extreme weather events News

Biden to Survey Wildfire Damage, Make Case for Spending Plan

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden will promote his administration’s use of a wartime law to aid in wildfire preparedness during a Western swing in which he’ll survey wildfire damage Monday in Idaho and California. The administration activated the …

New Flames Thwart French Efforts to Fight Riviera Wildfire

LE LUC, France (AP) — Just when fire officials thought a huge wildfire near the French Riviera might be slowing down, a new pocket of flames shot up. And just as a water-dumping helicopter finished dousing one hot spot, another …

Angry Greeks Criticize Government Response After Wildfire Devastation

ATHENS — As flames threatened to engulf the home of Stelios Kokkinelis in a suburb north of Athens at the weekend and the emergency services failed to respond to his calls for help, he decided to ignore an evacuation order …

US Weather Model Upgraded to Better Forecast Extreme Events

The National Weather Service has turbocharged its lagging forecast model to better predict extreme weather events such as hurricanes, blizzards and downpours, as well as day-to-day weather. By including much higher layers of the atmosphere, increased factoring of ocean waves …

Europe Heat Wave Set to Break Records: Paris Hotter Than Cairo

Europe’s latest summer heatwave broke heat records just weeks after the continent recorded its hottest ever June, fueling concern that a shifting climate is making extreme weather events more frequent. Germany probably set a new all-time temperature record of 106.7 …

People Just Aren’t Afraid of Climate Change Yet

With respect to the science of climate change, many experts regard the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as the world’s authoritative institution. A draft summary of its forthcoming report was leaked last week. It describes the panel’s growing confidence that …

Budget Cuts Force Meteorological Training Program to Seek Donations

The main source of online weather training for hundreds of thousands of forecasters, emergency managers, and others in the United States and abroad is turning to donations from users in order to try to stay in service. The COMET Program, …

Climate Scientists Struggle to Explain Warming Slowdown

Scientists are struggling to explain a slowdown in climate change that has exposed gaps in their understanding and defies a rise in global greenhouse gas emissions. Often focused on century-long trends, most climate models failed to predict that the temperature …

Report Shows Disaster Hit Every Maine County

A new report says every Maine county has been hit by at least one federally declared weather-related disaster since 2006. Environment Maine’s report says those disasters include such events as scorching heat, devastating wildfires, severe storms and record flooding. Environment …