Before you do anything else, you might want to check out your home’s specific risks here ….

Extreme Weather

EXTREME WEATHER

One of the most visible consequences of a warming world is the increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. The US government’s own 2018 National Climate Assessment Report finds that heat waves, drought, heavy downpours, floods, and major hurricanes have all increased in the US, as has their strength.

It’s affecting us economically: NOAA released a billion dollar extreme weather events map from 2000-2019 pinpointing the US locations where disaster has already struck, followed by a list of the top ten costliest events.

And, it’s affecting us everywhere:

• The Southeast is experiencing hurricanes with stronger wind speeds, more rain, and worsened storm surge — all adding up to more destruction
• The Southwest is seeing droughts lasting way longer than they are historically accustomed to
• The Northeast is the fastest-warming region in the contiguous United States, according to a recent study — and it’s heating up at a rate 50 percent faster than the global average
• Fires have intensified throughout the West as it becomes hotter and drier
• Farmers in the Midwest are experiencing more downpours increasing flooding and erosion

The consequences of doing nothing are severe. A study using FEMA and HUD data in 2017, which looked at the results of federal grants, determined that $1 spent in MITIGATION yielded a $6 benefit. Dissection of those benefits state by state, can be explored here.

At the end of 2019, COLLATERAL, a website focused on Climate, Data and Science from The Weather Channel, published a history of climate change in the last decade by Bob Henson which is stunning in its perception and its diligence. After looking to the future, he closes his article quoting Katharine Hayhoe, and reminding us: “Every action matters. Every bit of warming matters. Every year matters. Every choice matters.”

There are 1,750 designated Superfund sites across the country, 945 of which are at risk of being compromised by climate-driven storms, floods, wildfires and sea level rise. More at InsideClimate News

In the end of June, 2022, Climate Central launched a tool to make every weatherman’s heart glow: called a Climate Shift Index (complete with interactive maps) it shows the daily influence of climate on weather by location!

Michael Svoboda, from Yale Climate Connections, published in August, 2022  another list of great climate change books. His focus, this time, was on extreme weather and the twelve recommendations cover the gamut  from renowned University of Oxford researcher Friederike Otto’s Angry Weather to the newest title in a wonderful series for Grade 3 level readers ranging from air quality to rising sea levels. 

CURRENT NEWS

Opinion: El Niño is back. What does that mean for an already overheated California?

By Justin S. Mankin and Christopher W. Callahan 05/25/23
During the El Niño of 1983, Californians counted their blessings. The warm Pacific waters sloshing eastward certainly brought heavy spring rains and record snow. But the state largely escaped the flood risks being frantically managed…
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Service Advisory

By L.V. Anderson 05/24/23
In 1984, when Andrew Bader was 5, his parents took him on a cross-country train from California to New York. It was a special trip, one of the last experiences Bader shared with both parents…
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Guam homes flooded, power cut by one of the worst typhoons in decades

By Anumita Kaur and Others 05/24/23
The storm’s torrential downpour seeped — then poured — into his home in Tamuning. The 33-year-old spent the night using buckets, old clothes, a mop and a broom to protect his belongings. Still, by Thursday…
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El Niño is probably back—here’s what that means

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira 05/19/23
This year is going to be pretty unforgettable, and not in a good way. Climate scientists have predicted the arrival of El Niño, a climate pattern that temporarily warms up waters in the eastern Pacific…
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El Niño ripple effects may extend to hurricane season

By Andrew Freedman 05/05/23
With an El Niño likely taking shape in the equatorial tropical Pacific Ocean, forecasters are already taking into account the likely knock-on effects.
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‘A New Spike’ in Global Temperatures in the Forecast

By Elena Shao 05/03/23
Forecasters from the World Meteorological Organization are reporting increased chances that the global climate pattern known as El Niño will arrive by the end of summer. With it comes increased chances for hotter-than-normal temperatures in…
Read more
NPR

El Niño is coming. Here’s what that means for weather in the U.S.

