The 2012 Arctic summer sea ice extent is the lowest since taking measurement. In a new three-part video series from NOAA Ocean Today, learn about sea ice and why it is so important; how scientists are detecting and measuring change in sea ice; and the impacts of shrinking Arctic sea ice.

On Thursday, February 14, Dr. Roger Pulwarty, Director of the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), testified at a full committee hearing before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry titled, “Drought, Fire and Freeze: The Economics of Disasters for America’s Agricultural Producers.”

Members of the Climate Program Office and investigators from the Environmental Research Laboratories participated in the 4th North American Carbon Program (NACP) All-Investigators Meeting (AIM) in Albuquerque NM, Feb. 4-7.

The Tijuana River Valley in Southern California has been the focus of major restoration, conservation, and research efforts, making it a regional system able to accommodate impacts associated with our changing climate. A project funded by CPO’s Coastal and Ocean Climate Applications program aims to maintain and improve the resiliency of this region. 

The Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve is collaborating with Texas Sea Grant to conduct a vulnerability assessment of the Reserve and its surrounding communities.

Scientists with NOAA and the Department of Energy's Office of Science will coordinate their climate modeling research programs to answer some of the most perplexing questions in climate and Earth systems science.

With more than 40 million people living under exceptional drought conditions in East Africa, the ability to make accurate predictions of drought has never been more important. In the aftermath of widespread famine and a humanitarian crisis caused by the 2010-2011 drought in the Horn of Africa—possibly the worst drought in 60 years— researchers are striving to determine whether drying trends will continue.

An article on ClimateCentral.org mentions a CPO-funded study published in the journal Climate Dynamics in 2012, in which Michelle L’Heureux and her colleagues found that when the Madden-Julian Ocillation is located in a particular phase, it can favor more cold air outbreaks over the eastern U.S. 

Arizona and New Mexico will receive $3.5 million in grants from NOAA over five years to help them prepare for and adapt to climate variability and change. Seven smaller grants for one- and two-year projects were also awarded this week. 

The heat generated by everyday energy consumption in metropolitan areas is significant enough to influence the character of major atmospheric circulation systems, including the jet stream during winter months, and cause continental-scale surface warming in high latitudes, according to a trio of climate researchers that includes Ming Cai, a professor in Florida State University’s Department of Meteorology.