California drought News

Why Are the World’s Rivers, Canals and Reservoirs Turning to Dust?

Rivers across the globe are disappearing. From the U.S. to Italy to China, waters have receded, leaving nothing but barren banks of silt and oozing, muddied sand. Canals are empty. Reservoirs have turned to dust. The world is fully in …

Deluges Follow Droughts as ‘Hydrological Extremes’ Become ‘New Normal’

Texas struggled through its driest year in history in 2011. Four years later was its wettest ever. The Mississippi River rose to all-time-high flood levels in 2011. In 2012, its second-lowest. After a six-year drought that made agricultural irrigation a …

Record Western Wildfires a Contrast in Otherwise Quiet Year for U.S. Natural Disasters

It was a relatively quiet year for natural disasters – except for those living in the Western U.S. Property data provider CoreLogic today released its annual Natural Hazard Risk Summary and Analysis. The report shows “a continued trend of fewer …

Climate Change Means Wildfire Seasons May Continue: Professor

The drought-plagued western U.S. has had more than its share of fires this year – but this may not be the last year that the nation sees so many wildfires gone wild. A Yale University professor looking back over the …

As West Bakes and Northeast Shivers, Elsewhere Tornadoes Almost Disappear

The same weather pattern that made the West warm and dry and the Northeast cold and snowy has contributed to keeping the rest of the U.S. relatively free of tornadoes so far this year. In the first two months of …

Global 2013 Cat Losses at $40 Billion Were ‘Below Average’ – Guy Carpenter

Guy Carpenter & Company, LLC, the leading global risk and reinsurance specialist and member of Marsh & McLennan Companies, 2013 Catastrophe Review concludes that “natural catastrophes and man-made disasters in 2013 resulted in insured losses of approximately $40 billion. Following …