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Page Updated:
August 11, 2026

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• • Could England and Wales Ever Run Out of Water?

  Last Month In England Was the Driest July Since Records Began Almost Two Centuries Ago

  

  August 11, 2026 -There is no single definition of drought and every drought is different. But they are all characterised by a prolonged period of low rainfall creating a shortage of water.

  Some droughts are short and intense, like the recent “flash drought” declared across three-quarters of England, which developed quickly because of unusually low rainfall and high temperatures. Others can take a long time to develop over multiple seasons due to prolonged low rainfall.

• • What Will El Niño Bring Where You Live?

  Maps Show Its Wide-Reaching Impacts

  

  August 9, 2026 -A much-anticipated El Niño that developed this summer is on track to become the strongest ever recorded, with cascading effects on global climate peaking late this year and into next.

  Water temperatures in the central equatorial Pacific Ocean, where El Niño is measured, have been at record levels for more than two months straight.

• • Heavy Rains Drench Beijing As
  China Braces For Typhoon Dolphin

  Authorities Said They Have Deployed More Than 2,000 Staff to Help With the Flooding Around Beijing

  

  August 7, 2026 - Multiple districts in Beijing issued heavy rainfall warnings on Friday evening with authorities warning residents of disasters including floods in the city centre and also mudslides and landslides in agricultural and mountainous areas.

  The extreme rains come as China readies for Typhoon Dolphin, which ?is expected to make landfall along the country's eastern coast from Sunday to Monday.

  Beijing's Dongcheng, ?Xicheng, Haidian, Chaoyang, Tongzhou and Pinggu districts all issued heavy rain warnings expecting hourly rainfall to exceed 50 millimeters.

  The highest rainfall occurred in Miyun district in northeast Beijing on Friday afternoon where precipitation reached 99.5 millimeters.

• • Challenging Fire Weather Returns to Pacific

  Crews Battle Destructive Spokane Blazes
  
  {CNN Weather}

  August 7, 2026 -A new round of flame-fueling winds and low humidity is escalating wildfire danger once again in the Pacific Northwest as fire crews work tirelessly to contain destructive blazes in Spokane, Washington, and across the region.

  A short-lived reprieve from adverse weather over the past several days gave crews a chance to make considerable progress on taming the flames, but weather conditions on Friday and Saturday threaten to undo some of that hard work or fan sparks into new blazes.

• • Denver County Faces Worst Drought
  Since Record-Keeping Began in 2000

  Nearly a Third of the County In "Exceptional Drought"
  
  {9NEWS}

  August 5, 2026 - Denver is experiencing its worst drought since record keeping began in 2000.

  9NEWS Weather Impact Team meteorologist Chris Bianchi said this week's U.S. Drought Monitor released Thursday shows exceptional drought, the highest category tracked, covering a significant portion of Denver County as well as parts of Adams and Arapahoe counties, including areas around Denver International Airport and the southeast Denver metro region.

• • Parts of Eastern and Central Europe Broke Heat Records This Week

  The Hot Weather Has Exacerbated Dry Conditions, Creating Conditions For Wildfires and Receding Rivers

  

  August 7, 2026 -Vast swaths of Central and Eastern Europe are in the middle of a heat wave, with high temperatures reaching record levels this week. The heat has also brought drought conditions, drying rivers and creating a fire a hazard.

  The Danube River’s receding water levels nearly forced the shutdown of the Paks nuclear power plant in Hungary, the prime minister said this week, and, in Serbia, it exposed ships from a Nazi fleet that sank at the end of World War II.

• • Along Parts of the East Coast,
  It’s as Humid as the Amazon Rainforest

  Extreme Humidity is Expected to Linger Into the Weekend For 80 Million People Living in the United States

  

  August 7, 2026 -Does it feel extra muggy where you live?

  If so, you might be one of the 80 million people living in the United States experiencing the extreme humidity that is expected to linger into the weekend.

  On Thursday, humidity levels across the stretch from D.C. to Boston were about as high as notoriously humid cities such as Miami and New Orleans. In New York, peak humidity was approximately equal to that of the Amazon rainforest.

• • As Local Wildfire Threats Intensify, Minnesota and
  Texas Utilities Are Ramping Up Mitigation Efforts

  Still More Wildfire News
  
  {energy central}

  August 6, 2026 -Tn Minnesota: Summer wildfires have increased by 86% over the past three decades. And as in many states, MN utility planning hasn’t kept up with rising fire risks. That’s why the MN PUC has directed the state’s four regulated electric utilities—Dakota Electric Association, Minnesota Power, Otter Tail Power Company, and Xcel Energy—to develop and file their first-ever wildfire mitigation plans by Feb. 1, 2027.

  All hands on deck: MN utilities have previously lumped in wildfire prep with other distribution planning, but “rising wildfire risk now demands a clearer and more transparent approach,” the PUC wrote. New plans must include updated risk maps and data on the effectiveness of current mitigation practices, among other requirements.

• • Quarter of Countries Still Missing UN
  Climate Plans 18 Months After Deadline

  Egypt, Vietnam, Argentina and the Philippines Are Among the 45 Nations That Have Breached the Paris Agreement By Not Submitting a New NDC to the UN
  
  {CLIMATE HOME NEWS}

  August 6, 2026 -About a quarter of the countries signed up to the Paris Agreement are still breaching its rules by failing to submit a new national climate plan, 18 months after the February 2025 deadline.

  Forty-five nations had not submitted a plan known as a nationally determined contribution (NDC), according to the Paris Agreement Implementation and Compliance Committee's (PAICC) newly-published report of its 7-10 July 2026 meeting. One, Oman, has published it since the meeting.

• • South Korea's President Orders All-Out Response to Heatwave

  Seoul Forecast to Reach 39 C as Heatwave Death Toll Rises to 21

  

  August 6, 2026 - South Korea's heatwave is expected to peak over Seoul on Thursday, with the capital forecast to hit 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit) in a spell of extreme weather already blamed ?for more than 20 deaths.

  "Extreme heat on a scale we have ?never experienced is continuing day after day. Heatwave conditions once seen ?only in foreign news reports have now become our reality," President Lee ?Jae Myung told a heatwave response meeting on Thursday.

• • In a Hurricane-Season Twist, the
  West Coast May Be the One to Watch

  It Hasn’t Been That Long Since Hurricane Hilary Made a Run at Southern California. Could This Year See a Repeat?

  

  August 6, 2026 -Two months into the Atlantic hurricane season, the United States has largely been spared, with only two storms, Arthur and Bertha, having grown strong enough to merit official names. That’s about what meteorologists expected when they said this year’s hurricane season would probably see fewer storms than most other seasons.

  Off the West Coast of North America, however, things look a little different: There have been seven named storms since the season began. The most recent, Genevieve, became a Category 5 hurricane in late July, the strongest storm in the region in nearly two years.

• • Drought Threatens a Vital Economic Artery in the Heart of Europe

  The Rhine Conveys Vessels and Cargo That Power European Industry.

  

  August 6, 2026 -Ferocious heat waves, wildfires and freakish storms have pulverized Europe this summer. Now a series of droughts, magnified by climate change, have crippled some of the continent’s key waterways, bringing further economic pressure on a region struggling with stagnating growth and fierce global competition.

  One center of the crisis is the “wide and winding Rhine” river, as Lord Byron put it, which stretches nearly 800 miles through six countries as it journeys from the Swiss Alps to the North Sea.

