https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Rainfall history is just as critical to predicting air pollution as where the air came from, a team led by University of Michigan Engineering researchers, in collaboration with scientists at the Appalachian Mountain Club and Plymouth State University, has discovered. The findings give meteorologists a physical benchmark to improve simulations that predict changes in pollution levels over complex terrain. They also show how air pollution can be deposited in sensitive mountain environments, with downstream effects for waterways fed from the mountains. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-year-goldmine-mountain-cloud-rainwater.html Earth Sciences Wed, 17 Jun 2026 17:40:01 EDT news700919521 Florida State University researchers have identified key differences in the root causes of long-term sea-surface temperature changes across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, a finding that could help guide future research on ocean variability. The study by Assistant Professor of meteorology Michael Diamond and FSU meteorology graduate alumnus Anthony Freveletti found that long-term temperature changes in the Pacific Ocean are driven primarily by internal ocean variability, while those in the Atlantic are largely the result of human emissions. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-atlantic-pacific-term-analysis.html Earth Sciences Wed, 17 Jun 2026 16:20:08 EDT news700918141 Traditional global climate models were like early digital cameras—they had only about 10,000 pixels to cover the entire planet. At that low resolution, big storm systems looked like blurry blobs. You couldn't see their true shape, how long they lasted or where they dumped the heaviest rain. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-megapixel-earth-capture-storms-unprecedented.html Earth Sciences Tue, 16 Jun 2026 04:00:03 EDT news700736942 Climate change is altering where and when rocks are most likely to fracture across Spain, according to new research that suggests warming temperatures are redistributing a key process responsible for breaking down mountain landscapes. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-climate-reshapes-spain-rockfall-frost.html Earth Sciences Mon, 15 Jun 2026 05:40:02 EDT news700479435 Planetary heating is intensifying and key climate indicators are deteriorating, top scientists said Thursday, warning that funding decisions affecting Earth observation systems in the United States and other countries threaten efforts to track global warming. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-human-driven-139c-15c.html Earth Sciences Thu, 11 Jun 2026 16:40:09 EDT news700404026 The Arizona sunshine hits like a blowtorch. The pavement radiates heat like a stove burner. To make hot-weather walking less of an ordeal, Arizona State University researchers have created a web-based app that finds the coolest, shadiest ways to reach destinations on foot. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-cool-routes-cooler-paths-hourly.html Environment Wed, 10 Jun 2026 15:20:04 EDT news700314242 Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service on Wednesday said global forecasters were increasingly confident that a very strong El Niño warming weather pattern could form later this year. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-odds-climb-el-nio-25c.html Environment Wed, 10 Jun 2026 12:28:36 EDT news700313262 Arctic communities are increasingly exposed to dangerous weather events due to climate change and rely on accurate weather forecasts. However, conditions in the lower atmosphere remain poorly observed in the Arctic because monitoring systems are expensive and difficult to deploy. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-demand-arctic-balloon-sharpen-local.html Earth Sciences Thu, 04 Jun 2026 13:40:06 EDT news699792062 There is an 80% chance of the warming El Niño phenomenon developing between June and August, increasing the risk of extreme weather events, the World Meteorological Organization said Tuesday. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-world-el-nino-extreme-weather.html Environment Tue, 02 Jun 2026 11:14:24 EDT news699617578 In the next five years, the Earth is overwhelmingly likely to surge again and again past the international climate threshold set as safe and shatter its hottest-year record along the way, according to new United Nations climate projections. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-hot-years.html Environment Thu, 28 May 2026 04:52:16 EDT news699162645 Forecasters say a potentially "super" El Niño is rapidly taking shape in the Pacific—but whether it evolves into a history-making event could hinge on fickle winds and other volatile atmospheric shifts. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-scientists-potential-super-el-nino.html Earth Sciences Fri, 22 May 2026 04:18:14 EDT news698642211 A new paper calls for ecologists and evolutionary biologists to consider how organisms experience climate rather than how weather stations record it when doing climate–biology research. The paper, "Matching climate to biological scales," is published in the April 2026 edition of Trends in Ecology & Evolution. Postdoctoral associate David Klinges, an incoming assistant professor at Rutgers University, was the lead author, and Yale Peabody Museum curators David Skelly and Martha Muñoz were among the co-authors. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-paper-biologists-rethink-impact-climate.html Ecology Wed, 20 May 2026 15:00:08 EDT news698499649 Asia's last tropical glaciers can be found near Puncak Jaya, Papua, the highest peak in Southeast Asia. But it is unlikely that they will survive until the end of this decade. Over the past 44 years, the peak has lost 97% of its ice and four of its glaciers. Its remaining two glaciers, Carstensz and the East Northwall Firn glacier, are expected to disappear by 2030, adding Indonesia (alongside Venezuela and Slovenia) to the list of countries that have lost all of their glaciers. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-indonesia-glaciers.html Earth Sciences Thu, 14 May 2026 16:07:33 EDT news697993621 A new Rice University study is shedding light on a long-debated question: Can climate variability influence the risk of armed conflict? The answer, researchers say, is yes—but in more nuanced and region-specific ways than previously understood. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-climate-patterns-violent-conflict-amplified.html Environment Mon, 11 May 2026 17:50:01 EDT news697738381 On the evening of Aug. 9, 2025, passengers on the Hanse Explorer finished taking selfies and videos of the South Sawyer Glacier, and the ship headed back down the fjord. Twelve hours later, a landslide from the adjacent mountain unexpectedly collapsed into the fjord, initiating the second-highest tsunami in recorded history. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-alaska-nearrecord-landslide-tsunami-feet.html Earth Sciences Sun, 10 May 2026 15:00:03 EDT news697292948 The European Union's climate monitor said Friday that ocean temperatures are edging toward record highs as conditions shift toward a potentially powerful El Niño weather pattern. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-oceans-el-nio-conditions.html Environment Fri, 08 May 2026 04:29:55 EDT news697433311 Florida State University researchers have discovered how to accurately predict winter weather forecasts months in advance, affording sectors such as agriculture, water management, energy use and public health a longer lead time to prepare for inclement conditions. The research, published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, shows a method for forecasting how the stratospheric polar vortex, or SPV, will behave from winter through summer, before winter even starts. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-polar-vortex-gain-months-climate.html Earth Sciences Tue, 05 May 2026 17:20:03 EDT news697202821 Atmospheric dust plays a dual role in Earth's climate: it reflects some sunlight back into space while also absorbing and retaining the planet's heat like an insulating blanket. But while dust likely cools the planet overall, that's not the whole story. New UCLA research shows that the heat-trapping effect of airborne desert dust in the atmosphere is about twice as big as previously believed. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-airborne-climate-analysis.html Earth Sciences Tue, 28 Apr 2026 05:00:03 EDT news696502441 Powerful cyclones can push seawater miles inland, threatening densely populated communities and critical infrastructure built along coastal areas. A combination of exposure and complexity makes the Bay of Bengal in Southeast Asia a powerful test case for scientists seeking to better understand how tides, storm surge, river flows and sea level rise interact to drive extreme coastal flooding. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-simulations-generate-thousands-cyclone-scenarios.html Earth Sciences Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:00:04 EDT news695557540 Outdoor air pollution is estimated to contribute to more than 100,000 premature deaths in the United States each year, according to the National Weather Service. Accurate air quality forecasts—designed to protect public health, alerting communities to dangerous levels of pollutants linked to asthma attacks, heart disease and premature death—are critical for helping people limit exposure and for guiding regulatory action. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-irrigation-gaps-weather-skew-air.html Earth Sciences Wed, 04 Mar 2026 18:30:10 EST news691866181 The warming El Niño weather phenomenon could form later this year, potentially pushing global temperatures to record heights. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-el-nino-planet-hotter.html Environment Mon, 02 Mar 2026 02:21:58 EST news691640423 In a critical advance for climate resilience, researchers from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have developed an AI model that can predict dangerous convective storms—including Black Rainstorms, thunderstorms and extreme heavy rainfall like those that have hit Hong Kong—up to four hours before they strike. This world-first technology, developed in collaboration with national meteorological institutions and powered by satellite data and advanced deep diffusion technology, improves forecast accuracy by over 15% at the 48-kilometer spatial scale compared with existing systems. This breakthrough strengthens the overall accuracy of the national weather forecasting system and promises to transform early warning systems for vulnerable communities across Asia. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-ai-severe-thunderstorms-hours-higher.html Earth Sciences Wed, 28 Jan 2026 16:32:39 EST news688840321 Researchers at the University of Kansas have shown the National Severe Storms Laboratory's Warn-on-Forecast System (WoFS) has potential to help weather forecasters issue warnings to emergency managers and the general public well before tornado formation. Their study appears in the peer-reviewed journal Weather and Forecasting. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-tornado.html Earth Sciences Tue, 27 Jan 2026 18:10:05 EST news688744931 The dangers of heat and humidity are so well known it's become cliché to mention them. But the impacts can extend farther than even scientists and doctors realized. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-hot-humid-weather-pregnancy-poses.html Environment Sun, 21 Dec 2025 04:27:05 EST news685513570 If you ever find yourself on Macquarie Island—a narrow, wind-lashed ridge halfway between Tasmania and Antarctica—the first thing you'll notice is the wildlife. Elephant seals sprawl across dark beaches. King penguins march up mossy slopes. Albatrosses circle over vast, treeless uplands. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-storms-southern-ocean-consequences-global.html Earth Sciences Sat, 06 Dec 2025 12:00:01 EST news684150861 A new study shows that during drought, it's not how hot or how dry it is that determines gas emissions from plants—but how quickly conditions change. This discovery reshapes our understanding of the relationship between drought, vegetation, and air pollution. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-rapid-weather-shifts-climate-air.html Earth Sciences Tue, 02 Dec 2025 14:34:21 EST news683908441 The weather patterns that produced some of Europe's most extreme heat waves over the past three decades could prove far more lethal if they strike in today's hotter climate, pushing weekly deaths toward levels seen during the COVID pandemic, according to a study in Nature Climate Change. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-weather-deadlier.html Earth Sciences Tue, 18 Nov 2025 05:00:01 EST news682599565 Researchers at McGill University and collaborating institutions have mapped the atmospheric features of a planetary-mass brown dwarf, a type of space object that is neither a star nor a planet, existing in a category in-between. This particular brown dwarf's mass, however, is just at the threshold between being a Jupiter-like planet and a brown dwarf. It has thus also been called a free-floating, or rogue, planet, not bound to a star. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-nearby-brown-dwarf-weather-unprecedented.html Astronomy Fri, 07 Nov 2025 10:54:04 EST news681735242 U.S. cities are facing a growing threat that goes beyond hot weather or hazy air. New research from the University of Oklahoma reveals that "compound events"—periods when heat wave conditions coincide with high air pollution levels—are becoming more frequent and intense in urban areas across the United States. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-cities-extreme-air-pollution-compound.html Earth Sciences Tue, 02 Sep 2025 14:40:29 EDT news676042821 It was a single lightning flash that streaked across the Great Plains for 515 miles, from eastern Texas nearly all the way to Kansas City, setting a new world record. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-weather-tracking-advances-revealing-astonishing.html Earth Sciences Thu, 31 Jul 2025 08:00:01 EDT news673109852