The massive wildfires currently burning in Canada and the US are intense enough to generate their own weather systems, cycles of air that soar high into the atmosphere that generate their own lightning storms, sparking new fires on the ground below, then falling in powerful downdrafts that feed fresh airread more
January 2020 was the warmest January on record, according to both the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the European Copernicus Climate Change Service system. Global average temperatures for the month came in at 1.14°C (2.05°F) above the 20th-century average, and beat the previous record (January 2016) by 0.02°C (0.04°F). Despite this recordread more
A new study regarding the rate of sea level rise shows that the rise of ocean levels may be accelerating faster than the steady increase that was previously assumed, and may result in double the height of sea levels previously projected for the end of the century.
Previous studies made their projections based on a constant rate of sea level rise, but according to study lead Steve Nerem, professor of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, the acceleration of ice melt in Antarctica and Greenland is also accelerating the effect on the amount of water being added to the sea.
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has announced that 2015-2016’s 15-month, record-breaking El Niño is over, with a 75 percent possibility for La Niña conditions to form in the Pacific Ocean by the end of autumn.
"There’s nothing left," explains NOAA Climate Prediction Center deputy director Mike Halpert. "Stick a fork in it, it’s done."
This past cycle saw record-breaking temperatures around the globe, making 2015 the hottest year on record, and setting up 2016 to break that record. It also contributed to a record hurricane season in the Pacific, and droughts in Africa and India. Massive coral bleaching and numerous red tide events, caused by high water temperatures, marred the year as well.
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