Collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current projected to increase land falling California atmospheric rivers, making them more frequent and stronger when they arrive. www.sciencealert.com/a-major-ocea...

Field survey of 30 Sierra Nevada ponds, summers 2020–2023, shows montane ponds overturn almost every night, unlike warm low-elev ponds of similar volume. Montane ponds do not fit existing pond paradigms mostly based on low-elevation counterparts. esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Drying of Aral Sea dumped teratons of C into the atmosphere and region's C balances; refilling can avoid more emissions in the future....Any lessons for Great Salt Lake, Salton Sea, and even smaller imperiled lakes like Owens Lake, etc, here at home? www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

New study challenges common misconception that floods will decrease under warming in many rivers due to changes in land-sfc processes, espec less snowmelt. Blames error on past reliance on daily simulations, which mask changes due to subdaily rainfall intensities. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

FIRO is a water mgmt strategy that uses weather/flood forecasts to help reservoirs provide more benefits. New study outlines tools for triaging FIRO challenges/opportunities via precip&flow stats vs storage space & limits on safe releases. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

Satellite observations of river surface temperature differences up- vs downstream of 287 large US dams, 2013-2024, show downstream temp differences at 71% of sites, typically warmer (60%) downstream, w/sustained or continued increases w/in 20 km downstream. www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....

China has (as of April) surpassed the US in total R&D in terms of dollars, people, papers & patents. China is now the dominant global power in R&D (based on Org of Economic Cooperation & Developmt, Web of Science & World Intellectual Property Organization stats). www.aaas.org/sites/defaul...

As trust in international trade & shipping routes is degraded yr by yr, there have been major shifts in global capital spending toward domestic energy sources & diversification to reduce fuel imports—>more demand for renewables, nukes, EVs & batteries—and coal. foreignpolicy.com/2026/07/08/e...

New 250m-rez mapping of geomorphic-process domains finds ~75% global land is soil-mantled hillslope & flatlands where diffusive soil creep rules; other 24% is glaciers, lakes, alluvial river corridors, aeolian or bedrock slopes that transport most sediment to oceans. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Now, the vanity part of this posting: Nine of us in NAE's Natural Resource Engineering section contributed the 11th article in this The Bridge issue, discussing key examples of historical innovations in resource characterization, extraction, and processing... 2/2 www.nae.edu/500547/natur...

Just in time for the 4th, a special America250 issue of the National Academy of Engineering's The Bridge quarterly is out today! This issue presents 12 articles describing NAE members' selections of significant developments in US engineering over the past 250 years. ½ www.nae.edu/500293/speci...

42% of burned area across WesternUS in 2001–2024 occurred in assoc w/heatwaves, & burned forest areas have increased 2.5-fold (amid ~ doubling of # of heatwave days). ~64% of burned-area increase coincided with heatwave, but w/o increases in the nonforest areas. www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....

A simple recap of the Upper Colorado River Basin water year to date, vis a vis water storage (Lake Powell, 20 upstream reservoirs, & snow). Its been a DRY one! Other similar year's recently were good news & 2026 is drier than the others. Explanation of graphics at cnap.ucsd.edu/water-storag...

Atmospheric rivers affect (& drive?) marine heat waves two ways. Their thick clouds cut sunlight reaching the sea surface, but the warm, moist air they carry traps heat the ocean would otherwise release. In summer the former dominates; in winter the latter. www.earth.com/news/rivers-...

Study of low-solar-low-wind (LSLW) "energy droughts" in China reveals SW China, with limited renewable energy sources & incomes, is especially prone to LSLW drought. Climate change is expected to increase LSLW droughts & socioeconomic inequalities. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

Creeks are benefit (habitat, gwater recharge) and liability (erosion, flooding). UCDavis team maps 12 kinds of SF Bay Area creeks based on 2.4k field surveys, detailing topo, function, flood risks & mgmt options. www.kneedeeptimes.org/bay-area-cre...

Application of a deep learning model to CMIP6 historical & preindustrial-control simulations finds El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) predictability is enhanced by 14% in response to historical anthropogenic forcing (fcasts improved in 26 of 31 models). www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1...

New @cw3escripps study investigates how an upstream atmospheric river primed the atmosphere over Gulf of Alaska several days in advance to amplify an intense record-breaking heat wave over Washington, Oregon & British Columbia in late June 2021. cw3e.ucsd.edu/cw3e-publica...

The California 5th Climate Change Assessment (which is due out later this year) is looking for student-artist candidates to design its informational posters! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Its a bit blah again this yr, but here are combos of large-storm contributions vs rest-of-wet-days contributions to water-year's total precipitations @ Tahoe City in Sierra Nevada since 1916. This year's mix shown by circle-crosses shaded yellow. Near norm total, near-norm mix of large vs rest.

Newly completed Bay Area AQPI precipitation-radar network (compared to historical sparser NWS radars) extends radar observations well offshore to provide longer fcast lead times, fills subregional gaps in radar coverage & adds data where radar coverage existed. cw3e.ucsd.edu/new-aqpi-c-b...

Trump has approved just 23% of disaster funding requests from states with Democratic governor & two Democratic senators since returning to office. Trump has approved 89% of their requests from states with Republican governor and two Republican senators. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

Btw, it occurred to me that this aspect of how extreme springtime heat waves impact mountain snow pack doesn’t always get the attention deserved: A strong heat wave unleashes snowmelt from all elevations at once, instead of more gradually altitude-wise up a basin. www.mdettinger.com/_files/ugd/3...

The Sierra snow is (of course) thin this year (& mostly in southern range). With lots of rain, rainy snow, and thin snow cover, the "cold content" of Sierra snows has to be small--ie, snow temperatures are not much below freezing--so yeah, it shdn't take much to shrink or remove it in most places.

Revision of decarbonization wedges divides the vast solution space into a detailed list of options w/o limiting to one strategy. They provide a scale-able planning toolkit: Set a temperature target & select enough strategy wedges to reach it, weighing the trade-offs. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Climate-chg projections indicate landmasses of the South Pacific (e.g., New Zealand) will be hotspots for among the largest increases in atmospheric rivers. Historical reanalyses show significant increasing (robust & coherent) trends in AR freq over the Southern Ocean. cw3e.ucsd.edu/cw3e-publica...

A wake-up call re: recent atmospheric rivers over Antarctica! AR-assoc'd weather significantly impacts Antarctic ice-mass balances despite arriving relatively infrequently & they have been occurring more during satellite era in some sectors. Serious SLR implications! cw3e.ucsd.edu/cw3e-publica...

Heads up!

Dr. @mari-hydroclimate from @driscience (and now of @cw3escripps) offers a MAJOR improvement to the existing Atmospheric River scale, improving applicability & warnings for flood hazards (demo'd in California & Chile but likely everywhere), to appear in @NatComms. cw3e.ucsd.edu/cw3e-publica...