Satellite data shows up climate forecasts

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Even without rivers breakers hit a beach at an angle and push sand from the sea itself down the coast-silt that trapped in an extended breakwater can extend land. Then there is the natural silt deposited by rivers into the sea...and then there is enhanced silt caused by human development inland.

And then there are regions created by ages of silt deposited by a great river that are now being eroded away into the sea by that same river...like the Delta region loosing land because the Army Corps of Engineers have been straightening the whole length of the Mississippi so it now flows faster.

A portion of the world's iciest, coldest continent is "greening" at a dramatic rate because of global warming, scientists announced in a recent study. In fact, the research showed that vegetation cover across the Antarctic Peninsula has increased more than tenfold over the last four decades.

“The landscape is still almost entirely dominated by snow, ice and rock, with only a tiny fraction colonized by plant life," said study co-author Thomas Roland, from the University of Exeter in the U.K., in a statement.

“But that tiny fraction has grown dramatically – showing that even this vast and isolated ‘wilderness’ is being affected by anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change,” he said.

Greening on the Antarctic Peninsula increased from less than 1.1 square miles in 1986 to nearly 14.3 square miles in 2021.

Extreme heat events frequent

The warmer Antarctica gets, the greener it gets: "Antarctica has experienced significant increases in temperature over the past 60 years," the study said. "With rates of warming highest in the West Antarctic and Antarctic Peninsula regions and occurring much faster than global average warming."

Specifically, temperatures on the peninsula have risen by more than 5 degrees Fahrenheit since 1950, a much bigger increase than seen elsewhere in the world, said the study, which was published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

And the Antarctic Peninsula is warming at a rate that exceeds the global average, with extreme heat events becoming increasingly frequent in the region, according to the study.

When Kyle Townsend and Mitchell Gunther decided to start an orchard in this town just east of Niagara Falls two years ago, they quickly dismissed the idea of growing conventional fruit. Warmer winters, followed by snap freezes, were devastating apple and peach crops. They nixed grape vines and berries, which invasive pests were targeting.

“Just hear me out,” Townsend told his business partner, “we’re putting in a pawpaw orchard.”

Pawpaws are North America’s largest native fruit - and are exceedingly rare, found mainly in the wild across 26 states or in small orchards in Appalachia, where the trees have historically thrived. Praised for their flavor, which is sometimes described as a cross between a mango and banana, the custard-like fruit is an ideal spoonable dessert. You won’t find them in the supermarket - but some plant breeders are trying to change that.

Western New York is considered the very fringe of the pawpaw tree’s northern range. But as climate change brings warmer temperatures and more erratic weather to the region, a small but growing number of farmers are drawn to pawpaws’ low maintenance and adaptability.

In the wild, they grow from northern Florida to southern Ontario, tolerating a broad range of conditions and often spreading to form thickets. They are the only temperate genus of the otherwise tropical custard apple family - a traveler that made its way north long ago and, farmers hope, might be a way reduce their risk as climate change increasingly threatens their crops.

This is no trick -- several cities on the East Coast could see their warmest Halloween on record.

Unseasonably warm air heading East next week could make for a hotter-than-average Halloween in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Raleigh-Durham. Highs in those locations are forecast to be at least 15 to 20 degrees above average.^{15–20° Fahrenheit—or ~8–11° Celsius}

For example, New York City is forecasted to hit a high of 82 ^~28°C next Thursday; Boston is expected to hit 77 ^~25°C and Philadelphia 82.^~28°C Those temperatures are more typical of early September than late October. Normal average highs there are 59, 57 and 62, respectively.^{15, 14 and 17}

A new study has found that liquefied natural gas — a form of natural gas that has been cooled to a liquid state for shipping — produces more carbon pollution than even coal, which is widely considered the dirtiest fuel source.

Despite this, the United States is now the world's largest exporter of LNG, and global production capacity is forecast to skyrocket in the coming years.
What's happening?

According to a Cornell University study, LNG's carbon impact is 33% worse than coal's impact when processing and transport are considered, the Cornell Chronicle reported.

Moreover, around 50% of LNG's pollution comes from the carbon dioxide and methane released during production, shipping, and storage, as Robert Howarth, the study's author and an ecology and environmental biology professor at Cornell, explained.