• • London Recorded Its First Month Without
  Rain Since Measurements Started 150 Years Ago

  Kew’s Empty Rain Gauge Shows the Effects of a Prolonged Drought
  
  {ZME SCIENCE}

  August 5, 2026 -At Kew Gardens in west London, July ended with a big fat zero.

  The weather station recorded no measurable rain during the entire month. It’s Kew’s first completely rainless calendar month in a record stretching back to 1871. A typical July there brings 45.24 millimetres.

  Kew wasn’t alone. Several gauges around London also reported July totals of 0.0 millimetres. London, a city known for its rainy spells, has entered a new age: one of drought and heat.

• • Strong El Niño Could Push 49 Million
  More People Into Acute Hunger

  WFP Urges Early Action to Prevent Disaster

  

  August 5, 2026 -A powerful El Niño weather event could push an additional nearly 49 million people into acute food insecurity across some of the world's most vulnerable regions by the end of next year, the World Food Programme said on Wednesday.

  The U.N. agency said in a report that there was an 81% chance of a very strong El Niño event, with sea surface temperatures at their warmest levels since at least 1982 and potentially making it the strongest such event since 1950.

• • Europe is Blowing Up Riverbeds as an
  Extreme Drought Wreaks Havoc On Its Economy

  Authorities Are Turning to Extreme Measures to Fight the Economy-Threatening Drought
  
  {CNBC}

  Aug. 5, 2026 -The drought in Europe is so severe that it is jeopardizing countries’ economic growth and forcing them to take extreme measures like blowing up riverbeds.

  Gripped by a summer of weather extremes, Romania recently shut down its sole working nuclear reactor cooled by the Danube for the first time, with Bucharest even deploying naval forces to carry out underwater detonations to improve water flow.

  Images published Monday showed the Romanian navy blasting rocks in controlled explosions in Izvoarele village as part of a push to divert a higher volume of water toward the cooling systems of the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant.

• • Italy Putting Nearly All Major Cities On Highest Heat Alert

  As Heatwave Intensifies

  

  August 4, 2026 -Italy is placing all its 27 major cities under its highest heat alert on Thursday, as the country's fourth heatwave of the summer intensifies, the health ministry said on Tuesday.

  Twenty-five cities were put on red alert on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the only two currently on a lesser amber alert, Messina and Reggio Calabria in the far south, moving up to the maximum level on Thursday.

• • Three Lions Die in Zoo as Japan Battles Extreme Heat

  Most of the Zoo’s 16 Lions have Struggled to Cope With High Humidity This Summer

  

  August 4, 2026 -Three lions from a Tokyo zoo have died from suspected heatstroke and others are undergoing treatment, a spokesperson said on Tuesday, as the big cats struggle in Japan’s high levels of humidity.

  Japan sweltered through its hottest summer on record last year and parts of the country have hit 40C in recent weeks, qualifying for the new “cruelly hot day” designation.

• • Hungary’s Only Nuclear Plant On Brink of Shutdown
  as Europe Heat Wave Threatens Energy Crisis

  Energy and Climate Crisis at the Same Time
  
  {CNN World}

  August 3, 2026 - Europe’s brutal heat wave has already sparked record-breaking temperatures, deadly wildfires and mass evacuations. Now a new crisis looms: an energy shortage.

  Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar warned on Monday that the “hardest five days are ahead of us” as the country’s sole nuclear power station teeters on the verge of shutdown due to record-low water levels in parts of the Danube River.

• • Record-Low Danube River Affects Tourism and
  Industry As Drought and Heat Grip Central Europe

  The River is Expected to Further Ebb In the Coming Days With No Significant Rain In the Forecast...

  

  August 1, 2026 -As wildfires rage in France and Spain and a renewed heat wave is bearing down on Western Europe, a prolonged drought half a continent away is setting record low water levels on one of Europe’s largest rivers, disrupting tourism and industry and confronting residents with the realities of climate change.

  The Danube River, which runs through 10 countries from southwestern Germany to the Black Sea, has receded to never-before-seen lows along much of its course, exposing rocks, sand bars and old shipwrecks that have rarely been seen before.

• • What Europe’s Dried-Up Rivers Have Yielded:
  Lost Income, Energy Fears and a Woolly Mammoth

  Heat and Drought Have Affected Shipping, Power Plants and Tourism Across Eastern Europe – As Well As Unearthing Some Surprises

  

  August 1, 2026 -Baking temperatures and drought across large swathes of central and eastern Europe have driven water levels on the Danube and Rhine rivers to record lows in some areas, hitting shipping, energy production and tourism hard.

  Extreme conditions aggravated by the climate emergency left Europe’s waterways from the Netherlands to the Black Sea parched, triggering compounding crises.

• • Wildfires Rage In Greece As Firefighters
  Continue Battle In France and Spain

  UK, France, Germany, Austria Record
  Thousands of Heat-Related Deaths

  

  August 1, 2026 -Wildfires fanned by heavy winds burned across multiple areas of Greece on Saturday, including near Athens, with large-scale firefighting operations and emergency evacuations underway, while conditions worsened again in parts of Spain and France.

  Europe has been ravaged by wildfires this summer after a period of successive record-breaking heatwaves and little rain. Villages in France and Spain have been destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes and holiday accommodation.

• • The Age of Unstoppable Wildfires Has Reached Europe

  Climate Change Makes Megafires More Common, With Potentially Dire Economic Consequences
  
  {Bloomberg}

  July 31, 2026 -In a forest near Lège-Cap-Ferret, west of Bordeaux, Matthieu Jomain directs his crews as they fire water jets into the vegetation. Dense gray smoke seeps along the forest floor.

  A commander in the Gironde firefighting force, Jomain deployed to the region last week, and quickly realized that this wasn’t a normal fire. It was moving fast, changing in direction and intensity as it spread. On Friday night, as his team traveled between the upscale resort area of Cap Ferret and Bordeaux, they were caught by surprise by a wall of flames and had to fight their way out.

• • Scorching July May End Up the Warmest
  Month On Record Across the U.S.

  Another Massive Heat Dome Will Break Temperature Records and Raise Wildfire Risks in the West This Weekend

  

  July 31, 2026 -Yet another heat dome will bring critical fire weather risks and record-breaking temperatures to the West this weekend.

  But these aren’t the only records that may be set as the month concludes. There’s one even more staggering: July 2026 could become the warmest month on record across the contiguous United States.

• • A Record-Challenging Heat
  Dome is About to Bake the West

  The Summer’s Hottest
  Temperatures So Far
  
  {CNN Weather}

  July 31, 2026 - An unusually strong heat dome will scorch much of the western United States this weekend, bringing the hottest temperatures so far this year to tens of millions from California to Canada.

  Dozens of record highs are expected to fall in at least 12 states in the West through the weekend with nearly 50 million people under heat alerts.

  High temperatures will climb between 10 to nearly 20 degrees hotter than they should be — even for the peak of summer — from Southern California to the northern Rockies and Plains from Friday through Tuesday. Death Valley, California, is forecast to see the hottest temperature of this heat wave: a blistering 126 degrees.

• • Cincinnati Wants to Take in People Fleeing Climate Disasters

  A City With a Plan

  

  July 30, 2026 -By the end of the century, as many as 13 million American climate migrants could move inland from coastal areas because of sea level rise, according to research.

  If those figures come anywhere close to being realized, it’ll be a bigger demographic shift in absolute terms than the Great Migration of African Americans out of the South and the Dust Bowl flight from the Great Plains.

