Stories by Andrea Thompson

Yet another heat dome will send temperatures skyrocketing across the U.S. Southwest just after the planet saw its hottest week on record

The famous climate pattern El Niño could usher in a new hottest year on record and will have domino effects on the world’s weather.

A “heat dome” is parked over Texas and Mexico and is sending temperatures soaring to record—and potentially deadly—levels

El Niño has arrived, bringing potentially major effects on weather around the world, such as drought and flooding, and possibly setting a new record for the hottest year

Along with an expert, we take you into some of nature's most monstrous storms. 

Where is it coming from? How long will it last? What's in the smoke? Whose health is at risk? How do you clean your own air?

Smoke from record-setting wildfires in Canada has blanketed parts of the eastern U.S., but shifting summer weather patterns should bring relief

From North America to South Asia, summer heat waves are becoming longer, stronger and more frequent with climate change.

A potentially record-setting heat wave is headed for the Pacific Northwest and western Canada, a sign of the shift to hotter—and earlier—summers

A severe drought that has led to near-famine conditions in the Horn of Africa would not have happened without the influence of climate change, a new analysis finds

Renewable energy has seen considerable growth in recent years, but there is a long way to go to achieve a clean energy future that averts the worst effects of the climate crisis

To get people to shift to more climate-friendly behavior, what works best? Education? Payments? Peer pressure?

Some countries have used up far more of the world’s carbon budget—the amount we can emit and still avoid more extreme climate disruption—than others

To keep warming below levels that scientists say will bring extreme climate impacts, nations must act quickly to make deep cuts in carbon emissions, according to the final installment of the IPCC’s latest climate report

The EPA has proposed the first nationwide limits for toxic chemicals called PFASs in the U.S. water supply

A massive storm shocks southern California with cold temperatures, strong winds and abundant moisture, causing extremely rare blizzard conditions and potentially unprecedented snowfalls

Though deadly quakes can’t be prevented, science does have some ways to protect buildings—and the people inside them

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck Turkey is a rare occurrence and underscores the importance of setting and enforcing building codes

This year we learned why dogs come in so many sizes, that puppy dog eyes are a real thing and that cats don’t deserve their aloof rap

More than one quarter of the more than 150,000 species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species are threatened with extinction

Octopus outbursts, spiders evading sexual cannibalism and a human-cockatoo arms race—here are strange animal behaviors we learned about in 2022

Twitter is a crucial communication tool during disasters, but impersonators and other problems under Elon Musk’s leadership have emergency managers on edge

November hurricanes and tropical storms such as Nicole are relatively rare, but they can—and do—form

As the COP27 climate summit begins, emissions reduction pledges are still far behind where they need to be to meet the goals to limit global warming