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Why South’s winter storm was so destructive

LiveScience: A treacherous winter storm that is sweeping across the southeastern United States has dumped snow, sleet and freezing rain over a region stretching from the Texas Gulf Coast to the Carolinas. As the storm moves into the Northeast, the icy blast is leaving a trail of destruction, with downed trees and power lines leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power in parts of Georgia and South Carolina. As of Feb. 13, the National Weather Service (NWS) reported about an inch of ice accumulation...

How it snows for days in the Arctic

LiveScience: For snow to form, there has to be stuff in the atmosphere ­— microbes, specks of dust — for water molecules to freeze on and then form ice crystals. But in the pristine Arctic, where the atmosphere is very clean and the ocean is covered in ice, it can sometimes paradoxically snow for days on end. Researchers at Michigan Technological University in Houghton set out to investigate the mystery of where snow in the Arctic comes from, and how it can fall so persistently in the region. "Within a few...

Warm Water Under Antarctic Glacier Spurs Speedy Melting Rate

LiveScience: A two-month-long expedition to one of the most remote sites on the planet — the sprawling Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica — has revealed that currents of warm water beneath the glacier are melting the ice at a staggering rate of about 2.4 inches (6 centimeters) per day. An international team of researchers journeyed to the southernmost continent to study the Pine Island Glacier, which is the longest and fastest-changing glacier on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. This region, in the far reaches of...

Climate Change Influenced 2012’s Extreme Weather, Report Finds

LiveScience: Man-made climate change contributed to some of 2012's most extreme weather, including the spring and summer heat waves that baked parts of the United States and Hurricane Sandy, which devastated coastal communities along the eastern coast of the country, according to a new report. The study, which includes research from 18 different teams from around the world, examined 12 extreme weather events from last year and found that human-caused global warming increased the likelihood of half of the incidents,...

Most Americans Blame Global Warming for Extreme Weather

LiveScience: More than half of Americans think global warming is affecting weather in the United States, according to a new nationally representative survey that measures the pulse of American sentiment on climate change. The newly released study shows that about two out of three Americans say weather in the country has worsened over the past several years, with only one in 10 saying the weather has been improving. Americans also have strong views about the link between global warming and extreme weather....