the DON JONES INDEX…
	GAINS POSTED in GREEN LOSSES POSTED in RED 3/27/26… 15,602.39 3/20/26… 15,588.92 6/27/13... 15,000.00
(THE DOW JONES INDEX: 3/27/26... 45,960.11; 3/20/26... 46,021.43; 6/27/13… 15,000.00)

LESSON for FRIDAY, MARCH 27th, 2026 – “SPRING BROKEN!”

Spring sprung into being a week ago; officially arriving at 10:46 AM EST on the East Coast of the U.S.A. from a still-shivering Maine down through the population clusters of the BosWash, the Carolinas to Savannah, Jacksonville – then the Spring Break Atlantic beachfronts to Miami, finally curling South to Key West.

Writing for USA Today, Melina Khan marked the spring equinox, or astronomical start to spring as occurring “when the Earth's axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun, resulting in equal daylight during the day and darkness at night.”

Say goodbye to the “frigid cold temperatures and massive snowstorms” of winter that struck the Northeast over the last two months while “scorching high temperatures” were feeding drought and wildfires in the West.

Despite the weather whiplash many Americans faced, meteorologists reported that winter across the country was overwhelmingly warm.

So what is the spring equinox? Khan asks. (March 19, 2026 Updated March 20, 2026, ATTACHMENT ONE)

“Twice a year, Earth's axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun. The first time it happens, in March, is the spring equinox. The other, which falls in September, is the autumn equinox.

“The sun shines precisely over the equator during the equinox, so everywhere on Earth will experience almost exactly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of nighttime as a result.”

With all the baubles to recommend it, the New York Time, at least, downgraded the season to America’s second favorite – behind autumn.

Perhaps the choosings... collated by Gotham’s Steven Kurutz (March 20^th, updated 22^nd, ATTACHMENT TWO)... reflected some of the memes and tropes of the Trump years; violence, indolence and fear. Football over baseball. The comforts of hearty meals of meat, potatoes, a salad – washed down by sparkling wine or, as the commercials say, “ice cold milk” – then topped off by pumpkin pie... as opposed to the sweaty labor of raising and grooming cows or chickens, planting and tending the fields and gardens and vineyards. Halloween over Easter.

“For the last several years,” according to Mister (not Colonel) Kurutz, autumn “has been the star season, its popularity helped along by social media videos of influencers in cozy knitwear against backdrops of gaudy foliage. More than a calendric event, fall has become an aesthetic, a lifestyle, a vibe, complete with its own TV show (comforting “Gilmore Girls” reruns), soundtrack (“Stick Season” by Noah Kahan) and flavor (pumpkin spice).

“Spring, by contrast, can seem so muddy and disappointing. It is seen as a time of wildly fluctuating temperatures and pollen-induced sneezing fits.”

(Alongside the pollen come polls – such as the ValuePenguin survey in 2023 in which “forty-five percent named autumn as their favorite season, nearly double the next closest season – Summer at 24%).”

Spring, however, also has its defenders – so Mr. Kurutz also scanned internetters and influencers finding, for example, a TikTok lady whose spring things include “cherry blossoms, tulips, a puppy, a bunny, geese, horses in green pastures, an iced matcha latte and herself strolling through a park sans overcoat.”

Christopher R. Miller, a professor of English at the College of Staten Island of the City University of New York, cited the transiency and beauty of the season and the Times proffered poets like Robert Frost, Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales”, a Shakespeare sonnet... even George Harrison’s “Here Comes the Sun”.

But Kurutz, attributing a change in values and beliefs in the “cultural mood” to include allergens and climate change and asked marketing agence Jamie Falkowski how the season might “improve its image” and Falkowski said he’d try to spin spring’s brevity and unpredictability into a positive by soliciting fashionistas and Internet influencers – and encouraging people to “live life again” and, perhaps, even “creatively”.

Orlando Bird, house-Creationist for the conservative Telegraph U.K., saluted spring as encouraging more “ambitious walks”, as opposed to the “token stroll quickly abandoned for the pub” and, itself, solicited readers to share their own favorite peregrinations. (ATTACHMENT THREE)

Some of the responses included Skomer Island, Birling Gap, the Seven Sisters, Daffodil Valley and such – all of which are, unfortunately for American strollers, here and there in the U.K. Obviously!

American spring breakers – which is to say those who surmount the lines and difficulties of travel occasioned by the war and the government shutdown – are, according to Yahoo/Fox, more interested in drinking, doping, fighting and vandalism than communing with nature.

Dozens of spring breakers across the popular beach destinations of Fort Lauderdale and Daytona Beach ended up in handcuffs over the weekend as authorities continue to crack down on the mayhem wreaking havoc up and down the Sunshine State’s shores.

Fort Lauderdale logged nine arrests related to spring break over the weekend, bringing the total number of arrests for the season to 47, a police department spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital – varying in severity “from trespassing and open container charges to assault and battery, according to data provided by the department.”

“(A)uthorities in Daytona Beach conducted a total of 75 beachside arrests, including 12 felony arrests and 15 arrests related to narcotics,” the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office told Fox News Digital – both cities actually experiencing a decline in arrests following so-called “takeover events” where “kids” are out there... “underage drinking, smoking weed, all that stuff, so that we have tools to be able to get them off the street," Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young said.

"It is not a decision against tourism,” Young added, but a decision against “unsanctioned high-risk activity that strains resources, disrupts our community and places unnecessary demands on public safety personnel." (Mon, March 23, 2026 at 3:24 PM EDT, ATTACHMENT FOUR)

In addition to the madness and the mayhem, with local residents being attacked and beaten by the often out-of-state hellraisers, foul winds swept across the Sunshine State.

The cause is sargassum, “a naturally occurring brown seaweed that floats in large masses across the ocean, renowned for its trademark vacation-ruining odor that coats the shores of numerous popular U.S. beaches along the East Coast.”

In 2026, just in time for spring break, it's back.

An estimated 9.5 million tons of sargassum is beginning to make landfall in the Western Atlantic, Caribbean, Mexico, southern Texas and in South Florida, according to environmental engineer Tracy Fanara.

“While the rotten-egg stench is more than enough to ruin a beach day,” Fox Weather declared, “sargassum plays an important role in the health and biodiversity of open ocean ecosystems”, according to the NOAA. (Fox Weather, ATTACHMENT FIVE)

In natural amounts, sargassum provides habitat, food, protection, and breeding grounds for hundreds of diverse marine species. It supports commercially important fish such as tuna and swordfish, which feed on the smaller organisms living within sargassum mats, while also helping reduce beach erosion.

When high winds and ocean currents bring piles of sargassum ashore, the harmful algal bloom can adversely impact coastal ecosystems, tourism and public health.

Massive amounts of sargassum can form brown tides' nearshore, adversely impacting plants and animals, including coral reefs.

Once beached, sargassum produces hydrogen sulfide as it decomposes, releasing a potent rotten egg smell that can cause headaches and respiratory irritation, among other health impacts.

Historically, most sargassum was confined to the Sargasso Sea in the western North Atlantic, according to NOAA. In 2011, its range expanded, and a new population—fueled by shifting wind patterns—began thriving in the open ocean forcing cleanup crews... even in the 17 miles of beaches in Miami-Dade County... to drive tractors with rear-mounted blades along the shoreline at the high tide mark to mix and blend the sargassum.

Distasteful as Florida’s beaches have been this year, they’re still considered an achievable destination – as compared to foreign climes to which American (and other) airlines are advising preparation for delays and cancellations that leave more families stranded.

With no end in sight to Shutdown 3.0, President Trump 2.0 announced that he was sending Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to “ease air travelers’ pain”.

“ICE will be going to airports to help our wonderful TSA Agents,” Trump said in an early Sunday post, as reported by US News and World Report (ATTACHMENT SIX)

ICE agents won’t necessarily be doing specialized jobs traditionally managed by TSA, like screening passengers and luggage, border czar Tom Homan told CNN on Sunday. Instead, they’ll do other jobs to free up TSA agents.

"Democrats want to see long lines at airports as leverage," conspiratorial Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told ABC. "President Trump's trying to take that leverage away and not make the American people suffer."

The leftists at Mother Jones offered up different explanations for the chaos and the ICE response. (ATTACHMENT SEVEN) Obviously, they placed the blame around the neck of the President.

The Trump administration “appears to have no coherent plan for what they will do,” contended Jonesist Alex Nguyen, following the announcement that ICE agents will be sent to airports to fill in for Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees who have been on the job without pay for more than a month.

He complained that administration officials “gave conflicting statements about what exactly this would entail.”

The Trump administration blames the government shutdown and TSA shortages on Democrats, pointed out Mother Jones’ Michael Mechanic – explaining their opposition was based, not only on the masking issue, but, also, ICE’s “rampant use of surveillance technology” and alleged “human rights abuses at the immigrant detention centers the administration has set up.”

It remains unclear whether ICE agents will simply carry out the same tasks as TSA employees, MJ ventured, or “if they will make airports another hub for violence under the guise of “immigration enforcement,” as the President renewed his war on Somalian immigrants who have “totally destroyed” Minnesota while House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) responded, on Sunday, that: “The last thing the American people need is for untrained ICE agents to be deployed at airports across the country potentially to brutalize or to kill them.”

And while many labor officials just want the TSAgents, caught in the partisan crossfire, “to be paid, not replaced by untrained, armed agents who have shown how dangerous they can be,” said Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, Republicans voted unanimously against the latest Democratic bill to fund the TSA. “This is the seventh time Republicans have blocked pay for TSA,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York posted on Bluesky. “Seven. Times.”

UNDER THE DOME

There are plenty of Americans... in fact, most... who would like to fly away from where they are and go to someplace cooler, but tolerably temperature places have been few and far between all week, beginning on Wednesday and Thursday, March 18-19 (as one of the most extreme weather events in world history blitzed the Southwest U.S. and far northwest Mexico with unprecedented March heat) according to reporters with the Yale Climate Connection. (ATTACHMENT EIGHT)

Updates through the week upped the roster of states experiencing “all-time March heat records” from eight on Friday, March 20^th to thirteen on Saturday. Tossing out meteorological jargon like nuts to squirrels, reporters Jeff Masters and Bob Henson bedazzled hot and sweaty people with millibars, decameters and standard deviations as well as numbers... very high numbers.

On Wednesday and Thursday, March 18-19, as one of the most extreme weather events in world history blitzed the Southwest U.S. and far northwest Mexico with unprecedented March heat, “the U.S. March record of 108°F set at Rio Grande City, Texas, on March 30, 1954, was tied at North Shore, California, on Wednesday, and then broken on Thursday with 110°F at Martinez Lake, Arizona, then broken again on Friday with 112°F at Martinez Lake, Arizona, Fort Yuma, Arizona, Buttercup, California, and Squaw Lake, California.”

Why?

World Weather Attribution concluded that the current heat wave would be virtually impossible in a world without human-induced climate change. “Global temperatures have risen by around 1.3 degrees Celsius since preindustrial times, but the affected region is warming more dramatically than many other parts of the world, and a lengthening “long tail” at the hot end of the climate spectrum now allows the most extreme regional heat episodes to warm by substantially more than 1.3 degrees Celsius.”

Daily records were broken from Arizona and Nevada north to Wyoming on Wednesday, March 18, broken again on Thursday, March 19, and once again on Friday, March 20.

“(A) heat wave on this scale is still a rare event in today’s climate,” the Yalies disclosed, “and is expected to occur about once every 500 years at any one spot.”

(See charts, maps, graphs and figures here)

The record-breaking heatwave scorching the US west this week would have been “virtually impossible” if not for the climate crisis, a team of scientists informed the Guardian U.K. (ATTACHMENT NINE)

“These temperatures are completely off the scale for March,” said analysis co-author Ben Clarke, who is an extreme weather and climate change researcher at Imperial College London, in a statement.

“These findings leave no room for doubt. Climate change is pushing weather into extremes that would have been unthinkable in a preindustrial world,” said Friederike Otto, a climate science professor at Imperial College London, who also worked on the study.

The culprit... leaving aside the millions of Americans filling up on gas, barbecuing steaks and running their electricity gobbling devices - from refrigerators to doorbells to AI data centers... is that now-viral debbil: the Heat Dome.

The Dome has shattered temperature records in 140 cities stretching from California to Missouri, according to the Weather Channel, while leaving California, Nevada and Arizona under extreme heat warnings a week ago and extending day after day after day.

“Heat is the deadliest form of extreme weather in the US. Weather officials this week raised concerns about an increase in heat-related illnesses, especially among vulnerable populations, and advised people to remain hydrated and stay inside when they can.”

The heat is the result of a high-pressure system spinning across the West, causing “an expansive dome of unusually hot temperatures,” USA Today explained (USA Today, ATTACHMENT TEN) adding that cities in California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming have all broken all-time March records.

And Euronews... Euronews!... reported that the United States is breaking 77 per cent more hot weather records now than in the 1970s and 19 per cent more than the 2010s, according to an AP analysis of NOAA records (ATTACHMENT ELEVEN) disclosing that some of the worldwide sizzlers, over the last six years, included the “2020 Siberia heatwave, the 2021 Pacific Northwest heatwave that had British Columbia warmer than Death Valley, the summer of 2022 in North America, China and Europe, a 2023 western Mediterranean heatwave and a 2023 South Asian heatwave with high humidity.”

And the Euronewsies added that these records don't include “the East Antarctica heatwave of 2022 when temperatures were 45 degrees Celsius warmer than normal. That's the biggest anomaly (ever) recorded,” said weather historian Chris Burt, author of the book Extreme Weather.

Earlier disasters also included “the deadly Typhoon Haiyan hitting the Philippines in 2013”, Superstorm Sandy, which in 2012 flooded New York City plus the innumerable wildfires... including the Los Angeles conflagrations that Climate Central meteorologist and Adam Smith (but not that Adam) called “the costliest weather disaster in the United States last year.”

“It’s really hard to even keep up with how extreme our extremes are becoming,” Climate Central Chief Meteorologist Bernadette Woods Placky told Euronews.

Climate Matters (ATTACHMENT TWELVE) believes that climate change is causing “leaf-outs”... early crop and flower bloomings in locations that the CM charts and graphs ranging from New York City (16 days early), Washington D.C. (15 days) and Boston and Atlantic City (13 days each).

“These events can be very costly,” said the CM. “In 2017, a false spring in the southeastern U.S. caused about $1 billion in fruit crop losses across the region. Scientists are still studying how climate change may affect false springs. While some studies suggest that false springs have become less common across most of the U.S., parts of the Great Plains and Midwest could face higher risk in the future if heat-trapping pollution increases.

There are also geological factors... Live Science (ATTACHMENT THIRTEEN) alleged that the rising sea levels (due to glacier meltdown) has sufficed “to slow the rotation of the planet by just over a millisecond per century (actually 1.33 ms/century)”

This is not the most significant factor in the planetary slowdown – in that the moon’s pull on the planet (the most significant factor over the long term) creates a bulge in the planet that slows Earth's rotation rate, the rotation of the planet by just over a millisecond per century.

This 2.4 millisecond rate is offset by an effect called “glacial isostatic adjustment”, which is the slow rise of the planet's crust that continues to occur after the retreat of the ice sheets. “Glacial isostatic adjustment shortens the day length by about 0.8 millisecond per century, leading to a background lengthening over time of 1.71 milliseconds per century (with about 0.1 millisecond of uncertainty in the observations).”

However, in recent years, the climate seems to be playing an increasing role in altering Earth's rotation, said Mostafa Kiani Shahvandi, a geoscientist at ETH Zurich. "I wanted to know if this was unusual or something like this happened in the past," Shahvandi told Live Science. "As it turned out, it is quite anomalous. The effect is therefore anthropogenic [caused by humans]."

One episode around 2 million years ago saw a similar increase in day length of 2.1 milliseconds per century, the researchers found. That was in the Early Pleistocene, during a period when carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and temperatures rose. There is some uncertainty in the historical estimate, meaning that this period may have seen a similar increase in day length as today, or that today might be faster.

Under a future warming scenario where greenhouse gases increase, the day could lengthen by 2.62 milliseconds per century by 2080.

In addition to becoming (very) slightly longer, days would become (much) hotter if temperatures continue rising.

Extreme heat is exceptionally dangerous, especially so early in the year, when bodies and systems are not prepared for it and when it lingers over a long period of time,” warns Gabrielle Canon of the Guardian U.K. (Tue. 24 Mar., ATTACHMENT FOURTEEN)

The present heatwave “is also posing significant threats to the water supply. After one of the warmest winters in the west, the snow that feeds streams, reservoirs and soil moisture as it melts through the summer season is already dismally scarce in key watersheds.

“Anomalous warmth and historic snow drought will still lead to ecological and wildfire-related impacts as soon as this spring, and possibly wider water challenges by late summer and beyond,” climate scientist Daniel Swain said in a post about the heat.

His primary concern is in the interior west, especially the Colorado River basin, which could face “water supply and hydroelectric shortfalls, an early and intense fire season, and ecosystem degradation”.

“This is a big deal,” he added.

More than 400 daily records were broken last Thursday (March 22^nd) when the heatwave peaked, caused by a large and persistent dome of pressure settling over a large swath of the west. But “this is not going to be a heat event that suddenly goes away”, Swain said. “We are still going to be experiencing record warmth and dryness next week – at least for the next seven to 10 days,” or until, or even past, the Easter holidays.

“The heatwave has eaten away more of an already deeply depleted snowpack, needed to sustain the thirstiest states through the drier months,” GUK reported.

“Drought conditions worsened or developed for much of the Great Plains, Lower Mississippi valley, and south-east US due to warmer and drier than normal conditions this winter,” said Jon Gottschalck, chief of the Operational Prediction Branch at Noaa’s Climate Prediction Center, in a spring outlook published on Friday. The agency said drought was expected to persist and expand across the west due to the unrelenting heat.

“Heat also bakes more moisture out of landscapes, amplifying wildfire risks and extending the seasons when ignitions can quickly become infernos. The hot, dry conditions are fueling an explosive start to the high-risk wildfire season, and vegetation is becoming increasingly primed to burn,” the GUKsters say, citing the wildfires that have already leveled large sections of Los Angeles, as well as less populated areas.

“In the US west, the seasons that people and nature were used to for centuries are disappearing, putting many, including outdoor workers and those without air conditioning, in danger,” Friederike Otto, a climate science professor at Imperial College London, previously told the Guardian.

“The threat isn’t distant – it is here, it is worsening and our policy must catch up with reality.”

Another Guardian study report – this being the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization’s measurement of oceanic heat absorption (ATTACHMENT FIFTEEN) contended that the decade of 2015 to 2025 was the hottest ever measured, “but a still bleaker message was that the rising temperature experienced by humans on the surface was only 1% of the faster-accumulating heat in the wider Earth system.”

Taking the previous decade into account, the reported showed that “the Earth’s energy imbalance increased by about 11 zettajoules a year between 2005 and 2025, which is equivalent to about 18 times total human energy use. Last year it was more than double that average,” and while humans and other life forms on the surface directly suffer only a small fraction of that energy backup (“because 91% is absorbed by oceans, 5% by the land, 1% warms the atmosphere, and 3% melts ice at the poles and on high mountains”), unnamed “world leaders” say it is now inevitable the planet will – at least temporarily – “breach the target of limiting heating to 1.5C above preindustrial levels set by the Paris agreement.”

The consequences, as we have hard before and upon so many issues, are dire.

Like wolves!

