Dr. Jeff Masters
@drjeffmasters.bsky.social
Extreme weather and climate change expert writing for Yale Climate Connections. Co-founder, Weather Underground; former hurricane hunter.
Jeff Masters PhD on Wildfire's Paradox. Acreage down, Extreme damaging fires up. thinc.blog/2026/08/05/j...
Jeff Masters PhD on Fire Paradox: Acres Down. Extreme Wildfire Up.
I’m asking climate experts to comment on aspects of what I call the “New Climate Denial”, which is the same as the old climate denial, but just given a facelift by the Trump admin…
thinc.blog
Florida had nearly $200 million to expand electric vehicle charging across the state. While other states used their share of the federal EV charging money to install plugs along highways, malls, etc., Florida didn't, since "the private market has already done enough to serve everyday vehicles.”
Florida wants to use cash meant for electric car chargers on flying cars instead
‘Money is being hijacked from what would have benefited a large population to go to the oligarch, ultra-wealthy'
miamiherald.com
For those of you needing good smoke forecasts, I have the details:
Dr. Jeff Masters@drjeffmasters.bsky.social · 3w agoFrom my post last year, my 4 favorite sources of wildfire smoke forecasts: 1-3 day from NOAA: airquality.weather.gov?element=apm2... rapidrefresh.noaa.gov/hrrr/HRRRsmo... 3-day from Environment Canada: weather.gc.ca/firework/ 5-10-day from NASA: fluid.nccs.nasa.gov/wxmaps/chem2...
Unhealthy smoke across most of the NW today. I prefer purpleair.com's map since it updates every few seconds (be sure to use the US EPA "Apply conversion" option). EPA airnow.gov data updates only once per hour and is up to a 12-hour average, so does not show rapidly changing conditions as well.
Best way to use purpleair.com map: click on the gear icon at upper left and choose "US EPA" in the "Apply Conversion" setting, or else readings will be too high. Also uncheck the box "show inside" to avoid seeing monitors located indoors, which have a black circle around the colored dot on the map.
Seven of the top-10 costliest wildfire disasters in the EM-DAT database have occurred since 2016. I've omitted EM-DAT's $11 billion estimate for the "nationwide" wildfires in Canada in 1989, since it isn't for a specific location/wildfire.
Wildfire smoke in US and Canada from July 15-23 estimated to have caused about 4000 deaths within a week of exposure Analysis by @economist.com #airpollution #climatecrisis www.economist.com/graphic-deta...
Our estimated death toll for this year’s wildfires
The blazes in North America have claimed 10-80 times as many lives as those in Europe so far
economist.com
Six of the top-10 costliest wildfire disasters in world history have occurred since 2017.
Urban firestorms like the one that devastated Spokane Saturday have been growing more common because of increased development in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) and climate change. In this post, I document 9 such fires since 2016 in the U.S. yaleclimateconnections.org/2026/08/urba...
Urban firestorm devastates Spokane as dense smoke envelops the Northwest » Yale Climate Connections
Climate change, combined with development in high-risk areas, is making urban wildfires more likely.
yaleclimateconnections.org
18Z HRRR-Smoke model predicts wildfire smoke to cause "Unhealthy" (red) to "Very Unhealthy" (purple) AQI in the major population centers of the Pacific NW and SW BC on Tuesday as a ridge of high pressure brings NE winds. Also a major heat risk for Portland, OR, with temps in the upper 90s .
An incredible limb view of Super Typhoon Dolphin under a setting sun, captured by GOES-18 earlier today.
"India could lose 6.6% of its rice yield for every 1°C rise in global mean temperatures... raising concerns for a country where rice feeds about two-thirds of the population." New paper on the affects of heat extremes on rice covered in Down To Earth. www.downtoearth.org.in/agriculture/...
India’s rice yields could fall 6.6% for every 1°C rise in global temperature
A Science Advances study warns India could lose 6.6% of rice yield for every 1°C rise in global temperature, triple earlier estimates. Extreme heat above 30°C, especially during rice’s reproductive st...
downtoearth.org.in
#Dolphin is the planet's second Cat 5 in less than a week – and it's the kind you would expect with a strong El Niño coming on.
Irene Sans@irenesans.bsky.social · 6d agoWhile the Atlantic is calm, Genevieve also loses strength... but in the Western Pacific, Super Typhoon Dolphin travels over very warm waters with very low wind shear. yaleclimateconnections.org/2026/07/hist... (✍️ @bhensonweather.bsky.social & @drjeffmasters.bsky.social )
Blink and you might have missed it, but #Genevieve briefly hit Cat 5 strength off Mexico's Pacific coast. It's still a Cat 4 powerhouse set to slowly spin down offshore. Meanwhile, a weakening #Fausto will push big swells and gusty winds toward Hawaii. yaleclimateconnections.org/2026/07/gene...
Genevieve becomes the first Category 5 hurricane of 2026 » Yale Climate Connections
As it feasts on near-record oceanic warmth, Genevieve will stay safely out to sea.
yaleclimateconnections.org
Great summer day on Lake Superior. Water temp was 67°, so I didn’t stay in long!
$4 billion in direct economic losses in Michigan, $5 billion in NY, and $2 billion in WI from the past week of wildfire smoke, from things like outdoor work cancelled, tourism loss, etc. This doesn’t count health costs, which will be billions more. www.detroitnews.com/story/busine...
