ClimateWatch

When it comes to what causes climate to vary over seemingly short distances, few things can compare to the influence of topography. This week in Beyond the Data, Jake Crouch talks about how climate scientists account for topography in interpreting climate patterns and trends. 

There’s good news and bad news about hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), the gases that replaced the ozone-depleting substances that were used in refrigerators and air conditioners. 

Editor’s note: This story was adapted by NOAA and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science from a story by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.

The 2015 Antarctic ozone hole area was larger and formed later than in recent years, according to scientists from NOAA and NASA.

Thanks to an unusually cold winter in the Antarctic stratosphere, the 2015 ozone hole was larger than it has been in recent years.

For those who are still waiting for winter's first snow, Deke Arndt blogs about using historical climate data to ballpark when it might arrive. 

Above-average rainfall this past spring in Morton, Illinois, the so-called “pumpkin capital of the world,” is to blame for a pumpkin shortage this fall. 

Torrential rains, flash floods and mudslides in southern California were the result of the itinerate journey of an upper-level low pressure system.

How has El Niño affected U.S. winter temperature and precipitation in the past, and what are NOAA's predictions for this strong El Niño winter of 2015-16? Guest blogger Mike Halpert gives us the scoop.

Nearly five million people in the United States live within four feet of the local high-tide level.