In some parts of the country, August has lost a little of its bite this year. While still early, the first week and a half of August has been much cooler than normal from an area spanning from the Upper Midwest to the central Gulf Coast. The outlook from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center through the third week of the month is for much of the same.

Even by the standards of the desert Southwest, the past several weeks there have been scorching. Phoenix had its third hottest June on record, with an average high temperature of 107.9°F (42.2°C), less than a degree below the top spot (108.6°F in 1974). There were 11 consecutive days at or above 110°F during the month, and only four days were

For much of the U.S., May brought a break from the string of months that have been much warmer than normal and even the warmest on record in many instances. But a heat wave set to sweep across the country will soon turn up temperatures again. Averaged nationwide, U.S. temperatures were very close to normal in May, although there were a few

June 1 marked the first day of meteorological summer in the Northern Hemisphere, time for beach trips, barbecues and sweating through summer’s heat. This hottest of all the seasons is getting even hotter as the planet warms from the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Meteorological summer differs from astronomical summer, which is

Over the course of just 48 hours this week, summer-like heat hit the Northeast, heavy snow fell in the Rockies, and tornadoes touched down in the Plains, all while the lower Mississippi River remains at flood levels. The heat wave that surged into the Northeast brought multiple days of temperatures that would have been high even for the middle of

Rain has ended in the Mississippi Valley, but the damage has been done. Communities along the Mississippi River and its tributaries in Missouri, Illinois, and Arkansas, remain submerged by floodwaters that will take several days to recede. The Mississippi River near Cape Girardeau, Mo., is expected to peak within a few inches of a record crest

Spring is in full bloom in the U.S., which means summer isn’t far behind. And with this march of the seasons, the risk for hurricanes returns. Inevitably, there is a desire to know how active the season is going to be as far in advance as possible. This season looks to be just slightly less active than average, which translates to a slightly

Just over a year ago, the Earth was coming off of one of the strongest El Niños on record. Waters in the eastern Pacific warmed by El Niño began to cool toward normal in summer and even edged in the opposite direction — as sometimes happens — toward a La Niña. That cooling reached modest levels through the fall, registering as a weak La Niña. Now

Columbia, S.C. had two consecutive nights in the 20s last week. While that’s normally not a problem, as the average date of the last freeze there is March 30, this freeze caused major damage to crops there and across the Southeast, coming as it did after an exceptionally warm February that encouraged plants to bloom much earlier than normal. As

Winter is the wet season in California, and the amount of rain and snow that has fallen across the Golden State in the past few months has been phenomenal, building up the mountain snowpack that is so crucial to the state’s water supplies.The much-needed soaking was what was expected last winter, when an exceptionally strong El Niño was in full

Despite the snow that fell over much of the Northeast late this week, the winter has been warmer than normal for much of the country, in line with broader warming trends. After all, just ahead of that storm, temperatures had soared into the 60s as far north as New York City. The heavy snow even paradoxically fits with what is expected in a warming

Phenomenal amounts of rain and snow have fallen over California in the past seven days. All the rain and snow have cut deeply into California’s multi-year drought, particularly in the northern two-thirds of the state. But while these storms brought a major blast of drought relief, it will take continued precipitation to end the drought that’s

Just in time for the weekend, Arctic air has settled into the Southeast U.S., and a strong jet stream disturbance is generating a storm along the central Gulf Coast. That storm is slated to bring snow and ice, making for treacherous conditions across the region. On Friday afternoon, snow and ice were already falling as far south as Alabama and

As the calendar works toward Christmas Day, an annual question returns, “Will there be a White Christmas?” In some parts of the U.S., a white Christmas is expected, while in others, it is unheard of. The white areas on the map below indicate the historical chances of a white Christmas, based on the National Centers for Environmental Information

A shot of truly polar air moved into the Lower 48 this week, sending temperatures plummeting. Of course, what is considered extreme cold today is not as cold as winters in previous decades. The latest cold shot brought some of the most teeth-chattering temperatures to the Dakotas and Minnesota. But as seen in the chart below comparing observed

The season’s first surge of Arctic air made its way into the northern reaches of the continental U.S. this week, and it will spread eastward for the weekend. But it’s just a taste of what’s to come. A more intense surge of truly polar air will move in next week. Some of the coldest air in the northern hemisphere — yes, associated with the polar

