natural-hazards

It is mid-Summer in the Southern Hemisphere Massive iconic iceberg turns blue and is "on the verge of complete disintegration," NASA says https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iceberg-a23a-turns-blue-verge-of-complete-disintegration-nasa/ ... Read more

A rapidly intensifying super typhoon sent giant atmospheric ripples skyward, revealing a hidden connection between extreme weather and near-space. In April 2026, Super Typhoon Sinlaku swept across the North Pacific, bringing torrential rain and flooding to parts of the Mariana Islands. The storm intensified into a “violent typhoon,” the highest category used by the Japan [...]

State and federal fire officials have unveiled a new plan to boost wildfire prevention, even as California funding sources are drying up.

Scientists are now warning that scaling back the Ocean Observations Initiatve could put Washington and Oregon at risk. However, the cable system managed by the UW Pacific Northwest Seismic Network used for earthquake and tsunami monitoring is not being removed. ESS Professor and PNSN Director Harold Tobin is interviewed.

More than 1 million people advised to evacuate homes amid 80mph winds and heavy rain Typhoon Jangmi (also known as Typhoon No 6) moved northwards over the course of this week. From Okinawa to mainland Japan, prolonged and heavy rainfall led to landslide warnings and the flooding of rivers, with Japan issuing level 4 warnings for some rivers, signalling a risk of overflowing. This level is high en…

In fire-prone ecosystems in Australia’s Northern Territory, prescribed burns are lit to minimize the severity of fires later in the season.

Weather models project a potentially strong El Niño this year, which could spell disaster for heatwave-hit India, drench China and hurt agriculture across south-east Asia The UN has warned that the world must prepare for the imminent return of El Niño and the raised global temperatures and weather extremes it brings. The powerful natural weather pattern has an 80% chance of forming before Septemb…

npj Natural Hazards, Published online: 21 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s44304-026-00221-8 Onset seasonality controls compound streamflow drought risk at a global scale

npj Natural Hazards, Published online: 29 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s44304-026-00231-6 Global trends in atmospheric river-induced precipitation

npj Natural Hazards, Published online: 27 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s44304-026-00223-6 Evaluating the skill of AI and physics-based models for February 2020 North Atlantic storm hazards

npj Natural Hazards, Published online: 04 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s44304-026-00232-5 Rescue plan intelligent generation for natural disasters: an integrated approach based on Large Language Models

npj Natural Hazards, Published online: 28 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s44304-026-00229-0 Small event, big impact: insights from Vallunaraju cascade event on April 28, 2025

npj Natural Hazards, Published online: 29 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s44304-026-00228-1 Event-scale ecological impacts of dust storms in East Asia: processes, damage, and assessment challenges

npj Natural Hazards, Published online: 04 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s44304-026-00226-3 Spatially non-stationary wildfire risk formation driven by nonlinear ignition–driver interactions in a mountainous socio-ecological system

npj Natural Hazards, Published online: 04 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s44304-026-00233-4 Author Correction: Machine learning for cryospheric mass movements: challenges and pathways

Effective flood risk management is crucial for building resilient social infrastructure that can withstand climate‑related shocks and protect vulnerable communities. According to insights from Inter‑American Development Bank, integrating flood risk considerations into planning, investment and policy frameworks helps reduce economic Read More ... The post Integrating flood risk management into res…

An international review of the 2025 fire season highlights the severe societal and economic losses caused by extreme wildfires, even as global burned area and fire emissions remained below average.

Global warming will amplify the impacts of El Niño events, and could also make them much stronger and more far-reaching

A UW study, led by ESS graduate student Paul Morgan and co-author ESS Associate Professor Alison Duvall, published April 16 develops a workflow to map dam susceptibility at a regional scale, using stream width and landslide volume to project susceptibility within the Oregon Coast Range.

On 28 May 2026, AGU sent letters to leadership in congress endorsing the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Reauthorization Act of 2026. The bill’s goal of building on the achievements of the original Weather Act, which drove significant advances in forecasting and the prediction of high-impact weather events, is critical to strengthening national forecasting capabilities. As communities…