Measurements and Observations

2016 shatters record for Alaska's warmest year

January 10, 2017

In 2016, daily temperatures in Alaska that were warmer than average outnumbered those that were cooler than average by a 9 to 1 ratio.

NOAA satellites go HD with GOES-R

December 1, 2016

Providing more timely and accurate information over the western hemisphere, total lightning mapping, and higher resolution images streaming down from space more often, the new GOES satellite marks the first major redesign of the nation’s operational Earth-observing technology in more than 20 years.

Water temperatures in Gulf could give advance warning of summer tornado activity

October 26, 2016

Using a combination of observations and models, NOAA-funded scientists have found a small but significant “advanced warning” signal for heightened summer tornado activity in the U.S.: warmer-than-average water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico

How can we call something a thousand-year storm if we don’t have a thousand years of climate observations?

September 29, 2016

Using the June floods in West Virginia as an example, the Climate Prediction Center's Tom Di Liberto explains how meterologists are like paleontologists turning the bones of an incomplete skeleton into a complete picture of a dinosaur.

New Eastern Hemisphere heat record? The detective work behind world record weather

July 29, 2016

Extreme heat in Kuwait last week might have set a new high temperature record for Asia and the Eastern Hemisphere. How do climate experts verify such records?

2015 State of the Climate: Carbon Dioxide

August 2, 2016

Using measurements taken worldwide, scientists estimated that 2015’s global average carbon dioxide concentration was 399.4 parts per million (ppm), a new record high. At Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawai’i, where atmospheric carbon dioxide has been recorded longer than anywhere else in the world, the annual average carbon dioxide concentration was 400.8—also a new record, and a new milestone.

‘State of the Climate 2015’ author focus: Father and daughter talk about their connection to climate, the wilderness of the North Cascades, and each other

August 2, 2016

The author of the glacier chapter of the 2015 State of the Climate report and his daughter talk about how family connections brought them together scientifically, and how science keeps bringing their family together.

June 2016 is warmest June on record for U.S.

July 12, 2016

Record-setting warmth enveloped the contiguous United States in June 2016.

Tropical Pacific continued to cool in June 2016

July 7, 2016

With El Niño in the rearview mirror, the central tropical Pacific continued to cool in June 2016.

Greenland melt season off to very early start

April 28, 2016

Every summer, Greenland's ice sheet melts when temperatures warm up. This year, however, saw the start of the ice melt season begin in April, much earlier than normal.

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