Climate Watch: As Drought Deepens, Fungal Spores May Become a Growing Health Threat

Dust storms can carry more than soil. Scientists are investigating how drought, heat and cycles of rain followed by dry weather may increase human exposure to disease-causing fungal spores. Climate change may be creating an unusual public health hazard in the American West: conditions capable of putting disease-causing fungal spores into the air. BBC Science […]

Climate Watch: As Rivers Shrink, Europe’s Nuclear Plants Face an Emerging Climate Risk

Low river levels across Central Europe are disrupting nuclear power generation, illustrating how climate-driven environmental change is testing infrastructure designed for a different climate. Europe’s prolonged heatwave and worsening drought are exposing an often-overlooked consequence of climate and environmental change: the vulnerability of nuclear power plants that rely on rivers for cooling. Across Central Europe, […]

Climate Watch: Heat Dome to Push Triple-Digit Temperatures Across Much of the U.S. This Weekend

Meteorologists warn that an expanding heat dome will produce widespread triple-digit temperatures as another weather system raises the risk of damaging winds, flooding, and hail across the eastern United States. Meteorologists describe a heat dome as a persistent area of strong high pressure that traps hot air near the Earth’s surface. As the air sinks […]

Climate Watch: Scientists Say Climate Extremes Are Outpacing Their Expectations

A growing number of climate researchers say recent heat records, ocean temperatures, and other environmental changes are occurring with a speed that has exceeded many expectations, raising new questions about how quickly the planet may continue to warm. The world’s leading climate scientists have spent decades warning that a warming planet would produce more frequent […]