ScienceDaily

Never before in over 1000 years the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), also known as Gulf Stream System, has been as weak as in the last decades. Researchers compiled proxy data, reaching back hundreds of years to reconstruct the AMOC flow history. They found consistent evidence that its slowdown in the 20th century is unprecedented in the past millennium.

Antarctica's northern George VI Ice Shelf experienced record melting during the 2019-2020 summer season compared to 31 previous summers of dramatically lower melt, a new study found. Using satellite observations that detect meltwater on top of the ice and within near-surface snow, the researchers found the most widespread melt of any season. Surface meltwater ponding is potentially dangerous to ice shelves because when these lakes drain, the ice fractures and may trigger ice-shelf break-up.

A digital twin of our planet is being designed to simulate Earth's climate system reaching into the future. It is a tool to support policy-?makers in taking appropriate measures to better prepare for extreme events.

Warming temperatures will potentially alter the climate in Alaska so profoundly later this century that the number of thunderstorms will triple, increasing the risks of widespread flash flooding, landslides, and lightning-induced wildfires, new research finds.

Normally, we think of the freezing point of water as 32°F - but in the world of weather forecasting and hydrologic prediction, that isn't always the case. In the Lake Tahoe region of the Sierra Nevada, the shift from snow to rain during winter storms may actually occur at temperatures closer to 39.5°F, according to new research from the Desert Research Institute (DRI), Lynker Technologies, and citizen scientists from the Tahoe Rain or Snow project.

Climate models predict that the difference between El Niño and La Niña related tropical rainfall will increase over the next 80 years, even though the temperature difference between El Niño and La Niña may change only very little in response to global warming. A new study uncovers the reasons for this surprising fact.

A new study identifies nine specific large-scale weather patterns that influence extreme precipitation over the Mediterranean. Making use of this connection between localized extremes and large-scale weather variability can help to better predict heavy rainfall up to three weeks ahead.

The Biden administration is revising the social cost of carbon (SCC), a decade-old cost-benefit metric used to inform climate policy by placing a monetary value on the impact of climate change. In a newly published analysis, a team of researchers lists a series of measures the administration should consider in recalculating the SCC.

A study recently completed in Europe and North America indicates that the composition of wintering and breeding bird communities changes in line with global warming. However, wintering bird communities are considerably faster at tracking the changing climate compared to breeding communities.

New research shows that hurricane maximum wind speeds in the subtropical Atlantic around Bermuda have more than doubled on average over the last 60 years due to rising ocean temperatures in the region.

First ever in-depth analysis of ECMWF's latest seasonal forecasting system shows it accurately predicts Indian monsoon onset and rainfall, and could be used to avoid crop losses.

From flooded spring fields to summer hailstorms and drought, farmers are well aware the weather is changing. It often means spring planting can't happen on time or has to happen twice to make up for catastrophic losses of young seedlings. It also means common pre-emergence herbicides are less effective.

Climate information is at risk of being misconstrued and used inappropriately in financial reports and has the potential to expose businesses to significant risk, according to a new article.

If temperature varies strongly from day to day, the economy grows less. Through these seemingly small variations climate change may have strong effects on economic growth. Researchers juxtaposed observed daily temperature changes with economic data from more than 1,500 regions worldwide over 40 years - with startling results.

A professor is calling on scientists to conduct dedicated process studies and to share their data and research findings on Arctic warming. She stresses the importance of studying how aerosols and clouds interact, as these highly complex and poorly understood mechanisms play a key role in climate change, but are also strongly affected by it. According to her, the region is in rapid transition and scientists need to act to not run behind.

The start of California's annual rainy season has been pushed back from November to December, prolonging the state's increasingly destructive wildfire season by nearly a month, according to new research. The study cannot confirm the shift is connected to climate change, but the results are consistent with climate models that predict drier autumns for California in a warming climate, according to the authors.

The lockdowns and reduced societal activity related to the COVID-19 pandemic affected emissions of pollutants in ways that slightly warmed the planet for several months last year, according to new research. The counterintuitive finding highlights the influence of airborne particles, or aerosols, that block incoming sunlight.

In the Van Allen radiation belts, electrons can reach almost the speed of light. Researchers have revealed conditions for such strong accelerations. They had demonstrated in 2020: during solar storm plasma waves play a crucial role. However, it remained unclear why ultra-relativistic electron energies are not achieved in all solar storms. They now show: extreme depletions of the background plasma density are crucial.

Winter survival of honey bee colonies is strongly influenced by summer temperatures and precipitation in the prior year, according to researchers, who said their findings suggest that honey bees have a 'goldilocks' preferred range of summer conditions outside of which their probability of surviving the winter falls.

Stable seafood consumption amongst the world's poorer coastal communities depends on their local habitat characteristics, which influences how they fish at different times of the year.