Staff Writer 

#USA, July 7, 2023 – As the climate crisis continues to worsen, Tuesday July 4th has unofficially been declared the HOTTEST DAY ON EARTH on record, beating the record set only a day before on Monday July 3rd.

The astonishing announcement came from US Researches at the University of Maine.  

The daily temperature is measured using a range of temperature recording tools across the globe to calculate an average temperature for the Earth as a whole.  On Monday the average global temperature shot to 17.2 degrees for the first time ever, prompting concerns from scientists and environmentalists.  By Tuesday it was 17.18.

Scientists are now working to corroborate the temperatures which prove that the earth is warming at a steady pace as they had predicted.

Climate Scientist and author of Hothouse Earth Bill McGuire described the two day record as terrifying.

The record is attributed to not only global warming but the presence of El Niño which is known to increase temperatures globally.

Staff Writer 

June 18, 2023 – Forecasters are watching a system in the Atlantic with a very high chance of development but residents should be paying attention to the temperature as well according to The Bahamas Department of Meteorology.

In a weather update on Sunday morning, Magnetic Media was told “residents should avoid prolonged sun exposure and remain hydrated due to extremely high heat indices.”

As for the tropical wave, foresters say it has almost a 90 percent chance of development in the next few days making it very likely the region will see its third tropical depression of the year and possibly its second tropical storm.

The US National Hurricane Centre says showers and thunderstorms continue to show signs of organization in association with a tropical wave located several hundred miles southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands.

Environmental conditions appear conducive for additional development, and a tropical depression is likely to form over the next day or two.

There’s no concrete path yet predicted for the wave but thunderstorms are expected for the Southeastern Bahamas including the Turks and Caicos this week. Flooding in low lying areas is possible. Even with the rain the department stresses that the heat will not let up. Temperatures in the high eighties are expected and the forecast for the TCI is ‘hot’.

Magnetic Media would like to acquaint residents with the World Health Organization’s tips for keeping safe during extreme temperatures; they include:

• Move to the coolest room in the home, especially at night.
• If it is not possible to keep your home cool, spend 2-3 hours of the day in a cool place (such as an airconditioned public building).
• Avoid going outside during the hottest time of the day.
• Avoid strenuous physical activity if you can. If you must do strenuous activity, do it during the coolest part of the day, which is usually in the morning between 04:00 and 07:00.
• Stay in the shade.
• NEVER leave children or animals in parked vehicles.

Staff Writer

May 23, 2023 – It’s about get even hotter as the UN agency says scientists have warned that the world may experience rising temperatures above the 1.5 Celsius threshold, due to El Niño and human induced climate breakdown, which could have serious consequences putting us into uncharted territory, even though it was initially predicted that the chances of temperature rise above the 1.5C was zero.

This would be failing to keep the promise made by countries in 2015 under the Paris Climate Agreement to keep global temperatures lower than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels (1850 to 1900), following advice from scientists that warming beyond the superior level could be catastrophic resulting in irremediable outcomes.

The report published on Wednesday, May 17th, 2023, by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), highlighted that there is a 66 percent chance of exceeding the 1.5 Celsius mark at least one year between 2023 and 2027.

However, according to Professor Petteri Taalas, Secretary General of WMO, the rise in temperature will not be permanent.

“This report does not mean that we will permanently exceed the 1.5C specified in the Paris agreement, which refers to long-term warming over many years. However, WMO is sounding the alarm that we will breach the 1.5C level on a temporary basis with increasing frequency.”

Climate breakdown from human activity and the development of the El Niño weather system, as La Niña ends, creates heat waves across the globe.

The La Niña phase, which the world was in for the past three years, had diminished high temperatures around the world.  Now with El Niño, which is expected to develop in the coming months, there is a 98 percent chance that at least one of the next five years will be the hottest ever recorded, scientists say.

It is predicted that each year from 2023 to 2027, the global near-surface temperature will be between 1.1C and 1.8C, above the highlighted pre-industrial levels.

Despite the fact that this rise in temperature is said to be temporary, the effects should not be taken lightly, especially since the world is already seeing negative impacts of warming.

Rising temperatures can lead to serious outcomes, such as death by heatwaves, which from 2016 to 2021, were above the five-year average in every heat-period, with a total of 12,598 excess deaths (9.3% above average, 119 average excess deaths per day; longer droughts; wildfires; shrinking of glaciers and ice sheets; wind intensity and rainfall from tropical cyclones, as well as other serious effects.

Additionally, there will likely be less rainfall in the Amazon, Central America, Australia and Indonesia, according to the report.

For the Amazon, this poses a threat to the region’s rainforest which is what it’s known for. Scientists fear the warming and human deforestation could destroy the region, turning it into more of a savanna.

November of this year will see the meeting of   governments for the Cop28 UN climate summit, where progress towards meeting the goals of the Paris agreement will be examined. The “global stock take”, as the assessment is called, will likely highlight that the world is not close to  reducing greenhouse gas emissions by the stipulated  43 percent this decade that is required to have a good chance of limiting temperature rises to 1.5C.

