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. In a Penn State lab, a small cylinder of soil sits wired with sensors, slowly cooling as it mimics conditions thousands of miles away. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ground-future-decoding-arctic-climate.html Earth Sciences Sat, 27 Jun 2026 06:20:01 EDT news701698728 Europe's heat wave has smashed several temperature records, the U.N.'s weather and climate agency said Friday, adding that it would determine the full impact once the phenomenon has ended. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-europe-shattering-temperature.html Environment Fri, 26 Jun 2026 11:17:59 EDT news701691451 Heat is no longer a future climate risk. It is already here. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-summer-silent-killer-world-global.html Environment Tue, 23 Jun 2026 17:20:01 EDT news701440299 The UK braced for a record-breaking heat wave Tuesday as hundreds of schools closed early for the next two days and train companies slashed services. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-hundreds-schools-uk-braces.html Environment Tue, 23 Jun 2026 14:10:01 EDT news701440843 Europe is sizzling under an early heat wave this week, with millions of people experiencing extremely high temperatures, and experts say a phenomenon known as a heat dome is to blame. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-dome-experts-blame-europe-temperatures.html Environment Tue, 23 Jun 2026 13:37:36 EDT news701440623 Thirteen people died by drowning in searing temperatures in France over the weekend, with the heat wave set to intensify from Monday across much of Europe, forcing warnings and special measures. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-europe-latest.html Environment Mon, 22 Jun 2026 09:40:01 EDT news701337723 France banned alcohol in red-alert areas Sunday, Spain and Germany canceled or postponed sports events, and Britain warned of "tropical nights" as Europe sweltered through a heat wave threatening to break June temperature records. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-europe-worse.html Environment Mon, 22 Jun 2026 05:10:02 EDT news701322078 This is the sun's time to shine: Sunday is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-sunday-longest-day-year-planet.html Environment Sat, 20 Jun 2026 16:20:01 EDT news701084674 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 India will prepare contingency plans to help farmers weather potential low rainfall linked to the El Niño weather system, agriculture officials said Tuesday. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-india-braces-el-nino-linked.html Environment Tue, 16 Jun 2026 13:40:01 EDT news700824339 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 The world relies on a modest number of countries to keep watch over the ocean. That arrangement is starting to fail. Europe and Asia must now decide whether to let the system unravel, or to take it up together. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ocean-europe-asia-sight-world.html Environment Sat, 13 Jun 2026 18:30:05 EDT news700232255 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 As nations prepare to compete on the global stage this summer, researchers at the University of Reading have created a different kind of scoreboard that shows where each country really stands on climate change. The Real Scoreline compares countries using six climate indicators—including emissions, fossil fuel dependence, heat stress, projected warming and net-zero commitments—producing a single score out of a possible 99 that reveals how nations compare beyond the traditional scoreboard. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-real-scoreline-reveals-nations-climate.html Environment Mon, 08 Jun 2026 19:00:03 EDT news700148409 A new El Niño index that provides a more climate-robust measure of the strength of El Niño signals has been released by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). With the World Meteorological Organization's recent update indicating an 80% likelihood of an El Niño event during June–August 2026 and a 90% probability of this continuing until at least November, it is more important than ever to have accurate, reliable data. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-nio-index-robust-el-strength.html Earth Sciences Mon, 08 Jun 2026 16:30:01 EDT news700153741 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 Accurate measurements are the foundation of effective environmental management and decision-making. Through advanced monitoring networks and computer models, Ken Davis, professor of meteorology and atmospheric science in Penn State's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, and his research group are helping scientists, communities, and policymakers better understand urban heat, greenhouse gas emissions, and air quality. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-qa-climate-smarter-environmental-decisions.html Environment Tue, 02 Jun 2026 17:40:04 EDT news699625442 Nearly 69 million people in the United States speak a language other than English at home, yet weather warnings have long been issued almost exclusively in English. A new study documents how the National Weather Service is using artificial intelligence to change that, developing a comprehensive translation program that delivers life-saving forecasts and alerts in Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Samoan, French and other languages. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-kind-ai-tool-life-weather.html Environment Tue, 02 Jun 2026 13:14:05 EDT news699624728 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 After another spell of wet weather along Australia's east coast, with storms, heavy rain and flash flooding across Sydney and parts of New South Wales, it is natural to ask whether our cities are shaping the rainfall that descends upon them. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-cities-scientists-thought.html Earth Sciences Mon, 01 Jun 2026 13:00:05 EDT news699527942 The summer of 2021 was one for the record books as the now-infamous "heat dome" settled over the Pacific Northwest from late June through early July, resulting in triple-digit temperatures and hundreds of deaths. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-dome-experts.html Environment Fri, 29 May 2026 11:40:01 EDT news699268142 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 People in western Europe turned to fans and fountains as they sweltered through a record-breaking heat wave Tuesday, with temperatures set to soar even further. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-temps-europe.html Environment Wed, 27 May 2026 05:00:01 EDT news699074991 Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have categorized a unique, previously unclassified type of heat wave in Japan, so-called "moist heat waves" which are accompanied by an approaching tropical cyclone. These heat waves are accompanied by high humidity and/or heavy precipitation, and their frequency has been rising over the last 30 years, accounting for approximately a quarter of the heat wave days surveyed. They may potentially trigger multiple natural hazards at once. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-tropical-cyclones-unique-japan.html Earth Sciences Mon, 25 May 2026 20:20:01 EDT news698924233 Forecasters in Europe warned Tuesday of exceptional heat, as record temperatures driven by a "heat dome" push temperatures well above seasonal norms across the continent. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-dome-europe-uk-france-spain.html Environment Mon, 25 May 2026 14:20:03 EDT news698936585 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