By Donna Conneely The year 2020 was truly an annus horribilis for many, many reasons. It was the year that brought a global pandemic with its attendant economic and mental health crises, record-breaking fires in Australia and the western US, painful racial justice reckoning, a traumatic election year in the US, an exacerbation of climate-related…

By Donna Conneely By the time Hurricane Eta arrived in South Florida, the stage was set for a flooding disaster. Although the fall season generally ushers in dry, hot weather, this year has been an anomaly. Unlike the rest of the United States, Florida has two seasons: the wet season and the dry season —…

By Donna Conneely We have mentioned the phenomenon of storm surge many times in this blog series, and now storm surge is again in the news with the arrival of hurricane after hurricane during this record-setting year. But what exactly is storm surge, and why is it so dangerous? The simplest explanation is that storm…

By Donna Conneely At the beginning of June, the 2020 hurricane season was already looking busy, with at least nine major ‘named' storms predicted by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA). As of the middle of August, these nine named storms have already come and gone, and the tenth, Josephine, is forming on the…