National Weather Forecast

We’ll continue to watch an extensive portion of the nation that’ll have shower and storm chances for Cinco de Mayo Friday. Some snow may even mix in in portions of the western United States.

A couple of inches of rain could fall through Saturday across portions of the central and western United States. Several inches of snow could accumulate in the western mountain ranges.

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A Stormy, Active Sun May Have Kickstarted Life on Earth

More from NASA: “The first building blocks of life on Earth may have formed thanks to eruptions from our Sun, a new study finds. A series of chemical experiments show how solar particles, colliding with gases in Earth’s early atmosphere, can form amino acids and carboxylic acids, the basic building blocks of proteins and organic life. The findings were published in the journal Life. To understand the origins of life, many scientists try to explain how amino acids, the raw materials from which proteins and all cellular life, were formed. The best-known proposal originated in the late 1800s as scientists speculated that life might have begun in a “warm little pond”: A soup of chemicals, energized by lightning, heat, and other energy sources, that could mix together in concentrated amounts to form organic molecules.

How the Supreme Court could undermine the climate fight

More from Grist: “The Supreme Court could once again hinder the ability of the executive branch to address climate change when it reconsiders the precedent, set almost 40 years ago, upon which many of its efforts rest. The court announced Monday that it would hear arguments in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. The case, brought by a fishing company based in New Jersey, challenges a federal rule that requires commercial fishing vessels to make room for government watchdogs to monitor for overfishing — a chronic problem within the industry. The federal National Marine Fisheries Service interprets federal law to mean that operators like Loper Bright must pay for these observers. The industry says that’s unfair, but a federal appeals court ruled in favor of the Commerce Department, which includes the Fisheries Service, last year.

California adopts first-ever rules to decarbonize freight trains

More from Canary Media: “Tens of thousands of locomotives chug along U.S. railroads every year, pulling cars full of grains, metals, chemicals and lumber. Thousands more ​“switcher” trains shuffle cars in and around rail yards. Today, nearly all of those powerful engines run on diesel. In California, however, that could soon start to change. Last week, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) adopted first-in-the-nation rules that aim to dramatically slash air pollution and planet-warming emissions from the state’s rail sector. Along with imposing short-term measures, the policy states that any locomotive built in 2035 or after will have to use ​“zero-emissions configurations” while operating in California, even if coming from another state.

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– D.J. Kayser