In black and white noir films from the ?40s, every day seems gray and rainy. It turns out cities make their own weather and yes, it does rain more often in major cities.
NASA researchers used their Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) to study “urban heat-islands” and see if they create more summer rain than normal over major cities. The cities they studied included Atlanta, Dallas, San Antonio and Nashville.
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Drought and the wildfires that accompany it is spreading across the entire United States and hitting the Western states especially hard. Much of this is due to low snow accumulation during the previous winter months. The West especially counts on snow melt to provide enough water to last the rest of the year.
At this point, even heavy rains won?t bring enough water to alleviate drought conditions, which are likely to persist in Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas. The areas around where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah connect have been rated ?exceptional? by the U.S. Weather Service, which is its most severe category.
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Almost 90,000 acres have burned in wildfires in Colorado and now the out-of-control fire is headed for Denver. People still talk about the Chicago fire, a century ago, but no major city has burned for years. Will Denver burn?
Forest fires are not uncommon in Colorado but this one, started by sparks from a campfire, is the largest in Colorado history. How can a few sparks start such a huge conflagration? The answer is drought: due to global warming, there?s been less snow, thus less summer snow melt. This means less water and one of the driest years in history, with trees ready to burst into flame. The resin in some pine trees can even burst into flame spontaneously if the weather gets hot and dry enough.
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Tiny microbes could be controlling our weather in an attempt to survive, according to Dr. Bruce Moffett and his team from the University of East London. They believe the airborne bacteria may be behind the formation of clouds and rainfall. The ability to manipulate the environment in this way would help the microbes survive and multiply.
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