Before and after: a tale in tornado damageThe town of Joplin, Missouri was ripped apart by a tornado this week. To understand the immense destruction, check out this before and after photo from the suburbs.
Weird weather
La Niña in a nutshell
The recent flooding in Queensland is a symptom of a natural weather phenomenon called La Niña, say meteorologists. Roselina Press examines exactly what this La Niña is about and how long it’s going to be hanging around for.
Rockhampton flood crisis: flood peak arrives
After the expected flood peak of 9.4 metres in Rockhampton, a maximum of 9.2 was hit yesterday. Anton Lang took his camera and walked around his flood-affected city, snapping photos of submerged roads and ducks swimming through football fields.
Rockhampton flood crisis: playing the waiting game
The worst case scenario brings the edge of the water level to within 500 metres of our home, and at those edges, it’s just a matter of an inch or so deep, at the very creeping edge of this massive flood, writes Tony from Oz in Rockhampton.
PHOTO GALLERY: Rain on the rock
A magical look at Uluru during a storm, with waterfalls down the sides and ethereal fog hanging over it. Photographer Peter Carroll was up at dawn to capture these glorious photos.
Does climate change cause wars?
Linking climate change to extreme weather or famine is like linking smoking to lung cancer. Smoking doesn’t make cancers grow, but it significantly raises the possibility of them occurring, writes David Roberts.
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INTERACTIVE: Hurricane Katrina, five years on
Five years ago New Orleans was rocked by Hurricane Katrina. Check out USA Today’s superb multimedia site, outlining what happened in the storm, the immediate after effects and the rebuilding of a destroyed city.
Over 1,300 dead in Pakistan flooding
Monsoon floods in Pakistan have claimed the lives of over 1,000 people, with more disastrous rain expected in the week ahead and tens of thousands stranded. One of the worst hit areas is the Swat Valley, previously a Taliban stronghold.
Crikey Clarifier: Where the hell did that water spout come from?
Lennox Heads has been declared a natural disaster zone by NSW Premier Kristina Kaneally, after a tornado tore through the town yesterday. But how does a tornado happen and why so quickly?
When weather goes wild
This week an utterly bizarre sinkhole opened in the middle of Guatemala. But Mother Nature has a habit of pulling out the freaky, like the 50 people killed by snakes fleeing a volcano.
PHOTO GALLERY: Eyjafjallajokull erupts
More incredible photos from Iceland’s volcano, showing masked farmers desperately trying to save cattle from exposure to the toxic ash. Plus, the bizarre sight of when lava meets lightning.
Has science discovered a new threat to air travel?
Physicists in America have just made an alarming discovery about electrical storms and jet airliners. It seems that terrestrial gamma ray bursts originate in thunderstorms, but be weary of any tabloid linkage to air travel.
Weather extremes equal the sun of their parts … or do they?
A frozen northern world and new heat records in the southern hemisphere are suddenly making the impact of a deep solar minimum on the world’s weather a politically correct topic.
The Excessive Heat Events Guidebook
How do you survive the heat, besides sucking down box loads of lemonade icy poles? Try consulting the Excessive Heat Events Guidebook…
The best heat wave survival tips
As the temperature rises across the eastern states, Croakey puts together a list of the best hints for keeping cool. Be careful of electric fans!
Cold comfort on climate change
While SA and Victoria swelters with high temperatures, north-Western Europe are suffering with a cold winter snap, with the media reporting the freeze along with a discussion of how it has given heart to greenhouse denialists.
PHOTO GALLERY: Places to remember before they disappear
What do Caracas, Chicago and Tokyo all have in common? They will become unrecognisable, or even disappear, because of climate change effects like rising temperatures and extreme weather. Check them out while you still can.
Coastal erosion goes beyond global warming
Coastal erosion happens constantly and has many causes. Spits and points grow too and bays and inlets shallow or disappear completely. Climate change isn’t completely to blame, writes Crikey naturalist Lionel Elmore.
No snow for Moscow: fighter planes on cloud killing spree
The Mayor of Moscow has turned into Mother Nature, with the Russian Air Force to be used to blast snow clouds from the Moscow sky in an effort to save an estimated A$11m on snow removal.
How did orange dust make the sky go red?
Okay, it’s been dust storm overload, but Slate’s Explainer gives a different angle to the red tinged madness, throwing the light on how orange dust manages to turn the sky red. Or even black?
Dust storm 1: chaos, mud, lightning. Oh my!
It no longer looks as blood red as at dawn. No Dorothy, no Tin Man, no wicked Witch, so far. But the dust storms sweeping NSW have brought red snow!
Dust storm 2: a health hazard beyond comparison
Particulate pollution has soared to levels never seen in Australia in recent hours as the red dust storm intensifies over much of the top three quarters of NSW.
Video of the Day: That’s not a dust storm; this is a dust storm
Sydneysiders woke up to red skies this morning due to a dust storm sweeping NSW. But that’s are nothing compared with this footage from Broken Hill yesterday: watch as the picture fades to black.
Are dust storms hazardous to your health?
Dust storms, like the one affecting Sydney this morning, can contain everything from plant pollens to dried animal faeces and chemicals, says Ben Harris-Roxas, a health impact assessment expert. Should people stay inside?
The potential health impacts of dust itself are important – usually by exacerbating existing asthma.
Once-in-a-century floods, drought and fire. Again.
Cherry-picking extreme weather events weakens your case, but both sides do it shamelessly in the climate debate, writes Frank Campbell.
