Arctic Ice Hits Annual Max and it’s 6th Lowest on Record
The skin of sea ice that covers the Arctic Ocean has reached its maximum extent for 2013, the National Snow and Ice Data Center announced Monday, and the annual melt season has begun. As of March 15, ice covered 5.84 million square miles (15.13 sq. km.) of ocean, the sixth-lowest since satellite observations began in the 1970’s, and 283,000 square … Read More
Study Shows Canada’s Far North Glaciers Are Melting Fast
Canada’s Arctic Archipelago glaciers will melt faster than ever in the next few centuries, research by European-funded scientists has shown. They say 20 percent of the Canadian Arctic glaciers may have disappeared by the end of this century, which would mean an extra sea level rise of 3.5cm The results of the research, part of the EU-funded … Read More
Drought and Floods in NOAA’s ‘Mixed Bag’ Spring Outlook
The West and South will continue to face more drought this spring, while the Midwest is likely to see heavy rains and some serious flooding as the northern snowpack melts, according to a seasonal forecast released by the U.S. government on Thursday. The Seasonal Outlook, a product of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration… Read More
Coal Burning Exacts A Lethal Price, Says Study
Campaigners are urging a halt to the building of coal plants and an end to the burning of coal throughout the European Union by 2040. They say this is needed both to ensure better public health, and to help to lessen the damage from climate change. Air pollution from burning fossil fuels is blamed for causing thousands of premature deaths and … Read More
From Heat Wave to Snowstorms, March Goes to Extremes
The weather pattern that is responsible for the cold weather this year is unusual, even though it is not resulting in a month that so far is running much below average across the U.S. Rather, the weather pattern is yielding a return to near-normal March weather in some places, which seems like a major shock to the system after last year's nonexiste… Read More
Warming Has Doubled Risk of Katrina-like Storm Surges
Clearly, the question of how global warming will influence tropical storms and hurricanes, which are nature's most powerful storms, remains a focus of active scientific research. Using a variety of techniques, scientists are honing in on the most likely scenarios.… Read More
What the 2013 Tornado Season Has in Store for the U.S.
With the end of meteorological winter, severe weather season is upon us, raising the question of what the 2013 tornado season has in store for the U.S. One only needs to look to the past two tornado seasons to realize just how fickle Mother Nature can be from one year to the next. After a record 2011 tornado season, which was the deadliest since… Read More
Greening Tundra Shows Impacts of Spreading Warmth
The Arctic is on the move. The North Pole is in the same place, but Arctic conditions have begun to shift. A study of 30 years of satellite data confirms that the difference in temperatures between the seasons has diminished. Conditions now have shifted the equivalent of four or five degrees of latitude southward. At the same time, vegetation has … Read More