• • Earth’s Warming Primed France and Spain to Burn

  The Likelihood of Hot, Dry Weather That Helps Wildfires Spread Has Increased Sharply in Europe in Recent Decades

  

  July 30, 2026 -Conditions as hot, dry and windy as those leading up to the giant wildfires in France and Spain this week have become more likely in those countries since humans began warming the planet, according to a new analysis.

  A team of scientists examined weather records to see how often the regions around Bordeaux, in southwest France, and Madrid have been as parched and primed to burn as they have been in the past few weeks. The researchers’ findings are the latest evidence that parts of Southern Europe should expect huge fires to become a recurring threat.

• • Scientists Tracked Penguin Poop From Space
  and Noticed a Troubling Antarctic Shift

  Long-Term Records Documenting the Colors of Penguin Guano Shed Light On How Declining Sea Ice May Be Affecting Penguin Diets
  
  {ZME SCIENCE}

  July 30, 2026 -Luckily for Heather Lynch, Adélie penguins eat mostly two things: fish and krill. Krill have a distinct pink color that penguin poop retains. And penguins form colonies, meaning that together, they produce “absolutely prodigious quantities of guano,” she said.

  To put it simply: We can see penguin poop from space.

  A new study, published in Current Biology, uses satellite imagery of Adélie penguin guano to track how penguin diets and populations have shifted as sea ice in Antarctica has declined. The method has “totally opened our eyes to what’s going on across the continent,” said Lynch, an ecologist at Stony Brook University and coauthor of the new study.

• • The Mediterranean’s Warming Waters Are
  Drawing Hundreds of Invasive Species

  The Mediterranean of Our Ancestors is No More

  

  July 30, 2026 -Scientists say climate change, caused mainly by burning oil, coal and gas, is making the Mediterranean Sea hotter, bringing hundreds of new and invasive fish species that decimate indigenous populations.

  As biodiversity diminishes, coastal communities will struggle to make ends meet in the ways they’ve known for generations.

• • ‘Nightmarish’ Wildfire in Crete Kills Two
  Firefighters as Thousands Evacuate

  Greece Also Worked to Contain Blazes On Lesbos and In the Peloponnese, Where Another Firefighter Died, In the Midst of a Brutal European Wildfire Season

  

  July 30, 2026 -Greece battled a wildfire on Thursday on the island of Crete that has killed two firefighters and forced thousands to flee. The flames were the latest in a series of blazes that have charred Europe this summer and tested its ability to deal with increasingly extreme weather.

  More than 220 firefighters were tackling the wildfire in Crete, which broke out on Wednesday in the area of Krya Vrysi, in the south of the island. The fire, one of several that the Greek authorities were trying to contain on Thursday, was being fueled by strong wind, complicating efforts to put out the flames.

• • Europe’s Heating Climate Sparks ‘Major Intensification’ of Fires

  Climate Change Has Helped Southern Europe’s Likelihood of Wildfires Double Since 1981
  
  {ALJAZEERA}

  July 30, 2026 - Southern Europe is “becoming more flammable,” with the number of summer days featuring conditions likely to produce fires having more than doubled since 1981, according to a new report.

  The study, published on Thursday in the Scientific Reports journal, said that this “major intensification” of fire-prone weather is driven by climate change. It noted that these effects are especially pronounced in France and Spain, which have been battling some of their largest blazes since records began in recent weeks.

• • This Is What Antarctica Would Look Like Without All Its Ice

  Antarctica's Most Detailed Map Exposes Its Vulnerable Future
  
  {ZME SCIENCE}

  July 29, 2026 -Few frontiers in the world can still be said to be unexplored. One of these terra incognita is the land beneath Antarctica’s ice sheets. Buried under kilometres of ice is a fascinating realm of canyons, waterways, and lakes. These features have now been revealed in the most detailed picture yet of the land beneath the ice.

  The new map, called Bedmap3, peels back the frozen veil of Antarctica. It is the culmination of more than six decades of surveys. Bedmap3 combines data from planes, satellites, ships, and even dog-drawn sleds to create a vivid portrait of Antarctica as if its 27 million cubic kilometers of ice had vanished.

• • Searing Arizona Heat Sent Demand to New Highs

  Hot Stuff in Arizona
  
  {energy central}

  July 29, 2026 -Last week, Arizona’s biggest electric utilities—Arizona Public Service and Salt River Project—broke demand records as temps neared 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

  The details: Both utilities saw peak load exceed 9 GW (400-500 MW above the records set in 2025), but kept things running smoothly. SRP credited its new resources, including solar and storage, which have added nearly 800 MW to the grid.

• • How to Save Giant Sequoias:

  Burn the Forest Around It First

  

  July 29, 2026 -Giant sequoias are built to live with fire. Their thick, spongy bark shields the underlying wood from flames. The lower trunks are largely devoid of foliage, offering little fuel to help fires reach the canopy. Heat pops open their dense cones, releasing seeds for the next generation.

  But today’s fires, supercharged by climate change and underbrush left by decades of fire suppression, are too much even for these long-lived behemoths. In 2020 and 2021 wildfires in western California raged through sequoia groves, killing thousands of the trees in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks.

• • Emptying Countryside Leaves ‘No
  Simple Solution’ to European Wildfires

  A Warming Planet and a Shift Away From Farming Have Set the Stage For Larger Fires On the Continent

  

  July 29, 2026 -The giant wildfires in France and Spain are the countries’ largest on record, and at roughly 100,000 acres each, the blazes are bigger than all but six of last year’s wildfires in the American West.

  Studies have shown that global warming is driving Southern Europe’s recent increase in sprawling, fast-moving fires that create their own weather and can be all but impossible to put out. But experts say there’s another factor behind the continent’s large fires, one rooted in societal changes that could be hard to reverse.

• • UN Bid to Keep 1.5C Alive Exposes
  Deepening Divisions Over Fossil Fuels

  Vulnerable Island Nations and the Poorest Countries Want the Belém Mission to 1.5 to Drive Fossil Fuel Phase-Out...
  
  {CLIMATE HOME NEWS}

  July 29, 2026 -A UN effort to keep the threatened 1.5C warming limit alive is exposing deep divisions over the future of fossil fuels, pitting climate-vulnerable nations seeking a faster move away from coal, oil and gas against major emerging economies and producers that oppose targeting particular energy sources.

  As countries weigh in on the "Belém Mission to 1.5", a new process launched at COP30 last year to address the global shortfall in climate ambition, submissions show that small island nations and least developed countries (LDCs) want the initiative to help speed up a shift away from fossil fuels. Their calls for a focus on emissions-cutting measures in the energy sector are supported by the EU and the UK.

• • Europe’s Summer of Reckoning Is ‘Just the Beginning’

  The Continent's Experiencing Some of Its Biggest Fires and Highest Temperatures Ever

  

  July 29, 2026 -A dense, yellow-orange pall hung over Bordeaux on Sunday, blotting out the sun and blurring the spires of the cathedral in this French city. A swirl of tiny ash particles stung eyes and stuck in throats. Twenty miles west of town, a mammoth forest fire burned so ferociously that it generated its own weather system.

  “We’ve never seen anything like it,” said Roger Peuron, 89, a retired engineer born before World War II, who was driven out of his home by the approaching flames. He could have been speaking for millions of people across Europe.

