Heatwaves Double Over 100 Years

(NEWSER) - Global warming is affecting 300 million people and taking 300,000 lives per year, according to the first wide-ranging research on the impact of climate change. Released by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan's think tank, the study says floods, fires, storms, and heatwaves are costing the world more than $125 billion annually—and will kill up to half a million people per year by 2030. More»

Nearly a month’s worth of temps topping 110

(NEWSER) - Phoenix citizens can’t blunt this hot spell with claims of “dry heat”: The city’s just marked its 29th day in a year of 110-degree temperatures. Urbanization and global warming are likely factors in the chart-topping season, though Phoenicians have been spared a highest-ever figure, the AP reports—they survived a 122-degree day in 1990. More»

March, in particular, was unseasonably warm

(NEWSER) - If you found yourself thinking last month, "Wow, it's awfully hot for March," you weren't wrong. Temperatures were 8.6 degrees higher than normal last month in the contiguous US, and 6 degrees above average for January, February, and March, the AP reports. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's calculations, that's much higher than past temperature records. Why? Weather patterns including La Nina have come together in unusual ways, meteorologists say, and many are concerned climate change is a factor. More»

Texas also set its own record for hottest July

(AP) - Sweltering may have reached a new record last month, as Oklahoma racked up the country's highest monthly average temperature ever. That's the highest average temperature, for any month, for any state, associate Oklahoma state climatologist Gary McManus said. According to automated weather recording instruments, the state's average for July was 89.1 degrees. That tops an average of 88.1 set in July 1954, McManus said. More»

Dozens perish after violent winter storm devastates western Europe

(NEWSER) - Dozens died this weekend as devastating storms swept across western Europe, destroying seawalls, uprooting trees, and causing widespread flooding. France bore the brunt, with as many as 50 people killed, including 25 in the town of l'Aiguillon sur Mer, 300 miles southwest of Paris on the Atlantic coast. Deaths were also reported in Spain, Portugal, and Germany. More»