NASA: Fire Season Heats Up in the West In terms of wildfires, 2023 has been a quiet year so far in the United States. But in early August, 60 fires burned across nine states in the West, fueled by hot and dry conditions. Two of the largest fires were ignited in Oregon and Idaho in late July. Related: Thanks to Epic Snowpack, California Wildfires Off to Slowest Start […] Fire Firebrains | August 4, 2023 0 Comments
NASA: California Just Saw its Greatest Year-Over-Year Water Gains in 2 Decades After years of intense drought and diminishing groundwater, California just saw its greatest year-over-year water gains in two decades, according to data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) satellite mission, a partnership between NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ). This past winter’s bonanza of atmospheric rivers alleviated some of the water deficit that the […] SnowBrains | June 12, 2023 0 Comments
NASA: California’s Largest Reservoir at Highest Level in 4 Years, Almost 100% Full Shasta Lake, California’s largest reservoir, filled to nearly 100 percent capacity in May 2023, reaching levels not seen for four years. Since 2019, a prolonged period of extreme drought resulted in dwindling reservoir levels. In the early months of 2023, heavy rains and meltwater from an above-average mountain snowpack caused a notable turnaround. Related: NASA Satellite Chronicles the Return of […] SnowBrains | June 7, 2023 0 Comments
NASA: A Smoky May for North America For remote sensing scientists who track the movement of smoke plumes, May 2023 has been a wild, memorable month due to extreme fire activity in northwestern Canada. Related: NASA: Smoke Fills North American Skies Early spring always brings elevated fire risk to Alberta, Saskatchewan, and the northeastern edge of British Columbia—naturally dry areas that lie in the rain shadow of […] Fire Firebrains | May 29, 2023 0 Comments
NASA: Summer Temperatures Arrive Early A springtime heatwave has made large swaths of western North America feel like the dog days of summer. In mid-May 2023, western Washington and Oregon, along with much of British Columbia and Alberta, Canada, were in the throes of a record-breaking streak of hot weather. While the most unseasonably warm weather subsided by May 16, above-average temperatures were projected to […] Weather SnowBrains | May 18, 2023 0 Comments
NASA: Smoke Fills North American Skies Raging fires filled the skies of southern Canada and the northern United States with smoke in mid-May 2023. The fires had scorched 478,000 hectares (1,800 square miles) in Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan as of May 16, which is ten times the average area burned for this time of year. Related: Over 100 Wildfires Force Tens of Thousands of People […] Fire Firebrains | May 17, 2023 0 Comments
NASA Images: The Canadian Rockies While orbiting western Montana, an astronaut aboard the International Space Station captured this photograph of the northern Rocky Mountains, also known as the Canadian Rockies. The Rockies are North America’s largest mountain range, sprawling approximately 4,800 kilometers (3,000 miles) long and nearly 650 kilometers (400 miles) wide at certain points. The Rocky Mountains extend from British Columbia, Canada, southeast toward […] SnowBrains | April 25, 2023 0 Comments
NASA: California Superbloom – A Parade of Poppies A bright spot has emerged after California’s particularly wet and dreary winter: a sea of wildflowers in Southern California. In the western tip of the Mojave Desert, orange, gold, and yellow flowers have flooded the valleys and hills of Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve. Related: NASA: Deluge of Snow and Rain Produces California Superblooms On April 7, 2023, the Operational […] SnowBrains | April 19, 2023 0 Comments
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