So far, the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season hasn’t been much to write home about. While there have been more storms than usual, they’ve all been pretty dinky and short-lived. But forecasters expect that to change in the coming weeks as the peak of the hurricane season arrives. Favorable water temperatures and winds mean there’s “the possibility now

The northernmost city in the United States just had its hottest July on record, as other spots in Alaska had their hottest month overall. Heat records also fell in a few western cities, as well as the fearsomely hot Death Valley, where July was the hottest month ever recorded on Earth. Those hotspots stood out in what was the 10th hottest July on

Another summer week, another spot in the U.S. is sweltering. In June it was the Southwest, with planes unable to take off in Phoenix; then it was Miami, which just had its hottest month on record; now, it’s the Pacific Northwest’s turn. A high-pressure system will send temperatures in Oregon and Washington to rare heights. Seattle could see only it

Summers in Miami are always hot and humid, but this summer has been one for the record books. July was the hottest month ever recorded for the city, with temperature archives going back to 1896, and capped off what has been the hottest year-to-date. Every day except July 31 saw a high temperature at or above 90°F (32°C), and nighttime low

The West is ablaze as the summer wildfire season has gotten off to an intense start. More than 37,000 fires have burned more than 5.2 million acres nationally since the beginning of the year, with 47 large fires burning across nine states as of Friday. The relatively early activity is quickly becoming the norm, with rising temperatures making the

With tropical storm activity in the Atlantic Ocean in a lull, storm watchers are focused on the recent burst of activity in the Pacific, where a train of three storms is swirling off the west coast of Mexico and the first typhoon of the season in the northwest Pacific formed unusually late. Add to that the fact that one pair of storms did a rare

Recent summers on the vast, white expanse of the Greenland Ice Sheet have featured some spectacular ice melt, including an alarming period in 2012 when nearly the whole surface showed signs of melt. But this summer has instead seen several bouts of snow, staving off a big summer melt. So what gives? While it may seem contradictory, those snows are

From Phoenix to Boise, high temperature records fell like dominoes over the weekend as an impressive heat wave engulfed the western U.S., helping to fuel several wildfires. While heat waves are a regular part of summer weather, the steady warming of the planet means those heat waves are getting ever hotter, making record heat more and more likely

Less than a year after Hurricane Matthew raked the East Coast, killing 34 people and causing $10 billion in damage in the U.S. alone, coastal areas are once again preparing for the onset of the Atlantic hurricane season. This year, forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are expecting to see above-average storm numbers

Tropical Storm Adrian became the earliest known tropical storm to form in the eastern North Pacific on Wednesday, six days before the official May 15 start to the season. This is also the first time in the satellite era where early storms formed in both the Atlantic and eastern Pacific — Tropical Storm Arlene formed in the Atlantic as a fairly rare

After years of intense, record-setting drought across the U.S., particularly in the Great Plains and California, the country is now experiencing its lowest level of drought in the 17 years since the U.S. Drought Monitor began its weekly updates. Less than 5 percent of the U.S. was in some stage of drought as of May 4, the most recent update

Two opposing weather situations are playing out right now in the Southeast: While parts of North Carolina are submerged thanks to a record downpour, Florida is battling wildfires fueled by a drought that now outranks the one in California. While these conditions sit at opposite ends of the weather seesaw, both may be affected by a changing climate.

Hurricane season is off to an early start this year with Tropical Depression 1 churning out over the Atlantic Ocean more than a month before the official start of the season. But while it’s an early bird, the storm won’t impact land and is expected to dissipate by Friday. It’s not unheard of to see storms form early, as the official season is a

Arctic temperatures have finally started to cool off after yet another winter heat wave stunted sea ice growth over the weekend. The repeated bouts of warm weather this season have stunned even seasoned polar researchers, and could push the Arctic to a record low winter peak for the third year in a row. Meanwhile, Antarctic sea ice set an all-time

2016 was the hottest year in 137 years of record keeping and the third year in a row to take the number one slot, a mark of how much the world has warmed over the last century because of human activities, U.S. government scientists announced Wednesday. 2016 is a “data point at the end of many data points that indicates” long-term warming, Deke

It’s been a crazy year in the Arctic, even for a region that has seen profound changes over the past few decades, changes that have been driven largely by manmade climate change. Sea ice has thinned and shrunk and the Greenland ice sheet has lost ice, fueling Arctic warming to reinforce itself, which has sent temperatures there rising twice as fast

Snow is piling up in parts of western New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio thanks to an incursion of Arctic air blowing over the unusually warm waters of the Great Lakes. Totals are expected to be between several inches to more than a foot, and more could be in store next week. The contrast between cold air and warm water fuels what is called

