Free Republic

How scary are your jack-o’-lanterns? Scarier than you think, according to the Energy Department, which claims the holiday squash is responsible for unleashing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Most of the 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins produced in the U.S. end up in the trash, says the Energy Department’s website, becoming part of the “more than 254 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) produced in the United States every year.”

...."We were fortunate as to where it made landfall. It was not a densely populated area," said Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist and spokesman for the U.S. National Hurricane Center. "You and I would be having a very different conversation if this went over the top of Puerto Vallarta." He said the lack of fatalities was probably the result of the storm's narrow footprint. Category 5 winds extended 15 miles out on either side of the eye, and hurricane-force winds extended for 35 miles from the center of the storm. On Saturday, Patricia's maximum sustained winds had dropped to 30 mph...

After Hurricane Patricia menaced Mexico as one of the strongest storms to ever make landfall, officials said early reports showed no major damage Saturday as the once-ferocious system deteriorated into a post-tropical cyclone. Howling winds had battered trees, flooded streets and ripped down power lines overnight Friday in coastal areas of southwestern Mexico — but the posh tourist resorts, bustling ports and fishing villages dotting the Pacific Coast region appeared largely unscathed as the storm soaked mostly sparsely populated stretches. Rescue workers were still assessing the damage from the record-setting hurricane, and there were no immediate reports of casualties. Mexican...

History is being made tonight in the Northeast Pacific as Hurricane Patricia churns about 200 miles off the coast of Mexico, south-southwest of Manzanillo. With its 11 pm EDT Thursday advisory, the National Hurricane Center upgraded Patricia to Category 5, with top sustained winds of 160 mph and a central pressure of 924 millibars. Hurricane warnings are now in effect for the coast from San Blas to Punta San Telmo, including Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo, with a hurricane watch and tropical storm warning eastward to Lazaro Cardenas. Update: Late Thursday night, an Air Force Hurricane Hunter flight captured some of...

TEHACHAPI, Calif. (KABC) -- Hundreds of vehicles spanning approximately 10 miles are stuck Friday on State Route 58 near the 14 Freeway in Tehachapi due to flood road closures in the area. The California Highway Patrol said there are a total of 192 vehicles stuck, including 115 passenger cars, 75 semi-trucks and two tour buses.

Philippe Verdier is a household name in France, known for his nightly weather forecasts on government television broadcaster France 2.  That gig ended abruptly on Monday, when he released a promotional video for his new book.  The U.K. Telegraph explains: Climat Investigation (Climate Investigation) [claims] that leading climatologists and political leaders have “taken the world hostage” with misleading data. In a promotional video, Mr Verdier said: “Every night I address five million French people to talk to you about the wind, the clouds and the sun. And yet there is something important, very important that I haven’t been able...

In her most dramatic speech to date about climate change, National Security Advisor Susan Rice suggests climate change was partially responsible for the conflict in Syria and represents a looming threat to the entire world. “In the years prior to civil war breaking out in Syria, that country also experienced its worst drought on record,” she said during a political speech at Stanford University. “Farming families moved en masse into urban centers, increasing political unrest and further priming the country for conflict.”

Every night, France's chief weatherman has told the nation how much wind, sun or rain they can expect the following day. Now Philippe Verdier, a household name for his nightly forecasts on France 2, has been taken off air after a more controversial announcement - criticising the world's top climate change experts.

A "blob" of abnormally cold water in the North Atlantic, located near Greenland, has the potential to put enough drag on the ocean current to impact weather conditions in the years to come. According to data compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), sea surface water temperatures over much of the Atlantic were warmer than average spanning January to August 2015. Waters from the northwestern Caribbean to the central part of the ocean were not only very warm but were record warm. However, very chilly to record cold water has developed near Greenland, the NOAA data revealed. The...

A researcher has produced a scientific study of the climate scenario featured in the disaster movie 'The Day After Tomorrow'. In the 2004 film, climate warming caused an abrupt collapse of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), leading to catastrophic events such as tornadoes destroying Los Angeles, New York being flooded and the northern hemisphere freezing. Although the scientific credibility of the film drew criticism from climate scientists, the scenario of an abrupt collapse of the AMOC, as a consequence of anthropogenic greenhouse warming, was never assessed with a state-of-the-art climate model.Now scientists have found that, for a period of...

The oceans are warm, mostly because of the El Niño, but Joe expects a crash in a couple of years.

RUSH: Before this hurricane, before Hurricane Joaquin, let's look at the last two. I don't even remember what their names were, but I do remember the last hurricane. This was classic. It was a tropical storm that formed out there in the southeastern Caribbean, and it wasn't long before we got official recognition that it was indeed a storm, and then they gave us the models, and the models all had the storm hitting somewhere in Florida. So the National Hurricane Center first five-day forecast track was bull's-eye, dead hit Miami. We're talking five, six, seven days away. "Miami dead...

Very short Saturday Summary today. 6-15 day outlook.

In a state where four out of five traffic improvement projects bust their original deadlines, Florida transportation officials expect to beat the odds with one of the largest jobs ever undertaken in the Sarasota-Manatee region. Construction of the state’s first diverging diamond interchange at Interstate 75 and University Parkway, which began Aug. 3 and is set for two years, will end before the September 2017 World Rowing Championships draw tens of thousands of visitors to nearby Nathan Benderson Park, state officials promise. But the timeline leaves Prince Contracting, the Tampa-based company that won the $74.5 million contract, just one month...

The latest from Joe Bastardi.

Today's Saturday Summary from @BigJoeBastardi: the upcoming winter, balance of tropical season, arctic sea ice: http://t.co/3mA1lMh4du

The Weather Channel says it is getting rid of its reality TV shows, along with morning shows led by Sam Champion and Al Roker. The struggling network is looking to get back to its roots, with less expensive programming and a lineup that appeals more to weather geeks. An estimated 50 people out of The Weather Channel's staff of 1,400 are losing jobs as a result, the network said on Thursday. The NBC Universal-owned network had lured Champion from ABC's "Good Morning America" to host "AMHQ," a weather-focused morning news program. Starting in early November, Champion will work on weather...

From 30C to snow in under a week? It's possible in Germany where seven centimetres of the white stuff fell at the top of the Bavarian Alps on Friday. It might seem like summer was only last week in Germany – and that's because it was. With blazing sunshine and temperatures topping 30C over the weekend, the onset of winter couldn't have been further from most Germans' minds. But in the Bavarian Alps, autumn has been skipped out altogether. At Zugspitze – Germany's highest peak, at 2,962m – seven centimetres of snow have already fallen, reports the Münchner Merkur. "The...

Recap of winter forecast, current state of global sea ice. Current SST/El Niño/SOI. Three to fifteen day forecast.

Lydia RamseyAugust 31, 2015there are some storms a-brewin'. And, Although none of them have made landfall, they're making part of the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii resemble a Van Gogh painting.three hurricanesNOAA Here's a photo showing hurricanes Kilo, Ignacio, and Jimena from left to right. This is the first time three Category 4 storms have been seen in central and eastern Pacific Ocean at one time, according to The Weather Channel. Category 4 hurricanes have wind speeds anywhere from 130-156 miles per hour. Hurricanes are categorized primarily by wind speeds. the higher the sustained wind speed, the stronger the hurricane. A...