By Steve Pomplun 21 September 2012 Ice covering the Arctic Ocean melted to the smallest areal extent ever recorded this year, falling to 1.3 million square miles at its lowest point on Sept. 16, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. That’s less than half of the normal area covered by ice at […]
By Alyson Kenward4 October 2012 Over the summer and on into the fall, images of flames, smoke plumes, firefighting teams and ruined homes have been on replay, and with good reason: As of Aug. 31, this year tied the record for total acreage burned by wildfires, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. More than […]
BUTLER, Missouri – They have canceled vacations. Their children are forgoing out-of-state colleges for cheaper ones close to home. They are delaying doctor’s visits, selling off land handed down through generations and resisting luxuries like new smartphones. And then there is the stress — sleepless nights, grumpiness and, in one extreme case, seizures. Lost amid […]
By Glen M. MacDonald4 October 2012 It was a long hot summer. The United States experienced the warmest July in its history, with more than 3,000 heat records broken across the country. Overall, the summer was the nation’s third warmest on record and comes in a year that is turning out to be the hottest […]
During the past 40 years, wildfires have started earlier in the year and have continued to burn later in the year, lengthening the overall “burn season.” This figure illustrates the start date of the first wildfire each year on USFS land and the start date of the last recorded fire. The inset shows how the […]
By Robert Rodriguez27 September 2012 (The Fresno Bee) – New science and research has San Joaquin Valley farmers taking a harder look at the effect that climate change may have on their industry. If researcher’s predictions hold true, the Valley’s multi-billion dollar agriculture industry will be hit with longer stretches of hot temperatures, fewer colder […]
By Fiona Harvey, environment correspondent, www.guardian.co.uk25 September 2012 Climate change is already contributing to the deaths of nearly 400,000 people a year and costing the world more than $1.2 trillion, wiping 1.6% annually from global GDP, according to a new study. The impacts are being felt most keenly in developing countries, according to the research, […]
When we compared the average annual spring and summer (March-August) temperatures to the number of large wildfires burning across all 11 Western states, we observed a relationship similar to that reported by Westerling, et al.; years with higher-than-average spring and summer temperatures also tended to be years with more large fires. Seasonal temperatures are a […]
Contact: Chris Edgar, Forest Resource Analyst, cedgar@tfs.tamu.edu, 979-458-663025 September 2012 COLLEGE STATION, Texas, 25 September 2012 – A Texas A&M Forest Service survey of hundreds of forested plots scattered across the state shows 301 million trees were killed as a result of the devastating 2011 drought. The number was determined by a study of both […]
Among the Western States, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, and Montana have seen the most dramatic increases in wildfires since 1970. According to our analysis, the average annual number of large fires has nearly quadrupled in Arizona and Idaho, and at least doubled in California, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. On the […]
