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Climate Change

Page Updated:
May 19, 2026

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• • Weather Alert For Massachusetts: Heat advisory
  Tuesday and Wednesday, Then Strong Thunderstorms

  A Heat Advisory Remains In Effect With Feels-Like Temperatures Climbing Close to 96 Degrees, As Temperatures In the 90s on Tuesday and Again On Wednesday
  
  {WCVB5}

  May 19, 2026 -Boston beat the old record high of 90 degrees for Tuesday just before noon. The high in the city is expected to reach 94 degrees.

  The record high in Boston for Wednesday is 91 degrees, which was set in 1996. In Worcester, the record of 91 degrees was set in 1903.

  Isolated afternoon and evening thunderstorms may develop during the hottest part of the day on Wednesday. Some storms could bring strong wind gusts and frequent lightning to parts of the Boston area and southern New England.

• • Scientists Now Say This Worst-Case Climate Scenario is ‘Implausible.’

  Here’s What It Means

  

  May 19, 2026 -For more than a decade, as scientists tried to evaluate just how much the planet might warm by the end of the century, the most extreme scenario they considered in models was one in which humanity doubled down on burning of fossil fuels, took no action to limit emissions and suffered profound consequences as the world grew hotter.

  Now, as time has passed and the world has changed, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change seems poised to retire its most extreme future emissions scenario, commonly known as RCP 8.5, after scientists found that those projections “have become implausible.”

• • High Humidity and Record Heat Will Make It Feel Like July in the East

  Maps Show How Hot and Humid It’s Expected to Get

  

  May 18, 2026 -The season’s first widespread surge of humid air is spreading from the Midwest to the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, along with record heat.

  Around 110 million people — including many easterners — can expect high temperatures in the 90s and increasingly muggy conditions through Wednesday, making it feel more like July than May.

• • How a ‘Model’ for Climate Migration Became a Cautionary Tale

  The Residents of Isle de Jean Charles in Louisiana Found Safety After Moving to Higher Ground. But...

  

  May 19, 2026 -May 18, 2026 -The community known as the New Isle looks a lot like how things used to be on Isle de Jean Charles, an hour’s drive south through the eroding Louisiana bayou: Families from the same native tribe living along a single lane, surrounded by glistening waters full of fish.

  The New Isle’s artificial waterways, though, don’t contain the species Amy Handon loved to eat on the island where she lived before the federal government paid to move her. There are fewer bugs, mercifully, far from the marshes slowly drowning into the Gulf of Mexico. But there is also traffic speeding past, and a homeowner’s association that ordered Ms. Handon and her relatives to stop parking their cars on the grass.

• • Scientists Tweaked the Global Warming Outlook. So Trump Weighed In.

  Renewable Energy has Helped Make the Worst-Case Scenario a Bit Less Bad. Trump Said, Falsely, It Shows That Climate Scientists Were Wrong All Along

  

  May 18, 2026 -Scientists are dialing back their worst-case scenario for how hot the world might get from climate change. That’s a small bit of good news. But over the weekend, President Trump falsely claimed it was evidence that scientists had been wrong.

  Here’s a look at what’s changing, what it means and what the president said.

• • April Temperatures Hit Joint Third-Highest on Record Globally

  The Chance of Very Strong El Niño Grows
  
  {EARTH.ORG}

  May 18, 2026 -May 18, 2026 -Last month was the joint third-warmest April on record, with temperatures 1.43C above pre-industrial levels, the European Union’s Earth Observation program Copernicus has confirmed.

  The month continued the streak of extreme global warmth seen in recent months, with December, January, and February each ranking as the fifth-warmest for their respective months, and March as the fourth-warmest March globally. Amid this sustained global heat, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said it is “virtually certain” that 2026 will rank among the 10 warmest years ever recorded, with the year also on pace to finish among the top five warmest on record.

• • Wildlife Officials Warn of More Bear Sightings
  as Drought Pushes Animals Into Colorado Communities

  Colorado Parks and Wildlife Said it Has Already Received 98 Bear Reports Across 22 Counties as of Late April
  
  {DENVER7}

  May 17, 2026 -Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) is warning about a potential increase in human-bear conflicts as the prolonged dry weather this winter is pushing hungry black bears into neighborhoods.

  CPW said it has already received 98 reports of bear activity in 22 counties as of late April, compared to 127 reports in the same counties for all of last year. The wildlife agency said drought can lead to less natural food for bears, forcing them to look for food associated with humans.

• • China Sends Rescue Workers to Guangxi Flood Site

  At Least One Person Was Found Dead While Nine Passengers Remain Missing

  

  May 17, 2026 -China sent emergency rescue workers to the rural Guangxi region in the southwest on Sunday after a pickup truck carrying 15 passengers fell into a flooded river the previous evening, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

  At least one person was found dead while nine passengers remain missing, CCTV reported earlier on Sunday.

  Heavy rains over the weekend in southern China heightened the risk of flooding, the ministry of emergency management said in meetings with provincial authorities on Sunday.

• • Wild Blueberry Farms Across Maine Suffer as
  Climate Change Upends Growing Seasons

  Heat and Drought Have Set the Plants Back to a Point Where Many Small Farmers Are Struggling Against Reduced Yields and Increased Costs For Mulch and Irrigation

  

  May 16, 2026 -Last summer, the wild blueberry fields at Crystal Spring Farm turned red too soon.

  Severe drought had gripped most of the state of Maine. At his farm near the town of Brunswick, Seth Kroeck knew the leaves were changing color prematurely because the blueberry plants were stressed. Berries shriveled before they could ripen.

  The farm’s 2025 harvest was almost a total loss.

• • Declare Climate Crisis a Global Public Health Emergency, Experts Tell WHO

  Commission Says Alert Would Trigger Coordinated International Response That Could Help Avoid Millions Dying

  

  May 16, 2026 -The climate crisis should be declared a global public health emergency by the World Health Organization, or millions more people will die unnecessarily, leading international experts have said.

