Less than 24 hours after the second named storm of Atlantic hurricane season formed, we have number three. Tropical Storm Cindy formed on Tuesday afternoon, continuing an active start to hurricane season. The storm is packing winds up to 45 mph, but it’s unlikely to strengthen much before making landfall along the Louisiana-Texas border. Cindy

Here’s your monthly reminder: something just isn’t right in the Arctic. February continued the string of record or near-record monthly sea ice lows. Warm weather ensured Arctic sea ice hit its lowest extent ever recorded for February. At 455,600 square miles below average, the Arctic was missing a chunk of sea ice four times the size of Italy

Californians are about to hear a phrase that’s been rarely uttered during the five-year drought that’s dogged the state: atmospheric river. A band of moisture extending from the central Pacific to the Golden State’s shores and mountains will bring rain totals measured in feet and snow totals measured in yards. While it remains to be seen if 2017

2016 will be remembered for many things. One of them will be heat. It was the hottest year on record globally. While the world is still waiting for confirmation of just how high the record was, there’s a lot of data to digest from the U.S. Nearly every square inch of the country was dramatically warmer than normal. The blistering pace of record

Winter is coming. Finally. After months on end of warmth across the country, cold air will finally arrive for much of the U.S. next week. The chill will start in the West as Arctic air spills down and turns the map blue from Alaska to the Southwest and then migrates eastward as the week goes on. Temperatures could dip down to 30°F below normal

Turns out the presidential candidates aren't the only ones dealing with an October surprise. Much of the U.S. is in for one ,too. Warm weather has swept across much of the country to end the month and shows no signs of abating through Election Day next Tuesday. High pressure will keep the heat locked in across the country. Almost all of the Lower

On Tuesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its global temperature data for September. It shows that the month was a scant 0.07°F (0.04°C) below September 2015’s record making it the second-warmest September on record. That ends a streak of 16 consecutive record-setting hot months in NOAA’s dataset, a record

2016 is the year where abnormal has become the norm when it comes to the global temperature. New data from NASA shows that yet again, the planet had a record-warm month. September set a record with temperatures 1.6°F (0.91°C) above normal, besting the previous mark set in September 2014. It’s the latest in a run of months — and years — where freak

If you live in the Pacific Northwest, prepare for a long weekend that’s probably going to be best spent indoors. Punishing winds and heavy rain (and mountain snow) are on tap through Sunday. An atmospheric river ushered the nasty weather ashore from northern California to Washington on Thursday and Friday. Tornado damage was reported on the

The destructive force of storm surge was on clear display this weekend as Hurricane Matthew ripped across the Caribbean, Florida and the Carolinas. For some in New York, it may have brought back memories of Sandy, another destructive October storm that broke flood records and upended the region. Research published on Monday in the Proceedings of

Hurricane Matthew has a chance to break the decade-long major hurricane drought in the U.S. The storm could bring punishing winds, heavy rains and storm surge to Florida as early as Thursday. The potential risks that storm surge poses are particularly worrisome for parts of Florida as the center of Matthew is likely to approach the coast on Friday

The U.S. fleet of weather satellites is about to get upgraded to high definition. In 30 days, the GOES-R satellite is scheduled to be launched into orbit, giving scientists a clearer view of the weather than ever before. The new satellite will be launched by NASA and managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to monitor

The eye of Hurricane Matthew passed north of Haiti by Tuesday afternoon, but the true impacts of the storm could unfold in the months and years to come. The country is one the least-developed places in the world and still reeling from the shock of the 2010 earthquake that killed 200,000, led to a cholera epidemic and destroyed crucial

Parts of the Caribbean face the prospect of a hurricane this weekend into next week as Tropical Storm Matthew churns through the region. As of 11 a.m. on Thursday, Matthew remained a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds at 70 mph. That’s just below the 74 mph threshold for a Category 1 hurricane, and Matthew is expected to cross that

Bad news keeps flowing for the icy landscapes of the world. Rising temperatures are melting ice and sending it to the ocean, a process that is pushing sea levels higher and altering the landscape at both poles. The latest news comes from Greenland, where researchers have used high-tech satellite and GPS measurements to see how much mass the ice

Arctic sea ice is one of the grandaddy’s of climate indicators. And this grandaddy isn’t doing so good these days. Ice is disappearing at a quickening clip as rapidly warming air and water eats away at the briny, frozen mantle on the top of the planet. In the nearly four decades of satellite monitoring, sea ice has disappeared at a clip of 13.4

We just passed the peak of Atlantic hurricane season, but that doesn’t mean the tropics have gone to sleep. Quite the opposite. Two named storms are churning in the basin with a tropical depression developing just west of Cape Verde. One of those storms, Tropical Storm Julia, formed on Tuesday. That the storm developed at all isn’t that notable

