Climate

Tourists cool off in a public fountain at the Sforzesco Castle, in Milan, Italy, on Saturday. Temperatures reached up to 42 degrees Celsius in some parts of the country, amid a heat wave that continues to grip southern Europe.

World News

People and pets seek shade and cool as Europe sizzles under a heat wave

8:14pm July 15, 2023

by The Associated Press

Fifteen cities in Italy, most of them in the country's center and south, were under heat advisories. Czech temperatures soared to a new record high. European countries father north also sweltered.

National

What's driving the record-breaking heat wave hitting the U.S.?

5:27pm July 15, 2023

by Nathan Rott

The U.S., and much of the world, has settled into a scorching weekend with temperatures reaching well over a hundred in the Southwest.

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The natural gas production and supply system leaks the powerful greenhouse gas methane during drilling, fracking, processing and transport.

Natural gas can rival coal's climate-warming potential when leaks are counted

5:46pm July 14, 2023

by Jeff Brady

Climate-warming greenhouse gasses from natural gas could be as damaging as those from coal, according to a new analysis.

Environment

Record temps along Florida's coast threaten severe coral reef bleaching

4:51pm July 14, 2023

NPR's Adrian Florido talks to Katey Lesneski, coordinator for the Mission: Iconic Reefs, about how the current heat wave hitting Florida is already affecting coral reefs.

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For farmworkers recovering from Central Valley flooding, the safety net is thin

4:51pm July 14, 2023

by Tyche Hendricks

Heavy precipitation caused epic flooding in the Central Valley earlier this year, causing catastrophic damage to homes and crops. Months later, the region is still recovering.

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National

Phoenix could break its record for longest hot spell as extreme heat persists

11:44am July 14, 2023

Much of the U.S. continues to be gripped by extreme heat — especially Phoenix. That's where temperatures have been at or above 110 degrees every day for two weeks now.

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National

Climate change is making the way we talk about flood risk outdated

4:44pm July 13, 2023

by Rebecca Hersher

Flood experts all use the same language to convey risk: 10-year floods, 100-year floods, 500-year floods. But those intervals are often misunderstood, and climate change is making them less accurate.

Traffic warden Rai Rogers mans his street corner during temperatures as high as 106 in Las Vegas, Nevada on Wednesday.

The Southwest's enduring heat wave is expected to intensify over the weekend

3:00pm July 13, 2023

by Emily Olson

More than 111 million people across the U.S. remain under weather advisories or warnings as forecasters say an oppressive heat wave might get worse before it gets any better.

President Biden arrives at a political rally in Philadelphia on June 17. He has increasingly cast his climate program as a jobs program as his reelection campaign heats up.

Biden frames his clean energy plan as a jobs plan, obscuring his record on climate

2:08pm July 13, 2023

by Eric McDaniel

President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act invests $369 billion to address the climate crisis. But as the president focuses on the law's economic benefits, is his climate win getting lost?

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A girl refills her bottle with water from the "Fontana della Barcaccia" fountain in Rome in during the heat wave of July 2022.

World News

Heat waves in Europe killed more than 61,600 people last summer, a study estimates

11:39am July 12, 2023

by Rachel Treisman

Researchers estimate that 61,672 Europeans died from heat-related illness between late May and early September 2022. They're urging countries to step up their heat prevention and adaptation efforts.