First Tastes of Summer: Recipes for What’s Just Arriving at the Market
The Market Is Changing. Here’s How to Cook What’s There Right Now. The farmers market in late May and early June looks completely different from the one you visited in April. The tender spring greens and radishes that defined early spring have given way to something more substantial: the first summer squash, small and tender […]
Hurricane Myths Debunked: What You Think You Know Could Get You Killed
Hurricane Season Opens June 1. The Myths Are Already Circulating. Every hurricane season, the same dangerous misconceptions circulate through coastal communities — repeated by neighbors, shared on social media, and acted upon by people who trust them. Some of these myths lead people to stay when they should evacuate. Others lead them to shelter in […]
Why Summer Afternoon Thunderstorms Are So Predictable: The Daily Cycle of Summer Convection
The 4 p.m. Storm That Arrives Like Clockwork Anyone who has spent summers in Florida, the Rocky Mountain foothills, or the humid Southeast knows the pattern: mornings are clear and warm, afternoons build dramatic cumulus clouds, and by 3 or 4 p.m. thunderstorms are rumbling across the landscape with near-daily regularity. The storms clear by […]
How Hurricanes Form: The Science Behind the Atlantic’s Most Powerful Storms
Hurricane Season Begins June 1. Here’s What That Actually Means. The Atlantic hurricane season officially begins June 1 and runs through November 30 — a six-month window that encompasses the period when ocean temperatures, atmospheric moisture, and wind patterns combine to support tropical cyclone development in the Atlantic basin. The season’s official start date is […]
The Heat Wave of 1936: The Deadliest Summer in North American History
The Summer That Killed Thousands The summer of 1936 arrived on a landscape already devastated. The Great Plains were in their fifth year of severe drought. Topsoil that had survived for millennia was blowing off the land in the massive dust storms covered in earlier Weather Daily pieces. Farmers who hadn’t yet abandoned their land […]
Why the Hottest Days of Summer Come Weeks After the Longest Day
The Solstice Isn’t the Hottest Day. Here’s Why. June 21 is the summer solstice — the longest day of the year, the day Earth’s Northern Hemisphere is tilted most directly toward the sun, the day solar energy arrives at its maximum annual intensity. By every astronomical measure, it should be the hottest day of the […]
Food Safety in the Heat: What You Need to Know Before the Memorial Day Cookout
The Cookout That Makes People Sick Is Avoidable Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial beginning of outdoor entertaining season — and the unofficial beginning of the foodborne illness spike that public health agencies track every summer with dispiriting regularity. The CDC estimates that roughly 48 million Americans experience foodborne illness each year, and the rate […]
Why It Feels So Much Hotter Outside Than the Thermometer Says
The Temperature Is 85°F. It Feels Like 100°F. Here’s Why. Memorial Day weekend delivers the first genuinely summer-feeling outdoor days of the year for most of the country, and with them comes the familiar experience of heat that seems disproportionate to what the forecast promised. The thermometer says 85°F, but standing on the deck, sitting […]
Memorial Day Weekend: Recipes for Feeding a Crowd in the Heat
The First Big Cookout of the Year Deserves a Plan Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial opening of outdoor entertaining season — the first occasion of the year when the weather is reliably warm enough to eat outside, the days are long enough to linger, and the holiday gives everyone an excuse to gather. It’s […]
Joplin, May 22, 2011: The Tornado That Changed How America Thinks About Warnings
Fourteen Years Ago Today At 5:34 p.m. on May 22, 2011, a tornado touched down southwest of Joplin, Missouri and began moving northeast through the city. In 38 minutes, it killed 161 people, injured more than 1,000, and destroyed or damaged approximately 8,000 structures across a path nearly a mile wide and 22 miles long. […]