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

A study by the University of Cordoba shows that Mediterranean soils in southern Spain lose their properties when temperatures exceed 40 degrees Celsius, and proposes strategies to increase their resilience

Kyoto, Japan -- Every year in the West Pacific, as summer ends and September rolls around, typhoons are not far behind. Typhoons are the most impactful extreme weather events affecting Japan and East Asia, and due to climate change, extremely strong typhoons are becoming more frequent. In order to adapt critical infrastructure to these massive storms and protect coastal areas, accurate accounting for their future impact is essential.

Assessing the disaster risks of a typhoon season involves quantitatively predicting storm intensity and frequency, relying heavily on the characteristics of regional meteorological fields and natural variability inherent in the climate system. Though varying typhoon characteristics are related to sea surface temperatures -- SST -- probabilistic evaluations that account for SST have been insufficient.

This motivated a team of researchers at KyotoU's Disaster Prevention Research Institute to analyze typhoon intensity through spatial SST patterns. They combined a slab-ocean model with the Global Atmospheric Climate Model developed by the Meteorological Research Institute of the Japan Meteorological Agency, resulting in a unique simulation that successfully represents atmosphere-ocean interactions on a global scale.

A research team led by Profs. GAO Jing and YAO Tandong from the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with international scientists, has determined how the westerlies integrate their moisture into the local water cycle under non-precipitating conditions.

A significant upgrade to the global weather system used by the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts to produce forecasts is about to go live (from 12 May 2026) along with its AI counterpart.