Back up a moment to the standard that UN secretary-general, António Guterres and Dr, John Kennedy, the lead author of the WMO report tossed out at us... what the freak are “zettajoules”?

They’re not the rings and baubles worn by Zelda to impress Dobie Gillis on their old sitcom... they’re a measurement – specifically “a billion trillion joules.” Typed out on a calculator or computer screen, another GUKsplanation proposed, the row of 21 zeros looks absurdly long – like “a train of seven carriages, each with three empty windows.” (Tuesday, ATTACHMENT SIXTEEN)

Experts often have to resort to abstract terms like “unfathomable”, “almost beyond comprehension” and “really big” to ensure our tiny human minds are sufficiently blown away by what these numbers convey.

In historical terms, scientist John Abraham cited “the power of the Little Boy atomic bomb that devastated Hiroshima in 1945.

“In 2020, he observed that the amount of heat being added to the oceans was equivalent to about five Hiroshima bombs of energy every second. By 2022, this had gone up to seven Hiroshimas every second. Last year, the WMO figures suggest, it was closer to 11 Hiroshima explosions per second.” Confirmative date has been obtained from Chinese and Olympic comparisons, based on the original findings of Victorian-era physicist James Prescott Joule, whose researches gave his name for “the amount of effort required to produce one watt of power for one second, equivalent to the work required to pick an apple off the floor and put it on a table.”

That’s a very small exertion... still, “a billion trillion” of them is hardly a small matter and how it effects planetary heating, based upon the first law of thermodynamics, which Mr. Joule helped developed and which states that energy “cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred or converted from one form to another.”

Another pre-Victorian-era phenomenon is the good ‘ole Farmer’s Almanac which has, since 1792, been predicting the whys and hows of weather, based (ATTACHMENT SEVENTEEN, published March 16th) upon three specific scientific disciplines:

· Solar science

· Climatology

· Meteorology

... with emperature and precipitation levels for eighteen United States regions “compared to historical averages to determine expected departures from normal.” 

2026’s Almanac predicts “warmer-than-normal temperatures across much of the United States, with a few exceptions. Parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and areas of Montana and Colorado are expected to see temperatures closer to or below seasonal averages.”

The Almanac also forecast “warmer-than-normal temperatures across much of the United States, with a few exceptions. Parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and areas of Montana and Colorado are expected to see temperatures closer to or below seasonal averages.”

Scoffers may take heart in that the old F.A. has already laid a goose egg as to its eighteenth and final region... the islands of Hawaii.

“Expect warmer-than-usual temperatures for the state this spring. The east will see below-normal rainfall, while the central and western regions will see above-normal amounts of rainfall.”

Younger, by far, than the Almanac, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) chose to leave the 49^th and 50^th states off their forecast list (ATTACHMENT EIGHTEEN), but did make mention of this year’s “spring flood outlook” with maps and projections that center the likelihood of flooding on the mid-Mississippi (specifically Missouri, Illinois and Indiana). So far, they seem to have entirely missed the West, as far as Nebraska, but, then again Spring is still a young season and there is still time to drown. (See charts, graphs and maps here)

UNDER THE DOME

USA Today’s take on the NOAA heat and drought predictions, mapped here, predicted drought conditions worsening or developing for much of the Great Plains, Lower Mississippi Valley, and Southeast U.S. “due to warmer and drier than normal conditions this winter,” according to Jon Gottschalck, chief of the Operational Prediction Branch, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.

"Drought is likely to persist across much of the West while developing in parts of the Pacific Northwest, Great Basin, central Rockies and Southwest. Dry conditions are expected to improve for some areas in the Midwest and Atlantic seaboard.”

“The overall flood risk across most of the continental U.S. for Spring 2026 is currently assessed as normal to below normal,” the NOAA analysis projected. “This risk determination was made primarily because of a dry and warm winter that resulted in dry soils over much of the eastern U.S., mitigating the threat of rainfall-driven flooding. Additionally, a well-below-normal snowpack across most of the country will reduce the risk of snowmelt-driven flooding...” again excluding Hawaii.

The prevalence of drought and heat across the continental U.S. has been repeatedly attributed to the “Dome”, a zone of doom that dominates the West and currently (USA Today, March 21, ATTACHMENT NINETEEN) drives “early‑season extreme heat, drought risk and heightened flood concerns in specific river basins.”

Tracking the potentiality for heat, drought and flooding across those same regions cited above (Alaska and Hawaii excepted), USAT reported that the western heat dome “has already broken the record for hottest March day in U.S. history as temperatures soar into the 90s and even past 100 degrees in some cities, levels more typical of late spring or early summer,” according to AccuWeather. (ATTACHMENT TWENTY)

USAT added to its DOME-finition (above) the prospect of “a sprawling area of high pressure that promotes hot and dry conditions for days or weeks at a time.”

"Heat domes are a lot like a balloon," AccuWeather senior meteorologist Alan Reppert explained. "They expand and contract as the day goes by, and when you are inside of it, it can be very warm."

AccuWeather meteorologist Tom Kines told USA TODAY in an email that "one concern we have about this early season heatwave across Southern California is it will cause the ground cover to brown up much earlier than usual, which could spell trouble/increase the fire danger if there is a Santa Ana event at some point in April or May."

Other dangers of domes die-entified by USAT and AccuWeather are to living creatures... plants and animals. Human beings being among the latter, Kines played Mommy and recommended that the damned under the dome “...(d)rink plenty of fluids − ideally water − and wear light-colored and lightweight clothing” plus a hat with a visor or wide brim “to shield the sun from your head.

“(D)o outside work or strenuous activities early in the day or evening when it's not so hot and the sun is less intense. Air conditioning and a pool are two of the best ways to beat the heat."

Those who cannot afford air conditioning or a pool are S.O.o.L., but there’s still water and, hopefully, some of those “dark places” chosen by meteor watchers in yesterday’s DJI newsbrief (below).

"The records being broken with this heat dome aren't being broken by a degree; they are being obliterated by a few and in some cases several degrees. Since this heat is occurring so early in the season, most people's bodies have not been acclimated to the heat yet," Kines added – predicting that the Dome would “begin to break down early in the week of March 23.”

It didn’t.

Another AccuWeather forecast, dating back to Groundhog Day, predicted “a season divided, with large areas of the country expected to have an early arrival of springlike weather, while millions face an extension of winter through the first day of the new season.” (ATTACHMENT TWENTY)

So far, they’ve been heavy on the heat but less AccuWeatherly on winter’s hanging on... except for northern Maine. In the Southwest, however, predictions of heat and drought have been realized - AccuWeather Long-Range Expert Paul Pastelok posting that the persistence of dome-induced heat and drought might result in “(s)potty large fires (that) can break out across this region during the spring."

And, as time marches on, expect the usual spring severe weather systems... including flooding, hail and even a tornado here and there, before transiting to the later hurricane season – hopefully a repeat of the mostly quiet 2025 months.

But maybe not, according to NORTHJERSEY.com which, last week, dubbed NOAA’s latter spring predictions of a "Godzilla" El Nino which, unnamed Scientists were quoted by the jersey boys as potentially could “be the strongest we've seen in a decade, with record-high temperatures across the US, a shifted US winter weather pattern and a volatile 2026 hurricane season.”

El Nino often leads to some of the hottest years on record: a strong El Nino in 2024 led NOAA declaring 2024 the world's warmest year on record.

Moreover, a “brewing and strong" El Nino historically means a more active hurricane season in the eastern and central Pacific Oceans, according to NOAA. “While El Nino often leads to increase activity in the Pacific, it has the opposite affect in the Atlantic, meaning the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season may not be as volatile.”

The weather pattern in Jersey is currently in a La Nina pattern, “meaning that the spring 2026 weather in New Jersey won't be impacted by El Nino, which is predicted to develop later in 2026.”

La Nina will transition to El Nino by late summer, NOAA forecasts, and while it could drive the number of 2026 Atlantic hurricanes down, it may introduce heat waves and flooding. El Nino could become stronger by October-December 2026, the NOAA Climate Prediction Center said, which is likely to impact temperatures in 2027. Climate scientist Zeke Hausfather says it could lead to 2027 being the hottest year on record.

Peering cross the pond with, perhaps, relief that they were no longer liable for wicked weather in the colonies, the GUKsters (Sunday, ATTACHMENT TWENTY TWO) did, at least, acknowledge that Hawaii was washing away – as well as “rare snow in Alabama, flip-flopping temperatures in the north-east and, perhaps most concerning, a severe heatwave affecting the west coast.”

Consequently those always-mysterious “experts” warned the colonial Sagittarians and vegetarians to pay closer attention to the climate crisis and do what they can to “minimize the impacts”.

Regarding those flipflops, Jon Nese, associate head of the department of meteorology and atmospheric science at Penn State. “In March, we have some warm days, and then it turns sharply colder and snows. It’s the kind of rollercoaster that we’re used to,” he told GUK. Daniel Bader, a program manager at the Consortium for Climate Risk in the Urban Northeast at Columbia’s climate school, described a particularly dramatic Gotham swing: when “(t)emperatures at Central Park hit 80 degrees, and then two days later, there were snowflakes in the air.”

“March is kind of an active weather month,” Bader allowed.

“The heatwave in the west, happening at the same time as we turn sharply colder in the east, those two things are related,” Nese added.

While the climate crisis might have some effect on bringing unusually colder weather in certain regions (like Alabama, noted the Guardian’s Marina Dunbar), the number of record-breaking heatwaves is “greatly outpacing the number of cold weather events as the planet continues to heat up.”

And as the extremes become more and more unpredictable, (and GUK mailines its left-wing vein) experts stress the importance of preparedness, “even as Donald Trump has cut funding to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), marking a dangerous erosion in US capacity to prepare for and respond to natural disasters.”

CLIMATE CHANGE? WHAT CLIMATE CHANGE?

Not at the Oscars, as we noted last DJI... not like Leonardo DiCaprio’s evocation of climate change a decade ago when he defined his Oscar vehicle “The Revenant” as being “about man’s relationship to the natural world that we collectively felt in 2015, as the hottest year in recorded history.”

The Los Angeles Times (March 19, ATTACHMENT TWENTY THREE) accordingly found it imperative to publish more excerpts from that speech in the midst of what was, in fact, a far more innocent epoch before the fires and the drought and 20’s heat.

2015 was, LAT recalls, “something of a heady time for environmentalists” even under the American leadership of a waffling and hesitating Barack Obama. The U.S., at least, became “something of a heady time for environmentalists”

Fast forward five years (which LAT somehow miscalculated as ten); Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement in 2020. Joe Biden rejoined in 2021. Trump withdrew again just a few months ago. “And in this second go at the White House, the Trump Administration has done everything in its power to tighten the knots tethering the U.S. to fossil fuels.”

Meanwhile, that global temperature record that DiCaprio mentioned in his acceptance speech in 2016 “seems almost trifling compared to what has happened since. It’s been surpassed six times. According to data from the National Centers for Environmental Information, the three hottest years on record are 2024, 2023 and 2025.”

Get and fix with a the charts and graphs

This year, “DiCaprio lost in the Best Actor category to Michael B. Jordan, the lead of Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” so he didn’t have a chance to say anything about climate change.

“But not a single one of the Oscar winners this year mentioned it.”

LAT’s Elijah Wolfson then pointed that... in the intervening decade... both “One Battle After Another” and “Sinners” were produced by Warner Brothers, which is about to be acquired by Paramount Skydance, which in turn is owned by David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison, one the world’s wealthiest individuals and noted Trump supporter. The DJI termed, and still maintains, that the Elder has been America’s most evil human being – based on his complementarily repressive and sloppy job applicant surveillance enging Taleo - while Ellison the younger has already upheld the family values with “decisions that have significantly defanged the climate coverage at CBS News — Paramount’s flagship news network” — and, Wolfson ventured, “it would not be shocking if CNN — part of the WB — is next.”

“Relevant especially for those facing the heat wave right now in L.A. and the rest of the southwest: a study published earlier this week in Lancet attempted to quantify how rising global temperatures will impact physical inactivity in different parts of the world. Chloé Farand summed it up for the Guardian, noting the researchers’ projection of 500,000 additional annual deaths due to inactivity by 2050.

“Meanwhile, Libby Rainey at LAist wrote about how the city is preparing for the inevitable heat challenges that will accompany the World Cup games this coming summer.”

GUK also reported on last week’s leaks of poisonous methane from numerous refineries worldwide (ATTACHMENT TWENTY FOUR) with 1,000 super-emitting methane leaks at risk of “triggering climate tipping points”.

Garnering data from the UCLA Stop Methane analysis and Carbon Mapper, GUK’s Top 25 list of methan leakers was dominated “by facilities in Turkmenistan (where) the scale of methane leaks in the secretive and authoritarian state” has previously been described as “mind-boggling”. Other deadly sites across the world “ranged from Turkey to Algeria and Malaysia to the U.S.” where “nine of the 10 worst leaks were in Texas.”

“It is really maddening,” said Cara Horowitz at UCLA. “These sites are the result of poor maintenance – if you upgraded the infrastructure a little bit, did good housekeeping, you could solve a really important part of the problem.

“Americans should be surprised and angered by the fact that the US lands pretty high on this list of top super-polluting plumes,” Horowitz added. “We in the US tend to think of our industry as fairly well and cleanly run, but this shows that we still have work to do.”

Mary Nichols, the former chair of the California Air Resources Board and a member of Carbon Mapper’s policy and impact committee, said: “Methane is a more powerful climate villain than any other air pollutant because it acts quickly and is emitted in large volumes. It is also relatively cheap and easy to control. New, detailed satellite pictures can help target the countries and companies that need to be held accountable.”

Speaking for the climate denialists, President Trump, of course, called climate change the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world,” at the U.N. General Assembly this past September; while the Center for American Progess (ATTACHMENT TWENTY FIVE) fingered 119 members of the 119th Congress—24 senators and 95 representatives— which number actually has declined since the 118^th as had 123. “Eleven lost or did not run for reelection in 2024, two have been appointed to Cabinet positions, and JD Vance was elected vice president of the United States.” (See the details in the sources listed in this Attachment dating back to the arrival of Trump 1.0 and the 116^th Congress).

Climate deniers often claim that the science around climate change is not settled, despite overwhelming scientific evidence proving the opposite. Their tactics include cherry-picking data that are unrepresentative of the overall scientific findings, “such as arguing that increased carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas responsible for climate change, is actually beneficial to humans and the planet or attempting to discredit scientists who have demonstrated the impacts of carbon dioxide.  Proponents of this line of reasoning attempt to dismiss the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere as insignificant. Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, among others, have recently used this tactic.¹⁷

Instead of creating good-paying jobs, investing in renewable energy, and cutting pollution, CAP argued that the BBB “raises the costs of energy, rolls back crucial environmental protections, and risks the reliability of U.S. energy to give tax breaks to billionaires and more than $80 billion in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry over the next decade.”

More than 80,000 clean energy jobs have already been lost or stalled since November 2024, while electricity and gas prices have increased nearly 10 percent on average in 2025 compared with 2024, despite Trump’s campaign promise to lower utility costs.

Since 1980, the United States has experienced 417 weather and climate disasters for which overall damages reached at least $1 billion, for total costs of more than $3.1 trillion. “Yet 119 members of the 119th Congress continue to deny the scientific consensus of human-caused climate change. These elected officials have also received a total of $51,449,854 in lifetime contributions from the fossil fuel industry.” 

This same Congress passed the Big Beautiful Bill (BBB), which dismantled the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) critical climate investments in clean energy and pollution reduction and gives “$18 billion in new and expanded tax breaks to the oil industry,” but, to be fair, might be designated to pay the salaries of TSAgents at major airports whose sickouts, resignations and exhaustion have resulted in long lines and an ongoing safety crisis.

Further, in the Executive Branch, leaders of the agencies “most directly responsible for environmental and climate-related policies at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) have also used deceptive language and spread misinformation.”

CAP took “closer looks” at the top rats in the EPA (Lee Zeldin), DOE (Chris Wright), DOI (Doug Burgum) and described Trump’s pre-election fundraisers, such as the private dinner at Mar-a-Lago (organized by Burgum and oily billionauewhere he asked oil and gas industry executives for $1 billion in campaign contributions, suggesting that if he was elected, they could expect his administration to enact industry wishlist policies such as tax breaks and the repeal of EPA tailpipe emission standards—both of which have now been enacted.

Some of those attending the fundraiser were the CEOs of ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Hess and, in conclusion, CAP ventured that “...the effects of the fossil fuel industry’s influence and the climate denial it induces have infiltrated all levels of the federal government, from Congress to federal agencies to the highest elected offices.”

See charts, graphs and tables here.

While most big, googly eyes were ogling Iran and big boots were beginning to be tied up to stomp Hormuz, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, not so surprisingly, jumped for Trump’s attention on Cuba – all but calling for a military intervention. (Florida Politics, March 26^th, ATTACHMENT TWENTY SIX – plus Peanut Gallery)

DeSantis believes “having a pro-Western, pro-America, free government in Cuba would be a boon for that island.”

“That island’s got a lot of potential and a lot of different things. And so hopefully we see that day,” he added.

Trump’s petitioner (once termed Gov. DeSanctimonious) is now a confirmed MAGA knee bender - enthusiastic about the “boom” that can happen in Cuba should “a halfway legitimate government that wasn’t 100% corrupt and actually respected people’s rights and the rule of law” take over from the current communist regime.

“Some of your kids and grandkids will be going to Spring Break there. They’ll be going on honeymoons there. People will be doing golf trips there. They’ll be doing all kinds of stuff. It will be a very successful island,” DeSantis said Wednesday at West Palm Beach’s DeSantis Family Chapel.

Yet despite his belief that Cuba can return to being the American getaway it was in the middle of the last century before Fulgencio Batista’s removal, he doesn’t want newly free Cubans coming to the U.S.

Rather, he believes “people in Cuba and people in the US, maybe exiles, who want to be a part of a solution” should be “in Cuba doing that.”

The Gallery was divided, with Frankie M. (clearly not a rat-packer anxious to bring back the old Batista days) scoffing and scorning what he believed to be a DeSantis World challenger to Disney while Earl Pitts, American, dissed Frank as a “flaming lefty” and agreed with Florida’s Governor and America’s next POTUS, Ron DeSantis that “We The American People have put up with Cuba’s $HlT for far too long… so frigging long, in fact that We The American People now and forevermore own Cuba, lock, stock, and barrel.”
IN “CLOSEING”, he closed…

“I, EARL PITTS AMERICAN, Have Spoken.”

While Kings and “No Kings” things are preparing for more marching and chanting to abolish ICE while Congress is dancing around Shutdown 3.0, CNN’s Laura Paddison reminded we Sprintime brokers that another sort of ice was well on its way to abolition… the ice all around Santa’s workshop at the North Pole.

“It’s the latest profoundly worrying signal from the top of the planet, a region which has become a clear victim of the climate crisis as humans burn fossil fuels, and increasingly a geopolitical hotspot as melting ice opens up commercial and military opportunities,” she reported (ATTACHMENT TWENTY SEVEN)

“Scientists are concerned about what it will mean for the spring and summer melt season. The last 19 years have seen the lowest sea ice levels on record.” The Arctic will be ice-free in the summer at some point by 2050, even if humans stop pumping out climate pollution, according to a 2023 study.

The cause is no mystery she added, “the ongoing buildup of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels is warming the oceans, heating the air, melting the ice, and worsening weather extremes all around the world.”

