NCAR News

Climate Change Won’t Impact Powerful Nor’easters

Even though climate change is expected to reduce the total amount of U.S. snowfall this century, it’s unlikely to significantly rein in the most powerful nor’easters that pummel the East Coast, new research indicates. The study finds that smaller snowstorms …

Study: Half of Annual Global Precipitation Falls in Just 12 Days

Currently, half of the world’s measured precipitation that falls in a year falls in just 12 days, according to a new analysis of data collected at weather stations across the globe. By century’s end, climate models project that this lopsided …

Study: Impacts of El Niño and La Niña to Intensify as Climate Warms

When an El Niño or its opposite, La Niña, forms in the future, it’s likely to cause more intense impacts over many land regions — amplifying changes to temperature, precipitation, and wildfire risk — due to the warming climate. These …

New Analysis Compares 22 Named Storms With Their Future Selves

Scientists have published a detailed analysis of how 22 recent hurricanes would change if they instead formed near the end of this century. While each storm’s transformation would be unique, on balance, the hurricanes would become a little stronger, a …

Study: Record-Breaking Ocean Heat Fueled Hurricane Harvey

In the weeks before Hurricane Harvey tore across the Gulf of Mexico and plowed into the Texas coast in August 2017, the Gulf’s waters were warmer than any time on record, according to a new analysis led by the National …

Cutting Greenhouse Gas Emissions Would Help Thwart Threat From Rising Seas

Coastal cities worldwide would face a reduced threat from sea level rise if society reduced greenhouse gas emissions, with especially significant benefits for New York and other U.S. East Coast cities, new research indicates. The study, by scientists at the …

Researchers Look for Ways to Limit Hail Damage

Andrew J. Heymsfield has an affinity for thunderstorms, particularly those nasty spring-born storms that darken the plains and drop hailstones similar to millions of tiny ice bombs, leaving crushed crops, car hood dings and dimples, and billions of dollars of …

New Technology Targets Slick Winter Highways

In the annual battle to keep roads clear of snow and ice, snowplows are about to get much more intelligent. Officials in four states this winter are deploying hundreds of plows with custom-designed sensors that continually measure road and weather …

Scientists Nearing Forecasts of Long-Lived Wildfires

Scientists have developed a new computer modeling technique that offers the promise, for the first time, of producing continually updated daylong predictions of wildfire growth throughout the lifetime of long-lived blazes. The technique, devised by scientists at the National Center …

Scientists Eye Longer-Term Forecasts of U.S. Heat Waves

Scientists have fingerprinted a distinctive atmospheric wave pattern high above the Northern Hemisphere that can foreshadow the emergence of summertime heat waves in the United States more than two weeks in advance. The new research, led by scientists at the …