Where a storm surge strikes along a stretch of U.K. coastline is decided by global climate patterns in the Atlantic, Arctic and even further afield—according to new research led by Cambridge University.
Mountain snow in the Northeast is different. The region's milder, more humid mountain climate shapes winter conditions that are different from those of the western United States. Yet, snow models don't always capture those differences.
A new review involving researchers at Umeå University has revealed the critical role that plant roots play in shaping how Arctic tundra ecosystems respond to climate change. The paper, recently published in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, highlights how processes occurring beneath the soil surface could help…
If your home isn't in a federally designated flood zone, flooding might seem like someone else's problem. No one requires you to buy flood insurance, and the map suggests you're in the clear. But reality may be very different.
What does a healthy river look like? For most of us, an obvious answer would involve two aspects: water flowing through a channel and green vegetation along its banks. However, in reality, a river's health depends on several factors, such as how much water flows through it, how water moves through the landscape, how…
For roughly five centuries from about 1300, Europe experienced periods of unusually cold weather and extreme conditions collectively known as the Little Ice Age. Transylvania, a historical region in modern-day Romania, was also affected, but information about just how severe things were had been scattered in old town…
Research led by atmospheric scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory sheds new light on one of the fundamental challenges of weather forecasting: determining the conditions under which a cloud will produce rain—and how much rain it will produce.
Exceeding 1.5C of global warming will have "irreversible" consequences for glaciers, sea ice and the Earth's frozen regions, two U.N. reports warned on Monday, calling for urgent action.
Climate-related events affected at least 13 million people across Africa in 2025. Over the last decade alone, extreme weather has affected populations in Africa disproportionately. Tropical Cyclone Freddy (February 2023) caused widespread flooding and led to over 1,500 deaths, and in 2015–16 a drought in southern…
Urban flooding causes significant social, environmental and economic losses every year. In Baltimore, those losses have increased in frequency and intensity since flooding records began in 1748 and are expected to continue doing so as the climate changes. Traditional flood prevention approaches, which use concrete and…
Researchers have found that snowstorms are delivering vast numbers of tiny plastic particles to remote reaches of California's Sierra Nevada mountains. Snowmelt is a major source of fresh water for the state. Read more on E360 →
When we hear that climate change is damaging natural environments, it conjures images of rising seas eroding coastlines, or heat waves bleaching the Great Barrier Reef. But what about deserts?