NASA – Desdemona Despair

Satellite view of three hurricanes simultaneously spinning over the North Atlantic Ocean, 6 October 2024. This image shows the three storms—Milton, Kirk, and Leslie—at about 12 p.m. Central Time (17:00 Universal Time). It was captured as Milton was developing in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico, about an hour before it became a hurricane. This was the first-known hurricane season to see three hurricanes simultaneously present in the basin after September. Photo: Michala Garrison / NASA Earth Observatory

October 8, 2024

Three hurricanes churn in an active Atlantic Ocean in October 2024 – First-known hurricane season to see three hurricanes simultaneously present in the basin after September

By Emily Cassidy 8 October 2024 (NASA Earth Observatory) – From the stable Lagrange point 1, located one million miles above Earth, NASA’s EPIC (Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera) imager on the DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) satellite observed an unusually active Atlantic Basin. In early October, three hurricanes simultaneously spun over the North Atlantic Ocean. This image shows the three […]

NASA’s ECOSTRESS instrument on 19 June 2024 recorded scorching roads and sidewalks across Phoenix, where contact with skin could cause serious burns in minutes to seconds, as indicated in the legend. Graphic: NASA / JPL-Caltech

July 14, 2024

NASA captures 160°F (71°C) roads and sidewalks across Phoenix – “It looks like we’re at a record pace, which is a record we really don’t want to set”

By Jessica Boehm 10 July 2024 (Axios) – Many Phoenix streets and sidewalks can reach 160° during the hottest parts of the day, according to a new NASA analysis. Why it matters: Surfaces that hot can cause contact burns in seconds, and Valley hospitals are seeing an uptick in patients with serious burn injuries. The big picture: Human-caused climate […]

Map showing surface air temperature in Africa, Europe, Southwest Asia, and India on 25 June 2024. Heat waves rolled through parts of Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia, leaving vulnerable populations at risk. Data: GEOS data from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA GSFC. Graphic: Lauren Dauphin / NASA Earth Observatory

July 5, 2024

In the grip of global heat – Early Summer 2024 heatwaves in the Northern Hemisphere have been fierce

By Adam Voiland 28 June 2024 (NASA) – It’s only the beginning of the summer season in the Northern Hemisphere, but Earth is already roasting. Scientists from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies recently reported that May 2024, the hottest May in NASA’s global surface temperature analysis, marked a full year of record-high monthly temperatures. Likewise, NOAA recently reported that January through […]

Map showing reduction of stored groundwater in the U.S. Southwest, April 2002 - September 2023. Gravity measurements from the GRACE series of satellites show that the decline in water levels in the Great Basin region from April 2002 to September 2023 has most severely affected portions of southern California (indicated in red). Record snowfall in recent years has not been enough to offset long-term drying conditions and increasing groundwater demands in the U.S. Southwest. Graphic: Hall, et al., 2024 / Geophysical Research Letters

July 5, 2024

NASA satellites find record snow didn’t offset Southwest U.S. groundwater loss – “In years like the 2022-23 winter, I expected that the record amount of snowfall would really help to replenish the groundwater supply. But overall, the decline continued.”

By James R. Riordon 17 June 2024 (NASA GSFC) – Record snowfall in recent years has not been enough to offset long-term drying conditions and increasing groundwater demands in the U.S. Southwest, according to a new analysis of NASA satellite data [Snowfall Replenishes Groundwater Loss in the Great Basin of the Western United States, but […]

Global number of extreme wildfires, 2003-2023. The analysis of satellite data showed the number of extreme fires had risen by more than 10 times in the past 20 years in temperate conifer forests, such as in the western U.S. and Mediterranean. Data: Cunningham, et al., Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2024. The most extreme wildfires are in the top 0.1 percent of fires by radiative power, identified from 21 years of satellite data. Graphic: The Guardian

July 4, 2024

Climate crisis driving exponential rise in most extreme wildfires – Frequency of extreme events doubled from 2003 to 2023 – “This is the effect of what we’re doing to the atmosphere, so action is urgent”

