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Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on Sunday said he can’t guess why some fellow Republicans deny the scientific consensus that climate change exists and is affected by human activity. “I don’t know because I can’t divine their motives,” McCain said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “There is things happening with the climate in the world that is unprecedented,” he added. “We have to understand that the climate may be changing and we can take commonsense measures which will not harm the American people.” McCain also said an agreement President Donald Trump came to with Democrats for a short-term increase in...

Let's not dance around the issue: Hurricane Harvey was a direct consequence of global warming, which in turn is a direct consequence of human activities. It's ironic that Texas (and Houston in particular) has an economy that is dominated by on oil and fossil fuels. Burning these fuels is what got us in this mess. It's also ironic that Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who is now at the front of the line asking for a federal government rescue package, is a scientifically illiterate climate change denier. Maybe with cooler temperatures, we'd have had a hurricane anyway–but it would have been...

That curve to the north – and eventually out into the Atlantic – that everyone in South Florida was hoping to see Hurricane Irma take isn’t happening as quickly as earlier models had predicted. The National Hurricane Center’s 8 a.m. update Monday drives the storm’s path in a flatter, westbound path that puts it closer Cuba’s shores by early Saturday morning.

Climate change - not increased use of cell phones - might be to blame for an unusual spike in road deaths that hit the United States two years ago, said a study published on Thursday. The study said people might have used their vehicles more frequently to avoid increasingly bad weather - rising temperatures and heavier rainfall - resulting in an increased number of deaths on the road. The finding challenges a widespread notion that 2015's hike was the result of increased cell-phone usage by motorists. [Snip] Using mathematical models, the retired Yale University epidemiologist also found that for every...

resident Trump said the recovery from Hurricane Harvey would be "hopefully a quick process" after arriving in Texas on Saturday to tour massive damage caused by the Gulf Coast storm in Houston. Trump and his wife, Melania, visited a relief center and mingled with victims. The Trumps are also scheduled to join members of the Texas delegation before heading to Louisiana. "There’s a lot of water, but it’s moving out. Most importantly, the governor, the relationship with the governor, the mayor and everybody, it’s been fantastic," Trump told reporters while touring the relief center. "We’re signing a lot of documents...

Hurricane Irma Advisory Number   6 NWS National Hurricane Center Miami FL       AL112017 500 PM AST Thu Aug 31 2017 ...IRMA BECOMES A CATEGORY 3 HURRICANE OVER THE EASTERN ATLANTIC... SUMMARY OF 500 PM AST...2100 UTC...INFORMATION ---------------------------------------------- LOCATION...17.3N 34.8W ABOUT 720 MI...1160 KM W OF THE CABO VERDE ISLANDS ABOUT 1780 MI...2865 KM E OF THE LEEWARD ISLANDS MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...115 MPH...185 KM/H PRESENT MOVEMENT...WNW OR 290 DEGREES AT 12 MPH...19 KM/H MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...967 MB...28.56 INCHES   WATCHES AND WARNINGS -------------------- There are no coastal watches or warnings in effect.   DISCUSSION AND 48-HOUR OUTLOOK ------------------------------ At 500 PM AST (2100 UTC),...

Tropical Storm Irma forms off the Cape Verde Islands with winds in excess of 45 MPH. The National Hurricane Center will begin issuing advisories on this storm beginning at 11:00 AM EDT. Source: Hurricane Center PR.

It wouldn’t be an election cycle without Cynthia McKinney’s lunacy, and fortunately she hasn’t shied away from providing it. Here, we watch as the Green Party’s endorsed presidential candidate accuses National Guard soldiers of committing 5,000 murders of prisoners in the wake of Hurricane Katrina: If you think that this is the kind of insanity one normally hears from Alex Jones, well … you’d be right. The conspiracy theorists on the Left and the Right tend to embrace each other at a certain point, just south of rationality. For these people, little points like evidence and common sense provide no...

Since Friday, the National Weather Service has described the impacts Hurricane (and now Tropical Storm) Harvey in superlatives, with forecasts stating the flooding would be “catastrophic” and “life threatening.” Now, nearly 50 inches of rain (4 feet!) are in the forecast as Harvey stalls over Houston, and the Weather Service is stretching to find the right way to describe the risk. They’re calling the situation “unprecedented.” Long-time weather journalists and meteorologists are saying this language is as dire as the National Weather Service gets. Rains could last through the week. Five are reported dead already. More deaths may come. This...