Confirmation sneaks in from Switzerland, courtesy of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) which last week, declared the Earth’s climate “more out of balance than at any time in observed history, as greenhouse gas concentrations drive continued warming of the atmosphere and ocean and melting of ice.” (ATTACHMENT TWENTY EIGHT)

“WMO’s State of the Global Climate report 2025 confirms that 2015-2025 (were) the hottest 11-years on record, and that 2025 was the second or third hottest year on record, at about 1.43 °C above the 1850-1900 average.” UN Secretary-General António Guterres called the State of the Global Climate a state of emergency; “Planet Earth is being pushed beyond its limits.”  

Reiterating the contention (above) that “(m)ore than 91% of the excess heat is stored in the ocean, which acts as a major buffer against higher temperatures on land,” WMO and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted that ocean warming and sea level rise “will continue for centuries,” being that changes in ocean warming, and deep ocean pH “are irreversible on centennial to millennial time scales,” due to factors like global near-surface temperaturs, ocean heat content, El Niño, La Niña, sea levels, glaciers, ocean pH and more – all described and calibrated in charts, maps, indices and… now… zettajoules. (See some of those details here)

“And in this age of war, climate stress is also exposing another truth: our addiction to fossil fuels is destabilizing both the climate and global security.  Today’s report should come with a warning label: climate chaos is accelerating and delay is deadly,” said Mr. Guterres. Some of the consequences to human life and health are heat stress, parasite-borne diseases like dengue and agricultural collapse.

And while climate denialists are trumpeting their dominion across America, polls are revealing that their hegemony might be even shorter than the American lifespans. The Haystack, YouGov and Gallup pollsters agreed that over 65% of people are "very" or "somewhat" concerned about climate change, majorities support increased government regulations, solar energy and windmills and, although partisanship remains, 77% of “moderate/conservative Republicans” are worried about climatic effect on “affordability”. (AI Overview, ATTACHMENT TWENTY NINE).

Cycling back to the COPs… where the questions raised by this Lesson and many more will be addressed at COP31in “Turkiye” in November (probably without any American official presence), COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago, working overtime, held dialogue with “Dialogue Earth” (Yesterday, ATTACHMENT THIRTY) and ventured hope that 31 would have a greater focus on implementation, “…because time is running out. “We believe very strongly in science,” Corrêa do Lago said. “And science is telling us that we have very little time.”

“A renewed focus on implementation could also help counter a growing assault on the “economic logic” of climate action, he said. While efforts to discredit climate science are not new, Corrêa do Lago argued that this energy has increasingly shifted towards attacking the financial case for solving the crisis.

“That is, I think, maybe even more dangerous,” he said.

Trump abandons international climate, biodiversity and energy bodies

“Climate action has been pushed down the political agenda in several countries,” Dialogue Earth took note, “as governments grapple with overlapping economic, security and cost-of-living crises. (Not to mention WAR!)

And while global environmentalists face opposition from climate denialists on the right, impatient sorts, fed up with the issuance of all those papers that “gather dust” are gearing up to attack from the left.

Dialogue Earth reported that the COP30 agenda now also faces a potential rival – or ally – in Colombia. “In April, the city of Santa Marta on the country’s Caribbean coast will host the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels. This initiative has been spearheaded by Colombia and the Netherlands. It remains to be seen what the conference will achieve, and how any potential agreement there could interact with COP30’s own roadmap.”

Corrêa do Lago noted that the event’s originally proposed language of “phasing out” fossil fuels has been dropped in favour of “transitioning away” – a form of wordplay that has shaped COP negotiations, too.

“It’s not us against them,” he added. “It will be very interesting to see what happens with Santa Marta. They are parallel processes. They are complementary, but they are parallel.”

Looking ahead, Corrêa do Lago said he is optimistic this stronger focus on implementation and action will endure.

“We have talked a lot with Türkiye and Australia, and one of the things that they have already incorporated – and that I think is very important – is this new structure of the action agenda, based on implementation,” he said. “The fact is that, if we have little time, we should explore all those solutions as much as possible.”

	IN the NEWS: MARCH 20th, 2026 to MARCH 26th, 2026
Friday, March 20, 2026 Dow: 45,577.47	It’s the first day of Spring, but breakers breaking towards vacation destinations are finding themselves, as the title suggests, broken... as a consequence of the war and the shutdown. Travel by road is bad enough but, at least, viable. Just expensive. Oil tops $100/barrel while regular gas at the pump crawls upwards towards $4.00/gallon (higher in traditionally expensive places, like California). President Trump, juggling Iran, the ICE migrant crisis, and the plan to issue a gold coin with his face on it is conflicted – calling NATO “cowards” while trying to restrain Israel’s gonzo PM Bibi from bombing Iran’s cities, infrastructure, oil fields and refineries (which would burn off supplies and raise prices and turn the people’s anger away from the regime and back towards the West). Thousands of Marines deployed, but are just waiting for orders to invade and Djonald IrReligious brushes off Pope Leo’s ceasefire prayers. As bad as the roads are, the airports are far worse. Lines to get past increasingly fewer, now unpaid, TSA screeners snake out into the streets; ATCs (paid, but exhausted) juggle increasingly chaotic air traffic. The weather isn’t helping – record heat bakes the Southwest, winter hangs on in the East and water that might relieve droughts is going to Hawaii, where downpours of a foot a day wash away whole villages. Protests fizzle as 95 year old UFW’s Dolores Huerta reveals that iconic Cesar Chavez was a serial rapist, but “the movement needed her silence.” The 60’s are over! A Latino reporter compares Chavez to Jeffrey Epstein (files still dribbling out) and says “we should not give men so much power.”
Saturday, March 21, 2026 Dow: Closed	Amidst the war, the weather, the shutdown and rank partisanship, Congress exerts pressure for privilege and flies out of Washington for a two week Easter vacation, leaving America in the lurch (not under the bus, public and public school transit is increasingly iffy not only because of gas prices, but low-paid, frequently abused drivers are quitting en masse. To ensure no shutdown settlement, Trump adds a new condition for the “radical left Democrats” – support his passport-required SAVE election reforms to disenfranchise many poor and rural voters but also women who get married and change their names. No luck at sea after allegations of rape on cruise ships while, in the air... on the ground, rather, long lines persist at airports despite ICE More Marines sent to staging areas for Iran as “standby” troops (meaning they’re just standing around) but President Trump boasts “we’re roaming around.” But even Republicans are (privately) outraged when he celebrates the death of former FBI director Robert Mueller, saying: “Good! I’m glad he’s dead.” It’s National Women in Agriculture Day, but American farmers of any gender are besieged by weather, by gumment subsidy cuts and ICE deporting some of their cheap laborers., so prices at the grocers’ are keeping up with those at the pump. Doomscrollers warn that Easter chocolate prices are soaring while fried rice at Trader Joe’s is recalled for extra ingredient: glass.
Sunday, March 22, 2026 Dow: Closed	TACO time forIran as President Trump extends Monday’s surrender deadlint to Friday. Israel, hoever, continues the war and kills Ismail Ahmadi while Iran bombs more holy sites in Jerusalem. It’s Talkshow Sunday and, for the Administration, TranSec Sean Duffy says Democrats are “attacking” airport passengers and must surrender – adding that Biden let in people “who only want to hurt us.” He defends Trump’s claim Hormuz will be reopened soon, meanwhile it’s “drill baby drill” while TSAgents reply that their pay cannot cover food and rents in the big cities. The press says that “they’re thinking for today, not tomorrow.” Sen. Thom Tillis, renegade Republican, says he personally likes Djon NonNegotiable, but the President has been “surrounded by sycophants and cowards,” naming Noem and Stephen Miller. Calls Venezuela a success, Greenland a failure and Iran “still ambiguous”; says the Prez can’t pull us out of NATO unilaterally but can “poison the well”. Aong ABC Roundtablers, former Gov. Christie says that Trump’s “America First” policy will mean “America Alone”, liberal Brazile cites chaotic Iran strategy, SCOTUS blogger Sara Isgur says neo-Nazi liberal Joe Kent shoulc never have been confirmed and WashPost’s Maryann Sotomayor believes the Senate will not approve $200B more for the war and all agree the Mueller crack was disgusting. “Face the Nation’s” Jason Crow (D-Co) says Dems would finance everything but ICE so the shutdown is the Republicans’ fault while nuclear expert Rafael Grassi says the only wy to de-nuke Iran is nuclear war.
Monday, March 23, 2026 Dow: 46,946.34	It’s the twentieth anniversary of Hannah Montana and, while Montana is OK, Hawaii continues drowning under the bomb cyclone or, perhaps, pineapple express. Actor Jason Momoa appeals to public for help and, while there is no flooding nor snow in the East (except Maine) the drought is raising the pollen count and, so, the yellow dust. LaGuardia’s ATC admits he messed up on allowing a Canada flight and American firetruck to occupy the same runway, leading to the crash which killed two pilots and injured 40 passengers that airport suits call “a situation”. Across the river, the ATC control in Neward burns as stranded Spring Breakers wait and snarl. Woman assaulted by Bill Cosby in 1972 wins a settlement... 54 years in coming but, at $56M, a whopper of comfort now that she’s almost too old to enjoy it. Unluckier female is killed by Jose Medina – Medina... an illegal immigrant from Venezuela - who’ll become the face of the midterms.
Tuesday, March 24, 2026 Dow: 46,124.06	The conflict goes on with President Trump, visiting Graceland, saying the talks with Iran are going well – Iranians say he is lying so as to jiggle the price of oil to benefit wealthy stock market gamblers. He also promises a “deal” on Shutdown 3.0 as TSA lines in over a dozen airports stretch out up to six, maybe nine hours. “This war has been won,” he says, but without Iranian support. Pakistan offers to mediate between US and Iran, but Israel and Saudi want to finish the job so that angry Iran can’t lurk and wait, then strike back. Both are fighting to correct old grievances. New lines in airports all across America result in some passengers arriving seven hours early – and still missing their flights. As to safety, investigators at La Guardia discovered that the firetruck did not have a required transponder. META fined $375M by New Mexico – Zuckerberg testifies w/o effect. Appeals will take years, but there are more moves to even place warning labels – like they put on cigarettes. Plenty of fire, too, slowly spreading east. Colorado’s “24 fire” called “24% contained” while, as to money and the law, SecState Marco rats out his old roommate David Rivera as a Venezuelan spy.
Wednesday, March 25, 2026 Dow: 46,429.49	Off to court go the President and his friends in Congress who propose to ban mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, even if mailed before (this, with the USPS admitting their shortage of staffing is causing the mail to arrive later and later and later). The argument is to crack down on immigrants but Republicans seem unaware that those most impacted will be military serving overseas. No deal. This and other factors are dempening military recruitment, so the maximum enlistment age will be raised from 35 to 42 years old. And teenagers with convictions for possession of marijuana can also be allowed into the Army to go to Iran and kill people – because... ... there’s no deal either on Trump’s nebulous Fifteen Point Plan – rejected by Iran, determined to fight on to the end. Even MAGAmisses like Sen. Joni “Make them Squeal” Ernst, leery of invasion plans that would turn the people back to the regime and against America. More legislation and litigation as lefties AOC and The Bern introduce a bill to slow or stop AI development in order to analyze effects on the environment and economy. The money is changing hands, CBS alleges, despite MAGAnization, that some of the ifs and whens of the war are being driven by insider trading on oil and stock futures. Influencers prepare happy videos for Trump to watch while the METAfine is followed up by a $6M award to a 20 year old who claimed social media made her “depressed”.
Thursday, March 26, 2026 Dow: 45,960.11	President Trump says that, despite Iranian denials, talks are going on between his negotiators... son-in-law Jared and Steve Witkoff... and an Iranian mystery mullah (alleged to be Q ) Trump also claims that Iran gave him a great big beautiful “gift” but won’t say what it is... inevitably leakers leak and speakers speak. Surprise: it’s oil! But the war goes on... Israel now says it will conquer, occupy and, presumably, ethnic and religious cleanse it. Including the Maronite Christians? Stay tuned... Late Thursday night, a vague but welcome (to the workers) TACO on the partisan standoff preventing TSAgents at airports from being paid seems in the works with an EO to new DHS Mullen, hopefully settle tomorrow before Congress runs off for two weeks’ more paid vacation. Early morning Seth Myers show shows ICE agents just walking around... but, at least, unmasked. The legal cauldron boiling over as Aniah Blanchard killer convicted, but escapes death penalty, school shooters get five years or less for murder, trials underway for woman who shot into Rihanna’s house, the demented doctor who tried to kill his wife in Hawaii, deposed Maduro drug trial, old favorites Mangione, big payouts for whiny social media “victims” and the DOJ pays Michael Flynn a 1.2 settlement fee for his hurt feelings over “malicious prosecution”. Sports is springing as MLB season begins. Aaron Judge strikes out four times, but the Yankees shut out San Francisco 7-0. March madness... men’s and women’s... under way and NBA regular season winds up with playoffs next.
The Dow goes down and down as Shutdown 3.0, the war and closure of the Straits of Hormuz batter the economies of the world. Partisan posturing apparently denies any resolution short of apocalypse. At least the weather seems likely to be pleasant, in most places, and until the summer cranks up.

THE DON JONES INDEX

CHART of CATEGORIES w/VALUE ADDED to EQUAL BASELINE of 15,000

(REFLECTING… approximately… DOW JONES INDEX of June 27, 2013)

Gains in indices as improved are noted in GREEN. Negative/harmful indices in RED as are their designation. (Note – some of the indices where the total went up created a realm where their value went down... and vice versa.) See a further explanation of categories HERE

ECONOMIC INDICES		(60%)
CATEGORY	VALUE	BASE	RESULTS by PERCENTAGE			SCORE		OUR SOURCES and COMMENTS
INCOME	(24%)	6/17/13 revised 1/1/22	LAST	CHANGE	NEXT	LAST WEEK	THIS WEEK	THE WEEK’S CLOSING STATS...
Wages (hrly. Per cap)	9%	1350 points	12/11/25	+0.40%	4/26	1,886.07	1,893.61	https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/average-hourly-earnings 37.32
Median Inc. (yearly)	4%	600	3/20/26	+0.06%	4/3/26	1,119.48	1,120.11	http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 51,857
Unempl. (BLS – in mi)	4%	600	3/20/26	+2.23%	4/26	530.27	530.27	http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000/  4.4
Official (DC – in mi)	2%	300	3/20/26	+0.12%	4/3/26	205.32	205.07	http://www.usdebtclock.org/    7,642
Unofficl. (DC – in mi)	2%	300	3/20/26	+0.19%	4/3/26	240.99	240.53	http://www.usdebtclock.org/    14,281
Workforce Participation Number Percent	2%	300	3/20/26	+0.025% -0.019%	4/3/26	295.95	295.89	http://www.usdebtclock.org/    In 162,741 Out 105,038 Total: 267,787 60.773
WP % (ycharts)*	1%	150	3/20/26	-0.8%	4/26	149.98	149.98	https://ycharts.com/indicators/labor_force_participation_rate 62.00
OUTGO	(15%)
Total Inflation	7%	1050	3/20/26	+0.3%	4/26	920.05	920.05	http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm     +0.3
Food	2%	300	3/20/26	+0.4%	4/26	259.19	259.19	http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm     +0.4
Gasoline	2%	300	3/20/26	+0.8%	4/26	262.47	262.47	http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm    +0.8
Medical Costs	2%	300	3/20/26	+0.6%	4/26	270.91	270.91	http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm     +0.6
Shelter	2%	300	3/20/26	+0.2%	4/26	239.10	239.10	http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm     +0.2
WEALTH
Dow Jones Index	2%	300	3/20/26	-0.13%	4/3/26	354.64	354.17	https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/index/ 45,960.11
Home (Sales) (Valuation)	1% 1%	150 150	3/20/26	-5.98% -1.58%	4/3/26	133.12 260.67	133.12 260.67	https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics Sales (M):  4.09 Valuations (K):  398.0
Millionaires (New Category)	1%	150	3/20/26	+0.05%	4/3/26	136.68	136.75	http://www.usdebtclock.org/    24,122
Paupers (New Category)	1%	150	3/20/26	+0.03%	4/3/26	135.30	135.26	http://www.usdebtclock.org/    36,794
GOVERNMENT	(10%)
Revenue (trilns.)	2%	300	3/20/26	+0.13%	4/3/26	471.35	471.96	http://www.usdebtclock.org/    5,411
Expenditures (tr.)	2%	300	3/20/26	+0.04%	4/3/26	292.49	292.37	http://www.usdebtclock.org/    7,100
National Debt tr.)	3%	450	3/20/26	+0.074%	4/3/26	347.75	347.49	http://www.usdebtclock.org/    39,039
Aggregate Debt (tr.)	3%	450	3/20/26	+0.092%	4/3/26	371.79	371.45	http://www.usdebtclock.org/    107,181
TRADE	(5%)
Foreign Debt (tr.)	2%	300	3/20/26	-0.14%	4/3/26	255.38	255.03	http://www.usdebtclock.org/    9,425
Exports (in billions)	1%	150	3/20/26	+5.15%	4/26	188.01	188.01	https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/current/index.html 302.1
Imports (in billions))	1%	150	3/20/26	-0.28%	4/26	144.67	144.67	https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/current/index.html 356.6
Trade Surplus/Deficit (blns.)	1%	150	3/20/26	+28.99%	4/26	260.20	260.20	https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/current/index.html 54.5
ACTS of MAN	(12%)
World Affairs	3%	450	3/20/26	+0.1%	4/3/26	468.67	469.14	Police in Barcelona divided over cause of death of American tourist, Belgium is trying a 93-year-old former diplomat for 1961’s assassination of Congo’s first democratically elected leader.  Pakistani/Afghan war continues. The government of Cameroon makes a deal with the Trump administration to accept hundreds of deportees. Critical elections in France, Slovenia.
War and terrorism	2%	300	3/20/26	-0.2%	4/3/26	283.45	282.88	Domestic terrorist in Missouri drenches Barbies in fentanyl. London anti-Semites set Jewish ambulances on fire, four arrested. Illegal immigrant “Jesus” slits woman’s throats in Utah and will become the face to hate in November midterms, where...
Politics	3%	450	3/20/26	+0.1%	4/3/26	454.73	455.18	... polls show Trump approval down to 36% and Democrat wins upset in Mar-a-Lago Congressional race. Markwayne Mullen confirmed to replace Kristi Noem at DHS. Partisans say that Save America passage or failure will decide elections for the next 50 years but even Repubs condemn Trump death gloat over former FBI Chief Mueller. As Shutdown 3.0 continues...
Economics	3%	450	3/20/26	+0.2%	4/3/26	427.06	427.91	... Elon Musk volunteers to pay TSA salaries. Nexstar merges with competitor Tegna. Disney cancels video app Sora. META to replace 700 workers with... AI! Epic Games to cut 1,000 jobs. Influencers say nannies to the rich and famous can reap $100 to $150,000/yr. Easter candy chocolate prices up 12%. But real eggs cheaper.
Crime	1%	150	3/20/26	-0.2%	4/3/26	205.40	204.99	Barbie dolls in Missouri drenched in Fentanyl to kill children. Fat girl in Florida arrested for plotting to shoot up school to memorialize killer Aden Hale; quadruple amputee cornhole champ accused of murder in Virginia. Savanna Guthrie in tearful plea for Mom.
ACTS of GOD	(6%)
Environment/Weather	3%	450	3/20/26	-0.1%	4/3/26	279.14	278.86	Spring brings sharks, one attacks a surfer in California. Colorado’s “24” fire now 24% contained as record heat moves East., but Phoenix still hits 100° or tenth straight day, while flooding continues, on a lesser intensity, in Hawaii.
Disasters	3%	450	3/20/26	-0.1%	4/3/26	464.94	464.48	66 killed in Colombia plane crash. Suits call LaGuardia crash between Air Canada and firetruck “a situation”. Explosion and fire at Valero refinery in Port Arthur, TX. NASA says San Francisco is “sinking rapidly”.
LIFESTYLE/JUSTICE INDEX		(15%)
Science, Tech, Education	4%	600	3/20/26	+0.1%	4/3/26	616.13	616.75	Horror novel “Shy Girl” “by” Mia Ballard cancelled by publisher for being 78% AI. AI replacing personal trainers (but do they sell data to insurers and employers)? Melania invites a robot to the White house while robot dogs patrols being used to fight crime with AI; woman locked up in North Dakota due to defective facial recognition software. NASA’s round-the-moon Artemis rescheduled to... April 1^st and execs plan a base on the moon. Soon.
Equality (econ/social)	4%	600	3/20/26	+0.1%	4/3/26	666.34	667.01	Harvard sued for colluding with neo-Nazis... smart Nazis... on DEI, Robot umpires take over on opening day. Sara Malawi named first Archbishop of Canterbury.
Health	4%	600	3/20/26	-0.1%	4/3/26	414.63	414.22	Researchers at Pfizer developing vaccine for Lyme Disease. Children’s liquid Ibuprofin recalled for “black particles”. Fried rice from Trader Joe’s recalled for shards of glass. “Cicada” COVID vaccine spreading.
Freedom and Justice	3%	450	3/20/26	+0.1%	4/3/26	480.63	481.12	Bill Cosby sex crimes in 1972 finally settled. Families protest plea deal to would release five mass murderers in Alexander Alabama in five years. Social media hit with massive payouts to child gamethings addicted to or depressed by their devices. “Don’t blame the parents,” they whine (but WE do!). Former rassler Ted diBiase acquitted in welfare scam.
CULTURAL and MISCELLANEOUS INCIDENTS			(6%)
Cultural incidents	3%	450	3/20/26	+0.3%	4/3/26	584.89	586.64	Big post-KPOP comeback from BTS after four years, bigger comeback from Barry Manilow, biggest from Celine Dion – back to performing in Paris. JFK Jr. “Love Story” series ends (w/o surprise). Megan Thee Stallion makes Broadway debut in “Moulin Rouge”. Big $140M B.O. for”Project Hail Mary”. MLB season opens, March Madness underway, Lebron James passes Robert Parish for most NBA games played, Travis Kelce to go back to K.C. for one more year as QB Mahomes recovering from injury. RIP: former FBI director Robert Mueller, Chuck “Walker” Norris, “Superman” actress Valerie Perrine, actors Mel Schilling “Marriage at First Sight”, Nicholas Breedon (“Buffy”), singer Dash Crofts w/ Seals), songwriter Chip Taylpr (“Wild Thing”) and Charlie Kirk influencer Jeff Webb (in a pickleball accident!).
Miscellaneous incidents	4%	450	3/20/26	+0.3%	4/3/26	549.55	551.20	Truckload of dogs escapes thieves, form a pack and walk back home along freeway. 300 dogs and cats rescued from California hoarder. Gumment promises new home for world traveler KAG... Liberia! Trending trend is “nothingmaxxing” (ie laziness). Janitor at Yale gets medical degree. Spring brings meteor showers; influencers say “find a dark place, look up and watch the skies.”
Wall Street is coming off a winning session, with the Dow on track for a winning week, even in the face of the contradictory statements made by the U.S. and Iran regarding peace talks between the two sides. “It is a complacent market, and by that I mean investors are just inherently optimistic and willing to absorb bad news,” Jed Ellerbroek, portfolio manager at Argent Capital Management, said to CNBC. “The market wants to go up.”

