Michon Scott

1 month ago | climate.gov | Michon Scott |Rebecca Lindsey

This article was first published in August 2014, and it has been updated to include new research published since then. This article is one of a three-part series on past temperatures. One is about how warm the Earth has been “lately.” The other is about the coldest Earth's ever been. Our 4.54-billion-year-old planet probably experienced its hottest temperatures in its earliest days, when it was still colliding with other rocky debris (planetesimals) careening around the solar system.

Dec 10, 2024 | climate.gov | Michon Scott |Rebecca Lindsey

Over the 2023–2024 season, snow accumulation across the Arctic exceeded the 1991–2020 average, according to the Arctic Report Card. While some localized areas experienced snow cover duration that was relatively long compared to recent years, long-term records show on average snow is melting earlier in both North America and Eurasia. This map shows how the length of the 2023-24 snow-covered season ranked in the historical record dating back to 1998.