As a deadly heat wave scorched the Pacific Northwest in June, overwhelming hospital emergency rooms in a region unaccustomed to triple-digit temperatures, doctors resorted to a grim but practical tool to save lives: human body bags filled with ice and water.

Officials at hospitals in Seattle and Renton, Washington, said that as more people ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — The atmosphere is often described as an ocean of air, and in terms of the fear and terror they instill, tornadoes thus could be likened to sharks.

Most metaphors being imprecise, the big difference in this instance would be that tornadoes are far more dangerous, as the Philadelphia region just rediscovered.

The raw numbers ...Read more

ZHENGZHOU, China — The mayor of this flooded city arrived at the tunnel at midnight. Muddy water poured across the road as workers drained the six-lane-wide underpass. Dozens of onlookers gathered, hoping to glimpse what lay beneath the water. Police shooed them away.

Chen Yuanqiu lived nearby. He had witnessed the flood and knew that during ...Read more

SEATTLE — Naturalist Jeff Brown bounded up a ladder, cradling a baby hawk into his torso as if it were a delicate football.

Brown, who helps rehabilitate wildlife for the PAWS Wildlife Center, stopped about 10 rungs up on this July morning, leaned his weight against a towering maple and slowly stretched out his hand.

The hawk's talons curled...Read more

Reading the news over the past month — or maybe just stepping outside — you could get the sense that something has gone wrong with the weather. One heat wave after another has struck the West Coast, which, as a result, is now on fire. Western Europe has been deluged by rain, killing hundreds. Across Asia, from Japan to Turkey, temperature ...Read more

TULELAKE, Calif. — It’s a strange place to find fish, deep in the high desert, where drought-baked earth butts against scrubby mountains.

But water spews from the hot springs on Ron Barnes’ land near the California-Oregon border, pure and perfect for rearing c’waam and koptu, two kinds of endangered suckerfish sacred to Native American ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — After a furious start to hurricane season, an eerie calm reigns over the tropics.

No storms have appeared in the Atlantic since Tropical Storm Elsa struck northwest Florida two weeks ago. And nothing is expected for another week or more, as a global climate system causes air to sink over the Atlantic, suppressing the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Amid record-breaking temperatures and raging wildfires, California’s energy operator has issued another Flex Alert in an effort to stabilize the state’s electric grid.

Over the weekend, a fast-moving wildfire in Oregon knocked out some transmission lines that carry electricity into California, reducing power supplies by as ...Read more

Anthony Wainscott has known his share of hardship, living the last two years on the streets of California's Antelope Valley. But his personal misery index reached a new plateau during a weekend of record-setting heat.

“It’s extra hot. It’s abnormally hot,” said Wainscott, crouched in the meager shade of a palm tree on the edge of a ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A blistering heat wave set new record high temperatures across California on Saturday — including 120 degrees in Palm Springs — and authorities urged people to conserve electricity as the extreme conditions continue to tax the state’s power grid.

State energy officials announced a Flex Alert, asking residents to conserve ...Read more

An intense heat wave brought dangerous conditions to inland and desert regions of Southern California on Saturday.

State energy officials announced a Flex Alert, asking residents to conserve power and set air conditioners to 78 degrees or higher from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday because of wildfire threats.

By noon Saturday, inland valleys from ...Read more

LOS ANGELES – Potentially record-breaking temperatures are on their way to wide swaths of Southern California — a scorcher scientists say is clearly tied to climate change and could be lethal for those unprepared.

"Heat waves are killers," said retired oceanographer and climatologist William Patzert, noting that more and more people in the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES – The California Independent System Operator, which runs the electric grid for most of California, has issued a new flex alert for Friday, asking residents to conserve electricity as a heat wave sweeps the state.

Officials are calling on residents to cut back on their energy use from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. in order to ease the strain on...Read more

SEATTLE — At least 78 heat-related deaths have been confirmed by the Washington State Department of Health after the extreme heat wave that scorched the Pacific Northwest in late June.

The department said most of the deaths occurred in King and Pierce counties. King County has reported at least 15 confirmed deaths, according to information ...Read more

In the Florida Keys, police work can sometimes involve coming to the rescue of a hard-shelled pal out crawling around in the rain.

Key West officers helped steer a stranded loggerhead sea turtle back to the ocean on Tuesday morning as Tropical Storm Elsa was sending high winds and rain to the island.

“Police duties vary widely!” the ...Read more