July 10, 2026 - Daniel Swain - June was mostly warmer than average in California, but without exceptional heat and with robust coastal marine layer; large and destructive wildfires explode across Southern Rockies amid strong winds and extreme drought June was a relatively warm month across much of the western U.S. compared to long-term averages, though record warmth was limited to the #

June 11, 2026 - Daniel Swain - A quick refresher: What is El Niño and how can it affect global weather patterns? El Niño is the warm phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a semi-regular recurring cycle that transfers vast amounts of heat and momentum from the tropical Pacific to the global atmosphere. It is triggered every 3–7 years when the #

For the one-and-only Vegetable Gremlin in your life.

March 11, 2026 - Daniel Swain - "Winter" 2025-2026 warmest on record across most of Western U.S., including SoCal & Sierra Nevada Well, now it's official: Winter (Dec-Feb) 2025-2026 was the warmest on record across the majority of the American West, and a top-3 warmest winter nearly everywhere that it didn't quite cinch the record. That includes nearly all of the Colorado #

A remarkable snowy interlude during what has thus far been a record warm winter: Disruptive, and even deadly, in the Sierra Nevada Last week's snowfall in the Sierra Nevada--and also at much lower elevations, for the first time this season, into even the lower foothills and Coast Ranges--marked a dramatic shift from a nearly 40-day

Despite rising impacts, climate change received less attention in media around the world in 2025. CU Boulder sociologist Max Boykoff shares the reasons and

States fail to reach a deal; Lake Powell Deadpool appears imminent

Join us for an engaging talk with Dr. Daniel Swain on California’s climate and extreme weather events. As global temperatures rise, the atmosphere’s capacity to hold water vapor increases rapidly. This “expanding atmospheric sponge” raises the ceiling on how intense precipitation can become, yieldi

Record warm winter-to-date continues across most of the American West; already abysmal mountain snowpack dips to record low levels in many areas (except...higher elevations in southern Sierra!) Well, it sure has been a winter to remember thus far across the Western U.S. Astonishing, record-breaking warmth has pervaded nearly entire region (with few exceptions, though one

Opinion | A downsized EPA faces a deadline to review the herbicide’s safety without much of its in-house expertise.

A scientific study that regulators around the world relied on for decades to justify continued approval of glyphosate was quietly retracted last Friday.