Extreme Weather News

Over the fourth of July weekend, the Texas Hill Country was devastated by a powerful flash flood event. River levels rose rapidly, on the order of 20 feet or more in 1 to 2 hours or less, all along the upper part of the Guadalupe River. The main flood event started overnight and continued throughout the morning of July 4, resulting in widespread destruction, hundreds of water rescues, many deaths, and numerous people still reported as missing. The Hill Country can be susceptible to flash floods as water tends to run off rather than being absorbed by the soil and plants. The culprit for this

This past week, a slow-moving, upper-level system moving through the central U.S. triggered several days of severe weather. The system caused numerous tornadoes, as well as heavy rains and flooding from the Deep South up through the middle Mississippi River Valley and into the Ohio River valley. The situation began when an upper-level area of low pressure situated over the northeast Pacific pivoted down into the central Rockies, creating a deep trough of low pressure aloft that extended down into the northern Baja. This channeled strong jet stream winds from south of the Four Corners region up

Most people live in places where it rains much more often than it does in the Sahara Desert. For this reason, it can be challenging to make sense of news reports of major storms in the Sahara. NASA satellite data and rainfall statistics can give the needed context. Below is a discussion of three news stories about rainfall in or near the Sahara Desert during August and September 2024. These news stories described storm runoff, infrastructure damage, and the rain's impact on the ecosystems at the edge of the desert. Areas with significant impacts are shown in green in Figure 1. Figure 1. A map

During the 10-day period from Oct. 26 through Nov. 4, 2024, parts of central-eastern and southern Spain saw unusually heavy flooding that resulted in heavy infrastructure damage and over 200 fatalities, according to the Associated Press. In this animation, NASA’s IMERG multi-satellite data product shows estimated rain rates (blue/yellow shading) and accumulations (green/purple shading) from the flooding rainfall. Cloudiness is also shown in white/gray shading, from geosynchronous infrared satellite observations. Download video (right-click -> "Save As") The flooding was caused by heavy

While the GPM Core Observatory’s instruments show exceptional detail in Milton’s rainfall structure in several overpasses throughout the week, the IMERG global multi-satellite product provides a broader overview of precipitation along Milton’s track as a continuous picture from development through landfall. Download this video (right-click -> "save as") The above animation shows IMERG precipitation rates (in blue/yellow shading) and accumulations (in green/purple shading) from Oct. 5-10, 2024. Cloudiness is shown in shades of white/gray using infrared geosynchronous satellite data. While