  The independent pan-European commission on climate and health, which was convened by the WHO, concluded the climate crisis was such a worldwide threat to health that the WHO should declare it “a public health emergency of international concern” (Pheic).

• • The Emerging Weather Threat Facing the South

  And Why the Risk Remains a Big Problem in the Region

  

  May 15, 2026 -Thomas Barrett has already seen more wildfires across Georgia this spring than he cares to recall.

  Two massive blazes in the southern part of the state were finally under control several weeks after they began, but not until they had devoured more than 50,000 acres and destroyed more than 100 homes. Then there were the thousands of other conflagrations the state’s firefighters have had to confront this season — 4,813 as of Thursday, not that Barrett was counting.

• • Lessons of a Landslide Detective

  Across Our Warming World, the Ground is Growing Less Stable

  

  May 15, 2026 -From atop a narrow ledge some 2,000 feet high, the tiny white speck of a 144-passenger tour boat stands out against the jade surface of Alaska’s Portage Lake as it putters up to the face of a steep glacier that towers over the shoreline. On the far end of the lake, just out of view, is the visitor center, a 1980s brutalist mass of glass and concrete hanging out over the water. Below this ledge is a slow-moving landslide.

  It’s not a landslide as you might picture one—a rapid flow of dirt and debris rushing downhill after heavy rain. Instead, it’s a mass of bedrock moving around six feet per year, which could accelerate to a sudden collapse. If that happens, a resulting tsunami in the water below could capsize the tour boat, wipe out the visitor center with a wave several hundred feet high, flood the valley, and maybe spill over Portage Pass, a narrow gap between the Chugach and Kenai Mountains, inundating an airstrip and a cruise ship terminal four miles beyond us.

• • El Nino to Fuel Pacific Hurricane Season,
  Increase Risks for California, Hawaii, Mexico

  The Eastern Pacific Hurricane Season Starts On May 15, and AccuWeather Hurricane Experts Are Warning That El Niño Could Promote a Surge in Activity in 2026
  
  {Acu Weather}

  May 15, 2026 -Exceptionally warm waters and a developing El Niño will boost tropical activity during the 2026 Eastern and Central Pacific hurricane season, raising the risk of direct impacts in Hawaii, Southern California and parts of Mexico.

  The Eastern and Central Pacific basins are expected to produce above the historical average number of named storms, hurricanes and major hurricanes in 2026.

  The Eastern Pacific hurricane season started on May 15, while the Central Pacific hurricane season begins on June 1.

• • Extreme Heat Now a ‘Regular Reality’ in India, Pakistan

  Heat On the Scale of a Recent Heatwave in South Asia is Now Likely to Occur Once Every Five Years Owing to Human-Induced Warming
  
  {EARTH.ORG}

  May 15, 2026 -Baking hot temperatures are becoming the norm in many South Asian nations, according to a new study.

  A group of researchers with World Weather Attribution analyzed historic observational data and used climate model simulations to quantify the effect of human-caused warming on a heatwave that swept across India and Pakistan in late April and early May. The event brought temperatures exceeding 46C to several cities, killing at least 37 people in India and 10 in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city.

  Such extreme heat, researchers say, is three times as likely to occur on a warming planet compared to pre-industrial climate – now expected once every five years. This makes it no longer an extreme event, but rather a “regular reality,” said Mariam Zachariah, Research Associate in Extreme Weather and Climate Change at Imperial College London and one of the researchers involved in the study.

• • A Closely Guarded Plan to Cool Earth is Revealed

  A Geoengineering Company Would Use Tiny Specks of Silica to Block Sun Rays — and Make Billions of Dollars
  
  {Politico}

  May 15, 2026 - Wednesday night, the City of Victor said portions of the water system have been experiencing “higher than normal” water pressure as a result of the main water line repair.

  It hinges on aerosol particles that are 125 times smaller than the tiniest grain of sand.

  City officials said they are aware of the problem and are making adjustments in the system to stabilize the pressure.

  During this time, residents are asked to monitor plumbing systems and appliances, specifically water heaters, boilers, pressure regulators and any other water-connected equipment, for signs of leaks

• • Can Some Very Tiny Particles Cool the Planet?

  One Tech Company Says Yes

  

  May 14, 2026 -A company at the forefront of solar geoengineering — the notion that blocking radiation from the sun could cool a warming planet — has disclosed details of the materials it wants to sprinkle in the atmosphere.

  Stardust Solutions, led by former members of Israel’s nuclear energy program, is publishing research on Thursday that reveals the chemical properties of its particles, how they would affect the atmosphere and how high-flying aircraft would disperse the material.

• • Chance of a ‘Super’ El Niño Grows

  And It’s Just Around the Corner
  
  {THE HILL}

  May 14, 2026 -El Niño is waiting in the wings. An updated forecast released by the National Weather Service on Thursday gave the climate phenomenon an 82% chance of taking over at some point between May and July.

  As the year goes on, the odds of an El Niño grow even higher. National forecasters say there’s a 96% chance of El Niño lasting through the winter, the season when it typically reaches peak strength.

• • Water Costs Are Rising Faster Than
  Inflation — and Sending Bills Soaring

  The Cost of Water and Related Services is Rising Twice as Fast as Inflation While Utilities Scramble to Cope With Escalating Droughts and More Intense Storms

  

  May 13, 2026 -When the reservoirs that provide water to Corpus Christi, Texas, dropped to just a tenth of their full capacity, officials knew they needed to take drastic action. Forecasts projected the city, which had entered its fourth year of drought, could run out of water in a matter of months.

  So the city council approved nearly half a billion dollars to seek out new water sources, including paying a contractor almost 40 percent more to speed up construction of a nearly $500 million groundwater project for which it didn’t yet have the necessary permits.

