Climate change shifts the baseline for what should be considered “normal” hydrological conditions, which shifts the definition of drought. Thirty years usually provide adequate data for climatology, but shorter periods using more recent data may work better for rapidly changing areas such as the Southwest.
What’s behind the recent droughts in Hawaii? A new study using NOAA’s primary weather-prediction model shows what can—and cannot—be inferred from available data. Not every event has an apparent and simple “first cause.”
A new study finds that drought onset over summer 2020 to spring 2021 was caused by four consecutive seasons of below-normal precipitation. The driest summer on record occurred in 2020, starting the drought.
Typhoon Merbok reached Alaska’s western coast on September 17, 2022. The unusual storm struck early in the season and formed far east of Japan, where sea surface temperatures have historically been too cool to support typhoon formation.
Home to critical productive farmland, Missouri experienced a heatwave in July 2012. Operational models have failed to predict such events, but a new study raises hopes of improving future predictions.
In recent winters, extreme, prolonged precipitation has caused structural damage and economic losses in South China. A new study has identified circulation patterns that cause and enhance precipitation over South China during winter.
Study provides new recommendations for increasing the reach and effectiveness of heat risk messaging
A new study focused on San Diego County, California, conducted virtual focus groups from heat-vulnerable communities to assess current education and warning systems, and recommend improvements.
The South Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (SAM) project began in 2009 to capture the daily variability of key components of the Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) in the under-sampled South Atlantic Ocean. By early September 2022, after two weeks at sea, the project completed its first cruise since June 2019.
NOAA has invested in 23 small businesses developing innovative technologies in technical areas including climate adaptation and mitigation, weather-ready nation, healthy oceans, and resilient coastal communities and economies.