Author: Derrick Lester

For months, signals have been coming from the Pacific Ocean. weakening trade winds, warmer-than-normal water accumulation close to the equator, and a gradual disintegration of the atmospheric patterns that typically maintain stability. El Niño officially formed in the tropical Pacific on June 11, according to NOAA’s National Weather Service, and forecasters think it’s just getting started. This is not your typical seasonal forecast. According to the Climate Prediction Center, there is a 63% chance that sea surface temperatures in the monitored equatorial zone will rise above 2°C, which would put this event in “very strong” territory. Although forecasters are usually…

Summers in Texas rarely require additional assistance to be dramatic. This one, though, has been different. Before anyone had a chance to dry out, Tropical Storm Bertha was churning across the northern Gulf, causing the state to go from devastating flooding to dangerous heat in a matter of weeks. Additionally, a more significant narrative has been subtly developing in the Pacific, which climate scientists believe has the potential to shape the coming months. El Niño has arrived. And it might be becoming much more powerful. When sea surface temperatures in the eastern and central equatorial Pacific are higher than normal,…

Every time a tangible job and an uncertain forecast overlap, this question arises. The weather app changes overnight after the truck is reserved, the team is assembled, and the paperwork is completed. When a contractor must make a decision while standing in their driveway at seven in the morning with ominous clouds, their response—pour or postpone—tells a lot about how well they comprehend the effects of rain on concrete. In short, if you’re ready to act fast, you can pour in light rain, but heavy rain is a whole different issue that experts take seriously. Unlike paint, concrete does not…

On the morning of June 26, 2025, Melissa Casias left her home in Ranchos de Taos to bring lunch to her daughter at a café on Taos Plaza. Her husband Mark, who worked alongside her at Los Alamos National Laboratory, was already at the lab. When her daughter came home that evening, she found her mother’s car parked outside the house, the front door locked, and all of Melissa’s belongings inside — her wallet, her keys, her purse, and both her work and personal cell phones. The phones had been wiped to factory settings. She was not there. And for…

On a May morning this year, drive west out of Scottsbluff, and the fields speak for themselves. In certain areas, the wind has been bending the ground and removing the topsoil from the windward side of fields, making the surface too cloddy in some places and too powdery in others to plant a planter. The soil is pale and dry. In his thirty years of farming, James Maser, who has been cultivating this land for twenty-nine years, has never had to turn on his irrigation pivots before June 20th. He had to pre-irrigate this spring in order to sufficiently break…

More than one-third of the Earth’s surface is made up of the Pacific Ocean, and changes in its temperature in a comparatively small area close to the equator have an impact on weather from the interior of Australia to the Canadian prairies to the agricultural nation of East Africa. El Niño is essentially a periodic warming of tropical Pacific surface waters that causes a series of atmospheric changes that are felt in almost every part of the world, frequently in ways that appear completely unrelated to a patch of warm ocean thousands of kilometers away. The relationship is instantly recognizable…

There was no rain in Washington, DC, today. On Monday, July 20, 2026, there were clear sky and a high temperature of about 86 degrees Fahrenheit. It was dry, warm, and humid as the capital is typically in July. Practically speaking, the walkways remained dry and everybody who left an umbrella at home made the right decision because there was just a five percent probability of rain. Nevertheless, two more fascinating chapters are sandwiched between the calm weather of today. The city has experienced every aspect of a DC summer over the last two weeks, including a period of extreme…

Even on a gloomy morning, you can still see the supply boats waiting for crews to go offshore in line with their engines idling along Aberdeen’s waterfront. In its last act, it doesn’t appear to be an industry. However, if you speak with nearly anyone involved in UK energy policy today, the main point of contention is that data, not boats, is at issue. Since the late 1960s, the North Sea has been producing gas and oil; production peaked in 1999. Production had dropped to about a fifth of its peak level by last year. Approximately 93% of the recoverable…

A strange phenomenon is currently occurring along the equator, but most people won’t notice it unless they work with satellite data. The height of the Pacific Ocean has increased. Not everywhere, but in a long, warm area close to the equator, a satellite known as Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich has been surreptitiously recording sea surface elevations that, to be honest, seem a little strange. Whether California is prepared or not, that bump in the ocean is El Niño making its presence known. The official development of El Niño conditions was confirmed by NOAA earlier this month, and forecasters are now placing…

When something significant is taking place just out of sight, a certain kind of silence descends upon a zoo enclosure. That silence has a name at Hampshire’s Marwell Wildlife. Her name is Zaya, and she gave birth early on Wednesday, May 20, somewhere inside a dark cubbing box that no one can actually see into—not even her keepers. In a way, it’s a strange kind of news story because the main fact is still up for debate. Marwell has not disclosed Zaya’s cub count. They can’t just yet. The team has opted to rely on something more traditional: watching, listening,…