Author: Derrick Lester

On June 12, 2026, SpaceX priced its shares at $135 apiece, accomplishing something that only a few years prior had seemed nearly unthinkable. In a single offering, the company raised $85.7 billion, almost three times as much as Saudi Aramco did when it went public in 2019. The time had finally come for a generation of ordinary investors who had watched SpaceX from the sidelines and wondered if they would ever get a chance to own a piece of it. Where to actually purchase those shares is now the practical question. SpaceX is traded under the ticker SPCX on the…

The response to SpaceX’s eventual June 2026 IPO was akin to a moon launch and a meme stock frenzy. Elon Musk became the first trillionaire in history in a matter of hours after shares opened at $150, significantly higher than the $135 IPO price. That afternoon, there was an odd sensation outside the Nasdaq that was similar to euphoria but not quite. The kind of electric buzz that prompts people who would otherwise be cautious to grab their brokerage apps. That enthusiasm makes sense. In all honesty, SpaceX is a truly amazing company. Over 80% of the world’s mass delivered…

The weather in Chicago has always been personal. It sometimes offers something so surprisingly pleasant that even longtime residents look up from their phones and pay attention, but it also arrives with an attitude and changes without warning. The city is currently experiencing one of those infrequent, pleasant periods in late July 2026, with low-to-mid-70s Fahrenheit temperatures, mostly sunny skies, and humidity that has been reduced just enough to make spending an afternoon outside seem like a sensible decision rather than a minor hassle. A northeast wind kept the weather near the lake comfortable as Wednesday morning began with mostly…

Every year around the end of May, a specific type of British denial takes hold. When the temperature rises above 25 degrees Celsius, people check the forecast, plan barbecues in secret, and don’t say much about it—as if speaking out loud about the warmth would frighten it away. That ritual seems almost charming this summer. June didn’t show up quietly. The final temperature was 37.7C. Even prepared observers were shocked by what actually happened, even though the UK weather forecast had been tracking the June heatwave for days prior to its peak. Southern England saw temperatures rise to 38°C, with…

Some people check the radar first thing in the morning before checking their messages. Many of them ended up following the same account in Illinois. The Paxton-based Illinois Storm Chasers, LLC. has discreetly created something that lacks a clean category. It’s not a government organization. It’s not a weather desk on television. However, it serves as one of the more dependable weather resources in the state thanks to its nearly 450,000 Facebook followers and real-time warning updates that are sent out faster than most people can refresh their news apps. It’s important to pay attention to that. When storm season…

For months, signals have been coming from the Pacific Ocean. weakening trade winds, warmer-than-normal water accumulation close to the equator, and a gradual disintegration of the atmospheric patterns that typically maintain stability. El Niño officially formed in the tropical Pacific on June 11, according to NOAA’s National Weather Service, and forecasters think it’s just getting started. This is not your typical seasonal forecast. According to the Climate Prediction Center, there is a 63% chance that sea surface temperatures in the monitored equatorial zone will rise above 2°C, which would put this event in “very strong” territory. Although forecasters are usually…

Summers in Texas rarely require additional assistance to be dramatic. This one, though, has been different. Before anyone had a chance to dry out, Tropical Storm Bertha was churning across the northern Gulf, causing the state to go from devastating flooding to dangerous heat in a matter of weeks. Additionally, a more significant narrative has been subtly developing in the Pacific, which climate scientists believe has the potential to shape the coming months. El Niño has arrived. And it might be becoming much more powerful. When sea surface temperatures in the eastern and central equatorial Pacific are higher than normal,…

Every time a tangible job and an uncertain forecast overlap, this question arises. The weather app changes overnight after the truck is reserved, the team is assembled, and the paperwork is completed. When a contractor must make a decision while standing in their driveway at seven in the morning with ominous clouds, their response—pour or postpone—tells a lot about how well they comprehend the effects of rain on concrete. In short, if you’re ready to act fast, you can pour in light rain, but heavy rain is a whole different issue that experts take seriously. Unlike paint, concrete does not…

On the morning of June 26, 2025, Melissa Casias left her home in Ranchos de Taos to bring lunch to her daughter at a café on Taos Plaza. Her husband Mark, who worked alongside her at Los Alamos National Laboratory, was already at the lab. When her daughter came home that evening, she found her mother’s car parked outside the house, the front door locked, and all of Melissa’s belongings inside — her wallet, her keys, her purse, and both her work and personal cell phones. The phones had been wiped to factory settings. She was not there. And for…

On a May morning this year, drive west out of Scottsbluff, and the fields speak for themselves. In certain areas, the wind has been bending the ground and removing the topsoil from the windward side of fields, making the surface too cloddy in some places and too powdery in others to plant a planter. The soil is pale and dry. In his thirty years of farming, James Maser, who has been cultivating this land for twenty-nine years, has never had to turn on his irrigation pivots before June 20th. He had to pre-irrigate this spring in order to sufficiently break…