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NPR had run several stories linking 2012 weather and fire event to climate change I think this will take you to a list of those programs http://www.npr.org/search/index.php?searchinput=climate+change

Thank you for the information, Tina. I live a mile away from Parvin State Park in New Jersey where 2 boys were killed during that same storm. We've lived here 27 years and have never seen a storm as bad as that one. We had 2 trees fall on the house and six others fall in the yard. One of those trees was 30 feet in the woods and still landed on our house! The link below is about coverage of the storm around here. I just find it amazing that a storm could cover that much area and contain that much energy. http://www.nj.com/gloucester-county/index.ssf/2012/07/most_popular_stories_on_njcoms_6.html

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My wife and l were in Washington when that storm hit - incredible winds and trees down all over.

Tina, thank you for posting the information about the weather conditions that is impacting a lot of people. Do we know why it is occurring now like it is?

My family and I were visiting Washington DC and were at a relative's house in Reston, Virginia when the storm hit the area at about 9:30 pm. What was amazing was that we had just come home and it was sunny, hot and humid. There was no evidence that a storm was coming. Of course, we had not watched or heard the news that day. It was pretty scary and we lost power for 8 hours. Most communities around us were without power for days. The roads were closed and power lines were on the ground, along with the broken trees. Thank you for posting the links and the inspiration to talk about this event to students in the Fall.

We saw the 11:00 news, Shay and the weather said hot, dry and humid. There were no warnings of bad weather what so ever. 1:30 am the skies lit up like daylight and the wind rushed through bringing everything down around us. Trees were twisted around power lines.

In Madison, WI this summer, there were more heat records broken in the first half of the year than there have been in an entire year in recorded history. I remember having drought years as a child, but never accompanied by this intense heat. Fortunately, our drought has been downgraded to merely severe from extreme, after about 4 inches of rain. The weather has also turned a bit cooler - i.e. close to average. What I like to consider is the impact of the meteorological phenomena, and not just on the obvious things. Consider the derecho that took out hundreds of trees in my small town. We are in a native oak-ash-hickory forest, modified, of course, by all the introduced ornamentals. What I noticed is that the hickory trees took the brunt of the storm. Strange to look at something like that, but that led me to wonder why - was it because they are taller? Perhaps it has to do with the structural integrity of the cambium? Spruce trees also were snapped off, but the oaks suffered minimal damage. If the incidence of such events continues, how will they affect species in ways we have not considered. What are some of the things you and your students observing that you didn't expect? What are some of the hypotheses that you can develop? And, in the interest of scientific methods, how could you test them? So often, we are at a loss to come up with tests of short-term environmental phenomena.

799 in just January? Wow. I wonder how many records have been broken by now :)

When I was in Sonoma CA last week they were saying they had cooler than normal weather for a while on the news every day.

Thanks for sharing Tina! Linda

Thanks for the information Arlene! Linda

Hi Tina, Thanks for posting this link. I live in North Carolina, not right on the coast, but just inland. I just checked our weather forecast and interestingly, we are still showing a forecast of clear weather with 0% chance on rain Monday-Wednesady of next week. After seeing your post, I'm interested to see what we are going to see in our weather next week. I will keep you posted! Thanks, Maureen

Thanks for the link we are expecting flooding within the next two days in Philadelaphia area.

I just returned to Chicago from New Hampshire today, Arlene. Hurricane Sandy is the "talk of the town" so to speak. Everyone will be watching this one closely no matter where we might live.

they are telling us to prepare for the worst! they are warning people to prepare early! Whatever hits NJ or NY will affect Philadelphia.

I experienced two hurricanes growing up on the island of Kauai and they are terrifying. Hurricane 'Iniki was 20 years ago, and I was then the same age as my current students. We went two months without electricity and it took years for the island to repair. As science teachers we should be following this event closely, but as humans we should be praying for the forecasts to be wrong, for this storm to remain at sea and for the safety of all those in Sandy's path. If Sandy hits, where it is supposed to, we could be talking in the 100 billions to repair and because those areas are densely populated many lives are at stake and millions could lose their homes and will be displaced. I hate to say it but this hurricane has the potential of making 9/11 look like nothing. Speaking of praying and 9/11, how does everyone deal with these issues in their classroom? I can't/don't tell students to pray, yet they ask me all the time if I go to church and I have had so many kids ask this year if I think the world is going to end on 12/21/12, I just know that tomorrow these same kids will be asking me if Hurricane Sandy is a planned government conspiracy. Presently, I say that, "As your teacher, I this is not a conversation I can weigh in on, but a great one to have with family and friends."

