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How the Climate System Works
- Department:May 24, 2017
Our ENSO blogger sits down with Ken Takahashi, an ENSO forecaster from Peru, to gab about the recent coastal El Niño and what might be coming up next.
- Department:March 2, 2017
In this installment of our Beyond the Data blog, Carl Schreck talks about how a tropical climate pattern called the MJO left its fingerprints all over California's soaking rains and Boston's recent snowstorm.
- Department:February 23, 2017
How much can forecasters say about ENSO during the spring? A lot depends on which phase—El Niño versus La Niña— the Pacific seems to be headed toward.
- Department:December 21, 2016
How does La Niña and the jet stream impact winter conditions in the United States?
- Department:November 23, 2016
Are sea surface temperatures located north of the equator important for El Niño or La Niña development? Yes! Introducing the Pacific Meridional Mode.
- Department:October 12, 2016
The ozone hole didn't cause global warming, but climate and the ozone hole are related in other ways.
- Department:October 6, 2016
Sometimes, on a long journey, it’s good to revisit the basics. That’s the theme for this edition of Beyond the Data. We’re going old school, looking at some good old climatology adages and truisms, through the lens of a sturdy, reliable warhorse of a dataset.
- Department:August 2, 2016
Globally, 2015 set a new record for the most extremely warm days in the 66-year record (1.8 times more than the average). The number of extremely warm days and nights was the highest ever recorded in western North America, parts of central Europe, and central Asia.
- Department:August 2, 2016
2015 was a tough year for vegetation, both natural and agricultural, with a near-record area of global land surfaces in some state of drought.
- Department:August 2, 2016
Using measurements taken worldwide, scientists estimated that 2015’s global average carbon dioxide concentration was 399.4 parts per million (ppm), a new record high. At Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawai’i, where atmospheric carbon dioxide has been recorded longer than anywhere else in the world, the annual average carbon dioxide concentration was 400.8—also a new record, and a new milestone.