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Climate news and stories

Climate.gov news and features

Drought.gov news

Heat.gov news and events

Five significant moments in climate science history

January 17, 2024

A collage of the five images from the NOAA heritage story, "Five significant moments in climate history."

The 1.5-degrees C climate threshold, explained

January 12, 2024

The Industrial Revolution transformed the textile industry in England. This engraving by Edward Goodall (1795-1870), originally titled "Manchester, from Kersal Moor," after a painting of W. Wylde, shows numerous industrial chimneys in the town of Manchester, England, which earned the nickname "Cottonopolis," following its transformation.

2023 was the world’s warmest year on record, by far

January 12, 2024

Antarctic sea ice coverage hit record low

July 3, 2023: An aerial view of low water levels at Woodhead Reservoir in Glossop, England, after the United Kingdom sweltered through its hottest June on record. 2023 was the world’s warmest year on record, beating the next warmest year (2016) by a record-setting margin of 0.27 of a degree F (0.15 of a degree C).

2023: A historic year of U.S. billion-dollar weather and climate disasters

January 9, 2024

Homes damaged by a tornado are seen on March 31, 2023 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Tornados damaged hundreds of homes and buildings across a large part of Central Arkansas. (Photo by Benjamin Krain/Getty Images)

U.S. struck with historic number of billion-dollar disasters in 2023

January 9, 2024

Last year was the nation’s 5th-warmest year on record

March 31, 2023: Tornado damage in the Walnut Ridge neighborhood of Little Rock, Arkansas. This tornado, as well as the larger severe weather outbreak associated with it, was one of 28 separate billion-dollar disasters to impact the U.S. in 2023.

NOAA, NASA to announce 2023 global temperature ranking, climate events

January 5, 2024

Extreme rainfall, record warmth and more: Climate highlights of 2023

December 27, 2023

An aerial view of a property surrounded by flood water on December 9, 2022, in Louth, Australia. Prolonged flooding along the Barwon-Darling River and its tributaries due to unseasonably high rainfall turned vast swaths of the Western Plains into islands, cut off from road access. 2022 was the warmest La Nina year on record as increasingly extreme and changing conditions impacted the globe.

Blog: A closer look at the Polar Vortex

December 20, 2023

Still of an animation featuring the seasonal cycle of polar vortex temperatures and winds.

NOAA monthly U.S., global climate report call: December 21

December 19, 2023

Experts recap November and provide outlooks through March

Earth had its warmest November on record

December 14, 2023

2023 still on track to be the globe’s warmest year recorded

November 15, 2023: An aerial view of people enjoying the beach amid a record-breaking heat wave at Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. November 2023 was South America’s warmest November ever recorded.

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