Wildfires are an ongoing challenge in the western United States, where droughts and warmer conditions have combined with a century of fire suppression to form perfect conditions for monstrous fires. It’s Keep reading
Tag: wind
Reader Question: White Caps
Reader eclecticca asks: I really like the last two posts about waves, and they left me with another question… My dad had a little boat he used to take us ocean fishing on quite a Keep reading
Plant Week: Bunchberry Dogwood
The bunchberry dogwood, unlike its taller relatives, is a low-lying subshrub that spreads along the ground. But it sports some of the fastest action of any plant, requiring 10,000 frames Keep reading
Amber Waves
When I was a teenager, I liked riding my bike along the river boardwalk near my house. There were fields there, like those in the image above and video below, Keep reading
Dune Networks
In sandy deserts, winds can build a vast network of dunes whose shapes depend on the winds that built them. This photograph, taken by an astronaut aboard the International Space Keep reading
Withstanding Windstorms
Saguaro cacti can grow 15 meters tall, and despite their shallow root systems can withstand storm winds up to 38 meters per second without being blown over. Grooves in the Keep reading
Windy Urban Corridors (*)
For pedestrians, windy conditions can be uncomfortable or even downright dangerous. And while you might expect the buildings of an urban environment to protect people from the wind, that’s not Keep reading
Earth’s Aerosols
The motions of Earth’s atmosphere move more than just air and moisture. As seen in this animation built from NASA satellite data, the atmosphere also transports large amounts of small Keep reading
Sochi 2014: Ski Jump, Part 2
Yesterday we talked about the technique ski jumpers use to fly farther. Generating lift without too much drag is the key to a good jump. But jumpers are subject to Keep reading
Wind and Waves Visualized
Much like the wind map we featured previously, designer Cameron Beccario’s visualizations of wind and ocean surface current data draw from near-real-time sources to create a stunning picture of fluid Keep reading