First Alert Weather Insider

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

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

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

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

“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+

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

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

Hurricane Debby became the fourth named storm and the second hurricane of the Atlantic hurricane season over the past weekend. It became a hurricane less than twelve hours before making landfall near Steinhatchee, Florida as a category 1 storm. The average date of formation of the second Atlantic hurricane is August 26th. It happened on

When people visit the Coachella Valley, the Salton Sea isn’t usually at the top of most people’s to-do lists… and for good reason. The Salton Sea often has a bit of an unpleasant odor. This is because of Hydrogen sulfide, a gas which is well known for giving rotten eggs their distinctive smell. As with

If there’s one thing wildfires are known for it’s heat. As fires heat up the air, it becomes less dense and will want to rise. As this happens, it has the ability to create special thunderstorms known as pyrocumulus and pyrocumulonimbus clouds (aka thunderstorms caused by fires). Fires can also influence the weather on the

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,