In recent weeks, there has been a remarkable surge in large, intense, fast-moving, and unfortunately in many cases destructive/deadly wildfires in multiple Northern Hemisphere regions spanning a wide range of climates & ecologies, but they all share one key commonality. [Thread]

Zooming in on Oregon, the enormous scope of ongoing wildfire outbreak is clear. Numerous large smoke plumes from dozens of active fires--which have now burned over 1 million acres in Oregon alone--are casting a broadening pall across the interior Northwest & N. Rockies. #ORwx

Prescribed burns and biomass removal saves $3.73 in economic damage for every dollar spent. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Wildfire damages and the cost-effective role of forest fuel treatments

Wildfires are among the most pressing environmental challenges of the 21st century, intensified by the accumulation of forest fuels after a century of fire suppression policies. Although fuel-reductio...

science.org

“California has much more fire-driven forest loss than people understand. It’s happening more in high-elevation, climate-sensitive areas that protect our watersheds, and there’s almost nothing being done about it.”

Wildfire-Driven Deforestation Rates in California Among Highest in World

California has one of the highest rates of wildfire-driven deforestation in the world, and the trend has accelerated over the past three decades, according to a UC Davis study.

ucdavis.edu

Our new report from the @nationalacademies.org has just been released! We describe the need and potential structure for a Synthesis Center for Paleoenvironmental Records of Extreme Events for improving knowledge into their frequency and potential magnitudes www.nationalacademies.org/projects/DEL...

A Synthesis Center for Paleoenvironmental Records of Extreme Events

Floods, droughts, wildfires, earthquakes, other extreme environmental events pose persistent and growing risks to ecosystems, infrastructure, and human life. A deeper understanding of the timing and s...

nationalacademies.org

New post on Weather West: As historic March heatwave finally fades, a brief cooler/wetter interlude will occur across the U.S. West in early April before warmth & dryness likely return. Also: a deeper dive into now record-low Western snowpack.

As historic March heatwave finally fades, a brief cooler/wetter interlude will occur across the U.S. West in early April before warmth & dryness likely return - Weather West

March 28, 2026 - Daniel Swain - Unprecedented March heatwave among most anomalous ever observed, in any month, the American Southwest Well, it sure has been...quite a month. Meteorologically speaking, March 2026 will go down in the record books as the warmest March on record for at least a third, and possibly half or more, of the continental United States. But even #

weatherwest.com

...And, again today, a huge swath of the continental United States clear across from the Pacific Coast to Mississippi River is experiencing all-time March monthly record heat. Some locations are so hot that they are actually exceeding *April* all-time record highs. Incredible.

Truly frightening

Daniel Swain@weatherwest.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Well, if yesterday's map was ridiculous, I'm running out of superlatives to characterize today's. Countless locations from Pacific Coast to Great Plains are currently experiencing all-time record March warmth, w/ some locations approaching/exceeding April (or even May) records.

The official NOAA stats out this week confirm that winter 2025-26 was the warmest on record across a huge portion of the western and central U.S., which has contributed to extremely low mountain snowpack & worsened the CO River crisis. Meanwhile, record March heat is in forecast.

New paper in QSR on the well-studied varved sediments of Soppensee with colleagues from @unibe.ch. Stan Schouten led this nice study looking at the effects of climate and nutrient cycles on lake eutrophication during a warming event in the past. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Climate-eutrophication-anoxia interactions in Late Glacial Soppensee, Switzerland: Forcings, non-linear responses and recovery

Combined effects of climate warming and anthropogenic nutrient loadings lead to lake eutrophication and anoxia globally. Because of chemical feedbacks…

sciencedirect.com

🌡️🥵

Daniel Swain@weatherwest.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Well, it's now official (per NOAA): Dec (and Nov-Dec) 2025 were the warmest such periods on record for Western U.S. (and also for most individual Western states). It has been an extraordinarily sustained period of winter warmth, and this eerily balmy winter continues into Jan.

We have a new preprint out here: www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-8... We found a somewhat unexpected result - leaf wax hydrogen isotopes become consistently depleted in response to the rapid warming events of the last glacial period (DO events).

Please join the American Geophysical Union in advocating to safeguard NCAR. agu.quorum.us/campaign/151...

Save NCAR from being dismantled today!

The Trump Administration has vowed to dissolve the center that provides critical extreme weather and climate data for our nation.

agu.quorum.us

🚨 Happening NOW at #AGU25! Town Hall on Protecting NSF NCAR - UCAR President Antonio Busalacchi discusses what the nation stands to lose if NSF NCAR is dismantled and steps being taken to support this critical community resource. 📍 La Nouvelle C (NOLA CC) ⏰ 1:00-1:30pm #AGUEPSP #EPSPatAGU25

Unraveling the mysteries of ancient solar storms and earthquakes using tree rings research.arizona.edu/news/unravel...

Unraveling the mysteries of ancient solar storms and earthquakes

Tree-ring and planetary scientists are preparing for the big natural events thanks to a Big Idea Challenge grant and a new laboratory.

research.arizona.edu

We're hiring! I'm recruiting a Postdoctoral Research Associate in climate & paleoclimate modeling of the tropical Americas. Come obsess over the tropical rain belt with me! :) Please share w/folks who may be interested. Ad here: wustl.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...

