Firefighters across the southwestern United States are facing some of the season's worst weather, as crews battle record blazes. The National Weather Service is warning that the hot temperatures, humidity and wind gusts as high as 60 mph pose an extreme fire risk. The largest fire began more than three weeks ago in Arizona and has burned into western New Mexico, destroying more than thirty homes and half a million acres. Michel Marizco,a reporter with our partner station in Arizona, KJZZ, speaks with us.

Hundreds of people have been confirmed dead after devastating storms ripped through the south on Wednesday. Thousands of residents are without power, while they continue to look for survivors and dig out from the wreckage. A spokeswoman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency said yesterday that the death toll, which had reached 15 in the state, is fluid and is likely to rise. To get more of the news happening in the areas affected, we speak with Kim Severson of The New York Times, who is in Georgia. 

 

Yesterday, North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue's office released its newest figures on the loss of life and property suffered after 25 tornadoes touched down across the state on Saturday. According to the latest assessment, 24 people died and more than 130 were injured. As far as property damage goes, 430 homes were destroyed and over 6,000 homes have suffered damage. Two thousand people are estimated to be out of work because of the storms.

On Monday morning, with much of the east coast of the U.S. under a thick blanket of snow, we asked our listeners for their weather stories. Rebecca Poston Creel, from South Carolina, wrote in with her family's story, and we thought it was one worth sharing with our listeners. This is what she said: 

My brother in law is terminally ill and we are afraid that this may be our last Christmas together. We celebrated the holiday on Sunday and all woke up to a blanket of snow!  In South Carolina it's a very uncommon event. It was so wonderful to play with our brother, his three-year-old daughter and the rest of the family, in the snow for the holiday. It may have been the best Christmas of our lives!  It was without a doubt a Christmas miracle for our family.

The Cumberland River in Tennessee began to recede on Tuesday, after heavy rainfall over the weekend caused massive flooding in parts of Nashville. At least 29 people have died, and historic landmarks, like the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and LP Field, home of the Tennessee Titans, remain under water. The city is now urging residents to conserve water as one of two of the city's water treatment plants is flooded and currently shut down.

Four hundred tons of flowers sat rotting in the cold room of an airport in Kenya over the weekend, waiting to be shipped to Europe. These flowers are among the first collateral damage of the Icelandic ash cloud which has turned most of Europe's airspace into a no-fly zone and delayed travel for some 6.8 million people.

Observers say the high winds and heavy rain that have ravaged Manila have caused more damage than Hurricane Katrina did to New Orleans. Tropical storm Ketsana (locally called Ondoy) hit Manila last month, driving over 80,000 families out of their homes and into evacuation centers on higher ground. To hear what it's currently like in Manila, we talk to Patricia Hizon-Bermudez, a Filipina TV reporter and relief worker currently on the ground there.

The Atlantic hurricane season starts June 1st, with forecasters predicting a near-normal hurricane season. Statistically speaking, "normal" translates into a 70 percent chance of four to seven hurricanes occurring, including as many as three major ones. For a closer look at what hurricane season means for those people who live in a storm's path, we check in with Mark Schleifstein, the environmental reporter for the Times-Picayune in New Orleans and Terry Coleman, a tugboat captain and a lifetime resident of New Orleans.

In the movie “Twister,” a group of renegade scientists chase tornadoes, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats until they were reminded that it’s just fiction. Well, a group of real life scientists are doing just this, but not for the drama, but to really understand how tornadoes form. If we needed any reminder of how deadly tornadoes can be, last week, twisters in Missouri and Oklahoma killed at least two people and destroyed homes and businesses. In an effort to prevent such incidents, the largest and most ambitious study of tornadoes is now underway. The project is named Vortex 2 and involves almost 100 scientists and students from 16 universities and research institutes. Throughout the plains states, scientists are deploying sophisticated technology to better understand the storms. The Takeaway checks in with Katja Friedrich, a meteorologist at the University of Colorado, to learn how they are conducting their experiments, and what they hope to learn.

For another look at the sophisticated science of tornado studies, watch this clip.