Free Republic

Oh the weather outside is frightful — enough to kill off Christmas trees. Yuletide firs are dying from a severe drought that’s plagued parts of the Northeast for weeks — with some farmers losing 25% of this year’s crop and predicting a future shortage, according to WBZ-TV. “They’re all yellow on the inside. The needles are falling off,” said Chris Moran, who runs Vandervalk Farm in Mendon, Massachusetts. “Without water we can’t grow anything.” Dry weather killed roughly 500 of his 2,700 Christmas tree seedlings — fragile, 1-foot-tall babies — after they were planted past spring, he said.

Hey, Siri! Help book me a trip somewhere warm in the final week of January. If the latest Farmers’ Almanac prediction is true, you might want to put your toes in the sand after Christmas. The coming winter will be wet and cold in most places, according to the almanac’s outlook. The Farmers’ Almanac has been making long-range weather forecasts for more than 200 years. According to its latest outlook, released Tuesday, you should prepare yourself for the “Wet, Winter, Whirlwind” ahead. Its annual extended weather prediction calls for a season of rapid-fire storms that will bring both rain and...

Temperatures will build to their highest marks in years across the Midwest and Northeast and stay at sizzling levels for days as Mother Nature cranks up the heat ahead of astronomical summer, which begins Thursday, June 20, at 4:50 p.m. EDT. AccuWeather's long-range team has been sounding the alarm for more than a week on building heat in the East during the third week of June that would put millions at the mercy of a prolonged stretch of 90-degree Fahrenheit temperatures. The longevity of the intense heat will put additional strain on residents and electrical infrastructure. For many in the...

Highs soaring toward the middle 90s will spread from the southern Great Lakes and Ohio Valley into the Northeast during the first half of this week. This heat will persist through the end of the week in many of these same areas. Widespread d​aily record highs will be set into Saturday. A few cities that could set new records at times through Saturday include Detroit, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Hartford and Burlington. Dew points will also increase, meaning it will feel sticky and humid. When the humidity is added to the hotter-than-average temperatures, feels-like temperatures will be even higher. In...

A dangerous, widespread heat wave is predicted to unfold for millions across the Northeast, Midwest and parts of Canada this week with AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures even eclipsing the 100-degree Fahrenheit mark in some cities. "The increased demand for cooling is going to be a problem here. This could have some impacts on the power grid," AccuWeather Chief Video Meteorologist Bernie Rayno said. In the Midwest and Northeast, a heat wave is considered to be at least three days with a high temperature of at least 90 degrees, and for some areas, the mercury will exceed that benchmark for most or...

The first extended stretch of summertime heat and humidity is on the way to the Northeast with temperatures expected to challenge records during the second half of June. Before that happens, AccuWeather meteorologists are expecting a round of intense thunderstorms in the region that could impact travel and outdoor plans just as the weekend gets underway. The risk of strong storms will come on Friday in the East, following a few active days in the nation's midsection. As a cold front moves east clashing with very warm and humid air, thunderstorms will form and can turn severe, producing a variety...

The pattern for the northeastern United States will be a 'tale of two weeks' as low humidity and cool to seasonable air much of this week are replaced with surging heat this weekend and the first heat wave of the season for millions next week, AccuWeather meteorologists say. Opportunities for rain will be limited, a switch from much of the spring. The upcoming weather will provide some great conditions for summertime activity beginning late this week and continuing through much of next week. For some individuals without air conditioning, though, the upcoming building heat may become a problem. A dip...

Aslow-motion collapse in the offshore wind industry continues to grow as sticky inflation and supply chain challenges force developers to delay or cancel major projects. In particular, progress towards the Biden administration’s goal of building large amounts of floating wind off the northeastern US coast is just about stalled. Shell, which invested in a series of offshore wind projects in recent years, including offshore the northeastern United States, announced last week it would lay off much of its offshore wind business staff as the oil giant advances its program of refocusing on its core oil and gas business. “We are...

(Reuters) - The United States may sell its 1 million barrel Northeast gasoline reserve in fiscal year 2024, according to the draft text of a funding bill released on Sunday. The reserve, first established in 2014 after Superstorm Sandy left motorists in the northeastern United States without fuel, is located in New York Harbor, New York, Boston, Massachusetts and Portland, Maine. The proceeds from the sale of the refined products in the reserve would be deposited into the Treasury's general fund, according to the text of the bill, which is likely to pass this week. Once the Northeast Gasoline Supply...

The National Weather Service has started issuing its first Winter Storm Warnings across the Northeast and New England, including Boston and Providence, in advance of a potential nor’easter that could dump plowable snow on millions of people in the region starting Monday. More than 20 million Americans across the region had been under Winter Storm Watches as forecasters began to keep an eye on computer forecast models showing the potential for a disruptive winter storm. As those models began to come into agreement, however, the decision was made to start upgrading those winter weather alerts to Winter Storm Warnings.

