Practices such as redlining left marginalized groups in more disaster-prone areas with poorer quality infrastructure − and more likely to experience prolonged power outages.
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Extreme weather – Analysis and Comment
A powerful storm system produced dozens of destructive tornadoes over three days that tore apart homes in Oklahoma, Nebraska and Iowa. A meteorologist explains the conditions that fueled them.
Extreme downpours and droughts, both fueled by rising global temperatures, are taking a toll on water infrastructure. Communities trying to manage the threats face three big challenges.
Turning off power is a last-ditch strategy for utilities to reduce the risk that their systems could spark wildfires. In most states, deciding whether to take that step is up to utilities.
The US Department of Agriculture has updated its plant hardiness zone map, which shows where various plants will grow across the country. Gardeners should take note.
Scientists now have a better understanding of the risks ahead and a new early warning signal to watch for.
The strong El Niño that started in 2023 will still have big impacts at least through March. Here’s what to watch for next.
Researchers tracked power outages after 8 major storms to see how wealth corresponded to recovery time.
These giant rivers in the sky are both destructive and essential for the Western U.S. water supply.
As the climate changes and weather warms, the freezing line is shifting, bringing rain to many regions more accustomed to snow.
The world can expect fewer severe cold events as average temperatures rise, but people still need to be prepared for wintery blasts.
Costs quickly rise when things go wrong with roads, roofs and power lines. Many of those risks are also avoidable.
An atmospheric scientist explains how rising temperatures are helping to fuel extreme storms, floods, droughts and devastating wildfires.
The US saw a record number of billion-dollar disasters in 2023, even when accounting for inflation. The number of long-running heat waves like the Southwest experienced is also rising.
The agreement still leaves many unanswered questions, as well as concerns from vulnerable countries about who will qualify, who pays and who is in charge.
From dark dragonflies becoming paler to plants flowering earlier, some species are slowly evolving with the climate. Evolutionary biologists explain why few will evolve fast enough.
There’s a rule of thumb that rainfall intensity increases by about 7% per degree Celsius as temperatures rise. But the increase is much higher in the mountains, scientists found.
There’s nothing normal about the blast furnace heat much of the world has been experiencing, as an atmospheric scientist explains.
Forecasters warned of ‘potentially historic rainfall’ and ‘dangerous to locally catastrophic flooding.’ A hurricane scientist explains what El Niño, a heat dome and mountains have to do with the risk.
Health and climate change researchers explain the risks and why older adults, even those in northern states, need to pay attention.
An engineer who managed dams for years explains the tradeoffs operators make as they decide when to release water and how much to stay safe.
More extreme rainfall and frequent storms are raising the risk that floodwaters could spill over dams, or that dams could fail.
The official forecast calls for a strong El Niño by winter, but other models suggest it might dip in and out. An atmospheric scientist explains.
Current forecasts suggest a warm tropical Pacific will be interfering with what could otherwise be a ferocious Atlantic hurricane season.
El Niño years put Hawaii and the Mexican Riviera on alert for destructive tropical storms and hurricanes.