Cat 2 Otto Slams Nicaragua, Costa Rica; Strongest Late-Season Hurricane on Record

By Dr. Jeff Masters
November 24, 2016

Small but potent Hurricane Otto plowed into the Caribbean coast around 1 PM EST Thursday less than 20 miles north of the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, making history in the process. Otto is the strongest Atlantic hurricane to make landfall this late in the year, and the southermost hurricane known to strike Central America. By Friday, Otto will be in the Eastern Pacific, perhaps as the first storm to carry the same name from Atlantic to Pacific.

World’s Hottest Nights/Highest Minimum Temperatures Yet Measured

By Christopher C. Burt
November 21, 2016

A detailed analysis of how over the past several decades, nighttime minimum temperatures have become warmer relative to daytime maximum temperatures.

An extraordinary meteorological event; was one of its results a 1000-year flood?

By Stu Ostro
October 5, 2015

The confluence of meteorological ingredients the first weekend in October 2015 resulted in an extraordinary weather event with severe impacts. Was one of them a 1000-year flood?

Why the Arrest of a Science-Loving 14-year-old Matters

By Shaun Tanner
September 16, 2015

By now, many of you have heard or read about the arrest of Ahmed Mohamed, a 14-year-old high school student from Irving, Texas. Ahmed was arrested because school officials called the police after he showed one of his teachers his homemade clock. Mistaken for a bomb, Ahmed was taken into custody, interrogated, shamed, suspended (still on suspension today, Wednesday), and reprimanded. All of this after it has been found that the "device" he brought to school was indeed, a homemade clock.