Just how bad is this spring’s drought?? The worst in US History, going all the way back to the 1890s, even worse than Dust Bowl springs. And #Florida is among the worst in the nation… 1/

Got bored tonight, so I downloaded 3 hours worth of Earthcam replay / archive footage from their Skydeck camera atop of the Willis Tower (Sears Tower) in Chicago and made a time lapse of the fog rolling in off Lake Michigan. Good illustration of how our atmosphere behaves like any other fluid. #ilwx

#Sinlaku is also the earliest Cat-4-or-stronger storm on record for any U.S. territory in any calendar year.

Very cold air coming in with Friday's system, falling below -10°C at 700mb Friday PM.

If we can manage some precip, which appears highly likely, it will be mostly falling as wet snow everywhere.

Daytime timing will temper impacts, but plan for a return of the white stuff! ☃️ #COwx #denver

Ken Burns (Hampshire class of ‘75)

Missed this from a few months ago: more bad news in the CA WUI. 10ft of structure separation means low chance of home surviving if the neighbor (or shed) burns down. Fighting chance with hardened materials at 20ft, decent shot at 30ft.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Kahului, Maui, may end up having achieved its wettest year this century before the year is even 1/3 over.

U.S. Forest Service unveils extensive closures of research facilities Cost-cutting move is expected to cause resignations and turmoil

What will happen to the 82 USFS experimental forests around the country? Many sites have decades-long experiments that are tracking how forests are changed by timber harvesting practices and climate change. As I say here, “you can't just pick up an experimental forest site and move it to SLC.”

#Maila predicted by JTWC to be the first hurricane-strength cyclone on record so close to the equator (north of 10S) in central Solomon Sea. It could strengthen to Cat 3 equiv.

Steering currents are weak, so colossal rainfall amounts possible over the remote E islands & atolls of Papua New Guinea.

The 10 stations whose March 2026 average temperature was higher than their record April average temperature. Prior to 2026, none of the 385 NWS ThreadEx stations had achieved this feat. Note: a previous version had Oxnard mislocated.

Artemis ii

How a Tsunami Was Unleashed at 17,000 Feet, Shattering Lives Below As warmer temperatures melt polar ice, a parallel danger lurks in high mountain areas where melting glaciers have created thousands of new lakes.

🎁🔗 www.wsj.com/world/asia/h...

Revised April temperature outlook from the Climate Prediction Center just dropped. Hope you like it warmer than normal.

The Canary Islands enveloped in dust as waves and vortices swirl off of them.

A fascinating, complex view.

An 800+ mile long haboob sweeping across northwest Africa.

My oh my...

Graph of snow water equivalent in the state of Colorado for 2026 relative to climatological statistics since the 1980s. 2026 is current a record low around peak conditions typically in March and April.

Awful. Conditions just continue to worsen for Colorado's snowpack (and across many other western U.S. states), with average snow water equivalent nosediving after the historic March heatwave. (which actually continues today with more record heat!)

Graphic: nwcc-apps.sc.egov.usda.gov/awdb/basin-p...

As the first reanalysis data become available, I think I can say with a fairly high degree of confidence that the March 2026 heatwave will go down as the most anomalously extreme heat event ever observed at any time of year in the southwestern U.S.

Map from tropicaltidbits.com depicting ECMWF ensemble-predicted 500mb GPH anomalies for early April. A modest trough is depicted near California.

By Mar 31/Apr 1, the ridiculous ridge will finally move eastward, opening door for a pair of decent April storm systems to affect most of the West (including CA). The first storm will be warm, with rain even in high mountains, but second will be colder w/accumulating mtn snow.

I agree. This event has been meteorologically astonishing, and its impacts will be felt long after it ends in terms of record low snowpack, sharply increased wildfire risk, and extreme low watershed runoff/streamflow into summer and beyond.

Screenshot of current Upper Colorado Basin snow water equivalent as of Mar 23. It is at a record low level for the date, by a wide margin, and the trajectory of the curve is strongly downward at extreme odds with every single other historical year in March. Via USDA NRCS.

Amid the historic and ongoing record heatwave (which will continue for at least another week in this region), Colorado River Basin snowpack has unfortunately taken an unprecedented March nosedive. Given the pre-existing water crisis, this is a highly alarming trajectory.

Several streets of spinning rotor clouds formed just west of Boulder Monday evening 🌊 #cowx #boulder

This is absolutely incredible: the average temperature over the past six months (October-March) will end up at 52.5°F in #Albuquerque.

That's 4°F above the previous record warmest.

🤯 Even after accounting for climate change, the odds of it being THAT warm are 1-in-123,000!! 🤯

@harveylederman.bsky.social excellent essay. As someone who has chronic diseases that prevent traditional employment, a lot of this resonates with my life experience.

A dominant, persistent, and record-breaking heat dome.

This satellite animation shows the evolution of the ridge over the last 6 days.

Through yesterday, these are the major climate stations that have recorded a temperature this month that matches or exceeds their April monthly record. 🔥

Flagstaff, Arizona:

• March 19, 2026 high: 84°F
• Previous March all-time high: 73°F
• April all-time high: 80°F

That's just plain ridiculous.

ChatGPT and the Meaning of Life: Guest Post by Harvey Lederman Scott Aaronson’s Brief Foreword: Harvey Lederman is a distinguished analytic philosopher who moved from Princeton to UT Austin a few years ago. Since his arrival, he’s become one of my …

"There is at least one job that no machine can take away: the work of self-fashioning, the task of becoming and being ourselves. There’s an aesthetic accomplishment in creating your character, an artistry of choice and chance in making yourself who you are."

A total of 13 states have tied or set all-time March heat records over the period Mar. 18-21, and one or more stations in Arizona and California have tied or broken the previous all-time U.S. heat record of 108°F each of those four days. This heatwave is in a class of its own historically!

North America's shocking March heat wave is just as intense and anomalous in Mexico as in the United States.