By Bill Chappell 05/03/23
As hot as the Earth's weather has been in recent years, it's about to get hotter: El Niño is on the way, with warmer sea temperatures promising new weather extremes, U.S. and international forecasters say.…
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A mystery in the Pacific is complicating climate projections

By Bob Henson 04/24/23
Nothing has a bigger influence on year-to-year variations in the global climate than the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, commonly called ENSO. And the tropical waters at the heart of ENSO aren’t behaving exactly as climate scientists…
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NOAA Forecasters See a Respite for California

By Raymond Zhong 04/20/23
Less extreme spring temperatures could mean gradual snowmelt and lower flood risks, according to experts. “The picture is relatively optimistic,” one said....
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Why the West Got Buried in Snow, While the East Got Little

By Zach Levitt and Elena Shao 04/12/23
The Western United States received a lot more snow than usual this season, much of it unleashed by punishing storms that battered California especially hard throughout the winter. Parts of the Eastern half of the…
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At least 3 dead as tornadoes sweep through midwestern, southern states

By Jason Samenow and Others 03/31/23
At least three people died and dozens were injured as tornadoes swept through parts of Arkansas and Illinois, and an outbreak of severe storms moved across the central United States and the Mississippi Valley.
Read more

This winter was wetter than usual from California to Minnesota

By Alex Fitzpatrick And Erin Davis 03/30/23
Much of California and the midwestern United States just had some of the wettest winter weather on record, per data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Read more

KEY RESOURCES

Extreme April heat in Spain, Portugal, Morocco & Algeria almost impossible without climate change

05/07/23
A large area of South Western Europe and Northern Africa experienced extremely high temperatures usually only seen in July and August, at the end of April 2023.

Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters

10/06/22
Summary of U.S. billion-dollar weather and climate related disaster research, methodology, and data sources.

12 titles on extreme weather – and how to handle it

08/02/22
With parts of Asia, Europe, and the United States still suffering or recovering from withering heat waves, and with the peak of hurricane season approaching, titles about extreme weather and how to handle it seem…

NOAA tool now brings disaster risk, vulnerability down to community level

07/27/22
A comprehensive update to NOAA’s Billion Dollar Disasters mapping tool now includes U.S. census tract data – providing many users with local community-level awareness of hazard risk, exposure and vulnerability across more than 100 combinations…

Introducing the Climate Shift Index

07/26/22
Climate Central launches the Climate Shift Index—a new tool that shows the local influence of climate change, every day. Climate Shift Index (CSI) levels indicate how much climate change has altered the frequency of daily…

Assessing the Global Climate in June 2022

07/14/22
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…

Assessing the U.S. Climate in July 2022

07/01/22
Historic flash flood events juxtapose heat and expanding drought

September 2021 Regional Climate Impacts and Outlooks

09/30/21
OAA and its partners have released the latest Regional Climate Impacts and Outlooks, which recap summer conditions and provide insight into what might be expected this autumn.

What’s Going On With Extreme Weather?

09/22/21
In recent months, record-high temperatures, flooding and drought have had catastrophic consequences for individuals and communities.

National Centers for Environmental Information

08/19/21
NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) hosts and provides public access to one of the most significant archives for environmental data on Earth. We provide over 37 petabytes of comprehensive atmospheric, coastal, oceanic, and geophysical…

New Climate Maps Show a Transformed United States

11/28/20
According to new data from the Rhodium Group analyzed by ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine, warming temperatures and changing rainfall will drive agriculture and temperate climates northward, while sea level rise will consume…

Mapped: How climate change affects extreme weather around the world

08/20/20
Attributing extreme weather to climate change.

NOAA’s Weather and Climate Toolkit

06/11/20
NOAA's Weather and Climate Toolkit (WCT) is free, platform independent software distributed from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). The WCT allows the visualization and data export of weather and climate data, including Radar,…

Data Snapshots: Reusable Climate Maps

06/10/20
This visual catalog with convenient filtering options can help you find the climate data you need. How-to instructions can help you navigate data access tools.
epa

Creating Resilient Water Utilities (CRWU)

06/10/20
EPA's CRWU initiative provides drinking water, wastewater and stormwater utilities with practical tools, training and technical assistance needed to increase resilience to extreme weather events.

Climate Change

06/10/20
This page provides information about climate change and links to related tools and documents. The page is intended for anyone interested in learning more about our resources and other federal government resources to support climate…

Is your state at risk?