The Don Jones Index for the week of March 20^th through March 26^th, 2026 was UP 13.45 points

The Don Jones Index is sponsored by the Coalition for a New Consensus: retired Congressman and Independent Presidential candidate Jack “Catfish” Parnell, Chairman; Brian Doohan, Administrator. The CNC denies, emphatically, allegations that the organization, as well as any of its officers (including former Congressman Parnell, environmentalist/America-Firster Austin Tillerman and cosmetics CEO Rayna Finch) and references to Parnell’s works, “Entropy and Renaissance” and “The Coming Kill-Off” are fictitious or, at best, mere pawns in the web-serial “Black Helicopters” – and promise swift, effective legal action againth parties promulgating this and/or other such slanders.

Comments, complaints, donations (especially SUPERPAC donations) always welcome at feedme@generisis.com or: speak@donjonesindex.com.

ATTACHMENT ONE – FROM USA TODAY

IS TODAY THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING? WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE EQUINOX.

By Melina Khan March 19, 2026 Updated March 20, 2026, 12:05 p.m. ET

Spring officially begins on March20,2026 at 10:46a.m.ET with the spring equinox, marking equal day and night and bringing a shift in weather patterns across the U.S., where the Northeast is expected to stay cooler into April while the West continues to experience heat and drought.

After a brutal winter for much of the country, spring is finally in the air.

Spring officially begins on Friday, March 20, at 10:46 a.m. ET, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory.

It marks the spring equinox, or the astronomical start to spring. The spring equinox occurs when the Earth's axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun, resulting in equal daylight during the day and darkness at night.

This year, the start of spring caps off winter weather that impacted parts of the country in vastly different ways. In the Northeast, frigid cold temperatures and massive snowstorms struck over the last two months. But out West, scorching high temperatures have been feeding a drought.

Despite the weather whiplash many Americans faced, meteorologists reported that winter across the country was overwhelmingly warm.

With the official start of spring nearly here, forecasters are projecting lingering cold temperatures in the East through the beginning of April. In the western half of the country, prolonged heat is still expected.

Here's what to know about the spring equinox.

What is the spring equinox?

Twice a year, Earth's axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun. The first time it happens, in March, is the spring equinox. The other, which falls in September, is the autumn equinox.

The sun shines precisely over the equator during the equinox, so everywhere on Earth will experience almost exactly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of nighttime as a result.

The equal day and night hours are caused by a refraction of sunlight that makes the sun appear above the horizon while the actual position of the sun is below the horizon, according to the National Weather Service.

Until the summer solstice takes place on June 21, the amount of daylight will keep growing every day.

A2X19 X19 FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES

SPRING IS BACK. BUT IT HAS A BIT OF AN IMAGE PROBLEM.

A season celebrated by Shakespeare and the Beatles now ranks behind fall in popularity. After a harsh winter, can it regain its former glory?

By Steven Kurutz Published March 20, 2026 Updated March 22, 2026

For the last several years, autumn has been the star season, its popularity helped along by social media videos of influencers in cozy knitwear against backdrops of gaudy foliage. More than a calendric event, fall has become an aesthetic, a lifestyle, a vibe, complete with its own TV show (comforting “Gilmore Girls” reruns), soundtrack (“Stick Season” by Noah Kahan) and flavor (pumpkin spice).

Spring, by contrast, can seem so muddy and disappointing. It is seen as a time of wildly fluctuating temperatures and pollen-induced sneezing fits. Recent surveys of Americans’ seasonal preferences place it a distant second or even third to autumn, the runaway winner.

But now, as crocuses and snowdrops pop up from the ground after months of bitter weather across much of the United States, there are signs that spring may be primed for a cultural comeback.

An online influencer with the handle sofiaxmarie was one of many who recently posted in praise of spring, which began at 10:46 a.m. on Friday. To the strains of an acoustic guitar, her TikTok video included images of cherry blossoms, tulips, a puppy, a bunny, geese, horses in green pastures, an iced matcha latte and herself strolling through a park sans overcoat.

“I am so ready,” she wrote.

That sort of sentiment used to be a given. Spring was a special favorite of poets and musicians, who were moved by the lush reawakening of the natural world to express their feelings of love and wonderment in verse and song.

Christopher R. Miller, a professor of English at the College of Staten Island of the City University of New York, said that spring’s fleetingness — its “brief golden glow,” in his words — was long a source of inspiration to great artists. He cited Robert Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” in which the poet bemoans spring’s evanescence, likening it to Eden.

“These blooms are only going to be here a short time,” Professor Miller said. “You can see spring as a transitional threshold period, where its changes are so visible — and so ephemeral.”

In a less melancholy vein, Chaucer invoked the “sweet breath” of April’s winds in “The Canterbury Tales.” William Shakespeare struck a similar note in Sonnet 98, marveling at the way springtime “hath put a spirit of youth in everything.”

More than three centuries later, the Beatles captured the upswelling in mood brought on by warm weather in “Here Comes the Sun.” Over bright chords, the song, written and sung by George Harrison, bids adieu to “a long, cold, lonely winter” and notes the “the smiles returning to the faces.”

Mr. Harrison composed “Here Comes the Sun” on a lovely April day in 1969, after having ditched an unpleasant band meeting not long before the Beatles’ breakup. “It was like slagging off school,” he later reflected. “I went to a friend’s house in the country, and it was just sunny and it was all just the release of the tension that had been building up on me.”

The song captured the hopeful, back-to-nature ethos soon to be replaced by pragmatism and skepticism. As the cultural mood shifted, climate change seemed to compress spring and “supercharge” allergens while lengthening fall’s annual reign. With the advent of social media, autumn was all too ready to lend itself to hashtags and hot beverages, its golden hues seemingly custom-made for Instagram.

Carol Connare, the editor of The Old Farmer’s Almanac, which has been publishing since 1792, embraced the arrival of warm weather on a recent day by going on a hike with a co-worker near the company’s office in Dublin, N.H.

“We did it today because it’s in the 60s,” Ms. Connare said, speaking by phone. “The beautiful warm wind and feeling that thermal air is amazing.”

“Sometimes old farmers would light fires in the spring, take out the dead wood,” she continued. “When you read the old almanacs, spring was such an important time. It’s always: ‘Are you ready? Have your tools cleaned!’ All these things need to be done because, before you know it, we’re in the field.” To x06

Is there a chance that people might once again welcome spring with the enthusiasm they now reserve for fall? Enter: Jamie Falkowski, the chief creative officer at Day One Agency, a marketing agency in New York. If spring were his client, I asked him, what would he do to improve its image?

Mr. Falkowski emphasized that a successful campaign would account for the negatives associated with the season — Tax Day; mud; allergies; the sense that one minute you’re shivering in a puffer coat and the next you’re cursing the heat and humidity. Once that was dealt with, he would try to spin spring’s brevity and unpredictability into a positive.

“The line I would try to build around is: ‘Don’t Sleep on Spring,’” Mr. Falkowski said. “We’d try to build a full 360 campaign. I’d try to find a creative who could capture the essence of the season really well.”

“I really like the imagery of Harley Weir,” he continued. “She’s a photographer out of the U.K. She’s done work for Vogue, McQueen. She really captures the dreamlike quality of spring. I’d want to bring in someone to build out the dream message: ‘Hey, this season is short — don’t sleep on it!’”

He suggested that social media stars could be given a brief: “‘Hey, this is the perfect season to play hooky. All I want you to do is blow off your normal day and show how you’re taking advantage of the season.’ Tap a bunch of interesting creators to tell those stories.”

“I don’t think spring needs a total rebranding,” he added. “I just think it needs a wake-up call. Spring is our wake-up call as people. To go out there and live life again. That’s what I would try to bring to life creatively.”

He was asked to name his favorite season.

“If my client is spring,” Mr. Falkowski said, “I’m going to say spring.”

A3X01 X01 FROM TELEGRAPH UK

SPRING IN YOUR STEP

Every weekday, Orlando Bird, our loyal reader correspondent, shares an off-piste topic that has brought out the best of your opinions and stories.

Orlando writes...
Well, the weather may have been teasing us over the weekend, but the signs are still unmistakable: spring is advancing. There’s a freshness in the air, the cherry tree in my garden is luminous with blossom, and on Saturday I was upbraided by a friend for looking inappropriately “autumnal” (it takes a lot to part me from my heavy wool jumper).

With the longer and occasionally even warmer days comes the prospect of more ambitious walks, as opposed to the token stroll quickly abandoned for the pub. With that in mind, The Telegraph has compiled a list of the best, from Edinburgh to the Gower Peninsula.

Readers have offered their own suggestions. Tim Madden wrote: “The best bluebell walk in Britain is the unlikely environs of Coombe Wood, which is part of the Langdon Hills nature reserve in Essex. Hundreds of acres of public footways across fields and through woods, all the way down to the Plotlands reserve, and within 15 minutes of Laindon station. Essex’s best kept secret.”

---

Pete Barker added: “My vote goes to Skomer Island off the Pembrokeshire coast. In May, the fields are awash with bluebells, and the Atlantic Puffins are arriving for their annual breeding season.”

---

I’ve been in many noted puffin hotspots – Lundy, the Faroe Islands, the Scilly Isles – at this time of year, but am yet to see a single one. Perhaps a trip to Wales is in order.

---

John Langdale had another tip: “For a much shorter but still very beautiful walk, I recommend the ‘daffodil valley’ in the Valley Garden at Virginia Water, which helps me shake off the ‘winter blues’.”

---

Chris Hayes didn’t object to the inclusion of Seven Sisters, but did have a word of warning for walkers: “The last couple of times I’ve visited there’s been zero visibility in some places. I felt sorry for the tourists hanging around Birling Gap, where the view was obscured by low cloud.”

What’s your favourite springtime walk? Send your responses here and the best of the bunch will feature in a future edition of From the Editor PM, to which you can sign up here.

A4 X26 X26 FROM YAHOO/FOX

SPRING BREAK HOT SPOTS TURN LAWLESS AS FIGHTS ERUPT, DRUGS FLOW AND DOZENS ARRESTED IN SWEEPING CRACKDOWNS

Julia Bonavita Mon, March 23, 2026 at 3:24 PM EDT

Dozens of spring breakers were arrested in Fort Lauderdale and Daytona Beach over the weekend, with a total of 47 arrests in Fort Lauderdale and 75 beachside arrests in Daytona Beach.

Dozens of spring breakers across two popular beach destinations ended up in handcuffs over the weekend as authorities continue to crack down on the mayhem wreaking havoc up and down the Sunshine State’s shores.

Fort Lauderdale logged nine arrests related to spring break over the weekend, bringing the total number of arrests for the season to 47, a police department spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital.

Officials with the Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco also issued 12 new notices to appear to spring breakers, resulting in a total of 29 notices being handed out since the season began.

The arrests vary in severity from trespassing and open container charges to assault and battery, according to data provided by the department.

Miami Beach Loosens Spring Break Restrictions, Aims To Draw Calmer Crowds

Several hours up the coast, authorities in Daytona Beach conducted a total of 75 beachside arrests, including 12 felony arrests and 15 arrests related to narcotics, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office told Fox News Digital.

The decline in arrests comes as both spring break destinations are cracking down on rowdy college students after videos from both locations showed chaotic scenes and violence plaguing the sandy shores.

Last week, the City of Daytona Beach declared a state of emergency stemming from authorities making over 100 arrests, according to FOX 35.

Most Searched Us Spring Break Destinations For This Year, With Some Surprises

"Daytona Beach should no longer position itself as a spring break destination," Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young said.

"It is not a decision against tourism, but a decision against unsanctioned high-risk activity that strains resources, disrupts our community and places unnecessary demands on public safety personnel."

The move came after several unauthorized beach "takeover events" organized on social media wreaked havoc on the spring break hot spot.

"We’re focusing on that core area with the kids that are out there underage drinking, smoking weed, all that stuff, so that we have tools to be able to get them off the street," Young added.

The event led to 133 arrests throughout Volusia County, including 84 in Daytona Beach and 49 in New Smyrna Beach.

Additionally, a video of thousands of bathing suit-clad spring breakers frantically fleeing from the beach after hearing what was believed to be gunshots went viral last weekend, though authorities have since revealed the noise was actually made by water bottles being crushed.

The incident unfolded during a takeover event hosted online, with officials now vowing to prosecute anyone who organizes an unsanctioned gathering in the area.

"We're going to be the first county — and my attorneys are working on it now — we are coming after you financially," Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said in a news conference earlier this week, according to FOX 35.

"And if I could come after you criminally, I would. So, don't sit behind a keyboard in Georgia or Orlando or wherever and think you're going to do these truck events and these takeover events, because it's not going to happen. There is a way to do business. Get permits and do things the right way."

In Fort Lauderdale, video obtained by the New York Post shows the moment a group of college students began pummeling a man around 3 a.m. outside Dicey Riley’s Irish Pub in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday.

The clip shows roughly half a dozen spring breakers kicking the unidentified man as he falls to the ground. The group then continues to pummel the man as a group of witnesses look on.

However, the individual later appeared to recover from the fight and left the area before authorities could speak with him, FLPD said.

Both cities have since implemented curfews for individuals under the age of 18 in an attempt to calm the chaos as officials are pointing to a strain on local resources.

"It’s not like these folks RSVP," Young said, according to FOX 35. "So it’s somewhat of a guessing game as to how many people are actually showing up, and we do our best to make sure we have resources out there, but truth be told, with the amount of people that were in town this weekend, I literally have, have about 222 sworn officers."

Original article source: Spring break hot spots turn lawless as fights erupt, drugs flow and dozens arrested in sweeping crackdowns

A5X22 FROM FOX WEATHER

RECORD SARGASSUM LEVELS IMPACTING FLORIDA BEACHES DURING SPRING BREAK

While the rotten-egg stench is more than enough to ruin a beach day, sargassum plays an important role in the health and biodiversity of open ocean ecosystems.

By Kieran Sullivan 

Dr. Tracy Fanara, founder of Inspector Planet, joined FOX Weather to break down a range of environmental threats facing Florida during one of the busiest times of the year. From massive sargassum blooms to reports of dead dolphins and so-called

If you thought sarcasm was annoying, just wait until you smell sargassum. 

As millions of spring breakers flock to Florida in search of scenic beaches, warm weather and the trademark blue ocean waters – they are being met with an unpleasant surprise. 

Sargassum is a naturally occurring brown seaweed that floats in large masses across the ocean, renowned for its trademark vacation-ruining odor that coats the shores of numerous popular U.S. beaches along the East Coast, and just in time for spring break, it's back.

An estimated 9.5 million tons of sargassum is beginning to make landfall in the Western Atlantic, Caribbean, Mexico, southern Texas

 and in South Florida, according to environmental engineer Tracy Fanara.

While the rotten-egg stench is more than enough to ruin a beach day, sargassum plays an important role in the health and biodiversity of open ocean ecosystems, according to NOAA.

In natural amounts, sargassum provides habitat, food, protection, and breeding grounds for hundreds of diverse marine species. It supports commercially important fish such as tuna and swordfish, which feed on the smaller organisms living within sargassum mats, while also helping reduce beach erosion.

When high winds and ocean currents bring piles of sargassum ashore, the harmful algal bloom can adversely impact coastal ecosystems, tourism and public health.

Massive amounts of sargassum can form brown tides' nearshore, adversely impacting plants and animals, including coral reefs.

According to NOAA, sargassum contains high levels of arsenic and other heavy metals, organic contaminants and marine debris that could be harmful to humans. 

Once beached, sargassum produces hydrogen sulfide as it decomposes, releasing a potent rotten egg smell that can cause headaches and respiratory irritation, among other health impacts.

