Favorable conditions for wildfires are becoming more frequent in the western US

A third of Americans now live in wildfire risk zones

Climate change and human development into fire-prone regions have extended the wildfire season, with some areas experiencing fire conditions year-round. Extreme conditions, poor compensation, and exposure to carcinogens have complicated firefighter recruitment, further exacerbating wildfire risks.

More extreme heat days are putting human health at risk in both the short and long term

America is generally experiencing more frequent extreme heat days, over a longer period, in certain parts of the country. The heat-related death toll is rising, and beyond those direct deaths, extreme heat can also have troubling ripple effects including elevated violence and decreased productivity.

How the California wildfires are impacting wildlife

The deadly 2025 Eaton and Palisades Fires in California have devastated neighborhoods, forested canyons and chaparral—a type of shrubland. In addition to taking dozens of human lives and displacing thousands, the fires destroyed countless habitats and displaced many species. See the unfortunate effects of the flames on wildlife populations, including birds, snakes, wildcats, and fish.

What types of extreme weather can be attributed to climate change?

For decades, it was impossible to say that a specific weather event was caused, or even made worse, by climate change. But advanced research methods are changing that.

Wildfires have seriously affected Napa's winemaking

If there’s a single thing that has defined the last decade of California winemaking, it’s the effects of climate change, particularly wildfires. To avoid the threats of wildfires, some vineyards have pivoted to more heat-tolerant grapes.

The first known instance of a fire tornado occurred in 2003

During pyro-tornadogenesis, many processes that create thunderstorms from wildfires, such as rising hot air and steam from evaporated water in forests, fuel the formation of a fire tornado. The increasing rates of wildfires due to climate change are expected to make this phenomenon and other extreme weather more common.

Climate change creates conditions for more invasive species

Increasing temperatures shift the conditions native organisms are accustomed to, allowing those from warmer climates to move in with a greater chance of survival. Drought stress can cause invasive plants to absorb less herbicide, limiting the effectiveness of the control method, while melting ice can open new Arctic shipping routes, expanding the transport of species.

US West Nile case numbers were up 40% in 2025, nationally

This surprising surge may be due to warmer temperatures and elevated rainfall—leading to the ideal conditions for mosquitoes to thrive and breed in standing water. Symptoms can be hard to recognize when the disease is mild—similar to a flu. But neurological complications can lead to hospitalization and be deadly.

The factors stirring up a home insurance storm

The cost of the average home insurance premium shot up 33% between 2020 and 2023 in the US, a trend mimicking heightened inflation. But beyond the cost, insurers are also pulling out of major markets like Florida and California, and millions of policies aren't being renewed as the number of $1B weather disasters continues to increase each year. Read up on the difficulties the home insurance market faces here.

Lightning storms are more common in coastal and tropical regions

Water-abundant areas that receive increased solar radiation, such as those near the equator, experience increased rates of evaporation, which produce tall clouds as moisture rises, cools, and condenses. Mountain ranges can also steer air to higher altitudes, creating collisions between atmospheric particles that generate charge imbalances—the precursors to lightning.

Poison ivy will likely become both larger and more resilient due to climate change.

How jet streams and US weather are affected by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation

Jet streams are predominantly west-to-east air currents in the atmosphere that mark the boundary between cold polar air and warm tropical air, where cells of atmospheric circulation meet. By disrupting the location of these circulations on two- to seven-year cycles, ENSO alters the probability of droughts, floods, and above- or below-average temperatures across the US.

Rapid environmental changes are exacerbating natural extinction processes

Human activities behind climate change, habitat destruction, pollution, and overhunting have resulted in extinction rates up to 1,000 times greater than normal, triggering massive biodiversity loss. This has led scientists to refer to the current geological age as the Anthropocene era, in which humans are the dominant force shaping nature.

The true origins of the Western tumbleweed

Tumbleweeds are iconic features of classic American westerns, seen blowing across a desert landscape as a cowboy walks into town. But this species isn't native to the US Southwest. In fact, it was unintentionally imported from Russia. As farmers loosened the ground in the West, they created the perfect breeding ground for the Russian thistle tumbleweed to flourish there. Watch more on its history here.

