Browse by Month
Extreme Events
- Department:May 20, 2015
A record-setting day of rain in Oklahoma City caused widespread flooding in early May 2015. How rare was the event?
- Department:May 5, 2015
At the end of April 2015, almost 60 percent of Oklahoma was experiencing moderate to exceptional drought, and 30 percent of Texas was experiencing drought conditions. But according to the May drought outlook, conditions are likely to improve in the southern Plains this month.
- Department:April 29, 2015
Laura Sagar uses climate data of the frequency and severity of heavy rain events—and how they are changing—to evaluate her county's culvert infrastructure. Understanding the region's rainfall extremes will allow the county to improve the resilience of its roadways.
- Department:April 24, 2015
A weak high, a cut-off low, and rapid ocean warming conspired to dump torrential rains in Chile's Atacama Desert in late March 2015.
- Department:April 16, 2015
What happens when years' worth of rain falls in the Atacama Desert in one day? Tremendous flash flooding.
- Department:April 7, 2015
With spring's arrival comes thoughts of severe weather and tornadoes. Except this year, tornadoes in March were well below normal, with little happening until the last week of the month.
- Department:March 31, 2015
An extreme precipitation event in 2008 cost one Upper Midwest town more than a million dollars in infrastructure repairs. Now, other municipalities can simulate how a similar event might affect them.
- Department:March 25, 2015
Uncommon atmospheric circumstances spawned a pair of tropical cyclones in the western Pacific—one on either side the equator, at nearly the same longitude, at nearly the same time. Why are twin cyclones more common during El Niño?
- Department:March 18, 2015
The extreme atmospheric pressure pattern that favored record-breaking snow totals across parts of the U.S. East left Alaskans asking, “Where’s winter?”
- Department:March 11, 2015
The United States has plenty of warming wiggle room before it gets too warm to snow, and a wetter atmosphere may boost snow totals for some storms.