Drought to Last Into 2013; Impacts Expected to Intensify
After another week of low rainfall and high temperatures in the Midwest and Great Plains, it is all but guaranteed that this year will end with more than half of the area in the lower 48 states still under drought conditions. Now, as the drought is poised to enter 2013, climatologists expect its impacts to worsen as it lasts through the winter. … Read More
Book It: 2012, The Hottest U.S. Year on Record
Global warming is directly linked to only a few weather events and climate trends. One of them, however, is warming itself, which could make 2012 a watershed climate change year in the U.S. More than superstorms, wildfires, and devastating drought, this year’s record-smashing spring and summer heat waves, with their melted airport runways and … Read More
Report: IPCC Underestimates Climate Risks
This conservative bias, say some scientists, could have significant political implications, as reports from the group – the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – influence policy and planning decisions worldwide, from national governments down to local town councils.… Read More
NASA Dazzles With ‘Black Marble’ Image of Earth at Night
“This is not your father’s low light sensor,” said Steve Miller, a researcher at NOAA's Colorado State University Cooperative Institute for Reseearch in the Atmosphere. He showcased the satellite’s capabilities, noting that the imagery scientists have retrieved from it represents a “paradigm shift” in what can be done under low light conditions. … Read More
New Evidence of Human Fingerprints on Global Warming
It’s pretty easy to show that global temperatures are rising, or that spring is arriving earlier than it once did, but since climate has changed plenty of times in the past, that alone doesn’t prove anything. Tying climate change to human greenhouse-gas emissions — an area known as detection and attribution, or fingerprinting — is a lot harder … Read More
CO2 Hits New High; World Could Warm 7°F by 2060
The amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached a record 390.9 parts per million (ppm) in 2011, according to a report released Tuesday by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). That’s a 40 percent increase over levels in 1750, before humans began burning fossil fuels in earnest. Although CO2 is still the most significant… Read More
Sandy’s Storm Surge Explained and Why It Matters
As Hurricane Sandy comes ashore and grinds its way inland, the hurricane's storm surge -- the pulse of seawater pushed ashore by Sandy's winds and low atmospheric pressure -- will almost certainly cause more concentrated damage than the hurricane's powerful surface winds, torrential rains and mountain snows.… Read More
Throughout the U.S., the Onset of Autumn Is Falling Back
If it feels or looks like autumn leaves are taking longer to change color, you’re not imagining things. Over the past 25 years, the onset of autumn has shifted throughout the lower 48 states, with leaves now staying on trees about 10 days longer than they did in the early 1980s. Using satellite-based measurements of the Normalized Difference Veget… Read More