• • China Unveils Climate Plan:
  17% Carbon Intensity Cut By 2030

  An Ambitious, Yet Achievable Goal
  
  {ALJAZEERA}

  July 29, 2026 -China has set a new climate target. The country plans to cut carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 17% by 2030 from 2025 levels, according to a national climate change plan made public on Wednesday.

  The plan, issued by multiple government departments including the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the National Development and Reform Commission, outlines key climate goals for the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030).

• • Record Warm Seas Power Three Storms
  At Once In the Pacific Ocean

  See Where These Sprawling Weather Systems Are Headed

  

  July 28, 2026 -Three tropical systems were churning across the Pacific Ocean early Tuesday, fueled by exceptionally warm ocean waters linked to an already record-breaking El Niño and a huge marine heat wave.

  Here’s what we know about them as of early Tuesday:

• • For Residents of Nain, Permafrost Thaw
  is Shifting the Ground Beneath Their Feet

  In the Rapidly Warming Arctic, Permafrost Thaw is Transforming the Landscape in Unpredictable and Challenging Ways
  
  {The Narwahl}

  July 28, 2026 -In central Nain, the largest community in northern Labrador, Joey Angnatok used shipping containers to build his warehouse.

  He placed the two sea cans on hefty steel H-beams, leaving some room beneath them, should he need to jack up one end or the other against the sloping, ever-changing ground.

  The land under them, he says, is “alive, like it’s always moving.”

• • France Braces For Fourth Major Heatwave
  As Crews Tackle Bordeaux Blaze

  Temperatures in Bordeaux Are Forecast to Reach 91 Degrees Fahrenheit During the Day, Around 7 Degrees Above the Average High Between 1961 and 1990

  

  July 28, 2026 -"The situation we are dealing with today is the most severe we have ever recorded, the toughest since the Second World War,"

  Fire crews had contained the blaze overnight, but the situation remained difficult, Nathalie Delattre, Senator for Gironde, which covers the city of Bordeaux, said.

  "Everything will depend on how the firefighters on the ground get on," she told BFM TV on Tuesday.

• • Devastating European Wildfires in Maps

  How They're Being Tackled
  
  {MSN}

  July 27, 2026 -Wildfires are tearing through France and Spain, forcing more than 300,000 people to evacuate their homes.

  France has seen more land burnt than any year this century, while officials in the Spanish capital Madrid say the fires are the worst the region has ever experienced.

  It follows a sweltering summer of heatwaves across Europe that have seen temperatures soar above 40C (104F) in many places.

• • France and Spain Race to Curb
  Wildfires Before New Heatwave Arrives

  Wildfires About 15 km (10 Miles) From Main Bordeaux City Area, Spain Also Battling Multiple Fires...

  

  July 27, 2026 -Firefighters sought on Monday to take advantage of more favourable weather conditions to subdue massive wildfires threatening the French city and tourist region of Bordeaux and a number of sites in neighbouring Spain.

  They were racing against the clock as another heatwave is expected to hit both countries later this week in what has been a blisteringly hot and dry summer across Western Europe.

• • Energy Secretary Secures Grid?Across 17
  States Amid Period of Hot Weather

  Secretary Wright Issued an Emergency Order to Stabilize the Grid to Mitigate the Risk of Blackouts Across During Hot Weather Conditions
  
  {US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY}

  July 26, 2026 -The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issued an emergency order to keep Americans across 17 states powered during the region’s energy emergency brought on by hot weather conditions. The order directs the Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (SPP) to dispatch specified generation units and to order their operation as needed to maintain reliability.

  The order also authorizes SPP to direct backup generation resources to operate as a last resort before declaring an Energy Emergency Alert (EEA) 3 or during an EEA 3. The order was issued pursuant to a request from SPP.

• • Denver Zoo Changes Sunday Operating
  Hours Due to Extreme Heat Forecast

  The Popular Attraction Will Be Open Early Sunday to Beat the Heat...
  
  {9NEWS}

  July 26, 2026 -The Denver Zoo is opening ahead of schedule on Sunday to avoid near-record heat this weekend.

  In a post on X, the Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance announced the zoo would open early at 8 a.m. so that guests can visit the park during a cooler part of the day.

  Timed entry reservations are suspended for the day, and all admission tickets will be honored at any time during operating hours. Outdoor animal demonstrations will conclude at noon.

• • Climate Change Now Threatens a Pillar of Childhood: Summer Break

  Heard on All Things Considered
  
  {NPR}

  July 26, 2026 -On a beautiful summer day in July, seven-year-old Penelope is turning into a mermaid.

  "I like playing mermaid," she says, with her feet dangling in the swimming pool at Beauvoir Summer Camp in Washington, D.C.

  "Like, I'm a human, and then I turn into a mermaid and I use one of the pool noodles as a dolphin, and I play with my friends," she says.

• • Colorado Cities Break Heat Records Amid Soaring Temperatures

  Boulder Reached 100 Degrees, Previous Record of 98 Degrees Reached In 2023
  
  {CBS NEWS}

  July 26, 2026 -One CBS Colorado viewer put it best when they said the state is "spinning around in the devil's air fryer." It certainly feels that way across Colorado, where multiple cities, including Denver, broke heat records on Saturday.

  Denver's previous heat record for July 25 was set in 1963 when the temperature at the airport reached 99 degrees. Today, the high temperature at Denver International Airport reached 101 degrees. According to the National Weather Service, other areas that broke previous heat records on July 25 include:

• • The Post Counted 70 Deaths From July Heat Domes

  The True Toll May Not Be Known

  

  July 26, 2026 -Martha Irene Van Egmond was working in her garden in Bolton, Mississippi, when she stumbled and couldn’t get up. The 83-year-old spent hours lying on the ground amid temperatures over 90 degrees, the county coroner said, eventually succumbing to the oppressive heat.

  Mike Rodriguez, 57, died of heat stroke in his poorly ventilated attic apartment on Chicago’s South Side, neighbors told local public radio station WBEZ — his core body temperature rising so high his organs could no longer function.

• • Heat Dome Expands Across the Central United States

  Creating Dangerous Conditions For Millions

  

  July 25, 2026 -Temperatures hit sweltering highs across much of the central United States on Saturday as forecasters warned that dangerously hot weather from Dallas to North Dakota would push into next week, with roughly 80 million people facing heat advisories.

  A heat dome, where atmospheric conditions trap heat, was forecast to create sustained high temperatures and accumulating discomfort. Meanwhile overnight lows were not expected to come down enough for people to have much chance to recover, allowing heat stress to build as the bad weather lingers, forecasters said. With the high humidity, it feels even worse.

• • Researchers Use Hemp, Rock Dust and Biochar
  to Scrub Forever Chemicals From Farm Soils

  A Yale Study Finds That Combining Three Low-Cost Interventions Could Bring Contaminated Soils Below Safety Thresholds Within a Decade...

  

  July 24, 2026 -A growing problem of modern industrial agriculture is the accumulation of ‘forever chemicals’ like PFAS in the soil. But now, researchers have developed a three-part plan involving hemp plants to draw it out of the soil—one that they say will cost a fraction of regular toxic clean up, and remove CO2 while they’re at it.

  For decades, groups of persistent synthetic chemicals like PFAS have been used to make a range of products including food-contact materials, so accumulating in our bodies, and then our waste—which often becomes fertilizer. This has created a situation where swathes of farmland is now straining under a toxic load. Some farms in US states like Maine have even been forced to shut down because their soils exceeded safe limits for crop production and consumption.

