Eric Holthaus

2 weeks ago | fastcompany.com | Eric Holthaus

An outbreak of extreme weather has roiled the country with deadly dust storms in the plains and hundreds of tornadoes across the eastern U.S. over the past few weeks. Now, heavy rainfall across parts of the South and Midwest is prompting comparisons with some of the worst flooding on record for the region. Very moist air from the record-warm Gulf of Mexico is being drawn northward into a stalled frontal system creating a perfect recipe for torrential rains.

2 weeks ago | fastcompany.com | Eric Holthaus

An outbreak of extreme weather has roiled the country with deadly dust storms in the plains and hundreds of tornadoes across the eastern U.S. over the past few weeks. Now, heavy rainfall across parts of the South and Midwest is prompting comparisons with some of the worst flooding on record for the region. Very moist air from the record-warm Gulf of Mexico is being drawn northward into a stalled frontal system creating a perfect recipe for torrential rains.

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Eric Holthaus

A prolific tornado outbreak will give way to a rare and widespread flooding threat across the midwest and southern US this week, stressing the nation’s short-staffed weather forecasting and disaster response efforts. At least four people have reportedly died so far as nearly 100 tornadoes struck on Wednesday. A critically short-staffed National Weather Service (NWS) appeared to issue a near-record number of tornado warnings for a single day.

4 weeks ago | fastcompany.com | Eric Holthaus

A series of enormous dust storms swept the plains states last week, triggering massive highway pileups, a spike in emergency room visits, and “dirty rain” a thousand miles away. The storms were driven by winds in excess of 70 mph across a vast stretch of dry fields and prairie from New Mexico and western Texas. In Kansas, more than 70 vehicles crashed in extremely low visibility conditions that left eight people dead.

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Eric Holthaus

Over the weekend, more than 120 tornadoes ransacked across at least 11 states in a three-day severe weather outbreak that killed more than 40 people. In addition to the tornadoes, the storm system brought extremely strong winds to drought-stricken parts of the plains states, kicking up dust storms and wildfires from Texas to Kansas. The combined impact has now become one of the deadliest non-hurricane weather disasters in decades in the US.