EartherEarth Science

The US Hasn’t Been This Wet in Years

The U.S. drought map hasn’t looked this boring in a while. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the Lower 48 appears to be experiencing less severe drought than any time in the past 19 years of record keeping. A wet wrap to 2018 and continued rain and snow to start 2019 mean that just 5.73 … Continued

EartherEnergy

Judge Rules Trump Plans to Open Up Swathes of Arctic, Atlantic Oceans for Drilling Illegal

In a major blow to the Donald Trump administration’s oil and gas policy, on Friday a federal judge ruled the president’s order opening massive swathes of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans to oil and gas drilling operations illegal, the Washington Post reported. According to the Post, U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason’s decision impacts around 98 … Continued

EartherEarth Science

A Rare Giant Cyclone Is Set to Make Landfall in Mozambique, Threatening Dangerous Floods

While the U.S. is under assault from a historic bomb cyclone, another freaky storm is spinning the southern hemisphere. Cyclone Idai strafed through Madagascar earlier this week and is now on track to make landfall in Mozambique on Thursday night with major impacts. Idai has had a bit of a wild ride. The storm began … Continued

EartherEarth Science

The Central U.S. Is About to Get Hit With a Bomb Cyclone

The country’s midsection is about to be hit by a rare, potentially record setting bomb cyclone that will bring everything from rain to snow to hurricane-force winds and could leave severe flooding in its wake from Texas to Minnesota. So if you live in that area, listen up! The mayhem is already beginning as moisture … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Australia Just Sweated Through Its Hottest Summer Ever

In case you haven’t heard, it’s been hot in Australia. So it comes as no great shock that the Australian government has officially declared the summer of 2018-19 the country’s hottest on record. “It won’t come as a surprise to many that this summer will be our warmest on record,” Andrew Watkins, manager of long-range … Continued

EartherClimate Change

The Northern Hemisphere Just Experienced Its First-Ever Category 5 Cyclone in February

We’ve seen a lot of weird-ass tropical cyclones in recent years. This week, we can add another one to the list. Typhoon Wutip formed and brushed Guam late last week. That alone made it an oddity in terms of timing and location. But rather than weakening as forecast, the storm blew up into a Category … Continued

EartherEarth Science

An Extremely Rare February Typhoon Is Approaching Guam

Snow in the hills outside Los Angeles, move over. There’s a new freak weather event in town. Typhoon Wutip is currently gathering strength just south of Guam, making it the first typhoon of 2019 and just the second one on record to spin up in this part of the Pacific in February, according to data … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Report: Trump Wants Guy Who Compared Climate Science to the Holocaust to Head Climate Panel

Donald Trump’s administration is assembling a panel to determine whether climate change—which scientific experts broadly agree poses an existential threat to the safety and well-being of the world’s population and is caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases—is really a threat to national security. According to reports in the Washington Post and New York Times, … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Why America’s Northernmost City Is Having a Weird, Hot Winter

Something strange is happening to the northernmost city in the United States. It’s the dead of winter, and temperatures in Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow) should be well below zero. Late last week, they soared into the 20s and 30s—practically beach weather for Arctic Alaska. On February 7, temperatures in Utqiaġvik flirted with the freezing mark, possibly … Continued

EartherEarth Science

El Niño Is Officially Here—Here’s What You Need to Know

El Niño has looked “imminent” since October, but the wait is over. Happy Valentines Day-Niño to all the climate nerds. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced on Thursday that after eight months of flirting with El Niño, the climate phenomenon finally stopped playing hard to get. But before you get to hype, I’m … Continued

EartherEarth Science

The Science Behind Seattle’s Historic Snow

Seattle is no stranger to wet winters, but usually it falls as drizzle, mist, and other forms of liquid precipitation. This week, though, more than a foot of snow has turned the Emerald City white. So what gives? The recent spate of storms are following very abnormal tracks that have tapped deep Canadian cold. And … Continued

EartherEarth Science

Melting Ice Sheets Could Throw Earth’s Climate Into Disarray, Alarming Models Predict

It’s no secret that Earth’s ice sheets are shrinking as temperatures rise. But this planetary meltdown isn’t just a problem for coastal residents dealing with rising sea levels. New research suggests it could be a problem for all of us as the effects of ice loss ripple through the oceans and atmosphere. Models published Wednesday … Continued

Earther

Bummer: Global Warming Won’t Make Giant Winter Snow Storms Go Away

Climate change is going to have a lot of unpleasant consequences. But at least those of us on the East Coast won’t face as many nasty winter snowstorms, right? Well… a new study is throwing a bit of cold water on that silver lining. Residents of the Northeast are all too familiar with nor’easters, cold-weather … Continued

EartherEarth Science

Record-Setting Ice Hole Drilled in Antarctica

Using a hot-water drill, British scientists have dug a 7,060-foot borehole through the Antarctic ice sheet. The comically long ice hole is the largest ever for West Antarctica, and it’s meant to improve our understanding of climate-related sea level rise. This project, run by the British Antarctic Survey, is called “Bed Access, Monitoring and Ice … Continued

Earther

The U.S. Government Was Supposed to Tell Us How Hot 2018 Was Today, But, the Shutdown

If you’re wondering exactly how warm it was in 2018, you may have to wait for the U.S. government to start functioning again. Every year around this time, NASA and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) release their annual checkup on Earth’s climate. Independent climate nonprofit Berkeley Earth also puts out its annual report, as … Continued

EartherEarth Science

Gaze Into the Giant Storm Swirling Over the Pacific Ocean

Forget Bad Winter, a season of Boring Winter is upon us. At least, if you live in the Northeast U.S. Head on over to the North Pacific, and it’s a different story. There, a massive winter storm is churning that’s been perfectly captured by not one but two satellites. Despite its prodigious size, it has … Continued

Earther

Antarctic Sea Ice Is In Record-Low Territory Again, and Nobody Knows Why

What’s happening to Arctic sea ice is pretty straightforward: Earth is getting warmer, and everything’s melting. But on the other side of the planet, things are more complicated, as evidenced by the latest Antarctic sea ice slump that has scientists scratching their heads. Antarctica rang in the new year with record-low levels of sea ice, … Continued

EartherEarth Science

The U.S. Government Shutdown Is Screwing Up the World’s Biggest Weather Conference

The American Meteorological Society (AMS) will host the largest annual gathering of the world’s largest weather nerds this weekend. But a key group of constituents will be notably absent. The shutdown over Trump’s border wall means federal scientists have had to cancel their trips to this year’s confab in Phoenix, and their absence could have … Continued

EartherClimate Change

A Major TV Network Managed to Cover Climate Change for an Hour Without Devolving Into a Shitshow

On the last Sunday of 2018, Meet the Press, NBC’s hour-long Sunday morning news show, did something unprecedented. It devoted an entire hour to discussing climate change and featured actual policymakers and researchers with nary a denier in sight. Ironically, the episode also inadvertently shined a spotlight on how terrible TV news is at covering … Continued

Earther

The Scientists Who Play With Wildfire

When fire scientist Albert Simeoni wants to study wildfires, he can’t exactly run into the nearest blaze with sensors and data collection tools. It’s simply too dangerous and these conflagrations, though they’re becoming more frequent and intense with climate change, aren’t predictable enough to research in the controlled manner that science demands. But he and … Continued