National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration news stories on Newser

Trouble Ahead: Weather Satellites in 'Rapid Decline'

Evann Gastaldo — Thu, 03 May 2012 03:15:00 CDT

If you like to complain about the unreliability of the weather forecast, get ready to rant: The weather satellites orbiting the Earth are "beginning a rapid decline" in both quality and quantity, a new report finds, and squeezed budgets mean replacements may not be forthcoming. NASA and NOAA Earth observation...

Obama Wants Power to Merge 6 Trade Agencies

Kevin Spak — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 08:39:05 CST

President Obama will today announce a plan to mash together six federal agencies—including the Commerce Department—in an effort to simplify the government's sprawling regulatory bureaucracy. Obama can't actually make the move without Congressional approval, however, so he intends to ask Congress for a special reorganizational power—last held...

Greenhouse Gases Surging: US Report

Matt Cantor — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:48:05 CST

Carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases continued to build in the atmosphere last year, a federal report finds: Between 2009 and 2010, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s yearly index of greenhouse gases—which measures said gases' combined heating effect—jumped 1.5%, to 1.29. It has climbed...

Okla.'s July Was Hottest US Month on Record

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:29:32 CDT

Sweltering may have reached a new record last month, as Oklahoma racked up the country's highest monthly average temperature ever. That's the highest average temperature, for any month, for any state, associate Oklahoma state climatologist Gary McManus said. According to automated weather recording instruments, the state's average for July was...

Only 10% of Gulf Oil Cleaned Up

Kevin Spak — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 07:41:47 CDT

Only 10% of the oil that spewed from the Deepwater Horizon well has been "actually removed from the ocean," a leading oceanographer will tell Congress today. Ian MacDonald's testimony throws cold water on a cheerful federal report earlier this month that declared 75% of the oil had either been cleaned...

Feds: Oil Spill Not Such a Disaster After All!

Kevin Spak — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 10:36:09 CDT

The government has decided that the Deepwater Horizon spill wasn’t such a big deal after all. According to a new report coming out today, three-quarters of the oil has already evaporated, dispersed, been captured or otherwise disappeared, according to the New York Times , and most of the remaining 26% is...

Scientists Slam White House on Oil Spill Response

Kevin Spak — Thu, 20 May 2010 07:45:24 CDT

With heavy oil at last washing ashore in Louisiana, scientists are slamming the Obama administration for responding to the Deepwater Horizon spill too slowly, and not investigating enough. “It seems baffling that we don't know how much oil is being spilled,” one oceanographer said on Capitol Hill yesterday. The government...

Much of Spilled Oil Already Gone

Kevin Spak — Fri, 14 May 2010 13:14:58 CDT

The Deepwater Horizon disaster has led to the release of million of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, but figuring out where it all is has proven kind of hard. Roughly 4.6 million gallons seem to have pooled into a shape-shifting blob off the coast of Louisiana,...

Regulators Let BP Blow Off Wildlife Permits

Kevin Spak — Fri, 14 May 2010 07:52:14 CDT

The Minerals Management Service appears to have blatantly ignored a law requiring new oil drilling operations to get permits from the agency that assesses risk to endangered species. The MMS gave the okay to the Deepwater Horizon rig and dozens of others without getting the permits, the New York Times...