06/10/20
Climate Central is an independent group of scientists and communicators who research and report the facts about our changing climate and how it affects people’s lives. We are a policy-neutral 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Explaining Extreme Events OF 2018 From a Climate Perspective

03/03/20
Analyses Of The Northern European Summer Heatwave Of 2018

Climate Central

11/19/19
Extreme Weather Videos

MORE NEWS

Extreme-weather pattern poised to incite more severe storms, tornadoes

By Matthew Cappucci   03/29/23  
The first three months of 2023 have proved unusually active — and deadly — for tornadoes, and the volatile pattern for severe weather shows little sign of settling down. Meteorologists are tracking a disconcerting atmospheric…
Read more

How Mississippi’s tornadoes unfolded overnight and why they were so deadly

By Jason Samenow   03/25/23  
At least 23 people are dead in Mississippi following a terrifying Friday night in which large, destructive tornadoes tore across the state. The violent twisters formed amid a severe weather outbreak that unleashed damage from…
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California’s Atmospheric Rivers Are Getting Worse

By Jake Bittle   03/25/23  
As climate change makes storms warmer and wetter, the state’s flood control system is struggling to keep up.
Read more

La Nina is gone. These were the deadly storms during its run

By Seth Borenstein   03/10/23  
La Nina seem to treat Louisiana....
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La Niña Has Ended, and El Niño May Be on the Way

By Livia Albeck-Ripka   03/09/23  
La Niña, the climate pattern that helped fuel the extremely active hurricane seasons and drought in the southwest over the past two and a half years, has ended, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said…
Read more

California was hit with 12 feet of snow. Is it enough to ease the drought?

By Joshua Partlow   03/04/23  
More than 12 feet of snow has fallen in the Sierra Nevada, shutting down national parks and burying neighborhoods. But the flakes have also felt miraculous, dramatically improving the outlook for California's historic drought....
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A Snow-Buried California Declares State of Emergency

By Angely Mercado   03/02/23  
More than 75,000 customers in California were without power Thursday afternoon after yet another winter storm dumped feet of snow.
Read more

US battered by tornadoes, wind and snow as more storms expected

By Gabrielle Canon and Gloria Oladipo   02/27/23  
More than 304,000 US homes and businesses were still without power on Monday afternoon, following a weekend of wild winter weather that wreaked havoc from coast to coast – and the storms aren’t done yet.…
Read more

A looming El Niño could give us a preview of life at 1.5C of warming

By Kate Yoder   02/24/23  
The last three years were objectively hot, numbering among the warmest since records began in 1880. But the scorch factor of recent years was actually tempered by a climate pattern that slightly cools the globe,…
Read more

Hundreds of Eastern warm records and Western cold records set this week

By Ian Livingston   02/24/23  
Hundreds of warm and cold records have fallen this week as a volatile weather pattern overtook the Lower 48. The Eastern United States is finishing up what has been a wintertime heat wave for the…
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Rare weather conditions are fueling California’s ‘major and unusual’ snow

By Hayley Smith   02/23/23  
The powerful winter storm moving through California is expected to drop heaps of rain, sleet and snow across much of the state, including Southern California, where several feet of fresh powder could fall in the…
Read more

Which U.S. cities will fare best and which will be hit hardest by warming?

By Michael Birnbaum   02/23/23  
A new report by Moody’s Analytics looks at the cities in the United States that are most vulnerable and resilient to climate change.
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Sunny highs to shivering cold: Wild weather swings take a health toll

By Marlene Cimons   02/23/23  
Lily Pien, an allergist at the Cleveland Clinic, drove to work earlier this week in snow and hail. The next day it was 65 degrees and sunny. This weather whiplash had her bracing for an…
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Los Angeles Under Ultra-Rare Blizzard Warning as Freak Weather Swarms the U.S.

By Lauren Leffer   02/22/23  
It’s a weird weather week nationwide. Amid widespread, below-average cold temperatures across the western and northern U.S., parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties are under a blizzard warning from Friday morning through Saturday afternoon—and…
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Will global warming make temperature less deadly?

By Harry Stevens   02/16/23  
The scientific paper published in the June 2021 issue of the journal Nature Climate Change was alarming. Between 1991 and 2018, the peer-reviewed study reported, more than one-third of deaths from heat exposure were linked…
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An event high above the Arctic may turn winter sharply colder in U.S., Europe

By Andrew Freedman   02/10/23  
A complex and highly consequential weather phenomena is slated to take place next week, as air temperatures about 100,000 feet above the surface, skyrocket and swirling winds around the Arctic slow or even reverse direction.
Read more

‘Historic Arctic outbreak’ crushes records in New England

By Matthew Cappucci   02/04/23  
Parts of the Northeast woke up to the coldest morning in decades on Saturday, with temperatures 30 degrees or more below average and wind chills in the extremely dangerous category. Virtually the entirety of New…
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Dozens of billion-dollar weather disasters hit Earth in 2022