Postdoctoral Research Associate - Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences

Position Summary The Climate and Paleoclimate Lab in the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at WashU in St. Louis seeks a Postdoctoral Research Associate in tropical climate/pa...

wustl.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com

What a pleasure and a privilege to contribute to @pages-ipo.bsky.social magazine with @zanderland.bsky.social And, among the others, there is some Lake Żabińskie on the cover!

PAGES (Past Global Changes)@pages-ipo.bsky.social · 9mo ago

🥳 It's out! The latest PAGES Mag on "New Analytical Techniques in #Paleoscience" is online! 🌍 This issue highlights how novel imaging methods and machine-learning approaches are revolutionizing paleoscientific research and expanding our ability to decode past Earth’s history. 🔗 shorturl.at/LOJj5

I am currently seeking a Lab Manager for our Organic Geochemistry Lab at the University of Arizona! Full time position with benefits. If you have a chemistry/biology/geology degree and like fixing things and working with students, this position could be for you! arizona.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

We often hear folks skeptical of climate change claim that "the climate is always changing" or "temperatures rise before CO2" or "its the sun". In a new episode of PBS's Weathered, @leafwax.bsky.social and I try and address these questions: www.youtube.com/watc...

Did Climate Skeptics Get THIS Right?!

Is global warming just part of Earth’s natural cycle? In this episode of Weathered, we break down why that’s not the full story. From ice ages and Milankovitch cycles to the role of CO2 and fossil fuels, today’s climate change is unlike anything in Earth’s deep past. Learn why the speed of warming m

youtube.com

Just your regular reminder of where global CO2 emissions are tracking compared to scenarios that keep warming to below 1.5C in 2100, with "no or low overshoot" (maximum temperature around 1.6C). journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.... C1/

🚨 Junior Professorship Job Offer! 🚨 Join @cerege.bsky.social as a Junior Professor (CPJ) 2025 to study Pleistocene & Holocene paleoenvironments and human settlements. A unique opportunity to explore past landscapes and their impact on societies! Job ad here : nuage.osupytheas.fr/s/GoSt7kcKMp...

Obviously complaints about free speech from the right meant their speech. They never cared about the principle.

Seth Abramson@sethabramson.bsky.social · last yr.

Fascism is here. The list of words Trump is banning from government is the most stunning document of our time. Click the image below to see how many words Trump and Musk have canceled as part of their new Reich. 🔗: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Fascism is here. The list of words Trump is banning from government is the most stunning document of our time. Click the image below to see how many words Trump and Musk have canceled as part of their new Reich. 🔗: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

I am one of these NSF postdocs. NSF has frozen everyone’s access to their salaries and research stipends (that were already awarded) with no information about when they might be expected to be unfrozen. It still appears like we are expected to continue doing our work though.

Katie Mack@astrokatie.com · 2y ago

Apparently all the PhD researchers holding prestigious NSF-funded research fellowships are having their salaries withheld until some unspecified time when the leadership figures out how to eliminate any grant funding that doesn’t align with the president’s political ideology.

LA is in a high fire risk region & fire weather conditions are complex. So we @wwattribution.bsky.social looked at many lines of evidence. All show: our burning of fossil fuels increased the likelihood of such extreme fire weather conditions www.worldweatherattribution.org/climate-chan...

For my first scientific post here, I want to talk about the Phanerozoic temperature record we published last Fall, which unfortunately has been making rounds in the climate denier circuit 👀 First though hopefully you can appreciate the beauty of this reconstruction ✨...

Here's a schematic I published in this 2021 piece to illustrate how even a modest delay in onset of rainy season in Southern California can dramatically amplify wildfire risk by lengthening seasonal overlap between dry vegetation and strong offshore winds during Oct-Jan. #CAfire

Daniel Swain@weatherwest.bsky.social · 2y ago

In fact: In a 2021 piece, I discussed how there is already evidence that this "dry & windy" overlap has already increased from autumn and (episodically) into early winter--especially across Southern California. #CAwx #CAfire agupubs.onlinelibrar...

Our paper on "Hydroclimate volatility on a Warming Earth" is out in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment. We assess existing scientific literature & conduct new analysis--concluding that "#HydroclimateWhiplash" is increasing due to #ClimateChange. [Thread] www.nature.com/artic...

Hydroclimate volatility on a warming Earth

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment - Rapid transitions between extreme wet and extreme dry conditions — ‘hydroclimate whiplash’ — have marked environmental and societal...

nature.com

Remember that we have a Starter Pack for researchers who work(ed) with molecules, such as leaf wax, algal, archaeal, and bacterial lipids and pyrogenic compounds. Featuring but not restricted to #GDGT lovers, #PaleoSky people, geologists ⚒️, and/or (pale)oceanographers 🌊 go.bsky.app/RC38uDF

In case you missed it, our insightful panel discussion on careers outside academia for paleo scientists is on youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRjG...

"Let's Talk About Career Opportunities": Outside of Academia

The PAGES ECN webinar series, "Let's talk about career opportunities" will continue on April 25th, with a special panel webinar dedicated to the topic of car...

youtube.com

Paul Zander@zanderland.bsky.social · 2y ago

"Let's Talk About Career Opportunities Outside Academia" Join the next PAGES ECN webinar this Thursday at 16:00 CET (1400 UTC). All are welcome! Our wonderful panelists will share their reflections on their career paths and answer questions about making the transition to non-academic careers.