New NASA climate satellite will keep eye on plankton, clouds. Here’s why

NASA’s newest climate satellite rocketed into orbit Thursday to survey the world’s oceans and atmosphere in never-before-seen detail. SpaceX launched the Pace satellite on its $948-million US mission before dawn from Cape Canaveral, Fla., with the Falcon rocket heading south over the Atlantic Ocean to achieve a rare polar orbit. The satellite will spend at … Read more

US Hurricane Center’s Forecasts to Expand to Include Inland Areas

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida —  The “cone of uncertainty” produced by the National Hurricane Center to forecast the location and ferocity of a tropical storm is getting an update this year to include predictions for inland areas, where wind and flooding are sometimes more treacherous than damage to the coasts. The Miami-based hurricane center said Thursday … Read more

Canada sending more equipment to Ukraine as full-scale war with Russia nears 2-year mark

Canada is contributing another $35 million worth of military equipment to Ukraine as the embattled Eastern European country’s allies meet to discuss its future needs, and as Russia’s full invasion edges toward the two-year mark. Defence Minister Bill Blair, who participated in the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) meeting via video link, said Canada is providing 10 … Read more

Canada’s top 10 weather stories of 2023: Wildfires, smoky skies, a record hot summer and more

Every year, Environment and Climate Change Canada ranks the top 10 Canadian weather stories. Senior climatologist David Phillips compiles the list and this year, there was no doubt about what would take the number one position: the record-setting wildfires. “There’s no drum roll here,” Phillips said.  “The fires dominated everything…. In 28 years of putting … Read more

Researchers used Hurricane Larry to prove ocean microplastics can be swept inland as air pollution

As Hurricane Larry lashed Newfoundland in 2021, university students from Halifax headed to a rural area in its track to find out whether the ocean might whip microplastics up into the atmosphere then transport them by air to otherwise pristine communities. The results, you could say, blew their socks off. “It was such, like, an astonishing result that we … Read more