ShakeAlertLA Allows for Heightened Earthquake Response

During the first week of July, Southern California experienced two of its strongest earthquakes in recent years. While the quakes led to some structural damage to buildings and homes, there were no casualties and the two incidents provided a unique opportunity to test the cities new earthquake alert app, known as ShakeAlertLA. A collaborative program developed through a partnership between the Office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the app alerts those in the Los Angeles county if an earthquake of at least a 5.0 magnitude on the Richter scale, or one that will produce “light” shaking in Los Angeles, is detected.

Severe winter weather slams the East Coast, causing storm surge in Massachusetts

A severe winter storm enveloped the East Coast on Thursday, affecting weather across the coast from southern Florida and Georgia, up to Maine. Tragically, the storm even caused the death of three individuals in North Carolina. Heavy snowfall blanketed much of the Northeast, with totals ranging from 13.9 inches in Providence, Rhode Island to 9 inches in Manhattan. The “bomb cyclone” underwent “bombogenesis,” measured as a drop-in pressure at a rate of 53 millibars in 21 hours. This doubled the rate of 24 millibars per 24 hours necessary to be deemed a bomb. The storm also significantly impacted air travel, causing the cancellation of over 5,300 flights going into Friday and the delay of at least 2,000 others.