Subscribe now

Most cities are rainier than their surroundings due to heat and smog

9 September 2024

A global survey of more than a thousand cities shows heat and air pollution in urban environments often have a measurable influence on rainfall, creating urban "wet islands"

The jet stream may be starting to shift in response to climate change

6 September 2024

Bands of fast-moving wind that blow west to east around the globe play a crucial role in weather – a poleward shift in parts of these jet streams could cause dramatic changes in weather from the western US to the Mediterranean

The Atlantic has been suspiciously quiet this hurricane season

5 September 2024

The forecasts predicted an extreme storm season in the Atlantic, but so far there have only been three named hurricanes – so where are all the storms?
We're finally solving the puzzle of how clouds will affect our climate

We're finally solving the puzzle of how clouds will affect our climate

2 September 2024

Clouds can trap heat or reflect it away from Earth, making their impact on global warming extraordinarily hard to predict. Now, new ways of studying them are lifting the fog

Mosquito-borne illnesses are spiking across the world

28 August 2024

Climate change is extending mosquito season and helping to drive outbreaks of dengue fever, Oropouche virus and eastern equine encephalitis
National Geographic handout TV still: OCEANXPLORERS. Eric Ste-Marie, Cameraman Jamie Holland, Aldo Kane, Melissa Marquez, Nigel Hussey, and Crew Josh Palmer work to tag a Greenland Shark off the side of the FRC. (National Geographic/Mario Tadinac)

James Cameron's new ocean-life series is try-hard but effective

28 August 2024

Despite some hype, OceanXplorers, a new ocean-life nature series, delivers on the visuals – and on showcasing the effects of climate change
2MJA8ED FILE - In this Dec. 11, 2015, file photo, the slogan 1.5 DEGREES is projected on the Eiffel Tower as part of the COP21, United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. Next month's three-day U.N. climate summit will highlight the urgency of taking immediate actions to reduce global warming and focus on innovations that work, not wordy statements, the U.N. special envoy for the event said Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2019. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)

The 1.5°C target is dead, but climate action needn't be

21 August 2024

For the first time, climate scientists have explicitly said it will be impossible to limit peak warming to 1.5°C. Now our focus should be on taking action, not meaningless platitudes and slogans

Our efforts to cope with extreme temperatures are making them worse

20 August 2024

An analysis of daily carbon dioxide emissions since 1970 has revealed increasingly large spikes that appear to be caused by growing energy use during extreme weather events
2TDDHCE Bob Givehchi, right, and his son Daniel, 8, Toronto residents visiting Miami for the first time, walk past debris and palm trees blowing in gusty winds, at Matheson Hammock Park in Coral Gables, Fla., Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. It's beginning to look at lot like?hurricane season, at least across much of South Florida, where it's been windy and rainy for two days and the forecast predicts more of the same this busy holiday season weekend. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Part of the Atlantic is cooling at record speed and nobody knows why

19 August 2024

After over a year of record-high global sea temperatures, the equatorial Atlantic is cooling off more quickly than ever recorded, which could impact weather around the world
Long exposure view of Grj??tagj??, a small lava cave near lake M??vatn in Iceland

Why the underground home of the world’s weirdest wildlife is in danger

19 August 2024

Up to 100,000 extraordinary species, from spiders and beetles to salamanders and fish, live in subterranean caves and cracks. They aren’t as safe down there as we thought

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Receive a weekly dose of discovery in your inbox! We'll also keep you up to date with New Scientist events and special offers.

Sign up