Give a Gift. The pair of new storms now go by the Greek letters Alpha and Beta. Find Matthew Cappucci's email address, contact information, LinkedIn, Twitter, other social media and more. (SOUNDBITE OF THE SIX PARTS SEVEN'S "STOLEN MOMENTS"). 17th Annual Photo Contest Finalists Announced. At first I thought you were blatantly lying. You got us. According to Matthew Cappucci, a student of atmospheric sciences at Harvard who spoke with NPR, that in a 36-hour period this week 9 trillion gallons of water fell on the Houston area alone. More. A massive dust cloud from the Sahara is expected to reach the U.S. later this week, as well as probable record-setting heat in the Arctic Circle. When the 22nd storm formed in 2005, the WMO chose the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet as the next storm names. But it's really tough to visualize. Atmospheric scientist, traveler, adventurer. The last time the Atlantic saw a storm named Alpha was October 22, 2005, which makes this hurricane season about a month ahead, Matthew Cappucci reports for the Washington Post. [4][5], One man was killed. MCEVERS: Cappucci has yet another way of picturing this. Why Maine and Nebraska Split Their Electoral Votes, The Hunt for Julius Caesar's Assassins Marked the Last Days of the Roman Republic, New Prehistoric Marine Reptile Resembled a Miniature Mix of Loch Ness Monster, Alligator and Toothy T. Rex, When Catherine of Aragon Led England's Armies to Victory Over Scotland, Delaware-Sized Iceberg Could Decimate Wildlife on South Atlantic Island, Fourteen Fun Facts About Love and Sex in the Animal Kingdom, Researchers Find Remnants of Jousting Field Where Henry VIII Almost Died, Four Times the Results of a Presidential Election Were Contested, See Strange Squid Filmed in the Wild for the First Time. A massive dust cloud from the Sahara is expected to reach the U.S. later this week, as well as probable record-setting heat in the Arctic Circle. The distinct smell of creosote fills the air.In our series on the monsoon, we explored how the monsoon tickles our senses — starting with the smell of a post-rain desert.They say smell is the sense that’s closest tied The first formed briefly by Portugal, and the second made landfall in Texas on Monday night. He says that if you took that amount of water, 9 trillion gallons, and spread it equally over the 48 contiguous states, it would equal .17 inches of rain covering the country. It was part of the same weather system that caused the 2020 Western United States wildfire season. [8] More than 100,000 customers were still without power by September 9. MCEVERS: Matthew Cappucci spent the weekend making these calculations, trying to get his own head around what's happened. Yup. That year, NHC named six storms for Greek letters, ending with Zeta on December 30. This is the fifth year in a row with an unusually active hurricane season, and perhaps the use of Greek letters as storm names will bring attention to the fact that something’s amiss.