Weather - US

FILE - In this May 23, 2019 file. Photo, tornado damage is seen in Jefferson City, Mo.  AP

kens5.com - Associated Press and TEGNA Staff - May 29, 2019

After several quiet years, the United States was threatening to break a major record for tornado activity this week as a volatile mix of warm, moist air from the Southeast and persistent cold from the Rockies clashed and stalled over the Midwest . . .

. . . The storms Tuesday were the 12th straight day that at least eight tornadoes were reported to the National Weather Service. If the service confirms that they were tornadoes, it would break the U.S. record for most consecutive days with at least eight tornadoes in each of those days . . .

. . . Scientists also say climate change is responsible for more intense and more frequent extreme weather such as storms, droughts, floods and fires, but without extensive study they cannot directly link a single weather event to the changing climate.

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After Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas coast in August 2017, the storm stalled over Houston and dumped as much as 60 inches of rain on some parts of the region.  Katie Hayes Luke for NPR

Lawmakers called the decision “deeply troubling.”

houstonpublicmedia.org - by Davis Land - March 7, 2019

Lawmakers on the U.S. House science committee have questions for federal and Texas officials about a decision not to fly a NASA jet that would have provided more comprehensive data on air pollution after Hurricane Harvey.

Committee members Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) and Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) have requested documents relating to the decision from the Environmental Protection Agency, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and NASA.

The request comes after an L.A. Times article revealed NASA officials offered up a high-tech air-sampling jet to help with pollution monitoring after Hurricane Harvey. The EPA and TCEQ reportedly pushed back on the offer, saying data from the state-of-the-art airplane would not be helpful. Their response informed NASA officials’ decision not to fly.

A neighbor takes photographs of a boat smashed against a car garage, deposited there by the high winds and storm surge from Hurricane Florence, along the Neuse River, Sept. 15, 2018 in New Bern, North Carolina. - (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Recent increases in tropical cyclone intensification rates

weather.com - by Sean Breslin - February 8, 2019

Hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin are exploding into monster storms at a rapid pace more and more often, and climate change is one reason why, a new study has found.

Published Thursday in the journal Nature Communications, the findings compiled by a team of hurricane experts – several of whom work for NOAA – concluded that rapid intensification is happening more often than it should.

The result can be a hurricane that grows from a relatively tame Category 1 to a massive Category 4 or 5 storm, the most recent example being Hurricane Michael, which ravaged the Florida Panhandle last October (the Gulf of Mexico is included as part of the Atlantic Basin).