NASA: The West Faces Snow Drought This post first appeared on NASA Earth Observatory and was written by Lindsey Doermann. The mountains of the western United States are sporting thin winter coats in early 2026. Although most regions saw average or above-average precipitation in fall and early winter, warmer temperatures meant that much of it fell as rain. The result has been an unusually low snowpack for […] Weather WeatherBrains | January 29, 2026 0 Comments
NASA: Snow Buries the U.S. Interior and East This post first appeared on NASA Earth Observatory and was written by Lindsey Doermann. A potent winter storm left a wide band of snow stretching from the U.S. Southwest to New England in late January 2026. The heavy snow, along with bitterly cold temperatures, sleet, and ice, created treacherous travel conditions, toppled power lines, and caused widespread school closures, according to […] Weather SnowBrains | January 28, 2026 0 Comments
NASA: Satellite Image Shows Kamchatka, Russia, Buried by 19 Feet of Snow This post first appeared on NASA Observatory and was written by Adam Voiland. It has been an eventful few months for the Northern Hemisphere atmosphere. An unusually early sudden stratospheric warming episode in late November appears to have factored into a weakened and distorted polar vortex at times in December, likely causing extra waviness in the polar jet stream. This helped […] SnowBrains | January 22, 2026 0 Comments
NASA Aircraft Captures Rare Infrared Views of Utah Wildfire A NASA high-altitude research plane has provided striking new views of the Monroe Canyon fire in Utah, offering scientists rare data on how wildfires burn and spread. Flying at 65,000 feet, NASA’s ER-2 aircraft collected detailed imagery over southern Utah as part of its Geological Earth Mapping Experiment (GEMx), a joint effort with the U.S. Geological Survey. NASA.gov shared recently […] Fire Martin Kuprianowicz | August 20, 2025 0 Comments
NASA: Rare Snowfall in the Atacama Desert, Chile This post first appeared on NASA Earth Observatory and was written by Adam Voiland. The Atacama Desert’s location, between the Andes Mountains to the east and the cool Peru/Chile Current to the west, makes it one of the driest places on Earth. The mountain range produces a rain shadow, while the current chills the air enough to limit evaporation and […] Weather WeatherBrains | July 23, 2025 0 Comments
NASA: Western Mountain Snow Melts Fast and Early This article first appeared on NASA Earth Observatory and was written by Lindsey Doermann. The Pacific Northwest is one of many regions reliant on the winter mountain snowpack to sustain ecosystems and satisfy a host of water needs during drier times of the year. After two winters of meager accumulations, winter 2024-25 brought healthy snow totals to the mountains of […] Climate SnowBrains | June 30, 2025 0 Comments
NASA: Winter Arrives Early in Lesotho and South Africa This story first appeared on NASA Earth Observatory and was written by Lindsey Doermann. A powerful storm system brought wintry conditions to Lesotho and South Africa in early June 2025. Snow blanketed higher elevations, while strong winds, cold temperatures, and heavy rains affected lower-elevation and coastal areas. Related: [PHOTOS] Rare Snowfall Blankets Large Parts of South Africa as Cold Front […] Weather SnowBrains | June 18, 2025 0 Comments
NASA: Glacier Collapse Buries Swiss Village This post first appeared on NASA Earth Observatory and was written by Lindsey Doermann. On the afternoon of May 28, 2025, an avalanche of rock and ice from the Birch Glacier (Birchgletscher) in southwestern Switzerland roared into the valley below. Debris buried most of the village of Blatten and dammed the Lonza, causing the river to flood. The event occurred […] SnowBrains | June 4, 2025 0 Comments
NASA: The World’s Largest Iceberg Has Just Run Aground This post first appeared on NASA Earth Observatory. Antarctic iceberg A-23A, currently the largest iceberg on Earth, appears to have run aground off the coast of South Georgia island. As of early March 2025, satellite images showed little movement of the 3,460-square-kilometer (1,240-square-mile) berg after its long and winding journey across the Scotia Sea and final approach toward the island. […] SnowBrains | March 12, 2025 0 Comments
NASA: La Niña Is Here This post first appeared on NASA Earth Observatory After seven months of waiting, La Niña—the cooler sister of El Niño—finally showed up in the eastern Pacific Ocean in early December 2024. La Niña may not stick around long, though. According to NOAA, the Pacific may return to neutral conditions in spring 2025. Part of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle, […] Weather WeatherBrains | February 7, 2025 0 Comments
