By Yujia Huang , ScienceNews.  Excerpt: On April 28, a fierce hailstorm battered Springfield, Mo., dropping ice chunks the size of baseballs, with some even larger than grapefruits. The giant hail smashed cars, wrecked homes and injured both people and animals. This type of destructive hail is making headlines more frequently. In a warming world, ice falling from the sky might seem more likely to melt away. But hailstones may instead grow larger and more destructive in many parts of the world , though the risks will vary by region, researchers report May 27 in Nature ....  Full article at https://www.sciencenews.org/article/large-hail-climate-change-more-common . 

By Vivian La , Grist.  Excerpt: Flooding across northern Michigan last month pushed rivers to record levels, testing the limits of the state’s aging dams so severely that officials in one city nearly ordered evacuations as water threatened to spill over the top of a key barrier — a close call that highlights the growing risk that intensifying storms pose to similar infrastructure around the country....  Full article at https://grist.org/extreme-weather/close-calls-at-michigans-dams-are-a-climate-warning-to-america/ . 

By Jim Robbins , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Officials are designing new ways to protect the shorelines from sudden flooding and longer storm seasons....  Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/science/lake-erie-storm-surges.html . 

By Mark Fischetti , Scientific American.  Excerpt: By last Saturday, the National Weather Service reported that 552 tornadoes had occurred in the U.S. this year—well above the average total of 337 for the period of January through April in 1991–2020. Then an outbreak struck Texas and Oklahoma on Saturday night, killing at least three people. Parts of those two states were at the center of the twister-prone “ tornado alley ” for most of the 1900s, but this well-known corridor has been shifting steadily eastward in the past three and a half decades. This year many of the touchdowns that caused deaths occurred in Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee, all east of the old alley. Why does the U.S. have so many tornadoes? Far more tornadoes strike the U.S. than any other country, and this is because of its geography. Wet, westerly winds from the Pacific Ocean become dry as they pass over the the Rocky Mountains, then become high and cool as they blow farther east. Meanwhile warm, humid air...

By authors of Eos/AGU.  A collection of Eos/AGU articles about tornadoes, including The Surprising Factor Making the United States a Tornado Hot Spot (2024 Aug 16), Is It Climate Change? Americans Mostly Say Yes (2024 Jun 18), Tornadoes’ Fastest Winds Howl Close to the Ground (2023 Apr 3), A Hotter Earth Means Stronger Tornadoes (2021 Dec 13), Rise in Tornado Numbers per Outbreak May Not Be Tied to Warming (2016 Dec 7), Understanding How Climate Change Could Affect Tornadoes (2014 Nov 11).... 

By Andrew J. Wight , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: In the past 70 years, more than 75,000 tornadoes have been recorded in the United States. Recordkeeping of these phenomena outside this region has been largely fragmented, sitting isolated in books, government databases, and research archives. But a new effort to scour as many publicly accessible records as possible is highlighting the scale of this hazard around the world. In a  new study ,  Malcolm Maas , an undergraduate student at the University of Maryland, College Park, and a team of tornado researchers compiled a tornado database that they hope will boost tornado research globally. ...The United States accounts for 21,548 of the recorded fatalities in the database published by Maas and his collaborators. But tornadoes in other countries wreak havoc as well: Bangladesh accounts for 8,325 fatalities in the database, India has seen 1,473, and the rest of the world combined accounts for 3,824....  Full article at https://eos...

By Roberto González , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Rapid intensification of hurricanes is 50% more likely to occur during marine heat waves in the Gulf of Mexico and northwestern Caribbean Sea ...according to a  study  published in August in  Communications Earth and Environment . These types of hurricanes are more dangerous as they make landfall because their intensity is harder to predict....  Full article at https://eos.org/articles/marine-heat-waves-make-tropical-storm-intensification-more-likely .  See also other Eos articles on heat waves - https://eos.org/tag/heat-waves . 

By Carolyn Gramling , Science News.  Excerpt: One of the widest hurricanes on record slammed into Florida’s Gulf Coast on September 26 as a powerful Category 4 storm, inundating Florida’s coast with meters-high storm surge and sending tropical storm–force winds as far as 500 kilometers from its eye. ...Just three days earlier, it was a disorganized cluster of thunderstorms off the eastern coast of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. A mere “tropical disturbance,” it was dubbed PTC9 for tracking purposes. ...Within just 60 hours...PTC9 would intensify...from winds less than 35 knots (about 65 kilometers per hour) to hurricane-force winds of at least 100 knots (185 kilometers per hour). It was the fastest predicted spin-up from disturbance to major hurricane in the NHC’s history. ...Rapid intensification is becoming a new normal for hurricanes. NHC  defines rapid intensification  as when a storm’s maximum sustained winds jump by at least 56 kph (35 miles per hour) in less than a da...

