To get a sense of how bad the 2021 hurricane season will be, keep an eye on the African monsoon, ocean temperatures and a possible late-blooming La Niña.
Building a U.S. offshore wind industry will require more than just fast-tracking permits.
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
The Biden administration has a goal of getting from today’s 42 megawatts of offshore wind power to nearly 30,000 by the end of the decade, but there are still obstacles ahead.
While land tornadoes are associated with huge supercell thunderstorms, waterspouts can form during smaller storms or even just showers or the presence of the right kind of clouds.
Building a U.S. offshore wind industry will require more than just fast-tracking permits.
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
To increase renewable energy use, the Biden administration wants the US to go from seven offshore wind turbines today to enough to power 10 million homes within a decade.
Debris near Lebanon, Tennessee, after tornadoes struck on the night of March 3, 2020, killing more than 20 people across the state.
AP Photo/Mark Humphrey
The Atlantic Ocean is still growing physically, but humans are over-harvesting its rich fisheries. The most famous one – North Atlantic cod – has become a textbook example of harmful overfishing.
Hurricanes Sally and Paulette, Tropical Depression Rene, and Tropical Storms Teddy and Vicky were all active on Sept. 14, 2020.
NOAA
There were so many tropical storms in 2020, forecasters exhausted the list of names and started using Greek letters. And that’s only one reason 2020 was extreme.
On Isla Hornos, Magellan’s beech trees grow in wind-protected nooks and crannies.
Andres Holz
A team of researchers found the southernmost tree and forest on Earth at the extreme tip of South America. Wind limits where trees grow on Isla Hornos and those wind patterns are shifting.
Hurricane Laura intensified quickly over the Gulf of Mexico before making landfall on Aug. 27, 2020.
CSU/CIRA and NOAA/NESDIS
Laura went from a tropical storm to a major hurricane in less than 24 hours, sending coastal residents scrambling to prepare. Hurricanes Harvey and Michael exploded in strength in similar ways.
The hydropower potential at the Grand Inga site on the Congo River, the largest remaining untapped hydropower potential in the world.
The transformation of the national electricity market has “progressed at a remarkable pace and scale” over the last year as it moves towards renewables, but security remains a critical issue.
Solar and wind can’t deliver power on demand. But overbuilding solar and wind, and simply dumping unneeded energy, would go a long way to smoothing out those bumps, study finds.
It’s hard to believe, but big storms and hurricanes are caused by tiny particles moving around in the atmosphere.
Energy Minister Angus Taylor has six pumped hydro projects on his list, and most are better taxpayer investments than the already announced Snowy 2.0 project.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Twelve power projects are in the running for federal government dollars: six pumped hydro, five gas and one coal. It’s clear which one shouldn’t be on the list, for economic and environmental reasons.
Professor, School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences; ARC Centre of Excellence for the Weather of the 21st Century; ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, The University of Melbourne