• • Mamdani Commits $43 Million to Jump-
  Start Effort to Stop N.Y.C. Flooding

  The Money Will Go to an Agency Responsible For Addressing the Effects of Climate Change in the City...

  

  July 24, 2026 -In 2027, more than 100 flood gates are scheduled to start protecting residents in Lower Manhattan from the next Hurricane Sandy. Just one problem: There’s no money to maintain and operate them.

  That will soon change.

  On Friday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that the Bureau of Coastal Resilience, the agency in charge of the gates, would receive a substantial infusion of money, with its budget increasing to more than $43 million in coming years.

• • Europe’s Heat Waves Fuel Rash of Wildfires

  Authorities Have Evacuated Tens of Thousands of People, Including From Affluent Tourist Sites Engulfed In the Flames
  
  {THE WALL STREET JOURNAL}

  July 24, 2026 -A summer of heat waves has left Europe’s vegetation dangerously dry. Now that tinderbox is going up in flames.

  Wildfires are raging across the southwest of the continent, forcing authorities to evacuate tens of thousands of people from tourist resorts and other areas close to population centers.

• • The Planet’s Strongest Heat Dome Will Soon
  Tower Over the Rockies and Plains

  Where Record-Toppling Temperatures of 110 Degrees Are Possible Through Next Week

  

  July 24, 2026 -It has been the summer of the heat dome.

  Europe was hit by record-breaking heat events in May and June. Then, a slow-moving heat dome sizzled the East in early July, toppling records. After that, another sprawling heat dome spiked temperatures to 115 degrees in Montana, breaking yet more records.

  And now, another heat dome — predicted to strengthen Saturday into the most powerful one on the planet at that time — is threatening to break more records across the Plains and Rockies.

• • As Europe Roasts, the World’s Largest Meat Producer Ditches Net-Zero

  Food Systems Strategy at World Animal Protection Chimes In
  
  {EARTH.ORG}

  July 23, 2026 - Earlier this month, JBS – the world’s largest meatpacking and factory farming company – scrapped its target to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across its entire operations by 2040.

  The Brazilian company, which is now headquartered in the Netherlands, announced its net-zero commitment five years ago with big ambitions and even bigger statements. “Climate change is the great challenge of our time and we must act urgently to combat the negative effects of global warming,” Gilberto Tomazoni, JBS’ Global Chief Executive Officer said back in 2021. JBS was paving the way for other multinational corporations to follow, making headlines and soaking up praise as a result.

• • New York Faces Half a Trillion in Storm Prevention Costs

  A Study Called Rebuild by Design Estimates That The Money Will Be Needed to Repair the Effects of Climate Change in the Next 24 Years

  

  July 23, 2026 -Three years ago, a deluge overwhelmed Highland Falls, N.Y. A murky river rushed through Main Street, and one woman was swept away with the currents after leaving her home.

  Now, the Hudson Valley village has to spend half a million dollars a year just to pay the interest on the money it borrowed for crucial repairs.

• • The Geopolitics of Air-Conditioning

  Heatwaves are making access to AC a political problem around the world
  
  {The Economist}

  July 23, 2026 -On a sun-baked morning in early July, with temperatures set to soar above 40°C (104°F), a mob in Nanterre, a Paris suburb, heaved against the doors of a Lidl supermarket until they collapsed. The sweat-stained hooligans were desperate shoppers, pitted against each other for the last portable air-conditioning (AC) unit. In another Lidl across town two men came to blows. French politicians had a row of their own, over how much AC was too much.

  At about the same time in cities across Pakistan and Bangladesh, protesters blocked roads and surrounded electricity offices during weeks of power cuts in temperatures as hot as 45°C. In Chandpur, Bangladesh, in late June residents allegedly assaulted an employee of the Rural Electrification Board. In May power cuts during a heatwave in India led to similar protests in some rural villages, where residents complained they could not even run fans at night. In places like Iraq and Sri Lanka, too, unrest has broken out over shortages of energy needed to keep cool.

• • Southern California’s Heat Wave is About to Break

  But Not For Long
  
  {Los Angeles Times}

  July 23, 2026 -Southern California will continue to endure hotter than normal conditions for the foreseeable future, with the peak of the heat wave lasting through Sunday, forecasters said.

  High temperatures will be in the 90s to low 100s in the valleys, with the Antelope Valley in the 100s, and in the 70s to 80s in coastal areas, according to the National Weather Service. A heat advisory is in effect for many areas until 8 p.m. Monday.

  The Santa Barbara Airport recorded a record-high daily temperature of 95 degrees Wednesday, breaking an old record of 94 degrees on that date in 2016, according to preliminary information from the National Weather Service.

• • It’s So Hot That Japan Needs a New Word For It

  Kokushobi, a Term That Means “Cruel Heat Day,” As Temperatures Reached 104 Degrees

  

  July 23, 2026 -Health and weather authorities in Japan were at a loss. A record number of people suffered from heat stroke last year as more cities experienced their highest-ever temperatures, despite official warnings about the dangers of excessive heat.

  They decided to tackle the problem by giving it a name. Earlier this year, the Japan Meteorological Agency held a public poll to select a name for a day of temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) or higher, to signal that precautions were needed. The winner, with more than 40 percent of the vote, was kokushobi, meaning “cruel heat day.”

• • Rising Carbon Dioxide Levels May Be
  Wiping Out the World’s Biggest Bees

  Human-Made CO2 Emissions Threaten the Very Survival of Our Larger Pollinators
  
  {ZME SCIENCE}

  July 22, 2026 -Pollinators – including bees, flies, wasps, moths, butterflies and some nectar-loving birds – are a cornerstone of our natural environment.

  By helping plants reproduce, they keep our ecosystems healthy and ensure we can grow vital food crops.

  But climate change threatens the very survival of these hard-working animals.

• • Earth is Getting Dimmer and Hotter

  Why the Planet’s Diminishing Albedo is Causing Alarm
  
  {The Economist}

  July 22, 2026 -Global dimming is making Earth hotter. Over the past few decades, the planet has been reflecting less sunlight and absorbing more heat, in ways that are confounding existing climate models. The reasons behind this dimming are still unclear but a surprising culprit is emerging—the welcome reduction in global air pollution. As Earth’s temperatures continue to break records this year, what does global dimming mean for future warming?

• • France Suffers 5,700 Excess Deaths Amid Heatwave

  The Official Word
  
  {POLITICOPRO}

  July 22, 2026 -France is experiencing a sizable increase in excess deaths due to the heatwave that struck parts of Europe last month.

  French public health officials recorded more than 5,700 excess deaths last month, The Associated Press (AP) reported. Between June 17 and July 2, Public Health France reported that the regions affected by the heatwave saw 21,674 deaths.

• • After 6 Years of Struggle, Mexico Gets a
  Miraculous Gift From Mother Nature

  It Will Make You Smile
  
  {HEALTHY HAPPY NEWS}

  July 22, 2026 -Mexico’s devastating 6-year drought is finally ending thanks to abundant rainfall this season.

  El Niño weather patterns are bringing hope and relief to communities across the country.

  Reservoirs are filling to the brim, bringing joy and renewed optimism to farmers and families.

  After six long years of parched land and worry, Mexico is experiencing a heartwarming turnaround that’s restoring hope across the nation. Mother Nature is delivering exactly what the country needs—and the timing couldn’t be more perfect.

