Free Republic

Footage shows pedestrians walking on the pavement when it suddenly gave inA sinkhole in a northeastern Chinese city has swallowed five people in dramatic scenes that were captured on video. A provincial broadcaster says four people were injured in the Saturday incident in the provincial capital of Harbin.

The US is in a historic hurricane drought, according to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. The fading of Hurricane Danny, which peaked as a Category 3 storm over the Atlantic, came as no surprise Saturday.ATLANTA — Hurricane Danny, a small hurricane that at one point reached Category 3 status as it moved across from Africa toward the Leeward Islands, has weakened quickly and by Sunday should be reduced to tropical storm status. An unusually strong atmospheric wind shear can be seen on satellite images Saturday literally whisking the storm away. To be sure, Danny remains a dangerous development. Slated to hit...

Better late than never. Joe's been on vacation, so we're lucky to get what we get. Anyway, long talk on the three active tropical storms in the Atlantic and tropical Pacific. September overview.

SPRITES AND TROLLS AT THE EDGE OF SPACE: We all know what comes out of the bottom of thunderclouds: lightning. But rarely do we see what comes out of the top. On August 10th, astronauts onboard the International Space Station were perfectly positioned to observe red sprites dancing atop a cluster of storms in Mexico. They snapped this incredible photo: This shows just how high sprites can go. The photo shows their red forms reaching all the way from the thunderstorm below to a layer of green airglow some 100 km above Earth's surface. This means sprites touch the edge...

Climate is complex.This is true both in the conventional “wow, this is hard to figure out!” sense, and in the technical sense that people mean when they talk about “complex systems theory.” It’s so sensitive to the initial assumptions that it’s never feasible to compute exactly how the system will behave. Sometimes this is called “sensitive dependence on initial conditions,” or SDIC.This is basically why we can’t predict if it will rain on Monday, yet we can confidently predict that it’ll be colder in Boulder in December than it was in July.The difference here is between what is exactly true,...

Some weather experts are predicting heavy rainfall this year in California, thanks to an El Niño that many hope will put an end to the historic drought. “This is the Godzilla EL Niño if it matures and comes to fruition,” Bill Patzert, a climatologist with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, told NBC News last week. A recent statement released by California’s state climatologist Michael Anderson sings a different tune. “California cannot count on potential El Niño conditions to halt or reverse drought conditions,” he wrote. “Historical weather data shows us that at best, there is a 50/50 chance of having a...

Just when you thought you had gotten over last winter, be warned: The Old Farmer's Almanac predicts it will be super cold with a slew of snow for much of the country, even in places that don't usually see too much of it, like the Pacific Northwest. It says there will be above-normal snow and below-normal temperatures for much of New England; icy conditions in parts of the South; and frigid weather in the Midwest. The snowiest periods in the Pacific Northwest will be in mid-December, early to mid-January and mid- to late February, the almanac predicts.

Aug 18, 2015; 8:00 AM ET: A magnitude 4.0 earthquake rattled the San Francisco area Monday, Aug. 17, briefly halting train services while workers inspected the tracks. No injuries or serious damage were reported but these dogs knew something was up.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- Just when you thought you had gotten over last winter, be warned: The Old Farmer's Almanac predicts it will be super cold with a slew of snow for much of the country, even in places that don't usually see too much of it, like the Pacific Northwest. If you don't want to read about those four-letter words, there's plenty more to peruse in the folksy, annual book of household tips, trends, recipes and articles, such as animal jealousy, the history of shoes and anticipation for the biggest Supermoon in decades in November 2016.

Another very detailed explanation of the coming El Niño, and why this one won't be like '97-'98.

Saturday Summary covering typhoon, short term weather, and the coming winter.

I came across this pictorial at DailyMail, spuriously-referencing a trend there in Scotland, and found the other articles for clarity. Scotland's winter snow STILL hasn't melted: Incredible network of tunnels and caves clings to mountains after the cold summer Among the picture captions:A range of factors has seen a growing number of snow patches remaining since 2007, but this summer there are more than have been seen for 20 years June on track to be coldest [Scottish] summer for 40 years The comments at the 2nd source are interesting.Scottish farmers suffering worst [coldest/wettest] summer in four decades I browsed and...

GODZILLA El Niño is 'heading towards California this winter': Forecast suggests mega-weather event could be biggest since records began and bring with it some epic rain (but not enough to end the drought) Now all forecasts show above 90% probability of strong El Niño this year It even looks set to smash records, according to NOAA Climate Center But it still won't be enough to atone for 4 years of record-breaking drought In fact, the dry cracked land will struggle to withstand three-month storm

You know what I have to say to you Mr. Francis- "go pound sand!" FUPF

Said they did not realize how bad the damage was until they landed and saw the front of plane Pilots made landing with limited visibility because of major cracks in the windshield

Short Saturday Summary covering typhoon, short term weather, and the coming winter.

European wind and solar industries have welcomed US President Barack Obama’s new climate plan while European politicians see Washington’s move as a positive signal ahead of UN climate talks in Paris. "We have a moral obligation to leave our children a planet that’s not polluted or damaged", said Obama on Monday (3 August). The Clean Power Plan establishes for the first time national standards for limiting carbon pollution from American power plants and aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. It also says that renewables should account for 28 percent of US energy...

Rather lengthy explanation of the coming el nino, and how it will affect global temps.

Iran is buckling under the pressure of a massive heatwave passing across the Middle East, with temperatures soaring to nearly 70°C. Scorching heat levels of 50°C have already paralyzed nearby Iraq, where officials were forced to call a four-day public holiday because it was too hot to work. But the word “hot” has taken on an entirely new meaning in Iran’s city of Bandar Mahshahr, where it was claimed that the city’s heat index, or “feels-like temperature”, was among the highest ever recorded. The heat index was recorded by a group of astonished weather experts, who predict the country could...

Wherever you live or happen to travel to, never complain about the heat and humidity again. In the city of Bandar Mahshahr (population of about 110,000 as of 2010), the air felt like a searing 165 degrees (74 Celsius) today factoring in the humidity. Although there are no official records of heat indices, this is second highest level we have ever seen reported.