Static Electricity Myths, Debunked Before the Dry Season Arrives
Static Shocks Are About to Make a Comeback As summer’s humidity gradually gives way to the drier air of early fall, a familiar seasonal annoyance starts creeping back into daily life: static electric shocks from doorknobs, car doors, and anything else you touch after shuffling across a carpet. Along with the shocks themselves comes a […]
The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935: America’s Most Intense Landfalling Storm
A Storm That Still Holds a Record Nearly a Century Later On September 2, 1935, a compact, extraordinarily intense hurricane made landfall in the Florida Keys with a central pressure of 892 millibars, the lowest barometric pressure ever recorded at landfall for a hurricane in the continental United States—a record that still stands today. The […]
What Is an “Indian Summer,” Actually?
A Term That Gets Used Loosely, But Has a Real Definition As September gets underway, you’ll likely start hearing the phrase “Indian summer” tossed around to describe any stretch of warm weather that shows up later in the year. But among meteorologists, the term has a more specific meaning than casual usage suggests, and understanding […]
Get Ahead of Fall Now, While Everyone Else Is Still Thinking About Summer
The Best Time to Prep Is Before Anyone Else Does September has arrived, and while warm weather often lingers for weeks yet in much of the country, this is genuinely the ideal window to start preparing for fall home maintenance tasks—not because the season has changed, but because almost no one else is thinking about […]
Labor Day Weekend Cookout Menu: Send Off Summer Right
The Last Big Cookout of the Season Labor Day weekend has long served as summer’s unofficial closing ceremony, and it remains one of the year’s most popular occasions for a genuine backyard cookout. With warm weather still holding on across most of the country, this is a fitting last hurrah before the season’s produce and […]
UV and Your Eyes: Why Sunglasses Matter More Than People Think
The Sun Protection Habit Most People Skip Sunscreen has become a fairly reliable habit for a lot of people during summer, but eye protection from UV exposure tends to get far less consistent attention, despite the eyes being just as vulnerable to cumulative sun damage as skin. With summer’s intense UV exposure still very much […]
Helping Pets Adjust as Back-to-School Routines Take Over
A Seasonal Transition That Affects Pets Too As late August settles into the rhythm of a new school year, households across the country are shifting from the more relaxed, presence-heavy pace of summer into structured schedules that leave pets alone for significantly longer stretches than they’ve experienced in months. This transition, while obviously beneficial for […]
Sky Folklore: Can a Ring Around the Moon Really Predict Rain?
Old Sayings About the Sky Itself Beyond animal behavior, some of the oldest weather folklore focuses directly on the sky—rings around the moon, red sunsets, and certain cloud formations have all been read as forecasting signals for centuries. Unlike a lot of animal folklore, several of these sky-based sayings hold up surprisingly well under actual […]
The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927: The Disaster That Rewrote American Flood Policy
A Flood That Redrew the Map of the Lower Mississippi In the spring and summer of 1927, the Mississippi River produced a flood so vast that it remains, nearly a century later, one of the most destructive river floods in American history. At its peak, floodwater covered an area roughly the size of New Jersey […]
What a Summer of Sun Has Done to Your Deck
Outdoor Living Spaces Take a Real Beating Decks, patios, and other outdoor structures spend an entire summer absorbing direct sun, foot traffic, and weather exposure with little complaint, but by late August, that cumulative wear is often significant enough to warrant a closer look. Late summer, while outdoor spaces are still getting regular use but […]