In the News Archive

This winter had a tough time getting started. In early December, the central Cascades had as little as 5% of the normal snowpack. By January 1, it was still less than 40%. State Climatologist Nick Bond with the University of Washington was betting that would turn around. And did it ever. "I didn't dream it was going to be this way," Bond said. 

The wind has been blowing and the snow has been falling in the mountains. Now it could get more wintry around Puget Sound. Washington climatologist Nick Bond told KUOW’s Patricia Murphy that the region's warm, wet winter could be interrupted.

The heavy mountain snow that finally kicked in last weekend was the start of what meteorologists expect will be weeks of more normal mountain weather. The key question is if it will make up for the snowpack deficit that’s racked up through this winter so far. Nick Bond is quoted. 

The first week of the new year is expected to bring a bounty of storms that will bolster the state’s snowpack, a vast and vital frozen reservoir that, as 2019 came to a close, was at about half its normal year-end depth. Nick Bond is quoted. 

We just finished the hottest decade ever recorded at Sea-Tac Airport—by a longshot. The average temperature at the Seattle area’s most watched weather station was 53.8 degrees Fahrenheit this decade, 1.5 degrees hotter than last decade’s average, and a startling 3.6 degrees hotter than the average temperature in the 1950s, when the airport's earliest weather data was collected. Nick Bond is quoted. 

A warm "blob" of hot water reported to have formed in the Pacific Ocean near New Zealand is making its way towards South America. Nick Bond is referenced. 

At a time when ocean noise is receiving increased global attention, researchers at Oregon State University and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have developed an effective method to use an underwater robotic glider to measure sound levels over broad areas of the ocean. Joe Haxel is quoted. 

Scientists are finding hidden climate time bombs—vast reservoirs of carbon dioxide and methane—scattered under the seafloor across the planet. And the fuses are burning. Dave Butterfield is quoted. 

Surprise, surprise: the Arctic didn’t do too well this past year. You can thank global warming for that. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its annual Arctic Report Card Tuesday, and the findings show a region in the midst of a rapid transformation. Jim Overland is quoted. 

A state climatologist calls it the second edition of "The Blob." The waters off the Pacific Northwest coast are considerably warmer than normal for this time of year, and it's gotten the attention of researchers. Nick Bond is quoted. 

At this annual gathering of thousands of scientists that has grown in step with the increasing number of people on Earth, researchers at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union again sounded the alarm for a quiet place — the top of the world. Jim Overland is quoted. 

Crossing the Cascades that October, a pall traveled with the oyster growers on their way to central Washington’s Lake Chelan for their trade association’s annual meeting. Richard Feely is mentioned. 

The Government has announced a plan to deploy a network of buoys to work as a tsunami detection and monitoring system. DART is referenced. 

Old ships' logs are giving scientists new insights into the past and future of the earth's changing climate. Kevin Wood is featured. 

An eccentric group of citizen-scientists called Old Weather has transcribed millions of observations from long-forgotten logbooks of ships, many from the great era of Arctic exploration. As the polar regions grow ever warmer, the volunteers have amassed a rich repository of climate data in a 21st century rescue mission. Kevin Wood is featured. 

For the first time, NOAA's annual report on the devastating effects of climate change in the Arctic is highlighting the unsettling changes to the lives of the people who live there. Kevin Wood is quoted.