A relentless series of ‘rivers in the sky’ is creating extreme conditions across the state, but a role for climate change is unclear Not again! Earlier this week, California was battered by heavy rain, strong winds and thick snow — the latest in a seemingly unending procession of strong storms. Wild weather has afflicted the previously drought-stricken state for three months, resulting in devastating floods, paralysing blizzards and dozens of deaths. Data released Thursday show that the snowpack is the biggest on record. Nature spoke to atmospheric and climate scientists about what’s driving the surge in wet weather and what the state could look like in a warmer future. Why are so many storms hitting California? California’s recent parade of storms is driven by atmospheric rive...
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A 50-year study of salt marsh ecology from the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass., concludes more than 90% of the world's salt marshes could succumb to sea-level rise by 2100 Cape Cod’s salt marshes are as iconic as they are important. These beautiful, low-lying wetlands are some of the most biologically productive ecosystems on Earth. They play an outsized role in nitrogen cycling, act as carbon sinks, protect coastal development from storm surge, and provide critical habitats and nurseries for many fish, shellfish, and coastal birds. And, according to new research from the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), more than 90 percent of the world’s salt marshes are likely to be underwater by the end of the century. The findings come from a 50-year study in Great Sippe...
Read MoreAmerica will probably get more killer tornado- and hail-spawning supercells as the world warms, according to a new study that also warns the lethal storms will edge eastward to strike more frequently in the more populous Southern states, like Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee. The supercell storm that devastated Rolling Fork, Mississippi is a single event that can’t be connected to climate change. But it fits that projected and more dangerous pattern, including more nighttime strikes in a southern region with more people, poverty and vulnerable housing than where storms hit last century. And the season will start a month earlier than it used to. FILE PHOTO: Debris is strewn around tornado damaged homes, Sunday, March 26, 2023, in Rolling Fork, Miss. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) The s...
Read MoreSnow falls thick as skiers shed their gear and duck into the Sundeck Restaurant, one of the first certified energy efficient buildings in the U.S. — this one at 11,200 feet (3,413 meters) above sea level atop Aspen Mountain in Colorado. WeatherNation plays on the television, looping footage of last year’s megastorms and flashing a headline: “2022 billion dollar disasters.” Aspen Skiing Company's vice-president of sustainability, Auden Schendler, who watches skiers as they walk in, says it's not enough for resorts to just change their on-site operations to become “green.” They must also advocate for policies that combat climate change. As global warming threatens to put much of the ski industry out of business over the next several decades, resorts are beginning to embrace a role...
Read MoreChurch tower reemerges from parched reservoir in drought-hit Spain
Spain is in the grip of a long-term drought after 36 months of below-average rainfall, with some parts so parched that officials have asked people to cut water use and meteorologists warn of worse to come. Some reservoirs in Catalonia, which surrounds Barcelona, are so low that old constructions like bridges and a church bell tower have resurfaced, people are flying kites on lake beds and navigation apps show someone in the middle of the water when they are standing on dry land. The door of a house is pictured in the village of San Roman de Sau after the re-emerging of it while Sau reservoir has lowest level since 1990 due to extreme drought in Catalonia, near Vic, Spain March 15, 2023. REUTERS/Nacho Doce The weather will be drier and hotter than usual this spring along the north...
Read MoreEurope is emerging from its second-warmest winter on record, European Union scientists said on Wednesday, as climate change continues to intensify. The average temperature in Europe from December to February was 1.4 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average for the Boreal winter season, according to data published by the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). The Nigardsbreen glacier in Jostedal, Norway on August 5, 2022. The glacier has lost almost three kilometers in length in the past century due to climate change. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen) That ranks as Europe's joint-second warmest winter on record, exceeded only by the winter of 2019-2020. Europe experienced a severe winter heatwave in late December and early January, when record-high winter temperatures hit count...
Read MoreResearch on the impacts of climate change often considers its effects on people separately from impacts on ecosystems. But a new study is showing just how intertwined we are with our environment by linking our warming world to a global rise in conflicts between humans and wildlife. The research, led by scientists at the University of Washington’s Center for Ecosystem Sentinels and published Feb. 27 in Nature Climate Change, reveals that a warming world is increasing human-wildlife conflicts. “We found evidence of conflicts between people and wildlife exacerbated by climate change on six continents, in five different oceans, in terrestrial systems, in marine systems, in freshwater systems – involving mammals, reptiles, birds, fish and even invertebrates,” said lead author Briana Abra...
Read MoreMost winters, at least once a week, Mike Diabo will snowmobile to the shores of one of his local lakes in southern Quebec, carry his fishing gear across the frozen surface, and drill down through the ice to reveal the dark water beneath. There he'll fish for northern pike, bass, trout, and whitefish to supplement his family's diet, continuing the traditions of his Anishinabe ancestors, part of the Algonquin First Nation of eastern Canada. But this year ice-fishing season started late, delayed by a warm winter and fluctuating temperatures that left the ice on Bitobi and Cedar Lakes - his two favourite haunts - slushy and dangerously thin until a cold snap finally arrived in early February. This winter is on track to be among the five warmest in southern Quebec since records began ...
Read MoreChilean wildfires destroy hundreds of homes, endanger world's smallest deer As his parents fought wildfires threatening their home in southern Chile, 13-year-old Lucas Cespedes decided to take action, ferrying firefighters across the local river in a small yellow rowing boat to help them put out the flames. The Andean country is battling some of the worst wildfires in years that have claimed 24 lives and burned through over 340,000 hectares (840,158 acres), affecting more than 5,400 people, destroying over a thousand homes and burning up the habitats of vulnerable woodland animals. Lucas Cespedes, 13, rows his boat during an interview with Reuters, close to his house on the shores of the river Futa, on the outskirts of Valdivia, Chile February 9, 2023. REUTERS/Cristobal Saavedra ...
Read MoreSea ice extent in the Southern Ocean now the lowest since the beginning of satellite observation forty years ago There is currently less sea ice in the Antarctic than at any time in the forty years since the beginning of satellite observation: in early February 2023, only 2.20 million square kilometres of the Southern Ocean were covered with sea ice. Researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute and the University of Bremen analyse the situation for the Sea Ice Portal. January 2023 had already set a new record for its monthly mean extent (3.22 million square kilometres), even though the melting phase in the Southern Hemisphere continues until the end of February. The current expedition team on board RV Polarstern has just reported virtually ice-free conditions in its current research...
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