• Climate change poses threat to European electricity production

    The vulnerability of the European electricity sector to changes in water resources is set to worsen by 2030 as a consequence of climate change. This conclusion is reached by researchers at Leiden University in an article published in Nature Energy this month.

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  • The Coast Is Not So Clear

    For nearly a century, the O’Shaughnessy seawall has held back the sand and seas of San Francisco’s Ocean Beach. At work even longer: the Galveston seawall, built after America’s deadliest hurricane in 1900 killed thousands in Texas.

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  • Satellite Shows Tropical Storm Greg Losing Shape

    Tropical Storm Greg appears to be less-rounded and more elongated on satellite imagery from NOAA's GOES-West satellite. Greg is still over 1,500 miles east of Hawaii.

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  • ''Hindcasting'' Study Investigates the Extreme 2013 Colorado Flood

    In September 2013, severe storms struck Colorado with prolonged, heavy rainfall, resulting in at least nine deaths, 1,800 evacuations and 900 homes destroyed or damaged. The eight-day storm dumped more than 17 inches of rain, causing the Platte River to reach flood levels higher than ever recorded.

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  • NASA Flights Gauge Summer Sea Ice Melt in the Arctic

    Earlier this year Arctic sea ice sank to a record low wintertime extent for the third straight year. Now NASA is flying a set of instruments north of Greenland to observe the impact of the melt season on the Arctic's oldest and thickest sea ice.

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  • Allowable 'carbon budget' most likely overestimated

    While most climate scientists, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, implicitly define "pre-industrial" to be in the late 1800's, a true non-industrially influenced baseline is probably further in the past, according to an international team of researchers who are concerned because it affects the available carbon budget for meeting the 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) warming limit agreed to in the Paris Conference of 2015.

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  • New study explains moss migration across the globe

    A new study on mosses found in the polar regions reveals when and how often they have migrated across the Equator.

    Mosses are the dominant flora in Antarctica, yet little is known of when and how they got there. The majority of Antarctica’s moss flora (~45% of species) has a curious distribution pattern – a pattern with species only occupying regions in the high latitudes of both hemispheres, with no or very small populations at higher elevations in the tropical regions. This non-continuous distribution pattern has puzzled scientists, including biologists such as Darwin and Wallace, since the 19th century.

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  • Coral Reefs in the Gulf of Aqaba May Survive Global Warming, New Study Finds

    Coral reefs in the Red Sea’s Gulf of Aqaba can resist rising water temperatures. If they survive local pollution, these corals may one day be used to re-seed parts of the world where reefs are dying. The scientists urge governments to protect the Gulf of Aqaba Reefs.

    Coral reefs are dying on a massive scale around the world, and global warming is driving this extinction. The planet’s largest reef, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, is currently experiencing enormous coral bleaching for the second year in a row, while last year left only a third of its 2300-km ecosystem unbleached. The demise of coral reefs heralds the loss of some of the planet’s most diverse ecosystems.

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  • Shifting storms to bring extreme waves, damage to once placid areas

    The world’s most extensive study of a major storm front striking the coast has revealed a previously unrecognised danger from climate change: as storm patterns fluctuate, waterfront areas once thought safe are likely to be hammered and damaged as never before.

    The study, led by engineers at University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, was published in the latest issue of the journal Nature Scientific Reports.

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  • GOES Satellite Sees Tropical Depression 09E Form

    The Eastern Pacific Ocean has been recently generating a lot of tropical cyclones. Tropical Depression 09E just formed off the southern coast of Mexico and was captured in imagery from NOAA’s GOES-East satellite.

    Tropical Storm Fernanda has moved into the Central Pacific Ocean, while Tropical Storm Greg, which just absorbed the remnants of Tropical Depression 8E continues to strengthen in the Eastern Pacific.

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