A Patriots fan might say that the biggest disaster in New England right now is Tom Brady’s four-game suspension to start the NFL season. But there’s another catastrophe that’s been brewing all summer. An intense drought has enveloped the region with eastern Massachusetts at the epicenter. It hasn’t warranted the breathless, blow-by-blow coverage

If you live on the East Coast, you could be in for a soggy, windy, wavy long weekend thanks to Tropical Storm Hermine. Parts of the Mid-Atlantic could see a top-10 flood event from the storm as it heads up the coast and then parks in the region for days on end. Hermine has already caused the fifth-highest water level in Cedar Key, Fla., and left

Hurricane Madeline has started to weaken as it approaches Hawaii, but it could still strike the Big Island as a weak Category 1 hurricane. If that happens, it would be the first hurricane to make landfall on record on the Big Island. The storm is currently packing winds of 80 mph, though hurricane force winds only extend 10 miles from its center

For the third year in the row, Hawaii is being haunted by hurricanes. Despite being a small target in the middle of the Pacific, two storms are taking aim at the state. Hurricane Madeline is the first in line with Lester hot on its heels. Hurricane watches are up for the Big Island, and if one of the storms makes landfall, it would be the first

An ice-free Northwest Passage was once the stuff of legend. But it’s now becoming the norm thanks to global warming, and commercial freighters to luxury cruise ships are racing to turn a profit off the newest frontier on earth. A satellite image taken on Aug. 9 and published by NASA Earth Observatory shows a nearly ice-free path from the North

After an already wet week, the Gulf Coast faces potentially historic flooding Friday and Saturday. Some areas in Louisiana have already seen an estimated 20 inches of rain and more could fall through Saturday. Tropical storms and hurricanes are headline grabbers, but this storm is creating equally dangerous conditions even if it doesn’t have a

Summer's heat is settling in early in parts of the West, and may arrive in earnest this weekend. With sweltering days ahead, the rising specter of wildfires isn’t far behind. To get the big-picture, we’ve created a brand new wildfire tracker that shows where every wildfire is burning with a side of climate. Hover over a red circle to see how much

It wasn’t supposed to happen this fast. Some of the reefs around the Florida Keys are dissolving. They may have crossed a tipping point due to increasing ocean acidification, raising the alarm that climate change impacts in the ocean are continuing to happen at a much quicker pace than scientists previously suspected. Rising carbon dioxide levels

Surfing is synonymous with riding waves all day, jamming to Jack Johnson, chilling around a beach bonfire by night and sleeping in a VW van before doing it all over again. But there’s another word idea that should also come to mind when imagining the idealized life of a surfer dude or dudette: science. In particular, research on ocean health

We knew coral bleaching was a serious issue in the Great Barrier Reef, but the scope of just how widespread it was has been unclear — until now. Extensive aerial surveys and dives have revealed that 93 percent of the world’s largest reef has been devastated by coral bleaching. The culprit has been record-warm water driven by El Niño and climate

“It was a gut punch.” That’s how Kim Cobb, a scientist at Georgia Tech, described what she saw on a recent dive on the reefs surrounding Christmas Island. She’s studied them for the better part of two decades and what she saw this April was something she had never seen before. Once vibrant reefs, some of the most pristine on the planet, were

To say the 2016 Greenland melt season is off to the races is an understatement. Warm, wet conditions rapidly kicked off the melt season this weekend, more than a month-and-a-half ahead of schedule. It has easily set a record for earliest melt season onset, and marks the first time it’s begun in April. Little to no melt through winter is the norm

Californians, say hello to an old friend. After four years of drought, the state’s largest reservoir is again a reservoir instead of a mudpit. Lake Shasta, located in the northern half of the state, was down to just 29 percent of normal storage capacity as recently as December. But one of the strongest El Niño’s on record has helped steer rain to

The Arctic seems to be a never-ending source of dismal climate news, particularly when it pertains to sea ice. Let’s recap. Sea ice extent has set monthly record lows this winter (after setting a seasonal record low just last winter). In general, its extent is shrinking across all seasons. But what’s even worse news is the character of sea ice is

This year is quickly excising 2015 from the dubious top of the climate record books. The most freakishly warm month on record, record atmospheric heat in February and now for the second month in a row, a new monthly Arctic sea ice low. February saw record low sea ice extent, with ice running 448,000 square miles below average. In essence, a chunk

Global warming, it isn’t just for the surface. It’s also lurking in the atmosphere and new satellite data shows the incredible heat that’s building on the planet. February marked the biggest atmospheric temperature spike observed, with the monthly reading running 1.5°F above normal, a new record. The measurement is taken by satellites operated by