Staff Writer 

May 5, 2023 – ‘A Category 5 is on the way.’ It’s a statement that would cause immediate concern in even the youngest of residents in the Atlantic Basin; so ingrained is the Saffir-Simpson scale in our understanding of hurricanes, but some say with the effects of climate change at our door it’s time for a change.

The Saffir-Simpson scale is the internationally accepted method of grading the intensity/strength of hurricanes created in 1973. The scale uses wind speed to grade the strength of hurricanes, a classification some say is outdated because it excludes other deadly factors and characteristics of horrible storms.

The only change that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has made in over a decade is a slight change in the wind speed of categories three, four, and five to remedy mix-ups when converting the wind speeds to miles or kilometres per hour.

Citing storm surges (which cause flooding and drowning deaths), rain, the discrepancy between hurricane wind speed at sea and on land, the sea level pressure of storms and other factors, scientists say it’s time to upgrade the way we think about the storms and their intensity.

Phil Klotzbach, Meteorologist at Colorado State University in his research on storms in the US says, pressure is more skillful than wind at predicting normalised hurricane damage and intensity while simultaneously being easier to measure.

Pressure is partially responsible for storm surge.

Rain and Storm surge are important factors for low lying island nations, especially those bisected by water like the Turks and Caicos and The Bahamas.  A high enough storm surge or enough flooding can be deadly, cutting off evacuation routes before storms and emergency personnel after; trapping people in their homes or pulling them out to sea.

NOAA lists storm surge as the factor that causes the most deaths in hurricanes, but the Saffir-Simpson Scale does not currently measure this.

In 2018, two writers for Yale School of the Environment Rob Young and Katie Mcdowell Peek agreed that wind alone was not enough to focus on as a predictor of hurricane strength. They cite hurricanes Florence (cat 1), Katrina (cat 3), and Harvey (cat 4), and Tropical Storm Sandy, devastating storms in the US with high death tolls driven not by wind but by the dozens of inches of rainfall and massive storm surges they brought.

“All of these storms have one thing in common: The hazards they unleashed were not adequately described by the traditional hurricane classification system,” they argue.

These researchers outright call for the Saffir-Simpson Scale to be done away with and a new system created.

This is not to say that wind has no bearing on a hurricane’s ferocity or that it is to be overlooked; rather the researchers say it should take a backseat to other risk factors. Under Klotzbach’s system pressure would be the defining factor for categorising hurricanes rather than wind speed.

“The real danger from all of these systems is water, not wind— water can completely reconfigure a barrier island shoreline by opening new inlets, knocking down dunes, and pushing entire islands landward. The impact of wind can’t compare,” Young and Peak argue.

It is especially important to consider and broadcast this information when talking about hurricanes, they say, as ocean temperatures rise, ice caps melt and sea levels get higher.

Staff Writer

#USA, April 17, 2023 – Over 25 inches of rain have been reported over Coastal areas in Florida due to storms gushing over the state.  Last Wednesday, April 12^th, Fort Lauderdale reported almost 30-inches of water flooding the area.

The Thursday following, Palm Beaches and the Treasure Coast area were slightly  threatened with severe storms in the afternoon and evening hours.

Fort Lauderdale was drenched in 25.95-inches of rainfall.  Daina Beaches recorded 21.41 inches.

Areas of I-95, Florida’s main north-south traffic artery were also flooded for hours.

It is alarming how quickly areas were flooded.

AccuWeather had informed, that various areas experienced as much as 20-inches of water in just as little as six-hours.

The seriousness of the level of rainfall that’s causing flooding in the state forced the Fort Lauderdale Hollywood Airport to close as well as all public schools. The high speed commuter rail service was also suspended.

The Florida rain was described as rare by Ana Torrez-Vasquez, the weather service meteorologist.

She said it was a 1 in 1,000-year event which means that it is so heavy that the chances of it happening in a given year is a mere 0.1 percent.

The most recent reports by WESH 2 meteorologists  declared Sunday a First Warning Impact day. T his means there is a possibility for stronger storms.

Today storms rained down on Central Florida with heavy rain and very strong winds which left damage in some areas.

Brevard County Fire Rescue informed that a roof was ripped off a mobile home situated in Barefoot Bay, due to the strong winds.

Fortunately, no one was left injured.  Red Cross is also helping the family.

It’s is anticipated that the coming week will see drier and less humid weather.

Staff Writer 

April 13, 2023 – As the June 1 start of the Atlantic Hurricane season nears, the names that will be used for the storms this season are making the rounds.  The names are agreed upon by the World Meteorological Organization.

Six lists of names are used in rotation every six years, and the lists which have been in use for the last 60 years are only altered when a name is removed.  Hurricane names are removed or retired when the storm associated with them is so destructive that it would be inappropriate to reuse and is done away with out of sensitivity.

