History, Natural History & the Arts
Air quality is “unhealthy” in much of New York as massive plumes of smoke from wildfires in Canada drift across the region causing a visible haze, reduced visibility, and a smell of smoke.
All New Yorkers should limit time spent outside and keep windows and doors closed to prevent smoke from entering your home. [Read more…] about New York Air Unhealthy Amid Extreme Heat, Canadian Wildfires
MyCoast NY is a public web tool which offers an opportunity to contribute and access photos of flooding, shoreline change, and storm damage from anywhere in the state.
When you submit a photo, it is automatically linked to real-time weather, river, and tidal gauge data to help provide context for the photo. [Read more…] about Help Document New York Weather Impacts
El Niño is a natural climate pattern characterized by warmer than average sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, typically returning every two to seven years. It disrupts global weather – and it looks like we may be in for a record El Niño year.
State University at Albany Atmospheric Science Professor Paul Roundy studies how interactions between the tropical ocean and atmosphere influence global weather, including El Niño. [Read more…] about A Super Strength El Nino Brewing? Here’s What to Expect
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is advising the public to exercise an abundance of caution when recreating in the Adirondack and Catskill backcountry areas, including the High Peaks Wilderness Area, and consider alternative plans or adjusting your travel dates.
Warmer temperatures and rain have contributed to intense, severe, and dynamic conditions across the Adirondacks and Catskills. Key winter routes are now impassable due to washed out bridges, thawed water crossings, and flooding. [Read more…] about DEC Issues Advisory for Adirondacks and Catskills Hikers
Flooding is one of the most common and costly natural disasters in New York State. It can be caused by severe weather such as large rain events, undersized infrastructure, poor stormwater drainage, and snow melt.
Being prepared for flooding is key to staying safe, protecting valuables, and allowing for an easier recovery. Take these steps to stay prepared and safe during a flood: [Read more…] about High Waters in Spring: Consider Flood Safety Now
It’s a whimsical winter notion.
“Some imaginative and wonderfully learned German scholars tell us that every snow flake is inhabited by happy little beings, who begin their existence, hold their revels, live long lives of happiness, and delight, die and are buried, all during the descent of the snowflake from the world of clouds to the solid land,” The Granville Sentinel reported on May 12th, 1886. [Read more…] about Whimsical Winter Notions For A Snowy Day
Mile-long Trout Brook cuts downhill through heavily bouldered glacial moraine. Like any woodland brook, it features waterfalls, cascades, pools, and coves.
By mid-December it is usually frozen over, with audible water running under the ice and snow. Only a mile from my home, I often visit this brook from mid-November until late March to see the splash-enhanced bulbous icicles and frozen foam.
During some recent winters, however, climate change has brought unseasonably warm spells, incomplete ice covers, decreased water levels, and insignificant snowfall, all of which expose ice formations normally unseen. [Read more…] about River Ice: Seeds, Frazil, and Flocs
Several weeks of nearly sustained below-freezing temperatures in New York State has brought hard-water anglers (tip to our old friend recently passed – Joe hackett) to dangerous river ice, where currents, ice thickness and stability can be questionable, and rescues dangerous. This last point brought home by the death of a veteran firefighter during an icy Delaware River rescue on February 5th. [Read more…] about Citing Dangerous Conditions, Mayor Bans Oswego River Ice Fishing
On an early winter walk with my three-year-old in a local town forest, we heard our steps crunch on the frozen ground. The dirt of the trail had been pushed up on delicate columns of ice that looked like a pale sugar candy.
“Why is it like ribbon candy?” he asked. We were crunching through a forest of needle ice. [Read more…] about Needle Ice: A Weird Winter Phenomenon
Weather is the state of the atmosphere at any given time. The American Meteorological Society’s Glossary of Meteorology says, “Weather consists of the short-term (minutes to days) variations in the atmosphere.”
Weather can be thought of as temperature, humidity, precipitation, cloudiness, visibility, and wind. Various types of weather can occur, which include but are not limited to thunderstorms, tornadoes, liquid precipitation (e.g., rain), freezing precipitation (e.g., freezing rain), and frozen precipitation (e.g., snow). [Read more…] about Understanding Winter Weather: A Primer
A new report from State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli found the frequency of severe weather in the state is growing, taking a toll on New York’s residents, property and economy.
