Downpour

Last week, a long, narrow section of the Earth’s atmosphere funneled trillions of gallons of water eastward from the Pacific tropics and unleashed it on California. This weather event, known as an atmospheric river, broke rainfall records, dumped more than a foot of rain on parts of the state, and knocked out power for 800,000 residents. At least nine people died in car crashes or were killed by falling trees. But the full brunt of the storm’s health impacts may not be felt for months.The flooding caused by intensifying…

In the past, when Lunar New Year rolled around, I would occasionally make a rude bingo card to ease the generational friction created by many disparate relatives suddenly spending too much time together. I didn’t share the bingo cards with everyone, but they were a small, silly way to let off steam and commiserate with like-minded victims enduring hours-long reunion dinners and polite family visits with very difficult people. This year, I was armed with something far superior: I made a (fictional)…

Satellite-based estimate of the storm’s average rainfall rates on February 4 – 6, 2024.Torrential rain fell on southern parts of the state, the product of an intense atmospheric river.An unusually strong winter storm parked over California for several days in early February 2024, dropping a tremendous amount of rain that spurred widespread flash floods and hundreds of mudslides. Much of the rain fell on southern parts of the state, the product of a potent atmospheric river that delivered water vapor to the region from the…

On a warm, blustery December afternoon outside the De Laurentis olive oil-producing co-op in the white hilltop town of Ostuni, Puglia, Luigi D'Amico holds out his palm, revealing an olive picked earlier in the day.Instead of resembling the plump, gleaming green and black fruit overflowing in bins around him, this one is half-consumed, dry and shrunken."That's what the olive fly does," he explained. "It lays its larvae, which then devours the olive."D'Amico lists off other pests and fungi — olive leprosy, peacock's eye…

Trucks and a resident on foot make their way through receding floodwaters in the Sailboat Bend neighborhood of Fort Lauderdale, Florida on April 13, 2023.Photo: Rebecca Blackwel (AP)Historic rainfall over Fort Lauderdale sparked intense flooding that shut down schools and businessesthis week. And the threat of flooding isn’t over just yet, an already waterlogged South Florida may see more rain this evening.“A few showers and storms are possible again along the east coast,” the National Weather Service Miami station…