Minnesota Sea Grant researchers documented PFAS as a persistent presence in the Great Lakes atmosphere, with PFAS appearing in every rain and snow sample collected during a two-year project across Minnesota and Michigan. The researchers will present three analyses from the United States Geological Survey-funded project, Tracing Atmospherically Deposited PFAS from Source to Sediment in the Great Lakes Region, at the National Atmospheric Deposition Program Scientific Symposium, June 9-12, 2026, in Madison, Wisconsin.

A new study is the first to show that annual rainfall packed into bigger, wetter storms means less water for ecosystems and aquifers, even if total precipitation increases. The researchers report that annual rainfall for much of the world has condensed into heavier storms with longer dry periods since 1980. They project more consolidation due to climate change, with an increase of just 2 degrees Celsius bringing abnormally dry conditions to more than a quarter of the global population, even with more rainfall.

University at Buffalo researchers have used plowmarks left by ancient drifting icebergs to reveal evidence of an Ice Age wind system that likely pushed lake-effect snow in the opposite direction.

When rain falls on snow in the Arctic, ice layers can form on top of and within the snowpack. This increasingly common dynamic can influence the ability of animals, including caribou and muskoxen, to forage and move across the landscape. That, in turn, affects the people who rely on wildlife for subsistence, culture, wellbeing and income. Given the widespread impacts of rain-on-snow events, Colorado State University researchers are studying and modeling their effects in Arctic systems. The work is especially important considering the rapid rate of climate change across the region