Relief from extreme temperatures in the Northeast and New England is on the way with the arrival of a cold front expected to sweep across the region this week, but hot weather is expected to remain across the southern half of the US for at least the next several days. According to the FOX Forecast Center, an area of high pressure that had been centered over the Southwest and south-central US will reposition itself eastward as we get into the middle of the week, allowing temperatures in the Desert Southwest to finally ease and return to normal. High temperatures will...

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed the Canadian wildfires, causing record poor air quality in many locations throughout the northeast, are the result of the “climate crisis.” Since Monday, winds brought poor air quality from Canadian wildfires into the northeast. “As of Wednesday, Canada was on track to experience its worst wildfire season ever, with officials reporting more than 400 active fires, with more than 240 listed as ‘out of control'” the Washington Post reported. #HappeningNow Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre: “Climate Change a top priority” in light of Code Red air quality conditions in NE from Canadian wildfires. Biden...

The XBB.1.5 omicron subvariant is raising concerns of a potential surge in COVID-19 cases as it sweeps across the Northeast. Officials have warned in recent weeks that the strain is highly transmissible, can more easily evade the immunity offered by vaccines or prior infections than past variants — and is likely to drive cases up around the country.

Amid warnings from health officials and the White House over a new COVID-19 surge coming this winter, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed a new variant is now dominant in parts of the Northeast. The Omicron subvariant XBB accounts for about 52.6% of all cases in New England between Dec. 18 and Dec. 24, according to the CDC. XBB constitutes 18.3% of cases across the country. “It looks like it’s just going to blow the other (variants) away in a very short period,” Jeremy Luban, professor of molecular medicine, biochemistry, and molecular biotechnology at UMass Chan Medical...

It looks like President Joe Biden might get his winter of death after all, and it’s not because of the unvaccinated. If you live in the Northeast, you know that even in normal times, heating oil bills constitute a significant expense because winters are usually brutal. Unfortunately, this year could be the worst year ever for residents of the region hoping to adequately heat their homes. Not only are heating oil prices through the roof on anti-fossil fuel President Joe Biden’s watch, but even for those who have the funds to stock up, it doesn’t really matter: heating oil rationing...

Diesel and heating oil supplies in the Northeast are more than 50% below the recent average, raising concerns that an extreme weather event could cause supply disruptions, federal officials said. Fuel supplies are lower than normal across the country for a variety of reasons, including the war in Ukraine. But it’s the worst in the Northeast. Diesel fuel and heating oil, which comprise the distillate category, are 63% below the five-year average in New England and 58% below the same average from Maryland to New York, according to a survey by the Department of Energy. Gasoline inventories are not as...

About 100 million people in the Northeast will be blasted with a quick shot of heat and humidity this Saturday and Sunday. High temperatures are expected to range between the upper 80s and mid-90s from Ohio to Washington, D.C. to Baltimore to Philadelphia to New York City. AccuWeather meteorologists say some cities in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast could see the hottest conditions since last August. In some metro areas, record highs for this time of year that have stood the test of time could be broken. Daily record highs that have stood since the World War II and Great Depression...

U.S. natural gas futures jumped as much as 6% to $4.298/MMBtu Tuesday morning as traders are concerned about the possibility of a major winter snowstorm on Friday evening into Saturday for the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions.We first alerted readers on Monday about the prospects of “a possible nor’easter impacting the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast from Friday Night to Saturday.” Within 72 hours of the storm (today), meteorologists can start discussing potential impacts. Around 48 hours (Thursday), more accurate snowfall total estimates will be circulated on social media and mainstream media outlets. On Friday, meteorologists can pinpoint town-by-town potential impacts. So far,...

Even though the storm will be moving along quickly, it will strengthen off the mid-Atlantic and New England coasts, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Joe Lundberg. It is likely to become "the first bomb cyclone of the 2022 winter season” in the Northeast, he added. A bomb cyclone is defined as a storm that’s central pressure plummets by 0.71 of an inch of mercury (24 millibars) within 24 hours. That means the storm could whip up strong winds and pull in more moisture, helping it to fuel heavier snow rates as it chugs up the Eastern Seaboard. The heaviest snow...

Former FDA chief Scott Gottlieb is warning that the “true Delta wave” has yet to begin in the Northeast — and predicted it would start soon after Labor Day. “I think there’s sort of a perception that we’re sort of through this Delta wave here in the Northeast because we’ve seen Delta cases go up and go down in places like the New York metropolitan region. We’re also seeing positive [tests] come down,” said Dr. Gottlieb, the former head of the federal Food and Drug Administration, on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Friday.