Following a brief interlude of “neutral” sea surface temperature conditions this summer, La Niña has returned to the tropical Pacific Ocean. The cool phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation climate pattern is expected to persist through winter.

The remnants of Tropical Storm Lee brought record rainfall amounts to the East Coast in the first week of September, swelling rivers and forcing evacuations in some areas of Pennsylvania and New York.

Population and development conspire with regional climate patterns to concentrate the country's most expensive weather disasters in the U.S. South and Southeast.

Maps of locations where heat records were broken in summer 2011 make a nearly complete picture of the United States.

The soaking rains from Tropical Storm Lee provided some drought relief in the South in the first week of September, but exceptional drought persisted across Texas and the Southwest.

Pietro Ceccato describes the role satellites play in monitoring vegetation health, rainfall, and soil moisture in drought-stricken places in East Africa.  

An intense drought has gripped the southern tier of the United States for several months, accompanied by destructive wildfires, low water supplies, and failed crops.

Cattle ranchers face tough decisions about feeding and watering their herds as extreme drought continues in the South in late summer 2011.

The Brazos River runs dry in Knox County, Texas, in summer 2011.

In summer 2011, the South was in the grip of one of the worst droughts on record, and the fall drought outlook issued by NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center provided little hope of relief, especially for the Southwest and Texas.