Weathered: Earth’s Extremes

A fire tornado, or “firenado,” is exactly what it sounds like: a tornado made out of fire… and it is truly the stuff of nightmares. The most famous example occurred when the 2018 Carr Fire spawned an EF3 fire tornado with estimated wind speeds of 143 mph! And as climate change drives increasing wildfires around the planet, it only makes sense that we see more fire tornadoes as well

In the 1930s, the US experienced what has been called its greatest ecological disaster, when the dust bowl ravaged the midwest, eroding topsoil, destroying crops, and displacing millions. As climate change exacerbates drought across much of the US, damaging dust storms and haboobs are becoming more common, leading many experts to ask if we're headed into another dust bowl.

Have you ever wondered how hail is formed? Or just how big it can get? We learn how the IBHS Research Laboratory is using 3D printers, sophisticated potato guns, a sky-diving chamber, and other state-of-the-art equipment to help unravel the mystery of how on earth such large hailstones form… and how we can reduce the damage they cause.

For decades we’ve been planting trees in hopes of reducing carbon pollution. But when it comes to carbon sequestration, have we actually been getting it all backward? We travel to the Pacific Northwest forests of Oregon to see what we can learn about forest carbon sinks and the groundbreaking research with Oregon State University’s Department of Forestry.

The closely observed Hunga Haʻapai volcano in Tonga erupted in January 2022. The hot plumes of ash they spew into the atmosphere are the most dangerous part of these eruptions, threatening downwind communities and even planes. It turns out these plumes also form volcanic lightning!

With climate change making temperatures more extreme each year, like we recently saw in the great Texas freeze and the Northwest heatwave, large-scale power outages become a matter of life and death. Could a power grid failure during an extreme weather event be the most deadly weather disaster in US history? And what can we do to prevent this kind of catastrophic blackout?

NOAA’s 2020 Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disaster report showed a notable uptick in extremes. In 2021, 10.6% of all-weather stations reported record temperatures. And with the continued emission of carbon into the atmosphere, this should come as no real surprise. But some new scientific research shows that there is a surprising thread that connects nearly all of these events.

Space weather can have a major effect on the technology we rely on. And a large solar flare could cause the most significant weather threat because so much of essential services are powered by a functioning electrical grid and a geomagnetic storm could create a grid-down scenario. We learn about the Carrington Event, Coronal Mass Ejection, and how to harden the grid.

We look at many hazards from temperature, storms, drought, farming, wildfire, polar vortex, hurricanes, sea-level rise, crop failure, extreme heat, and even economics. We look at the effect of climate on future migration patterns in the US and talk to someone who left New York City after Hurricane Sandy and identifies as a climate migrant.

Sea level rise is a problem that is garnishing increasing attention among both scientists and the media. And as climate change continues to warm the earth, the current rate of 1.4 inches per decade is projected to increase, with NOAA predicting another foot of sea-level rise along US coastlines by 2050. The most consequential tipping point, when it comes to sea-level rise, is Thwaites Glacier.