The Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928: America’s Forgotten Disaster

The Second-Deadliest Natural Disaster in American History On the night of September 16-17, 1928, a powerful hurricane crossed Florida’s Lake Okeechobee and pushed its waters over a low earthen dike onto the flat agricultural land to the south. The flood that resulted killed an estimated 2,500 to 3,000 people — a death toll that makes […]

Why Summer Heat Hits Older Adults’ Sleep Hardest—and What Actually Helps

The Same Heat, A More Vulnerable Sleeper The 5/7 Weather Daily piece on warm-night sleep covered the physiology of how heat disrupts sleep architecture in adults — the core body temperature drop that is prerequisite for deep sleep, how warm bedroom temperatures blunt that drop, and how slow-wave sleep and REM sleep are specifically impaired […]

Why Summer Nights Carry Sound So Far: The Atmospheric Acoustics of Warm Weather

The Sound That Traveled Farther Than It Should Have You’ve heard it on a summer evening: a train whistle from miles away, the bass from a concert across town, the rumble of a distant thunderstorm that the radar shows is 50 miles distant. Sound that seems to travel impossibly far, with a clarity and presence […]

The Break Has Arrived: Recipes to Celebrate Cooking Again

The Front Passed. The Kitchen Is Open. There is a specific pleasure in the first real cooking after a heat wave breaks — the moment when the temperature drops enough that turning on the oven doesn’t feel like a hostile act, when the kitchen is inviting again rather than oppressive, and when the urge to […]

How Climate Change Is Reshaping Atlantic Hurricanes: What the Science Actually Shows

The Question Everyone Is Asking Every time a major hurricane makes landfall, the question follows immediately: is climate change making hurricanes worse? The answer, as with most questions at the intersection of weather and climate, is more specific and more nuanced than a simple yes or no — and understanding the specifics matters for interpreting […]

The European Heat Wave of 2003: The Deadliest Weather Disaster in Modern European History

A Continent Unprepared In August 2003, a heat wave of extraordinary intensity settled over Western and Central Europe. Temperatures reached levels that had no precedent in European instrumental records: 104°F in parts of France, 100°F in southern England — a country where temperatures above 90°F had historically been exceptional enough to generate national news coverage. […]

Mid-Season Storm Check: What to Reassess Before Peak Hurricane Season

The Back Half of Storm Season Requires Fresh Preparation The Atlantic hurricane season peaks statistically around September 10, and the period from mid-August through mid-October produces the majority of major hurricane landfalls in the historical record. If you made storm preparations in the spring — securing outdoor items, checking the roof, testing the generator — […]

Hurricane Camille: The Storm That Defined What a Category 5 Could Do

The Most Intense Landfalling Hurricane of the 20th Century On the night of August 17-18, 1969, Hurricane Camille made landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi with maximum sustained winds estimated at 190 mph and a central pressure of 900 millibars — making it the most intense landfalling […]

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