Expert says West Coast flooding, mudslides remain threat from multiple large winter storms

As California and the west coast stare down yet another major winter storm, the threat of devastating flooding and mudslides is even more urgent. Drew Ellis, a climate science and meteorology expert at Virginia Tech, explains what causes these conditions.

FSU atmospheric scientist available to comment on what El Niño conditions mean for winter, spring

By: Patty Cox | Published: October 2, 2023 | 12:30 pm | SHARE: El Niño, the climate phenomenon characterized by warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures across the equatorial central and eastern Pacific Ocean, has far-reaching impacts on weather patterns across the globe.  El Niño events can last for several months up to a year or more and typically peak in the winter months of the Northern Hemisphere, so we’re likely to see El Niño conditions continue to strengthen over the coming months, said Alyssa Atwood, an assistant professor in Florida State University’s Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science, part of the College of Arts and Sciences.

El Niño and record warm ocean temperatures: FSU climatologist offers insight on what they mean for hurricanes

By: Patty Cox | Published: July 20, 2023 | 12:52 pm | SHARE: Record-breaking high temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean combined with El Niño spell uncertainty for the Atlantic hurricane season. El Niño, known to reduce hurricane activity in the Atlantic basin, developed early this summer.  With the conflicting factors of El Nino in the Pacific leading to fewer hurricanes and warm Atlantic Ocean temperatures favoring hurricane development, seasonal forecasts are for near-normal activity with lower confidence than other years.

Sea ice melt, warming ocean temperatures and emergency response: Experts discuss the return of El Niño

The University of Delaware boasts several experts who can talk about El Niño’s return and its wide-reaching impacts, from record-breaking temperatures to sea ice melt that has been shattering scientists’ expectations.  Wei-Jun Cai: Air-sea CO2 flux; carbon cycling in estuaries…

Ecological tipping point: 5+ El Niño events per century controls coastal biotic communities

Along with implications for the future, the findings illuminate important moments in our past, including human migration into the Americas, the variable human use of coastal and interior habitats and the extinction of the flightless duck Chendytes.

Nuclear War Could Trigger Big El Niño and Decrease Seafood

A nuclear war could trigger an unprecedented El Niño-like warming episode in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, slashing algal populations by 40 percent and likely lowering the fish catch, according to a Rutgers-led study. The research, published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, shows that turning to the oceans for food if land-based farming fails after a nuclear war is unlikely to be a successful strategy – at least in the equatorial Pacific.

New Study Shows How Climate Impacts Food Webs, Poses Socioeconomic Threat in Eastern Africa

For the first time, a research team has obtained high resolution sedimentary core samples from Lake Tanganyika. The samples show that high frequency variability in climate can lead to major disruptions in how the lake’s food web functions. The changes could put millions of people at risk who rely on the lake for food security. The team says the findings are a critical building block toward research-informed policymaking in the Lake Tanganyika region.

El Niño–linked decreases in soil moisture could trigger massive tropical-plant die offs

New research has found that El Niño events are often associated with droughts in some of the world’s more vulnerable tropical regions. Associated with warmer than average ocean temperatures in the eastern Pacific, El Niños can in turn influence global weather patterns and tropical precipitation, and these changes can lead to massive plant die-offs if other extreme factors are also at play.

How new data can make ecological forecasts as good as weather forecasts

Soon, University of Wisconsin–Madison ecologist Ben Zuckerberg thinks we’ll be able to pull off the same forecasting feat for bird migrations and wildlife populations as for climate forecasts. That’s because just as those recurring changes in climate have predictable consequences for humans, they also have predictable effects on plants and animals.

FSU Expert Discusses El Niño effects, prediction strategies

In the past few months, extreme weather events have caused significant damage to communities throughout the United States. From flooding in the Mississippi River region to the tornadoes tearing through the Midwest to a delay of the North American monsoon,…