This paper evaluates whether mangroves can mitigate the impact of hurricanes on economic activity. The paper assembles a new, regionwide panel data set that measures local economic activity using nightlights, potential hurricane damages using a detailed hurricane windstorm model, and mangrove protection by mapping the width of mangrove forests on …
The Amazon is ready to burn. After an unusually dry rainy season, the southern section of the rainforest is heading into winter with the largest moisture deficit since 1998. This has set the stage for an unusually intense fire season, according to a forecast issued on 29 June that is …
A tropical depression has formed off the southern coast of Mexico, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Monday, adding it was expected to become a tropical cyclone within 48 hours. The depression was located about 250 miles (402 km) southeast of the coastal resort town of Acapulco, which has …
In the past decades, natural disasters have caused substantial human and economic losses in Central America, with strong adverse impacts on gross domestic product per capita, income, and poverty reduction. This study provides a regional perspective on the impact of hurricane windstorms on socioeconomic measures in the short term. Apart …
Data collected via airplane when a hurricane is developing can improve hurricane intensity predictions by up to 15 percent, according to Penn State researchers who have been working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Hurricane Center to put the new technique into practice. Prior to this …
More than 500 houses have been damaged by a major storm which swept through Mozambique’s port city of Beira in the central province of Sofala on Saturday, APA learns here on Sunday. According to state-controlled weekly Sunday paper, Domingo, the storm coincided with high tides and the sea smashed across …
While scientists have long avoided attributing specific extreme weather events to changes in global climate, a recent report suggests that some of these events can be attributed to climate change with a high degree of confidence. The report, from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, marks the first …
The warming of Earth may not have directly caused all of the extreme weather events that have taken place in the past two decades, but climate change has in some way had an impact on them, a new report showed. A 10-person committee of the U.S. National Research Council has …
NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Hurricanes in the Atlantic and Caribbean oceans will grow more than twice as powerful and damaging as ocean temperatures rise from global warming, a new study says. Warming seas could produce more rainfall and far more destructive storm surges of water along the ocean …
The Jason-3 mission, led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Eumetsat, a European weather satellite agency, will bounce radar signals off the water to precisely measure the sea surface height within a couple of inches. The data will help scientists track rising seas as global temperatures increase. The …
The first hurricane to form in the Atlantic in January since 1938 has added to the list of recent extreme weather events including the hottest global average temperatures by far for December. Hurricane Alex on Friday was heading for the Azores islands after forming over sea-surface temperatures much cooler than …
El Niño in the Pacific always hampers hurricane activity in the Atlantic A study by Texas University found it can sometimes reduce it by 50% El Niño dampened this year's Atlantic hurricane season while simultaneously creating conditions for powerful hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean. This is according to a new …
Hurricane Sandra weakened to a Category 3 storm on Thursday as it headed toward Mexico's coast, though it is the strongest recorded in the eastern Pacific Ocean this late in the year, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Sandra, about 420 miles (675 km) south of the southern tip of …
Hurricane Sandra formed off Mexico's Pacific coast on Tuesday, with the storm expected to strengthen as it heads toward the country's northwest coast, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. On Tuesday evening, Sandra was located about 540 miles (869 km) south-southwest of the Mexican Pacific port of Manzanillo, the …
Strongest El Niño in decades, will have wide-ranging effects It has choked Singapore with smoke, triggered Pacific typhoons and left Vietnamese coffee growers staring nervously at dwindling reservoirs. In Africa, cocoa farmers are blaming it for bad harvests, and in the Americas, it has Argentines bracing for lower milk production …
Tropical Depression Eight of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season has formed east-southeast of Bermuda, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Wednesday. The depression was located about 220 miles (355 km) from Bermuda with maximum sustained winds of 35 miles per hour (55 kph), the Miami-based weather forecaster said. The …
The busy Atlantic hurricane seasons of recent decades may be coming to an end, according to a new and controversial study. Writing in the journal Nature Geoscience on Monday, two prominent hurricane researchers say the Atlantic looks like it is entering into a new quieter cycle of storm activity, as …
Summer 2015 officially ended across the northern hemisphere on Monday with hot conditions again gripping central parts of Europe. Poland had some of the highest temperatures, with Warsaw recording 35C (95F), about 12 degrees above the seasonal average. The latest heatwave added to what has been a very hot summer …
Last week, the nation focused its attention on the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the most destructive hurricane in U.S. history. As bad as the storm was, though, it wasn’t the worst storm that could have possibly hit New Orleans. That’s true of many, many other places, too. And now, …
Climate change is bringing small risks that tropical cyclones will form in the Persian Gulf for the first time, in a threat to cities such as Dubai or Doha which are unprepared for big storm surges, a U.S. study said on Monday. Tampa in Florida and Cairns in Australia, two …
The hyperactive hurricane season in the Pacific has jumped up another gear, spawning a record trio of category 4 strength tropical storms that will give the powerful El Nino event yet another boost. Hurricanes Kilo and Ignacio were to the west and east of the Hawaii Islands on Monday, while …
