Measurements and Observations

Climate.gov tweet chat: Talk with heat experts on mapping urban heat islands

August 4, 2020

Join three heat experts to talk about how we map, monitor, and lessen the impacts of urban heat islands.

Four people dressed for winter weather stand on a wet beach in front of a row of homes

As storms and sea level rise reshape beaches, volunteers keep track of changing coasts

June 22, 2020

Volunteers in three states are recording changes to their local beaches, information that's vital to protecting and restoring their seashores.

April 2020: another month that’s the second warmest on record

May 14, 2020

Like the months before it, April 2020 was also the second warmest on record for the globe, which means 2020 is almost certain to be among the four warmest years on record.

Brief periods of dangerous humid heat arrive decades early

May 12, 2020

Climate models project dangerous combinations of heat and humidity by the end of the 21st century. New research says these extremes are already happening.

Map of temperatures in March 2020 compared to average. Most of the Lower 48 is shaded red, for warmer than average.

In the U.S., first month of spring 2020 follows the path set by winter

April 16, 2020

Most of the United States was warmer than average. Wet conditions in March eased drought concerns in Southern California, but extreme dryness around the Gulf Coast raised the chances of drought there.

Nature’s archives: piecing together 12,000 years of Earth’s climate story

April 15, 2020

The most comprehensive database ever assembled of paleoclimate proxies that tell scientists about temperatures since the last ice age ended around 12,000 years ago has been released to the public.

March 2020 continues hot start to the year

April 14, 2020

Global temperatures in March 2020 were the second warmest on record, helping to start spring off just as abnormally warm as winter ended.

Annual forecast challenge and other research highlight the complexity of sea ice prediction

April 8, 2020

In 2015, NOAA's Climate Program Office (CPO) invited grant proposals from sea ice and climate scientists looking to better understand and predict Arctic sea ice behavior, on timescales ranging from days to decades. This is our second story on some of the resulting research.

U.S. map showing percent of average precipitation in February 2020

February 2020 was a month of precipitation extremes for the United States

March 9, 2020

Much of the Southeast experienced extremely wet conditions last month, while almost all of California and parts of Oregon and Nevada were either much drier than average or record dry.

map of the CONUS showing January 2020 temperature patterns compared to the 1981-2020 average in red and blue colors

Something the U.S. can (mostly) agree on: January 2020 was warmer than average

February 11, 2020

Although exact temperatures varied by latitude and elevation, January 2020 temperatures were above average for nearly every U.S. climate division of the Lower 48 states.

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