24 January 2015 (Polar Bear Specialist Group) – The present table was discussed during late fall and early winter 2014, and agreed upon by the group on 20 January 2015. This status table will be updated whenever there is new information available that is considered credible and valid by the group. This year’s status table […]
By Christopher C. BurtSeptember 07, 2015 (wunderground.com) – The summer of 2015 is likely to go down as the warmest such on record for much of the Pacific Northwest, especially for the states of Washington and Oregon. It was also anomalously warm in other parts of the country. Here are some of the details. In […]
By Nancy Shute25 August 2015 (NPR) – I stepped out my parents’ front door last Thursday, expecting a typically glorious summer day in southern Oregon. Instead, I was hit with acrid wood smoke that stung my eyes and throat. The air was thick with haze that obscured the mountains. I quickly retreated inside. Health departments […]
By Scott Smith6 September 2015 TULARE, California (AP) – Looking for water to flush his toilet, Tino Lozano pointed a garden hose at some buckets in the bare dirt of his yard. It’s his daily ritual now in a community built by refugees from Oklahoma’s Dust Bowl. But only a trickle came out; then a […]
By Hilary Beaumont14 August 2015 (VICE News) – In only one week, the corpses of four humpback whales have been found along Canada’s west coast, fueling questions of whether their deaths are connected to a recent uptick of whale and other marine animal deaths in Alaskan waters. So far scientists don’t know what’s causing the […]
By Cally Carswell5 September 2015 (The Guardian) – Last September, US Geological Survey ecologist Nate Stephenson hiked into Sequoia National Park’s Giant Forest to look for dying seedlings. California was suffering through its third year of severe drought, and trees were dying in the park in greater numbers than usual. The roadside leading up to […]
[cf. 2015 is on track to be the worst U.S. wildfire season on record] 5 September 2015 (NIFC) – Favorable weather conditions in the Northwestern states have helped firefighters make progress on many large fires. Despite the changes in the weather, there is still a lot of work to be done, and firefighters will continue […]
14 August 2015 (NCDP) – Researchers at Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP) and the University of Washington have published a new study focused on the public health implications of climate change. The article explores climate change impacts on human health in the U.S. Gulf Coast and has implications for this and other […]
By Hal Bernton28 August 2015 (Seattle Times) – A lack of oxygen in southern Hood Canal is killing fish, crab and other marine life, according to Seth Book, a biologist with the Skokomish Tribe who has been monitoring the marine waterway. Through the month of August, Book and other Skokomish staff have observed dead English […]
By Scott Sistek31 August 2015 (KOMO 4 News) – This might be the ultimate statistic to show just how hot a summer it’s been in Seattle this year: In typical summers, Seattle gets a handful of 80 degree days a year (25 to be exact — OK, so they’re big hands). This summer? It was […]