• • India’s Heat Plans Are Growing, But the Real Test Lies Beyond Policy

  Although More Than 130 Indian Cities Now Have HAPs, Many Remain “Largely Guiding Documents On Paper”
  
  {DOWN TO EARTH}

  May 14, 2026 -India entered yet another summer marked by record-breaking temperatures with states already recording heat wave conditions. However, even as state governments announce increasingly ambitious interventions, experts have told Down To Earth that the gap between policy and implementation remains the country’s biggest climate governance challenge.

  This is especially concerning as India remains among the countries most vulnerable to heat stress. Heat exposure has led to the loss of 247 billion potential labour hours in 2024, marking a record high and a 124 per cent increase compared to 1990-1999 levels, according to the 2025 edition of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change.

• • A Super El Niño Wiped Out Millions of People
  in 1877. Are We Better Prepared Now?

  The Climatic Phenomenon is Expected to Return This Year, But a Lot Has Changed Since What Might Have Been the Worst Environmental Disaster in Human History

  

  May 12, 2026 As chances rise for one of the strongest El Niño events on record later this year, the potential for dangerous conditions has prompted comparisons to 1877, when such an event drove catastrophe around the globe.

  El Niño is a warming of ocean waters in the east-central tropical Pacific that develops every few years. This year, ocean temperatures there could surge 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) above average and break records.

• • How Climate Change Could Help Hantavirus Find More Hosts

  Experts Say Extreme Weather is Boosts the Odds That the Pathogens Carried By Rodents Will Spill Over Into Human Populations

  

  May 12, 2026 -The cruise ship departed Ushuaia, Argentina, in April with plans to ferry 147 passengers and crew members to some of the most remote places on earth, including Antarctica. But the ship, named the MV Hondius, had its voyage cut short by a rare virus that has killed three and infected several others.

  Hantaviruses are an ancient family of rodent-borne pathogens that likely caused disease in humans long before they first appeared in medical records in the 1950s. The viruses infect people via rodent waste — often through the inhalation of dust containing trace amounts of the excreta. Andes hantavirus, the strain that gripped the MV Hondius on its polar cruise, is one of a few hantaviruses known to cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare but often deadly illness.

• • River ‘Piracy’ is Draining One of China’s Biggest Waterways

  For the Last 1.7 Million Years, China’s Yangtze River has Been Stealing Water From the Yellow River

  

  May 12, 2026 -One of China’s two major rivers is “pirating” water from the other, according to new research. Over the past 1.7 million years, the Yangtze River has been stealing water from the Yellow River, and the theft could worsen dangerously low water levels in the latter.

  The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers are among the longest in the world. They stretch thousands of miles across China and supply hundreds of millions of people with water. And now, researchers estimate, the Yellow River has lost some five billion square meters of water to the Yangtze every year on average over the long term. The findings, which were published last week in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, add critical insight to China’s plans to combat water shortages caused by climate change and human overuse of the Yellow River. In other words, to reshape a river, you need to understand the ancient forces that are already acting on it.

• • Wildfires Strike Florida, Georgia and America’s ‘Wood Basket’

  Large Fires, Fueled By a Record Breaking Drought, Have Been Destroying Homes and Timber Plantations In Southeastern States

  

  May 12, 2026 -Florida and Georgia are seeing an unusually severe and early start to a wildfire season that is shaping up to be one of the worst in decades.

  The fires are driven by a widespread drought gripping the Southeast. Virtually all of Georgia and 94 percent of Florida is in a state of drought ranked by the U.S. Drought Monitor as “severe” or worse.

• • Oregon Prepares for a Challenging Summer
  of Water Shortages and High Fire Risk

  After a Warm Winter That Brought More Rain Than Snow, the State’s Snowpack Was the Lowest It Has Ever Been

  

  May 12, 2026 -This time of year, Don Gabbard, a fire chief in eastern Oregon, wants to look up at the Strawberry Mountains and see a blanket of snow.

  That snow can help delay the start of the region’s wildfire season. Fire crews count on winter weather to moisten the landscape, decreasing the chances that a random lightning storm or forgotten campfire will set off a large, expensive and potentially deadly fire during the drier months of summer.

• • The Hole in the Ice at the End of the Earth

  Ten people. Eight Weeks. Three Thousand Feet to Pierce a Fast-Melting Antarctic Glacier

  

  May 11, 2026 -The glacier’s rippling mass sprawled from the hills and volcanoes of the Antarctic interior out into the Southern Ocean, covering an area the size of Britain. Won Sang Lee stood on its ice, his tall frame wrapped in a red polar suit, and watched his team at work. Nine scientists, engineers and guides, some of whom had been planning this mission with him for more than half a decade. Now, they were at its final stage: drilling through the melting glacier to reach the vast ocean cavity beneath it.

  They were tired, hungry. They kept themselves going with tea, crackers and protein bars. They’d crossed the world’s wildest ocean, flown in helicopters over the wasteland of the glacier’s wounded ice, then toiled for days through lashing winds, all for a shot, a single shot, at piercing the ice at the bottom of the Earth. Periodically, they heard booms as the glacier shifted and crevassed under their feet.

• • Trump Administration to Scrap Rule That Elevated Land Conservation

  The Biden-Era Measure Was Intended to Protect Millions of Acres From Industrial Development and the Effects of Climate Change

  

  May 11, 2026 -The Trump administration on Monday said it would repeal a Biden-era rule that allowed public lands to be leased for conservation purposes, abandoning an effort to protect millions of acres from both industrial development and the effects of climate change.

  The rule, issued by the Bureau of Land Management, had prioritized the use of federal lands for conservation, recreation and renewable energy development. Since returning to office, though, President Trump has championed their use for oil and gas drilling, coal mining, logging and livestock grazing.

