Currently in Chicago — August 29, 2024: Another round of storms late Thursday

The weather, currently.

The heat has broken, with an impressive thunderstorm than rolled majestically for hours in my area. We’ll have a more comfortable low tonight of 70, and Thursday should bring us some sun between the clouds and a high near 78. A good chance of showers and thunderstorms will return Thursday evening and become even likelier early Friday morning, but we have great odds for a gorgeous weekend filled with sunshine and temps under 80.

We know more about Mars than we do about the Great Lakes, but we are learning more every year. The latest discovery is a group of sinkholes that host bacterial tangos in Lake Michigan; this interesting article also touches on other research, as well as opportunities to explore shipwrecks.

— Katje Sabin

What you can do, currently.

A Media Matters analysis found that last year — the hottest calendar year on record — network coverage of climate actually declined in the US. What’s worse, just 12% of reports about climate change mentioned fossil fuels as the driving cause. The media still reported on extreme weather, but stopped short of making the climate connection.

Independent climate journalism like Currently is needed more than ever. And this year, with all of these weather warnings already underway, we’ll unfortunately have plenty of opportunities to do better.