By Damian Carrington 24 June 2024 (The Guardian) – The climate crisis is driving an exponential rise in the most extreme wildfires in key regions around the world, research has revealed. The wildfires can cause catastrophic loss of human life, property and wildlife and cause billions of dollars of damage. Scientists say this is climate […]

Monthly global surface air temperature anomalies (°C) relative to 1850–1900 from January 1940 to March 2024, plotted as time series for each year. 2024 is shown with a thick yellow line, 2023 with a thick red line, and all other years with thin lines shaded according to the decade, from blue (1940s) to brick red (2020s). Data source: ERA5. Graphic: C3S / ECMWF

April 27, 2024

Earth’s warmest March is 10th straight record month, NOAA and NASA find

By Jonathan Erdman 12 April 2024 (Weather.com) – March was Earth’s warmest on record, according to data from three separate agencies, the latest month in a stretch of heat records since the planet’s hottest year in 2023. Another month, another record In a report released Friday, NOAA found March’s globally average temperature was 2.43 degrees Fahrenheit above […]

This map shows global temperature anomalies for July 2023 according to the GISTEMP analysis by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Temperature anomalies reflect how July 2023 compared to the average July temperature from 1951-1980. Graphic: NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies

August 20, 2023

NASA announces July 2023 was hottest month on record – “The science is clear this isn’t normal”

By Sheri Walsh 14 August 2023 (UPI) – July 2023 was the hottest month on record in 143 years, as Americans felt “the effects of the climate crisis,” scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York announced Monday. According to NASA, July 2023 was on average 0.43 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than any […]

Satellite view of an algae bloom in the waters north of the Scandinavian and Kola peninsulas, 3 August 2023. The image was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. One group of researchers observed large shifts in the location of summer coccolithophore blooms to the northeast between 2002 and 2018. They also identified an increasing presence of Phaeocystis pouchetii, a type of phytoplankton normally found in warmer waters that can form gelatinous colonies millimeters in diameter. The effect that such changes might have on the ecosystem is a topic of ongoing research. Data: MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview. Photo: Michala Garrison / NASA Earth Observatory

August 5, 2023

The ocean’s color is changing as a consequence of global warming – Color changes reflect significant shifts in essential marine ecosystems – “To actually see it happening for real is not surprising, but frightening”

By Jennifer Chu 12 July 2023 (MIT News Office) – The ocean’s color has changed significantly over the last 20 years, and the global trend is likely a consequence of human-induced climate change, report scientists at MIT, the National Oceanography Center in the U.K., and elsewhere. In a study appearing today in Nature, the team writes […]

Satellite view of end-of-winter snowpack levels in the Sierra Nevada mountain range from 2020 through 2023. The snowpack in 2023 was one of the biggest in recorded history. Photo: NASA

May 21, 2023

Striking satellite photos show the dramatic scale of California’s 2023 snowpack – “This melt really is still just getting started”

By Terry Castleman 10 May 2023 (Los Angeles Times) – After a series of atmospheric rivers and cold weather hit California, this year’s snowpack was one of the biggest in history. “This year’s result will go down as one of the largest snowpack years on record in California,” Sean de Guzman, manager of the Department of Water Resources’ snow surveys, said […]

Lake Tulare in California on 1 February 2023 and 30 April 2023, as seen from the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on NASA’s Landsat 8 satellite, and the Operational Land Imager-2 (OLI-2) on the Landsat 9 satellite. In the spring of 2023, the long-dried basin of Lake Tulare rapidly refilled in the wake of intense rainfall and snowmelt. Photo: NASA

May 6, 2023

Tulare Lake flooding due to snowpack melt seen from space – “The state has both too much water and not enough”

By Jess Thomson 5 May 2023 (Newsweek) – The long-dried basin of Lake Tulare in California has rapidly refilled in the wake of intense rainfall and snowmelt. The speed and scale of the southern San Joaquin Valley lake’s return can be seen in images taken from space by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on NASA‘s Landsat […]