Smoke costs Michigan more than $4 billion in losses, analysis finds
The smoke that blanketed Michigan last week cost the state $4 billion in direct economic losses, a new report finds, as events and work shut down.
detroitnews.com
Bertha has not produced much rain on land, but there are plenty of heat alerts up! (not how it usually goes with tropical systems) Here's why, also a look at the rest of the Atlantic and the Eastern Pacific. yaleclimateconnections.org/2026/07/the-...
The latest on Tropical Storm Bertha » Yale Climate Connections
The wind shear-battered storm has kept the highest rainfall away from land, but also triggered dangerous heat across the South.
yaleclimateconnections.org
A harrowing visual of the smoke from 100 wildfires burning across northern Ontario, Canada. Climate change is making fires all around the world more unpredictable and dangerous. We to stop climate pollution from coal, oil and gas if we want to secure a safer future for all. Data: NASA GEOS-FP
To Bertha or not the Bertha.... For now, still TD2. But this take is unlikely to change, even if it officially becomes Bertha on Monday. Once it gets moving, there could be some slight variations. yaleclimateconnections.org/2026/07/trop...
Tropical Depression 2 crawls in the Gulf, trying to organize » Yale Climate Connections
The tropical system is forecast to spread heavy rain and storm surge threats as its wind field expands.
yaleclimateconnections.org
The fires in Minnesota/Canada that caused our smoke event are putting out far less smoke, due to rain, cooler temps, and firefighting. The smoke is still entrenched over the Great Lakes, but will flush out Tuesday. But new (lower concentration) smoke from OR/WA and NW Canadian fires could move in.
USA (CONUS) smoke forecast bot (unofficial)@conus-smoke-forecast.envismo.social · 2w agoNear surface smoke forecast for the CONUS area. Model run: 20260720T10:00 UTC Data from NOAA's HRRR CONUS (https://rapidrefresh.noaa.gov/hrrr/) Note that this product comes with absolutely no guarantee of availability, accuracy or completeness. #Wildfires #Smoke #AirQuality
If 91L in the Gulf does get its act together, it's got plenty of fuel — SSTs are near record-highs for this time of year.
NIFC: “Due to the scope of national fire activity, including numbers of resources committed, number of fires, and number of geographic areas with activity, as of this morning we are at at national preparedness level 5, indicating the highest level of resource mobilization and preparedness.”
Yesterday’s 24-hour PM 2.5 AQI of 246 at Ashburn, VA and 234 at Springfield, VA were the highest PM 2.5 levels on record for the 21 official EPA monitors in the Washington D.C-Arlington-Alexandria area. Previous record: 222, 6/8/23, at Franconia Park, VA. PM 2.5 data goes back to 1999.
Capital Weather@capitalweather.com · 3w agoThis smoke event in DC is worse than June 2023 in some ways, meaning it's right there with worst on record. DC has now 36+ hours of observed smoke... the longest period on record. Read our full analysis of this event, and what is making it stand out: www.capitalweather.com/this-smoke-o...
The wildfires in Ontario and Minnesota are a direct consequence of the high temperatures and low rainfall resulting from a major July heat dome event. A year ago we showed that these events had tripled in frequency due to human-caused warming: penntoday.upenn.edu/news/extreme...
Michael E. Mann@michaelemann.bsky.social · 3w agoSummer 2023 called. It wants its apocalyptic haze back... www.independent.co.uk/us/voices/ai...
The current wildfire smoke event extending from the Great Lakes to the Northeast U.S. represents yet another dead canary in our collective coal mine. We're getting an impressive and exponentially increasing collection of dead canaries! yaleclimateconnections.org/2026/07/dang...
Dangerous and historic wildfire smoke pollution event engulfs the U.S. and Canada » Yale Climate Connections
Most of the fires grew out of control under extreme heat conditions made up to five times more likely by climate change.
yaleclimateconnections.org
Fantastic post on why wildfires in Canada's forests are much different than in the western U.S. "Canada’s area burned has surged, and it has surged in step with warming: hot, dry fire seasons burn far more forest, with area burned rises roughly 80% for each 1°C increase in temperature."
Zeke Hausfather@zekehausfather.com · 3w agoOver at the Climate Brink I take a deep dive into climate and wildfires in Canada, and why complaints about Canadian forest management largely miss the mark as conditions rapidly have become more favorable for megafires: www.theclimatebrink....
I'm on Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) at 10:05-11:00 am EDT discussing the wildfires with 3 other meteorologists: www.mprnews.org/episode/2026...
How weather and climate shape wildfire risk
Coming up at 9 a.m. on Friday, MPR News guest host Kelly Gordon talks with MPR News meteorologists about the weather conditions that make wildfires more likely to ignite and spread and how a changing ...
mprnews.org
While the Pacific is slightly ahead of season as far as TS formation, the Atlantic´s alarm went off... but likely snoozed soon, again.. Also, these areas have more meat to them as far as future development. yaleclimateconnections.org/2026/07/the-...
The Eastern Pacific is a tropical storm factory, and the Atlantic Basin shows signs of life » Yale Climate Connections
The Eastern Pacific is roaring ahead. Now the Atlantic is waking up—and the season's peak could pack a bigger punch closer to land.
yaleclimateconnections.org
Every single regulatory grade monitor in the Chicago area is recording over 400 µg/m³ of PM2.5 smoke pollution. This is so far beyond anything in the historical record it’s difficult to communicate how extreme this event really is
EPA’s real-time PM2.5 data is updated once per hour (shortly after the top of the hour). Because the EPA standard is based on a 24-hour average, the raw hourly data is not reported. Instead, EPA’s NowCast AQI numbers are computed using a 12-hour weighted average from the past 12 hours of data.