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. Climate change and evolving growing conditions present new challenges for breeding. It is important to take local environmental conditions into account. An international team led by the IPK Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research has used AI and big data to develop a method of determining which winter wheat varieties are best suited to specific locations. The study's results have been published in the journal Genome Biology. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-tailor-wheat-ai-big.html Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 09 Feb 2026 15:00:21 EST news689871601 The 25th Winter Olympic Games are upon us, with Italy set to host the Games for the fourth time. The schedule at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics is set to look similar to previous iterations of the event: a mix of snow and ice sports held on what is meant to be mountainous, wintry terrain. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-climate-future-winter-olympic-paralympic.html Environment Sun, 08 Feb 2026 19:30:01 EST news689596069 A soft layer of white snow blankets the grounds of the Chicago Botanic Garden. The air is chilly, the sky gray. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-annual-orchids-vivid-chicago-winter.html Ecology Sat, 07 Feb 2026 01:57:57 EST news689651856 When viewers tune in to the 2026 Winter Olympics, they will see pristine, white slopes, groomed tracks and athletes racing over snow-covered landscapes, thanks in part to a storm that blanketed the mountain venues of the Italian Alps with fresh powder just in time. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-olympic-athletes-viewers-dont-machine.html Environment Thu, 05 Feb 2026 19:20:01 EST news689519424 When snow blankets the landscape, it may seem like life slows down. But beneath the surface, an entire world of activity is unfolding. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-snowpacks-microbes-winter-nitrogen-pulse.html Earth Sciences Tue, 03 Feb 2026 16:40:01 EST news689355515 Watching the Winter Olympics is an adrenaline rush as athletes fly down snow-covered ski slopes, luge tracks and over the ice at breakneck speeds and with grace. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-climate-threatens-winter-olympics-future.html Environment Tue, 03 Feb 2026 12:01:49 EST news689342161 The brutally frigid weather that has gripped most of America for the past 11 days is not unprecedented. It just feels that way. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-climate-human-psychology-cold-snap.html Environment Tue, 03 Feb 2026 11:10:07 EST news689338290 Every Feb. 2, Americans turn to a groundhog to see whether winter will stick around. But Groundhog Day is about much more than shadows and more weeks of cold. The tradition began in 1886, when the first Punxsutawney Phil was crowned in Pennsylvania. The first official celebration came in 1887. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-groundhog-day-furry.html Social Sciences Mon, 02 Feb 2026 07:20:01 EST news689239050 A team of NASA scientists deployed on an international mission designed to better understand severe winter storms. The North American Upstream Feature-Resolving and Tropopause Uncertainty Reconnaissance Experiment, or NURTURE, is an airborne campaign that uses a suite of remote sensing instruments to collect atmospheric data on winter weather with a goal of improving the models that feed storm forecasts. This combination of instruments will also serve as a proxy to demonstrate the potential to collect similar observations from space. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-nasa-science-flights-venture-severe.html Earth Sciences Wed, 28 Jan 2026 14:35:27 EST news688833302 A severe winter storm that brought crippling freezing rain, sleet and snow to a large part of the U.S. in late January 2026 left a mess in states from New Mexico to New England. Hundreds of thousands of people lost power across the South as ice pulled down tree branches and power lines, more than a foot of snow fell in parts of the Midwest and Northeast, and many states faced bitter cold that was expected to linger for days. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-polar-vortex-ocean-major-winter.html Earth Sciences Mon, 26 Jan 2026 12:28:28 EST news688652881 For the second time in the past two weeks, the U.S. Drought Monitor, a prominent national report, has classified 100% of California as being drought-free. That's a rating that hasn't occurred in 25 years. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-california-drought-free-years.html Environment Fri, 16 Jan 2026 17:10:01 EST news687769712 Winter weather took hold across the Indo-Gangetic Plain in early January 2026, bringing dense fog and cold temperatures to much of the flat, fertile lands that span from Pakistan and northern India to Bangladesh. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-ganges-delta-winter-shroud-fog.html Earth Sciences Fri, 09 Jan 2026 09:11:22 EST news687172261 Fierce winds battered France and Britain on Friday as storms barreled through northern Europe, snarling train travel, shutting schools and cutting power to hundreds of thousands of homes in plunging winter temperatures. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-hundreds-thousands-power-storm-goretti.html Environment Fri, 09 Jan 2026 04:46:32 EST news687156373 As a scholar researching clouds, I have spent much of my time trying to understand the economy of the sky. Not the weather reports showing scudding rainclouds, but the deeper logic of cloud movements, their distributions and densities and the way they intervene in light, regulate temperatures and choreograph heat flows across our restless planet. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-clouds-vital-life-wispy-ghosts.html Environment Tue, 30 Dec 2025 10:19:42 EST news686312352 Yes the darkest day of the year is here, but that means brighter days are ahead. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-shortest-day-year-descending-northern.