Free Republic

Over 50,000 linemen — the “largest staging of utility workers and linemen in advance of the storm any time in American history” — will respond to Hurricane Milton, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Wednesday as the massive Category 4 storm barrels down on the Sunshine State. In a Wednesday morning update, DeSantis walked through some of the preparations the state has taken ahead of the storm, which is expected to make landfall late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning on the west coast of Florida, potentially south of Tampa, although wiggles and wobbles are certain. “Hurricane Milton is heading our...

With Hurricane Milton hitting winds of up to 180 miles per hour and at such a high speed, scientists are wondering if the storm defies the five category system and should go up to a Category 6. Florida’s Gulf Coast braced on Tuesday for the impact of Hurricane Milton’s near-record winds and expected massive storm surge, which could bring destruction to areas already reeling from Helene’s devastation 12 days ago and still recovering from Ian’s wrath two years ago. Almost the entirety of Florida’s west coast was under a hurricane warning early on Tuesday as the Category 5 storm and...

Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) said Friday on CNN’s “Inside Politics” that the changing climate is causing hurricanes to become more severe when discussing the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Host Dana Bash said, “This storm was 420 miles wide at one point, which appears to be part of a trend where storms are simply bigger than they once were, perhaps because of the changing climate. What are your thoughts on that?” Scott said, “Who knows but you’re right. Irma was bigger than our state. This was gigantic. And do you know, the other thing that it seems like what’s happening, is...

An “unsurvivable” storm surge is trailing in the wake of fast-moving Hurricane Helene as it barrels towards Florida. Damaging winds, rains, and flash floods hundreds of miles inland across much of the southeastern U.S. may also be in the mix, forecasters said Thursday. AP reports Helene is now a major hurricane — meaning an upgrade to Category 2 — as it makes towards landfall on Florida’s northwestern Big Bend coast late Thursday evening and into Friday morning. The storm is so large that areas roughly 90 miles north of the Georgia-Florida line could expect hurricane conditions. States as far inland...

A storm could be-fall us. Colorful leaves and cooler temperatures aren’t the only thing autumn is potentially bringing. Meteorologists predict that Earth could be blasted by a geomagnetic storm on Wednesday due to its timing with the autumnal equinox. A coronal mass ejection (CME) — when plasma and magnetic particles burst forth from the sun’s surface — occurred on Sunday, the same day as the official start of fall, Space.com reported. It reportedly occurred when a sunspot called AR3835 unexpectedly spouted an M-class solar flare — something scientists hadn’t predicted as said sunspot had appeared stable.

A “no name” storm devastated North Carolina on Monday, washing away roads and cutting off entire towns after seemingly no warning. Footage shared on social media by storm chaser Aaron Jayjack showed carnage in Southport, N.C. following a sudden and historic deluge of rainfall, powerful enough to wash out bridges, according to AccuWeather. Photos shared by residents and reporters alike show the infrastructural catastrophes that quite literally sprung up as many people were driving home from work on Monday night, locals tell the Daily Caller. An estimated 18.32 inches of rain fell throughout the county by Monday afternoon as extreme...

(NEXSTAR) – Geomagnetic storm conditions observed over the weekend strengthened Monday morning, creating a “major disturbance in Earth’s magnetic field,” the Space Weather Prediction Center said. The storm reached a G4 level in strength — the second-highest on the scale, classified as “severe” — just before 11 a.m. Eastern Time. The geomagnetic storm conditions may continue into the evening as solar flaring continues, forecasters said. “Severe levels is pretty extraordinary,” Shawn Dahl, service coordinator at SWPC, said in a media briefing earlier this year. “It’s a very rare event to happen.” At the G4 level, impacts on our infrastructure are...

Tropical Storm watches and warnings have been issued from the Florida Keys up the Florida Gulf Coast to Suwanee. The system is crossing Central Cuba, moving at 16mph. The disturbance is expected to develop into a tropical depression on Saturday as it moves across the Straits of Florida, followed by intensification into a tropical storm by Saturday night. Governor DeSantis declared a state of emergency for 54 counties, most along the Gulf Coast and in northern Florida, to move assets in preparation for the storm. August 13 marks 20 years since Hurricane Charley made landfall near Punta Gorda FL. The...

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has come under fire on social media over his response to Hurricane Beryl, which crashed into the southeastern United States on Monday as a Category 1 hurricane leaving six dead in Texas, and one in Louisiana, according to The Associated Press. The storm caused widespread damage across Texas with the Houston area, where millions of people lost power, particularly badly affected. As of Tuesday just under 1.7 million CenterPoint customers remained without power according to The Houston Chronicle. Abbott is currently on an economic development tour of Asia and was in South Korea on Monday when...

