The slumbering 2014 hurricane season is finally coming out of hibernation. Just over a week after Hurricane Cristobal pulled together in the Caribbean, the fourth named storm of the year has become official in the Gulf of Mexico. Miami’s National Hurricane Center this morning named Tropical Storm Dolly, which is…
Pesky ol’ 96L, the awkwardly named system that still needs to organize a bit more before earning the more dignified moniker of Tropical Storm Cristobal, is soaking the Lesser Antilles this morning and turning toward the northwest. The latest prediction from forecasters as of 8 a.m.: The storm will become…
Good rule of thumb: When a storm system hasn’t even morphed into a named tropical storm yet, it’s way too early to raid Publix for vodka, er, emergency water supplies, no matter what the TV news is saying this morning. But if you live in South Florida, it is worth…
Despite the usual muggy drenching every afternoon around 4 p.m., Miami’s had a fairly dry run through hurricane season so far. But that could change early next week thanks to a large lady named Bertha swirling out over the Caribbean this morning. The National Hurricane Center declared Bertha the second…
Two years ago, environmentalists desperately tried to derail the Deep Dredge. They claimed the $2 billion plan to deepen the Port of Miami would kill wildlife in Biscayne Bay, so they sued to stop it. But when a bevy of state agencies lined up against them — threatening dredge opponents…
Invasive pythons have been getting all the credit, but there’s another invasive species wrecking havoc in the Everglades that could end up causing more damage. It’s the red bay ambrosia beetle, a particularly small species native to Asia that first came to the U.S. in 2002, likely through the importation…
Katharine, a 14-foot great white shark that has spent the past several months off the coast of Florida, was back in South Florida last week. Katharine was tagged last August by marine biologists off Cape Cod, and they’ve been tracking her ever since. Earlier this year she headed down south…
The site had been lost to researchers for nearly a century. Tony Pernas had been looking for a decade. His team had logged nearly 100 search hours just this year. But last Monday, deep in the Everglades, miles from any sign of people, Pernas and two other amateur historians found…
Ask any Floridians a Family Feud-style query of “Name things we should protect,” and they’ll instinctually shout back at you “Manatees.” Along with Florida panthers, those plump little sea cows are practically synonymous with endangered species in the state. We’re brought up from a young age with a general sense…
This is not a test. Hide your family. Sell all of your belongings for canned food and weaponry. Prepare yourself for utmost destruction. The year’s first tropical disturbance is churning just off the coast of Florida, and the time has come to PANIC! Wait, what’s that? It’s basically just a…
Miami Beach would like to be known less for odd chemicals in its residents’ bodies and more for banning littering its streets, parks, and beaches with things made from odd chemicals. Following bans on plastic straws and Styrofoam containers on the beach, the city commission seems set to extend the…
Compared to the miles-wide F5 monsters that roar across the Kansas and Nebraska plains, Florida’s tornadoes are usually quaint little dust devils that pop up momentarily and never get the space to grow into city-destroying catastrophes. Yet it’s the Sunshine State’s mini-twisters that are the deadliest in the nation, according…
Don’t worry: It’s just not the raging hangover from those seven rum and Cokes you pounded while sweating through the Heat’s win last night. Your eyes are not fogged over with Monday-morning regret. Miami really has disappeared under a cloud of noxious smoke. A huge wildfire in Broward County is…
Across South Florida, afternoon rainstorms are sprouting over the Everglades and moving inland to drench backyards, where swarms of mosquitos will soon hatch in pools of tepid standing water. It’s summertime in Florida, in other words. Except this year, there’s an increasingly good chance those mosquitoes will soon be infected…
It’s been nine years since the double-whammy of Katrina and Wilma walloped Miami, and the Magic City has coasted through every hurricane season since without a scratch. Most weather experts have predicted more of the same this year, with another strong El Niño system tamping down tropical storms. But one…
A big part of Miami as we know is in danger of being underwater sometime in the near future. The science is indisputable at this point, but right-wingers are struggling to deal with how to handle this. Well, Marlo Lewis, a Fox News contributor and senior fellow of the fossil-fuel-funded…
After a few days of torrential rain, waterspouts, and tornado warnings to end last week, this weekend brought glorious sunshine and cool ocean breezes — meaning half of Dade County spent Saturday and Sunday wading in the Atlantic Ocean or enjoying Biscayne Bay. They weren’t alone out there. (Cue ominous…
My God! Rick Scott did something right. Florida’s governor announced yesterday he will veto a bill, approved by the state Senate and House, that would raise the speed limit on much oft the state’s highway system. Though law enforcement mostly supported the plan — Scott proposed the veto after attending…
Fed up with what they see as stonewalling by local officials, a group of Coconut Grove residents has filed a petition with a the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. The petition calls for a formal investigation into the health risks associated with lingering contamination from the former…
Last week a local 21-year-old made international headlines for snagging a 13-foot hammerhead while fishing off the pier at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. After his friend’s line bent hard and the huge fish was pulled in closer, Ryan Bolash dragged the shark onto a beach full of stunned onlookers. “It was flailing around,…
It’s Earth Day, which at the very least means you should figure out some time to be outside and be one with nature today. Miami, of course, is the only major city sandwiched between two national parks (Everglades to the west, Biscayne to the east), but there’s plenty of green…
Is there anything more glamorous than Florida’s aquatic preserves? Yes, darling, lots of things, but a new proposed bill hopes to bring a bit of a ritzy touch to the areas by allowing and promoting the idea of “glamping” on islands and “uplands” in the preserves…