• • Why the Colorado River is Once Again Facing a Water Crisis

  A Stopgap Proposal From Arizona, California and Nevada is Unlikely to Break the Stalemate in Negotiations Over the Future of the River

  

  May 10, 2026 -The situation on the Colorado River has rarely been more dire than in this moment. The snowpacks that feed the river are the smallest on record. The reservoirs that hold the majority of its water are nearing historic lows.

  Neither a stopgap proposal aimed at stabilizing the nation’s largest reservoir, nor a late-season snowstorm are sufficient to avert a looming water crisis, experts say. But with Western states at an impasse in negotiations over the river’s future, recent short-term wins may at least temporarily hold off cuts to people’s water supply in the lower part of the basin.

• • Where Summerlike, Record-Breaking Heat Will Hit the U.S. This Week

  Temperatures Are Forecast to Top 90 Degrees For 50 Million People and 100 Degrees for 11 Million More

  

  May 10, 2026 -Record heat is expected to sizzle across 22 states this week — with the most intense conditions expected across the Intermountain West, Plains and South. Temperatures are forecast to top 90 degrees for about 50 million people and 100 degrees for 11 million more.

  The heat blast comes as about 60 percent of the United States grapples with drought, particularly in areas where some of the hottest conditions are expected this week.

• • 9 ways We Know Humans Caused Climate Change

  It’s Like the Smoking-Cancer Link
  
  {Environmental Defense Fund}

  May 9, 2026 -Tens of thousands of scientists in more than 100 nations have amassed an overwhelming amount of evidence pointing to a clear conclusion:

  Humans are the main cause of climate change today — burning fossil fuels, producing livestock, clearing trees and otherwise increasing the amount of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere.

• • The Soccer Club That Helps Fans Take Climate Action

  Vermont Green FC is Turning Game Day Into a Chance to Make a Difference
  
  {Yale Climate Connections}

  May 8, 2026 -Next week, the Vermont Green Football Club kicks off its season. This preprofessional soccer team hopes to repeat last year’s success, when they went undefeated and won their league’s national championship.

  But winning on the field is not the Vermont Green’s only goal.

  Infurna: “We want to be a leader, and we want to be an example in addressing the climate crisis through the game of soccer.”

• • How Climate Change Makes Your Allergies Worse

  As Pollen Season Gets Longer and More Severe, Allergies Can Compound With Other Climate Health Hazards to Cause Serious Harm

  

  May 8, 2026 -Climate change is contributing to longer and more severe pollen seasons across the Northern Hemisphere. Dr. Neelima Tummala, an ear, nose and throat doctor at NYU Langone Health, said her patients tell her every year that their allergies are the worst they’ve ever been—and they might be right.

  About a quarter of U.S. adults and 1 in 5 children have seasonal allergies. For those millions of Americans, spring weather brings sniffles, itchy eyes, asthma exacerbation and other miseries, with effects ranging from mild symptoms to serious medical emergencies.

• • Iraq's Historic Marshes Revive As Water Returns After Years of Drought

  Heavy Rains Boost Reservoirs, Water Released to Marshes

  

  May 7, 2026 -After years of drought that left large swathes of Iraq's historic marshes cracked and empty, rising water levels are beginning to revive the wetlands, drawing buffalo herders and fishermen back toareas once abandoned.

  In Chibayish marshes in southern Iraq, canoes once again glide through waterways that had dried up in recent years, while water buffalo wade through restored marshland and patches of green pasture have reappeared.

• • Tax Deadline Extended Again For Most Western WA Residents

  They Can Say 'Thanks' to the Storms

  

  May 6, 2026 -Tax Day may have passed weeks ago, but Washington residents living in areas affected by storms, flooding and landslides late last year are getting yet another extension.

  The deadline is now Aug. 5, pushed back months later than the original extension of May 1. More counties and Tribal nations also qualify for relief this time around.

• • An Alaskan Mountain Collapsed and Created a 481-Meter
  Tsunami Taller Than Almost Every Building in the World

  A New Analysis Links This Abrupt Event to the Retreat of a Glacier and, Ultimately, to Climate Change
  
  {ZME SCIENCE}

  May 6, 2026 -In the early morning of 10 August 2025, a mountainside collapsed into the waters of Tracy Arm Fjord in southeastern Alaska.

  This massive landslide produced a tsunami that reached 481 meters on the opposite side of the fjord—higher than all but the world’s 14 tallest buildings—and registered on seismic detectors around the globe. For days after the slope collapsed, the waters of the fjord churned with a standing wave known as a seiche.

• • Colorado Warns of Severe Fire Risk in Southwestern States

  It May Be Difficult to Share Resources

  

  May 6, 2026 -Colorado’s top wildfire officials said they expect a significantly increased risk of wildfire this summer—and while they’ll partner with neighboring states as much as they can, resources for fighting the blazes will be tested.

  A dismal snowpack this winter is likely to leave a parched landscape and tinderbox conditions from Colorado’s thickly forested ski mountains to its grassy eastern plains. Officials here are anticipating an exceptionally dire next few months in their state and beyond.

• • Study Says Trees Counter Half the World’s Urban Heating

  But Not in the Places That Need It Most

  

  May 6, 2026 -Trees are countering nearly half the urban heating from pavement and buildings in the world’s cities, but they’re not doing enough cooling in hotter, poorer cities where it’s needed the most as the world warms, a new study found.

  When averaged out over all the world’s cities, tree cover — by giving shade and releasing water vapor — cools an average of 0.27 degrees Fahrenheit (0.15 degrees Celsius), according to a study in Wednesday’s Nature Communications.

• • El Nino to fuel Pacific Hurricane Season,
  Increase Risks for California, Hawaii, Mexico

  Flows Into the Reservoir Reflect the Horrible, No Good Winter in States Like Colorado — and Increasingly Worrisome Water Security in the West
  
  {ACCU Weather}

  May 6, 2026 -The Eastern Pacific hurricane season starts on May 15, and AccuWeather hurricane experts are warning that El Niño could promote a surge in activity in 2026.

  Exceptionally warm waters and a developing El Niño will boost tropical activity during the 2026 Eastern and Central Pacific hurricane season, raising the risk of direct impacts in Hawaii, Southern California and parts of Mexico.

• • New Study Shows Risks of Amazon Deforestation

  And Rewards of Protection

  

  May 6, 2026 -If deforestation and global warming continue unchecked, the Amazon rainforest could begin a gradual transition to a degraded, grassland-like ecosystem in just a few decades, according to new research published on Wednesday.

  The study, published in the journal Nature, provides new insight into when the forest might start to slip over a so-called tipping point at which an incremental but profound and irreversible ecosystem transformation begins.

• • Peering Into Earth’s Climate Past is Getting Ever More Bizarre

  Earth’s Ancient Climate is Written In... Ostrich Eggshells and Stomach Oil?

  

  May 5, 2026 -Erin McClymont’s laboratory has six kitchen freezers, each alarmed. This is for self-preservation: when the power goes out or an appliance breaks down, she needs to act quickly to prevent the nauseating smell of old fish from seeping out. The source of that stench: solidified blocks of 50,000-year-old regurgitated stomach oil from Antarctic Snow Petrels, hunks of which line each freezer’s shelves.

  “One of my colleagues who did some of the original sampling..., he’s been on field work where they’ve had to dump their coats at the end because they can’t get the smell out,” says McClymont, a paleoclimatologist at Durham University in England. The blocks “are revolting.”

• • India’s Heat Crisis is a Labour, Health and Finance Challenge

  The Paper Says About Three-Fourths of India’s Workforce is Engaged in Heat-Exposed Labour
  
  {MONGABAY.COM}

  May 5, 2026 -“A construction worker in Ahmedabad who labours through 45-degree heat loses income, risks injury, returns to a poorly ventilated home that doesn’t cool down at night, and has no social protection to fall back on. That’s a labour problem, a housing problem, a health problem, and a finance problem, all at once, in a single day,” said Kartikeya Bhatotia, co-author of the finance chapter of a new Harvard University white paper on extreme heat in India. Bhatotia used the example of a day in Ahmedabad, when above-normal temperatures this year almost touched 45°C, to explain why heat in India cannot be treated only as a weather event.

  In fact India may be significantly underestimating its future heat risk, according to a white paper, Critical Perspectives on Extreme Heat in India, released in April 2026 and supported by Harvard University’s Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability. The paper, which examines how heat reshapes life and livelihoods in India, draws from discussions from the India 2047: Building a Climate-Resilient Future workshop in New Delhi held in March 2025. Bhatotia was one of the organisers of this workshop.

• • Cities Are Rehearsing For Deadly Heat.
  Will It Help When Disaster Comes?

  As Heat Waves Grow Longer and Deadlier, Cities Around the World Are Using Drills and Tabletop Exercises to Expose Weaknesses Before a Real Emergency Strikes

  
  

  May 5, 2026 -In a sunny Friday afternoon in October 2023, some 70 children filed into a cool, dark tunnel in the south of Paris to help the city rehearse for its increasingly hot future.

  The tunnel, part of the abandoned Petite Ceinture railway encircling the city, is always 64 degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celcius), making it the perfect safe haven from the potentially lethal heat imagined outside. Once underground, each youngster was asked to simulate the effects of extreme temperatures that might become reality in their lifetimes. Some pretended to have been poisoned by food that spoiled during a power outage. Others faked the effects of carbon monoxide leaking from a faulty generator. Meanwhile, Red Cross workers scrambled to decide who to send to overwhelmed hospitals. Around them, dozens of others — fire fighters, city officials, teachers — did their best to simulate the chaos and cascading impacts a heat wave of unprecedented duration and intensity might force them to confront.

• • New Orleans Relocation Must Start Now Due to Sea Level Rise

  ‘Point of No Return’

  

  May 4, 2026 -The process of relocating people from New Orleans should start immediately, as the city has reached a “point of no return” that will see it surrounded by the ocean within decades due to the climate crisis, a stark new study has concluded.

  Ongoing sea-level rise and the rampant erosion of wetlands in southern Louisiana will swallow up the New Orleans area within a few generations, with the new paper estimating the city “may well be surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico before the end of this century”.

• • A Strong El Niño May Be Coming. Global Warming Is Changing Its Effects

  As the Planet Warms, Past Episodes of the Natural Weather Phenomenon May No Longer Be a Reliable Guide of How the Next One Plays Out

  

  May 4, 2026 -Forecasters say a powerful El Niño weather pattern could form later this year, with a chance of becoming one of the strongest in three decades. The winds above the Pacific are shifting, the ocean is releasing stored-up heat, and a cascade of effects on rain, droughts and wildfires could be on its way.

  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says there’s a roughly 60 percent chance of an El Niño developing between May and July. That’s a major reason scientists now say next year could surpass 2024 as the planet’s warmest year since modern records began in the mid-19th century.

• • Flooding in Chicago Is Getting Worse. Here’s Why

  Blamed in Part On Climate Change, the Threat of Water Ponding in Your Yard Or Your Basement is Growing

  

  May 4, 2026 -In a little-noticed memo early last year, Illinois scientists made a dire prediction.

  “Bulletin 76,” a communication from University of Illinois researchers, warned that intense rain made worse by climate change was going to get a lot more severe in the next 25 years.

  “What is considered safe and adequate today may not hold true in the future,” they wrote of the threat to homes, buildings and people.

• • Timing, Totals, What to Expect For Early May snowstorm

  Everything You Need to Know About the Upcoming Snowstorm
  
  {FOX31}

  May 4, 2026 -Pinpoint Weather Alert Days were issued for Tuesday and Wednesday for a “significant spring snowstorm” that could bring several inches of snow across Colorado in early May.

