Jennings Creek fire is currently burning across 3,500 acres, officials said, and is expected to grow to over 5,000 acres.A wildfire consuming a vast stretch of hilly forest along the New York-New Jersey border continued to grow on Monday despite the first significant rainfall in nearly six weeks, fire officials said. Bone-dry weather and gusts of up to 40 miles per hour are expected to sweep through the region on Tuesday, raising the risk that the fire will continue to spread.More than 3,500 acres were burning in New Jersey and New York as of Monday night, and the fire was expected to grow to more than 5,000 acres, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection said.About 20 percent of the New Jersey portion of the fire was contained, according to the state’s Forest Fire Service. It was not clear how much of the New York portion of the fire was contained.The rain on Sunday night, measuring just a quarter of an inch across the region, only temporarily slowed the fire’s growth, said Christopher Franek, an assistant division fire warden for the Forest Fire Service.“We’re throwing everything we’ve got at it,” he said. “A lot of manual labor is choking on smoke and dust.” Five thousand acres is nearly eight square miles — about a third the size of Manhattan.Hundreds of firefighters from dozens of fire departments in both states are battling the blaze in a rugged patch of Passaic County in New Jersey and Orange County in New York near the Appalachian Trail.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

    • 150 Shares159 Views

      in Elections

      After California Mountain Fire, Residents Return to Find Homes Reduced to Rubble

      by

      The Mountain fire has torn through more than 20,000 acres and destroyed more than 130 structures in Ventura County. “It’s just devastating,” one resident said.In the city of Camarillo, Calif., on Old Coach Drive, the smell of smoke lay heavy in the air. The fire that erupted this week had hopscotched around the neighborhood, leaving some homes relatively unscathed but reducing several to charred piles of wood and rubble.Kathleen Scott and her sister Tonia Wall surveyed what was left of their two-bedroom home: layers of ash and the metal outlines of what was once the washing machine and dryer.Bent over the earth where a bedroom would have been, the two used a small garden spade to dig through the remains. They hoped they might find some mementos belonging to Ms. Scott’s daughter, Jacquelyn, who died from a rare neurological condition at age 4.“We’re not expecting to find anything huge,” Ms. Scott, 57, said. “We’re just sifting through stuff, just to see, just in case, not to have any regrets.”“We’re not expecting to find anything huge,” Kathleen Scott, 57, said. “We’re just sifting through stuff, just to see, just in case, not to have any regrets.”Loren Elliott for The New York TimesMs. Scott holding some salvaged keepsakes that she found on her destroyed property.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

    • 138 Shares179 Views

      in Elections

      2024 Temperatures Are on Track for a Record High, Researchers Find

      by

      The new report also says that global warming has hit a threshold, at least temporarily, that countries had pledged to avoid.This year will almost certainly be the hottest year on record, beating the high set in 2023, researchers announced on Wednesday.The assessment, by the Copernicus Climate Change Service, the European Union agency that monitors global warming, also forecast that 2024 would be the first calendar year in which global temperatures consistently rose 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. That’s the temperature threshold that countries agreed, in the Paris Agreement, that the planet should avoid crossing. Beyond that amount of warming, scientists say, the Earth will face irreversible damage.Greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels are dangerously heating up the planet, imperiling biodiversity, increasing sea level rise and making extreme weather events more common and more destructive.“These type of events will get worse and they will get more frequent,” said Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Copernicus. Recent storms like Hurricanes Helene and Milton and the flooding in Spain demonstrate just how devastating weather intensified by warming can be.Still, it’s important to note that a single year above 1.5 degrees Celsius does not mean the Paris Agreement target has been missed.Under the terms of the pact, for that to happen, temperatures would have to stay at or above 1.5 degrees over a 20-year period. Each year has natural variability, so one year that’s warmer or cooler is not as important as the general trend of warming. It’s that signal, the steady crawl of record hot year after record hot year, that has alarmed experts.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