The end of November marks the end of meteorological fall. According to preliminary data from the Southeast Regional Climate Center, most of the country had a fall that was substantially warmer than normal from September through November, with the most intense warmth blanketing the eastern two-thirds of the U.S.. While there were a few wet spots

Warming fueled by greenhouse gas emissions continues to rewrite the record books: Over the past several weeks, heat records continued to fall at global, national, and local scales. At the largest of those scales, October tied for the third-warmest October on record according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) global

Temperatures in the Lower 48 have been way above normal again this year, but they’ve had nothing on Alaska. Heat records there continued to pile up through October as the notoriously chilly state heads towards its hottest year on record. Through October, the year-to-date temperature in Alaska was 36.3°F, an astounding 6.7°F above average

What a difference a year and a shift in weather patterns makes: This time last year, drought was spread across the entire Pacific Northwest, but a spate of storms has wiped out much of it and could give cities like Seattle and Portland their wettest Octobers on record. The shift in weather fortunes could be related to an emerging La Niña. How clim

For a large part of the country, the last few days have felt more like the beach-going weather of July than the pumpkin spice latte-sipping weather of October, with record highs blown out of the water thanks to an intense area of high pressure that brought warm air from the southwest

As the cleanup from Hurricane Matthew progresses elsewhere, the rivers of eastern North Carolina continue to go through a historic flood brought on by the hurricane’s torrential rains. In many locations, the water is higher than in the aftermath of Hurricane Floyd in 1999, the previous high water mark on record for many locations. After Matthew

Hurricane Matthew has already made several marks in the record books, and could make a few more as it hits the coast of Florida with punishing storm surge, winds and rain. According to Phil Klotzbach, a hurricane researcher at Colorado State University, Matthew ― currently a Category 4 storm with winds of 140 mph ― had the third strongest 24-hour

Major flooding continues in parts of the Upper Midwest this week. It’s the result of heavy rain that fell over the past couple weeks in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Now all that water is slowly working downstream from the tributaries of the Mississippi River into the river itself. In Iowa, the Cedar River is slowly receding, but river gauges at

Any discussion of drought over the last year has tended to focus on the western U.S., but over the past few months, a quieter drought has been building in parts of the Northeast and Southeast, particularly in New England and northern Georgia. Three months ago, only 8 percent of the Northeast was in a moderate drought. That number has swelled to

The last day of August marked the end of meteorological summer — the three months of the year that are the hottest in the northern hemisphere: June, July and August. With summer at an end, a review of the average summer temperature for many areas across the U.S. shows, not surprisingly, that as the concentration of greenhouse gases climbs, more

Every year on Aug. 20, Bill Gray, the Colorado State University professor who pioneered seasonal hurricane forecasting, would ring a bell to mark the start of the most active part of the Atlantic hurricane season. Gray died in April at the age of 86, but his protégé, Phil Klotzbach, remembered the tradition in a recent Twitter post.

Catastrophic flooding continues in south central Louisiana after days of often torrential rain. Water remains several feet above flood stage along many waterways, as an estimated 40,000 homes have been affected by the floods. In a statement, the Red Cross said the ongoing flooding is “likely the worst natural disaster since Sandy in 2012.” The

The historic rains and flooding that swamped Louisiana over the weekend are continuing to threaten the state – and there’s more rain on the way. The torrential rain was the result of several factors, including warm Gulf waters and a stalled front, and is the type of extreme rainfall that is expected to occur more often as the world warms. While

The desert has been decidedly wet recently. After seemingly sitting out much of July, the Southwestern monsoon sent moisture surging into Arizona this week and set the stage for flooding rain. Unusually humid air and a weak disturbance pushing through at the jet stream level was all that was needed to fire numerous heavy showers and thunderstorms

An ongoing heat wave has been roasting the Plains and is now poised to bake the East Coast this weekend. The high temperatures, which have been in the 90s to low 100s in the Plains, have been accompanied by intense humidity that has made the weather especially miserable, if not downright dangerous. The National Weather Service sent out excessive