  The Pinpoint Weather team is watching a snowstorm move into Colorado on Tuesday. The National Weather Service issued winter storm watches, winter storm warnings and winter weather advisories. After a winter with a less-than-impressive amount of snow, there could be over a foot of snow in some areas.

• • New Orleans Relocation Must Start Now Due to Sea Level

  Louisiana’s Cultural Hotspot Could Be Surrounded By the Gulf of Mexico Before the End of This Century

  
  

  May 4, 2026 -The process of relocating people from New Orleans should start immediately, as the city has reached a “point of no return” that will see it surrounded by the ocean within decades due to the climate crisis, a stark new study has concluded.

  Ongoing sea-level rise and the rampant erosion of wetlands in southern Louisiana will swallow up the New Orleans area within a few generations, with the new paper estimating the city “may well be surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico before the end of this century”.

• • How Microplastics Are Likely Helping to Heat Up the Planet

  A New Study Indicates That Minuscule Pieces of Plastic — Particularly Ones of Various Colors — Are Contributing to Heating the Atmosphere.

  
  

  May 4, 2026 -Microplastics lurk in nearly every corner of the globe. Scientists have found the tiny particles in rivers and lakes, in agricultural soil and in the oceans. They have infiltrated our food and water, cleaning products and cosmetics, even our own bodies.

  But do they also play a role in hastening the warming of the planet?

  It’s a question researchers inch closer toward answering in a new study published Monday that finds these minuscule pieces of plastic — particularly ones of various colors — are contributing to heating the atmosphere.

• • The Quest to Save Outer Banks Homes

  Never Take Safety For Granted

  
  

  May 4, 2026 -One afternoon in late October, as Lat Williams stood near the roiling ocean, he called his wife, Debby.

  “I think we’re going to lose the house,” he told her. “I think it’s going down within the hour.”

  For weeks, they had watched with dread as the ocean claimed their neighbors’ homes along this erosion-battered stretch of beach, where once-towering dunes have been leveled, entire sections of streets have disappeared and at least 19 homes have collapsed since September.

• • Seattle Tops Record High Temperature
  Sunday as Spring Warm Trend Continues

  The Old Record Was a Relatively Weak One

  
  

  May 3, 2026 -Temperatures in Seattle scorched past its record high mark Sunday, capping off yet another abnormally hot week this spring and foreshadowing the inevitable summer of drought that’s fast approaching.

  The mercury reached 81 degrees around 3 p.m. and stayed there well into the evening at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, according to the National Weather Service. That’s 4 degrees higher than the 77-degree record originally set in 1992.

• • 2026 Will Be the Hottest Year On Record, Leading Scientist Predicts

  The Second Half of This Year Will Almost Certainly See the Start of an El Niño Phase That Could Lead to Extreme Heat Across Much of the Globe
  
  {New Scientist}

  May 1, 2026, -A prominent scientist has predicted 2026 will be the hottest year on record, thanks to both climate change and a powerful El Niño effect that will raise temperatures further.

  The record is held by 2024, when global temperatures exceeded 1.5°C above the pre-industrial average for the first time.

  The second half of this year will almost certainly see the start of El Niño, a natural climate phase when warm water expands across the equatorial Pacific Ocean, heating the entire planet.

• • Hard Choices Test Breakaway Climate Summit

  A First-Of-Its-Kind Conference That Focused On Phasing Out Fossil Fuels Now Confronts the Challenge of Turning Plans Into Policy
  
  {POLITICO}

  May 1, 2026 -The vibe was good at the world’s first climate summit outside of the United Nations process. Now comes the hard part.

  Nearly 60 countries met along Colombia’s Caribbean coast this week to break away from what they describe as a troubled U.N. process on global warming, so they could move faster toward flipping their economies to clean energy — instead of just talking about it. They zeroed in on the basic steps of phasing out fossil fuels — surpassing in theory aspirations being pursued within the U.N. for 30 years.

• • Freezing Air Will Soon Make May Feel More Like March

  See Where Late-Season Freezes Could Damage Or Kill Sensitive Vegetation During the First Half of the Month

  
  

  May 1, 2026 -Two weeks ago, it reached 90 degrees in the nation’s capital. This week, the highest temperature was 70. And during the first few days of May, it will dip even lower, topping out around 60.

  Despite the calendar reaching deeper into spring — which typically coincides with warmer conditions — the weather will be going in the opposite direction during the first half of May.

• • Scientists Know How to Phase Out Fossil Fuels

  Some Countries Are Listening

  

  April 30, 2026 -Climate scientists, who have warned of the dangers of global warming for decades, have found some countries to listen. This week, representatives of more than 50 nations gathered in Santa Marta, Colombia, at what was billed as the first global summit on phasing out fossil fuels. One of the first orders of business was to launch a panel of scientists that will advise those countries on how to shift to clean energy.

  “Here, you have a coalition of governments that decided they actually want to be informed by the science,” says Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh, an international climate-change law specialist at the University of Amsterdam.

• • The Ice That Once Saved Bowhead Whales is Vanishing Beneath Them

  Populations of Bowhead Whales Were Able to Hide From Hunters Under Ice, a New Study Finds, Saving Them From Extinction. But...

  

  April 30, 2026 -Between the 17th to early 20th century, thousands of ships sailed the waters of the Arctic. They were hunting bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus), chasing the gentle giants through the chilly seas.

  Whaling ships chased down bowheads to sell their blubber to illuminate factories and to lubricate machinery. They sold their baleen—the stiff brushes that filter the whale’s food in their mouths—to stiffen corsets. Whaling vessels slaughtered more than 250,000 animals between 1530 and 1914, and the animals were hunted to near extinction.