A medieval warm period reshaped agriculture across parts of the world

Between 750 and 1350 CE, some regions experienced temperatures that rivaled or exceeded late-20th-century averages, likely due to shifts in El Niño–La Niña cycles. The warmer, wetter climate in Europe and northeast North America boosted agriculture, while causing droughts elsewhere.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

The surprising world of coal seam fires

Hundreds of coal seam fires are actively smoldering around the world at any given time, including some that have stayed lit for centuries. These fires have occurred naturally for millions of years, lit atop deposits of coal in the earth. Dive into...

Brief article explaining why the Amazon rainforest might now produce more carbon dioxide than it absorbs

Climate change and deforestation may have transformed the Amazon rainforest into a net source of planet-warming gases instead of a carbon sink, according to Smithsonian magazine.

Rare chance for US states to see Northern Lights

A solar storm in July 2023 offered people in 17 American states, as well as Canada, an unusual chance to witness the Northern Lights, or aurora borealis. The 11-year solar cycle, reaching its peak in 2024, made the lights visible in places further south than usual. Read up on the announcement from the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks here.

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

Charting the rise of the American McMansion

US homes are growing larger and more luxurious, with Census Bureau data revealing a rise in four-bedroom houses equipped with air conditioning. Experts say the trend of elevated home prices is expected to continue.

See the lists of the worst hurricanes in the US through 2024

Several metrics, including wind speed, pressure, damage costs, and casualties, may be used to define the most devastating hurricanes. This page provides the top 10 hurricanes across each of these sorting methods.

Many believe a cataclysmic volcanic eruption is imminent at Yellowstone, though experts say it is unlikely

Mike Poland, a scientist at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, estimates the likelihood of the event at one in a million. He cautions, though, that the park poses other potential dangers, including steam explosions and earthquakes.

Los Angeles once suffered some of the worst smog on Earth

From the 1940s through the 1960s, Los Angeles was blanketed by dense, eye-burning smog so severe that drivers sometimes couldn't see traffic lights. The issue led to the nation's first local air pollution controls and inspired the passage of the 1970 Clean Air Act.

US westward expansion—and the status of slavery in the new territories—was a major cause of the American Civil War

The addition of new western lands forced the nation to confront whether slavery would spread beyond the South. Each debate over the admission of a new state sharpened the divide between free and slaveholding regions.

The expedition produced the first detailed climate records of the West

Lewis and Clark logged daily temperature, weather, and seasonal patterns throughout their journey, creating the earliest systematic meteorological record for the western territories of the United States. Their observations helped overturn longstanding views that weather west of the Appalachians was similar to the East Coast.

European diseases killed a massive share of the Native American population

After Western contact, epidemic diseases devastated Indigenous communities. By 1920, the Native American population of the US had fallen to roughly 270,000, compared with an estimated 1.2 to 18 million at the time of European arrival.

Hot, semiarid, coastal, cold: An overview of the four desert types

This article describes the various characteristics of deserts, including their geography, their climate, their soil, and the wildlife and vegetation that inhabit them. All desert climates are characterized by extreme temperatures and low rainfall,...

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

Fireworks-related ER visits are on the rise—in 2024, they increased by 52% as compared to the prior year.

The deadliest aspect of volcanic eruptions is often not lava, but pyroclastic flows—avalanches of ash, gas, and rock that can move more than half the speed of sound.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

The power and influence of the American presidency have expanded significantly over time—far beyond what the founders envisioned.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

The boiling temperature of water decreases with increasing elevation because the molecules need less energy to overcome the lower atmospheric pressure associated with thinner air.

Experimental hantavirus vaccines and therapies, still under development, have long been funded by the US military.

44% of Americans say they pray at least once a day—discover how your state's religiosity stacks up against the rest of the country.

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,' a work by American painter Thomas Moran, inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone National Park.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

See the 25 of the best photos of auroras from around the world.

Shooting stars, or meteors, are fragments of asteroids and comets that burn up as they enter Earth's atmosphere, creating streaks in the sky called meteor showers.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

Studies suggest when you sleep is as important as how much you get, and syncing with your circadian rhythms may lead to less fatigue and improved long-term health outcomes

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto