Opmmur
Time Travel Professor
the new norm: extreme weather
ORIGINAL CAPTION: MONTANA: A deluge falls from the core of a thunderstorm near Glasgow in July 2010. “I felt like if you could stand in the middle and look up, you'd see straight into the heavens,” says photographer Sean Heavey. (Sean R. Heavey, Barcroft Media/Landov)
ARIZONA: The biggest dust storm in living memory rolls into Phoenix on July 5, 2011, reducing visibility to zero. Desert thunderstorms kicked up the mile-high wall of dust and sand. (Daniel Bryant)
TEXAS: A flaming fence post marks the trail of a forest fire near Bastrop on September 5, 2011, during a record drought and heat wave. The fire, which destroyed 1,685 houses, may have been sparked by dead pine trees falling onto power lines. (Larry W. Smith, European Pressphoto Agency/Landov)
TENNESSEE: Jamey Howell and Andrea Silvia had just heard that church was canceled when the flood submerged their Jeep near Nashville on May 2, 2010. The teenagers clung to the roof rack for more than an hour and then—as their parents watched helplessly—let go. A mile downstream they struggled onto a riverbank, alive. (Rick Murray)
MISSISSIPPI: Fortified by a levee, a house near Vicksburg survives a Yazoo River flood in May 2011. Snowmelt and intense rains—eight times as much rainfall as usual in parts of the Mississippi River watershed—triggered floods that caused three to four billion dollars in damages. (Scott Olson, Getty)
TEXAS The wildfire near Bastrop, Texas, on September 5, 2011, was so hot it melted the aluminum wheels of this boat trailer. Fanned by high winds, the fire spread rapidly. “People had literally five or ten minutes to get out,” says Jack Page, fire marshal of nearby Smithville. “There were a couple of times we didn't think we would make it.” (Robb Kendrick)
ALABAMA: On April 27, 2011, the U.S. was hit by 199 tornadoes, a single-day record—but there's no clear evidence, scientists say, of a long-term rise in tornado frequency. The 190-mile-an-hour twister that carved a sharp path across Tuscaloosa missed the University of Alabama football stadium (upper left) by a mile, then threaded between a large mall (X-shaped building at center) and the main hospital, which was soon treating victims. The tornado killed 44, then roared northeast to the Birmingham area, where it killed 20 more. (Digitalglobe)
SWITZERLAND: Frozen spray from Lake Geneva entombs cars, trees, and a promenade during a severe cold spell in February 2012. An unusual dip in the polar jet stream, which looped as far south as Africa, brought Arctic air and deep snows to Europe, killing several hundred people. (Martial Trezzini, European Pressphoto Agency/Landov)
NEBRASKA: “It was really cranking,” photographer Mike Hollingshead says of this 130-mile-an-hour twister. But to him, that was not a clue to run the other way. A dedicated storm chaser, he shot this funnel on June 20, 2011, outside Bradshaw, where it derailed freight-train cars. (Mike Hollingshead)
CHINA: Rainwater cascades onto a Chengdu resident rushing up a flight of stairs from an underground garage. An unusually severe downpour on July 3, 2011, flooded streets and knocked out electricity in the city, which is the capital of Sichuan Province in central China. (China Daily)
TEXAS: Tumbleweeds catch in the furrows of an unplanted cotton field near Brownfield, southwest of Lubbock. High winds and a record-breaking heat wave led to damaging erosion, says Buzz Cooper, who runs a cotton gin nearby. “It was just like a hot fan in an oven,” he says. (Robb Kendrick)
ORIGINAL CAPTION: MONTANA: A deluge falls from the core of a thunderstorm near Glasgow in July 2010. “I felt like if you could stand in the middle and look up, you'd see straight into the heavens,” says photographer Sean Heavey. (Sean R. Heavey, Barcroft Media/Landov)
ARIZONA: The biggest dust storm in living memory rolls into Phoenix on July 5, 2011, reducing visibility to zero. Desert thunderstorms kicked up the mile-high wall of dust and sand. (Daniel Bryant)
TEXAS: A flaming fence post marks the trail of a forest fire near Bastrop on September 5, 2011, during a record drought and heat wave. The fire, which destroyed 1,685 houses, may have been sparked by dead pine trees falling onto power lines. (Larry W. Smith, European Pressphoto Agency/Landov)
TENNESSEE: Jamey Howell and Andrea Silvia had just heard that church was canceled when the flood submerged their Jeep near Nashville on May 2, 2010. The teenagers clung to the roof rack for more than an hour and then—as their parents watched helplessly—let go. A mile downstream they struggled onto a riverbank, alive. (Rick Murray)
MISSISSIPPI: Fortified by a levee, a house near Vicksburg survives a Yazoo River flood in May 2011. Snowmelt and intense rains—eight times as much rainfall as usual in parts of the Mississippi River watershed—triggered floods that caused three to four billion dollars in damages. (Scott Olson, Getty)
TEXAS The wildfire near Bastrop, Texas, on September 5, 2011, was so hot it melted the aluminum wheels of this boat trailer. Fanned by high winds, the fire spread rapidly. “People had literally five or ten minutes to get out,” says Jack Page, fire marshal of nearby Smithville. “There were a couple of times we didn't think we would make it.” (Robb Kendrick)
ALABAMA: On April 27, 2011, the U.S. was hit by 199 tornadoes, a single-day record—but there's no clear evidence, scientists say, of a long-term rise in tornado frequency. The 190-mile-an-hour twister that carved a sharp path across Tuscaloosa missed the University of Alabama football stadium (upper left) by a mile, then threaded between a large mall (X-shaped building at center) and the main hospital, which was soon treating victims. The tornado killed 44, then roared northeast to the Birmingham area, where it killed 20 more. (Digitalglobe)
SWITZERLAND: Frozen spray from Lake Geneva entombs cars, trees, and a promenade during a severe cold spell in February 2012. An unusual dip in the polar jet stream, which looped as far south as Africa, brought Arctic air and deep snows to Europe, killing several hundred people. (Martial Trezzini, European Pressphoto Agency/Landov)
NEBRASKA: “It was really cranking,” photographer Mike Hollingshead says of this 130-mile-an-hour twister. But to him, that was not a clue to run the other way. A dedicated storm chaser, he shot this funnel on June 20, 2011, outside Bradshaw, where it derailed freight-train cars. (Mike Hollingshead)
CHINA: Rainwater cascades onto a Chengdu resident rushing up a flight of stairs from an underground garage. An unusually severe downpour on July 3, 2011, flooded streets and knocked out electricity in the city, which is the capital of Sichuan Province in central China. (China Daily)
TEXAS: Tumbleweeds catch in the furrows of an unplanted cotton field near Brownfield, southwest of Lubbock. High winds and a record-breaking heat wave led to damaging erosion, says Buzz Cooper, who runs a cotton gin nearby. “It was just like a hot fan in an oven,” he says. (Robb Kendrick)
1 dead, others missing in Colo. flood