Here's one silver lining from the brutal severe weather of the weather of the last several weeks: It will keep the climate and weather scientists at the NOAA in business, despite budget cuts that had been mandated by the government's sequestration.
Hurricane experts at the NOAA delivered some potentially bad news on Thursday: 2013's Atlantic hurricane season, is forecasted to be "active or extremely active," poised to produce 3-6 "major" hurricanes, 7-11 regular hurricanes, and more than a dozen tropical storms. And you should listen to them, despite the inherent weakness of predictions.
During the second half of last year — the hottest recorded year in U.S. history — ocean temperatures off the East Coast also hit their highest temperatures in the 150 years measurements have been kept. It's not a comforting record.
Discovered: Borneo orangutans exhibit Ebola-like antibodies; NOAA's post-Sandy map of the East Coast; climate change could curtail Indian monsoons; bat-proofing wind turbines.
Discovered: what's to be learned from a Frankenstorm; U.N. warns of amplified infections in a warming world; life in coal towns is deadlier; U.S. coal emissions are down but worldwide coal use heats up.
When the term "ozone hole" comes up it's usually followed by talk about how it's huge and gaping and the sun is going to burn the earth like a fried egg in two years unless we all switch to electric cars and squiggly lightbulbs. Not this year. In 2012, the hole in the ozone layer was really small.
Welcome to history: We're living in the hottest time ever for the United States, and this spring was the warmest since the country started keeping records, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports.
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