Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

U.S. Winter outlook predicts warmer, drier South and cooler, wetter North      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Forecasters are saying that La Nina is expected to influence winter conditions this year. The Climate Prediction Center issued a La Nina watch this month, predicting the climate phenomenon is likely to develop in late fall or early winter. La Nina favors drier, warmer winters in the southern U.S and wetter, cooler conditions in the northern U.S. If La Nina conditions materialize, forecasters say it should be weak and potentially short-lived.

Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Carbon dioxide record at mauna loa, the music video: The sounds of climate change      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Two scientists put the carbon dioxide record at Mauna Loa to music, and made a music video of climate change.

Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Reef castaways: Can coral make it across Darwin's 'impassable' barrier?      (via sciencedaily.com) 

An international team of researchers have shown that vulnerable coral populations in the eastern tropical Pacific have been completely isolated from the rest of the Pacific Ocean for at least the past two decades.

Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Coral reefs facing a hot time and increased bleaching, especially along US coasts      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new NOAA outlook shows that many coral reefs across around the world will likely be exposed to higher-than-normal sea temperatures for an unprecedented third year in a row, leading to increased bleaching - and with no signs of stopping. While the bleaching event is global, it will hit the US hard.

Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Indian monsoon: Novel approach allows early forecasting      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The Indian monsoon's yearly onset and withdrawal can now be forecasted significantly earlier than previously possible. A team of scientists developed a novel prediction method based on a network analysis of regional weather data. Future climate change will likely affect monsoon stability and hence makes accurate forecasting even more relevant.

Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

NASA examines El Nino's impact on ocean's food source      (via sciencedaily.com) 

El Nino years can have a big impact on the littlest plants in the ocean, and scientists are studying the relationship between the two.

Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Risk of multiple tipping points should be triggering urgent action on climate change      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Pioneering new research shows that existing studies have massively under-valued the risk that ongoing carbon dioxide emissions pose of triggering damaging tipping points.

Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

NASA maps El Niño's shift on US precipitation      (via sciencedaily.com) 

This winter, areas across the globe experienced a shift in rain patterns due to the natural weather phenomenon known as El Nino. A new NASA visualization of rainfall data shows the various changes in the United States with wetter, wintery conditions in parts of California and across the East Coast.

Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

NASA sees a different kind of El Nino      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new NASA visualization shows the 2015 El Nino unfolding in the Pacific Ocean, as sea surface temperatures create different patterns than seen in the 1997-1998 El Nino. Computer models are just one tool that NASA scientists are using to study this large El Nino event, and compare it to other events in the past.

Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Herpes outbreak, other marine viruses linked to coral bleaching event      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Significant outbreaks of viruses may be associated with coral bleaching events, especially as a result of multiple environmental stresses, a study has concluded. One such event was documented even as it happened in a three-day period. It showed how an explosion of three viral groups, including a herpes-like virus, occurred just as corals were bleaching in one part of the Great Barrier Reef off the east coast of Australia.

Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Even thermally tolerant corals are in hot water when it comes to bleaching      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Scientists have discovered that corals adapted to naturally high temperatures, such as those off the north west coast of Australia, are nonetheless highly susceptible to heat stress and bleaching.

Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Global connections between El Nino events, drought      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A team of researchers recently discovered that global climate change is causing general increases in both plant growth and potential drought risk. El Nino is a disruption of the ocean-atmosphere system in the tropical Pacific with important consequences for weather around the globe.

Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

California 2100: More frequent and more severe droughts and floods likely      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new study suggests that the weather patterns known as El Nino and La Nina could lead to at least a doubling of extreme droughts and floods in California later this century.

Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Decade-long Amazon rainforest burn yields new insight into wildfires      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The longest and largest controlled burn experiment ever conducted in the Amazon rainforest has yielded new insight into the ways that tropical forests succumb to -- and bounce back from -- large-scale wildfires.

Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Peat fires in Sumatra strengthen in El Nino years      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Sumatra's burning again and the El Nino event that is occurring this year is partially to blame for the proliferation of the blazes.

Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Ocean changes are affecting salmon biodiversity, survival      (via sciencedaily.com) 

What happens at the Equator, doesn't stay at the Equator. El Nino-associated changes in the ocean may be putting the biodiversity of two Northern Pacific salmon species at risk, according to a study.

Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Severe flooding hits central Texas, Oklahoma      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A stagnant upper-air pattern that spread numerous storms and heavy rains from central Texas up into Oklahoma has resulted in record flooding for parts of the Lone Star State.

Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

How seabirds are affected by climate change      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Collaboration between ecologists and climate researchers has generated fascinating new insight into how seabirds are affected by climate change.

Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Gulf of Mexico marine food web changes over the decades      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Scientists in the Gulf of Mexico now have a better understanding of how naturally-occurring climate cycles -- as well as human activities -- can cause widespread ecosystem changes. These major shifts happen once every few decades in the Gulf, and can impact ecosystem components, including fisheries. Understanding how and why these shifts occur can help communities and industries alter management strategies in light of them.

Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Elusive El Niño arrives: Forecasters predict it will stay weak, have little influence on weather and climate      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The long-anticipated El Niño has finally arrived, according to forecasters with NOAA's Climate Prediction Center. In their updated monthly outlook released today, forecasters issued an El Niño Advisory to declare the arrival of the ocean-atmospheric phenomenon marked by warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures in the central Pacific Ocean near the equator.