Stories by Andrea Thompson

Flash floods happen when heavy rains unleash more water than the ground can absorb, causing that water to pile up and flow to low-lying areas

Microwave satellite data are key to capturing major changes in a hurricane’s strength, such as when a storm undergoes rapid intensification. But a main source of those data is being abruptly shut off

When extreme heat arrives, here are science-based tips to keep your home cool, from the most efficient way to use air conditioning to strategic uses of fans

What happens when the U.S.’s most trusted source of extreme weather alerts can’t staff the night shift?

Predictions for an above-average number of storms, communities that are still recovering and cuts to the National Weather Service have meteorologists and other experts worried about this hurricane season

Doppler radar is one of the most revolutionary and lifesaving tools of modern meteorology, which has experts worried about outages because of recent staffing cuts and conspiracy theories

Several devastating tornado outbreaks have cut swaths of destruction across the U.S. What’s driving these damaging storms?

Weather experts warn that staff cuts at the National Weather Service that have been made by the Trump administration are a danger to public safety as tornadoes, hurricanes and heat loom this spring and summer

Cities across the U.S., including inland ones such as Denver and Dallas, are settling into the earth, posing increased flooding risks and potentially damaging urban infrastructure

The world is experiencing the most intense global coral bleaching event on record, with 84 percent of reefs experiencing heat stress from warming oceans

Colossal Bioscience says it has “de-extincted” the dire wolf, but other scientists disagree and say more important conservation science is being lost in all the hype

Damage surveys provide crucial information about when, where and how strong U.S. tornadoes are to better understand disaster risk

Trump’s tariffs put a spotlight on the uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands, which comprise a remote volcanic refuge for penguins and seals and a UNESCO World Heritage site

New data released by the EPA show that nearly half of people in the U.S. have drinking water contaminated by toxic “forever chemicals,” or PFAS

With wildfires happening more often and burning more area, homes need to be “hardened” to make them more fire-resistant

Much of the U.S. has swung from temperatures in the –30s and –40s Fahrenheit to balmy weather in the 60s and 70s F

A perfect confluence of an Arctic air outbreak and a low-pressure system that pulled in moisture from the Gulf of Mexico brought rare, record snow to the Gulf Coast

One of President Trump’s first executive orders withdraws the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement. These graphics show why the pact is crucial to curbing the worst effects of global warming

Many factors, such as strong Santa Ana winds and urban planning decisions, played into the recent destructive wildfires in the Los Angeles area. But the evidence is clear that climate change contributed

The ferocity and scale of the fires that tore through the Los Angeles area become clearer in photographs

The year 2024 was the hottest on record and the first to top 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming. All 10 of the hottest years have been in the past decade

The nature of the Santa Ana winds makes them perfectly suited to fueling blazes like the Palisades Fire, and climate change is increasing the risk

We’re closing out the year with a roundup of the science stories that stood out to our editors in 2024.

From a comb jelly with two butts to wing-slapping ants, this animal research made us laugh this year