Climate Change

This winter’s snow drought may leave a mark that lasts for centuries. Justin DeRose, a dendrochronologist and assistant professor of silviculture and applied forest ecology at Utah State University, says trees across the West are already recording the story of climate in their rings — wet years, dry years, fire years, and sometimes years so harsh they leave almost no growth at all. And as drought years begin stacking up closer and closer together, those forests may be telling us something important about how fast the West is changing.

We’ve long found different ways to explain that the world is made up of haves and have-nots. We live in the developed world or the developing world. There are those who are advantaged and those who are disadvantaged. And then, of course, there’s the one percent and everyone else. But under global warming, the climate journalist Jeff Goodell thinks, there may be a new way of describing this dichotomy: The cooled and the cooked.

For years, many people have assumed that climate change will send massive waves of “climate refugees” across borders around the world. But Jan Freihardt, a political scientist at ETH Zurich, says the reality is far more complicated. Studying communities along the Jamuna River in Bangladesh—where floods and erosion regularly destroy homes and farmland—Freihardt has followed families trying to decide whether to stay, move a little, or start over somewhere else. Distant migration is the option of last resort — and often not an option at all.

In 2011, an EF-5 tornado ripped through Joplin, Missouri, claiming 161 lives. Almost immediately researchers like Marc Levitan, from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, began working to understand why it was so devastating. The results of that investigation are now being implemented into building codes around the world. And the result is that we’re more ready for the next huge twister.

Wet snow avalanches are starting earlier in the season as global temperatures rise. But it turns out, it’s not wise to generalize when it comes to avalanche risk.

A new study on wildfire prediction specific to Utah uses a straightforward "hot days" method to predict the frequency and severity of wildfires across the state.

Pinyon-juniper woodlands are a common sight in much of Utah. But pinyon trees are declining, while junipers are expanding. The reason why comes down to water.

Kathleen Kavarra Corr takes her friend Bernadette Cole on a mystery journey explaining an active issue with one of our national parks.

New research shows that mountain regions around the world are warming faster than the lowlands below them. Scientists say that could have big consequences for the Mountain West, where communities rely on snow and ice for their water supply.

A collaborative study between USU professor Dr. Scott Hotaling and Seattle University professor Dr. Eric Gilbertson explores how mountains are changing with the warming of the planet.