The first few weeks of the hurricane season in the eastern Pacific Ocean were so quiet, you could hear crickets. Then on July 2, what would become a flurry of tropical storms began and followed one right after the other like the cars of a train. Tropical Storm Celia and Hurricane Darby, the third and fourth storms of the season, are churning off t

There have a been a few hot spells in the Northeast so far this summer, but the core of blistering summer heat has been locked over the West so far year. Until now that is. The Fourth of July kicked off a period of sweltering heat from the Midwest to the Northeast that will last through the rest of the week. Kansas and the Gulf Coast saw heat

The cooling clouds and precipitation that come with annual return of the North American monsoon promise to break the record heat in the Southwest and temper things a bit (relatively speaking anyways) through the rest summer. The Indian monsoon is the best known monsoon in the world, but the North American monsoon, which affects the southwestern

June is usually the hottest month of the year in the Southwest, but even by that measure, this year has been a stand-out. Record-breaking heat baked the region starting over the weekend thanks to an intense heat wave. The peak of the heat wave was earlier this week, when new daily record highs were set in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, and Yuma.

The first week of meteorological summer continued the hot theme seen in the western U.S. so far in 2016, sending the mercury soaring and records falling. The jet stream surged northward over the West last weekend, sending record heat from the Southwest to the Pacific Northwest. That bulge in the jet continues to migrate eastward across the country

For the past few months, it seems Texas can’t catch a break from heavy rains and floods. Statewide rainfall has been well above average this spring as storm after storm has deluged the Lone Star state. The latest system has brought historic flooding to parts of central and southeast Texas. The Brazos River reached a record height of 54.7 feet in

Memorial Day weekend — the unofficial start to summer — is here, which means it’s time for beaches, pools and barbecues as the heat of the season sets in. Although most of the country has been warming up as normal this spring, temperatures in the Middle Atlantic and the Northeast have been on the cool side for much of May. But this week, there’s

The heat records just keep piling up. Last month was the hottest April on record, according to both NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In NOAA’s annals, April 2016 was also the 12th consecutive month to break such a record — the longest streak such streak in 137 years of record keeping. And of the 15 months that have

Late spring is the peak of the severe weather season. Case in point are the twisters that spun up on the Southern Plains to the Ohio Valley earlier this week. The preliminary count includes 26 tornadoes reported on Monday, and 34 tornadoes reported on Tuesday. Some of the most striking damage comes on outbreak days, or days with multiple tornadoes

Weather in the U.S. this week has been a study in stark contrasts: While chilly air has plunged the Northeast into temperatures up to 30°F below normal, the Plains have heated up like a torch, with temperatures more than 30°F above normal. That heat has extended well into central Canada, and has played a role in the intense wildfire in Fort

As forecasters had expected and warned for days, damaging thunderstorms formed Tuesday afternoon and evening in the Southern Plains. Even a few days ahead of time, the ingredients appeared to be coming together for a large severe weather outbreak there, and there was legitimate concern for numerous tornadoes developing from Kansas to Texas.

Phenomenal flooding has gripped the Houston area, thanks to rain falling at rates up to several inches an hour. Between midnight and 5:20 a.m. Central time, Houston Intercontinental Airport received 8.85 inches of rain, breaking its previous rainfall record for the date (8.16 inches in 1976) in just five hours. Many sites have seen more than

Cyclone Winston devastated the South Pacific island nation of Fiji on Sunday morning, with the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation reporting 21 confirmed dead and four missing at sea as of Monday afternoon (U.S. time). Winston made landfall on the northeast side of Fiji’s island of Viti Levu, its most populated island and the location of its capital

As forecast several days ago, unusual warmth has flooded the eastern half of the U.S. this week. Temperatures from the Great Plains to the East Coast have been running 10 to 20 degrees above normal. On Tuesday, Minneapolis hit 71°F, Boston was 73°F, and Pittsburgh topped out at 74°F. Detroit set a new high temperature record for the date

Joaquin remains a dangerous Category 4 hurricane early Friday afternoon, with strongest sustained winds at 130 mph, and it continues to lash the Bahamas. A slow movement to the north has developed, and an acceleration to the northeast is expected Friday night. No dramatic change in strength is expected in the next 24 hours, but some weakening