Tornado Updates

The SpaceX Polaris Dawn crew splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico in the pre-dawn hours Sunday morning after a five-day mission that included the first-ever private spacewalk.

Gray skies, gusty winds and periods of rain impact coastal sections of South and North Carolina as a low-pressure center develops offshore. The low has non-tropical origins but could develop into a tropical system late today or tomorrow before making landfall, probably in North Carolina.

An area of low pressure off the Southeast U.S. coast will be closely watched for tropical or subtropical development over the next couple of days as it could become the next named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season.

September’s Harvest Moon will provide skywatchers a chance to see a supermoon, a partial lunar eclipse and a full moon simultaneously. The Moon will not only appear brighter and more prominent, but Earth will cast a shadow on part of the lunar body. According to NASA, the eclipse will begin around 8:41 p.m. EDT on Sept. 17 and peak around 10:44 p.m. During the event, only around 8 percent of the Moon will fall under the shadow.

According to researchers, hurricanes and other systems that create significant pressure gradients can cause seismic events. Some have even labeled these events’ stormquakes,’ though they are not believed to be particularly strong. Examples of hurricanes that have been linked to increased seismic activity include Hurricane Bill in 2009 off the coast of the Northeast, Hurricane Irene in 2011 off the coast of Florida, and Hurricane Ike in 2008. Experts at Florida State University have suggested that seismic events associated with strong low-pressure systems never exceed a magnitude of 3.5.

Video taken by Kristen Edgington showed a group of horses running from the Davis Fire, south of Reno, Nevada. The fire was estimated to have burned nearly 6,000 acres as firefighters worked towards full containment. At least one firefighter was injured, and several homes were either damaged or destroyed by the blaze. Investigators believe the fire started in the area around the Davis Creek Regional Park.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park officials in New Mexico recently condemned the leaving of a Cheetos snack bag in one of the caves, noting how it disrupted the underground ecosystem.

It’s been three days since Hurricane Francine made landfall in Louisiana, but its remnants are still stubbornly swirling over parts of the Deep South, dropping several inches of rain and triggering ongoing flash flooding threats.

The calendar still says summer, but winter is coming early to parts of California’s Sierra Nevada next week, including Yosemite National Park.

A complicated weather pattern over the Southeast is looking more likely to generate a tropical-type depression or storm over the next few days.