It's almost certain that 2016 will be the second-hottest year on record for the contiguous U.S., with new data showing that November was the second warmest on record for the Lower 48, capping off a record-hot autumn (for the second year in a row). Through November, 2016 as a whole has been the second hottest in 122 years of record keeping, the

When Jeff Prestemon stepped outside his home near Raleigh, N.C., last Friday around 9 a.m., the skies were clear, the air “perfectly breathable.” But just an hour-and-a-half later, the winds had shifted, drawing with them the smoke from regional wildfires. “It was putrid,” Prestemon, a research forester with the U.S. Forest Service, said. “It stung

Global temperatures have begun to retreat from their El Niño-fueled peak earlier in the year, but the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases is keeping them well above average and 2016 is likely to become the hottest year on record. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its temperature data through the end of October on

October was the second hottest on record for the planet, NASA data released Tuesday shows. The month was the latest in a string of record- and near record-warm months that will see 2016 easily take the title of hottest year in the books. While an exceptionally strong El Niño helped to boost temperatures early in the year, most of the excess heat

The U.S. is still cruising toward its second-hottest year on record going back more than 120 years, with every state in the Lower 48, as well as Alaska, recording well above-average temperatures through October. This October was the third warmest on record, and 37 states had one of their five warmest January-October periods in the books, the

November usually ushers in chilly winter weather, but the beginning of the month has been unusually toasty for a large part of the U.S., with numerous spots recording record daily highs, as well as all-time highs for the month. The bout of warm fall weather comes courtesy of a high pressure system that is sending temperatures more than 20˚F above

The riot of colors that erupts on trees each fall drives billions of dollars in tourism and remains a key way for people to connect with nature. But that simple transition from summer’s lush greens to fall’s brilliant reds, oranges and yellows can be impacted in surprisingly complex ways by weather and climate, and those effects may be even more

While the weather catchphrase of recent winters was the shiver-inducing polar vortex, the buzzword for this winter in the U.S. will be drought. Significant droughts are already in place over nearly 45 percent of the contiguous U.S., with hotspots in California — where the drought is in its sixth year — the Southeast and Northeast. With the renewed

A few miles made the difference between a storm that could have been so much worse and one that was already bad enough. With at least 30 people killed in the U.S., and more than 1,000 killed in Haiti, Hurricane Matthew was one of the worst Atlantic hurricanes since Sandy. It tied as the fifth longest-lived major hurricane in the Atlantic since

A weakened Hurricane Matthew continued to the batter the coasts of South and North Carolina Saturday morning, pushing considerable storm surge ashore and dropping heavy rains inland. The storm made landfall southeast of McClellanville, S.C., Saturday morning, according to the National Hurricane Center. Officials warn that the storm is still

As the sun rose on Friday morning, Hurricane Matthew was battering the east coast of Florida, with gusts of wind over 100 mph measured just offshore of Cape Canaveral and photos of damage already popping up on social media. The storm weakened slightly overnight and is a Category 3 hurricane with winds of 120 mph. While the eye of the storm has

With powerful Hurricane Matthew barreling toward the east coast of Florida, officials are hammering home the message for those under evacuation orders to leave and other residents to prepare for extensive power outages and widespread damage along the coastline. "There are no excuses. You need to leave. Evacuate, evacuate, evacuate," Florida Gov.

The threat to the U.S. from Hurricane Matthew is increasingly coming into focus, though some of the details remain uncertain as the hurricane moves over the Bahamas after battering eastern Cuba overnight. So far the hurricane has left considerable devastation in its wake, with major damage already clear in Cuba and details of the utter devastation

Hurricane Matthew came ashore in southern Haiti as a powerful Category 4 hurricane at 7 a.m. Tuesday, after lashing the country with winds up to 145 mph and torrential rains all night. Matthew is the first Category 4 hurricane to make landfall in Haiti since Cleo in 1964, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center, and has been a worst-case

Hurricane Matthew is barreling northward through the eastern Caribbean, with Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba and the Bahamas all lying in the path of its ferocious winds and flood-inducing rains. Haiti, in particular, is under a major threat from the Category 4 storm. The beleaguered nation, still struggling to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake, is

The unprecedented streak of record-hot months that the world has experienced over more than a year just tacked on one more month: Data released Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed last month was easily the hottest August on record. That makes 16 straight record-hot months, unparalleled in NOAA’s 137 years of record