For some beaches, once the deterring algae makes landfall, the only solution to the stinky problem is cleaning it up.

The options for cleaning up sargassum are limited and costly. Municipalities that are plagued by the seaweed are often forced to use heavy machinery and specialized beach rakes to remove big piles from the shore. 

In areas where machinery access is limited, on smaller or environmentally sensitive beaches, crews of workers manually gather the algae using hand tools and wheelbarrows.

HERE'S WHY PEOPLE IN THE SUNSHINE STATE NEED TO BE ON ALERT DURING ALLIGATOR MATING SEASON

Another tactic includes blocking off the beachfront by deploying containment booms or barriers just off the beach, which, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, "have been used with mixed results."

Historically, most sargassum was confined to the Sargasso Sea in the western North Atlantic, according to NOAA. In 2011, its range expanded, and a new population—fueled by shifting wind patterns—began thriving in the open ocean.

Since 2011, sargassum has been a recurring problem in the Caribbean Sea, in the Gulf of America and the tropical Atlantic, with inundation events causing significant economic, environmental and public health harms.

Over the past 15 years, as sargassum has become a common presence on some of Florida’s most popular beaches, various solutions have been attempted, including daily maintenance efforts.

On a daily basis along 17 miles of beaches in Miami-Dade County, county employees drive tractors with rear-mounted blades along the shoreline at the high tide mark to mix and blend the sargassum. This daily maintenance takes place along beaches from Government Cut to the Broward County line, and at Crandon Park beach.

In addition, at four state-approved "hot spot" locations that frequently experience heavy Sargassum buildup, a Miami-Dade County vendor removes Sargassum with specialized tractors that utilize barber rakes.

In areas hit the hardest by massive sargassum mats, the effort to keep beaches clean and suitable for tourists and beachgoers is an ongoing, labor-intensive challenge that demands constant attention.

A6 X20 FROM US NEWS

CAN ICE SAVE SPRING BREAK?

The federal government has been partially shut down since the end of January. Over the weekend, it directly affected millions of Americans forced to navigate airport security lines that sometimes stretched from inside the terminal to parking garages.

Could federal immigration officers – the agents at the center of controversies about what critics call abusive immigration enforcement – be a solution? President Donald Trump seems to think so.

With spring break season in full swing, Trump announced over the weekend that he is sending Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to ease air travelers’ pain. The move comes not quite two months after disputes over immigration resulted in a partial government shutdown that has left Transportation Security Administration agents working without pay for weeks.

“ICE will be going to airports to help our wonderful TSA Agents,” Trump said in an early Sunday post.

Here’s what that could look like, and how we got here.

HOW WILL ICE HELP AT AIRPORTS?

ICE agents won’t necessarily be doing specialized jobs traditionally managed by TSA, like screening passengers and luggage, border czar Tom Homan told CNN on Sunday. Instead, they’ll do other jobs to free up TSA agents.

They can replace TSA to guard exits, for example, freeing those agents to reinforce the screening process, Homan said.

“We're simply there to help TSA do their job in areas that don't need their specialized expertise, such as screening through the X-ray machine. Not trained in that. We won't do that,” Homan explained.

The border czar said he was working with the heads of ICE and TSA to work out exactly what the mission would be and at what airports. The priority will be “the large airports where there's a long wait, like three hours,” he said.

While Trump announced the ICE deployment over the weekend, it wasn’t clear how many agents would actually go, or where, and what their exact jobs would be. In short: It may look like federal action, but the actual impact is unclear.

The Washington Post quoted Joe Shuker, a regional vice president of American Federation of Government Employees Council 100, which represents TSA employees, as saying “it doesn’t seem like a lot of help.”

Why? In part because managing exits has required fewer and fewer TSA agents with the adoption of automated doors.

HOW WE GOT HERE

TSA agents are not getting paid during the shutdown, which began Jan. 31. They are increasingly calling in sick, resigning or retiring, straining the airport security apparatus’ ability to handle large numbers of passengers.

Congressional Democrats are demanding changes to immigration enforcement procedures and have blocked funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Transportation Security Administration. Republicans have blocked Democratic efforts to fund non-immigration parts of DHS separately.

Democrats want to legislate changes like requiring ICE agents not to wear face masks, to wear body cameras and to obtain judicial warrants before entering private property. Republicans in Congress have refused.

The result: Extremely long airport checkpoint lines. For weeks, Republicans have encouraged frustrated passengers to blame Democratic intransigence for their travel hassles. But the decision to announce sending ICE suggests the GOP is feeling some of the political sting too.

"Democrats want to see long lines at airports as leverage," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told ABC. "President Trump's trying to take that leverage away and not make the American people suffer."

"I think you're going to see more TSA agents as we come to Thursday, Friday, Saturday of next week, they're going to quit, or they're not going to show up," Duffy said. "I do think it's going to get much worse, and as it gets worse, I think that puts pressure on the Congress to come to a resolution."

So will sending ICE, assuming it happens, make things better for air travelers? Or will the lingering shutdown, coupled with millions of college students and families looking to get away or get back to school, make things worse? We could know within days.

A7 X23 X23 FROM MOTHER JONES

What Exactly Will ICE Do at Airports? No One Seems to Know.

The partial government shutdown and spring break crowds have created a nightmare for travelers—and the GOP.

by Alex Nguyen

Surprise! Just one day before Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are supposed to be deployed to airports around the country to help reduce long lines caused by the partial government shutdown and spring break crowds, the Trump administration appears to have no coherent plan for what they will do. 

Following Donald Trump’s announcement that ICE agents will be sent to airports starting on Monday to fill in for Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees who have been on the job without pay for more than a month, administration officials gave conflicting statements about what exactly this would entail.

Officials at ICE were caught off guard by the president’s directive and have been rushing to create a plan, CBS News reported.

White House border czar Tom Homan, who Trump said would be in charge of the operation, told CNN on Sunday that ICE agents will be assigned to jobs like securing exit gates, allowing trained TSA officers to focus on checkpoints and reducing wait times. 

“I don’t see an ICE agent looking at an X-ray machine because they’re not trained in that,” Homan said. 

But when CNN host Dana Bash asked for confirmation about whether ICE agents would be posted at security screening lines, Homan responded, “Those discussions are going on now.” He said the administration hoped to have a plan “by the end of [Sunday].”

Meanwhile, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy contradicted some of Homan’s statements, telling ABC News that ICE agents could work on airport security lines because they “run those same type of security machines at the Southern border.” 

“We have ICE agents who are trained and can provide assistance to agents,” Duffy said. 

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees TSA as well as ICE, says more than 400 TSA workers have quit since a partial government shutdown starting on February 14 left them working with no pay. On Saturday, almost 12 percent of TSA employees didn’t come to work, the highest rate since the shutdown began, according to ABC News.

The Trump administration blames the government shutdown and TSA shortages on Democrats. As Mother Jones’ Michael Mechanic has pointed out:

Democrats [have] refused to provide more funds until Republicans agree to various reforms related to deployment, training, and management of ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents. . .

Democratic lawmakers also seek to curtail ICE’s rampant use of surveillance technology and ensure the rights of states and lawmakers to investigate alleged human rights abuses at the immigrant detention centers the administration has set up.

But on Saturday, every single Republican voted against the latest Democratic bill to fund the TSA while the negotiations continue over DHS reforms. “This is the seventh time Republicans have blocked pay for TSA,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York posted on Bluesky. “Seven. Times.”

The funding impasse does not directly affect ICE, Mechanic noted, but the shutdown has frozen other DHS activities, including the processing of paychecks for TSA staff, who are considered essential employees.

It remains unclear whether ICE agents will simply carry out the same tasks as TSA employees or if they will make airports another hub for violence under the guise of “immigration enforcement.”

Trump posted on Truth Social on Saturday that ICE agents would “do Security like no one has ever seen before, including the immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants.” In his post, he singled out immigrants from Somalia, who he claimed have “totally destroyed” Minnesota—a narrative that he and his administration used to justify the ICE crackdown in Minneapolis this winter.

Referring to the deaths of Renée Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis in January, House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) responded on Sunday, “The last thing the American people need is for untrained ICE agents to be deployed at airports across the country potentially to brutalize or to kill them.”

Federal unions also pushed back. Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents federal workers in Illinois and Wisconsin, including TSA employees, told the Chicago Sun-Times that the ICE deployment raises security concerns for passengers.

“Our members at TSA have been showing up every day, without a paycheck, because they believe in the mission of keeping the flying public safe,” Kelley said in a statement. “They deserve to be paid, not replaced by untrained, armed agents who have shown how dangerous they can be.”

A8X18 X18 FROM YALE CLIMATE CONNECTION

Eye on the Storm

Record-torching March heat ‘virtually impossible’ without climate change

Friday’s spring equinox may seem like a quaint notion to those already enduring furnace-like 90-110°F summer heat.

by Jeff Masters and Bob Henson March 20, 2026

Multiple all-time March heat records crumpled on Wednesday and Thursday, March 18-19, as one of the most extreme weather events in world history blitzed the Southwest U.S. and far northwest Mexico with unprecedented March heat. Many locations have been hit with their earliest 100-degree-Fahrenheit weather on record, smashing all-time March and even April records, and temperatures are expected to soar even higher in some areas Friday and Saturday as the heat crescendoes.

Update: On Friday, March 20, eight states set an all-time March heat record, and the U.S. national March heat record was set or tied for the third consecutive day (see Bluesky post below).

Saturday, Mar. 21 update. A total of 13 states have tied or set all-time March heat records over the period Mar. 18-21. One or more stations in Arizona and California tied or broke the previous all-time U.S. heat record of 108°F each of those four days.

The extreme ridge of high pressure responsible for the heat wave peaked on Thursday, reaching an intensity of about 3.5 to four standard deviations above normal (for those technically savvy, the 500-millibar height maxed out at about 598 decameters). Even though this ridge is now slowly weakening, more pulses of record March heat could erupt from the Desert Southwest to Texas Tuesday through Thursday.

Both Mexico and the United States have already experienced their hottest March readings on record this week. On Wednesday, Mexicali set a March record for Mexico with 40.9 degrees Celsius (105.6°F), and on Thursday, that new record was smashed with 42.5 degrees Celsius (108.5°F) at Hermosillo. Meanwhile, the U.S. March record of 108°F set at Rio Grande City, Texas, on March 30, 1954, was tied at North Shore, California, on Wednesday, and then broken on Thursday with 110°F at Martinez Lake, Arizona, then broken again on Friday with 112°F at Martinez Lake, Arizona, Fort Yuma, Arizona, Buttercup, California, and Squaw Lake, California.

‘Virtually impossible’ without the hand of humans

A rapid attribution study released Friday by the research group World Weather Attribution concluded that the current heat wave would be virtually impossible in a world without human-induced climate change. Global temperatures have risen by around 1.3 degrees Celsius since preindustrial times, but the affected region is warming more dramatically than many other parts of the world, and a lengthening “long tail” at the hot end of the climate spectrum now allows the most extreme regional heat episodes to warm by substantially more than 1.3 degrees Celsius.

Among the findings in the rapid attribution study:

• Hotter and more likely: The mercury in this heat wave has risen about 1.4°F (0.8°C) higher than it would have just a decade ago, and about 4.7 degrees Fahrenheit (2.6°C) higher than it would have in a preindustrial world.
• Rarity of the event: Despite its increasing likelihood, a heat wave on this scale is still a rare event in today’s climate and is expected to occur about once every 500 years at any one spot.
• Timing: Across the hardest-hit area, March is the month now showing the most substantial long-term warming signal for heat extremes. Typical March temperatures have risen by as much as 6 degrees Celsius in parts of this region.
• Rapidity of the change: In just a decade, an event on par with this one has become about four times more likely due to climate change.

Figure 1. Climate Shift Index issued on Thursday, March 19, based on predicted temperatures for Friday, March 20. Most of the Western United States is enveloped by Level 5 heat, indicating that the odds of this extreme have been boosted at least fivefold by human-caused climate change.

(See charts, maps, graphs and figures here)

Similar findings – that the intensity and scope of the current heat wave would have been virtually impossible without human-caused climate change – are embedded in results from the Climate Shift Index. This tool, created at the nonprofit Climate Central, estimates the odds by which climate change has shifted the odds of a particular extreme.

The Climate Shift Index for predicted U.S. temperatures for Friday, March 20 (see Fig. 2 above), shows broad areas with Level 5 results. These indicate where the odds of a depicted extreme have been increased fivefold by climate change. Such large values put the event into the realm where its likelihood in a preindustrial climate would be vanishingly small. (See the Bluesky thread below from Climate Central for the science behind that conclusion).

On top of the direct effects of this rapid-onset, multiday heat wave, including the risk of heat-related illness, the indirect effects on agriculture, water supply, and wildfires are likely to run into the billions of dollars. The implications for the U.S. Southwest are especially sobering, as snowpack had already been running at or near record lows. The massive upper high that’s connected to the ongoing heat wave is both suppressing any immediate hope of late-season snow and hastening the melt of whatever snow is left.

TWO U.S. MONTHLY HEAT RECORDS IN A ROW

March 2026 is the second consecutive month in which the U.S. has set an all-time monthly heat record. On February 19, temperatures soared to 41.1 Celsius (106°F) at Falcon Dam in South Texas — the highest temperature ever recorded during meteorological winter (December-February) in the United States. The previous hottest U.S. winter temperature, according to NWS-Brownsville, was 40 degrees Celsius (104°F) in Rio Grande City, Texas, on Feb. 25, 1902.

As for astronomical winter, it ended with the vernal equinox at 10:46 a.m. EDT Friday, March 20 – so Thursday’s reading of 110°F at Martinez Lake, Arizona, if confirmed, will stand as the hottest U.S. temperature ever recorded in astronomical winter. (It was, but lasted only a day, as above – DJI)

On Monday, the National Phenology Network reported that spring leaf-out is running far ahead of average in many parts of the U.S., including three to five weeks early in parts of Colorado, Kansas, and the Northern Great Plains and two to three weeks early in large parts of the Midwest, while leaf-out is running one to two weeks behind in parts of the coastal Southeast. The widespread early blooms could leave trees and shrubs vulnerable to a more seasonable April freeze.

Truly bonkers: beating a previous all-time monthly record on 12 consecutive days

At the Grand Canyon’s gateway city of Flagstaff, Arizona, where weather records extend back to 1898, the all-time March temperature record before this bananas week was 73°F on March 17, 2007. On Tuesday, Flagstaff tied that record; Wednesday, it beat it by three degrees; and Thursday, it hit 84°F, demolishing the old March record by an astounding 11 degrees, and beating the all-time heat record for April by four degrees.

Bottom of Form

As detailed on Thursday by meteorologist Alan Gerard in his Balanced Weather Substack feed, the forecast maximum temperature for each of the next nine days — even a “cool” looking 73°F on Saturday, March 28 — would have been a monthly record before this year. That would make 12 consecutive days with high temperatures at or above Flagstaff’s previous monthly record high. Similar stories are unfolding for countless other stations with long-term periods of record in the West.

Eight states have already broken or tied all-time monthly heat records this week, based on records and reports compiled below by weather records expert Maximiliano Herrera and Christopher Burt:

All-time monthly state high temperature records set this week:

—Wednesday, March 18
California: 108°F at North Shore (old record 107°F, Mecca Fire Station, March 21, 2004): TIES all-time U.S. March heat record set in 1954
Arizona: 105°F at Laguna and Fort Yuma (old record 104°F, Yuma Quartermaster Station, March 21, 2004)
Wyoming: 86°F at Belle Fourche (tie, first set at Pine Bluffs, March 20, 1907)

—Thursday, March 19
Arizona: 110°F at Martinez Lake, Arizona (old record 105°, set the previous day at Laguna and Fort Yuma): Breaks all-time U.S. March heat record set the previous day
California: 109°F at Dos Palmas, Buttercup, and Cahuilla (old record 108°F, set the previous day at North Shore)
Nevada: 103°F at Laughlin (old record 100°F at Laughlin, March 17, 2007, and Bunkerville, March 18, 2007)
Utah: 93°F at St George, Zion Canyon, White Riff, and San Juan (tie, first set at La Verkin, March 21, 2004, and Lytle Ranch, March 22, 2004)
Wyoming: 87°F at Torrington and Guernsey (old record: 86°F, set the previous day at Belle Fourche, and at Pine Bluffs on March 20, 1907)

— Friday, March 20
Arizona: 112°F at Martinez Lake, and Fort Yuma (old record 110°, set the previous day at Martinez Lake, and breaks all-time U.S. March heat record set the previous day)
California: 112°F at Squaw Lake and Buttercup (old record 109°F, set the previous day at Dos Palmas, Buttercup, and Cahuilla, and breaks all-time U.S. March heat record set the previous day)
Nevada: 104°F at Cottonwood Cove (old record 103°F at Laughlin, set the previous day)
Utah: 95°F at St George, Zion Canyon, White Riff, and San Juan (old record: 93°, first set at La Verkin, March 21, 2004, and Lytle Ranch, March 22, 2004, and tied at four other locations on March 19, 2026)
Wyoming: 87°F at Torrington and Guernsey (tied with the same reading at the same two locations the previous day)
New Mexico: 99°F Draw Near (tie, with 99° at Roswell No. 2 March 31, 1946)
Missouri: 95°F Harrisonville (tie, with 95° at Belle March 21, 1907)
Idaho: 86°F at Boise River (old record 85° Grande View March 29, 1966 and Swan Falls March 30, 1960)

Many individual towns and cities have also broken their all-time March records, including as far north on Thursday as Denver, Colorado (85°F, topping 84°F from March 26, 1971) and Rapid City, South Dakota (86°F, beating 84°F from March 15, 2015). And as noted by Herrera, dozens of locations have already exceeded their all-time April records, including Kingman and Flagstaff, Arizona, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Christopher Burt contributed to this post.

A9X05 X05 FROM guk

Heatwave scorching US west ‘virtually impossible’ without climate crisis, say scientists

Unseasonably warm and even dangerous temperatures this week were up to 30F above average for the time of year

By Dharna Noor Fri 20 Mar 2026 03.01 EDT

The record-breaking heatwave scorching the US west this week would have been “virtually impossible” if not for the climate crisis, a team of scientists has determined.

Millions of Americans from the Pacific coast to the Rockies baked under unseasonably warm and even dangerous temperatures this week, with temperatures up to 30F (17C) above average for the time of year.

The climate crisis, caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, has made this kind of heatwave four times more likely to occur over the last decade, according to a new rapid analysis released Friday.

“These temperatures are completely off the scale for March,” said analysis co-author Ben Clarke, who is an extreme weather and climate change researcher at Imperial College London, in a statement.

Even as recently as 2016, the current heatwave would have also been milder, with temperatures about 1.4F (0.8C) cooler, says the analysis by World Weather Attribution, an international consortium of climate researchers.

“These findings leave no room for doubt. Climate change is pushing weather into extremes that would have been unthinkable in a preindustrial world,” said Friederike Otto, a climate science professor at Imperial College London, who also worked on the study.

To carry out their rapid analysis, the scientists examined forecasts for a five-day period, from 18-22 March. To quantify the impact of global warming on the week’s extreme temperatures, the researchers analyzed weather and forecast data, and also used climate model simulations to compare how heat events have changed in today’s climate.

Fueled by an area of high pressure in the atmosphere, the heat dome has shattered temperature records in 140 cities stretching from California to Missouri, according to the Weather Channel, while leaving California, Nevada and Arizona under extreme heat warnings on Thursday.

