National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration News

World Meteorological Organization Says 2023 Will Easily Break Climate Records

With a few days left to go until next year, it can be said that 2023 has officially shattered climate records. A World Meteorological Organization provisional State of the Global Climate report confirmed that 2023 is set to be the …

Texas Dock Company to Pay $1 Million Over Clean Water Act Violation

United States Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company, LLC a Texas company, was sentenced on June 14, 2022 for violating the Clean Water Act in connection with an oil spill and ordered to pay …

Study Links Cleaner Air to More Atlantic Hurricanes

Cleaner air in United States and Europe is brewing more Atlantic hurricanes, a new U.S. government study found. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study links changes in regionalized air pollution across the globe to storm activity going both up …

Forecast Calls for High Risk of Wildfires in Central Oregon

As summer approaches forecasters say Central Oregon has the highest fire risk of anywhere in the state. Oregon Public Broadcasting reports the latest fire season outlook, released this week by the National Interagency Fire Center, shows above-normal fire risk running …

Climate Experts Say Much of Northwest May Stay Drought-Stricken

Climate experts from Oregon, Washington and Idaho say most of the Northwest remains locked in drought and that the region is unlikely to get enough rainfall to end drought conditions. Britt Parker, regional drought information coordinator for the National Oceanic …

Climate Change Could Push Flood Losses in U.S. to $40B by 2050

Climate change could result in the financial toll of flooding rising by more than a quarter in the U.S. by 2050, according to new research. The research, led by the University of Bristol and published in Nature Climate Change, also …

NASA: Earth’s Temperature in 2021 Was 1.5 Degrees F Above Baseline

Earth’s global average surface temperatures in 2021 were 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit (0.85 degrees Celsius) above the average for NASA’s baseline period, a new report shows. The average tied with 2018 as the sixth warmest on record, according to an analysis …

U.S. Heatwave ‘Virtually Impossible’ Without Climate Change, Scientists Say

An international group of 27 climate scientists have concluded that the recent heat wave in the Pacific Northwest was “virtually impossible without human-caused climate change.” National Weather Service reports show that in late June Seattle, Wash., reached all-time high temperature …

NOAA: ‘Dead Zone’ Off Louisiana Likely Average-Sized

An average “dead zone” is likely in the Gulf of Mexico, where a large area of water holding too little oxygen to keep marine animals alive forms every summer, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. A hurricane or tropical …

Feds Ignore Risk of Huge Gulf Spills to Endangered Species, Suit Says

Environmental groups asked a federal court on Oct. 21 to throw out the Trump administration’s assessment of oil and gas activity’s likely effects on endangered species in the Gulf of Mexico, saying it dismisses the chance of another disastrous blowout …