By Jeff Masters   01/30/23  
The year was the second-costliest on record for drought. It also had three mega-disasters costing at least $20 billion, plus a heat wave that killed over 40,000 people in Europe.
Read more

Dangerous ice storm to spread from Texas to the Ohio Valley

By Matthew Cappucci   01/30/23  
A potentially significant ice storm is underway across the south-central United States and will spread northeast and affect parts of the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys by Monday afternoon. Multiple waves of freezing rain, which will…
Read more

Extreme Weather and the Jet Stream

01/16/23  
Weather records are now routinely getting shattered across the United States, with recent severe rainstorms in California, freezing temperatures in Texas, and a warm January thaw for the northeast. Jennifer Francis, Senior Scientist at the…
Read more

“Major” atmospheric river storm hits California

By Andrew Freedman   01/09/23  
The most powerful in a "relentless parade" of atmospheric rivers is bearing down on California today through Wednesday. It has brought with it widespread flash flooding, river flooding, mudslides and staggeringly high mountain snowfall totals.
Read more

Why you might want a heat pump in your electric car

By Shannon Osaka   01/07/23  
Electric cars function well in subzero temperatures — but some do better than others. As frigid temperatures sweep across the country once again — and motorists from Buffalo to Seattle have contended with snow and…
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Wild Weather Swings Are Robbing California of Its Trees

By Shawn Hubler and Jill Cowan   01/07/23  
The coast redwood crashed through the roof and into Nicole Valentine’s bedroom while she was away at a party, trying to ignore the powerful storms that were hammering Northern California with fierce winds and rain.…
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Bomb cyclone hits California with flooding, high winds and heavy snow

By Andrew Freedman   01/05/23  
A potent atmospheric river storm associated with a bomb cyclone is producing heavy rains, damaging winds and a significant amount of mountain snowfall in California. Why it matters: The latest storm is just one in…
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Potent atmospheric river storm threatens California with flooding, heavy snow

By Rebecca Falconer   01/04/23  
Californians reeling from a deadly major storm over the weekend are bracing for an even more dangerous atmospheric river event that's set to bring widespread flooding and powerful winds across the state Wednesday and Thursday.
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Bomb cyclone slinging high-impact atmospheric river into California

By Matthew Cappucci and Others   01/04/23  
A dangerous storm system is slamming California, with meteorologists at the National Weather Service warning of imminent “widespread flooding, impassible roads, mudslides/landslides [and] rapid rises in rivers/creeks.” The system, which prompted the Weather Service to…
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Ice storms, heavy snowfall, tornadoes threaten Midwest and South

By Neelam Bohra   01/03/23  
A pounding stretch of rain, wind, and snow that cut a destructive path through California pushed east toward the Midwest and Southern states Tuesday, bringing heavy rain and snow to much of the central United…
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U.S. in for more severe weather as ‘atmospheric river’ arrives

By Lauren Leffer   12/28/22  
The West Coast is bracing for heavy rains and snow as freezing temperatures left a trail of burst pipes across the Southeast.
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Scientists say Arctic warming could be to blame for blasts of extreme cold

By Scott Dance   12/23/22  
Research suggests that climate change is altering the jet stream, pushing frigid air down to southern climes more frequently. But the scientific jury is still out.
Read more

Global warming is real, so why is it cold outside?

By Tiffany Means   12/15/22  
The occurrence of record-cold weather can seem puzzling during an era of global warming. After all, given that the world is getting warmer, how can it also be colder than usual in your backyard?
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Photos: Deadly Tornadoes Pummel Louisiana

By Molly Taft   12/15/22  
Devastating storms ripped through the South as part of a huge front of bad weather moving through the U.S. this week.
Read more

Arctic blast takes aim at U.S. for Christmas, New Years

By Andrew Freedman   12/15/22  
A blast of Arctic air straight from Siberia is poised to spread across the continental U.S. around Christmas, shattering records and potentially spinning up major storms.
Read more

Powerful “Greenland Block” may yield extreme weather through December

By Andrew Freedman   12/08/22  
An extreme weather pattern is affecting conditions across the U.S. and Europe, specifically a powerful area of high pressure across Greenland and Hudson Bay. This feature, known as a “Greenland Block,” along with another weather…
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CNN

More Americans are moving into harm’s way as climate disasters increase

By Rachel Ramirez   12/08/22  
People are moving in droves to places with a high risk of climate disasters, researchers say, despite extreme weather events increasing in frequency and intensity in recent years.
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Newly-launched JPSS-2 satellite to help forecast climate change, track extreme weather

