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Observing & Predicting
- Department:January 17, 2017
2016 was the third year in a row that global average surface temperature set a new record, and the fifth time the record has been broken since the start of the twenty-first century. This animation shows the yearly history of Earth's temperature since the modern record began in 1880.
- Department: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.
- Department:January 9, 2017
2016 saw 15 weather and climate disasters with losses exceeding $1 billion. How does that compares to history, and which disaster type was especially disruptive during the year?
- Department:December 28, 2016
Although surface melt did not set a new record in 2016, the Greenland Ice Sheet did continue a long-term trend of decreasing mass, according to the latest Arctic Report Card from NOAA and its partners.
- Department:December 14, 2016
A black swan event is a situation so rare that few people would have imagined it was possible. In November 2016, researchers were caught off guard by just such an event: extremely low sea ice extents in both the Arctic and Antarctic.
- Department:December 13, 2016
A new NOAA-sponsored report shows that unprecedented warming air temperature in 2016 triggered massive declines in sea ice and snow cover across the Arctic, and brought a record-breaking delay to fall sea ice freeze up. Learn more through our image highlights of the 2016 Arctic Report Card.
- Department: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.
- Department:November 30, 2016
While the U.S. was observing Thanksgiving last week, Costa Rica was facing the first landfalling hurricane on record for the Central American country.
- Department:November 23, 2016
Are sea surface temperatures located north of the equator important for El Niño or La Niña development? Yes! Introducing the Pacific Meridional Mode.
- Department:November 15, 2016
Multi-year drought in California has been joined this summer and fall by extreme and exceptional drought across the Southeast and moderate to severe drought in parts of New England.