More heat is in store for the coming days. The mercury is expected to continue ticking upward in the south-west, and the heatwave is expected to creep toward the plains and the south later this week. By the end of the week, 100 cities could set all-time temperature records for the month of March, with temperatures climbing as high as 30F (17C) above average for the time of year, the new analysis says.

Heat is the deadliest form of extreme weather in the US. Weather officials this week raised concerns about an increase in heat-related illnesses, especially among vulnerable populations, and advised people to remain hydrated and stay inside when they can.

The heat has also taken a toll on local economies, with multiple California and Tahoe-area ski resorts being forced to close or shrink operations amid rapid snowmelt and high temperatures this week.

“In the US west, the seasons that people and nature were used to for centuries are disappearing, putting many, including outdoor workers and those without air conditioning, in danger,” said Otto. “The threat isn’t distant – it is here, it is worsening and our policy must catch up with reality.”

 This article was amended on 20 March 2026 to make clear that the heatwave temperatures would have been about 1.4F (0.8C) cooler in 2016, rather than in preindustrial times. For that, the correct figure would have been about 4.7F (2.6C) cooler.

A10X11 X11 FROM USA TODAY

THIS TOWN JUST RECORDED THE HOTTEST MARCH TEMPERATURE IN US HISTORY

By Michelle Cruz and Jeanine Santucci March 20, 2026 Updated March 21, 2026, 9:11 a.m. ET

A small Arizona community broke the record for highest temperature ever recorded in March in the United States, reaching a scorching 110 degrees March 19 amid an early heat wave in the Southwest.

The temperature hit the high mark near Martinez Lake, a recreation community in southwestern Arizona, about 45 minutes north of Yuma, the National Weather Service said.

The March temperature record was first set in 1954 in Rio Grande, Texas, at 108 degrees. That record was matched during this heat wave March 18 near North Shore, California, according to the weather service.

SPRING FORECAST: NEW FORECASTS WARN OF THE DREADED 'HEAT DOME'

The news comes as California, Arizona and other Southwestern states have faced an unprecedented early heat wave. The heat is the result of a high-pressure system spinning across the West, causing “an expansive dome of unusually hot temperatures,” the weather service said.

THE RESULTING TEMPERATURES ARE UNPRECEDENTED.

More than 18 million Americans were under extreme heat warnings early March 20 across Southern California, southern Nevada and much of Arizona. Millions more were under heat advisories.

More: Dozens of kids die in hot cars every year. This heat wave raises risk.

Heat wave shatters daily, monthly records

The heat wave that set in earlier this week has already shattered daily high temperature records in cities throughout the Southwest and even some all-time March records.

Temperatures March 19 in Phoenix soared to 105 degrees, breaking the record of 97 for the same date in 2017 and 25 degrees above normal, the weather service said. With an extreme heat warning in effect for metro Phoenix, temperatures jumped into the three-digit range by around 1 p.m. The first 105-degree day of the year, on average, usually comes May 22, the weather service posted on X.

Phoenix doesn't usually reach 100 degrees for the first time in a year until about May 10, though before this year, its earliest-recorded 100-degree day in a year was March 26, 1988.

In the Los Angeles region, daily records dating back decades have been broken since the heat wave began. In downtown LA, the high hit 98 degrees March 17, smashing the record of 94 set more than a century ago in 1914.

Cities in California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming have broken all-time March records.

A11X09 X09 FROM EURO NEWS

‘PUSHING EXTREMES TO NEW LEVELS’: RECORD US HEAT DOME MADE POSSIBLE BY CLIMATE CHANGE

By Angela Symons with AP Published on 20/03/2026 - 16:09 GMT+1

‘Insurers walking away’ is the clearest sign unpredictable weather extremes are spiralling out of control, one expert says.

The dangerous heatwave shattering March records all over the US Southwest is more than just another extreme weather blip. It’s the latest next-level weather wildness that is occurring ever more frequently as Earth’s warming builds.

Experts say unprecedented and deadly weather extremes that sometimes strike at abnormal times and in unusual places are putting more people in danger. For example, the Southwest is used to coping with deadly heat, but not months ahead of schedule, including a 43.3 Celsius reading in the Arizona desert on 19 March that smashed the highest March temperature recorded in the US.

On Thursday, sites in Arizona and southern California had preliminary readings of 43C, which would be the hottest March day on record for the United States.

“This is what climate change looks like in real time: extremes pushing beyond the bounds we once thought possible,” says University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver. “What used to be unprecedented events are now recurring features of a warming world.”

'Virtually impossible without climate change'

March's heat would have been virtually impossible without human-caused climate change, according to a report released on 20 March by World Weather Attribution, an international group of scientists who study the causes of extreme weather events.

More than a dozen scientists, meteorologists and disaster experts queried by news agency The Associated Press put the March heatwave in a kind of ultra-extreme classification with such events as the 2021 Pacific Northwest heatwave, the 2022 Pakistan floods and killer hurricanes Helene, Harvey and Sandy.

Related

• Trump's disdain for renewables will make US 'biggest short-term loser' of Iran war, warns expert
• ‘Europe learned the wrong lesson’ by doubling down on fossil fuels while India and China went green

The area of the US being hit by extreme weather in the past five years has doubled from 20 years ago, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Extremes Index, which includes various types of wild weather, such as heat and cold waves, downpours and drought.

The United States is breaking 77 per cent more hot weather records now than in the 1970s and 19 per cent more than the 2010s, according to an AP analysis of NOAA records.

In the United States, the number and average cost of inflation-adjusted billion-dollar weather disasters in the last couple years is twice as high as just 10 years ago and nearly four times higher than 30 years ago, according to records kept by NOAA and Climate Central, a nonprofit group of scientists and communicators who research and report on climate change.

TRYING TO KEEP UP WITH EXTREMES AND FAILING

“It’s really hard to even keep up with how extreme our extremes are becoming,” says Climate Central Chief Meteorologist Bernadette Woods Placky. “It’s changing our risk, it’s changing our relationship with weather, it’s putting more people in risky situations and at times we’re not used to. So yes, we are pushing extremes to new levels across all different types of weather.”

For government officials who have to deal with disaster it's been a huge problem.

Craig Fugate, who directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency until 2017, says he saw extremes increasing.

“We were operating outside the historical playbook more and more. Flood maps, surge models, heat records – events kept showing up outside the envelope we built systems around. That’s just what we saw,” Fugate says via email.

He adds: “We built communities on about 100 years of past weather and assumed that was a good guide going forward. That assumption is starting to break. And the clearest signal isn’t the science debate. It’s insurers walking away.”

FOSSIL FUELS ARE PUSHING TEMPERATURES TO NEW HIGHS

Climate scientists at World Weather Attribution did a flash analysis – which is not peer-reviewed yet – of whether climate change was a factor in this Southwest heatwave. They compared this week's expected temperatures to what's been observed in the area in March since 1900 and computer models of a world with climate change. They found that “events as warm as in March 2026 would have been virtually impossible without human-induced climate change”.

That warming, from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, added between 2.6 to 4 degrees C to the temperatures being felt, the report found.

“What we can very confidently say is that human-caused warming has increased the temperatures that we’re seeing as a result of this heat dome, and it’s going to be pushing those temperatures from what would have been very uncomfortable into potentially dangerous,” says report co-author Clair Barnes, an Imperial College of London attribution scientist.

Related

• ‘A world chained to fossil fuels’: Does the war on Iran prove it’s time to quit oil for good?

Examples abound of high heat and extreme weather

The Southwest heatwave is solidly in the category of “giant events”, with temperatures up to 16.7 degrees Celsius above normal, says Stanford University climate scientist Chris Field.

He lists five others in the last six years: a 2020 Siberia heatwave, the 2021 Pacific Northwest heatwave that had British Columbia warmer than Death Valley, the summer of 2022 in North America, China and Europe, a 2023 western Mediterranean heatwave and a 2023 South Asian heatwave with high humidity.

And that doesn't include the East Antarctica heatwave of 2022 when temperatures were 45 degrees Celsius warmer than normal. That's the biggest anomaly recorded, says weather historian Chris Burt, author of the book Extreme Weather.

Worsening wild weather influenced by climate change isn't just super-hot days, but includes deadly hurricanes, droughts and downpours, scientists told AP.

Related

• Valencia’s deadly flood still haunts Spain. Would it have happened in a fossil fuel-free world?

Devastating floods hit West Africa in 2022 and again in 2024. Iran is in the midst of a six-year drought. And the deadly Typhoon Haiyan hitting the Philippines in 2013 shocked the world.

Superstorm Sandy, which in 2012 flooded New York City and neighbours, had tropical storm-force winds that covered an area nearly one-fifth the area of the contiguous United States. It spawned 3.5-metre seas over 3.6 million square kilometres, about half the size of the US, with energy equivalent to five Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs, said Yale Climate Connections meteorologist Jeff Masters.

And don't forget wildfires that are worsened by heat and drought, so recent extremes should include 2025's Palisades and Eaton wildfires, which were the costliest weather disaster in the United States last year, said Climate Central meteorologist and economist Adam Smith.

“This is due to climate change, that we see more extreme events, and more intense ones and have so many records being broken,” says Friederike Otto, an Imperial College of London climate scientist who coordinates World Weather Attribution.

A12X13 Climate Matters•March 11, 2026

Earlier Spring

KEY FACTS

• As spring warms and thaws earlier, the temperature cues that signal spring’s arrival to plants and animals are also shifting earlier. 
• Data from the USA National Phenology Network shows that the first leaves of spring now emerge earlier across most of the U.S., compared to 1981.
• The first spring leaves now emerge earlier in 88% (212) of 242 major U.S. cities — six days earlier on average. 
• Warmer springs and earlier leaf emergence can worsen seasonal allergies, disrupt ecological events like migration, and potentially put valuable crops at risk of damage. 

This Climate Matters analysis is based on open-access data from the USA National Phenology Network. See Methodology for details.

First leaves signal the start of spring in nature

The start of spring is marked not only by the calendar but also by various cues in nature. 

As winter gets shorter and spring warms up and thaws earlier, the temperature-based cues that signal spring’s arrival to plants and animals are also shifting earlier. 

Leaf-out — the time that leaves emerge on early spring plants — is a common marker that scientists use to track the ecological start of spring and a key indicator of how climate change is affecting allergies, ecosystems, and crops. 

• The USA National Phenology Network’s first leaf index models when the first spring leaves emerge each year across the U.S. as heat accumulates and sends growth signals to plants. 
• The first leaf index is based on leaf-out in honeysuckles and lilacs and reflects the earliest biological activity for early-spring plants and insects. 

Click the downloadable graphic: Start of Spring 1981-2025

First spring leaves arriving earlier

Data from the USA National Phenology Network indicates that warming trends are driving an earlier leaf-out for much of the U.S. 

From 1981 to 2025, the first leaves of spring have trended toward an earlier arrival across most of the contiguous U.S. The main exception is the Northern Rockies and Plains,  where spring temperatures have either cooled or warmed relatively slowly since 1970. 

These broad patterns are also reflected in data for 242 major U.S. cities. The first leaves of spring now arrive earlier in 88% (212) of these cities — six days earlier on average, compared to the early 1980s.

Click the downloadable graphic: Local Start of Spring

On average, cities across the Northeast, Ohio Valley, and Southeast have seen leaf-out shift earliest since 1981. 

Seven of the top 10 U.S. cities now see the first leaves of spring emerge at least two weeks earlier than in the early 1980s.  

Table 1. Top 10 U.S. cities with the largest shift in leaf-out. 

City	Shift in first leaf date, 1981-2025 (days)
New York City	16 days earlier
Newark, NJ	16 days earlier
Washington, D.C.	15 days earlier
Bluefield, WV	15 days earlier
Wheeling, WV	14 days earlier
Huntington, WV	14 days earlier
Clarksburg, WV	14 days earlier
Atlantic CIty, NJ	13 days earlier
Boston, MA	13 days earlier
Hagerstown, MD	13 days earlier

Earlier springs can… 

Affect human health: Warmer springs and earlier leaf-out gives plants more time to grow and release allergy-inducing pollen. From 1970 to 2025, the freeze-free growing season has stretched 21 days longer on average across 173 major U.S. cities. That’s bad news for people with seasonal allergies — about one-quarter of adults and one-in-five children in the U.S. 

Put valuable crops at risk: Earlier springs can make plants more vulnerable to damage if a hard freeze follows leaf-out —a phenomenon known as a false spring. These events can be very costly. In 2017, a false spring in the southeastern U.S. caused about $1 billion in fruit crop losses across the region. Scientists are still studying how climate change may affect false springs. While some studies suggest that false springs have become less common across most of the U.S., parts of the Great Plains and Midwest could face higher risk in the future if heat-trapping pollution increases.

Disrupt ecosystems: Earlier springs can cause a mismatch in the availability of food and other resources for animals during critical stages in their life cycle. In complex ecosystems, such mismatched timing can have cascading effects across species that rely on each other. For example, spring warming is generally associated with earlier spring migration in birds across the contiguous U.S. Certain birds that migrate earlier may fall out of sync with the peak abundance of insects they eat or the flowers they pollinate. 

A13X08 X08 FROM LIVE SCIENCE

HUMAN-DRIVEN CLIMATE CHANGE IS SLOWING EARTH'S ROTATION AT A RATE NOT SEEN IN 3.6 MILLION YEARS

By Stephanie Pappas published 7 hours ago

Today's sea level rise is significant enough to slow the rotation of the planet by just over a millisecond per century.

Human-driven climate change is slowing Earth's rotation at a rate not seen in 3.6 million years, with sea level rise increasing the length of days by 1.33 milliseconds per century, according to a new study.

Earth spins faster when its mass is more concentrated, just as twirling figure skaters pull in their arms to speed up and spread out their arms to slow down. Rising sea levels have long been known to redistribute that mass and change the planet's spin, but the newly identified rate is unprecedented, scientists say.

Many factors influence Earth's spin speed. The moon's pull on the planet is the most significant over the long term. Its gravitational pull creates a bulge in the planet that slows Earth's rotation rate, Michael Mann, a climatologist at the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved with the new study, told Live Science. The moon's influence increases Earth's day length by about 2.4 milliseconds per century.

However, this 2.4 millisecond rate is offset by an effect called glacial isostatic adjustment, which is the slow rise of the planet's crust that continues to occur after the retreat of the ice sheets. Glacial isostatic adjustment shortens the day length by about 0.8 millisecond per century, leading to a background lengthening over time of 1.71 milliseconds per century (with about 0.1 millisecond of uncertainty in the observations).

Other, shorter-term phenomena also affect day length, including strengthened winds during El Niño events, which slow the planet's rotation by about a millisecond per century, Mann said.

However, in recent years, the climate seems to be playing an increasing role in altering Earth's rotation, said study co-author Mostafa Kiani Shahvandi, a geoscientist at ETH Zurich. "I wanted to know if this was unusual or something like this happened in the past," Shahvandi told Live Science. "As it turned out, it is quite anomalous. The effect is therefore anthropogenic [caused by humans]."

Shahvandi and study co-author Benedikt Soja, a professor of space geodesy at ETH Zurich, turned to the fossils of shelled single-cell organisms called foraminifera to peer back millions of years into Earth's day length. Changes in the oxygen content of these fossils could reveal sea levels when the organisms were alive, from which the researchers could extrapolate day lengths.

They found that today's 1.33-millisecond-per-century increase in day length was among the fastest changes seen in the past 3.6 billion years. "This is expected to get even larger and even bigger than the effect of the moon," Shahvandi said.

One episode around 2 million years ago saw a similar increase in day length of 2.1 milliseconds per century, the researchers found. That was in the Early Pleistocene, during a period when carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and temperatures rose. There is some uncertainty in the historical estimate, meaning that this period may have seen a similar increase in day length as today, or that today might be faster.

Under a future warming scenario where greenhouse gases increase, the day could lengthen by 2.62 milliseconds per century by 2080, Shahvandi and Soja reported in their study, which was published March 10 in the journal JGR Solid Earth.

Although the impact would likely not be perceptible to humans, the findings have other real-world implications. For example, Mann said, instruments that require precise knowledge of Earth's rotation rate, such as those on spacecraft, may need to be recalibrated. Other precise timekeeping applications, such as in computing, could be affected, Shahvandi said.

The findings also underscore the rapidity of modern warming. "It tells us about the rapid climate change," Shahvandi said, "[the] melting of snow and ice in polar ice sheets and mountains glaciers, and increase in the sea levels."

Article Sources

Kiani Shahvandi, M., & Soja, B. (2026). Climate‐Induced Length of Day Variations Since the Late Pliocene. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 131(3). https://doi.org/10.1029/2025jb032161

A14X25 X25 FROM guk

‘THE THREAT IS HERE’: SEARING US HEATWAVE BAD NEWS FOR WILDFIRE SEASON AND WATER SUPPLY

Experts say brutal temperatures in west threaten to melt sparse snowpack – and warn hot, dry conditions here to stay

By Gabrielle Canon Tue 24 Mar 2026 07.00 EDT

A stunning heatwave that shattered records in the US west is threatening to rapidly melt the sparse snowpack and ramp up wildfire risks in the seasons ahead.

March has already been historically hot, but the early onset of summer weather across the region may be here to stay. There is little reprieve in forecasts, which show more heat records may fall this spring.

Extreme heat is exceptionally dangerous, especially so early in the year, when bodies and systems are not prepared for it and when it lingers over a long period of time. This heatwave is also posing significant threats to the water supply. After one of the warmest winters in the west, the snow that feeds streams, reservoirs and soil moisture as it melts through the summer season is already dismally scarce in key watersheds.

“Anomalous warmth and historic snow drought will still lead to ecological and wildfire-related impacts as soon as this spring, and possibly wider water challenges by late summer and beyond,” climate scientist Daniel Swain said in a post about the heat.

His primary concern is in the interior west, especially the Colorado River basin, which could face “water supply and hydroelectric shortfalls, an early and intense fire season, and ecosystem degradation”.

“This is a big deal,” he added.

The unprecedented heat event pushed temperatures between 20 to 30F higher than average across the region, with some areas seeing spikes up to 40F higher than normal.

March high temperature records have already been broken in at least 14 states. A new national temperature record for the month was smashed last Thursday, when an area in Arizona hit 110F (43.3C). The record didn’t stand long; by Friday, it was broken again, when a parts of California and Arizona reached 112F. The record is just one degree shy of April’s heat record.

More than 400 daily records were broken last Thursday when the heatwave peaked, caused by a large and persistent dome of pressure settling over a large swath of the west. But “this is not going to be a heat event that suddenly goes away”, Swain said. “We are still going to be experiencing record warmth and dryness next week – at least for the next seven to 10 days.”

Hundreds more high-temperature records might be breached this week, according to forecasters, as the extreme heat pushes east.

“High temperatures are forecast to reach 20-25 degrees above average,” forecasters with the National Weather Service said in an update on Monday, noting that there was potential to break numerous records through the south-west, inter-mountain west and into the central US.

The heatwave has eaten away more of an already deeply depleted snowpack, needed to sustain the thirstiest states through the drier months.

This scorching spring started on the heels of a record-warm winter for nearly every major river basin in the west, according to the federal drought monitor, thrusting the region into a snow drought even before temperatures spiked. Measurements of water amounts frozen within the snow were below the median at 91% of western stations by 8 March.

