With Tropical Storms Laura and Marco both forecast to be in the Gulf of Mexico together early next week, you might wonder if they could potentially collide or perhaps form one huge hurricane. “Thankfully, any worries about the two storms merging into a ‘super-hurricane’ are unfounded,” noted weather.us meteorologist Jack Sillin in his blog Friday. “When tropical cyclones arrive in close proximity to another tropical cyclone, the interaction is detrimental for both storms.” Sillin said that if one storm is much stronger than the other, the weaker system will usually weaken substantially or dis ..read more

Multiple waterspouts were spotted swirling simultaneously off Louisiana’s coast on August 20, as severe storms battered the region with hail. This footage shot by Frank Leday in the Gulf of Mexico captures at least six of the watery vortexes spiraling skyward against a blanket of dark storm clouds. The storms came as the US National Weather Service predicted two tropical depressions — one in the North Atlantic and another in the Caribbean — could develop into hurricanes upon hitting the Gulf. According to US media, it would be the first instance of two separate tropical storm systems in the ..read more

An asteroid discovered in 2018 will fly very close to Earth on Nov. 2 according to The Center for Near Earth Objects Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Astronomers spotted the object from Palomar Observatory in San Diego County in 2018 followed by a 13-day observation arc and has not been detected since. Asteroid 2018VP1 is currently projected to come close to Earth sometime during the day before the 2020 presidential election on Nov. 3, according to NASA. The asteroid will likely come as close to between 4,700 miles and 260,000 miles of Earth, according to Forbes. The good news is ..read more

On Aug. 16, a space rock the size of a car zipped past Earth at a distance too close for comfort – approximately 1,830 miles. What’s even more disconcerting is that NASA never saw it until after it had happened. According to a report by Business Insider, it was the closest ever recorded, according to asteroid trackers and a catalog compiled by Sormano Astronomical Observatory in Italy. The report said the space rock, because of its size, most likely wouldn’t have posed any danger to people on the ground had it struck our planet. But it noted that “the close call is worrisome nonetheless, sinc ..read more

Some of California’s largest ever fires raged across the state Saturday, forcing tens of thousands from their homes as forecasters warned of further blazes sparked by lightning strikes. Several thousand lightning bolts have hit California in recent days, starting fires that left thick smoke blanketing the region. “The western US and Great Plains are shrouded under a vast area of smoke due to ongoing wildfires that extend from the Rockies to the West Coast,” the National Weather Service said Saturday. “With severe drought and exceptionally dry fuels present, dry thunderstorms could spark addit ..read more

A gigantic fleet of floating rocks, spewed up from an underwater volcano in the Pacific Ocean, floated across the waves for thousands of miles. Eventually, it made it all the way to Australia, then started on a new project: revitalizing the world’s largest (and very threatened) coral reef system. This unlikely chain of events may sound somewhat incredible, but it’s an entirely true story – one that has played out dramatically over the last year, while highlighting the surprising, largely unseen ways in which Earth’s natural environmental systems intersect with one another. Stranger still, it ..read more

It’s going to be a hot one…  More than 80 million people are under excessive heat alerts this weekend with record temperatures possible in over 10 states. Excessive heat warnings are in effect for California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Texas. Heat advisories are in place for some surrounding states, including Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas. “Nearly 100 daily record highs are in jeopardy over the weekend, and even more record heat is expected next week as the heat remains locked over much of the western half of the country,” said Haley Brink, CNN meteorologist. Some cities like El Paso a ..read more

A top federal health official is issuing a dire warning: Follow recommended coronavirus measures or risk having the worst fall in US public health history. For your country right now and for the war that we’re in against Covid, I’m asking you to do four simple things: wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands and be smart about crowds,” said Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “I’m not asking some of America to do it,” he told WebMD. “We all gotta do it.” Without following the recommendations, this could be “the worst fall, from a public hea ..read more

In Washington state’s new food warehouse, there’s enough Jif peanut butter to make nearly 3 million sandwiches. Barilla pasta boxes stretch to the ceiling, 100,000 in all. Large stacks of TreeTop applesauce, pancake mix and canned green beans sit on pallets, like soldiers waiting to be sent into duty.  Since the coronavirus crisis first rocked Washington in March, nonprofits and state agencies working in food assistance have been forced to draw a completely new road map for getting food to people who need it. The warehouse in Fife is part of that new model. After seeing food banks strugg ..read more

A swarm of small earthquakes in California, close to the Mexican border, is being closely monitored as to whether it might raise the chance of a much larger event on the San Andreas fault. The largest earthquake on Monday was a magnitude 4.6, reported at 8:56 a.m. under the southeastern part of the Salton Sea, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was among a series that began at 6:33 a.m. with a magnitude 3.2 earthquake. Magnitude 4 quakes struck at 9:03 a.m. and 12:29 p.m. It’s only the fourth time in the 88 years of modern records that such a swarm has occurred in this part of Califo ..read more