Weather Update

<p>Dangerous summertime thunderstorms will impact portions of the interior Northeast and central Plains into Thursday night.</p>

<p>On July 4, 2016, NASA's Juno probe successfully entered Jupiter's orbit after a five-year-long journey to the giant planet. On this historic day, we look at a brief history of the mission and explore Jupiter and its moons.</p>

Anybody who has made a sandcastle knows that building walls to hold back the ocean is always a losing game. But on an island where the ocean creeps closer every year, it’s a dangerous game people are being forced to play.&nbsp;

Vacationers witnessed an unforgettable display of clouds and lightning.

Having a range of different plant and animal species helps guarantee the health of the Earth, but a study Thursday suggested that biodiversity may be declining beyond safe levels.

People in New Jersey are being treated to images of a coast that looks like something straight out of the Caribbean. The bright turquoise water is even visible from space, as you can see in the image below from NASA's Earth Observatory.

The Antarctic Peninsula is one of the fastest warming spots on the planet, and it was thought that the rising air temperature was driving the melt of the glaciers along its fringes. But it is actually warm ocean waters that are eating away at the ice along part of its western side, a group of scientists reported Thursday in the journal Science.

<p>There's a rumor swirling around the internet that NASA intentionally turned off a live camera on the International Space Station (ISS) after the feed showed a small object just above Earth.</p>

<p>A huge, hot area of high pressure is forecast to develop over the central United States next week, which may result in the nation’s most significant heat wave of the summer.</p>

Standing chest deep in the cold waters of the Kenai River, I can see salmon skim the surface of the water farther out in the middle of the river.&nbsp;

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Grime wafting across the ocean from the Sahara is predicted to reach Houston today.

Americans are using less electricity as buildings become more energy-efficient and industrial power demand weakens, and a new report says that is leading to three trends: Declining carbon dioxide emissions, low electric power prices and the decline of coal, which has until recently been the primary fuel used to produce electricity.&nbsp;

The return of the monsoon can bring both needed rain and dangerous conditions to parts of the interior West during the third and fourth weeks of July.

One brave woman stood in front of the wicked and wild wind of nature's fury for a series of photographs in front of towering tornados in Kansas. Elisabeth Brentano fearlessly posed in a wheat field, wearing a white billowy dress, as a funnel cloud loomed before her. She is not a professional model but actually a storm chaser. Fellow storm chaser Mike Mezuel helped her get the shot in Dodge City, Kansas, this past spring.

Jul 14, 2016; 9:38 AM ET A tornado barreled through the Zaozerye Smolensk region in Russia on July 12, leaving a trail of destruction.

A utility says nearly 185,000 homes and businesses in Missouri and Illinois lost power, as violent storms hit the St. Louis area. Meteorologists say the fast moving thunderstorms may have brought wind gusts topping 70 miles per hour. (July 14)

Thunderstorm force winds and torrential rain were reported Wednesday afternoon as a strong line of storms rolled across Iowa.&nbsp;

Utah authorities likely will be among the first in the nation to be allowed to disable and crash drones for flying too close to wildfires after lawmakers approved legislation Wednesday.

<p>Across the U.S., we’ve hit the dog days of summer. Most regions are now seeing their hottest temperatures of the year, and the combination of heat and high humidity sends most people running for a cold drink, some shade, or an air conditioner.</p>