NASA: Not-So Snowy Alaska This post first appeared on NASA Earth Observatory A spell of unseasonably warm weather in winter 2024–2025 has meant less snow for parts of the normally frozen state of Alaska. Related: NASA: Southern States Frozen Over These images show the Bristol Bay Borough in southern Alaska. Notice the vast area of bare ground in the image on January 26, 2025 […] SnowBrains | February 3, 2025 0 Comments
NASA: Southern States Frozen Over Southern States Frozen Over first appeared on NASA Earth Observatory and was written by Emily Cassidy. A winter storm brought below-freezing temperatures and heavy snow to the southeastern United States in January 2025. The storm dumped record snowfall on the region, prompting flight cancellations and the closure of more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) of Interstate 10, according to news […] SnowBrains | January 29, 2025 0 Comments
NASA: 2024 Was the Warmest Year on Record Earth’s average surface temperature in 2024 was the warmest on record, according to an analysis led by NASA scientists. Global temperatures in 2024 were 1.28 degrees Celsius (2.30 degrees Fahrenheit) above the agency’s 20th-century baseline (1951–1980), topping the record set in 2023. The new record comes after 15 consecutive months (June 2023 through August 2024) of monthly temperature records—an unprecedented […] SnowBrains | January 11, 2025 0 Comments
[NASA] Blankets of White in the West This post first appeared on the NASA Earth Observatory website and was written by Lindsey Doermann. An early-November snowstorm dropped feet of snow on the plains of eastern Colorado and northeastern New Mexico and gave a boost to Rocky Mountain snowpack. While fresh powder is a common sight on the range’s lofty peaks this time of year, the accumulations measured […] SnowBrains | November 13, 2024 0 Comments
NASA: Devastating Rainfall From Hurricane Helene This post first appeared on NASA Observatory and was written by Lindsey Doermann. Hurricane Helene intensified as it approached Florida’s Big Bend in fall 2024, ultimately making landfall as a Category 4 storm at 11:10 p.m. Eastern Time on September 27. Even while its center was still over the Gulf of Mexico, the hurricane had begun producing devastating outcomes on land. […] Weather WeatherBrains | October 1, 2024 0 Comments
NASA: Spring Snow Falls on Lesotho and South Africa This post first appeared on NASA Earth Observatory and was written by Kathryn Hansen. The first day of spring 2024 looked more like winter in some parts of southern Africa after a late-season storm dropped snow on Lesotho and several nearby provinces of South Africa. The storm halted traffic on a major highway that links the coastal city of Durban with […] SnowBrains | September 29, 2024 0 Comments
NASA: Australia’s Snowy Mountains Coated in White This post first appeared on NASA Earth Observatory. Winter made a bold—if late—entrance to the mountains in southeastern Australia. Much to the delight of skiers Down Under, a period of seasonal weather in July 2024 brought significant accumulations to the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales. Related: Snowstorm Transforms Australian Ski Resorts into Winter Wonderland The OLI (Operational Land Imager) […] Guest Author | August 2, 2024 0 Comments
NASA: After the Park Fire’s Rapid Growth This post first appeared on NASA Earth Observatory. The Park Fire in Northern California more than doubled in area in a matter of days in late July 2024. It quickly became the state’s sixth-largest wildland fire on record, and as of July 30, it was the largest active fire in the United States. Related: Arsonist Arrested For Igniting California’s Park […] Fire Guest Author | August 1, 2024 0 Comments
NASA: Smoky Skies Across North America This post first appeared on NASA Earth Observatory. In July 2024, wildland fires in Canada billowed smoke that drifted across North America. A stretch of extreme heat, coupled with windy conditions and thunderstorms, helped spur the ignition and expansion of fires in several Canadian provinces. As of July 24, 989 fires actively burned in Canada, with over half of those […] Fire Guest Author | August 1, 2024 0 Comments
NASA: El Niño Exits After heating up the eastern Pacific Ocean for about a year, El Niño finally died out in May 2024. The natural climate phenomenon contributed to many months of record-high ocean temperatures, precipitation extremes in Africa, low ice cover on the Great Lakes, and severe drought in the Amazon and Central America. As of July 2024, the eastern Pacific was in […] SnowBrains | July 15, 2024 0 Comments
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