National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration News

Climate Change Modeling on Cusp of Paradigm Shift

In the face of growing interest in climate change impacts, several big catastrophe modelers said they’ve heard from more clients interested in receiving climate-related data and they believe the field is on the cusp of a change in the way …

Climate Change in 2015 Could be Bigger Than Religion – or Selfie

The phrase “climate change” yields roughly 108 million results in a Google search – in the ballpark in terms of numbers of results with “Jesus Christ,” “Mohamed” and “selfie” – and you can expect the phrase to become an even …

Insurance Council: No Hurricanes, but Bad Weather Plagued Texas

As 2014 hurricane season ends the people of Texas can count themselves lucky to have dodged hurricanes for the past six years, which has been particularly good news for coastal residents. Despite the lack of hurricanes, Texas weather-related losses continue …

More Snow Threatening for Western New York as Flooding Risk

Lake-effect snow that killed six people and halted travel across western New York may reach as high as 7 feet in some areas before stopping tomorrow, when temperatures will start to rise along with the risk of flooding. At least …

Attribution Science, Extreme Weather and Why They Matter

There is a love-hate relationship with the word “new.” It’s used far too often, but without it as a preface some of us don’t bother to pay attention to what’s coming next. A “new task” scientists have grappled with in …

New York Requires State Agencies to Consider Extreme Weather

New York state agencies are required to consider the future likelihood of extreme weather in their decisions on public works projects, industrial and commercial permits and regulations, according to a new law signed Monday. For New York, those calculations include …

NOAA Hopes Drones Get Data from Hurricane Edouard

U.S. government scientists are launching winged drones into Hurricane Edouard, hoping to collect data that could help forecasters understand what makes some storms strengthen into monsters while others fade away. This week’s launches mark the first time that unmanned aircraft …

How a Run-of-the-Mill Hurricane Mutated Into a Superstorm Named Sandy

It was the moment a run-of-the-mill hurricane mutated into a monster named Sandy. Paradoxically, it was the same time Sandy lost much of its wind power, dropping from a hurricane to a tropical storm. It was a Friday night and …

Quiet Atlantic Storm Season Humbles Forecasters

The 2013 Atlantic hurricane season is humbling forecasters by shaping up as the first in almost two decades without a major storm, confounding predictions that it would be more active than normal. It’s been two weeks since the season’s statistical …

Yosemite May Be Harbinger of California’s Wildfire Potential

The week-and-a-half-old wildfire in Yosemite is seen by some as a harbinger of what could be a “worst case scenario” when California enters its typical wildfire season in October – continued drought, lots of unburned fuel and a weather outlook …