The US is shifting to a new set of climate ‘normals’ – data sets averaged over the past 30 years. But normal is a relative concept in a time of climate change.
The California Aqueduct, which carries water more than 400 miles south from the Sierra Nevada, splits as it enters Southern California at the border of Kern and Los Angeles counties.
California DWR
Roger Bales, University of California, Merced and Brandi McKuin, University of California, Santa Cruz
Installing solar panels over California’s 4,000 miles of canals could generate less expensive, renewable energy, save water, fight climate change – and offer a solution for the thirsty American West.
Conflicts between nomadic livestock farmers and crop farmers are common in Ghana.
Stefan Heunis/AFP via Getty Images
With research that offers new insights, there is increased hope for improved climate predictions and better preparation for severe weather conditions.
Permafrost is thawing across the Arctic, releasing microbes and organic materials that have been trapped in the frozen ground for thousands of years.
NOAA via Wikimedia Commons
New research shows that permafrost contains huge amounts of particles that make it easier for cloud moisture to freeze. Thawing permafrost is releasing these ice-nucleating particles.
Climate change is a true existential threat for small island nations, but the US has done little to help the Marshall Islands, which it administered for decades.
The Perito Moreno glacier in Patagonia. The sheer number of seracs gives the impression that the glacier’s surface is covered in dragon scales.
Olivier Dangles/IRD
Olivier Dangles, Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD)
The parable of the dragons underlines the need to apprehend glacier disappearance in a transdisciplinary way, to create a dialogue between the physical, ecological and philosophical sciences.
The 2020 wildfire season has been shattering records across the West.
Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images
It was a campaign like no other, and while there were missed opportunities and lapses of judgement, the fact New Zealanders are voting in a safe and fair election is reason enough to celebrate.
Biometeorology is the study of the role of climate on plants, animals and humans.
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Social media has proved to be a helpful source of observations of snakes feeding. Knowing more about their diet is useful because it’s linked to their venom biochemistry.
A vast plume of Saharan dust blankets Havana, Cuba, June 24, 2020.
Yamil Lage/AFP via Getty Images
From June through October, it’s not unusual for huge Saharan dust plumes to blow across the Atlantic. They can darken skies but also bring calmer weather and electric sunsets. Here’s how they form.
Pangolins have been found with covonaviruses that are genetically similar to the one afflicting humans today.
Jekesai Njikizana/AFP/Getty Images
High temperatures, periods of increased relative humidity and more rainfall are likely to happen more in Nigeria’s coastal region under future global warming.
Not all clouds are the same, and climate models have been predicting the wrong kinds of clouds over the Southern Ocean.
Kathryn Moore
Climate models have been overestimating how much sunlight hits the Southern Ocean. This is because the clouds there are different from clouds anywhere else. Bacterial DNA helped us understand why.