Weather

A plucky meteorology heroine; a male rival with no shortage of hubris; and some very, very big storms: that's the basic formula behind the new disaster action movie Twisters, which follows storm chasers around Oklahoma amid a tornado outbreak.

It's a standalone sequel to the 1996 film Twister, a box-office hit in its day which also spurred a lot of real-life research into severe storms.

We've since learned a lot about how tornadoes behave, and the technology of storm chasing has improved dramatically.

But behind these summer blockbusters is a mystery that scientists are still trying to solve: why do tornadoes form at all?

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Devastating power outages and destruction in Houston left by Hurricane Beryl again underscored the city’s inability to sufficiently fortify itself against extreme weather events worsened by climate change. This was the lowest level hurricane, a Category One, and yet it knocked out power to millions and left the nation’s fourth largest city reeling. Past horrific hurricanes, including Ike in 2008 and Harvey in 2017, made crystal clear that the city needed to bolster its infrastructure including expanding flood-plain protections, burying more power lines underground, and hardening its power grid. But those city, state and corporate efforts have repeatedly fallen short.

More than a hundred years ago, a British engineer proposed linking two rivers in India to better irrigate the area and cheaply move goods. The link never happened, but the idea survived. Today, due to extreme flooding in some parts of the country mirrored by debilitating drought in others, India's National Water Development Agency plans to dig thirty links between rivers across the country. It's the largest project of its kind and will take decades to complete. But scientists are worried what moving that much water could do to the land, the people — and even the weather. Host Emily Kwong talks to journalist Sushmita Pathak about her recent story on the project.

Read Sushmita's full story here.

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Devastating floods in southern Brazil created more than 47 million tons of trash. It's a giant problem for the country that's having to deal with increasing deadly weather events with climate change.

Some one million people are still without power nearly two days after Hurricane Beryl hit Houston. The local power company has come under intense criticism for poor planning and communication.

Beryl barreled ashore on Monday striking the central Texas coast. Along with high winds and heavy rain, a major concern is flooding — especially inland.