By Paul Voosen , Science.  Excerpt: Some 250 million years ago, more than 80% of marine species and two-thirds of those on land died off in the end-Permian mass extinction—the closest life ever came to annihilation. Most scientists think massive volcanic eruptions in what is now Siberia triggered the event by spewing carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and warming the planet. But  according to a modeling study  published this week in  Science , the Great Dying was primed by a mega–El Niño pattern in the global ocean of the time, leading to weather extremes that killed off forests and kicked off the extinctions. ...Geological evidence suggests that before the eruptions, atmospheric CO 2  levels were likely about 400 parts per million (ppm), similar to the present day. As they began to tick up, the model showed profound El Niño events began to occur, says Alexander Farnsworth, a study co-author and paleoclimate modeler at the University of Bristol. ...Chaotic weather would hav...

By Raymond Zhong , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Tropical Storm Debby’s time back at sea on Wednesday was helping it recharge somewhat before it was expected to drift back onto the South Carolina shore overnight, according to the National Hurricane Center. The ocean provides storms like Debby with two key ingredients they need to pack a wallop: warm water and moist air. There’s plenty of moisture in the air off the Southeastern coast right now because both the seawater and the air above it have been unusually warm. The warmer the water, the more it evaporates, sending moisture into the air. And the warmer this air is, the more moisture it can take up. Bottom line: Warm seas and warm air help make for stronger storms. ...Worldwide, the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere has increased by about 2 percent per decade since the early 1990s, according to  a study published  in May....  Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/07/climate/warm-air-oceans-power-sto...

By Jake Bittle , The Guardian.  Excerpt: The rising cost of homeowner’s insurance is now one of the most prominent symptoms of the climate crisis in the US. Major carriers such as State Farm and Allstate have  pulled back from offering fire insurance in California ... and dozens of small insurance companies have collapsed or fled from  Florida  and  Louisiana  following recent large hurricanes. The problem is fast becoming a crisis that stretches far beyond the nation’s coastal states. ... insurers have raised premiums higher than ever  and dropped customers even in inland states such as Iowa. ...so-called “severe-convective storms” are large and powerful thunderstorms that form and disappear within a few hours or days, often spinning off hailstorms and tornadoes as they shoot across the flat expanses of the central United States. The insurance industry refers to these storms as “secondary perils” – the other term of art is  “kitty cats” , ...smal...

https://eos.org/research-spotlights/exploring-just-how-extreme-future-storms-could-get By Sarah Stanley , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Storms that drop exceptionally high volumes of precipitation often cause flooding and otherwise imperil human safety, infrastructure, and ecosystems. As climate change progresses, such  extreme events  are likely to become  even more intense and more frequent  in many regions around the world. ... Gessner et al.  demonstrate a novel way to combine storm simulations with statistical approaches to better estimate how extreme future precipitation events could become. ...analysis suggested that precipitation events much more intense than previously have been recorded will be possible in the near future in the region. ...estimates indicating that near-future extreme events might result in precipitation volumes that are 30%–40% higher than those seen in past events. The researchers note that even higher precipitation magnitudes cannot be ru...

https://eos.org/articles/displaced-from-home-and-sheltered-in-an-extreme-environment By Humberto Basilio , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Millions of people, displaced from their home countries, take refuge in areas that are highly vulnerable to extreme weather. ...Kakuma refugee camp, ...which includes refugees from more than 20 countries, often lacks access to services such as clean water and nutritious food. A common building material in the camp is wood-iron sheets, which are vulnerable to dust storms and hailstorms. The refugee community must also endure the latent threat posed by Kenya’s increasing heat, combined with unprecedented drought and a lack of trees. ...In a study  published  in the  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America , scientists analyzed refugees’ exposure to extreme weather events in Kakuma and 19 other large refugee settlements. The results confirmed that refugee camps are exposed to harsher conditions than those ...

https://eos.org/articles/colombian-city-pioneers-path-to-early-warnings-for-all By  Jane Palmer , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Countries with strong early-warning systems can reduce mortality from natural hazards by 8 times, and a 24-hour alert can reduce economic losses by 30%, said  Nahuel Arenas , deputy chief for Americas and the Caribbean at the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). ...the United Nations launched the Early Warnings for All initiative (EW4All) to ensure everyone on Earth is protected by early-warning systems by 2027. ...the  Early Warning System of Medellín and the Aburrá Valley (SIATA) , ...provides early warnings for floods, landslides, fires, lightning, and poor air quality to the Aburrá Valley as well as the 2.5 million residents of its largest city, Medellín. “Where we live, emergencies happen all the time, and we’ve had to be flexible and adaptable to solve whatever problem needs to be solved,” said meteorologist  Lina Cebal...

