Here’s how you can get the most out of your holiday time in the United States this year. 　　 　　Use National Holidays to Your Advantage　　To enjoy the longest possible stretches of free time, try adding your vacation or personal time off days to national holidays to create longer weekend breaks. 　　For example, if you have ten days of vacation and are able to select the dates listed below, you can maximize your holidays over the course of 2025. 　　The 10 Best Days to Take Off　　1、January 2: Add to New Year’s Day (January 1) to create a 2-day break before the weekend. 　　2、January 17 or 21: Add to Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (January 20) for a 4-day weekend. 　　3、February 14 or 18: Add to President’s Day (February 17) to create a 4-day weekend. 　　4、May 23 or 27: Add to Memorial Day (May 26) for a 4-day weekend. 　　5、July 3 or 7: Add to Independence Day (July 4) to create a 4-day weekend. 　　6、August 29 or September 2: Add to Labor Day (September 1) for a 4-day weekend. 　　7、October 10 or 14: Add to Columbus Day (October 13) to create a 4-day weekend. 　　8、November 10 or 12:Add to Veterans Day (November...

　　The bright Moon sometimes affects meteor showers. But it won’t interfere with this winter’s Quadrantids, which peak around January 3–4. 　　 　　Shooting Stars for the New Year　　One of the first highlights on the 2025 astronomy calendar is the annual Quadrantid meteor shower. The popular name for a meteor is a “shooting star.” 　　The Quadrantids are active from around December 28 to January 12, with a narrow peak period around January 3–4. 　　During the peak, up to 80 meteors per hour may be visible under good conditions. This meteor shower favors observers in the Northern Hemisphere. 　　Why the narrow peak period? It’s because meteor showers are created by trails of debris in space called meteor streams—for the Quadrantids, the stream is narrow. 　　Meteors Versus the Moon　　In terms of the Moon’s brightness, the Quadrantids are one of the better meteor showers in 2025. 　　The following table lists nine of the major meteor showers during the year. 　　The second column gives the approximate peak dates of the shower. These dates can vary depending on your time zone—in this table, the dates are given in UTC. 　　The third column gives the Moon’s illumination at midnight on the peak night (again, in UTC). 　　Moon Illumination...

Looking at the state of the climate, you can see heat everywhere. From the top of the globe to the depths of the oceans and everywhere in between, the climate is warming and changing in ways humans have never experienced. Last year was between theglobe’s third- and sixth-warmestyear on record, includingrecord heat in Australia. The frequency of hot days in 2013 was also among the top 10 years while cold nights were among the bottom 10 years. And heat content...

Muir Glacier and Inlet (1895) In the photo above, the west shoreline of Muir Inlet in Alaska's Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve is shown as it appeared in 1895. Notice the lack of vegetation on the slopes of the mountains, and the glacier that stands more than 300 feet high. See the glacier as it looked in 2005 on the next page. (USGS/Bruce Molnia) Photographing Alaska's stunning landscapes has been a passion of Bruce Molnia's since the first time...

Land and ocean temperature departures (in degrees Celsius) in July 2014, relative to 1981-2010 average temperature. (NOAA/NCDC) Last month was the hottest June in more than 130 years of recorded weather history, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Monday in its monthly state of the climate report, surpassing the previous record high for the month set in 1998. June 2014 also marked the third straight month breaking or tying record high global temperatures for the given month. (RECAPS: May...

It’s the best kind of treasure hunt: A pirate’s bounty that washes up piecemeal on the seashore, waiting for lucky beachcombers to stumble upon colorful gems in the sand. Except that this loot is made up not of gold doubloons, but entirely of familiar bits of rainbow plastic. For 17 years, Lego pieces have been washing up on the shores of Cornwall, England, mostly in nautical themes: There are spear guns, pirate-style cutlass swords, flippers, pieces of scuba gear and...

Americans drive more than 9,300 miles per year, more than citizens in any other major world economy, according to the report by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. A new report says the U.S. scored 13th in global energy efficiency ranking, or near the bottom of the world's 16 largest economies. Germany is the global leader in energy efficiency, and the U.S., with its ingrained car culture, is among the least energy efficient of the world’s largest economies. That’s...

Lake Mead in Historic Drought A buoy warning 'no boats' stands on dirt at the abandoned Echo Bay Marina on July 13 in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nevada. The marina closed last year after no businesses wanted to operate it, in part due to falling water levels according to the National Park Service. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) Earlier this month, the water in Nevada's Lake Mead National Recreation Area dropped to levels it hasn't reached since all...

Here in the United States, a larger slice of the population believes that climate change is a natural phenomenon unrelated to human activities than any other country in the world, according to the results of a new poll by the British survey group Ipsos Mori. That was one of a set of eight findings on attitudes toward climate change and the environment in the group's Global Trends Survey, which was conducted in September and October 2013 and included feedback from...

Actor Josh Gad, who plays snowman Olaf in "Frozen," talks to Al Roker about his new movie "Wish I Was Here." He and Al also talk about the hit movie "Frozen," and what Gad believes is an underlying theme in the movie that some people may have missed —even if your kids made you watch it a million times. You can watch "Wake Up With Al" weekday mornings on The Weather Channel from 5:30 a.m. to 7 a.m. ET. MORE...

In Chicago's low-income neighborhoods, flooding has become more frequent in recent years as torrential rains cause the city's aging sewers to back up and overflow into homes more often. The Washington Post looks into the case of one homeowner on Chicago's South Side whose home flooded repeatedly over several years, but recently experienced something she likened to a scene from "The Amityville Horror." The garage of a home on the banks of the Des Plaines River stands half-way deep in...

Thanks in part to all of the stunning imagery coming out of the drought-plagued West, it's easy to see the rapid decline of the region's water supply in motion. But according to a new study from scientists at NASA and the University of California, Irvine, the loss of water you can't see is actually happening at a much more rapid and dire pace than that of the water you can see, leading scientists to declare that the West's water supply...

A river in eastern China turned blood red overnight and investigators aren't completely sure why. Residents living inWenzhou, a commercial city in the Zhejiang Province, saw the riverchange to crimsonThursday morning, China Radio International reports. People told CRI the river was flowing normally at 4 a.m. butrapidly turned a scary shade of red at about 6 a.m.A villager who has lived there his entire life said he'd never seen the river turn red before. A boat moves along the crimson...