Redditor AbeFroman21 posted that he and his family are without power or internet due to Hurricane Florence, and that Verizon has throttled their internet access to an unusable trickle, offering to unblock them if they pay for a higher tier of service. Read the rest
After being hammered by hurricane Maria, the residents of the rural Puerto Rican mountain town of Mariana got tired of waiting for the bumbling, privatized, cash-starved power authority to reconnect them to the grid, so the anarchist organizer Christine Nieves founded Proyecto de Apoyo Mutuo, one of a dozen-odd cooperatives across the island to create their own solar grid; by the time the The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority finally put in an appearance, Mariana had had power for two whole months. Read the rest
As a million people evacuate the coastal regions of Virginia and North Carolina to escape the damaging winds of Hurricane Florence, the badass scientists of NOAA are flying smack-dab into the storm. Read the rest
US infrastructure spending as a proportion of GDP is at a low not seen since WWII, and that's why America's bridges, dams, roads, power plants and other key infrastructure are such easy fodder for Hurricane Harvey (and the impending Irma devastation). Trump's plan for infrastructure spending is a "ludicrous patchwork of tax breaks and privatizations" that will do nothing to solve the problem. Read the rest
#HurricaneHarvey could hit landfall late Friday night along the Texas coast as a Category 3 hurricane. Read the rest
Hurricane season officially began yesterday, but let's hope now more than ever that one doesn't hit the US anytime soon. Because guess what? No one is in charge of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the agency that predicts and forecasts hurricanes ahead of a storm. And for an extra thrill, no one is in charge of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) either, the agency that responds to disasters and offers relief. Read the rest
There's so much Florida goodness in this footage.
Vertical video ✓ Stayed to enjoy the hurricane ✓ Big tree with 6 inch deep root system ✓ Vertical video of big tree with 6 inch deep root system 10ft from your house in Florida, where there are hurricanes ✓ Read the rest
Hurricane Hermine is making landfall at the time of this blog post, in the early hours of Friday morning in Florida. Millions of people are in its path, and there are related tornado watches throughout the state through mid-day Friday. A NOAA update at 1:55AM shows 2-3 inches of rain have fallen in Tallahassee, where some 70,000 people are without power already. Flash flooding is reported, and more is expected. Isolated gusts of 45-50mph have been recorded in the first two hours of landfall in the “Big Bend” of Florida's West Coast. Read the rest
Tropical Storm Hermine officially reached hurricane status on Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016, reported NASA and NOAA's National Hurricane Center earlier today. When it makes landfall, it will be the first hurricane to hit Florida since Wilma in 2005. Hermine will probably touch down along the state's eastern Panhandle in the wee hours of Friday morning, and NOAA predicts that its force and the associated water surges will be “life-threatening.” Read the rest
Cameras on the International Space Station captured this footage of three major hurricanes on Earth on August 30. Two of these storms are in the Pacific Ocean, and one is in the Atlantic Ocean. Read the rest
Sixty milliseconds is fast. But sometimes, it's not fast enough. That's the gist of a great explainer by Cassie Rodenberg at Popular Mechanics, which answers the question, "Why do transformers explode?"
Before I link you over there, I want to add a quick reminder of what transformers actually are.
Although giant robots that turn into trucks do also explode from time to time, in this case we are talking about those cylindrical boxes that you see attached to electric poles. (Pesco posted a video of one exploding last night.) To understand what they do, you have to know the basics of the electric grid.
I find that it's easiest to picture the grid like a lazy river at a water park. That's because we aren't just talking about a bunch of wires, here. The grid is a circuit, just like the lazy river. Electricity has to flow along it from the power plant, to the customers, and back around to the power plant again. And, like a lazy river, the grid has to operate within certain limits. The electricity has to move at a constant speed (analogous to what engineers call frequency) and at a constant depth (analogous to voltage). This is where transformers come in. Read the rest
Yesterday, I told you that the relationship between Hurricane Sandy and climate change can be summed up with "It's Complicated". If you want a referendum on climate change, the data is in and we know it's happening. But if you're curious about this specific storm, what scientists know about hurricane systems, and how weather and climate interact, Scientific American has a live chat starting at 1:00 pm Eastern with Noah Diffenbaugh, a climate scientist at Stanford University. Check it out! Read the rest
The above is an excerpt from the entry on hurricanes in A New and Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, published in 1763 by the delightfully named "A Society of Gentlemen".
The entry contains information on how natives of the Caribbean were said to be able to predict hurricanes — portents that center around the color of the sky and the phases of the Moon. I'm curious whether any meteorology fans and experts out there can offer insight on that. Read the full entry. (It's short.) And let me know. Does this sound like stuff that would line up with what we know about hurricanes today?
Also: Helpful tip. "F" is pronounced "S" here.
I got this from someone on Twitter, but managed to lose my notation of who during today's ridiculous airport runaround. So, anyway, thank you! If this is you, let me know and I'll get your name on it.
Hurricane Sandy will likely cause 16-foot to 22-foot waves ... on Lake Michigan. (Via Jessica Morrison) Read the rest
This is how Hurricane Isaac looked on Tuesday, as it made landfall on America's Gulf Coast. If you've never been to the Gulf of Mexico, here is a key fact you should know: The water there is warm. While Pacific coastal waters might be in the 50s during August, and the central Atlantic coast is pulling temperatures in the 60s and 70s, the water in the Gulf of Mexico is well into the 80s.
And that makes a difference. We know that water temperature affects hurricane strength. But we don't understand the particulars of how or why at a detail level. To learn more about this (and other factors that make each hurricane an individual), researchers at the University of Miami are building a simulation machine. When it's complete, it will be a key tool in improving forecasts.
Read the restPeter Sollogub, Associate Principal at Cambridge Seven, says the hurricane simulator is comprised of three major components: The first is a 1400-horsepower fan originally suited for things like ventilating mine shafts. To create its 150mph winds, it will draw energy from the campus's emergency generator system, which is typically used during power outages caused by storms.
The second part is a wave generator which pushes salt water using 12 different paddles. Those paddles, timed to move at different paces and rates, can create waves at various sizes, angles and frequency, creating anything from a calm, organized swell to sloppy chaotic seas.
The third aspect of the tank is the tank itself, which is six meters in width by 20 meters in length by two meters high.
