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Kathy Balman, founder and director of Educating Children Outdoors, demonstrates how to tie a tourniquet in case of an emergency in a survival class at Marana Heritage River Park on Oct. 1, 2022. Using a piece of cloth, tie a knot around the wounded limb, get a stick and tie another knot on top of it to secure it to the cloth. Then, twist the stick to slow the bleeding.

The Maricopa County Department of Health’s annual report on heat deaths, which was released this month, reports a record 339 heat-associated deaths in 2021, and of those, 75% took place outdoors, and 19% of those happened on hiking trails or in desert areas of the county. Read more»

Orange slashes mark trees that will be spared the chainsaw on A-1 Mountain in the Coconino National Forest near Flagstaff on April 6, 2022.

A 20-plus year drought – coupled with decades of fire-suppression policies and relentlessly rising temperatures – are behind much of the change in Arizona's forests, calling into question how forest health can be restored. Read more»

John Loleit, natural resources coordinator for Scottsdale, relies on his powers of observation to see the effects of climate change in the Sonoran Desert. He encourages visitors to do the same.

The latest summary of climate data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association predicts Arizona’s climate will continue to warm, leading to rising temperatures, more intense wildfires, and ongoing drought. Read more»

Tidal flooding is creeping farther into coastal towns like Miami Beach.

A new report led by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warns that sea levels are rising, and that will bring profound flood risks to large parts of the Gulf and Atlantic coasts over the next three decades. Read more»

'Climate change has come barging through the front doors of the Colorado basin,' said Jennifer Pitt, the Colorado River Program Director at the National Audubon Society.

Experts in government, agriculture, water management and the environment stressed during a U.S. Senate hearing on Wednesday the danger that droughts fueled by climate change pose in the West, including the Colorado River Basin. Read more»

For the first time, the August 24-Month Study showed Lake Mead’s surface below 1,075 feet, triggering a Tier 1 shortage that will deprive low-priority users of some of their water, said Tanya Trujillo, assistant Interior secretary for water and science.

Scientists painted a grim picture of the changing climate and hydrological conditions in the American West during a virtual forum - while the recent dry patterns are part of a larger more extended trend, it is also impossible to overstate how dry and hot it has been in the last two years. Read more»

For the second year in a row, the West faced massive amounts of smoke transport and dangerous long-duration, poor air quality events.

Climatologists forecast a 70% chance that La Niña conditions will return for a second year in a row this winter, which could bring some rain for coastal areas of the Northwest and more dry conditions for the Southwest. Read more»

The Telegraph Fire, which burned through 180,757 acres in the Tonto National Forest.

Forecasts for high temperatures and precipitation bode ill for the American West, already in the throes of a prolonged drought and attempting to quell hundreds of large wildfires scattered across nine states. Read more»

Blue skies will smile on the American West for the next several months, according to federal meteorologists — bad news for a region already mired in a multiyear drought. Currently, the entire state of Arizona is experiencing some form of drought. Read more»

A La Niña weather pattern over the Pacific likely means a warmer and drier than normal winter for Arizona and much of the Southwest, according to the seasonal forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. State officials worry a dry winter, following one of the driest monsoon seasons ever, could mean problems next year.

State and federal weather officials are predicting a warmer and drier than normal winter for Arizona, which would come on the heels of the driest monsoon ever recorded in the state. Read more»

OceansAsia, a Hong Kong nonprofit dedicated to protecting the seas from pollution, collects PPE trash that washed ashore on the Soko Islands.

Strewn across parking lots, in rivers and washing up on beaches, disposable face masks, gloves and other personal protection equipment are turning up everywhere except where they should be – in the landfill. Read more»

NOAA says Northern Hemisphere snow coverage in January was the 18th-smallest in 54 years of keeping records.

Last month was Earth’s warmest January on record, NOAA reports, and that was true in Arizona, where January 2020’s average temperature was 3.2 degrees above the historic average. Read more»

A woman carrying a University of Arizona umbrella heads to class as snow falls around the UA campus on February 22, 2019.

Another cold and wet week is setting up across Arizona, which, unfortunately, will affect the Thanksgiving holiday. The approaching storm looks to be the biggest to take aim at the state so far this winter season, making for messy holiday travel. Read more»

Temperature data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration compiled by Climate Central show summers in Arizona will only get hotter thanks to climate change. Read more» 1

Green chiles piled in the Las Cruces farmer's market booth of Maria Martinez.

Climate change is likely to produce more dry years and more unpredictable growing seasons for farmers in southern New Mexico, as temperatures increase and the snowpack in northern mountains continues to decline. Read more»

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