A 2018 Summer of Extremes
Meteorological summer has been one of extremes in the U.S. Overall, the East has been wet while the West has baked in the heat. These types of extremes, which are set up by a consistent jet stream pattern, are amplified by a warming climate. Many locations in the Middle Atlantic, Ohio Valley, and Upper Midwest had one of their 10 wettest summers
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Drought & Deluge in 2018
In a warming world, a supercharged water cycle ramps up evaporation and precipitation. Warmer air creates higher evaporation rates from the soil, which worsens drought, stresses water supplies, and hampers agriculture. Evaporation of surface waters, such as lakes and oceans, also increases. A warmer atmosphere can hold more water before becoming sa
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Heavy Rainfall Trends Across the U.S.
With flooding in parts of the Mississippi Valley and a strong Pacific storm coming into the Northwest, we examined the trend in the number of days each year with heavy precipitation at 244 individual sites in the U.S. This expands our nationwide-averaged heavy precipitation analysis from earlier this year, complementing the 2017 Climate Science
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