Month: April 2022

By The Associated Press CAMBRIDGE, Neb. — Wind-driven wildfires sweeping through parts of Nebraska killed a retired fire chief and injured at least 15 firefighters, authorities said Sunday. The man who died Friday night was a retired Cambridge fire chief who was working with firefighters as a spotter in Red Willow County in the southwestern corner of the state. That fire had burned more than 78 square miles (202 square kilometers) in Red Willow, Furnas…

By The Associated Press SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has signed emergency declarations as 20 wildfires continued to burn Sunday in nearly half of the state’s drought-stricken 33 counties. One wildfire in northern New Mexico that started April 6 merged with a newer fire Saturday to form the largest blaze in the state, leading to widespread evacuations in Mora and San Miguel counties. That fire was at 84 square miles…

By ADRIAN SAINZ and BRUCE SCHREINER, Associated Press MAYFIELD, Ky. — Sundays at the Bullock home in rural Kentucky were filled with lasting memories: big family dinners, cornhole, basketball and karaoke. Those gatherings ended the night of Dec. 10, when a massive tornado obliterated their Dawson Springs house, trapping Chris Bullock, 17-year-old son Stevie and miniature poodle Dewey under a crumbled brick wall in the basement. Her husband pulled them from the rubble with minor…

By FELICIA FONSECA and SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, Associated Press FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Destructive fires in the U.S. Southwest have burned dozens of homes in northern Arizona and put numerous small villages in New Mexico in the path of danger, as wind-fueled flames chewed up wide swaths of tinder dry forest and grassland and plumes of smoke filled the sky. “It’s a very chaotic situation out there,” Stewart Turner, a fire behavior analyst, said during a…

By Aimee Wilmoth, WRAL weather executive producer The rainfall from the most active hurricane season on record was made worse due to our climate in crisis, according to new research. The 2020 hurricane season included an unprecedented 30 named storms, of which 11 of those made landfall in the United States. New research published in the journal of Nature Communications found that three-hour tropical rainfall totals were up to 10% higher when compared to tropical…

By FELICIA FONSECA, Associated Press FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Fire managers across the Southwest are reckoning with strong winds that forecasters say could lead to explosive growth in wildfires this week. Hundreds of people were evacuated in numerous blazes that have scorched structures and signaled an early start to the fire season. A wildfire on the outskirts of Flagstaff continued its run Wednesday though dry grass and scattered Ponderosa pines around homes into volcanic cinder fields,…

By Kat Campbell, WRAL meteorologist Raleigh, N.C. — North Carolina State University researchers are forecasting a busy Atlantic hurricane season that starts next month. In research published on Wednesday, NC State researchers are forecasting an above-normal season with the possibility of 17 to 21 named storms, 7 to 9 hurricanes and 3 to 5 major hurricanes. Dr. Xie was one of my professors when I studied meteorology at NC State. He evaluates sea-surface temperatures, hurricane…