News & Features

In the Northeast, the amount of rain that came down in very heavy events increased by more than 70 percent between 1958 and 2010. A new law in New York requires state agencies to start thinking ahead about increases in extreme rain  and other climate change risks.

Last September’s widespread flooding in northeast Colorado, which saw just over 17 inches of rain in one week in the city of Boulder, was not made more likely or more intense by the influence of human-induced climate change on atmospheric moisture.

Temperature extremes have been pretty unusual across the United States so far in 2014. Looking back over this time period quickly reveals at least part of what was going on: the polar jet stream got into a serious rut.

Flash floods scoured Phoenix and surrounding areas on September 8, 2014. How did the rainfall totals compare to normal September precipitation?

On July 11, Lake Mead reached its lowest water level since construction of the Hoover Dam in the 1930s. Many scientists are concerned that the prolonged drought could be a sign that the region will face significant water supply challenges due to climate change.

Never in the historical record have such large areas of the country experienced such radically different temperature extremes as they have so far in 2014.

Since we last covered the California drought, conditions in the state have stayed, well, dry—very dry. Statewide, total precipitation is about equal to or below the lowest three-year period since 1895.

As the assessment now known as the BAMS State of the Climate report pushes into its third decade, international participation is at an all-time high. From atmospheric chemists to tropical meteorologists, more than 420 authors from institutions in 57 countries contributed to this year's report.

Super Typhoon Haiyan slammed into the east coast of Samar and Leyte Islands in the Philippines with what may have been the highest recorded wind speed for a tropical cyclone at landfall. Haiyan, locally known as “Yolanda,” was the deadliest typhoon in the country's modern record.

From the strongest typhoon ever observed to historically high atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, the State of the Climate in 2013 report provides a complete rundown on the state of Earth's climate and how it is changing.