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: 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] 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: 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
NASA: Heat Dome Brings a Blast of Heat in the East An area of high pressure lingered in the upper atmosphere over the U.S. Midwest and Northeast in June 2024. This pushed warm air toward the surface and trapped it there—a weather phenomenon meteorologists call a heat dome. Related: NOAA Winter 2024/25 Early Forecast: La Niña Returns and What That Means For Next Winter’s Ski Season Heat domes put the brakes […] Weather WeatherBrains | June 21, 2024 0 Comments
NASA Satellites Find Snow Didn’t Offset Southwest US Groundwater Loss Record snowfall in recent years has not been enough to offset long-term drying conditions and increasing groundwater demands in the U.S. Southwest, according to a new analysis of NASA satellite data. Declining water levels in the Great Salt Lake and Lake Mead have been testaments to a megadrought afflicting western North America since 2000. However, surface water only accounts for […] SnowBrains | June 18, 2024 1 Comment
NASA: A “Surprisingly Average” Year for Sierra Snowpack The Sierra Nevada is known for its booms and busts regarding mountain snow. Last year, there was record-high snow, whereas the snowpack was low three years prior. After more than a decade of unusually wet or unusually dry years, the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada was close to normal in 2024. Related: California’s April Snow Survey Shows Above Average Snowpack […] SnowBrains | April 12, 2024 0 Comments
NASA: The Arctic is Getting Rainier The Arctic is known for its cold temperatures, which allow precipitation to fall as snow. But as temperatures warm, that snow is being replaced by rain. These changes can affect sea ice in the Arctic and weather patterns throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Related: NASA: Record Summer Melting Across Svalbard, Arctic Circle NASA scientists examined rainfall trends over the Arctic and […] SnowBrains | March 19, 2024 0 Comments
NASA: Melting Glaciers Are Destroying Climate Archives Glaciers are natural archives of past climate. In their frozen layers lies evidence of Earth’s changing temperature and atmospheric composition. But as the climate warms, some of the longest records of our changing planet are melting away. One such archive is the Corbassière glacier in Switzerland. The high-altitude glacier is situated on the flanks of Grand Combin, one of the […] SnowBrains | February 28, 2024 0 Comments
NASA Earth Observatory Captures Images of Recent Winter Storm Walloping the U.S. This article originally appeared on earthobservatory.nasa.gov A potent winter storm plowed across the eastern half of the United States on January 9, 2024, delivering heavy rain and snow, strong winds, and damaging tornadoes. That afternoon, the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) on the NOAA-20 satellite acquired this natural-color image (above) of the sprawling storm clouds. The system spawned abundant […] SnowBrains | January 17, 2024 0 Comments
NASA: Atmospheric River Flows into the Pacific Northwest A powerful atmospheric river streamed toward the U.S. Pacific Northwest in early December 2023. The long current of water vapor delivered warm, wet weather to much of western Washington and Oregon, toppling daily rainfall and temperature records and escalating flood and debris flow risks. Related: Atmospheric Rivers: How They Work, and How El Niño and La Niña Affect Them This […] Weather SnowBrains | December 6, 2023 0 Comments
NASA: Snowstorm Dumps Multiple Inches Across the Midwest As millions of Americans traveled home after the Thanksgiving holiday, a winter storm plowed across the upper Midwest. The storm dropped rain and snow on several states and caused delays for travelers. A streak of snow is visible from Kansas to Illinois in this image, acquired by the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) sensor on the Suomi NPP satellite […] SnowBrains | November 28, 2023 0 Comments
NASA: America Darkened by the Moon’s Shadow On October 14, 2023, the Moon aligned with the Sun and Earth to produce an annular solar eclipse. The spectacle bathed millions of Americans in a lunar shadow as the Moon blocked the Sun’s rays. Related: Friday, April 13th, 2029 – The Day a Huge Asteroid Dubbed ‘God of Chaos’ Will Fly Underneath Our TV Satellites An annular eclipse occurs […] SnowBrains | October 18, 2023 0 Comments
Friday, April 13, 2029 – The Day a Huge Asteroid Dubbed ‘God of Chaos’ Will Fly Underneath Our TV Satellites An enormous asteroid affectionately dubbed the ‘God of Chaos’ is set to fly so close to Earth that billions of people will be able to see it with the naked eye. The 1,100-foot wide monster has been named Apophis (the Egyptian God of Chaos) and will fly so close to Earth that NASA once feared it was going to hit […] Brains SnowBrains | October 5, 2023 0 Comments
NASA: Widespread Melting on Humboldt Glacier, Greenland | 2nd Largest Cumulative Melt Area on Record Every year, from around May to early September, melting takes place atop the vast sheet of ice covering Greenland. Toward the end of August 2023, unseasonably warm weather led to several days of widespread melting. The unusual late-season event peaked island-wide on August 22, when melting spanned nearly 730,000 square kilometers (282,000 square miles), or about 45 percent of the […] SnowBrains | September 18, 2023 0 Comments
NASA: Hurricane Hilary Barrels Toward Baja California Hurricane Hilary, a category 4 storm in the Pacific Ocean, approached the Baja California peninsula on August 18, 2023. Related: Hurricane Hilary to Bring High Winds, Flooding, and… Snow To California The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the NOAA-20 satellite acquired this image of Hilary in the predawn hours of August 18 (09:25 Universal Time), when the eye […] WeatherBrains | August 21, 2023 0 Comments
NASA: July 2023 Was the Hottest Month on Record July 2023 was hotter than any other month in the global temperature record, according to an analysis by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). “This July was massively warmer than any previous July and any previous month on record, which goes back to 1880,” said GISS Director Gavin Schmidt. “This continues the long-term trend in dramatic warming […] Weather WeatherBrains | August 16, 2023 0 Comments
NASA Satellite Reports Exceptionally Low Antarctic Sea Ice Antarctica is in the depths of winter, yet the continent is surrounded by much less sea ice than scientists expected for this time of year. Throughout July 2023, sea ice averaged 13.5 million square kilometers (5.2 million square miles), the lowest extent observed for this time of year since the continuous satellite record began in late 1978. The map above […] SnowBrains | August 14, 2023 0 Comments