Hottest Years for U.S. Cities
We calculated the average annual temperatures at 244 individual U.S. stations throughout their periods of record, highlighted the decade in which each record hot year was established, and showed the breakdown of each station’s records by decade. Only one place in our sample had its hottest year on record in 2018 — Palm Springs, California. On the
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2018’s Billion-Dollar Disasters Show Weather & Climate Impacts Across the U.S.
Hurricanes hit the U.S. especially hard, leading 2018’s near-record list of 14 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters. Hurricanes Michael and Florence combined for at least $49 billion in damages — over half of the total from the year’s included events (cost estimates will be updated over time). In addition, the Western wildfire season was
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Billion-Dollar Disasters Trending Up
Floodwaters surged through Boston streets during a March Nor’easter. Nearly 19,000 structures were destroyed in the Camp Fire, which became California’s largest-ever wildfire just months after the previous record blaze. Hurricanes Florence and Michael flooded farms and flattened homes. It has been another year of devastating extreme weather events,
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More Carbon Dioxide Means More Pollen
The arrival of spring is kind of a good news/bad news story. The good news is that spring brings warmer weather and blossoms everywhere, as trees and flowers wake up from hibernation. But that’s also the bad news, at least for anyone who suffers from spring allergies. All of that flowering and leaf-opening means pollen will be filling the air and
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Shorter Cold Spells
From breathtaking ice sculptures to the frozen pants challenge, people were buzzing around the polar outbreak in late January. But just five days later, few took notice when Chicago temperatures climbed to a record high minimum. With temperature swings of 70°F or more around the Midwest, concerns shifted to potholes and pipe bursts. These rapid
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