Super Typhoon Meranti became the strongest tropical cyclone to form so far this year when the winds around its eye reached an estimated 190 mph on Tuesday after it rapidly intensified over the Northwest Pacific. China is feeling the monster storm’s ferocious storm surge, wind and rain just a day after it clipped Taiwan. Though Meranti was weakened

In what has become a common refrain this year, last month ranked as the hottest August on record, according to NASA data released Monday. Not only that, but the month tied July as the hottest month the world has seen in the last 136 years. August came in at 1.76˚F (0.98˚C) above the average from 1951-1980, 0.16C above August 2014, the previous

The dog days of summer were especially scorching across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic last month, with eight states in those regions recording their hottest August in 122 years. Two of those — Connecticut and Rhode Island — also had record-warm summers, according to data released Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Hurricane Hermine is working its way toward the Big Bend region of Florida, bringing with it threats of storm surge up to several feet, heavy rains that could lead to flash flooding, and even isolated tornadoes. The National Hurricane Center in Miami has issued a tropical storm warning for a swath of the coast, as well as a hurricane watch

The reign of record hot months in 2016 continues, with last month claiming the title of hottest July on record globally, according to data released by NASA on Monday. The streak means that 2016 is still well on its way to upsetting last year as the hottest year on record. Or as Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies

As the traditional peak of the Atlantic hurricane season nears, forecasters have slightly increased the number of storms they expect to see this year. While the figures still suggest near-normal activity, they would mark the busiest season since 2012 if they pan out. The uptick in the forecast comes courtesy of shifts in the large-scale conditions

In a mark of just how warm 2016 has been in the U.S., record high temperatures are outpacing record lows by more than 5-to-1, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This trend is one of the hallmarks of climate change, and is expected to become even more lopsided in favor of record heat if greenhouse gas

In the midst of the dog days of summer, the U.S. is still having its third-hottest year on record through July. The month also saw two states — New Mexico and Florida — clinch their hottest July, while Alaska continued to stay on track for its warmest year in the books. For the contiguous U.S., the year-to-date temperature was 54.3°F (12.4°C), or

The streets of Ellicott City, Md., became raging rivers on Saturday, with cars tossed around like toy boats after nearly 6 inches of rain fell in just two hours. Rainfall that intense is a 1-in-1,000 year event for the area, according to the National Weather Service. While downpours that intense are rare, heavy rainfall events have been on the

It has been a July for the record books in the eastern Pacific Ocean, as the basin tied records for both the most named storms and the most major hurricanes to form in that month. And all after no activity during the first few weeks of the season. Over the last few days, Tropical Storm Darby dumped rain on Hawaii and Hurricane Georgette became a

Most of the U.S. should get ready for some serious summer weather next week. Searing temperatures — and in some places high humidity — will reign thanks to a large ridge of high pressure that’s expected to set up camp over the Lower 48. While forecasters say it is too early right now to pin down the details of where the epicenter of the worst heat

The heavy rains and whipping winds from Super Typhoon Nepartak are pummeling Taiwan. While the island’s residents have hunkered down, with almost every city and county closed, there are still risks of significant flooding from the storm. After it passes over Taiwan, Nepartak — the strongest storm to form in the Northern Hemisphere so far this year

Thanks in part to the epic heat wave that sent temperatures skyrocketing in the Southwest, last month was the hottest June on record for the contiguous U.S., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday. June was 3.3°F above the 20th century average of 68.5°F, beating the previous record set in 1933 by 0.2°F, according to

Since the beginning of the year, the Northwest Pacific Ocean has been eerily quiet, with nary a tropical system forming in a region that normally sees more storm activity than any other. After a record 200 days without a tropical cyclone developing in the basin, Super Typhoon Nepartak burst onto the scene over the weekend, and is poised to bring

The eastern and western ends of the country have offered a stark study in weather contrasts in recent days. On the West Coast, a heat wave has once again settled in, helping to fuel wildfires, one of which has destroyed dozens of homes, while on the East Coast, a string of thunderstorms wrung out massive rains over West Virginia and caused deadly

Tropical Storm Danielle became the fourth named storm of the 2016 Atlantic hurricane season early Monday, the earliest on record that the fourth tropical storm of a season has ever formed. Danielle, which developed in the Bay of Campeche off the east coast of Mexico, beat 2012’s Tropical Storm Debbie, which formed on June 23 of that year. The

A searing heat wave is set to raise temperatures to decidedly toasty levels across a large area of the U.S. this weekend and early next week, potentially breaking records in places like Phoenix and Death Valley, and combining with sky-high humidity across the Plains. The baking and potentially dangerous conditions come courtesy of a large, intense