• • Tropical Storm Bertha Expected to Make
  Landfall in Louisiana on Wednesday

  Storm Surge, Gusty Winds and Slow-Moving Downpours Are Forecast Along the Gulf Coast

  

  July 22, 2026 -Tropical Storm Bertha, the second storm of the season in the Atlantic Ocean, was slowly approaching Louisiana early Wednesday.

  As of 5 a.m. Wednesday, the storm was about 110 miles southeast of New Orleans, had winds of 50 mph and was moving westward at around 5 mph.

  Bertha is forecast to make landfall in southeastern Louisiana on Wednesday, where 1 to 3 or 2 to 4 feet of storm surge, dangerous rip currents, tropical-storm-force winds and slow-moving downpours are all possible.

• • Antarctic Tourism Is a Climate Farce

  Its Environmental Cost Is Getting Harder to Ignore
  
  {ZME SCIENCE}

  July 21, 2026 -Those are the words of a former Antarctic tour guide we interviewed. For anyone interested in nature, few jobs sound more enviable. You spend months among penguins, orcas and glaciers, helping visitors experience one of the world’s most extraordinary and unspoiled places.

  But for some guides, like those we quote in this article, that privilege slowly became impossible to reconcile with their beliefs. Watching climate change unfold while helping thousands more visitors reach the continent eventually led them to leave the jobs they’d once dreamed of.

• • This SoCal Heat Wave Could Be Hottest of the Year

  5 Things to Know

  

  July 21, 2026 -This week could bring Southern California its most sweltering temperatures of the year — a heat wave made all the more miserable, and dangerous, by oppressive muggy conditions and little nighttime relief.

  “This looks to be the hottest stretch so far this year,” said Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Oxnard office.

  And it’ll be quite a stretch. The mercury could hit triple digits across much of the Southland Tuesday through Monday.

• • Extreme Heat Costing India’s Poorest Workers 2% of GDP

  India’s Informal Workers Are Estimated to Be Losing $78 Billion In Wages Per Year Because of Productivity Declines and Illness Caused By Intensifying Heat
  
  {CLIMATE HOME NEWS}

  July 21, 2026 -Low-income Indian workers, many of them migrants from rural areas hit by climate change, are paying for worsening extreme heat through lost working days and health complications, with the cost equivalent to 2% of national GDP per year, new research shows.

  The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), a London-based think-tank, worked with local organisations to survey around 540 households of informal workers in three Indian cities: Ajmer, Delhi and Agra. Most had migrated from rural areas to find work in industries such as construction, brick-making, garment manufacturing and food packaging.

• • Provocative New Study Says New
  Orleans Cannot Be Protected Forever

  Is It Time to Plan a Retreat?
  
  {ZME SCIENCE}

  July 21, 2026 -New Orleans exists because it bargains with water.

  The city pumps it, walls it off, channels it, blesses it, fears it, and dances beside it. For more than three centuries, that uneasy bargain has made life possible on the shifting, sinking sediment of the Mississippi River Delta.

  But a provocative new paper argues that the bargain is no longer tenable.

• • Wu, Feds Unveil Plan to Tackle Sea Level Rise in Boston

  Planned Projects Are Estimated to Prevent More Than $40B in Projected Losses Through End of Century...
  
  {CommonWealthBEACON}

  July 20, 2026 -IF BOSTON IS going to avert the most catastrophic impacts of projected sea level rise this century, it needs to get building.

  A new landmark draft plan set to be released this week from the US Army Corps of Engineers in partnership with the city recommends 20 specific projects to shore up the most flood-prone parts of Boston.

  Some 20,000 buildings and 40 percent of the city — more than a quarter-million residents — at risk of flooding are depending on it.

• • Is the Colorado River in a Climate Doom Loop?

  We Caused a problem, and Our Efforts to Fix it Made it worse
  
  {COLORADO NEWSLINE}

  July 20, 2026 -As negotiations and potential lawsuits over the Colorado River intensify, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation – which is ultimately in charge of managing the river – would be smart to pull back from the high-stakes gambit and take a hard look at the science.

  First and foremost, in a new report from the University of Colorado Boulder, the best scientists in the business predict that flows in the Colorado River could drop 30% more by 2050 due to climate change, and that pre-climate flow levels are not coming back.

• • Boston Flood Protection Draft Plan Will
  Outline $10.5 Billion in Coastal Projects

  After Four Years of Work, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will Release a Draft Report This Week Containing Plans For Building Flood Protection Projects in Boston
  
  {WCVB5}

  July 20, 2026 -According to the USACE, over 40 percent of Boston residents live in areas that are at risk of coastal flooding, and inaction could lead to $54 billion in losses between 2040 and 2090.

  City officials say the report is due to be published on Friday, which will also mark the start of a public comment period. Residents will have until Sept. 18 to provide feedback before the USACE moves to future steps.

• • Denver Water’s 1.5 Million Customers Are
  Falling Way Short of Drought-Cutting Goals

  The Utility Set a 20% Reduction Goal, But...
  
  {THE COLORADO SUN}

  July 20, 2026 -When Denver Water looked back at the historically abysmal snowpack, and ahead to a historically scorching summer, the crucial agency for 1.5 million Coloradans set a target of 20% water use cuts to help solve challenges from the ongoing drought.

  It’s not working.

  At roughly the midpoint of the high season for lawn watering, which accounts for about half of Denver Water home use, customers have cut only about 2% of the five-year system average. Officials fear that after a weekend of 100-degree temps forecast for the Front Range, they’ll see even worse results as customers reel from a searing streak of daily highs and defend their lawns with amped irrigation.

• • Earth’s Hottest and Coldest Places Were Separated
  By an Astonishing 136 Degrees Celsius Last Week

  Capturing Both Earth’s Seasons and Its Warming Climate
  
  {ZME SCIENCE}

  July 20, 2026 -In the darkness of the Antarctic winter, the thermometer at Concordia Station dropped to minus 84.1 degrees Celsius (-119.4°F). Five days earlier, on July 13, Armstrong, a small community in northern Ontario, had reached 40.8°C (105.4°F), while this year’s highest reported temperature — 52.7°C (126.9°F) — came from Omidieh, Iran.

  Measured from Iran to Antarctica, the difference was 136.8 degrees Celsius (246.2°F), large enough to make Earth look like two different planets at once.

• • The Aral Sea, Once the World’s Fourth-
  Largest Inland Lake, Was Drained Dry

  Now It’s a Ticking Carbon Bomb
  
  {ZME SCIENCE}

  July 20, 2026 -The Aral Sea sits between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and was once the fourth-largest inland body of water on Earth. For the past 60 years, though, humans have bled it nearly dry irrigating cotton crops, leaving behind a salty plain the size of Ireland. Its loss has long been seen as an ecological and humanitarian problem, but new research shows that it has also been a significant driver of climate change.

  The Aral Sea is technically a lake. But when nearly any body of water is full and works as it should, organic matter collects on the bottom, where it remains trapped, often for centuries or millennia. “They accumulate carbon in the sediment,” explained Rafael Marcé, a research scientist at the Centre for Advanced Studies in Blanes, Spain, and the lead author of the study, which was published today in the journal Science. “They are carbon sinks.”