• • States Are Demanding Property Insurance
  Records to Study Climate Change

  An Unprecedented Nationwide Data Collection Will Show Where Storms and Wildfires Are Causing Large Insurer Losses and Rate Hikes
  
  {EE NEWS}

  April 30, 2026 -State insurance regulators are undertaking the most comprehensive analysis of the nation’s battered property-insurance market to try to understand how climate change is affecting the price and availability of coverage.

  Insurance companies are being ordered to turn over internal records showing claims and losses caused by wildfires, storms and other perils in each ZIP code where they sell policies.

  The data collection is being overseen by a national organization of state insurance commissioners that has been reluctant to gather such precise information but now wants to understand the severity of the growing property insurance crisis.

• • A Gas That Causes Climate Change is Bubbling Out of Reservoirs

  The Methane From Reservoirs is a “Blind Spot” as California Works Toward Its Climate Goals
  
  {energy central}

  April 29, 2026 -Methane, the second-biggest contributor to climate change, is spewing into the atmosphere from the oil and gas industry, landfills and dairy farms. It’s also coming from another lesser-known source: reservoirs.

  As plants break down underwater, they form methane, which then bubbles to the surface. California doesn’t monitor how much is coming from these waters, but now several environmental groups are urging air regulators to find out, and some experts agree it’s important.

• • Rising Heat From the Ocean is Causing Antarctica to Melt From Below

  Potentially Accelerating Weather Events, Study Claims
  
  {NEW YORK POST}

  April 28, 2026, -Antarctica is melting from below due to rising heat from the ocean, threatening the ice shelves, potentially accelerating sea rise and other catastrophic climate effects around the globe, per an alarming new study.

  “It’s almost like someone turned on the hot tap and now the bath is getting warmer!” said senior author Prof. Sarah Purkey, from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, in a statement.

  The study comes as the climate change lobby face increasing scrutiny over their apocalyptic predictions.

• • A Sixth Ocean Is Forming as East Africa Splits Apart

  In East Africa, Tectonic Forces Are Slowly Splitting the Continent, Creating a Future Ocean Basin
  
  {ZME SCIENCE}

  April 27, 2026 -In the scorching deserts of East Africa, the ground is slowly tearing itself apart — a slow-motion, geological drama. Over millions of years, the African continent will cleave in two, and scientists say a new ocean will one day fill the gap.

  The Afar region is most famous for being one of the hottest and most inhospitable places on Earth. But for geologists, what’s more interesting is what lies beneath the scorching ground. The Afar sits at the crossroads of three tectonic plates — the Nubian, Somali, and Arabian — which are gradually pulling away from one another. This process, known as rifting, is reshaping the landscape and offering scientists a rare opportunity to study how continents split and oceans are born.

• • Wu Outlines Climate Roadmap for Boston

  Cut Emissions 50% By 2030, Carbon Neutral By 2050
  
  {WCVB}

  April 27, 2026 -Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is outlining her administration's climate roadmap, including a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by half by 2030 and reaching carbon neutrality by 2050.

  Wu's administration wants to "rapidly" cut emissions from buildings, transportation and energy sectors while increasing the adoption of resilience strategies.

  "Climate action is, in fact, safety and health, opportunity and belonging," the mayor said on Monday morning at LoPresti Park, a location selected because she said it demonstrates the kind of best practices called for in the climate plan.

• • Torrential Rain in Southern China Leads to Flooding Fears

  Heatwaves Reach 45C Across India as Unseasonably Cold Weather Affects Parts of Central Canada

  
  

  Apr. 27, 2026 -Widespread heavy rain is sweeping over southern China. By Wednesday, rainfall totals are expected to exceed 100mm across many parts of Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Hunan provinces, and in some areas as much as 150-200mm.

  As a result, the Office of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters and the Ministry of Emergency Management have been holding meetings with meteorological and hydrological departments to emphasise the importance of reinforced patrols and emergency responses to mitigate against the probable flooding that the intense rainfall is expected to bring. In particular, reservoirs with known safety concerns must remain empty during the period, as well as through the coming rainy season.

• • I’ve Chased Hundreds of Supercells

  What Makes Them the King of Thunderstorms?

  
  

  Apr. 26, 2026, by Matthew Cappucci -A supercell thunderstorm can tower 10 or more miles high. It can spit out pinpoint lightning strikes, drop grapefruit-size hail, rage for hours and traverse hundreds of miles.

  But the secret to a supercell’s power is that it’s a rotating thunderstorm. The entire storm spins. That’s why supercells can, and frequently do, produce tornadoes.

• • Thousands at Risk After Multi-Million Dollar
  Everest Flood Warning System Left to Rust

  Global Warming-Induced Fast Melting Glaciers Are Causing Many Himalayan Glacial Lakes to Expand Dangerously
  
  {BBC NEWS}

  April 25, 2026 -An early flood warning system designed to save the lives of thousands of people in the Everest region may no longer be working, Nepalese officials have admitted to the BBC, after it was allowed to fall into a state of disrepair.

  The disclosure came after villagers in the local Sherpa communities told the BBC no inspection of the UN-supported project had been carried out for many years after the dangerous Imja glacial lake was last drained in 2016.

• • The Next El Niño Could Lock Earth Into a Hotter Climate

  The Pacific Heat Pulse is Temporary, But Scientists Warn That Its Climate Impacts Are Not

  
  

  Apr. 25, 2026 -The Pacific Ocean is a giant climate cauldron, with a powerful heat engine that affects storms, fisheries and rainfall patterns half a world away, and scientists are watching closely to see if it’s about to boil over.

  Their projections suggest the tropical Pacific is simmering toward a strong El Niño, the warm phase of an ocean-atmosphere cycle that can intensify and shift those impacts.

• • Georgia Blaze Shows How Climate Change
  Has Led to More Wildfires in the East

  So Far This Year, 2,802 Square Miles (7,258 Square Kilometers) of the U.S. has Burned in Wildfires

  
  

  Apr. 24, 2026 -Often considered more a problem for Western North America, wildfires are becoming more intense, frequent and damaging in the East, such as this week’s blaze that destroyed dozens of homes in Georgia, fire scientists said.

