El Niño and the warming world have been recurrent themes in the news, including more reports on the horrific Nepal flooding, a deadly flash flood in the Grand Canyon and a string of hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean.
Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to news about the climate, energy and the environment. I’m Dinah Voyles Pulver, a national correspondent for USA TODAY focused on climate change, weather and other environmental news.
In an exclusive, Zach Urness with the Statesman Journal, a USA TODAY network publication in Salem, Oregon, wrote about the shrinking glaciers of the Three Sisters mountains in the Central Cascade range. Urness and visual journalist Kevin Neri rode along on a flyover with the Oregon Glaciers Institute, putting together the story, stunning video and a gallery of photos.
The glaciers, which play a critical role in the surrounding ecosystems, are gradually withering, according to the Institute. The year-round bodies of ice and snow in central Oregon provide water during the driest times of the year for the forest, wildlife and humans. But they’re dying due to climate change and statewide temperatures that are far warmer than previous decades.
A ‘supersized’ El Niño
The markers that illustrate the strength of El Niño continue to indicate this event is likely to be one of the strongest on record, if not the strongest. Water temperatures in the El Niño region of the Pacific Ocean continue to break warm records daily. And, wind shear in the western Atlantic, which disrupts hurricane formation during El Niño years, is also record high, according to Phil Klotzbach, a hurricane scientist at Colorado State University.
The United Nations reiterated concerns about the effects of the El Niño when combined with the effects of warming across the globe.
“The developing El Niño in the Pacific Ocean could be stronger than anything since our monitoring began. So literally off the charts,” Celeste Saulo, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization, said.
Added U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres: “El Niño is being supersized before our eyes.”
“The science leaves no room for doubt: the planet is in uncharted waters, and those waters are heating up,” Guterres said. “Sea surface temperatures are rising, temperatures keep climbing, and the world is in the danger zone of extreme weather.”
Climate and ocean scientists told USA TODAY the El Niño puts the world in “uncharted territory,” with questions about how the event will play out in terms of its typical influence on weather patterns. It raises this question: What will a historically strong El Niño look like stacked on top of the planet’s unprecedented warming?
“We’ve never experienced an extreme El Nino in a climate as warm as the climate is today,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. “If El Nino gets us to the 8th or 9th floor, that plus global warming is going to get us to the 10th or 11th floor.”
The El Niño is having a marked impact on hurricane seasons on either side of the U.S. Over the Labor Day weekend, residents and visitors in the Hawaiian Islands are being urged to keep a close eye on Hurricane Lowell, forecast to make a too-close-for-comfort pass west of Kauai.
Deadly flooding in the Grand Canyon
A sudden heavy rain in the Grand Canyon caused flooding that killed two people and left another missing. Experts say a scar from the Bravo fire played a small role in the flooding, but was not the primary cause.
These maps and graphics illustrate what happened.
Fight against new tech unites Americans
Across the country, people are increasingly united against rapidly advancing technologies and the companies behind them, according to a USA TODAY report.
“Americans are coming together to agree on something, but for totally different reasons,” said Thomas Kahn, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University. “The motivations are different, but the concern is the same – and nationally we’re seeing politicians respond to it.”
National climate report could be adjusted
The administration of President Donald Trump has proposed going back to amend portions of the nation’s “Fifth National Climate Assessment,” completed in 2023. Only a few days remain on the public comment period, which ends Sept. 9.
The proposal states it would “clarify the interpretation and Federal use of NCA5 statements,” figures, tables, summaries and federal communications related to high greenhouse gas emissions scenarios and pathways.
The proposal states it would “clarify that results dependent on these pathways should not be presented as expected, baseline, business-as-usual, likely, central, or ordinary Federal planning futures unless the same result is independently reproduced under a presently plausible scenario and evaluated against observations.”
Read on for more, including why fall in Georgia feels more like summer than ever and how you can try to prevent wildfire smoke from getting indoors. If someone forwarded you this newsletter, we invite you to subscribe.