The National Hurricane Center has issued an advisory instructing Texas residents along the Gulf of Mexico coast to "rush" their storm preparations as Hurricane Harvey "rapidly" intensifies. All preparations for residents along the middle Texas coast should be completed today, the National Hurricane Center said. The storm is expected to make landfall around 1 a.m. Saturday. The coastal city of Corpus Christi has so far not implemented mandatory evacuations, but Mayor Joe McComb called for people to leave in the "strongest possible terms."

Potentially catastrophic Hurricane Harvey approaching Texas Gulf Coast. Mash image to find lots of satellite imagery linksPublic AdvisoriesNHC DiscussionsNHC Local Hurricane Statements Corpus ChristiNHC Local Hurricane Statements GalvestonBuoy Data near Harvey

Daily Update

The National Hurricane Center was warning that since Harvey was going to be a slow moving system, rainfall may be the greatest threat:

The official start to fall is still seven weeks away, but as of late it feels like it has arrived early. Temperatures for the most part have been in the lower 80s across Mid-Missouri, following a brutal heat wave that impacted Mid-Missouri in July. The cool weather has been welcoming and there are signs that we'll see even cooler weather track into the region.p Thanks to a series of rare cold fronts this summer, temperatures have struggled to climb back to average in Mid-Missouri. That changes as we head into Wednesday, as temperatures will moderate back towards seasonable averages. Average...

There’s hot, and then there’s Death Valley hot. While Southern California and much of the West cooked in July under a pair of heat waves that killed livestock, knocked out power and encouraged wildfires, nowhere was the heat more brutally enduring than in Death Valley. According to the National Weather Service, Death Valley National Park broke its 100-year-old record for the hottest month ever in July, when the average temperature was 107.4 degrees, eclipsing the 1917 record of 107.2 degrees. Though 107 degrees doesn’t sound that bad, keep in mind the average includes nighttime temperatures. The average overnight temperature in...

Batten down the hatches. Thanks in part to warmer waters in the southern Atlantic Ocean, experts are predicting a worse-than-usual hurricane season.

BULLETIN Tropical Depression Six Special Advisory Number 1 NWS National Hurricane Center Miami FL AL062017 600 AM EDT Mon Jul 31 2017 ...TROPICAL DEPRESSION FORMS NEAR THE WEST-CENTRAL COAST OF FLORIDA... SUMMARY OF 600 AM EDT...1000 UTC...INFORMATION ---------------------------------------------- LOCATION...27.7N 83.5W ABOUT 65 MI...105 KM WSW OF TAMPA FLORIDA ABOUT 65 MI...110 KM WNW OF SARASOTA FLORIDA MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...35 MPH...55 KM/H PRESENT MOVEMENT...E OR 90 DEGREES AT 8 MPH...13 KM/H MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...1008 MB...29.77 INCHES WATCHES AND WARNINGS -------------------- CHANGES WITH THIS ADVISORY: A Tropical Storm Watch has been issued for the west coast of Florida from the Anclote River...

During one of the longest ski seasons in California’s history, Mammoth Mountain is getting ready to say goodbye to skiers and snowboarders who’ve been relishing their time on the slopes deep into summer. The ski resort in Mammoth Lakes will be open daily for snow sports through Aug. 6. It chalked up a remarkable 270-day season after big winter snowfalls were helped by a late June snowstorm. Squaw Valley Resort overlooking Lake Tahoe in Olympic Valley, Calif., also had a long winter-into-summer run. It closed for the winter season July 15, marking its latest closing date in the resort’s history....

We all know the truth is not being revealed to the public. For instance, the incident involving the shooting of Representative Scalise and other Republicans is being covered up by the FBI. Another example is the Special Counsel Mueller’s conflict of interest in his connection to James Comey. Now Tom Fitton is calling for the Counsel to be shut down, as Mueller just hired an employee of fired New York federal prosecutor Preet Bharara. Preet was fired by President Trump, as Trump had his own appointees assigned to that office. Also, Bharara used to work for Ex-FBI Director James Comey....

We are looking at vacation spots - is Houston recommended?