Tropical Storm Florence, presently circulating in the south-central Atlantic Ocean, may move north and east and make landfall somewhere along the US East Coast later this week. If the storm reaches this area of the ocean, unsually warm water will cause it to increase rapidly in strength. This is the same effect that has been present in the Gulf of Mexico since the early part of this century.
read more
It mightn’t be quite a case of the flapping of a Brazilian butterfly’s wings causing a tornado in Texas, but a team of climate researchers has found a correlation between melting Arctic sea ice and the formation of tornadoes in the United States, with fewer tornadoes being reported when northern sea ice is unseasonably low.
"A relationship between Arctic sea ice and tornadoes in the US may seem unlikely," says study co-author Jeff Trapp, an atmospheric sciences researcher with the University of Illinois at Urbana. "But it is hard to ignore the mounting evidence in support of the connection."
read more
Despite the pledges and measures being taken to address the rising concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide, CO2 levels continue to climb. This trend is causing concern amongst climate researchers, including worries that limiting global warming’s effects to two degrees Celsius, as per the Paris Agreement, might still trigger a cascade effect that would lead to a "Hothouse Earth" situation that we would have no control over.
read more