weather
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Monster hailstone will eat your family
Man alive, check out the hailstone that fell in sunny Hawaii earlier this month. It’s four inches long and it has TEETH. I’m not actually convinced it’s not an embryonic yeti.
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Critical List: Warmest March on record for 25 states; LEGO hermit crab shell
A round-up of the news of the day.
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Critical List: Midwest tornadoes kill 12; Shell sues environmental groups over Alaska drilling
Tornadoes tore through the Midwest, killing 12 people. North Korea will stop testing nuclear weapons in exchange for food aid. The Sierra Club’s ripping it up. One of two Chicago coal-fired power plants that are now slated to close marks “the 100th coal plant retirement announced since January 2010.” That’s about four every month!
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Critical List: Groundhog says six more winter weeks; zoos need more elephants
Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, which means six more weeks of winter. But that dude has since his shadow more than 100 times; he’s only not seen it 16 times. Honestly, getting your weather forecast from a giant rodent is like getting your climate science from a weather forecaster. Locusts thrive on overgrazed lands. Accredited […]
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Critical List: Illinois installed the most wind turbines in 2011; Weathercasters aren’t climate scientists
Illinois installed the most new wind turbines in 2011. In five years, there could be 39 million “micro-hybrids” — cars that have a battery to increase cars’ efficiency, but that aren’t quite as awesome as Priuses or other full hybrids. Weather forecasters don’t understand climate science. Don’t believe them when they say climate change doesn’t […]
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‘Winter Jam Canceled Due to Lack of Winter’
The New York City parks department’s annual Winter Jam in Prospect Park has been nixed due to unseasonably warm temperatures — it’s kind of hard to have winter sports demonstrations when you don’t have any winter. (There is basically no way we could improve on the Times headline about the decision, so we’re just gonna let that sit […]
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Buckle up for more weather weirdness, America
Last year, the climate phenomenon La Niña messed with everyone’s heads. La Niña conditions mean that the ocean temperature in the Equatorial Pacific Ocean are colder than usual, and this was responsible for (among other things) the uncannily warm winter that the Northeast has been having. Sorry, can’t blame that on climate change! Yet. NASA’s […]
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Critical List: Huge wind farm to rise in Wyoming; doomsday clock ticks forward
The Obama administration is speeding towards approval for a huge wind project, 1,000 turbines strong, in Wyoming.
GOP Senate candidate Linda McMahon cribbed text for her op-ed on Keystone XL from the website of pipeline builder Transcanada.
There's a second tar-sands pipeline, Northern Gateway, and that one faces strong opposition, as well.
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Your car commute helps cause tornadoes
Just like humans, East Coast tornadoes work extra hours during the week and take it easier on the weekends. According to a new study, tornadoes and hailstorms are less likely to occur on a Saturday or Sunday. That’s because hail and tornadoes thrive on pollution, which is higher towards the middle of the week.
The study looked at summertime storm activity and found above-average rates of storms mid-week and below-average rates on weekends. It turns out that this is because moisture likes pollutants.