Earlier today, a groundbreaking study was released that officially linked climate change to increased intensity of hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin (Nothern Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico). The authors found that all 11 hurricanes this year had intensified by somewhere between 9 and 28 miles per hour. In most cases, this was enough to
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A large and unusually strong storm is impacting much of the Pacific Northwest and Northern California. The system is being called a “bomb cyclone”. A bomb cyclone is a classification a storm system earns if its pressure drops rapidly. If a (midlatitude) cyclone’s pressure falls at least 24 millibars in 24 hours, it can be
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On November 14th, the Climate Prediction Center released its latest update on what’s happening with La Nina. As a recap, La Nina is one of three phases in the climate cycle known as ENSO (El Nino Southern Oscillation). The other two are El Nino and the Neutral phase. La Nina represents cooler-than-usual ocean temperatures in
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Across the nation, winters are getting consistently warmer. Since 1970, winters have warmed by an average of 4° Fahrenheit across more than 230 cities. The most significant warming is being fest east of the Rocky Mountains, with the upper midwest and northeast seeing an average warming of 5.5°F and 5°F respectively. Closer to home, Riverside
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Winds remain fairly strong through this afternoon, prompting a number of advisories. Here in the Valley we have a Dust Advisory from the SCAQMD until 9:15 this evening. There are also Red Flag warnings and Wind Advisories around the region. Cooler than normal conditions will prevail all week long as the Jetstream dips farther to
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The graphic below shows the IR (infrared) satellite imagery from Hurricane Milton, now an extremely strong category 5 storm. The most prominent feature of the storm, as will all mature hurricanes, is the eye in the middle of the storm. The extremely tight eye signifies exceptionally strong winds. This storm has undergone “extreme rapid intensification”
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September is a month of change. It marks the beginning of fall and is a time when temperatures start to cool from their summertime highs, in theory anyway. September 2024 didn’t quite get the memo. The first and last third of the month were marked by hot, above-average temperatures. The middle third of the month
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Fall is a season of change, especially in terms of temperatures and foliage. Unfortunately, the Coachella Valley doesn’t get to witness the phenomenon of changing leaves thanks to our hot climate and lack of deciduous trees (trees that lose their leaves in the fall). There are a number of factors that can affect how and
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The First Alert Weather Team is very closely monitoring Hurricane Helene and its imminent impacts on the United States. As of 5 PM Wednesday, Helene is a category 1 hurricane and has entered the Gulf of Mexico. Helene is expected to grow in both size and strength in the coming hours as it moves through
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With all the wet weather across Southern California today, we certainly had a lot of cool clouds to look at throughout the day. Most notably, a funnel cloud that formed over the mountains! There are some clouds that can look like funnel clouds but really aren’t. These choppy, broken clouds are called scud clouds and
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September is a crucial month as it represents the transition from summer into fall. Here in the Coachella Valley, September is one of those months where we see the average high temperature fall relatively rapidly. Summer is definitely sticking around for a bit longer though as we continue to feel excessively hot temperatures this week.
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For most of the last few decades, the Southwest United States has been in a long-term ‘megadrought’. The atmospheric river events of the last two winters have greatly helped to improve drought conditions across the Southwest. However, it wasn’t quite enough to remove drought conditions throughout the entire region. For some context, in mid-March of
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Wildfires are one of the biggest threats to both people’s homes and vital infrastructure, and the risks of being impacted by wildfires are only increasing thanks to climate change. In fact, a research paper from 20321 found that at least 2/3 (two-thirds) of the increase in fire weather across the US in recent decades can
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August was another very hot month here in the Coachella Valley! Twenty-one days in the month had a high temperature greater than the seasonable average. Seven days were below average and three days matched the average high temperature for that day. Thankfully, no heat records were broken, despite a 120°F day on the 4th. Overall,
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The Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS) released its annual State of the Climate report for 2023 just last week. Nearly 600 scientists from almost 60 countries came together to analyze the data and produce this report. They found a number of alarming figures, including the fact that all three major greenhouse gases reached
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Fall is warming all across the nation, according to a new report from Climate Central. They punched the numbers to identify trends for more than 240 locations across the US and found that more than 234 areas have warmed by at least 2.5°F (1.4°C) since 1970. While warming occurred all over, the Southwest has experienced
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As of the latest update from the National Hurricane Center, Tropical Storm Hone is just off the coast of Hawaii. Maximum sustained winds are sitting at roughly 65 MPH and a fairly weak central pressure of 1000mb. A Tropical Storm Warning is currently in place for the island of Hawaii and the waters surrounding the
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“Heat season” is May through September, or when heat risk is high and cooling demand is elevated. Heat season outages accounted for nearly half of all weather-related outages during the analyzed period. It’s important to point out that this study focuses on major outages that affect at least 50,000 customers or interrupt service of 300+
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The wet bulb globe temperature, or WBGT, is a fairly obscure meteorological measurement specially used to determine how safe it is for people to do activities outdoors. It is commonly used by schools and outdoor workers. It is calculated by taking measurements with three different types of thermometers: the wet bulb, the dry bulb, and
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It’s that time of year when students head back to the classroom! Thanks to warming temperatures, however, it’s getting harder and harder to keep students and teachers cool in school. More energy is being used by schools to cool off their buildings. One of the ways we can calculate this is by tracking cooling degree
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