  Researchers blame a number of factors including climate change causing fuel to dry out and be more flammable, a record drought, tens of millions of tons of dead trees from Hurricane Helene and just the large area where dense forests and high numbers of people try to coexist.

• • A New Idea to Save the Climate?

  Dam the Bering Strait

  
  

  Apr. 24, 2026 -Brightening clouds. Refreezing the Arctic. Floating a giant parasol in outer space. To the ranks of out-there ideas for countering climate change, two Dutch scientists have added this: building a 50-mile-long dam across the Bering Strait, the shallow waterway that separates Russia and Alaska.

  In a study published on Friday in the journal Science Advances, the researchers show that, under certain conditions, such a dam could prevent a collapse of a network of ocean currents, known as the AMOC, that plays a central role in regulating Earth’s climate.

• • France Kept Climate Change Off G7 Agenda to Avoid Clash With US

  The Last Thing We Want to Do is To Offend Trump

  
  

  Apr. 24, 2026 -France wound up a meeting of G7 environment ministers on Friday defending its "pragmatic" decision to keep climate change off the agenda to avoid a clash with the U.S.

  Donald Trump has dismissed climate change as a hoax despite scientific evidence, and has withdrawn his country from several international climate bodies.

  Keeping it off the formal agenda of the Paris-hosted ?meeting was "a more pragmatic approach" that avoided "the risk of certain partners walking from the negotiating table," French Environment Minister Monique Barbut told reporters.

• • Huge Chunk of Glacier Blocks Everest Route In Peak Climbing Season

  And One Leads the Way With 97 Fatalities
  
  {AOL}

  April 23, 2026 -A huge, unstable chunk of glacier is blocking the route up Mount Everest from Base Camp in Nepal just as peak climbing season gets under way in the Himalayas.

  "Icefall doctors" – who fix ropes and ladders on the lower part of the route up the world's highest peak - can find no way round the 100-foot-high (30m) block of ice just under Camp 1.

  They say the only option is to wait for the ice block, called a serac, to melt – which they hope will happen within days.

• • What a 5,000-Mile-Long Marine Heat
  Wave Means For Summer in the U.S.

  It Could Worsen Heat and Humidity in the West This Summer, and Also Boost the Risks of Pacific Hurricanes and Wildfires in the Region

  
  

  April 22, 2026 -A massive ocean hot spot is stretching across a 5,000-mile swath of the Pacific — from Micronesia to the coastal waters of California. Across this zone, waters are as much as 6 to 8 degrees above average.

  And it has the attention of climate scientists, who say it could boost temperatures, humidity and the threat for tropical storms in the West during the months ahead. Climate scientist Daniel Swain described this increasingly extreme marine heat wave as an “exceptional event” that’s breaking records.

• • How Are Utilities Preparing For a ‘Historic’ El Niño?

  This Year’s El Niño Could Be the Strongest in Over a Century—Utilities Are Preempting The Fallout
  
  {energy central}

  April 21, 2026 -NOAA pegs the odds at 61% for an El Niño emerging between May and July, with a 25% chance it qualifies as “very strong,” pushing ocean temps 2°C above average in some regions. Utilities may confront floods or a combo of drought and wildfire conditions—along with spiking demand.

  The playbook: In SoCal, SDG&E is hardening stressed circuits to handle intense heatwaves and fortifying low-lying substations against coastal flooding. Up north, Seattle City Light is banking reservoir water as drought risk and early snowmelt threaten summer hydro generation.

• • Super El Niño and Climate Change Could
  Lead to Record-Breaking Global Temperatures

  El Niño Events Are a Natural Part of Earth’s Climate System
  
  {Union of Concerned Scientists}

  April 21, 2026 -You’ve probably seen in the news the potential for a super El Niño to develop this summer into early fall.

  According to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, there is at least a 50% chance of a “strong” or “very strong” El Niño during the upcoming Northern Hemisphere Winter. Some climate models, such as those at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), are even saying this event could be the strongest El Niño on record.

• • As Western Heat Wave Ends, Scientists Try to
  Make Sense of Its Length and Intensity

  The heat dome set more than 1,500 temperature records across 11 states
  
  {NBC NEWS}

  April 20, 2026 -The scorching spring heat dome that baked the West for well over a week has finally moved along, after setting more than 1,500 temperature records across 11 states, according to the research group Climate Central.

  In its wake, climate scientists, irrigation managers and local officials are taking stock of a looming water crisis and trying to make sense of just how exceptional the heat wave turned out to be. Even before the high temperatures arrived, Western states were reporting some of their weakest snowpack numbers in modern history. Now, in many places, little snow remains.

• • How Our Allergy Seasons Are Getting Worse

  Sneezy in Seattle

  
  

  April 20, 2026 -It’s not just you. Allergy season isn’t the same as it used to be.

  Climate change caused by fossil fuels is heating up the planet. In the Northwest, winters have warmed and summers have gotten hotter on average. This has lengthened growing seasons across the U.S., meaning plants have more time to bloom and release eye-watering and sneeze-inducing pollen.

  A new Climate Central analysis of data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that allergy season in the Northwest, including Washington, Oregon and Idaho, has increased by 31 days since 1970, the most out of any other U.S. region.

• The National Climate Change Assessment
• 6 Things We Can Do About Climate Change
• Climate Change Positive Thoughts (free e-Book)
• Get the Climate Lab Book
• Interactive Climate Map 2050 (CC Consequences)
• The People's Dosier on Climate Change

• Global Warming Report from NOAA
• Another Good Global Warming Resource
• More Climate Change Resources
• NY Times Climate Forward: (Climate Change Q&A)
• Carbon Fee & Dividend Video
• Interactive Air Pollution Map 2100