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. […]
Get Your Outdoor Water Systems Ready Before Summer Arrives
The Window Between Spring and Heat Is the Right Time to Act Late May sits in a useful gap: warm enough that outdoor water systems can be fully tested and adjusted, but not yet deep enough into summer that a failing irrigation head or a cracked hose connection is an emergency. The vegetable garden is […]
How Weather Affects Senior Pets Differently—and What to Do About It
The Same Weather, A Different Body A healthy five-year-old Labrador and a twelve-year-old Labrador can spend the same afternoon outside and have entirely different physiological experiences. The younger dog’s cardiovascular system adjusts efficiently to heat. Its joints move freely through the full range of motion required for walking on uneven ground. Its thermoregulatory system responds […]
Wind Myths Debunked: What You Think You Know About Wind Damage
Peak Wind Season Is Here. The Myths Are Dangerous. Damaging winds from severe thunderstorms kill people and cause billions of dollars in property damage across the United States every year — more combined damage than tornadoes in most years. Despite this, wind is the least respected of the major severe weather hazards. People stand outside […]
How Forecasters See Tomorrow’s Storms Today: Inside Severe Weather Prediction
The Science Behind the Outlook You Check on Storm Days On a Tuesday morning in May, the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma publishes a convective outlook — a map of the United States color-coded by severe weather risk for the coming day. The map shows a Moderate Risk covering parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, and […]
Mount St. Helens at 45: The Day a Mountain Became a Weather Event
May 18, 1980 At 8:32 a.m. on May 18, 1980, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake triggered the largest landslide in recorded history on the north face of Mount St. Helens in southwestern Washington State. The collapse of the mountain’s north flank released pressure on a magma chamber that had been inflating for two months, producing a […]
What Weather Does to Your Gut: The Surprising Connection Between Seasonal Changes and Digestion
The Weather-Digestion Connection Most People Never Make Stomach cramps before a storm. Digestive sluggishness in cold weather. The uptick in appetite as days get longer. The gastrointestinal sensitivity that seems to track with allergy season. Most people who experience these patterns attribute them to stress, diet, or coincidence — and miss the thread connecting them […]
Why Your Neighbor Got Hail and You Didn’t: The Science of Localized Storm Weather
The Same Storm, Completely Different Experiences It happens every spring storm season: a severe thunderstorm warning covers your entire county, but the storm produces dramatic hail three miles away while your yard stays completely dry. Or a tornado warning is issued, the storm passes two miles north, and the neighborhood it hits looks like a […]
Drinks and Bites for Warm May Evenings
The Porch Season Has Officially Started There’s a specific kind of May evening that’s been earning its place all spring: warm enough to sit outside comfortably after dinner, cool enough that you don’t want ice water and a fan, light enough that the day’s last hour still glows at 8 p.m. These are the evenings […]