Drought has left huge swaths of the United States parched this year. Are these dry conditions simply a fluke, or something we many need to get used to in a warming world? Scientist Mike Brewer and meteorologist Dan Satterfield explain the connection between drought and a changing climate in our series Extreme Weather 101.

The pressure that’s on drought-hit Californians to conserve dwindling water supplies is largely the result of a stubborn ridge of high pressure that has been parking itself off their coastline. That ridge has blocked water-laden winter storms, sending them spiraling northward instead of into the Golden State, reducing snowpacks that Californians us

Forests are sometimes called the lungs of the earth — they breathe in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and store it in tree trunks until the forest dies or burns. A new study, however, shows that forests devastated by drought may lose their ability to store carbon over a much longer period than previously thought, reducing their role as a buffer

The record-breaking drought in California — brought about by a severe lack of precipitation, especially mountain snows — has exacted a $2.7 billion toll on the state’s economy because of agricultural losses, researchers said Tuesday. During a briefing for the California Department of Food & Agriculture, scientists from the University of California