Topic: changing climate

Rain falling on existing snow can produce ice layers that persist until spring, threatening transport, wildlife and power infrastructure in Alaska. Sparse observations and mountainous terrain make these events difficult to characterize. Tricia Hutton presents an analysis using high-resolution reanalysis for winters from 1950 through 2022 to determine their distribution and timing. Most events occur in November and December, with coastal areas experiencing more frequent events and larger rainfall accumulations than the interior. The analysis identifies a seasonal shift toward more December even

Samantha Burgess explains how researchers estimate the Earth’s temperature and monitor a changing climate. The episode examines the observations and international scientific collaboration behind global temperature records, and the work involved in assessing the planet’s changing conditions rather than treating a single local measurement as a global answer.