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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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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Climate Indicators

Learn more about the 10 key indicators of a warming climate

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Arctic Sea Ice

Ice has both ecological and economic benefits and its extent could influence weather around the world.

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El Niño

El Niño is a warming of waters in the equatorial Pacific that influences global weather patterns.

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Ocean Acidification

Acidifying oceans can hurt coral reefs and shellfish as well as the people that rely on them for their livelihoods.

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Carbon Dioxide

CO2 is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth’s surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect

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Extreme Heat

Increasing frequency and magnitude of extreme heat can affect health, power usage and more.

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Snow Cover

A shorter snow season increases the amount of sunlight absorbed by the Earth’s surface and can further warm the planet.

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Sea Level Rise

Sea level rise could force millions to leave coastal areas and cost the world trillions of dollars.

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Land Ice

Melting land ice contributes to sea level rise.

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U.S. Wildfires

Wildfires damage forests and release CO2.

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Global Temperature

The global temperature is the clearest measure of how human greenhouse gas emissions are affecting our planet.

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