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by Jeff Masters and Bob Henson, Yale Climate ConnectionsAugust 10, 2026 Those who deny or dismiss U.S. climate change have hit a Waterloo moment of sorts. The nation just experienced its hottest month in more than 130 years of analysis, which breaks a record that had stood since the infamous Dust Bowl of the 1930s. For the 48 contiguous states, the July 2026 average of…
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David Boutt, UMass Amherst (from The Conversation) About two-thirds of the U.S. is in some stage of drought in late spring 2026, yet at the same time the country has been seeing more intense downpours. It might seem contradictory, but both are symptoms of rising global temperatures. The reason has to do with the water cycle. Water influences every aspect of our lives through a…
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Renee Obringer, Penn State and Dave White, Arizona State University (from The Conversation) When a drought turns into an urban water crisis, a city’s first step is often to limit lawn watering and launch a campaign to encourage everyone to conserve. It might raise water-use rates or offer incentives for installing low-flow devices. While demand management techniques like these have had a lot of success…
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Immediate impacts: Immediate and longer-term consequences for people, agriculture, wildlife, etc.: Extreme weather and climate change: the connections and impacts Where are all the birds? What is a flash drought? An earth scientist explains Climate change and agriculture: damage to crops Increasing frequency of drought and decreasing yields for soybeans Higher temperatures will lead to additional crop damage from insects Climate change is intensifying the water…
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WMO report documents spiralling weather and climate impacts (March 2025). Land and water degradation, food and water supply shortages, drug-resistant infections from overuse of antibiotics, overuse of pesticides and disease, sea level rise affecting coastal areas, microplastics/single-use plastic pollution on land and in the oceans, rapidly melting ice at the Poles, heatwaves, droughts, extreme rainfall, powerful hurricanes, and more … leading to people and animals…
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Antonia Hadjimichael, Penn State, from The Conversation Many people are familiar with flash floods – torrents that develop quickly after heavy rainfall. But there’s also such a thing as a flash drought, and these sudden, extreme dry spells are becoming a big concern for farmers and water utilities. Flash droughts start and intensify quickly, over periods of weeks to months, compared to years or decades…
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Shuang-Ye Wu, University of Dayton (from The Conversation) The summer of 2022 started with a historic flood in Montana, brought on by heavy rain and melting snow, that tore up roads and caused large areas of Yellowstone National Park to be evacuated. It ended with a record-breaking heat wave in California and much of the West that pushed the power grid to the breaking point,…
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Mathew Barlow, UMass Lowell (from The Conservation) Powerful storm systems triggered flash flooding across the U.S. in late July 2022, killing at least 25 people in eastern Kentucky as floodwater engulfed homes and set off mudslides. Record rainfall also inundated St. Louis neighborhoods, and another deluge in Nevada flooded the Las Vegas strip. The impact of climate change on extreme water-related events like this is…
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Most regions on Earth are warmer at present than in past decades and centuries, and many regions are experiencing a drying trend as a result of less rain and snow, more intermittent precipitation (less frequent rain and snow but more intense events) and/or higher rates of evaporation. More climate extremes, including prolonged droughts and heatwaves, have recently occurred across the globe. Moreover, human activity has…
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Pockets of intense rainfall occurring over a short period of time amid a larger movement toward drought is a signature of a changing climate. For more information, see — Excessive rainfall–the new normal Connections with a changing climate: drought, intense rainfall, and flooding Extreme rainfall will continue Large, intense thunderstorms will happen more frequently Extreme weather and climate change: the connections and impacts (from Science…
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