• • Antarctic Meltwater Is Making Glaciers
  Slide Faster Toward the Ocean

  A New Study Uses Boreholes Drilled Deep Beneath Antarctic Ice to Investigate Why the Continent’s Glaciers Are Accelerating
  
  {SciTecDaily}

  July 20, 2026 -More than half a kilometer beneath an East Antarctic glacier, sensors detected water pressure high enough to support almost all the ice above. The measurements provide the first direct confirmation that meltwater from the surface can reach the base of an Antarctic glacier, reduce friction and accelerate its movement toward the ocean.

  “The Antarctic ice sheet holds 90% of the world’s glacier ice. If it were to melt completely and drain into the ocean, sea levels would rise by about 60 meters,” says Professor Shin Sugiyama of Hokkaido University.

• • Tropical Storm Bertha Expected to
  Form Soon and Threaten Gulf Coast

  With Flooding Rain and Strong Wind Gusts
  
  {CNN Weather}

  July 20, 2026 - A tropical storm watch has been issued for the coast of the Florida Panhandle from the Ochlockonee River west to the Jefferson-Plaquemines Parish border in Louisiana. In these locations, tropical storm conditions are possible within the next 24 to 48 hours. Additional watches could be issued farther west along the Louisiana and Texas coast in the next day or two.

  Dry air and the depression’s large size have kept it from forming the persistent thunderstorms near its center that a healthy tropical cyclone needs to strengthen, despite fuel from near-record warm Gulf water.

• • Colorado Heat Wave Causing Roads, Multi-Use Paths to Buckle

  The Mudslides Stranded 21 People, Blocked Roads, flooded Main Street, and More
  
  {CBS NEWS}

  July 19, 2026 -Temperatures have continued to soar in Colorado, with many areas experiencing dangerous heat and highs near 100 degrees.

  Heat stress on our roads and multi-use paths is causing the concrete to buckle in some places.

  It's an issue often seen in the summer as temperature shifts cause concrete slabs to expand. This can cause the slabs to push against each other, building up pressure in the joints between them until the slabs rise or the concrete breaks.

• • California is Dialing Up Ratepayer Heat Protections

  This Seems Like a High Impact to the Community, Lower Impact to the Utility Decision, and an Obvious Way to Build Trust and Good Will
  
  {energy central}

  July 19, 2026 -Temp check: California IOUs can no longer shut off power to delinquent customers in 100-degree-Fahrenheit heat, as ordered by a recent CPUC vote. The new cutoff: 90 degrees. This decision follows two years of advocacy from consumer group Utility Reform Network.

  Next steps: Within six months, these utilities must introduce region-specific temperature thresholds by taking local context (like the number of seniors and children in a community) into account.

• • A Strong El Niño Spells More Climate Pain For the Philippines

  The Weather Phenomenon Will Bring More Extreme Weather, Its Effects Are Already Being Felt in a Country Reeling From a Series of Disasters
  
  {CLIMATE HOME NEWS}

  July 16, 2026 -The Philippines is caught in an extreme weather trap. Here, forecasts for a strong El Niño in the months ahead do not just indicate a period of drought – they also point to torrential rain and flooding.

  It could hardly come at a worse time, threatening communities that are still struggling to recover from previous typhoons, such as last year’s Typhoon Tino, as well as two strong earthquakes – in Cebu in September 2025 and last month’s 7.8-magnitude quake in Mindanao.

• • For Pregnant Women in Hong Kong, Extreme Heat Is a Silent Threat

  With No Warning
  
  {EARTH.ORG}

  July 16, 2026 -As climate change supercharges summers in Hong Kong and across Asia, pregnant women are enduring unprecedented heatwaves with virtually no warning from the medical systems designed to protect them. Despite clear clinical evidence linking rising ambient temperatures to miscarriage and preterm birth, a silence in antenatal clinics is leaving the region’s most vulnerable mothers entirely in the dark.

  Siti is six months pregnant and riding out Hong Kong’s summer alone in a Sham Shui Po sixth-floor walk-up. In months of prenatal visits at Kwong Wah Hospital, no one mentioned heat could harm her or her baby.

• • The World’s Cleanest Air Is a Secret Weapon for Climate Science

  Researchers at a Remote Australian Station Are Studying One of the World’s Last Pristine Air Masses to Answer Enduring Questions About Climate Change
  
  {Bloomberg}

  July 16, 2026 -Relentless winds sweep more than 10,000 kilometers (6,214 miles) across the Southern Ocean, from the fringes of South America to Tasmania’s craggy northwestern coast, delivering some of the world’s cleanest air to intake pipes near the top of an 80-meter-high tower.

  Untainted by pollution from the cities and industries that crowd the Northern Hemisphere, the air provides a unique sample of Earth’s atmosphere. It has made this isolated corner of Australia one of the world’s most important sites for monitoring humanity’s impact on climate change.

• • A Warmer World Will Be a Smokier One

  Higher Temperatures and Drought Conditions Are Contributing to More Intense Wildfires and...

  

  July 16, 2026 -When dense clouds of smoke from wildfires in Canada last smothered large parts of North America in 2023, the hazy skies were a shocking new phenomenon for many residents.

  But climate change threatens to make it a recurring problem.

  “What we’re seeing here is a dramatic increase in wildfires in North America,” said Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist and professor at the University of Michigan. As long as humans continue to burn fossil fuels, Dr. Overpeck said, global temperatures will increase, droughts will worsen, and there will be bigger, more frequent wildfires and smoke events.

• • National Academies Finds Growing Evidence
  Linking Climate Change to Disasters

  The Report is Likely to Rank Among the Institution’s Most Deeply Scrutinized Publications in Recent Years
  
  {GREENWIRE}

  July 16, 2026 -The nation's preeminent science institution released an anticipated report Thursday indicating that research into the connections between climate change and individual weather disasters have grown stronger over the last decade.

  It comes as an obscure panel tasked with writing the report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine has been under intense scrutiny from the energy industry, conservative scholars and Republican lawmakers, who argued that the 252-page document is meant to help climate lawsuits against oil and gas companies.

• • Heat Waves Hurt the Grid in More Ways Than You Might Realize

  What More Harm Can the Heat Wave Bring
  
  {energy central}

  July 15, 2026 -This summer, extreme heat is hitting the US—hard. Take the recent Western heat dome, which raised temps up to four degrees above previous records. That’s “extremely hard to do statistically,” Erik Smith, a climate data analyst at EPRI, told Energy Central. “And research says that we’re going to see a lot more of those types of record-shattering events.”

  What this means for the grid: These unprecedented heat waves pile more demand on an already strained system. And in these extreme conditions, it’s hard to keep essential assets running.

• • Climate Change and Air Pollution Combo
  is a ‘Double Whammy’ for Health

  Days That Are Both Extremely Hot and Polluted Come With Higher Risks of Respiratory Ailments and Other Health Hazards

  

  July 15, 2026 -Soaring temperatures are expected to collide with wildfire smoke across parts of the United States this week, a combination that can pose health risks.

  As climate change drives up global temperatures past record levels, the frequency of days when it is both hot and polluted has also been increasing.

• • Why Corn Isn’t Entirely to Blame For ‘Corn Sweat’

  Corn Has Taken the Heat For Recent Midwest Summer Humidity—Unjustly, According to Corn Experts

  

  July 14, 2026 -It’s boiling hot in the U.S. Midwest—which means it’s time for “corn sweat” to hit the headlines, drawing ire from millions sweltering under sky-high humidity and adding insult to heat wave injury. Cities that include Minneapolis, Des Moines and Indianapolis will wilt under heat index temperatures nearing or even exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit for most of the week.

