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Tech NewsAn Epic Storm On The West Coast
The weather updates coming out of California read like measurement glitches Between 147 miles per hour wind gusts recorded at Mount Lincoln weather station, and a crest height of 37.6 feet on the Russian River, it’s looking downright apocalyptic. Batten down the hatches, run the bilge pumps, and hunker down for the storm! Top image: … Continued
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Tech News
The Meteorological Phenomenon That’s Flooding California
After a long drought, California is suddenly getting pounded with its biggest storm in a decade. Whoa, what’s happening? It’s all the work of an atmospheric river, a particular weather event that can be devastating when it hits land. The particular atmospheric river responsible for today’s storm is called the Pineapple Express because it runs … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech NewsWhat Happens When the Weatherman’s Computer Fails
The weather team down at ABCNews4 just made the most of a horrific, live computer crash. Apparently, the computer that generates the graphics for the TV weather forecasts failed recently, but instead of just standing up there and talking in front of a blank screen, the team created some super half-assed chicken scratch pen drawings … Continued
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Tech NewsIncoming Storm Looks Like an Alien Threat Ready to Devour Sydney
This nasty-looking storm (yes, that’s a storm not some hostile extraterrestrial unleashing otherworldly Armageddon) only confirms what we’ve always known: Mother Nature can be truly terrifying. This two-minute clip was captured by storm chaser Daniel Shaw on Friday and is stunning visual evidence of the dangerous weather that’s been in Sydney this past week causing … Continued
By Darren Orf -
io9
A Flowchart That Answers Once And For All Whether We’re In An El Niño
Could we still see an El Niño this year? Yes, we could. In fact, it may have started already. Top image: Current sea surface temperatures, as of today via NOAA After the newest El Niño update yesterday — that conditions were still quite good for the potential of developing an El Niño this winter, either … Continued
By Ria Misra -
Tech NewsSploid
Iced fog turns forest into real life Frozen magic kingdom
This weekend, a forest turned into a real life Frozen kingdom of ice in Hungary. It wasn’t the Snow Queen Elsa, but the rapidly sinking temperatures that caused the fog to suddenly freeze on a hill top, turning trees into strange surreal sculptures like the one above. These photos were taken yesterday by the Hungarian … Continued
By Attila Nagy -
EartherClimate Change
Glacier National Park Is On Track To Be Glacier-Free By 2030
When Glacier National Park was dedicated in 1910, this stunning span of the Rocky Mountains on the Montana-Canadian border counted over 150 thick, morphing ice sheets that gave the park its name. One very warm century later, there are only 26 glaciers here. And by 2030, scientists warn, that number could be zero. One computer-based … Continued
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Tech News
The coldest ground-level temp ever recorded on Earth was -128.6 degrees F
It looks like winter has already arrived for much of the U.S. But you can feel a bit better by putting things in perspective. At least it’s not -128.6 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s the coldest temperature ever recorded by humans at ground level on this planet. Yes, it dipped to -128.6 F (or a chilly -89.2 … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech News
The Biggest Airlines, Ranked By Thanksgiving Delays
Holiday travel is hell. Combine early winter weather with hoards of angry passengers rushing for their childhood twin beds, and delays are pretty much a given. So how long will you yourself get to spend sightseeing around a crowded airport terminal? Depends on who you fly. Since not all airlines are created equal, we’ve averaged … Continued
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io9Watch This Gigantic Wall of Snow Engulf Buffalo, New York
This snow storm is so intense that it looks like a thick, dense cloud has blanketed part of the city of Buffalo. And that’s what’s extraordinary about it. This is an intensely localized storm, which dumped several feet of snow on just one narrow slice of the city. Ferociously tiny snowstorms like this are caused … Continued
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io9
What the Hell Is This Tentacled, Geometric Structure?!
What is in this picture? Grout building up on industrial equipment? A melting screw and bolt? Seaweed on a recovered bit of the Titanic? I’ll give you a hint. It’s very, very small. What you see there is ice building up on ice. The large “screw and bolt” structure is a snow crystal. The small … Continued
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io9
A Map Showing When It’s Likely To Be Coldest Where You Live
Winter is coming, this we know. But when will the coldest day come for you? That, as this map shows, depends on where you live. After running the stats on when temperatures hit their lowest points across the nation for the last 30 years, the National Climatic Data Center put together this map showing when … Continued
By Ria Misra -
Tech News
The UK’s New Weather Supercomputer Could Predict Rain in Your Street
The UK’s Met Office has just announced that it’s taking delivery of a new $150 million supercomputer—one that will be able to predict the weather accurately enough to know what it will be like on the very road you live on. The new device is a Cray XC40 supercomputer with 480,000 CPUs, that can perform … Continued
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EartherClimate Change
The worst drought of the last 1,000 years was in 1934
The current drought in the U.S. certainly feels like it’s one for the history books. But it’s likely not the worst North America has seen in the last millennium. A new study from NASA shows that a drought in 1934 was by far the worst to strike the continent in 1000 years. Scientists from NASA … Continued
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ScienceBiology
Elephants can sense rainstorms from 150 miles away
Elephants are amazing creatures for a lot of reasons. The latest one to be confirmed by science? They can sense rainstorms from 150 miles away. What’s more amazing is that researchers think they do it by simply listening to the sound of the air. This discovery is the result of a seven-year-long study that tracked … Continued
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Tech News
Plan Your Leaf-Watching With This Lovely Fall Foliage Map
It’s the time of year where people go out into rural America seeking swollen gourds and fermented apple juice all in the name of Fall Fun™. And because timing is everything when it comes to these things, this beautiful fall foliage forecast map will aid you in your important quest to see the most chlorophyll-free … Continued
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Tech NewsThe Tempescope Puts the Weather in a Box on Your Desk
Sure, you could just download a weather app to see what conditions are like outside your front door, but where’s the fun in that? Ken Kawamoto’s Tempescope actually creates rain, clouds, and simulated lightning right inside your house. It’s the ultimate push notification. Basically, it’s just an acrylic box with a water pump, mist diffuser, … Continued
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Tech News
Mysterious Radar Cloud Over the Midwest Was Actually… Butterflies
Was it a bird? A plane? A tornado cell? Nope. The huge, slow-moving cloud picked up on radar in Illinois and Missouri last week was nothing anyone expected. The US National Weather Service reports it was actually a swarm of millions of monarch butterflies—which have been disappearing at alarming speeds over the past decade. As … Continued
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io9
What Does Winter Look Like On Mars?
We’re all too familiar with the snows, icy terrains, and bone-chilling cold of winter on Earth, but what does it look like on Mars? A new 3D image lets you see what it would be like to experience the frostiest season on the red planet. The ESA snagged these images of the Hooke crater in … Continued
By Ria Misra