Climatology is the scientific discipline within the atmospheric sciences that investigates the statistical behavior, physical processes, and dynamics of the climate system over periods from decades to millennia. It analyzes long-term patterns and variability of atmospheric variables such as temperature, precipitation, radiation, and circulation, and their coupling with oceans, cryosphere, land surface, and biosphere. Climatology employs observational datasets, reanalyses, paleoclimate proxies, and numerical climate models to quantify mean states, extremes, teleconnections, and feedbacks, and to attribute observed changes to internal variability and external forcings, including solar, volcanic, and anthropogenic influences.
Perched in a tower atop a hill, Matthew Douglas climbs a staircase and emerges from a hatch on the roof, where a heavy glass ball in a metal cradle has burned a thin streak into a strip of paper, recording the previous day's ...
Environment
Apr 30, 2026
0
16
A new paper from researchers at the University of Kansas looks at extreme heat events in the United States, arguing a combination of inadequate data and unclear delineation of responsibility among government agencies leaves ...
Environment
Apr 29, 2026
0
11
A new study led by the University of Oxford and ETH Zurich reveals that a key part of the climate system—the large-scale wind patterns that determine where rain falls—can be underestimated by current climate models, helping ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 29, 2026
0
14
More than 50 governments meet in Colombia on Tuesday against the backdrop of the Iran war and a global energy crunch for the first international talks on phasing out planet-heating fossil fuels.
Environment
Apr 28, 2026
0
31
A comprehensive new study extending the U.S. Historical Climatology Network (USHCN) record back to 1899 finds that both hot and cold temperature extremes across the contiguous United States have declined over the past 127 ...
Environment
Apr 21, 2026
8
150
Dramatic droughts linked to the decline of the Classic Maya civilization approximately 800 to 1000 CE may not have required any external trigger, according to a new climate modeling study. Instead, they could have emerged ...
A new study by Hashem Akbari, a professor in the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, offers a simplified way of calculating the degree to which surface reflectivity, known as albedo, can offset carbon ...
Environment
Apr 14, 2026
0
11
A new study led by the University of Exeter examined the alpine "vegetation line" (the upper limit of continuous plants) in six regions across the Himalaya, from Ladakh, India in the far west of the mountain range, to the ...
Environment
Apr 14, 2026
0
46
Heat, air pollution, and flooding can affect a city and the health of city residents. Yet few cities have a comprehensive network of weather stations providing accurate measurements of rainfall, humidity, and air temperature ...
Environment
Apr 13, 2026
0
7
Daily travel plans and early warnings for extreme weather all rely on traditional numerical weather prediction. However, both traditional numerical weather prediction and AI forecasting large models have long suffered from ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 9, 2026
0
10