  The phenomenon of corn sweat has only gone mainstream within the past decade, although farmers and meteorologists based in the so-called Corn Belt—centered around Nebraska, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois—have long recognized the increased humidity that can occur over farm fields. But agricultural scientists say it’s time for the slander to stop: corn doesn’t “sweat” any more than other major crops. Rather the issue is the sheer amount of acreage that has been carefully managed to maximize yields.

• • A Record Heatwave Recently Hit Great Britain’s Grid

  And an Alleged Cover-Up
  
  {energy central}

  July 14, 2026 -The mismatch: Amid late June’s brutal temperatures, NESO (Great Britain’s independent grid operator) said frequency and voltage remained within statutory limits. But the evidence shows otherwise: Frequency dipped below operational limits multiple times as unplanned outages struck gas plants.

  The allegations: Whistleblowers claim that senior leaders were “risking blackouts to protect NESO’s reputation.” The whistleblowers allege that NESO operators were directed to “hide information that the grid was not secure at all times." NESO Chief Executive Fintan Slye has denied the claims—and the grid operator is bringing in an independent law firm to investigate them.

• • Scientists Sail to Greenland to Study Melting Ice Sheets

  The International Group of Scientists Aboard the RSS Sir David Attenborough Will Head to Greenland to Study Tidewater Glaciers
  
  {BBC}

  July 15, 2026 -A group of international scientists are heading to Greenland on the UK's polar research ship RRS Sir David Attenborough to study how quickly melting ice sheets are pushing vital ocean currents towards collapse.

  The team will depart from Harwich International Port in Essex on Thursday.

  It is hoped the data gathered on tidewater glaciers can be used to improve predictions for the future of Greenland's glaciers and their impact on the surrounding ocean as they melt.

• • Extreme Temperature Warnings in Place As ‘Heat Dome’ Bakes US

  Americans Warned to Be on Alert For Heat-Related Illness As Parts of Country Experience Record High Temperatures

  

  July 15, 2026 -Extreme heat warnings are in place for large swaths of the United States this week, as an unusual weather pattern eclipses record temperature highs.

  In Billings, Montana, residents experienced a sweltering 111F (43.9C) on Sunday, the hottest day in its history. Salt Lake City in Utah also hit an all-time record high on Sunday at 109F. Boston has seen more 90F days than average, according to NPR station WBUR-FM.

• • Europe Races to Protect Infrastructure From Heat

  Drones, AI and White Paint

  

  July 15, 2026 -As Europe's railways buckle under record heat, roads melt and power grids strain, countries are turning to an array of fixes for ageing infrastructure, from drones inspecting tracks and AI-powered sensors to a ?surprisingly simple tool: white paint.

  At Norway's Oslo airport on Wednesday, with temperatures set to hit 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), 10 C above normal for the time of year, workers doused the tarmac with water to keep it cool.

• • California Faces Highest Shark Numbers in
  Years As Great Whites Head North

  El Niño Climate Phenomenon Heating Waters Off Mexico But Incidents With Humans Remain a Rarity

  

  July 14, 2026 -California is set to see one of its sharkiest summers in a decade, with large numbers of juvenile great whites already on a reverse vacation from the warm waters of Mexico to cooler pastures along the western United States.

  The marine predator has become more common along the west coast in recent years, with stories of surfers seeing underwater behemoths closer to shore and scientists saying swimmers and ocean-lovers alike are probably already sharing their favorite beaches with great whites, whether they know it or not.

• • Maps Show Which States Are Getting Hit
  Hardest By Extreme Heat, Excessive Rainfall

  Maps Show Heat Alerts
  
  {CBS NEWS}

  July 14, 2026 -A heat wave continues to bake huge sections of the United States, lingering in parts of the desert Southwest and across the northern tier of the country. Across parts of the South, especially Texas, severe storms were forecast to bring heavy rain and possible flooding.

  Extreme heat warnings and heat advisories were set to remain in place through Thursday in northern states including Montana, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, and stretching across the Northeast, covering an area that's home to at least 130 million people.

• • One of the Planet’s Strongest Heat
  Domes Will Soon Scorch the East Coast

  The Immense Heat Dome Has Already Broken Temperature Records Across the Intermountain West and Canada

  

  July 14, 2026 -One of the planet’s strongest heat domes will be located over the north-central United States on Tuesday, with its outer edges reaching eastward toward the Mid-Atlantic.

  This same, sprawling area of high pressure brought remarkable 115-degree heat to Montana on Sunday and 100-degree heat to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on Monday. It’s rivaling another intense heat dome over northern Africa, making the two the strongest currently on Earth.

• • How a Heat Dome Differs From a Regular Heat Wave

  Online Searches for Heat Domes Have Surged

  

  July 13, 2026 -It’s been the summer of the heat dome.

  As this weather term surged to record popularity online, temperatures also reached record levels across parts of the United States and Europe.

  This same, sprawling area of high pressure brought remarkable 115-degree heat to Montana on Sunday and 100-degree heat to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on Monday. It’s rivaling another intense heat dome over northern Africa, making the two the strongest currently on Earth.

• • Wildfire Rages Near Paris As Heatwave Scorches Europe

  Last Heatwave Linked to Thousands of 'Excess Deaths', Say Scientists

  

  July 13, 2026 -A wildfire tore through a historic forest near Paris on Monday, forcing highway closures and mobilising water-bombing aircraft, while Spain's death toll from one of its deadliest wildfires rose to 13, as much of western Europe simmered in a string of heatwaves.

  The region is enduring its third heatwave of the summer, with tinder-dry vegetation and high temperatures fuelling blazes from the Iberian Peninsula to France. Many scientists say climate change is making wildfires more frequent and difficult to combat.

• • May and June Heatwaves Killed About
  2,700 People in England and Wales

  Extreme Heat Led to 440 Deaths a Day During June Peak

  

  July 13, 2026 -The heatwave that affected England and Wales in June killed about 440 people a day during its three-day peak, scientists have estimated. Across the whole of the June heatwave, plus the one in May, about 2,700 people lost their lives prematurely.

  The data starkly illustrates the danger of extreme heat, which is being supercharged by the climate crisis. More than 40% of the people affected would not have died without the 1.4C of human-caused global heating to date, according to the analysis. For comparison, about four people die each day as a result of road traffic collisions and about 35 a day because of alcohol and drug use, according to government statistics.

• • Climate Change is Costing People Sleep

  One More Thing to Blame on Climate Change
  
  {CLIMATE CENTRAL}

  July 12, 2026 -Sufficient sleep quality and duration are essential for people’s health and well-being, but hotter nighttime temperatures are making it harder for people to get the rest they need.

  Globally, the average person lost nearly 56 hours of sleep per year due to high ambient temperatures during the 2020-2025 period, according to a new analysis from Climate Central.

• • Colorado's Extended Stretch of Summer Heat Isn't Going Anywhere

  The Prolonged Stretch of Hot, Dry Weather is Also Increasing Wildfire Concerns Across Colorado
  
  {CBS NEWS}

  July 12, 2026 -A strong area of high pressure parked over the western U.S. will continue to bring well above-average temperatures across much of the state through at least next weekend.

  Sunday is a First Alert Weather Day as dangerous heat continues, with additional First Alert Weather Days possible if temperatures remain near record levels. Afternoon highs Sunday will climb into the mid to upper 90s across the Denver metro area. Mountain valleys will also be unusually warm, with highs in the upper 80s and low 90s.

• 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