News by Subject Atmospheric Science

Andrea becomes the first subtropical storm for the 2019 season although we are two weeks short of the official start date of June 1, 2019. This storm was first spotted on Monday, May 20, 2019 forming over the western Atlantic.

The warming of the Earth by the human-caused greenhouse effect is progressing. But predictions for the next decades still show relatively large uncertainties. A German-Australian research team headed by GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel identified the large natural variations in the tropical Pacific region as the key reason. As a conclusion of their study, published in the renowned scientific journal Nature Communications, the scientists call for more climate data from this region.

In Mexicali, Mexico, an uncontrolled epidemic of Rocky Mountain spotted fever, one of the deadliest tickborne diseases in the Americas, has affected more than 1,000 people since 2008. A binational team of researchers led by the University of California, Davis, has conducted the first comprehensive study to examine risk factors for the disease in Mexicali. Researchers examined dogs, ticks, and surveyed households in 200 neighborhoods.

Governments seeking to help their most vulnerable residents prepare for hurricanes and other disasters should create community-based information campaigns ahead of time, according to a Rutgers study of economically disadvantaged New Jerseyans in the areas hardest hit by Superstorm Sandy.

Ivan Nekhaev, a postdoc at St. Petersburg University, studied snails of the genus Boreocingula -- tiny gastropods as small as half a centimeter -- and first discovered that Arctic micromolluscs can show signs of pseudohermaphroditism. Boreocingula martyni adult females grow underdeveloped male genital organs.