🚨🚨🚨 March 2026 was the warmest March on record according to Prism climate data (1895-present). Previously, 2012 was far and away the warmest March, but this March beat 2012 by about half a degree Fahrenheit. This map shows how March temperatures ranked compared to all other Marches.🔥🔥🔥

Percentage of insured economic losses driven by primary perils (tropical cyclones (black), winter storms (dark grey), earthquakes (light grey) and secondary perils (floods (dark blue), convective storms (medium blue), wildfires (light blue) and other (pale blue) for 2025 and as decadal averages over 1995-2024. The 2015-24 figure amounts to 101% due to rounding. Source: Swiss Re (2026)

NEW – How wildfires and storms drove insurance losses in 2025 – in three charts | @orladwyer.carbonbrief.org Ho Woo Nam

Read here: buff.ly/0XOfI5t

Heat dome and snow melt could prime western U.S. for intense fire season | CBC Climate Change News Mountains that normally see their peak snowpack in March are brown this year, thanks to a spring heat dome that baked western U.S. for much of the second half of the month. That's raising alarm bells ...

Nice article from CBC featuring our recent research findings relating snowpack to fire severity. More important than how much area burns, is how it burns. 🔥🧪🌎 @grumpyunclesean.bsky.social
www.cbc.ca/news/science...

Why intentional fires can still be safe during this dry spring - High Country News Land managers across the West are finding pockets of cool, wet conditions, allowing them to safely reduce future fire risk.

Think a warmer, drier spring means no rx fire (like I did?) Think again! www.hcn.org/articles/why...

This Year’s US Wildfires Have Already Set Records That Could Foreshadow a Smoky, Fiery Summer - Inside Climate News Recently released data show how drought, paltry Western snows and unseasonable heat, all exacerbated by climate change, could be priming the nation for a long wildfire season.

The western U.S., limping away from one of the driest winters on record, is primed for wildfires.
insideclimatenews.org/news/2703202...

6 front pages of articles about climate risk connected by a red line.

1/ For those of us keeping an eye on systemic #climate risks, these aren’t difficult dots to connect.

I find it downright frightening. We need to brace for impacts and spring into preparedness now.

This thread outlines 6 key papers and what we can do in response. ⬇️🧵

Trust me: the alternative is worse.

To complement this @theguardian.com article, please see our new (very timely) paper on snow-wildfire dynamics 🔥

Lowest snowpack on record in the Southwest by longgg shot!
Only 36% of normal currently. Much lower in spots. Former record 57% in 2015 going back to 1987. Obviously this can have huge implications for water availability and fire season… 1/

5/5

Other members of the research team include Jared Balik (lead author) and @coopecology.bsky.social

4/5

Another key finding:
3) Overall, continued snowpack decline is expected to drive increases in both total area burned and fire severity—not just more fires, but more damaging ones! Increased high-severity fire raises the risk of forest loss and conversion to shrubland or grassland.

3/5

Another key finding:
2) Reduced winter snowpack results in higher severity fire that is more damaging to forests. This is highly relevant given ongoing declines in western US snowpack in some areas. The southwestern US, for example, shows the strongest evidence of long-term snowpack decline.

2/5
Coincidentally, our research team published a paper on snowpack-wildfire dynamics yesterday!

Here are the key findings:
1) Early snowmelt results in more area burned by extending the fire season. We already knew this, but importantly ...

Snowpack decline kindles more severe fire in the western United States Snowpack decline kindles more severe fire in the western United States, Balik, Jared A, Coop, Jonathan D, Parks, Sean A

1/5
NEW paper alert! 🧪🔥

A lot of you know that snowpack is currently at a record or near-record low in many watersheds in the western US.

A logical question is thus: how will the low snowpack affect wildfire in the coming months?

Read the thread for key findings ...

(PDF) Guardians and gardeners: Managing wilderness for the twenty-first century PDF | The 1964 Wilderness Act is a landmark piece of legislation, providing robust protections from development, mechanization, and resource extraction... | Find, read and cite all the research you ne...

My research team recently published “Guardians and gardeners: Managing wilderness for the twenty-first century.” If you’re interested in wilderness philosophies, Indigenous stewardship, and the questions raised by climate change and fire - this one’s for you!

www.researchgate.net/publication/...

What a $3 Million Fire-Resistant Home Looks Like After losing his house to the L.A. wildfires, a developer built a new one designed to resist an active fire for around six hours.

Interesting article in the @wsj.com by Katherine Clarke about a rebuild in the Pacific Palisades area. Two things to note - expensive but not crazy build costs plus a massive savings generated on insurance. www.wsj.com/real-estate/...

🔥 Critical Fire Weather Monday 🔥
“Critical” is rare for #Florida - a couple times of year. And it’s the first of 2026 due to very dry air, gusty winds and drought-stricken crisp ground. Please take great care as any fire that ignites will spread rapidly. This will be a challenging #fire season!

Warming Raises the Risk That Multiple Wildfires Strike at Once Firefighters combat a grass fire in Alexandra, Australia, in January. Jay Kogler / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images 

Hot, dry, windy conditions are increasingly arising in multiple regions at the same time, setting the stage for simultaneous wildfires around the world, a study shows. via @vox.com

One scientist talking to two others. "These days. If you're not a mad scientist, you're not paying attention."

Me. I'm a mad scientist.

(Paul Noth cartoons)

Solid-state EV batteries are rolling out in China, promising nearly 1,000 miles of range Chinese battery manufacturers already account for well over 50% of the global market, but new battery types, including solid-state, are...

EV battery technology continues to astound! 🧪🔌💡☀️💨💧🔋 electrek.co/2026/02/24/s...

Exposure of western United States bird communities to predicted high severity fire - Nature Communications Changing fire regimes, leading to higher likelihood of high severity fire, are having unknown impacts on biodiversity. This study identifies regions of high avian biodiversity and individual bird spec...

Really proud of my paper with @ecologyofgavin.bsky.social, @grumpyunclesean.bsky.social, Andrew Stillman, and Courtney Davis out now in @natcomms.nature.com, which looks at the forecasted exposure of bird biodiversity to high severity fire in the western US. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Ecosystems At Risk If This Pine Tree Vanishes From Rockies Underway in the West is an environmental calamity that threatens a pine species that helps control spring meltwater that fills reservoirs communities depend upon, holds cultural significance to tribal...

Some nice media exposure about the threatened whitebark pine that highlights one of our recent studies.

🧪🌎

Democracy may die in darkness, but it also seems you can kill it in broad daylight.

None of what's happening now would be possible without gop enablers. They own all of it. The gop is the party of evil. Vote them all out.

More than 87m people impacted by climate-related disasters in 2025 In 2025, more than 200 climate-related disasters affected more than 87.8 million people worldwide, according to preliminary figures from the International Disaster Database analyzed by Mongabay. The d...

In 2025, more than 200 climate-related disasters affected more than 87.8 million people worldwide, according to prelim figures from the International Disaster Database. The disasters include flash floods, landslides, severe storms, wildfires & droughts. news.mongabay.com/short-articl...

Smash hit! A whopping eight people are in attendance at the 315 showing of Melania in Missoula

Yet another stroke of genius from POTUS 🔥

Map of Western US showing snow-water equivalent by basin. Most basins are well below the historical median with the Northwest, Great Basin, NorCal, and the Southwest all below 50% of historical averages.

OK, as we go into February, I'm officially worried about our snowpack numbers across the Western US. Less snow means dryer soils and fuels heading into the summer and I don't like fire years where the high country comes online early.