By mid-March, more than half of the continental US had already been classified in moderate to exceptional drought conditions.

“Drought conditions worsened or developed for much of the Great Plains, Lower Mississippi valley, and south-east US due to warmer and drier than normal conditions this winter,” said Jon Gottschalck, chief of the Operational Prediction Branch at Noaa’s Climate Prediction Center, in a spring outlook published on Friday. The agency said drought was expected to persist and expand across the west due to the unrelenting heat.

Heat also bakes more moisture out of landscapes, amplifying wildfire risks and extending the seasons when ignitions can quickly become infernos.

The hot, dry conditions are fueling an explosive start to the high-risk wildfire season, and vegetation is becoming increasingly primed to burn.

“With fuel moistures trending near record lows for this time of year, similar conditions could support fast-moving fires and new large fire activity when winds align,” officials with the US National Interagency Fire Center wrote on Friday. More than 1.4m acres have already burned this year, more than double the 10-year average for the same period, driven largely by big blazes that erupted in Nebraska this month.

Two fires in the state spread across more than 800,000 acres (325,000 hectares), chewing through parched grasses. The Morrill fire in west-central Nebraska grew to more than 640,000 acres alone, making it the largest in the state’s history. The blaze was at 98% containment on Monday.

An analysis by World Weather Attribution, an international consortium of climate researchers, found that the intense heat afflicting the region would be impossible without the climate crisis and signals the dangers of what is to come.

“These findings leave no room for doubt. Climate change is pushing weather into extremes that would have been unthinkable in a pre-industrial world,” Friederike Otto, a climate science professor at Imperial College London, previously told the Guardian.

“In the US west, the seasons that people and nature were used to for centuries are disappearing, putting many, including outdoor workers and those without air conditioning, in danger,” he added. “The threat isn’t distant – it is here, it is worsening and our policy must catch up with reality.”

A15X21 X21 FROM GUK

EARTH BEING ‘PUSHED BEYOND ITS LIMITS’ AS ENERGY IMBALANCE REACHES RECORD HIGH

State of the Climate report finds Earth’s energy has moved dangerously out of balance, with oceans absorbing vast majority of trapped heat

Jonathan Watts

Mon 23 Mar 2026 00.00 EDT

Our home planet is struggling with a record energy imbalance, which is warming oceans to unprecedented levels, making weather more extreme and threatening health and food supplies, the World Meteorological Organization has warned.

The United Nations body confirmed 2015 to 2025 were the hottest 11 years ever measured, but a still bleaker message was that the rising temperature experienced by humans on the surface was only 1% of the faster-accumulating heat in the wider Earth system.

More than 90% of that excess is absorbed by the oceans, which experienced the highest heat content in history last year. The rate of ocean warming has more than doubled over the past two decades, compared with the average over the previous 45 years.

The authors of the latest annual State of the Global Climate report say this highlights the increasing vulnerability of a planet that is moving ever further out of balance as a result of human activity. The burning of oil, gas, coal and forests releases heat-trapping greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, which are all at their highest level in at least 800,000 years.

This disrupts the planet’s energy equilibrium. In a well-functioning system, the amount of radiation entering and leaving the Earth system is roughly similar. But a heat surplus has been accumulating since at least 1960 and has noticeably accelerated in recent years.

This is tracked for the first time in the new report, which shows the Earth’s energy imbalance increased by about 11 zettajoules a year between 2005 and 2025, which is equivalent to about 18 times total human energy use. Last year it was more than double that average.

At present, humans and other life forms on the surface directly suffer only a small fraction of that energy backup because 91% is absorbed by oceans, 5% by the land, 1% warms the atmosphere, and 3% melts ice at the poles and on high mountains.

But even with only a tiny share of this extra energy, the world’s surface temperatures – which are the most commonly used measure of global heating – are climbing to alarming levels. Last year was the second- or third-hottest on record, depending on the dataset. World leaders say it is now inevitable the planet will – at least temporarily – breach the target of limiting heating to 1.5C above preindustrial levels set by the Paris agreement. They say the dire consequences are already evident in faltering harvests, worsening dengue outbreaks and increasingly severe heatwaves, forest fires and storms.

“The state of the global climate is in a state of emergency. Planet Earth is being pushed beyond its limits. Every key climate indicator is flashing red,” said the UN secretary-general, António Guterres. “Humanity has just endured the 11 hottest years on record. When history repeats itself 11 times, it is no longer a coincidence. It is a call to act.”

The effect on the oceans is still not fully understood, but the impacts are expected to be still more profound and long-lasting. Sea levels are rising at an accelerating pace, and sea ice is at its third-lowest level ever.

The authors of the paper said more of the heat is moving into the depths, which is affecting circulation and locking in the consequences for thousands of years.

Nearer the surface, heatwaves and acidification are a growing problem for corals and other marine life, while the melting of ice is pushing up sea levels and weakening the planet’s ability to reflect solar radiation back into space, thus adding to the energy imbalance.

There is no respite in sight. The Pacific is coming to the end of a La Niña phase, which is usually associated with cooler temperatures at the surface across much of the world. By the end of this year, forecasts suggest this could be replaced by an El Niño, which will bring more heating. “If we transition to El Niño we will see an increase in global temperature again and potentially to record levels,” said Dr John Kennedy, the lead author of the WMO report.

A16X24 X24 FROM GUK

What are zettajoules – and what do they tell us about Earth’s energy imbalance?

When James Prescott Joule lent his name to a unit of energy, he could not have foreseen today’s alarming calculations

By Jonathan Watts Tue 24 Mar 2026 02.00 EDT

The primary unit of climate collapse is the zettajoule. If you have never heard of this term, you are not alone. Even scientists who work on a planetary scale struggle to relate the immensity of the change measured by this titanic unit of energy.

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WHAT IS A ZETTAJOULE?

A zettajoule is a billion trillion joules. Typed out on a calculator or computer screen, the row of 21 zeros looks absurdly long – a train of seven carriages, each with three empty windows. Experts often have to resort to abstract terms like “unfathomable”, “almost beyond comprehension” and “really big” to ensure our tiny human minds are sufficiently blown away by what these numbers convey.

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WHY ARE ZETTAJOULES IN THE NEWS (AGAIN)?

When used to calculate the heat on our planet, that train is accelerating and running out of track. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned this week in its latest annual State of the Global Climate report that our world has a huge and growing energy imbalance, which is warming the oceans, the land and the air to dangerous levels.

The new report says Earth’s energy imbalance increased by about 11 zettajoules a year between 2005 and 2025, which is equivalent to about 18 times total human energy use.

As most of us are now well aware, the burning of oil, gas, coal and forests is releasing heat-trapping greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide into the atmosphere. This constipates the Earth system’s ability to excrete heat out into space. And the more energy gets stuck in our home, the more we – and all other forms of life – feel hot, uncomfortable and are vulnerable to heatwaves, storms, floods, droughts or fire.

HOW QUICKLY IS THE PLANET’S ENERGY IMBALANCE GROWING?

Last year, the energy imbalance in the world’s oceans, which absorb more than 90% of solar radiation, hit a record 23 zettajoules, more than double the average of the previous two decades.

Scientists have used various comparisons to put that in context. John Kennedy, the lead author of the WMO report, said the 2025 imbalance in the oceans was about 39 times the annual human energy use for the whole globe.

The scientist John Abraham has previously calculated the accumulation of energy in terms of the explosive power of the Little Boy atomic bomb that devastated Hiroshima in 1945. In 2020, he observed that the amount of heat being added to the oceans was equivalent to about five Hiroshima bombs of energy every second. By 2022, this had gone up to seven Hiroshimas every second. Last year, the WMO figures suggest, it was closer to 11 Hiroshima explosions per second.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences has used an Olympian comparison. Three years ago, it noted that the then 15 zettajoule accumulation of energy in the oceans was enough to boil away the water of 2.3bn Olympic-sized swimming pools (50 metres in length, 25 metres in width and 2 metres in depth). By that calculation, the updated 2025 figure would be enough to vaporise about 3.4bn Olympic pools.

However you dress this up, the number is terrifying and moving in a horrifying direction.

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HOW DID THE HUMBLE JOULE HIT ZETTA LEVELS?

That humanity allowed this to happen would surely have dismayed James Prescott Joule, the Victorian-era physicist after whom the basic unit of energy is named. In his day, not long after the Industrial Revolution, a joule was a handy way to describe the amount of effort required to produce one watt of power for one second, equivalent to the work required to pick an apple off the floor and put it on a table.

Since then, humans have developed ever more sophisticated ways to harness ever greater amounts of energy – kilojoules (150kJ to boil the water for a cup of tea), megajoules (15MJ to heat a large bathtub), gigajoules (the energy discharged by a car using half a tank of petrol), terajoules (63TJ for the Hiroshima bomb), petajoules (3PJ for the daily energy consumption of London) and exajoules (more than 600EJ for the yearly energy use of all 8 billion people on Earth).

But we have put far less effort into the question of what happens to all that energy after we have finished using it. Or how this consumption affects the far greater quantity of solar radiation coming from the sun. None of it just disappears into thin air, though it could seep into space if left unblocked.

Mr. Joule would have considered this a negligent reckoning. His work on heat conservation contributed to the development of the first law of thermodynamics, which states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred or converted from one form to another. That 175-year-old principle remains valid today and is the fundamental explanation of climate breakdown, even if those most responsible for the energy imbalance try to deny it. Their folly too can be measured in zettajoules.

A17X06 X06 FROM THE FARMER’S ALMANAC

Spring 2026 Weather Forecast From The Old Farmer’s Almanac

Written By: Bob Smerbeck and Brian Thompson March 16, 2026

Announcing the Spring 2026 Weather Predictions from The Old Farmer’s Almanac! Will it be a chilly or warm spring? Wet or dry? Below are our long-range forecasts for 18 regions of the United States, covering April and May, along with colorful seasonal weather maps.

Spring is a time of renewal across the country. Seasonal weather patterns play a key role in everyday planning—from agriculture and gardening to travel, outdoor projects, and events. Understanding temperature and precipitation trends over time can help individuals and communities prepare for the months ahead.

Before you dig in to spring, take a look at what the long-range outlook suggests for 2026.

Read Next

· Canada Spring Forecast 2026

· 2026 Last Frost Date Map: Is Your Frost Date Changing?

· Canada Winter Forecast 2025–2026 | The Old Farmer’s Almanac\

What is a Long-Range Forecast?

The 2026 Old Farmer’s Almanac  predicts weather conditions over a period of time—a seasonal outlook, not a specific daily forecast. This makes long-range forecasts especially useful for planners, including farmers, gardeners, landscapers, homeowners, travelers, event organizers, and many others.

As outlined in the 2026 Almanac, our forecasts are based on three scientific disciplines:

· Solar science

· Climatology

· Meteorology

Temperature and precipitation levels are compared to historical averages to determine expected departures from normal. Learn how we predict long-range weather.

Spring 2026 Temperatures

The spring outlook predicts warmer-than-normal temperatures across much of the United States, with a few exceptions. Parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and areas of Montana and Colorado are expected to see temperatures closer to or below seasonal averages.

Spring 2026 Precipitation

Much of the country is forecast to experience predicts warmer-than-normal temperatures across much of the United States, with a few exceptions. Parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and areas of Montana and Colorado are expected to see temperatures closer to or below seasonal averages.

Upper Alaska

· Texas–Oklahoma

· Northern Appalachians

· High Plains

· Upper Midwest

· Intermountain region

Regional Highlights for April and May

Our long-range weather predictions for April and May are divided into 18 U.S. regions.

Northeast (Region 1):
Temperatures will be warmer than average, especially in May (3°F above normal). Precipitation is expected to be below average in both April and May. No significant snowfall is forecast.

Atlantic Corridor (Region 2):
From Boston to Richmond, temperatures will be warmer than usual, with the northern region expected to be 3°F above average in May. Rainfall will be below normal in April and normal in May.

Appalachians (Region 3):
Spring temperatures in this mountainous area will be slightly warmer than usual, and precipitation will range from below-normal rainfall in the north to above normal in the south.

Southeast (Region 4):
Along the Carolinas and Georgia, temperatures will be warmer than usual. April will be drier than usual, while May will be slightly wetter than normal.

Florida (Region 5):
Florida will be warmer than normal in April and average in May. Rainfall will be below average in April but should return to normal levels in May.

Lower Lakes (Region 6):
Temperatures will be warmer than normal overall across Michigan and the surrounding Great Lakes states. Rainfall will be below normal in the east and above normal in the west.

Ohio Valley (Region 7):
In April and May, the region will experience above-average temperatures. Precipitation will be above normal in the east and below normal in the west.

Deep South (Region 8):
The Deep South will see warmer-than-normal temperatures, with April 4°F above average and May 1°F below average. Precipitation will be above normal in the north and below normal in the south.

Upper Midwest (Region 9):
During April and May, it will be cooler and drier than normal in the east, while the west will be warmer than normal, with above-normal precipitation.

Heartland (Region 10):
In Iowa, Missouri, and eastern Kansas and Nebraska, expect a warm spring (5°F above average in April). Rainfall will be below normal in the north and above normal in the south.

Texas-Oklahoma (Region 11):
April will bring warm temperatures (5°F above average), while May will cool off slightly (2°F below average in the north, 1°F above average in the south). Rainfall will be above normal. Watch for a tropical storm in late May.

High Plains (Region 12):
The Plains, from Bismarck to Amarillo, will experience warmer-than-normal temperatures, especially in April (5°F above average). Expect periods of extreme heat through the summer. Rainfall will be below normal in the east and above normal in the west.

Intermountain (Region 13):
From Spokane to Reno, east to Salt Lake City, and south to Flagstaff, temperatures will be cooler and wetter than normal in the north, and warmer and drier than normal in the south.

Desert Southwest (Region 14):
April will be warmer than usual in the desert areas of New Mexico, Arizona, and southeastern California, and May will have average temperatures. Rainfall will be above normal in the east and below normal in the west.

Pacific Northwest (Region 15):
From Seattle to Eureka along the coast, temperatures will be average in April. May will be cooler than normal in the north and warmer than normal in the south. It will be drier than usual.

Pacific Southwest (Region 16):
Temperatures will be above normal in April and May. Rainfall will be below normal.

Alaska (Region 17):
Spring will bring warmer-than-normal temperatures and above-normal precipitation in the north. The South will see below-normal precipitation.

Hawaii (Region 18):
Expect warmer-than-usual temperatures for the state this spring. The east will see below-normal rainfall, while the central and western regions will see above-normal amounts of rainfall.

@From x01

Carol Connare, the editor of The Old Farmer’s Almanac, which has been publishing since 1792, embraced the arrival of warm weather on a recent day by going on a hike with a co-worker near the company’s office in Dublin, N.H.

“We did it today because it’s in the 60s,” Ms. Connare said, speaking by phone. “The beautiful warm wind and feeling that thermal air is amazing.”

“Sometimes old farmers would light fires in the spring, take out the dead wood,” she continued. “When you read the old almanacs, spring was such an important time. It’s always: ‘Are you ready? Have your tools cleaned!’ All these things need to be done because, before you know it, we’re in the field.”

A18X17 X17 FROM NOAA

Spring Outlook: Drought forecasted to expand in U.S. West, parts of Plains

March 20, 2026

Drought conditions are forecast to worsen or develop for many areas in the West and south-central Plains, according to NOAA’s Spring Outlook released today for April through June. Forecasters from NOAA’s National Weather Service also predict above-normal temperatures for the majority of the U.S.

“Factors influencing NOAA’s Spring Outlook include the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), low snowpack in the West and soil moisture content throughout the lower 48 states,” said Ken Graham, director of NOAA’s National Weather Service. “This spring will also feature a transition from La Niña to ENSO-neutral conditions, meaning neither El Niño nor La Niña.”

This map depicts where drought persistence, development or improvement is the most likely outcome based on short- and long-range statistical and dynamical forecasts from March 19 through June 30, 2026. 

Download Image

As of mid-March, moderate to exceptional drought conditions exist across 55% of the continental United States.

“Drought conditions worsened or developed for much of the Great Plains, Lower Mississippi Valley, and Southeast U.S. due to warmer and drier than normal conditions this winter,” said Jon Gottschalck, chief of the Operational Prediction Branch, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. "Drought is likely to persist across much of the West while developing in parts of the Pacific Northwest, Great Basin, central Rockies and Southwest. Dry conditions are expected to improve for some areas in the Midwest and Atlantic seaboard.”

Temperature and precipitation outlooks

The temperature outlook for April through June shows above-normal temperatures are favored across the majority of the western U.S. eastward to include much of the Plains, the lower and middle Mississippi Valley, the Ohio Valley, the Tennessee Valley, the Southeast and the southern Mid-Atlantic. The highest likelihood of enhanced warmth ranges from the Southwest to the Inter-Mountain West. Below-normal temperatures are forecast for east central Alaska.

The precipitation outlook favors below-average precipitation for the Pacific Northwest, parts of the Great Basin, Southwest, central High Plains and most of the Rockies. The greatest likelihood of below-average precipitation is forecast from the Pacific Northwest to the central Rockies. While above-normal precipitation is forecast for western Alaska, the eastern Great Lakes, mid-Atlantic and parts of the Southeast. 

Spring flood risk

(Map from previous Attachment reprinted)

This map depicts the locations where there is a greater than 50% chance of minor, moderate or major flooding from April through June, 2026.(Image credit: NOAA)

Download Image

NOAA’s National Hydrologic Assessment, issued by NOAA’s National Water Center, evaluates a number of factors, including current conditions of snowpack, drought, soil saturation levels, frost depth, streamflow and precipitation. 

The overall flood risk across most of the continental U.S. for Spring 2026 is currently assessed as normal to below normal. This risk determination was made primarily because of a dry and warm winter that resulted in dry soils over much of the eastern U.S., mitigating the threat of rainfall-driven flooding. Additionally, a well-below-normal snowpack across most of the country will reduce the risk of snowmelt-driven flooding. 

However, the Red River of the North and the lower Ohio Valley typically experience flooding annually; therefore, flooding is anticipated in these basins this year as well. 

“We anticipate typical spring flooding this year over portions of the Greater Mississippi River Basin, but the risk for widespread significant flooding is low,” said Ed Clark, director of NOAA’s National Water Center. “However, it is crucial to remember that heavy rainfall has the potential to lead to a major flooding event.”

Flooding can occur rapidly from intense rainfall, even in regions with a generally low risk. Rainfall intensity and location can only be accurately forecast days in the future, and flood risk can change rapidly. Stay current on flood risks in your area with the latest official watches and warnings at weather.gov. For detailed hydrologic conditions and forecasts, please visit water.noaa.gov.

See charts, maps and graphs here

A19X12 X12 from USA TODAY

NEW SPRING 2026 FORECASTS WARN OF THE DREADED 'HEAT DOME'

According to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, the spring temperature outlook favors above-normal temperatures for much of the United States.

by Doyle Rice Updated March 21, 2026, 10:53 a.m. ET

NOAA’s spring 2026 outlook predicts above‑normal temperatures across most of the United States, especially the interior West and Southwest, while calling for below‑normal precipitation in the Pacific Northwest and parts of the Rockies and above‑normal precipitation in western Alaska and the eastern Great Lakes region. A record‑breaking heat dome currently dominates the West, driving early‑season extreme heat, drought risk and heightened flood concerns in specific river basins.

Spring officially arrived Friday, March 20, and new forecasts say it's shaping up to be a warm few months for most Americans.

