Significant flooding is ongoing in the western U.S., especially in California, following another series of strong Pacific storms that battered the region and piled on to an already historic snowpack. According to NOAA’s U.S. Spring Outlook, the abnormally wet winter will further improve drought across much of the western U.S. as the snowpack melts in […]
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Posted inCalifornia
NOAA satellites capture atmospheric rivers hitting U.S. West Coast (VIDEO)
From late Dec. 2022 into Jan. 2023, a series of nine “atmospheric rivers” dumped a record amount of rain and mountain snow across the western U.S. and Canada, hitting California particularly hard. More than 32 trillion gallons of water rained down across the state alone, and the moisture also pushed into much of the Intermountain West. The San Francisco Bay […]
Posted inCalifornia
Photo story: Fighting fire with forecasts
To date, the U.S. has seen more than 50,000 wildfires resulting in nearly seven million acres burned in 2022. Organizing resources and crews to fight wildfires is an enormous undertaking. Today, more than 15,000 wildland firefighters and support personnel are assigned to wildfire incidents across the country. Among the crews are specially trained meteorologists with […]
Posted inEnviro
Earth had its sixth-warmest June on record
Globally, June 2022 was the sixth-warmest June in the 143-year NOAA record. The year-to-date (January-June) global surface temperature was also the sixth warmest on record. According to NCEI’s Global Annual Temperature Outlook, there is a greater than 99% chance that 2022 will rank among the 10-warmest years on record but only an 11% chance that […]
Posted inSci/Tech
U.S. supercomputers for weather and climate forecasts get major bump
Today, NOAA inaugurated the nation’s newest weather and climate supercomputers with an operational run of the National Blend of Models. The new supercomputers, first announced in Febuary 2020 with a contract award to General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT), provide a significant upgrade to computing capacity, storage space and interconnect speed of the nation’s Weather and Climate Operational […]
Posted inSci/Tech
NOAA predicts above-normal 2022 Atlantic Hurricane Season
Forecasters at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, a division of the National Weather Service, are predicting above-average hurricane activity this year — which would make it the seventh consecutive above-average hurricane season. NOAA’s outlook for the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season, which extends from June 1 to November 30, predicts a 65% chance of an above-normal season, […]
Posted inUS
April was an active month for tornadoes, wildfires and late-season winter weather
Key Points: The average temperature of the contiguous U.S. in April was 50.7°F, which is 0.4°F below average, ranking in the middle third of the 128-year record. Generally, temperatures from the Northwest to the Great Lakes and into the mid-Mississippi Valley were below average, with much of the Southwest, Deep South and portions of the […]
Posted inEnviro
Earth had its Fifth-warmest March on Record
The global temperature for March 2022 was the fifth highest for March in the 143-year NOAA record, which dates back to 1880. The year-to-date (January-March) global surface temperature was also the fifth warmest such period on record. According to NCEI’s Global Annual Temperature Rankings Outlook, it is virtually certain (> 99.0%) that the year 2022 […]
Posted inSci/Tech
October 2021 ENSO update: La Niña is here!
Our second-year La Niña has materialized, as indicated by the ocean and atmosphere in the tropical Pacific. There’s an 87% chance of La Niña this winter, the season when North American weather and climate are most affected by ENSO (El Niño/Southern Oscillation, the entire El Niño/La Niña system). The winning numbers The first step on our […]
Posted inUS
U.S. hit with 18 billion-dollar disasters so far this year
The United States saw an unprecedented 18 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in the first nine months of the year, according to scientists with NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information Not only was September 2021 quite warm, but it also brought with it devastating impacts from four of the 18 disasters: flooding from Hurricane […]
Posted inUS
Summer 2021 neck and neck with Dust Bowl summer for hottest on record
Last month brought Hurricane Ida, numerous wildfires and devastating floods, capping off a summer of record heat and rainfall for many states throughout the country. A summary of key findings from NOAA’s latest monthly U.S. climate report follows: Climate by the numbers Meteorological summer | June through August The average temperature during meteorological summer for the contiguous […]
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It’s official: July was Earth’s hottest month on record
July 2021 has earned the unenviable distinction as the world’s hottest month ever recorded, according to new global data released by NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. “In this case, first place is the worst place to be,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, Ph.D. “July is typically the world’s warmest month of the year, but […]
Posted inSci/Tech
NOAA predicts another active Atlantic hurricane season
NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center is predicting another above-normal Atlantic hurricane season. Forecasters predict a 60% chance of an above-normal season, a 30% chance of a near-normal season, and a 10% chance of a below-normal season. However, experts do not anticipate the historic level of storm activity seen in 2020. For 2021, a likely range of […]
Posted inSci/Tech
May 2021 ENSO update: bye for now, La Niña!
La Niña conditions have ended and NOAA forecasters estimate about a 67% chance that neutral conditions will continue through the summer. The ENSO forecast for the fall is less confident, with odds of a second-year La Niña currently hovering around 50–55%. Spring cleaning If you’ve been paying very close attention to the surface temperature of the tropical […]
Posted inEnviro
NOAA: The new U.S. Climate Normals are here. What do they tell us about climate change?
Every 10 years, NOAA releases an analysis of U.S. weather of the past three decades that calculates average values for temperature, rainfall and other conditions. That time has come again. Known as the U.S. Climate Normals, these 30-year averages — now spanning 1991-2020 — represent the new “normals” of our changing climate. They are calculated using climate […]
Posted inSci/Tech
‘Average’ Atlantic hurricane season to reflect more storms
April 9, 2021 – Beginning with this year’s hurricane season outlooks, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center (CPC) will use 1991-2020 as the new 30-year period of record. The updated averages for the Atlantic hurricane season have increased with 14 named storms and 7 hurricanes. The average for major hurricanes (Category 3, 4 or 5) remains unchanged […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Spring Outlook: Drought to persist, expand in U.S. West and High Plains
Nearly one-half of the country — stretching from the Pacific Coast to the Great Plains and upper Midwest — is currently experiencing moderate to exceptional drought conditions, and that is expected to continue and expand according to NOAA’s U.S. Spring Outlook released today. Drier conditions in the Southwest U.S. associated with La Niña and the […]
Posted inLife
Keeping score: The groundhog vs. the temperature record, 2021
February 2, 2021 – 10 contacted NID In Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania, at the crack of dawn this morning, the nation’s most famous groundhog Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow — meaning six more weeks of winter, according to longstanding folkloreoffsite link. How accurate was Phil’s 2020 ‘forecast’? Last year, Phil “predicted” a shorter winter and early spring when official observers declared he did not see his shadow. But in fact, […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Fire fuels in high northern latitudes are becoming more flammable
December 14, 2020 – In the 2020 issue of NOAA’s Arctic Report Card, experts reported on the evolving wildfire landscape across the taiga—the boggy, coniferous forests that occupy much of the high northern latitudes. Rising air temperature and fuel availability over the past 41 years indicate that conditions in Earth’s largest terrestrial biome are becoming more […]
Posted inSci/Tech
La Niña is likely to continue through the Northern Hemisphere winter 2020-21
December 10, 2020 – La Niña persisted during November, as indicated by well below-average sea surface temperatures (SSTs) extending from the Date Line to the eastern Pacific Ocean [Fig. 1]. Most of the weekly indices fluctuated through the month, with the westernmost Niño regions Niño-4 and Niño-3.4 ending up around -1.0°C [Fig. 2]. The negative equatorial subsurface […]