While liquefying natural gas makes it possible to transport long distances on tanker ships, it takes a big toll on the environment. Even though modern LNG tankers have better fuel efficiency than older ships and produce less carbon pollution than even steam-powered ships, methane still spews into the air from the tanker's exhaust.

If you thought this year's hurricane season was bad, you might want to fasten your seatbelt. Scientists at Oregon State University say there are more climate surprises on the way.

What's happening?

A team of researchers at OSU released an annual report that says we're entering a "critical and unpredictable phase of the climate crisis." This could include stronger hurricanes and more extreme droughts, according to KGW, which reported on the paper.

For instance, "We could have never predicted that a hurricane was going to hit a mountainous region that we thought was a climate refuge," Jillian Gregg, study co-author, told the station in reference to Hurricane Helene.

The storm hit Asheville, North Carolina, in September, leading to intense flooding and at least 42 deaths in Buncombe County.

Why is this report important?

"We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster," the report reads. "This is a global emergency beyond any doubt."

In 2024, the world experienced a number of extreme weather events. For instance, the report calls out a July heatwave in the Mediterranean that led to at least 23 fatalities and Hurricane Debby, an August storm that caused extensive flooding in the Southeastern United States and killed at least 10 people.
Watch now: How did Hurricane Helene wreak havoc so far inland?

While hurricanes, droughts, and floods are nothing new, scientists say that our overheating planet is making weather catastrophes more frequent and intense. According to the United Nations, extreme weather threatens people in many ways. For instance, heatwaves decrease worker productivity and can lead to heat-related illnesses. Meanwhile, more severe storms can destroy communities, causing deaths and huge economic losses.

Venezuela lost its final glacier this year. The Greenland Ice Sheet is losing, on average, 30 million tons of ice per hour. Ice loss from the Thwaites Glacier, also known as the “Doomsday” glacier because its collapse could precipitate rapid Antarctic ice loss, may be unstoppable.

These are just a few of the stark findings from more than 50 leading snow and ice scientists, which are detailed in a new report from the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative.

The report summarizes the state of snow and ice in 2024: In short, experts agree, it’s been a horrible year for the frozen parts of Earth, an expected result of global warming. What’s more, top cryosphere scientists are growing increasingly worried that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a key ocean current that governs how heat cycles in the Atlantic Ocean, is on a path toward collapse.

A rapid halt to the current would cause rapid cooling in the North Atlantic, warming in the Southern Hemisphere and extreme changes in precipitation. If that happens, the new report suggests, northern Europe could cool by about 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit in a decade.

The report highlights a shift in consensus: Scientists once thought tipping points — like the collapse of AMOC — were distant or remote possibilities. Now, some of those thresholds are appearing more likely to be crossed, and with less runway to turn the situation around.

“The latest science is not telling us that things are any different to what we knew before, necessarily, but it’s telling us with more confidence and more certainty that these things are more likely to happen,” said Helen Findlay, an author of the report and a professor and biological oceanographer at Plymouth Marine Laboratory in England. “The longer we record these things, and the longer we’re able to observe them and start to understand and monitor them, there’s more certainty in the system and we start to really understand how these tipping points are working.”
Thwaites glacier seen by Copernicus Sentinel-2 (ESA / Eyevine/ Redux)

Last month, 44 leading scientists wrote in an open letter to leaders of Nordic countries that the collapse of AMOC remained “highly uncertain” but that evidence in favor of such a collapse was mounting, and risks have been underestimated. Dramatic changes to the AMOC, they warned, would “likely lead to unprecedented extreme weather” and “potentially threaten the viability of agriculture in northwestern Europe.”

The new report similarly draws attention to the risk of AMOC collapse.

Additionally, it projects that roughly two-thirds of glacier ice in the European Alps will be lost by 2050 if global greenhouse gas emissions keep their pace. Already, an estimated 10 million people are at risk of glacial outburst floods in Iceland, Alaska and Asia — a phenomenon already occurring as meltwater collapses ice dams and rapidly floods downstream. If high emissions continue, the report adds, models suggest that sea level could rise by roughly 10 feet in the 2100s, imperiling parts of many coastal cities.