Obama Climate Change Strategy Coming Within Weeks, Adviser Says

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/19/obama-climate-change_n_3467272.html?utm_hp_ref=climate-change

President Barack Obama will target carbon emissions from power plants as part of a second-term climate change agenda expected to be rolled out in the next few weeks, his top energy and climate adviser said on Wednesday.

Obama will take several steps to make tackling climate change a "second-term priority" that builds on first-term policies, Heather Zichal, deputy assistant to the president for energy and climate change, said at a forum sponsored by the New Republic magazine.

"In the near term we are very much focused on the power plant piece of the equation," she said.

On Wednesday in Berlin, Obama said the United States understood it had to do more to fight climate change and he pledged that more action was coming.

"Our dangerous carbon emissions have come down, but we know we have to do more. And we will do more," he said in a speech.

The president is expected to announce new U.S. measures to fight global warming in the coming weeks.

Supercell Thunderstorm Time Lapse Video

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/12/supercell-time-lapse-thunderstorm-video_n_3428738.html?utm_hp_ref=extreme-weather

A supercell near Booker, Texas from Mike Olbinski on Vimeo.

The time-lapse was filmed by Mike Olbinski, a storm chaser who has spent the past four years searching for the perfect storm. He captured this rotating cell near Booker, Texas during a trip to the Great Plains with a friend on June 3.

"We chased this storm from the wrong side (north) and it took us going through hail and torrential rains to burst through on the south side," Olbinski wrote in the video description. "And when we did...this monster cloud was hanging over Texas and rotating like something out of Close Encounters."

Tornado in Colesville, Maryland

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/13/tornado-dc_n_3437480.html

A tornado with 50 mph winds was confirmed about 15 miles from D.C., in the Maryland suburbs. The Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang reports that trees and wires went down in Bethesda, Rockville and Colesville -- the tornado was confirmed near Colesville at 3:53 p.m. -- but that "authorities had no reports of significant structural damage to any buildings, said Asst. Chief Scott Graham, a Montgomery County Fire Department spokesman."
Three tornadoes were reported in Maryland, according to the Maryland Emergency Management Agency:
Spokesman Ed McDonough says there have been no reports of injuries from the storms Thursday afternoon. He says a woman was struck by lightning in Cecil County Thursday morning. McDonough says tornadoes were reported near Olney in Montgomery County, Laurel in Prince George's County and Snow Hill in Worcester County on the Eastern Shore.
The National Weather Service says it can't confirm any tornadoes before taking a close look at the damage.

Powerful storms headed toward city today

 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-storms-headed-toward-chicago-could-bring-hail-tornadoes-20130612,0,3779191.story

"The storms could bring a "potentially dangerous weather situation," meteorologist Tom Skilling said shortly before noon on WGN-TV. He said a "big batch" of storms could roll through the area around 7 p.m.

There could be wind gusts up to 75 miles per hour and "hail to the size of baseballs," according to a weather service forecast. The outlook also warns of the possibility of "strong tornadoes.""

10,000 Years of Rising Sea Levels in 10 Seconds

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2013/05/if-gif-10000-years-sea-level-rise-doesnt-freak-you-out-nothing-will/5751/

Communities along the New Jersey coast are already trying to restore beaches even as they slowly subside, hauling in sand from elsewhere. Horton suggests that that task – and the cost of executing it – will only grow bigger from now on based on what we now know about the historic trajectory of sea-level rise.
"The problem that we have is that people are unwilling to accept climate change, and we should just accept it," he says. "We have the ability now to start to think about what the rates of rise in the future will be."

Deaths by lightning strike increasing

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/suburbs/downers_grove_darien_westmont_woodridge/chi-woman-found-dead-in-park-in-downers-grove-20130531,0,4670130.story

"Dizon’s death was not yet reflected on in National Weather Service data, which tracks the number of fatalities caused by lightning strikes in the U.S. and its territories each year. To date, the agency has recorded five deaths by lightning this year, which is below the historical average of nine deaths through the first five months of the year.

But the next three months have proven to be the most deadly, with an average of 16 deaths in July and 12 deaths during June and August, according to the agency."

Where to Hide From Mother Nature

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_gist/2005/09/where_to_hide_from_mother_nature.html

"Human beings are self-absorbed creatures, so the response to Hurricane Katrina has naturally included some hand-wringing over the question: "Could this happen to my hometown?" Depending on the worrywart's location, the theoretical catastrophe could be a flash flood, a wildfire, or an earthquake rather than a hurricane; no corner of the United States is immune to lethal natural disasters.

Still, some corners are safer than others. If an American wants to minimize his chances of dying at Mother Nature's hands, where should he set up house? Slate crunched the numbers—and did some educated guesswork—to find the U.S. city where the odds of perishing in a natural disaster are closest to nil."

Hot in My Backyard

This week's episode of This American Life explores stories of a climatologist whose life is affected by natural disasters, the "Al Gore of Republicans" and more.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/495/hot-in-my-backyard

Can a City be a Tornado Magnet?

 http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/explainer/2013/05/oklahoma_tornado_do_certain_cities_attract_tornadoes.html

"Historical data from the National Weather Service suggests that the city of Moore should experience one tornado of size F2 or larger every 2,000 to 5,000 years. In fact, Moore has suffered through six since 1999. The recent run of bad luck may be a statistical quirk, but it’s also possible that the historical data are faulty. Reliable tornado records stretch back only to the 1950s.

Since large tornadoes are a rare event, that’s a pretty small sample size on which to base a prediction. (Researcher Tom Grazulis has attempted to expand the database by reviewing news reports as far back as 1880, but the database still doesn’t compare to the centuries of detailed information we have about earthquakes and other natural disasters.) Our understanding of the relative frequency of tornadoes is likely accurate—Oklahoma does seem to get several times as many large tornadoes as California—but we’re not able to reliably predict how often a major tornado should strike a region."