Environment & Science

From 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 10, college officials are opening up the Fahy Commons for Public Engagement and Innovation, 2400 W. Chew St., for residents and community members to explore.

The James Webb Space Telescope, launched on Christmas 2021, orbits the Sun about a million miles outside Earth’s orbit. It is the most powerful, largest, and most complex telescope ever made.

This New Year’s Day, tens of thousands of people across the country, including dozens in the Valley, will take a guided hike through a state park to mark the beginning of 2024.

December 2023 is now the wettest December on record in the Lehigh Valley, with a total of 8.17 inches of rainfall recorded as of 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. The high water mark was set during a day of record rain for Dec. 27.

The ski slopes just southeast of Lehigh County announced it would shut down at 3:00 p.m. Tuesday, awaiting colder weather to make snow

With a forecast projecting 1 to 1.5 inches of rain possible this week, the Lehigh Valley will move closer to its wettest December ever.

Lawmakers in Harrisburg passed nearly three dozen laws last week in a final burst of action as they held their last voting session of the year.

Look for the full moon on Wednesday, Dec. 27

Take a look at stories that ran throughout the week of which we are most proud, had a profound impact on readers or that you might want to look at again.

On Dec. 21 at approximately 10:27 p.m. EST, we’ll begin the winter solstice north of the equator. Will the change of season finally bring snow?

The storm is expected to cause heavy rainfall across the Mid-Atlantic states, potentially leading to flash and urban flooding. Easton's PorchFest has been postponed to Oct. 1.

A tropical system that was officially named Ophelia on Friday will drench the East Coast this weekend, including the Lehigh Valley, officials said.

The free festival runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the center. The schedule includes nature walks, live animal presentations, monarch butterfly tagging, music and more.

Northampton County and its conservation district appear poised to split after a County Council committee meeting Wednesday showed deep distrust between them

Lehigh Valley Breathes, a Valley-wide effort, aims to measure air quality. From the collected data, officials said they will make recommendations for improvements.

It’s becoming increasingly probable that a subtropical storm develops off the Southeast coast this weekend, forecasters say, but expected impacts to the Lehigh Valley remain in question.

It took less than two weeks to fix operational issues at Kline’s Island Wastewater Treatment Plant on Union Street. Officials described the sewer odor as an ‘"earthy" or "rotten egg" smell but said it is not harmful to human health.

The average price for a gallon of gas in the Lehigh Valley was $3.87 this week. That's below the Pennsylvania average of $3.92 per gallon but up slightly more than 11 cents from last week, according to AAA.

The letter-writing campaign began Sept. 9. It is unclear how many emails city councilmembers have so far received.

Released Tuesday, results from Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion’s National Surveys on Energy and the Environment show Americans want to prevent future global warming, and also believe adaptation to climate change will require major lifestyle changes.

The biggest differences between tropical and subtropical storms are in the way they form and in the broad impacts. A subtropical system could target the region this weekend.

A heat map generated from PennDOT crash statistics shows a high rate of collisions involving deer and vehicles — the Lehigh Valley included. Pennsylvania also ranked No. 3 overall for the likelihood of having an animal-vehicle collision.