Tag: Wind

Significant Winter Storm Continues to Sweep the East Coast

A sprawling storm that dumped buckets of rain on Kentucky and Tennessee on Saturday is spreading across the East Coast on Sunday and spraying a wintry blast of rain, snow, sleet and freezing rain. The system is expected to continue unleashing dangerous weather into Monday. Power outages, downed trees and hazardous road conditions could disrupt […]

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2 Killed as Tornadoes Sweep Through East Tennessee

Two tornadoes touched down in eastern Tennessee on Thursday night, killing two people and causing widespread damage to rural communities outside Knoxville, the authorities said. In Morgan County, Tenn., a mother and daughter were killed at home and three other people were injured when a tornado touched down about 8 p.m., according to local emergency […]

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Storm Eowyn Brings Fierce Winds to Britain and Ireland

A fierce storm knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of people in Ireland and threatened to disrupt travel across Britain on Friday, one last punch from a weather pattern that has already delivered bitter cold and record-breaking snow to parts of the United States. Damaging gales from the storm, which is named Eowyn, are […]

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A platform to expedite clean energy projects

Businesses and developers often face a steep learning curve when installing clean energy technologies, such as solar installations and EV chargers. To get a fair deal, they need to navigate a complex bidding process that involves requesting proposals, evaluating bids, and ultimately contracting with a provider. Now the startup Station A, founded by a pair […]

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As Brutal Cold Settles Across U.S., Gulf Coast Braces for Rare Winter Storm

An intense blast of arctic air is sweeping across much of the United States to start the week, following a storm system off the East Coast that dumped snow over the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast over the weekend. But as the those regions dig out from the snow, a rare and significant winter storm will threaten […]

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Powerful Santa Ana Winds Expected to Elevate Fire Risk in Southern California

Strong, damaging Santa Ana winds are expected to bring extreme wildfire danger to Southern California Monday into Tuesday as the landscape remains dangerously starved of rain, and as firefighters continue to work to fully contain wildfires that left at least 27 people dead and destroyed thousands of homes this month. While an offshore wind pattern […]

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Wind Forecast for L.A. Fires Was Weaker Than Expected, but Could Pick Up Wednesday

Meteorologists get it wrong sometimes. Thankfully, when they got it wrong this week, it was because the winds were weaker than predicted on Tuesday and no longer met the National Weather Service’s criteria for a “particularly dangerous situation,” which is a rare, high-level warning meant to be used only every few years for the worst […]

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How Bad is the L.A. Forecast, and When Will Firefighters Catch a Break?

Los Angeles residents are facing another round of fire danger as gusty Santa Ana winds were expected to intensify once again over the next few days. The National Weather Service has warned these winds could lead to “explosive fire growth,” prompting rare, “particularly dangerous situation” red flag warnings for parts of Ventura and Los Angeles […]

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L.A. Utilities’ Decisions to Keep Power On Are Scrutinized

Power lines near the Eaton and Palisades fires in the Los Angeles area were on when those blazes started on Tuesday, which energy experts said was concerning because electrical equipment has often ignited infernos during periods of high wind in California and elsewhere. It is not clear what ignited the fires ravaging Southern California, and […]

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The Weather Won’t Give Southern California’s Firefighters a Break

The vegetation was parched, and the air was dry. The worst windstorm in a decade had arrived. All it would take was a spark. As a fire ignited in the Pacific Palisades on Tuesday, the winds crashed over and through the mountains like white water rapids. Winds as strong as those in a hurricane propelled […]

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We Are Not Prepared for Fires Like This

Tuesday night, a historic wind event swept through Southern California, spreading horrifying fires that torched a dense urban patchwork of homes, institutions and businesses. The multiple fires in greater Los Angeles have produced only two deaths so far, somewhat mercifully. But the windstorm is expected to continue, and already much of Pacific Palisades has burned […]

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What We Know About the Wildfires Raging in Southern California

Fast-moving fires on Tuesday forced more than 30,000 people in the Los Angeles area to evacuate their homes, as the skies turned red and fierce winds knocked down trees and power lines. The wind storm was expected to bring even more destruction overnight and into Wednesday. The two large fires — one in the Pacific […]

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How hard is it to prevent recurring blackouts in Puerto Rico?

Researchers at MIT’s Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) have shown that using decision-making software and dynamic monitoring of weather and energy use can significantly improve resiliency in the face of weather-related outages, and can also help to efficiently integrate renewable energy sources into the grid. The researchers point out that the system they […]

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Fires Break Out Across Southern California Amid Fierce Winds

Raging flames driven by a fierce windstorm threatened hillside homes in Los Angeles on Tuesday, as Southern California braced for the strongest winds in more than a decade. Gusts of up to 100 miles per hour were forecast through lunchtime Wednesday, threatening to down trees, knock out power and fuel wildfires across a wide region. […]

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Los Angeles Braces for ‘Life-Threatening and Destructive’ Winds

With parched vegetation and one of the strongest Santa Ana wind events in years expected to sweep through Southern California this week, the region is bracing for the type of weather that can help wildfires spark and spread quickly and easily. Forecasters on Monday warned that they expected “life-threatening and destructive” winds to combine with […]

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So you want to build a solar or wind farm? Here’s how to decide where.

Deciding where to build new solar or wind installations is often left up to individual developers or utilities, with limited overall coordination. But a new study shows that regional-level planning using fine-grained weather data, information about energy use, and energy system modeling can make a big difference in the design of such renewable power installations. This […]

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Is there enough land on Earth to fight climate change and feed the world?

Capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius is a tall order. Achieving that goal will not only require a massive reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, but also a substantial reallocation of land to support that effort and sustain the biosphere, including humans. More land will be needed to accommodate a growing demand […]

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Consortium led by MIT, Harvard University, and Mass General Brigham spurs development of 408 MW of renewable energy

MIT is co-leading an effort to enable the development of two new large-scale renewable energy projects in regions with carbon-intensive electrical grids: Big Elm Solar in Bell County, Texas, came online this year, and the Bowman Wind Project in Bowman County, North Dakota, is expected to be operational in 2026. Together, they will add a […]

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Startup turns mining waste into critical metals for the U.S.

At the heart of the energy transition is a metal transition. Wind farms, solar panels, and electric cars require many times more copper, zinc, and nickel than their gas-powered alternatives. They also require more exotic metals with unique properties, known as rare earth elements, which are essential for the magnets that go into things like […]

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