As part of the State of the Climate in 2017 report, experts describe a record three-year-long episode of mass coral bleaching at tropical reefs worldwide. Previous global bleaching events required the presence of El Niño, but the devastating 2014–2017 event began before El Niño emerged and continued long after it ended—implicating human-caused global warming in the mass die offs.
Large areas of severe or extreme drought affected every continent except North America in 2017. Extreme drought conditions affected at least 3 percent of the global land area in every month of 2017.
Ice cover on the Great Lakes has been decreasing since the 1970s, affecting everything from fishing to shipping.
Day Zero water shut-off deferred in Cape Town
June 29, 2018
Hay fever might leave you wanting to live north of that Westeros Wall, but the farther north you live in the contiguous United States, the worse your allergies may get in a warming climate.
A saildrone observed the growth and decay of a bloom of ocean plants in the Alaskan Arctic in late summer 2017. Such blooms affect the rate of regional ocean acidification, which occurs as surface waters absorb human-produced carbon dioxide.
Wildfires break out in Oklahoma in April 2018
April 24, 2018