Retired from the 2022 roster are Fiona and Ian, hurricanes which wrought extreme destruction across Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean including the Turks and Caicos Islands, though the country was spared any major damage.  That roster of names beginning with Alex and Bonnie  and Ending with Virginie and Walter, will be reused in 2028 (sans Fiona and Ian of course).

For 2023, the names are Arlene; Bret; Cindy; Don; Emily; Franklin; Gert; Harold; Idalia; Jose; Katia; Lee; Margot; Nigel; Ophelia; Philippe; Rina; Sean; Tammy; Vince; and Whitney.

This roster of names was last used in 2017, and due to the incredible damage and loss of lives they caused, Harvey, Irma, Maria, and Nate were retired from the list.  The storms decimated parts of the Caribbean including the Turks and Caicos and Costa Rica and was blamed for the deaths of more than 3,000 people.

AccuWeather has forecast, the 2023 season to be average in terms of storm frequency but residents are still urged to prepare.

Staff Writer 

#USA, March 13, 2023 – California residents are facing their tenth atmospheric river in three months and already a river has burst its banks sending 8, 000 scrambling out of their homes to safety. But as the sunny West Coast state floods and floods, 84 percent of it is classified as being under drought conditions.

Extended periods of drought damage microbes in the soil that break down organic matter,  layers of organic matter can then become like a waxy film on top of soil, this can in turn make the solid hydrophobic or water repellent.

The Department of Agriculture and Food in Australia (which deals with drought regularly) says water repellency results in poor water infiltration, variable soil wetting, increased erosion risk and reduced and delayed crop, pasture and weed establishment.

This means among other consequences, instead of seeping into parched earth quickly, the water takes much longer to penetrate,  and heavy rain can induce severe flooding. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says much like a river is water moving over land, an atmospheric river is a stream of water vapor moving in the sky. When that unleashes it can cause flooding. Even more so when the area has been in a months-long drought like California.

In addition between the first nine atmospheric rivers which happened in January and December there has been very little precipitation, the majority of rain coming in these heavy extreme bursts that are often deadly

This isn’t to say the rain hasn’t helped. The atmospheric rivers have pushed the state out of extreme drought into atmospheric and moderate drought stages which are slightly better. So far at least two people have died in the March rains and 20 were killed in January. Currently more that 50,000 people are without power.

Staff Writer 

February 24, 2023 – Over a thousand flights have been cancelled; a thousand more delayed and vehicular travel is being labelled ‘unadvisable’ in some parts of the US as a massive late winter storm fueled by arctic front barrels across the West and MidWest of the country.

The National Weather Service is warning of moderate and major impacts to come in the worst-hit areas with dangerous to impossible driving conditions and widespread closures and disruptions to infrastructure.

The storm is expected to last for at least days going into Friday and produce record-breaking low temperatures. Nearly all of the western US will be affected. Snow is expected to pile up very quickly, as much as two inches of the white stuff per hour.

In Canada, Ontario and Toronto have already begun to see below-zero temperatures and light snow which is expected to pick up by Thursday.  The cities are rushing to get warming centres open for those who need them as the temperatures are predicted to get even more biting overnight.

Staff Writer 

January 20, 2023 – A month and a half after the end of the 2022 Atlantic Hurricane season and five and a half months before the 2023 season is scheduled to begin, a new storm system formed and was under watch by the National Hurricane Center.

A Special Tropical Weather Outlook was issued around 10:05 am on Monday (January 16) by the US National Hurricane Center to discuss the potential for subtropical development over the northwest Atlantic.

The non-tropical low pressure system was centered in the northwest about 300 miles north of Bermuda and is producing storm-force winds and thunderstorm activity near the center.

The system has been forecast to move into much colder waters across Atlantic Canada by early Tuesday making it is unlikely that it will become a subtropical or tropical cyclone.

Staff Writer 

#USA, January 15, 2023 – At least 18 people have already been killed, and a 5-year-old boy is missing, in a bout of record breaking rain that bombarded California this week and meteorologists say more is coming.

The onslaught has been ongoing for more than 12 days now and more than 100 000 residents have had to be evacuated already. Widespread power outages are affecting hundreds of thousands of others. 

One of the most heartbreaking stories to come out of tragedy is that of a young boy Kyle Doan who was swept away in flood waters on Monday. On the way to school the cat in which he was riding, driven by his mother, a special education teacher became overcome with water.

She told local news she tried but couldn’t hold on to him.

Professional divers searched for him Monday until it became too dangerous for them, they have been searching on and off since

Now the worst is being predicted, another storm is on the way to the beleaguered state.  Four more storms in fact  are expected to hit the state next week in quick succession.

The state has experienced extreme drought and forest fires over the last 6 years which have razed celebrity and regular homes alike.

People have been praying for rain but residents say this is obviously not how they expected those petitions to be answered.