“Extreme weather events are happening more and more often and inflicting financial and emotional stress on New Yorkers from loss of life to property destruction,” DiNapoli said. [Read more…] about NY Severe Weather Events Increasing, Costs Soaring
Before embarking on an outdoor adventure, check the weather forecast for the location you’ll be visiting. If thunderstorms are expected, it’s best to change your plans. The United States has averaged 43 deaths per year from lightning over the past few decades.
Keep the following in mind to help you stay safe if you do get caught in a storm: [Read more…] about What To Do When You’re Caught in a Thunderstorm
In the summer of 1926, David Lillie, from the Glenburnie-on-Lake George area, had an unusual experience with lightning. That firebolt would dramatically change his life.
Most American school children can tell you the story of Benjamin Franklin’s 1752 experiment with lightning, a kite and key, and electricity. Yet, lightning is a very scary thing. It is a powerful spark of electricity that happens between the skies and the ground. [Read more…] about 1926: Man Claims A Lightning Bolt Cured His Rheumatism
If you’re a mosquito and it’s a warm spring afternoon, you’re out cruising the air currents on your tiny wings. But as you buzz around, the sun warming your exoskeleton, the clouds roll in, heralding a spring shower.
Balls of water up to 50 times heavier than your body begin plummeting out of the sky. You’re too slow to evade the giant drops; it’s only a matter of time before one will hit you! [Read more…] about Mosquitoes in the Rain
New York State is getting an early start this year on drought conditions and wildfires. Between April 14 and 21, Forest Rangers and local fire departments responded to fires in 10 counties across New York State which burned more than 37 acres of land.
Fires were reported in Albany, Clinton, Greene, Herkimer, Orange, Putnam, Saratoga, Schoharie, Warren, and Washington Counties [Read more…] about Drought Conditions, Fire Danger High: Wildfires Reported in 10 Upstate Counties
The Trump regime’s 2026 budget passback plan, currently under consideration, eliminates National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) Office and its 10 research laboratories and 16 affiliated Cooperative Institutes, and moves the few remaining research efforts to different NOAA departments.
If enacted, the passback plan would close all of NOAA’s weather, climate, and ocean Laboratories and Cooperative Institutes. [Read more…] about Meteorologists Warn About Trump Regime’s NOAA Plans
Climate is defined as a a description of the aggregate (or collective) weather conditions; the sum of all statistical weather information that helps describe a place or region. The National Weather Service says “Climate encompasses the weather over different periods of time and also relates to mutual interactions between the components of the earth system (e.g., atmospheric composition, changes in the Earth’s orbit around the sun, etc.).”
In other words, when someone looks out their window, they observe the weather, which shapes the climate each day. A single weather event, such as a lake-effect snowstorm, contributes to the overall climate but cannot define it. [Read more…] about Understanding Climate Data: Sources, Normals, and Regional Trends
Tug Hill receives the greatest average snowfall totals in New York State. In Harold Samson’s book Tug Hill Country; Tales from the Big Woods (1971) he wrote “Tug Hill is, and always has been, noted for its winter snows… In winter, the Tug Hill plateau becomes a vast wilderness of white; favorite playground of snowmobilers and other winter sports enthusiasts.”
An economic study in 2021 estimated that 34,254 unique snowmobile users ride Tug Hill’s trails each year, bringing in nearly $81.6 million in sales from snowmobile activity. A new study by the Tug Hill Commission hopes to better understand how our warming climate will affect the region and its winter sports industry in the years to come. [Read more…] about How Winter is Changing in the Tug Hill Region
It was July 20, 1945, twelve-years since moviegoers gazed in awe at the silver screen as the goliath gorilla known as King Kong battled biplanes flying near the pinnacle of the 1,454-foot-tall Empire State Building in New York City.
Lake Georgians must have felt a similar fright when they witnessed a giant waterspout, reportedly twice the height of the Empire State Building, passing over the 32-mile-long waterway. [Read more…] about 1945: A Giant Waterspout Over Lake George
After several years of lighter winters, the Tug Hill Region is experiencing a heavier winter season with up to 26 feet of snow having fallen around Copenhagen and Barnes Corners, in Lewis County.
The timing of heavy snowfall events and the lack of a thaw have contributed to many structure failures, primarily where lake-effect bands hit in Oswego and Oneida counties. [Read more…] about 2024-25 Tug Hill Winter Snowfall Reaches 20+ Feet in Some Areas
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