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/08/climate/canada-wildfires-smoke-extreme-weather.html By Somini Sengupta , The New York Times.  Excerpt: It’s not officially summer yet in the Northern Hemisphere. But the extremes are already here. Fires are burning across the breadth of Canada, blanketing parts of the eastern United States with choking, orange-gray smoke. Puerto Rico is under a severe heat alert as other parts of the world have been recently. Earth’s oceans have heated up at an alarming rate. ...the science is unequivocal that global warming significantly increases the chances of severe wildfires and heat waves like the ones affecting major parts of North America today. Now comes a global weather pattern known as El Niño, which can drive up temperatures and set heat records. Thursday morning, scientists  announced its arrival ....

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/31/climate/climate-change-insurance-wildfires-california.html By Christopher Flavelle ,  Jill Cowan  and  Ivan Penn , The New York Times.  Excerpt: This month, the largest homeowner insurance company in California, State Farm, announced that it would stop selling coverage to homeowners. That’s not just in wildfire zones, but everywhere in the state. Insurance companies, tired of losing money, are raising rates, restricting coverage or pulling out of some areas altogether — making it more expensive for people to live in their homes. ...In parts of eastern Kentucky ravaged by storms last summer, the price of flood insurance is set to quadruple. In Louisiana, the top insurance official says the market is in crisis, and is offering millions of dollars in subsidies to try to draw insurers to the state. ...And in much of Florida, homeowners are increasingly struggling to buy storm coverage. Most big insurers have pulled out of the state alre...

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/20/world/europe/italy-floods-emilia-romagna.html By Gaia Pianigiani  and  Elisabetta Povoledo , The New York Times.  Excerpt: When the floods hit in the northern Italian town of Lugo this past week, overflowing a local watercourse and sending water gushing into streets and the surrounding fields, Irinel Lungu, 45, retreated with his wife and toddler to the second floor of their home. ...The floods have upended tens of thousands of lives in the region, Emilia-Romagna, as exceptional weather in some areas brought about half the typical annual rainfall in 36 hours. And experts say it may no longer be so exceptional. ...Extreme weather events have become more commonplace in Europe, from the violent storms and raging floods  that killed dozens  in Germany two years ago to the  scorching temperatures that set records  in a normally temperate Britain last July. Italy has suffered its own fair share of extreme events, caught bet...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/04/us-tornadoes-global-heating-climate-science By  Oliver Milman , The Guardian.  Excerpt: A spate of devastating tornadoes that have recently ripped through parts of the eastern and southern US states could portend the sort of damage that will become more commonplace due to changes wrought by global heating, scientists have warned.... 

https://eos.org/science-updates/how-hail-hazards-are-changing-around-the-mediterranean By Sante Laviola ,   Giulio Monte ,   Elsa Cattani  and   Vincenzo Levizzani , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: A new method for studying hailstorms from space offers more consistent and more complete views of how and where hail forms, and how climate change might influence hail’s impacts in the future. The Mediterranean Basin is one of the most vulnerable areas on Earth to the effects of rapid climate change. Observed rates of temperature rise indicate that the region is  warming 20% faster  compared with the global average, inducing a trend toward drier conditions and changing precipitation regimes. The steep temperature rise increases the vulnerability of the Mediterranean Basin to several hazards that affect ecosystems and human health and security, such as heat waves, droughts, and fires. Along with such events, the frequency and intensity of storm-relate...

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/10/04/climate/south-asia-monsoon-climate-change.html By  Henry Fountain ,  Saumya Khandelwal , photographer, maps by  Zach Levitt  and  Jeremy White , The New York Times.  Excerpt: South Asia’s monsoon is inextricably linked, culturally and economically, to much of Asia. Climate change is making it increasingly violent and erratic. ...across South Asia, climate change is making the monsoon more erratic, less dependable and even dangerous, with more violent rainfall as well as worsening dry spells. For a region home to nearly one-quarter of the world’s population, the consequences are dire.…