WISN By Mary Gilbert, Taylor Ward, CNN Meteorologist (CNN) — A busy stretch of severe thunderstorms is underway due to record heat and now the threats are ramping up, putting major metro areas from Chicago to Nashville under threat as the country hits the peak of tornado season. Severe thunderstorms rocked parts of the central
Continue Reading CNN By Mary Gilbert, Emma Tucker, Taylor Ward, CNN (CNN) — An incredibly dangerous day of severe thunderstorms including the potential for long-lasting, powerful tornadoes and hurricane-strength wind gusts is underway in the eastern half of the United States. The threat for tornadoes and damaging winds is escalating Friday after the same system already produced
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By Mary Gilbert, Taylor Ward, CNN Meteorologist (CNN) — A busy stretch of severe thunderstorms is underway due to record heat and now the threats are ramping up, putting major metro areas from Chicago to Nashville under threat as the country hits the peak of tornado season. Severe thunderstorms rocked parts of the central US
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By Andrew Freedman, CNN (CNN) — The National Weather Service is seeking to fill 155 positions at offices throughout the country by offering reassignment opportunities for qualified National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) employees, who are currently working elsewhere. The scale of the voluntary reassignments illustrates how depleted the nation’s top weather forecasting agency is
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CNN By Cindy Von Quednow, Taylor Ward, CNN (CNN) — Alley Wade was at work when she heard that her sons’ school in Allegany County, Maryland, was flooded and rescues were underway. She was 30 minutes away, and when she finally came within blocks of Westernport Elementary School, she was told by a police officer
Continue Reading By Cindy Von Quednow, Taylor Ward, Lauren Mascarenhas, Mary Gilbert, CNN (CNN) — Dangerous flash flooding forced search and rescue operations in multiple states Tuesday, including boat rescues at a Maryland elementary school and a search for a 12-year-old boy swept away by floodwaters in Virginia. The boy was caught in rushing water at around
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By Andrew Freedman and Mary Gilbert, CNN (CNN) — A dangerous round of early season extreme heat is on tap for parts of Texas this week in a prelude to what’s expected to be an abnormally hot summer across much of the United States. Long-standing records could fall across central and southwest Texas, including in
Continue ReadingBy Allison Chinchar, CNN (CNN) — Atlantic hurricane season officially runs from June 1 through November 30, but Mother Nature does not always follow that calendar – and it looks like this year could also defy the timeline. In recent days, some forecasting models have hinted at the possibility of a head start to the
Continue ReadingBy Andrew Freedman, CNN (CNN) — With less than a month until hurricane season, three House Democrats have expressed concerns over staffing shortages, including vacancies in all management positions, at the National Weather Service’s Houston-Galveston forecast office in a letter to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s acting head. The letter follows CNN’s reporting that
Continue ReadingBy Andrew Freedman, CNN (CNN) — National Weather Service offices around the country are on guard after recent threats to agency infrastructure — specifically Doppler weather radars — from a violent militia-style group, emails from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s security office show. The group Veterans on Patrol, which the Southern Poverty Law Center
Continue ReadingBy Andrew Freedman, CNN (CNN) — The National Weather Service is in worse shape than previously known, according to interviews with current and former meteorologists, due to a combination of layoffs, early retirements and preexisting vacancies. The nation’s forecasting agency is in tatters as what could be a destructive hurricane season nears. Several current and
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By Mary Gilbert, Taylor Romine, Andi Babineau, CNN (CNN) — Another day of extreme weather is unfolding in the United States on Wednesday after violent storms roared through more than a dozen states on Tuesday and turned deadly, bringing hurricane-strength wind gusts, massive hail and tornadoes. Severe weather left at least four people dead in
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By Mary Gilbert, CNN Meteorologist (CNN) — At least one person is dead as new rounds of severe thunderstorms are underway and potentially catastrophic flooding risks are brewing in the central and eastern United States on Tuesday. Storms led to more than 700,000 power outages across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast by evening. Some of the
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By Mary Gilbert, CNN Meteorologist (CNN) — Millions in the Upper Midwest face the possibility of a severe thunderstorm outbreak Monday that could bring rounds of dangerous storms capable of unleashing damaging winds, large hail and strong tornadoes — the start of several days of extreme weather threats across the country this week. The first
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By Mary Gilbert, CNN Meteorologist (CNN) — A record-breaking, triple-digit wind gust roared through part of Texas on Tuesday, but it wasn’t from a tornado or a hurricane. An airport weather station in Midland, Texas, recorded a wind gust of 111 mph Tuesday evening – the first triple-digit gust in its 94-year-history in weather reporting.
Continue ReadingBy Ella Nilsen, CNN (CNN) — Disaster survivors in Arkansas left homeless by recent tornadoes have been blocked from receiving federal recovery aid after President Donald Trump rejected the state’s request to declare a major disaster in March. The Trump administration denied Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ request for individual and public assistance following an
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By Michelle Watson, Diego Mendoza Diaz, Matthew Rehbein, Hanna Park, CNN (CNN) — Severe weather in Oklahoma over the weekend has left at least five people dead, including a 12-year-old boy, a 7-year-old girl and their mothers after their vehicles were swept away by floodwaters, officials say. Police in Moore, about 10 miles south of
Continue ReadingBy Mary Gilbert, CNN Meteorologist (CNN) — An exceptionally powerful atmospheric river fueled the deadly early April flooding disaster in the central and southern United States — a historic flood event and a poignant example of how the phenomenon acts differently in the East than it does in the West. It could signal added danger
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By Mary Gilbert, CNN Meteorologist (CNN) — Back-to-back-to-back deadly and destructive tornado outbreaks in recent weeks have put a punctuation mark on what’s been an unusually active start to the year for thunderstorms in the United States. The typical peak of severe thunderstorm season is still a few weeks away, so why has it been
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By Mary Gilbert, CNN Meteorologist (CNN) — The short-lived reign of La Niña has come to an end. La Niña – a natural climate pattern that can influence weather worldwide – arrived at the start of this year but had a very short and odd life. The atmosphere first started to take on a La
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