By Heather Brinkmann   11/10/22  
A new satellite made to help forecasters better predict extreme weather and monitor climate change is headed to space. The Joint Polar Satellite System-2 (JPSS-2) launched aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket…
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‘Atmospheric river’ bringing rain, wind, snow to PNW

11/04/22  
An atmospheric river is bringing strong to damaging winds, heavy rain and below-normal temperatures for the Puget Sound region from Thursday evening through Saturday morning, the National Weather Service said. Snow in the passes is…
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Protecting Communities from Climate Change Is Astronomically Expensive

By Karen Savage and Others   10/24/22  
A proposed series of sea barriers to protect New York’s harbor—which includes parts of New Jersey— from future storm surges? $52 billion. Reducing risk of future damage to Rhode Island’s coast? More than $254 million.…
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World rocked by 29 billion-dollar weather disasters in 2022

by Jeff Masters   10/19/22  
Florida’s Hurricane Ian, a $20 billion drought and heat wave in Europe, and deadly floods in Pakistan are among the catastrophes so far this year.
Read more

Western wildfires are fueling extreme weather in other states

By Kristoffer Tigue   10/18/22  
Scientists are once again sounding the alarm over the intensifying wildfires plaguing the American West. In a series of new peer-reviewed studies, researchers warned that the behemoth blazes of recent years have contributed to a…
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Ian is 15th billion-dollar disaster this year so far

10/11/22  
The U.S. was hit with 15 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in the first nine months of the year, according to scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.
Read more

Three Ways to Build Back Smarter After Hurricane Ian

By Elena Shao   10/03/22  
The damage from Hurricane Ian will very likely run into the tens of billions of dollars and scientists say the United States can expect more severe storms like it as the planet heats up. They…
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Hurricane Ian’s Devastation Shows the Challenge of Pricing Climate Risk

By Ephrat Livni   09/29/22  
Hurricane Ian, now downgraded to a tropical storm, is expected to inflict as much as $40 billion in property damage claims and much higher total economic losses, RBC Capital Markets analysts calculated in an early…
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Heat deaths, scorched trees and civil unrest: life on the climate frontline in 2022

By Gabrielle Canon   09/29/22  
Damien Gayle, reporter on climate activism When activists from Extinction Rebellion towed a pink boat into Oxford Circus, in the heart of London’s busiest shopping area, and locked themselves to it, they changed the face…
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Strongest storm in decades set to barrel into Alaska

By Zach Rosenthal and Jacob Feuerstein   09/16/22  
A near-perfect storm is set to bring hurricane-force winds and a massive storm surge into vulnerable communities in coastal Alaska.
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Tropical Storm Fiona forms, soon to lash Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico

By Mathew Cappucci   09/15/22  
Tropical Storm Fiona, which formed Wednesday evening several hundred miles east of the Lesser Antilles, is set to lash the Leeward Islands and Puerto Rico with heavy rain, rough surf, coastal rip currents and strong…
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npr

Extreme weather sparked by climate change is putting a strain on infrastructure

By Rachel Martin   09/09/22  
Residents of Jackson, Miss., still do not have drinkable water and are being advised to boil it. The city's water treatment plant was already struggling, but a flood made a bad situation worse. Extreme weather…
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To Probe Tornado Secrets, These Scientists Stalk Supercells

By Mitch Smith   09/08/22  
The supercell was pushing in fast from the west. Wind gusts were approaching a hurricane-like 100 miles an hour. The hilly landscape and limited highway network were not making things easy. “This is not a…
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Heat, Water, Fire: How Climate Change Is Transforming the Pacific Crest Trail

By Rowan Moore Gerety   08/31/22  
In the desert near Agua Dulce, north of Los Angeles, hikers along the Pacific Crest Trail who reached mile marker 502 encountered a cistern of water that smelled bad and tasted worse, with a dead…
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California’s extreme wildfires taking lethal toll on elderly who can’t escape flames

By Alex Wigglesworth   08/26/22  
Ronald Tyra knew it was time to flee when the 100-acre blaze across the street began igniting spot fires as it raced down the mountain. Tyra sped from his Klamath River, Calif., home with little…
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9 reminders that despite the IRA, climate change is still a crisis

By William S. Becker   08/24/22  
“Rare” weather disasters are becoming much more common. There were five 1,000-year events, one each in South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia, Maryland and Louisiana, during a one-year period in 2015-2016. Five-hundred and 100-year disasters are…
Read more