How 209 Deaths Created The Weather Service

In 1869, The Milwaukee Sentinel reported 1,914 shipwrecks and 209 deaths on the Great Lakes. Dr. Increase Lapham read it and pitched Congress a revolutionary idea: Use telegraphs to track storms and warn ships. Two months later, President Ulysses S. Grant signed it into law, creating the National Weather Service.

Drastic Temperature Changes Are Becoming More Common

Weather whiplash has been plaguing much of the world recently, and now there’s scientific proof. A study found that sudden, drastic temperature changes are becoming faster, more frequent and more intense. A changing climate and shifting global circulation patterns are all driving the change.