"It feels like we skipped spring this year and dropped straight into a summer heatwave. What should have been a gradual snowmelt happened suddenly weeks ago. To me, this is another reminder that aging water systems need to be retrofitted for more volatile precipitation patterns."
Rising temperatures are projected to increase the prevalence of physical inactivity, translating into additional premature deaths and productivity losses, especially in tropical regions. Prioritising heat-adaptive urban design, subsidised climate-controlled exercise facilities, and targeted heat-risk communication is essential to mitigate these emerging health and economic burdens, in addition to ambitious emissions reductions.
Covering Climate Now was formed in 2019 in response to the climate silence that then prevailed in much of the press, especially in the United States. Over the years that followed, hundreds of newsrooms joined our effort, and press coverage of the story began to reflect the scale of the crisis. Newsrooms beefed up their climate reporting teams; they confronted misinformation that sought to play down the problem; they thought creatively about how to find the climate connection on every beat.
"So whenever people think about hot weather, they always talk about the temperature," he says. "There's two issues with that. First of all, most people don't realise that the temperature is measured in the shade. So if you're in direct solar radiation, the amount of heat stress you're exposed to is much greater as it will stress your body out a lot more."
With a major winter storm about to blast pretty much every US state east of the Rocky Mountains, many are scrambling to prepare for the cold, ice, and snow. And according to popular meteorology influencer Max Schuster, there's yet another winter-weather hazard to watch out for: trees exploding in the frigid air. On a viral post on X-formerly-Twitter, Schuster - who holds a meteorology degree
When Storm Dennis hit the UK in 2020, a wall of dirty, frigid water from a tributary of the Taff threw Paul Thomas against the front of his house in the south Wales village of Ynysybwl. He managed to swim back into his home before the storm surge changed direction, almost carrying him out of the smashed-in front door. I was holding on to downpipes to stop myself being dragged out again.
After experiencing one of the wettest holiday seasons on record, still soggy California hit a major milestone this week - having zero areas of abnormal dryness for the first time in 25 years. This data, collected by the U.S. Drought Monitor, is a welcome nugget of news for Golden State residents, who in the last 15 years alone have lived through two of the worst droughts on record, the worst wildfire seasons on record and the most destructive wildfires ever.