NASA: Atmospheric River Flows into the Pacific Northwest A powerful atmospheric river streamed toward the U.S. Pacific Northwest in early December 2023. The long current of water vapor delivered warm, wet weather to much of western Washington and Oregon, toppling daily rainfall and temperature records and escalating flood and debris flow risks. Related: Atmospheric Rivers: How They Work, and How El Niño and La Niña Affect Them This […] Weather SnowBrains | December 6, 2023 0 Comments
NASA: Snowstorm Dumps Multiple Inches Across the Midwest As millions of Americans traveled home after the Thanksgiving holiday, a winter storm plowed across the upper Midwest. The storm dropped rain and snow on several states and caused delays for travelers. A streak of snow is visible from Kansas to Illinois in this image, acquired by the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) sensor on the Suomi NPP satellite […] SnowBrains | November 28, 2023 0 Comments
NASA: Up To a Foot of Snow Blankets the Rockies A cold front swept across several western states in mid-October 2023, delivering the first significant snow of the season to the Rocky Mountains. Related: 12,183′ Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, Is Now Closed for the Season The front brought wind gusts, freezing temperatures, and precipitation to Colorado and Wyoming on October 12 and 13—and covered some […] SnowBrains | October 19, 2023 0 Comments
NASA: America Darkened by the Moon’s Shadow On October 14, 2023, the Moon aligned with the Sun and Earth to produce an annular solar eclipse. The spectacle bathed millions of Americans in a lunar shadow as the Moon blocked the Sun’s rays. Related: Friday, April 13th, 2029 – The Day a Huge Asteroid Dubbed ‘God of Chaos’ Will Fly Underneath Our TV Satellites An annular eclipse occurs […] SnowBrains | October 18, 2023 0 Comments
NASA: Widespread Melting on Humboldt Glacier, Greenland | 2nd Largest Cumulative Melt Area on Record Every year, from around May to early September, melting takes place atop the vast sheet of ice covering Greenland. Toward the end of August 2023, unseasonably warm weather led to several days of widespread melting. The unusual late-season event peaked island-wide on August 22, when melting spanned nearly 730,000 square kilometers (282,000 square miles), or about 45 percent of the […] SnowBrains | September 18, 2023 0 Comments
NASA: Burning Man Festivalgoers Saturated by Late Season Storms Campers at Burning Man, an annual arts festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, might typically expect to bake in the late summer sun on a dusty playa. In September 2023, however, attendees encountered a bout of unusually heavy rain that turned the pancake-flat desert basin into a sea of mud. Related: Burning Man or Drowning Man? — Record Rainfalls in […] SnowBrains | September 8, 2023 0 Comments
NASA: Atmospheric Rivers Drop ‘Too Much’ Rain and Snow on Drought-Stricken Chile For more than a decade, drought has plagued central Chile. The prolonged dry period—a megadrought—has fueled wildfires, strained water supplies, and parched crops. Related: Atmospheric Rivers: How They Work, and How El Niño and La Niña Affect Them In winter 2023, the region got some relief in the form of two atmospheric rivers that brought hundreds of millimeters of rain […] WeatherBrains | September 6, 2023 0 Comments
NASA: Hurricane Hilary Soaks Southwest US, Killing 1 Once a powerful category 4 hurricane, Hilary weakened and made landfall in northern Mexico on August 20, 2023, pelting the Baja California peninsula and two U.S. states with rain. Related: Tropical Storm Hilary Brings Historic Rain and Flash Flooding to Southern California Before making landfall, Hilary delivered torrential rain to Santa Rosalía in Mexico’s state of Baja California Sur. One […] Weather WeatherBrains | August 22, 2023 0 Comments