Our Governor has declared a state of emergency in NJ. School has been cancelled for Monday and Tuesday and store shelves are bare. Good luck to everyone who is riding out the storm!

Hi Tina, Thanks for sharing these resources! One thing that immediately struck me when I looked at the tornado track map what the clearly defined area of no tornados over the Appalachian mountains. It makes perfect sense, but was neat to see it on the map. I'm curious if there has been an uptake in the number or intensity of tornados during this time period. Does anyone know if there is a resource that show the number and/or intensity of tornados by year? Thanks! Maureen

Hi Linda S. and others who were in harm's way during Hurricane Sandy. I hope you are all safe today! I just wanted to draw your attention to an NSTA book chapter resource that you may find useful when you decide it appropriate to talk/teach about hurricanes in your curriculum. The resource is: Riding the Wave of a Hurricane. Students are able to track the path of a hurricane and issue weather warnings based on weather conditions.
Carolyn

So happy to hear that all of my east coast colleagues and their families are safe and sound. What amazed me about this storm was not only the intensity, but the geographic area affected by the storm. I live in Wisconsin, and although we had no rain from the storm, we did have extremely high winds on the Great Lakes, especially Lake Michigan which has a north-south orientation. The Nor'easter pushed water from the north end of the lake to the south, creating swells of 30 feet and more. I have noticed this effect on the small lake near my home. In the fall, before the lake turns over, winds shift direction, and the coldest, harshest are out of the northeast. I live near the southwest edge of the lake, and there are virtually no beaches on our side, while the other side has decent beaches. When the winds whip out of the north, the waves are so small on the northern margins, but can be 2-3 feet on the south edge, on a lake that is only about 3 miles long. It takes a tremendous amount of energy to devastate the beaches and coastlines along the little lake I live on, and even more to produce the enormous waves that caused evacuation as far west as Wisconsin, and kept the freighters off the big lake for a couple days. I can't begin to imagine the fury of the storm that spun its energy a thousand miles and more. Incredible!

Hi jennifer. I echo the same feeling and concern about families devastated by Hurrican Sandy. In NW Pennsylvania, we had a fe closings and delays but in my area had little effect other than rain and now a Noreaster effect from the cyclonic effect of the storm interacting with the prevailing winds and Canadian cold front pushing the weather across the Great Lakes and towards us in the effect of snow. We had a two hour delay and I couldn't resist taking the kids outside for a few minutes to feel the effect of the storm as it was moving through. We build chectnut seedbeds and took them outside to allow the nuts to freeze and hopefully germinate and the kids talked a lot about how it felt outside. I took a workshop from the AMS a few years ago and it was great for including weather and atmospheric science. If you can get accepted, it is a great course!

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Project Atmosphere (External Website)

Here is another set of views of the changes that superstorm Sandy wrought on the East Coast http://www.google.com/gadgets/directory?synd=earth&hl=en&gl=us&url=http://maps.google.com/maps/gx?oe%3Dutf-8%26output%3Dghapi%26q%3Dhttp://kmlworks.appspot.com/09507073323105492707-09433706634217153051-4.kml

Last night I watched the Nova Program on Hurricane Sandy. There was an excellent discussion on the impact of climate change on hurricane intensity and frequency If you missed the program and would like to watch, you can find it here http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/inside-the-megastorm.html

I was in a webinar today about Satellite Meteorology and the moderator shared these links for up-to-date information on weather events. This first one is for Satellite Meteorology Modules
This one is for NASA info on Hurricane Sandy
This one is for the NASA GOES Project
I will post the archive information for the webinar as soon as it is available. It was a very helpful webinar for helping one to understand how scientists use the data collected by satellites to monitor and predict weather events.
Carolyn
Carolyn