Subscribe Now

Snowfall and snow cover have direct effects on transportation, soil freeze/thaw cycles, water availability, flood frequency, water quality, wildlife, forest fires and more. Far from being just a passive product of prevailing climatic conditions, snow cover also influences climate by changing the surface albedo, the amount of solar radiation a surface reflects. The presence of [...]

The El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle, or the cyclical movement of heat in the tropical Pacific Ocean, affects the upper atmosphere over the Atlantic Ocean. This affects both the frequency of Atlantic tropical cyclone formation as well as the positioning of the region?s high and low pressure centers that steer the tropical cyclones. La [...]

El Nino years correspond to higher temperatures and above average rainfall in the Southeastern U.S. If this increased rainfall comes in frequent and steady showers instead of a few strong storms, then conditions for mosquito breeding are ideal. Yellow Fever, which has been eliminated in the U.S. due to mosquito control efforts and a vaccine, [...]

The charismatic and colorful Wood Duck provides bird-watchers with a familiar and welcome sight. Hunters also value this bird, which is second only to the mallard in terms of numbers shot each year. Data shows that in parts of the Southeast, the duck is now breeding a full month earlier than it did in the [...]

The El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), or the cyclical movement of heat in the tropical Pacific Ocean, affects atmospheric phenomena throughout the world. Its effects are the most pronounced during the winter, when the temperature difference between the atmosphere and the oceans is the greatest. The cycle affects the strength and position of the Pacific Jet [...]

The El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), or the cyclical movement of heat in the tropical Pacific Ocean, affects atmospheric phenomena throughout the world. Its effects are the most pronounced during the winter, when the temperature difference between the atmosphere and the oceans is the greatest. The cycle affects the strength and position of the Pacific Jet [...]

The El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), or the cyclical movement of heat in the tropical Pacific Ocean, affects atmospheric phenomena throughout the world. Its effects are the most pronounced during the winter, when the temperature difference between the atmosphere and the oceans is the greatest. The cycle affects the strength and position of the Pacific Jet [...]

The El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), or the cyclical movement of heat in the tropical Pacific Ocean, affects atmospheric phenomena throughout the world. Its effects are the most pronounced during the winter, when the temperature difference between the atmosphere and the oceans is the greatest. The cycle affects the strength and position of the Pacific Jet [...]

The El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), or the cyclical movement of heat in the tropical Pacific Ocean, affects atmospheric phenomena throughout the world. Its effects are the most pronounced during the winter, when the temperature difference between the atmosphere and the oceans is the greatest. The cycle affects the strength and position of the Pacific Jet [...]

The AO is the oscillation of pressure difference between the middle and high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. Negative phases occur when there is relatively high pressure over the polar regions and low pressure over the mid-latitudes, with positive phases featuring the opposite characteristics. Since the 1970?s, the index has been predominately positive. Positive phases [...]

The El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle, or the cyclical movement of heat in the tropical Pacific Ocean, influences annual rainfall amounts on Florida’s Gulf Coast. In Tampa Bay, seven out of ten strong El Nino years are years when wintertime rainfall is above average. In the Lakeland/Fort Myers area, winters with above average rainfall [...]

The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) is a 65-year cycle during which sea-surface temperatures in the North Atlantic alternate between warm (positive) and cool (negative) phases. The effects of this Oscillation are felt around the World. For example, warm (positive) sea-surface temperatures in the North Atlantic generally correspond to drier and warmer conditions in the Western [...]

Over the last century, the World’s sea level rose eight inches. Changes in coastlines have been particularly pronounced in Louisiana. Since 1900, over one million acres of the State’s coastal wetlands have been inundated and converted to open water, and the area of the State’s barrier islands has been reduced by one-third. Since the 1970s [...]

From the time of its discovery in the Gulf of Mexico in the 1940′s until about 1990, a single-celled marine parasite (Perkinsus marinus) was rarely spotted north of the Chesapeake Bay. Perkinsus marinus is best known for causing large-scale die-offs of the commercially important Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea virginica). Since 1992, however, outbreaks of the parasite [...]

Tree Swallows are medium-sized birds with white underbellies and iridescent blue-green capes that run from their heads to their wing tips. They often live in flocks that can number hundreds of thousands of birds and just before sunset, these flocks will swarm around their roosting spots in great circles that resemble living tornadoes. In the [...]

Seabirds, such as auks, gulls, petrels, terns, and gannets, have spent tens of millions of years adapting to life on the ocean. Some species, such as the Sooty Tern, can spend years at sea before returning to land. The success of these species is dependent on the success of their food sources (such as fish [...]

Over the last 40 years in the eastern U.S., there has been an increase in the frequency during warm months of 30-day periods when there is no rain. These dry spells now occur about twice as often as they did in the 1960′s. Rainfall events push water through municipal sewer and storm water systems. During [...]

The El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), or the cyclical movement of heat in the tropical Pacific Ocean, affects atmospheric phenomena throughout the world. The cycle affects the strength and position of the Pacific Jet Stream, an upper atmosphere wind current that flows from the Pacific over North America. During La Nina phases of the cycle, the [...]

The warming trend over the last thirty years in the Eastern U.S. has coincided with changes in the behavior of migratory birds. Depending on each individual specieslifestyle, birds that breed in the northern U.S. and southern Canada may either delay or advance the date at which they begin their journey south in the fall. Because [...]

The amount of energy that the North Atlantic Basin accumulated over the last 50 years is equivalent to almost four trillion tons of TNT (1.610 1022 joules). This energy has not been distributed uniformly, as the tropical and subtropical regions of the North Atlantic have warmed the most, and the subpolar region has actually cooled. [...]