Global map of temperature anomalies relative to the 1981-2010 long-term average from the ERA5 reanalysis for January to October 2020. Graphic: Copernicus Climate Change Service / ECMWF

WMO: 2020 on track to be one of three warmest years on record – More than 80 percent of the global ocean experienced a marine heatwave in 2020

GENEVA, 2 December 2020 (WMO) – Climate change continued its relentless march in 2020, which is on track to be one of the three warmest years on record. 2011-2020 will be the warmest decade on record, with the warmest six years all being since 2015, according to the World Meteorological Organization. Ocean heat is at […]

This satellite animation is from NOAA’s GOES-16 (GOES East) satellite and runs from 13 May 2020 through 18 November 2020. The GOES East satellite recorded this imagery of the entire Atlantic basin from its operational location of 75.2 degrees west longitude. This allows us to show storms as they form off the coast of Africa and then enter the Atlantic. Video: NOAA

Record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season ends – 2020 saw 30 named tropical storms, 10 hurricanes that intensified rapidly

1 December 2020 (WMO) – The extremely active 2020 Atlantic hurricane season officially ended on 30 November with a record-breaking 30 named tropical storms, including 13 hurricanes and six major hurricanes. There were 12 landfalling storms in the continental United States. This is the most storms on record, surpassing the 28 from 2005, and the […]

National Risk Index (NRI) map of the United States. Graphic: FEMA

New FEMA index shows riskiest spot for rising seas is 50 miles from the ocean

By Thomas Frank 25 November 2020 (E&E News) – The county most at risk for coastal flooding is not in Florida, North Carolina or New Jersey, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It’s not even on a coast. It’s Cowlitz County, Washington, population 102,000, about 50 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean on the […]

August 2020 blended land and sea surface temperature percentiles. Graphic: NOAA / NCEI

August 2020 was the world’s second-warmest August on record – The year 2020 has more than a 99.9 percent chance to rank among the five warmest years on record

By Jeff Masters, Ph.D. 15 September 2020 (Yale Climate Connections) – August 2020 was the second-warmest August since global record keeping began in 1880, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, or NCEI, reported September 14. The month was just 0.04 degrees Celsius behind the record set in August 2016. NASA rated the month as the third-warmest August on […]

This GOES-16 GeoColor satellite image taken Wednesday, 26 August 2020, at 2:40 p.m. EDT., and provided by NOAA, shows Hurricane Laura over the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricane Laura strengthened Wednesday into “an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane," The National Hurricane Center said. Laura is expected to strike Wednesday night into Thursday morning along the Louisiana-Texas border. Photo: NOAA / AP

Category 4 Hurricane Laura up to 145 mph, threatens “unsurvivable” 20-foot storm surge – “Some areas, when they wake up Thursday morning, they’re not going to believe what happened”

By Joe Mario Pedersen and Richard Tribou 26 August 2020 (Orlando Sentinel) – Hurricane Laura kept growing into a massive Category 4 storm with 145 mph winds as it’s set to slam into the Gulf Coast on Wednesday night with “catastrophic storm surge, extreme winds and flash flooding,” according to the National Hurricane Center. The […]

Map showing tracks of tropical storms Arthur, Bertha, and Cristobal in 2020. “We did set a record for the earliest third named storm formation date on record, breaking the old record set in 2016,” says Phil Klotzbach, a research scientist at Colorado State University. Graphic: CNN Weather

Records have been broken already, and the 2020 hurricane season just started – “We did not have to wait long for things to get rolling”

By Allison Chinchar 14 June 2020 (CNN) – The Atlantic hurricane season is already one for the record books and it’s only just getting started. With an early jump-start to the season, a record number of named storms, and a storm reaching states that don’t normally see tropical systems, this season is off to a […]

Meteorologists Jeff Masters and Bob Henson

End of an era: Weather Underground’s Category 6 blog to close shop this month

By Bob Henson 9 June 2020 (Weather Underground) – After a run of 15 years, Category 6—originally Dr. Jeff Masters’ WunderBlog—will publish its final post on June 19, as The Weather Company shifts resources to other weather and climate efforts. [Desdemona has been cribbing from Category 6 for more than ten years and is sad […]

Enhanced infrared image of Tropical Cyclone Amphan nearing landfall in far eastern India at 0200Z (7:30 am EDT) Wednesday, 20 May 2020. Graphic: CIMSS / SSEC / UW-Madison

Kolkata devastated as Cyclone Amphan kills scores in India and Bangladesh – “We are facing three crises: the coronavirus, the thousands of migrants who are returning home, and now the cyclone”

By Hannah Ellis-Petersen and Shaikh Azizur Rahman 21 May 2020 KOLKATA (The Guardian) – The Indian city of Kolkata has been left devastated by the worst cyclone it has seen in 100 years, which swept through India and Bangladesh on Wednesday and killed at least 84 people. Kolkata, home to almost 15 million people, bore […]

Microwave satellite image of Cyclone Amphan's inner core on 19 May 2020, showing the exposed eyewall on the storm's eastern side. This is indicative of a weaker storm. Graphic: U-Wisconsin / CIMSS

Cyclone Amphan, most powerful storm on record in Bay of Bengal, poses extreme storm surge danger for eastern India, Bangladesh – Evacuations slowed by virus

By Andrew Freedman and Joanna Slater 19 May 2020 (The Washington Post) – Category 3 Tropical Cyclone Amphan is barreling northward toward the mouth of the Bay of Bengal on Tuesday and is forecast to make landfall in West Bengal, India, just south of Kolkata, on Wednesday. The storm is prompting officials in the states […]

Trump (left) and Vice President Mike Pence (right) at a FEMA meeting on Thursday, 19 March 2020. Photo: Evan Vucci / AP Photo

Coronavirus, climate change could stretch FEMA past its limit – “All the other hazards we have in the U.S. will not go away and will only complicate the task of responding to the coronavirus”

By Leslie Kaufman and Brian K. Sullivan 22 March 2020 (Bloomberg) – It wasn’t until Wednesday, five days after President Donald Trump declared a national emergency, that the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced it was “leading the federal coordination” to the Covid-19 pandemic in the U.S. While the disaster-response agency is better known for its work in the aftermath […]

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