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 18 Dec 2025 04:06:11 EST news685253138 Imagine a grain field in Western Jutland, winter wheat standing tall and golden. Now picture it being plowed up and replaced with clover grass: one of the crops intended to drive the green transition in Danish agriculture. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-green-agricultural-emissions-benefit-climate.html Agriculture Wed, 17 Dec 2025 20:40:01 EST news685197523 Just as humans have historically gathered during winter, many animals do the same. Animals may not be exchanging presents or decorating their nests and dens but a lot of species become more social in winter—even ones that are normally solitary. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-humans-animals-hunker-christmas.html Plants & Animals Tue, 16 Dec 2025 12:57:18 EST news685112222 As climate change profoundly alters ecosystems in North America, a small parasite is wreaking havoc: the winter tick. This tick, now more prevalent due to milder environmental conditions, is severely affecting the winter survival of young moose in eastern Canada. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-milder-winters-parasites-moose-winter.html Plants & Animals Tue, 16 Dec 2025 11:36:28 EST news685107362 The findings of a new academic paper suggest that warming winters are causing damage to the DNA of some lizards. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-winters-dna-lizards.html Plants & Animals Wed, 10 Dec 2025 08:54:22 EST news684579242 The Colorado River Basin, like much of the southwestern U.S., is experiencing a drought so historic—it began in 1999—that it's been called a megadrought. In the basin, whose river provides water to seven states and Mexico, that drought is the product of warming temperatures and reduced precipitation, especially in the form of winter snow. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-southwest-precipitation-due-human-driven.html Environment Tue, 09 Dec 2025 14:09:37 EST news684511741 After years of little snow across the Chicago area, recent record-breaking snowfall and below-freezing temperatures might seem to contradict scientific reports of winters getting warmer. But climate change is still transforming how locals experience the changing seasons, including this fall, one of the top 10 warmest recorded in Illinois. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-snowy-cold-winter-fall-illinois.html Earth Sciences Mon, 08 Dec 2025 18:50:02 EST news684405751 Although millions upon millions of living creatures fly, feed and reproduce in the air, this habitat has hardly been researched. Insects are under increasing pressure worldwide due to global change and human activities. However, until now, evaluating the large scale effects of this pressure has been challenging because insect monitoring focuses mainly on a small number of species and data is collected at local scales. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-flying-insects-weather-radar.html Plants & Animals Mon, 08 Dec 2025 12:49:21 EST news684420541 Researchers at University of Tsukuba and the Meteorological Research Institute have identified how atmosphere–ocean interactions in the midlatitudes reinforce the East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM). During strong monsoon seasons, cold air outbreaks from the Eurasian continent cool the midlatitude western North Pacific (WNP). This oceanic cooling, in turn, alters atmospheric circulation in a manner that further intensifies the monsoon. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-midlatitude-atmosphere-ocean-feedback-east.html Earth Sciences Tue, 02 Dec 2025 11:22:42 EST news683896921 Ski season is here, but while the eastern half of the U.S. digs out from winter storms, the western U.S. snow season has been off to a very slow start. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-winter-storms-blanket-east-west.html Environment Tue, 02 Dec 2025 11:14:35 EST news683896441 Researchers from the Institute of Applied Ecology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have revealed the mechanism behind the dieback of natural Mongolian pine (Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica) forests on sandy land. Their findings are published in Forest Ecology and Management. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-suppression-winter-jointly-dieback-natural.html Ecology Mon, 01 Dec 2025 12:27:25 EST news683814421 New study reveals burning of fossil fuels is accelerating winter rainfall changes in the UK and Europe, almost 25 years sooner than expected. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-fossil-fuel-emissions-winter-rainfall.html Earth Sciences Mon, 24 Nov 2025 13:40:01 EST news683213796 People who live in the tropical areas where Aedes aegypti mosquitoes reside have probably known for centuries, or even millennia—thanks to their itchy bites—that the mosquitoes hunt most often at dawn and dusk. A new study offers scientific proof of that hunting behavior, and new insight into the biological mechanism behind it. It also offers a potential path to reducing bites and helping stop the spread of deadly, mosquito-borne disease. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-mosquitoes-internal-clocks.html Ecology Wed, 12 Nov 2025 09:45:04 EST news682163101 Another of the wolves released in Colorado earlier this year as part of the state's reintroduction effort has died, wildlife officials said Friday. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-reintroduced-wolf-dies-southwest-colorado.html Plants & Animals Mon, 10 Nov 2025 07:20:01 EST news681980135 A team of researchers from the University of Exeter and the Met Office have been investigating the impact of Arctic sea-ice loss on the British Isles. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-arctic-war-affect-british-isles.html Environment Tue, 04 Nov 2025 11:31:03 EST news681478261 One hundred days before the start of the 2026 Winter Olympics, it's too early for the weather forecast, but one thing is certain—there will be artificial snow, much to the dismay of environmental activists. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-winter-olympics-high-alps-artificial.html Environment Tue, 28 Oct 2025 11:40:02 EDT news680868227