Extreme Weather News

Summer Storms Were a Climate-Change Wake-Up Call For Subways

NEW YORK (AP) — When the remnants of Hurricane Ida dumped record-breaking rain on the East Coast this month, staircases into New York City’s subway tunnels turned into waterfalls and train tracks became canals. In Philadelphia, a commuter line along …

Lawmakers: Ida Damage Shows Need for Infrastructure Upgrades

WASHINGTON (AP) — Shaken by haunting images of surging rivers, flooded roads and subways and other damage caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida, lawmakers from both parties are vowing to upgrade the nation’s aging infrastructure network. As the deadly …

Extreme Weather Sounds Alarm For Under-Insured China

BEIJING — Devastating summer floods in the populous province of Henan in central China are a wake-up call for local authorities to seek better insurance cover against natural disasters, potentially opening up a huge market for insurers in the country. …

Greek Wildfires: Multinational Force Fights to Tame Flareups

PEFKI, Greece (AP) — Hundreds of firefighters from across Europe and the Middle East worked alongside Greek colleagues in rugged terrain Wednesday to contain flareups of the huge wildfires that ravaged Greece’s forests for a week, destroying homes and forcing …

Texas Power Demand to Hit 2021 High During Another Heatwave

The Texas power grid operator forecast demand would reach its highest in 2021 on Wednesday and Thursday as homes and businesses crank up their air conditioners to escape another heatwave. The grid, however, also forecast power use would reach that …

This Year’s Summer of Climate Extremes Hits Wealthier Places

As the world staggers through another summer of extreme weather, experts are noticing something different: 2021’s onslaught is hitting harder and in places that have been spared global warming’s wrath in the past. Wealthy countries such as the United States, …

Summer Is Already Off to a Wild Start

Extreme temperatures in China coupled with a lack of hydro-power forced blackouts in some of its largest industrial cities last month. A rare and short-lived subtropical storm popped up in the South Atlantic off Argentina and Uruguay. And record heat …

America’s New Normal: A Degree Hotter Than Two Decades Ago

America’s new normal temperature is a degree hotter than it was just two decades ago. Scientists have long talked about climate change — hotter temperatures, changes in rain and snowfall and more extreme weather — being the “new normal.” Data …

Southern Exposure: Cold Wreaks Havoc on Aging Waterworks

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The sunshine is back and the ice has melted. But more than a week after a deep freeze across the South, many communities are still grappling with getting clean water to their citizens. For years, experts …

Fire in California Wine Country Expands as Thousands Flee

A wildfire ripping through Northern California’s wine country has more than tripled in size, forcing thousands of evacuations and endangering properties in a region devastated by blazes just three years ago. The Glass Fire north of San Francisco reached more …