Wildfires force thousands to evacuate near Los Angeles: Here's how the 2020 Western fire season got so extreme

The 2020 wildfire season has shattered records across the West. It's a trend that's headed in a dangerous direction.

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climate-change climate science heat-wave drought natural-disasters wildfires weather

A massive Saharan dust plume is moving into the southeast US, bringing technicolor sunsets and suppressing tropical storms

From June through October, it's not unusual for huge Saharan dust plumes to blow across the Atlantic. They can darken skies but also bring calmer weather and electric sunsets. Here's how they form.

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climate hurricanes storms atmospheric-science weather air-quality atlantic-ocean dust sahara tropical-rainforest

How deforestation helps deadly viruses jump from animals to humans

Yellow fever, malaria and Ebola all spilled over from animals to humans at the edges of tropical forests. The new coronavirus is the latest zoonosis.

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health climate covid-19 coronavirus ebola pandemic malaria forests disease epidemics wildlife deforestation bats wildlife-trade monkeys mosquitoes yellow-fever zoonoses vectors carrying-capacity

We caught bacteria from the most pristine air on earth to help solve a climate modeling mystery

Climate models have been overestimating how much sunlight hits the Southern Ocean. This is because the clouds there are different from clouds anywhere else. Bacterial DNA helped us understand why.

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climate bacteria antarctica climate-models atmospheric-science weather clouds southern-ocean

Global warming now pushing heat into territory humans cannot tolerate

'Wet-bulb' temperature records show that deadly thresholds for heat and humidity are arriving faster than anticipated.

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climate-change climate humidity temperature-records body-temperature extreme-heat heat-deaths