Hurricane Beryl is expected to bring life-threatening winds and storm surge to Jamaica Wednesday, after the Category 4 storm ripped across islands in the southeast Caribbean, killing at least six people. According to the latest forecast from the National Hurricane Center, Beryl has lost some intensity but is still expected to be near major-hurricane strength when it passes near or over Jamaica at midday before taking aim at the Cayman Islands and Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. The storm — with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph — is currently located about 75 miles southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, moving west-northwest at 18...

Severe thunderstorms moved through the Cape Krusenstern National Monument, 500 miles northwest of Fairbanks, Alaska, Thursday morning with lightning, high winds, small hail and a shelf cloud worthy of a storm in the Plains. A powerful area of low pressure swirling just north of the Aleutian Islands on Thursday aided in pumping warm and humid air well up into northern Alaska, AccuWeather Regional Expert Brandon Buckingham said. "As the warm air clashed with cooler air to the north, powerful thunderstorms featuring wind gusts over 50 miles per hour and hail up to 1 inch in diameter prompted the National Weather...

The hurricane season's next tropical depression or storm is expected to form from a disturbance in the Atlantic by tonight as we also track two other systems with a lower chance of tropical development. W​here these systems are now: We're watching three tropical disturbances spread out from near Mexico to off the African coast, as depicted in the map below. The one expected to form into a tropical depression, and likely tropical storm, in the short-term future is Invest 95L in the central Atlantic. An "invest" is a naming convention used to identify disturbances that are being monitored with specialized...

Lookner linked Lots of reports of injuries and damage on scanner after tornado in Denton County, Texas But Various other sources Truck stop hit on I-35 Many reported trapped

There's damage all over the Greater Houston area after a thunderstorm brought powerful wind and heavy rain. At least four people were killed, Mayor John Whitmire said, and he urged everyone to stay off the roads and stay safe. In scenes reminiscent of Hurricane Alicia back in 1983, the storm blew out hundreds of windows of downtown skyscrapers leaving workers scrambling for cover and glass all over the streets and sidewalks. The damaged buildings include the Wells Fargo Plaza, Total Energies, Enterprise Plaza, Kinder Morgan and Chevron. Workers on higher floors say they felt the towers sway amid the whipping...

NEXSTAR) – It’s been almost 20 years since we’ve seen a geomagnetic storm as strong as the one heading our way this weekend. Power operators and other groups that maintain critical infrastructure are preparing for what might happen when the coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, hit Earth. But is there anything you should be doing? A G4-level solar storm, such as the one expected to hit as soon as Friday evening, can cause issues with the power grid, radio communications and the accuracy of GPS.

A weekend spring storm that drenched the San Francisco Bay area and closed Northern California mountain highways also set a single-day snowfall record for the season on Sunday in the Sierra Nevada. The wet weather system had mostly moved out of the state by Sunday morning, but officials warned that roads would remain slick after around two feet (60 centimeters) of snow fell in some areas of the Sierra. “Did anyone have the snowiest day of the 2023/2024 season being in May on their winter bingo card?” the University of California, Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab asked on the social...

BREAKING: Hail storm in Damon texas on 3/24/24 destroys 1,000’s of acres of solar farms. Who pays to fix this green energy? @StateFarm? @FarmBureau? @Allstate? Or you the taxpayer?

On June 20, 2013, an area on the Sun’s surface erupted, sending out a coronal mass ejection (CME) that propelled billions of tons of charged particles into space. The storm reached Earth about two days later. Most of us didn’t even notice. We were busy watching the Miami Heat beat San Antonio Spurs, 95-88 in Game Seven of the NBA Finals. If we weren’t into basketball, we may have been surprised to hear that Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) had became the Senate’s third Republican to publicly endorse same-sex marriage. Behind our backs, the Sun was churning out a storm of...

The most powerful Pacific storm of the season started barreling into the Sierra Nevada on Thursday, packing multiple feet of snow and dangerous winds that forecasters say will create blizzard conditions likely to close major highways and trigger power outages into the weekend. Much of the Sierra Nevada was under a blizzard warning stretching through Sunday, with the biggest effects expected Friday afternoon into Saturday. As much as 10 feet (3 meters) of snow is possible in the mountains around Lake Tahoe by the weekend, with 3 to 6 feet (.9 to 1.8 meters) in the communities on the lake’s...

California is bracing for a powerful winter storm that could bring up to 10 feet of snow and high winds to the Sierra Nevada. “A second winter storm will impact the West Coast on Thursday and Friday,” the National Weather Service’s (NWS) Weather Prediction Center said in a forecast discussion Thursday. “The storm will create heavy mountain snow that will affect many passes. Multiple feet of snow are likely (over 80% chance) for higher elevations, especially above 5000 feet, including many Cascade and Sierra Nevada Mountain passes,” the notice added. “Extremely heavy snow rates surpassing 3 inches per hour are...