National Weather Forecast

Areas of at least scattered showers and storms will be possible Thursday across the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest down to the Four Corners and Central Plains. Heavy rain will be possible across Florida with an area of low pressure in the Gulf of Mexico.

Heavy rain will fall in a few pockets of the nation through the end of the week – one across Montana, another in the Southern Plains, and a third associated with an area of low pressure across Florida. In these three areas, at least 3” of rain could fall.

That area off of the Florida Gulf Coast does have a 20% chance of formation as we head through the next couple of days before environmental conditions become unfavorable for development.

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The East Coast Has Been Smokier Than the West Coast This Year

More from Heatmap: “One thing New Yorkers could always reliably lord over urban Californians was our air. No, our city isn’t perfect — we manage our trash by piling it on the curb and have this pesky thing called “winter” — but at least in recent years our metro area beat San Francisco, Sacramento, and smoggy Los Angeles when it came to the particulates we inhale. It brings me no joy to report, then, that this spring, tides have turned. Or at least the winds have. East Coasters have evidently inhaled more smoke than most Californians in 2023 due to a quiet start to the wildfire season out West and an explosive start to the one upwind of us in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and now Nova Scotia.

Minnesota Emerges as the Midwest’s Leader in the Clean Energy Transition

More from Inside Climate News: “Six months ago, John Delurey, the senior regional director at Vote Solar, would have said that Illinois “sits on the shoulders of some of the most robust and equitable climate legislation in the country and region.” But after this year’s legislative session, Minnesota is giving Illinois a run for its money as the equitable clean energy state in the Midwest, he said. Legislative sessions recently wrapped up in the two Midwestern states that saw the most clean energy transition efforts in the first quarter of the year. The states, where Democrats control both legislative chambers and have Democratic governors, saw a slew of bills introduced this session promoting clean energy and environmental justice. Still, each had generally different aims and outcomes.

Climate Change Is Escalating California’s Wildfires

More from Scientific American: “Climate change is a primary driver of escalating wildfires in California, with extreme temperatures and dry air spawning more intense burning, according to a UCLA study released Tuesday. The study, published in the International Journal of Wildland Fire, drew from state and federal firefighting data and synthesized earlier reports on climate change and wildfire. Researchers examined fires between 1980 and 2020, along with the environmental changes during those four decades. “Climate change is an overarching factor” in more severe blazes, said study author Glen MacDonald, a UCLA professor of geography and environmental sustainability. In particular, he said, research shows a “striking” relationship between the increase in air dryness and annual area burned.

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– D.J. Kayser