Environment & Science

Dozens of students from across Pennsylvania will descend on Saucon Valley Middle School’s gymnasium for FIRST Tech Challenge’s robotics state championship, including two teams from the Lehigh Valley.

Pennsylvania’s maple sugaring season is well underway. At the Monroe County Conservation District’s Singing Hemlock Sugar Shack, educators guided visitors through the history of maple syrup production.

A flood watch remains in effect from 1 p.m. Saturday through Sunday evening for a large swath of the region, including Lehigh and Northampton counties.

Forecasters say a weekend storm will not only bring active weather, windy conditions Sunday and Monday are likely to bring isolated instances of tree damage and power outages to the Lehigh Valley.

Farmers say that the final offer for a property doesn’t account for fertile soil or product reliability. Plus, it doesn't accurately reflect the financial burden of moving to a new place.

Advocates and officials across Pennsylvania have signaled their support the new standards for fine particle pollution, also called soot or PM 2.5. However, federal officials don’t anticipate communities will meet the standard for almost a decade.

Norfolk Southern crews remained at the derailment site along the Lehigh River in Lower Saucon Township. The company released no details on what the trains were hauling or where they were going.

More than 200 years after the sanctuary was built, church leaders are working to make its heating and cooling more sustainable. While work is already underway, the oldest Moravian Church in North America still needs funding.

After a washout Saturday in the Lehigh Valley, forecasters say a parade of storms could easily produce another 2 to 3 inches of rain or more over the next week.

Brad Klein reviews the week’s astronomical highlights with Bethlehem’s "Backyard Astronomy Guy," Marty McGuire.

The position, budgeted for one year after the annual process turned contentious, focuses on creating and facilitating sustainability initiatives while capturing grant funding to cover the cost of related projects.

The start of Lehigh Gap Nature Center’s annual hawk watch is just over a month out, and preparations are well underway. A tradition in its 64th year, volunteers count birds of prey as they migrate along the raptor "superhighway" in the Lehigh Valley’s backyard.

The National Weather Service posted a flood watch starting at 6 a.m. Friday for the Philadelphia region and its suburbs.

Funding was awarded through the Lehigh Valley Greenways Mini Grant Program. The program aims to protect and promote natural resources through the implementation of ready-to-go, single-year projects.

With other communities around the state adopting bans on plastic bags, Lower Saucon could be on its way to something similar. if approved, it would involve a transition process to show shoppers the bigger picture and give time for businesses to properly offload plastic bags on hand.

The National Weather Service expanded an excessive heat warning into the Lehigh Valley on Wednesday, calling for dangerously hot conditions with heat index values up to 105 degrees. A severe weather threat will follow.

Allentown and Easton have been paired with an engineering company to reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions. It's Allentown's first time, but Easton's second, in the program.

As of Tuesday, the Lehigh Valley was suffocating in its thirteenth day of 90-plus temperatures this summer, well on the way to surpassing the average of 14.42 days in the 90s for records that date back to 1912.

The Northampton County Coroner has identified an individual who drowned and later died due to complications of drowning after spending time on the Delaware River this past weekend.

Environmentalists say the Lehigh River is the cleanest its been in 175 years. A river snorkeling program at Lehigh Gap Nature Centers encourages residents to explore their local waterways and track river health.

The Lehigh Valley will face “an active week in terms of weather hazards,” the National Weather Service said early Monday, with the remnants of Beryl expected to impact the area.

This week Watching the Skies explores the ice giant, Uranus.