First Alert Weather Insider

There’s no easy way to put it… the planet is warming. Since the 1970s, more than 85% of the United States now experiences more extremely hot summer days. While what constitutes an extremely hot day is relative to where you are, we are seeing more and more of them. Some places, like Miami, FL now

There are a few main ingredients needed for thunderstorms to form. These ingredients are moisture, atmospheric instability, and lift. Moisture is often present in the deserts in the summer months thanks to the monsoon. Instability comes from a mix of the warm and moist air at the surface. Since warm air and moist air are

Hail is a form of frozen precipitation that falls from thunderstorms as clumps of ice. At the core of every thunderstorm is an updraft, or an area of rising warm, moist air. When this warm moist air reaches the colder levels of the atmosphere, the water vapor will condense and form clouds and rain. However,

Excessive Heat Warnings are a dime a dozen here in the Coachella Valley in the summer months. However, given that the climate varies widely from place to place, it’s up to the local National Weather Service offices to determine if an Excessive Heat Warning should be issued. They use HeatRisk to help make that call.

Dust devils are a fairly common phenomenon all over the world, but are especially common in desert areas in the warmer months. As air at the surface heats up during the day, some of the air can rise, forming a small area of low pressure. This will cause nearby air to move in to fill

As of 1:50 PM this afternoon, we are officially in the summer season! We have seasons as a result of the earth’s tilt. By definition, a solstice occurs at the point in Earth’s orbit when the planet reaches its peak tilt toward the sun. During the summer solstice, the sun appears at the highest point

Over the last few days, southern Florida has been getting pummeled by excessive amounts of rain. Some areas in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro have recorded more than 2 FEET of rain! This marks the second such flooding event in the last two years. You may remember the Fort Lauderdale floods of April 2023 where some

The North American Monsoon is a seasonal shift of the winds and weather pattern in the desert Southwest. Monsoon Awareness Week is this week and runs from June 9th – June 15th, 2024. Monsoon season officially begins on June 15th and lasts through September 30th. As temperatures warm on land throughout the summer, a persistent

Across the nation, summers have been getting increasingly warmer since the 1970s. On average, across all 230 locations analyzed, summers are now 2.5°F warmer than in the 70s. Some of the greatest warming has occurred in parts of the Northwest, Southwest, and South. Back here at home, summers are now approximately 3°F warmer. This is

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1st through November 30th of a given year. Experts are predicting another highly active season, with the National Hurricane Center issuing their most aggressive forecast ever! There are many factors that are taken into account when making a forecast for the season. Two of the most important are

Spring is the windy season here in the Coachella Valley, with our winds often being the strongest around sundown. As we begin to warm into the 90s and triple digits, the coasts are still feeling cooler temperatures thanks to the moderating effects of the ocean. the warmer temperatures here cause the pressure to drop slightly,