In the News Archive

As the Northern Bering Sea ecosystem emerges from the extraordinary warmth that wreaked havoc on Alaska fisheries, wildlife and communities, a study warns of likely future occurrences.

Scientists are trying to decipher what drove the recent dramatic cooling of the tropical Atlantic, but so far few clues have emerged. "We are still scratching our heads as to what's actually happening," the researchers said.

Scientists are increasingly concerned that the world’s oceans are approaching the limits of their capacity to absorb heat.

Mostly inoperable since 2020, moored sensors are key to understanding global climate patterns.

Scorching heat across five continents set 1,400 records this week and showed how human-caused global warming has made catastrophic temperatures commonplace.

The climate phenomenon should cool the world. But first, we have to make it through another sweltering summer.

Record ocean temperatures suggest the seas are warming faster than expected, and the impacts will be felt from polar ice shelves to coastal cities across the globe.

Listen to episode 3 of NOAA's podcast about NOAA's conservation, preservation, and sustainability work during Earth Month and beyond. Bob Dziak of PMEL's passive acoustics research team is a podcast guest.

The world’s oceans have now experienced an entire year of unprecedented heat, with a new temperature record broken every day, new data shows.

After a twelve-month set of climate records driven by global warming it is time to take stock of how we’re impacting the planet as a species. One of the driving forces behind a record year of global warming is the now waning El Niño system. With its counterpart, La Niña, due to pick up in 2024, we ask NOAA oceanographer Mike McPhaden what to expect from this transition and if we are headed for a turbulent hurricane season.

On a windy day in October 2013, a small team of engineers and boatbuilders watched the first wind-powered ocean drone disappear over the horizon, bound for Hawaii 2,200 nautical miles away. That journey took 34 days. Fast forward 10 years, and Saildrone’s fleet of uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs), now 136 strong and scaling rapidly, has sailed 1,042,620 nautical miles and spent 32,438 days at sea—and counting. Multiple PMEL Saildrone research projects are highlighted. 

El Niño is expected to gain strength and flaunt its muscle this winter, and forecasters are closely watching ocean temperatures to determine just how strong the El Niño weather pattern that developed over the summer will get in the coming months. Mike McPhaden is quoted. 

After months of record planetary warmth, temperatures have become even more abnormal in recent weeks — briefly averaging close to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, a global warming threshold leaders are seeking to avoid. Mike McPhaden is quoted. 

The U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet did more than help win World War II: As its ships made their way through the Pacific Ocean during the war, naval personnel used daily logbooks to record vital weather and climate data at a time when such observations dwindled worldwide. This publication highlights work by done by Kevin Wood whose contributions to the recovery of historical marine weather observations were substantial and will continue to influence us and many others. 

The prospect of a possible El Niño summer, with the hot and dry conditions it’s known for in Australia, can be frightening.  The winter has already been dry in parts of the country. Record summer temperatures in Europe, although not related, have added to a sense of foreboding. Mike McPhaden is quoted. 

Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Keaton Beach, Fla., on Wednesday morning as a Category 3 storm, according to the National Hurricane Center, and was later downgraded to a Category 1 storm as it moved across Georgia. The storm battered Florida’s northern Gulf Coast with high winds and a powerful storm surge that was predicted to reach up to 16 feet in some areas. More than 30 Florida counties were issued evacuation orders. Idalia’s center was expected to move across southeastern Georgia and near the coast of South Carolina before moving offshore southern North Carolina on Thursday. Mike McPhaden is referenced.