Coral reefs have had a rough run over the past two years. Climate change has ratcheted up ocean temperatures and El Niño helped kick them into overdrive in parts of the world. All that heat kicked off what has been a major coral die-off around the globe. While El Niño has passed its peak, scientists have warned that the global coral die-off, known

Fiji is more known for tropical beaches and expensive bottled water than tropical cyclones. Yet Cyclone Winston is bearing down on the main island, and it could go down in the record books. The strength of Winston coupled with its quirky track aimed at the heart of Fiji could make this one of the most destructive storms on record to hit the island

A winter heat wave is spreading inland from the West Coast and could bring unseasonable warmth spanning from coast-to-coast by the weekend. Southern California is on track to continue setting hot temperature records, Phoenix will have its earliest first 90°F day of the year, and parts of the South could see temperatures 20°-30°F above normal

The calendar may have turned to 2016, but temperatures are picking up where 2015 left off. January was record warm, according to data released this week by NASA. You may recall that last year was the hottest on record for the globe. And by NASA’s accounting, it ended with a bang. This past December was the warmest December on record and the most

For most states in the U.S., winters without snow would be like a Super Bowl performance without Beyonce, Donald Trump without a combover or an overseas flight without a visa. And yet that’s exactly what’s been happening. As the world warms, it’s changing the essence of winter. It’s not that less precipitation is falling (though that is happening

Hello, it’s me. Words made famous by Adele could just as easily apply to what’s about to happen in California. An unwelcome call is coming from across the Pacific for a state still struggling with drought. A ridge of high pressure is coming to the state, harkening back to the ridiculously resilient ridge of the past few years and butting into

The Southwest is already the most arid part of the U.S. Now new research indicates it’s becoming even more dry as wet weather patterns, quite literally, dry up. The change could herald a pattern shift and raises the specter of megadrought in the region. “We see a very intense trend in the Southwest,” Andreas Prein, a postdoctoral researcher at the

Another year of wild weather is behind us. But thanks to EUMETSAT, you can now relive it in amazing high-definition video from space. The new visualization uses geostationary satellite data from EUMETSAT, the Japan Meteorological Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to stitch together 365 days of data into one stunning

The past weekend’s blizzard may be somewhere out over the Atlantic now, but it’s left its last official mark in the record books here in the U.S. On Tuesday, scientists at the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) released their analysis for the storm, showing that it ranked among the top 10 most severe winter storms to hit the

Sledders from Capitol Hill to Central Park enjoyed bluebird skies on Sunday after a massive winter storm swept across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. But while the joy on sledding hills across the region was palpable, so too was the cost of the storm. Crippling snow, coastal flooding, icing and high winds all conspired to make this storm the first

The potential for chaos continues to loom as this weekend’s winter storm nears the Mid-Atlantic. Blizzard and winter storm watches and storm warnings stretch like a tongue from Arkansas to New York. The storm is like the Hydra, with multiple threats expected across the U.S. from heavy snow to even the possibility of tornadoes. “This is a dangerous

The chatter about this weekend’s snowstorm has reached a fever pitch. And while snow total maps are de rigueur for any weather site worth its road salt, it’s the coastal flood impacts that could also go down in the record books and drive major damage. Areas north and west of Washington, D.C. are under a blizzard watch from Friday afternoon through

Winter could make up for lost time on the East Coast this weekend as all of the factors for a high-impact snowstorm are coming together. In addition to snow, strong winds and coastal flooding could make for miserable conditions in the Mid-Atlantic starting on Friday evening, with storm conditions potentially extending into the Northeast through the

Parts of the French Alps have been hurting for snow at the start of winter. But after a week of heavy snowfall, it appears to have been too much of a good thing for some ski resorts and mountain towns with high avalanche danger across the region. Spectacular video of one avalanche shows the power of what happens with lots of snow meets steep slope

Last year brought a huge advance in tornado forecasting: the first seasonal severe weather forecast for the U.S. The forecast proved to be accurate and now researchers are back with a second forecast: a below average number of tornadoes and hailstorms for the coming year. The new forecast was presented at the American Meteorological Society’s

The U.S. as a whole may finally be feeling winter’s chill, but the newly released 2015 wildfire numbers serve as a reminder of how hot and smoky the past year was. The National Interagency Fire Center’s numbers vividly illustrate how that 2015 was a record setter. U.S. wildfires scorched 10.12 million acres. That bests the previous mark of 9.87

The calendar is fully in 2016, but the rains that closed out 2015 in the Midwest continue to leave an indelible mark on the region’s rivers. A torrent of water has worked down the Mississippi River, breaking winter flood records and inundating communities along the river and its tributaries. Rivers are cresting at or near record height across the