The news comes as much of the Western U.S. has already been enduring a summer preview from a huge, record-smashing heat dome across the region, which has sent tens of millions running for the air conditioner and the pool.

Meanwhile, drought conditions are forecast to worsen or develop for many areas in the West and south-central Plains, according to NOAA’s Spring Outlook released March 20 for April through June.

The national temperature forecast map for April-May-June shows widespread above-average temperatures are forecast for much of the nation, especially in the West.

WHAT'S THE SPRING FORECAST FOR THE US?

According to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC), the April-May-June 2026 temperature outlook favors above-normal seasonal temperatures for much of the contiguous United States, with the exception of parts of the northern Plains, upper Mississippi Valley, Great Lakes and Northeast.

"The highest probabilities (greater than 60 percent) of above-normal temperatures are forecast for areas of the central Great Basin and Rockies to parts of the Southwest," the CPC said in an online forecast.

As for precipitation, the April-May-June 2026 outlook shows below-normal seasonal precipitation amounts for the Pacific Northwest, much of the Intermountain West and Rockies as well as areas in the central High and Great Plains.

Meanwhile, above-normal precipitation is favored for most of western Alaska and for a region that includes the eastern Great Lakes, the mid-Atlantic and parts of the Southeast, according to the CPC.

The spring precipitation forecast map shows ongoing dryness continuing in the West and a wetter-than-average spring in much of the East.

WHAT PART OF THE NATION WILL BE HOTTEST THIS SPRING?

The highest odds for above-normal temperatures, including potential extreme heat episodes, are for the interior West, the central and southern Rockies, the Southwest, and the central and southern Plains, said Jon Gottschalck, the chief of the operational prediction branch at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, in an email to USA TODAY.

WHAT ABOUT SPRING FLOODING?

The overall flood risk across most of the continental U.S. for spring 2026 is currently assessed as normal to below normal, NOAA said in a statement. This risk determination was made primarily because of a dry and warm winter that resulted in dry soils over much of the eastern U.S., mitigating the threat of rainfall-driven flooding. Additionally, a well-below-normal snowpack across most of the country will reduce the risk of snowmelt-driven flooding.

However, the Red River of the North and the lower Ohio Valley typically experience flooding annually; therefore, flooding is anticipated in these basins this year as well, NOAA said.

“We anticipate typical spring flooding this year over portions of the Greater Mississippi River Basin, but the risk for widespread significant flooding is low,” said Ed Clark, director of NOAA’s National Water Center, in a statement. “However, it is crucial to remember that heavy rainfall has the potential to lead to a major flooding event.”

TYPICAL SPRING PATTERN IN THE MIDWEST, NORTHEAST AS HEAT DOME EXPANDS IN THE WEST

For the immediate future, AccuWeather said that cold and warm air will trade places multiple times across the Midwest and Northeast in the coming weeks, a pattern typical of spring.

The next rebound in temperatures is already underway in parts of the Midwest and will spread to portions of the Northeast into the weekend as the edge of a massive, record-smashing heat dome in the Southwest expands.

The western heat dome has already broken the record for hottest March day in U.S. history as temperatures soar into the 90s and even past 100 degrees in some cities, levels more typical of late spring or early summer, AccuWeather said.

IS THIS THE END OF WINTER WEATHER, ARCTIC BLASTS?

"No, not entirely, in fact areas near the Great Lakes and parts of the Northeast are forecast to see below-normal temperatures during the middle of next week with some areas seeing a short period of low temperatures in the upper teens and low 20s, with lower wind chills and some potential for snow," said Gottschalck.

"But certainly not bitter Arctic air like earlier in the year."

"Having said that, looking ahead past next week, we generally see above normal temperatures for most of the country and so by that time − mid April, any major, extensive impactful cold air periods are unlikely," Gottschalck said.

WHAT IS A HEAT DOME?

A heat dome, like the one baking the West now, is a sprawling area of high pressure that promotes hot and dry conditions for days or weeks at a time.

"Heat domes are a lot like a balloon," AccuWeather senior meteorologist Alan Reppert explained. "They expand and contract as the day goes by, and when you are inside of it, it can be very warm."

Heat domes can also prevent clouds from forming, resulting in abundant sunshine that boosts temperatures, potentially toward record levels.

As temperatures swell, so too does the cooling demand which can increase the strain on the power grid of an entire region. Extended hot and dry spells can also cause drought conditions to develop or worsen, AccuWeather said in an online report.

AccuWeather meteorologist Tom Kines told USA TODAY in an email that "one concern we have about this early season heatwave across Southern California is it will cause the ground cover to brown up much earlier than usual, which could spell trouble/increase the fire danger if there is a Santa Ana event at some point in April or May."

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE DANGERS ASSOCIATED WITH HEAT DOMES?

As with any heat wave, heat stroke, heat exhaustion and heat cramps are common dangers, Kines said. "Drink plenty of fluids − ideally water − and wear light-colored and lightweight clothing. A hat with a visor or better yet one with a wide brim to shield the sun from your head."

"If possible, do your outside work or strenuous activities early in the day or evening when it's not so hot and the sun is less intense. Air conditioning and a pool are two of the best ways to beat the heat."

Is this a good example of a heat dome?

This is definitely an example of a heat dome. Heat domes are associated with a stagnant air mass and record-challenging heat, Kines said.

"The records being broken with this heat dome aren't being broken by a degree; they are being obliterated by a few and in some cases several degrees. Since this heat is occurring so early in the season, most people's bodies have not been acclimated to the heat yet," he added.

HOW LONG WILL THIS HEAT DOME LAST?

Kines said the heat dome will begin to break down early in the week of March 23. However, temperatures are likely to remain above the historical average.

COULD WE SEE MORE 'HEAT DOMES' THIS SPRING?

"Yes, this is likely. Not only do short term climate prediction numerical models favor widespread above-normal temperatures as forecast, there is strong agreement for this among many models and at higher than normal odds," Gottschalck told USA TODAY.

A20X07 X07 FROM ACCU WEATHER

SPRING FORECAST 2026: WINTRY WEATHER ISN’T FINISHED YET IN THESE PARTS OF THE US

From early heat to lingering cold snaps and snow, here’s what AccuWeather forecasters expect across the United States throughout the spring season.

By Brian Lada, AccuWeather meteorologist

Published Jan 27, 2026 3:45 PM EDT | Updated Feb 2, 2026 11:33 AM EDT

AccuWeather’s spring forecast is out. The big question: When will spring arrive? AccuWeather’s Paul Pastelok breaks it down.

Spring 2026 will be a season divided, with large areas of the country expected to have an early arrival of springlike weather, while millions face an extension of winter through the first day of the new season. Spring officially begins at 10:46 a.m. EDT on Friday, March 20.

AccuWeather’s long-range forecasters say some areas will struggle to shake winter weather well into the season, including the chance for spring snow, while others transition quickly to warmth.

From severe weather season to expanding drought, here’s what to expect this spring across the United States.

Where spring warmth will be delayed

The Northeast, Midwest and the northern Plains will experience a seasonal tug-of-war throughout the upcoming season, with cold air winning the battle more often than springlike warmth, especially early in the season.

"A slower transition to persistent spring warmth can occur from the northern Rockies to the Northeast," AccuWeather Long-Range Expert Paul Pastelok said. He added that there will be occasional warmups, but they will not last long before the next wave of chilly air arrives.

The extension of cold weather in the Plains, Midwest and Great Lakes will keep the door open for snow, especially during the first half of the spring. It will also bring opportunities for late-season frost, which can impact farmers and backyard gardeners.

People across these regions could have to wait until May before warm weather settles in for good and winter coats can be put in the closet.

Early warmth to fuel drought

Spring warmth will arrive much faster across the southern half of the country, with fewer cool spells once winter loosens its grip.

"You go back to last year, it was pretty warm," Pastelok said. "In fact, we had the second warmest spring on record last year. This area of the country again could feel early heat."

In the Northwest, the switch from wintry to springlike weather will be delayed, unfolding around the middle of the season. "With the increasing warmth, snowmelt can be faster in April, leading to some isolated flooding near some rivers and streams," Pastelok said.

The warm conditions and lack of springtime storms will cause drought to worsen, particularly across the Southwest. "We are not expecting significant rainfall for this region. Spotty large fires can break out across this region during the spring," Pastelok warned.

Drought may also worsen in parts of the Plains and Southeast. "The Florida Peninsula may not see much in the way of consistent rainfall until late spring. This can lead to spotty large brush fires," Pastelok said.

SEVERE WEATHER SEASON TO RAMP UP

AccuWeather’s Bernie Rayno and Ariella Scalese count down the top 3 most powerful tornado videos of 2025. One of the most intense tornadoes was captured by meteorologist Tony Laubach on May 18.

Severe weather will once again be a major springtime hazard in 2026, even if the season does not mirror the extreme tornado counts seen in 2025. The 1,559 tornadoes tallied last year were above the 15-year historical average of 1,392.

“We are leaning toward fewer tornado reports this spring compared to last year, but that does not mean the season will be quiet,” Pastelok warned. Instead, severe thunderstorms are more likely to trigger damaging winds and torrential rain compared to last year.

The greatest risk for severe weather will focus from the Mississippi Valley into the Gulf states, especially during March and April. In these areas, storms are more likely to produce damaging straight-line winds and flooding downpours, but tornadoes will still pose a threat.

Farther north, cooler and more stable air early in the season may limit severe weather initially across the north-central Plains and Midwest, but that will change later in April and into May.

AccuWeather will release a detailed breakdown of the 2026 severe weather and tornado forecast on March 4.

FLOOD RISK TO RISE AS WARMTH SETTLES IN

The springtime weather pattern is likely to generate storms that track more slowly across the country, resulting in higher rainfall totals and elevating the risk of flooding.

"Slow-moving storms could produce heavier rain at times along the Gulf Coast, especially from Alabama to northern Florida," Pastelok said. "Severe thunderstorms in March and April can lead to flash flooding and river flooding in parts of Missouri, Kentucky, the lower Ohio Valley as was the case in 2002."\

Melting snow in the spring can also cause some flooding issues across New England, the Northwest and parts of the Rockies.

Astronomical spring officially begins on the vernal equinox, which in 2026 takes place at 10:46 a.m. EDT on Friday, March 20.

A21X14 X14 FROM NORTHJERSEY.COM

What's a 'Godzilla' El Nino? How it affects NJ spring 2026 forecast

by Lori Comstock Updated March 19, 2026, 5:22 p.m. ET

NOTE: This story was updated to add new information.

Weather forecasters are laying out powerful El Niño 2026 predictions as the Northeast spring and summer 2026 weather forecasts take shape, but should New Jersey get ready for a "Super" El Nino or "Godzilla" El Nino?

NOAA's Climate Prediction Center issued an El Nino watch for late 2026, citing 62% odds of development and a 1-in-3 chance it'll be a particularly "strong" El Nino. Scientists say should it take hold, it could be the strongest we've seen in a decade, with record-high temperatures across the US, a shifted US winter weather pattern and a volatile 2026 hurricane season.

What does El Nino mean for the Northeast and New Jersey weather outlook for spring and summer, and does it mean more wildfires and drought, or will it mean more rain, flooding and severe storms? Will it be a hot summer in NJ this year? Here's what you need to know about El Nino and why some meteorologists are calling it a "Godzilla" El Nino or "Super" El Nino.

EL NINO 2026 PREDICTIONS

NOAA's Climate Prediction Center has issued an El Niño watch for late 2026, with NOAA forecasters seeing signs a "strong" El Nino could bring record-setting heat to the US, driving up the risk of more wildfires, droughts, flooding, and the number of hurricanes we see this 2026 hurricane season.

El Nino often leads to some of the hottest years on record: a strong El Nino in 2024 led NOAA declaring 2024 the world's warmest year on record.

How does El Nino affect hurricane season 2026?

A brewing and "strong" El Nino historically means a more active hurricane season in the eastern and central Pacific Oceans, according to NOAA. While El Nino often leads to increase activity in the Pacific, it has the opposite affect in the Atlantic, meaning the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season may not be as volatile. However, forecasters warn that the specific location of the warmest waters, either in the East or Central Pacific, ultimately decide which basin experiences more significant storm activity.

How will El Nino affect NJ 2026 spring weather?

The weather pattern is currently in a La Nina pattern, meaning that the spring 2026 weather in New Jersey won't be impacted by El Nino, which is predicted to develop later in 2026.

A transition to "neutral" conditions will arrive by likely April, with NOAA forecasters spotting the potential for a "strong" El Nino, with extreme temperature contrasts and storms across the Eastern US by late 2026.

How does El Nino affect summer 2026 weather in NJ?

La Nina will transition to El Nino by late summer, NOAA forecasts, and while it could drive the number of 2026 Atlantic hurricanes down, it may introduce heat waves and flooding. El Nino could become stronger by October-December 2026, the NOAA Climate Prediction Center said, which is likely to impact temperatures in 2027. Climate scientist Zeke Hausfather says it could lead to 2027 being the hottest year on record.

What does 'Godzilla' El Nino or 'Super' El Nino mean?

"Godzilla" El Nino and "Super" El Nino aren't official NOAA or NWS terms, but are used interchangeably by meteorologists to explain what could be a "strong" El Nino 2026.

POLARITY – EL NINO, JET STREAM, HEAT DOME

A22X15 X15 FROM GUK

WEATHER EXTREMES GRIPPING US BEAR CLIMATE CRISIS ‘FINGERPRINT’, EXPERTS SAY

There are flooding rains in Hawaii, rare snow in Alabama and a severe heatwave in the west coast

Marina Dunbar Sun 22 Mar 2026 08.00 EDT

The US is experiencing a striking mix of weather extremes this March. Flooding rains in Hawaii, rare snow in Alabama, flip-flopping temperatures in the north-east and, perhaps most concerning, a severe heatwave affecting the west coast are raising questions about how strange these patterns really are, and what role the climate crisis is playing.

Experts suggested that people around the US need to pay closer attention to the climate crisis and do what they can to “minimize the impacts”.

Of course, in some ways, the current patchwork of weather activity reflects a familiar seasonal transition: March has long been known for its unpredictability, particularly in regions like the north-east.

HEATWAVE SCORCHING US WEST ‘VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE’ WITHOUT CLIMATE CRISIS, SAY SCIENTISTS

“The weather has behaved a lot like I expect it to,” said Jon Nese, associate head of the department of meteorology and atmospheric science at Penn State. “In March, we have some warm days, and then it turns sharply colder and snows. It’s the kind of rollercoaster that we’re used to.”

In New York, Daniel Bader, a program manager at the Consortium for Climate Risk in the Urban Northeast at Columbia’s climate school, described a particularly dramatic swing: “Temperatures at Central Park hit 80 degrees, and then two days later, there were snowflakes in the air.”

“March is kind of an active weather month,” Bader continued. “This kind, where one day it’s very warm, and the next day it cools off quite a bit, is not out of the ordinary.”

The key driver behind these extremes is the jet stream – a fast-moving current of air high in the atmosphere that can sometimes become very wavy. These dips can cause different extremes to happen simultaneously in different parts of the country, such as a ridge of warm air in one region, and a trough of cold air in another.

“The heatwave in the west, happening at the same time as we turn sharply colder in the east, those two things are related,” Nese said.

Bader echoed this explanation, noting that seasonal shifts in temperature gradients influence the jet stream’s position and behavior: “There can be these ridges and troughs that develop and that can be contributing to some of these extreme events.”

But if March has always been a month of extremes, this year’s events suggest that those extremes, particularly on the warm side, are ramping up in severity.

The intensity of the heat in the western US has frequently broken records in recent years, with this past week being no exception. California, Nevada and Arizona were all under heat warnings this week amid scorching temperatures.

In California, the National Weather Service (NWS) said the Los Angeles area was facing “extremely rare heat for March”, warning residents of a high risk for heat illness. Palm Springs, about 100 miles (160km) east of Los Angeles, reached a high of 107F on Thursday. Heat alerts remain in effect through Sunday.

The heatwave scorching the west would have been “virtually impossible” if not for the climate crisis, according to a team of scientists. Global warming, caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, has made this kind of heatwave four times more likely to occur over the last decade, according to a rapid analysis released Friday.

“The warmth in the west right now is very unusual,” Nese said. “There are going to be a ton of high temperature records set. Some of the temperatures may actually beat April records.”

Bader was even more direct: “This is really unprecedented conditions. We may break April records. The warmest temperature in March ever recorded in the United States might fall.”

Even isolated anomalies, like snow in the southern state of Alabama, underscore the broader thread of variability. Several other states, including Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan, saw snowfall go well into the double digits.

On Tuesday, half a million US homes and businesses were without power after a potent storm system brought a mix of snow, strong winds, cold temperatures and rainfall to areas from the midwest to the east coast.

Nese said: “Snow in Alabama in March is pretty unusual.”

The overlap between unusual snowfall and the climate crisis is complex and still being studied, but there is clearer consensus when it comes to heat.

“It’s probably reasonable to say that this heatwave in the west in March will have a climate change fingerprint on it,” Nese added.

Bader similarly emphasized that while individual events are difficult to attribute, broader trends are clearer: “The greatest connections we can draw are related to extreme heat events becoming more frequent and also more intense.”

He also explained that the increasing heat of the atmosphere could intensify rainfall. Bader said: “A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture that could potentially lead to more heavy precipitation.”

While the climate crisis might have some effect on bringing unusually colder weather in certain regions, the number of record-breaking heatwaves is greatly outpacing the number of cold weather events as the planet continues to heat up.

This summer is expected to be among the hottest on record, continuing the trend of record-shattering heat driven by the climate crisis as well as the potential development of a strong El Niño.

And as the extremes become more and more unpredictable, experts stress the importance of preparedness, even as Donald Trump has cut funding to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), marking a dangerous erosion in US capacity to prepare for and respond to natural disasters.

“These events are kind of constant reminders that we are very vulnerable to weather and climate extremes,” Bader said. “If there are opportunities to minimize the impacts, then we should take advantage of those.”

A23X03 X03 FROM THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

At the 2026 Oscars, climate change was conspicuously absent

 By Elijah Wolfson March 19, 2026 6 AM PT

Almost exactly 10 years ago, Leonardo DiCaprio won a Best Actor Oscar (his first) for his performance in “The Revenant” as an early 19th century fur trapper who is injured in a bear attack, then by turns grudgingly kept alive, abandoned and left for dead by the avaricious hunting party he had been hired to lead.

In his acceptance speech at those 88th Academy Awards, DiCaprio first thanked the film’s cast and crew. He then pivoted quickly and forcefully to the environment. “The Revenant,” he said, was … “about man’s relationship to the natural world that we collectively felt in 2015, as the hottest year in recorded history.”

The rest of what he said is worth a big block quote; to read it today, the week after the 98th Academy, during which politics and policy both receded, is bracing.

“Our production needed to move to the southern tip of this planet just to find snow. Climate change is real, it is happening right now, it is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work together and stop procrastinating. We need to support leaders around the world who do not speak for the big polluters, the big corporations, but who speak for all humanity, for the Indigenous people of the world, for the billions and billions of underprivileged people who will be most affected by this, for our children’s children, and for those people whose voices have been drowned out by the politics of greed. I thank you all for this award tonight. Let us not take this planet for granted. I do not take this award for granted.”

That year was something of a heady time for environmentalists. Barack Obama was in the middle of his second term as president of the U.S and though his climate and environmental policies were not especially progressive, in 2015 he did enact the Clean Power Plan, which had the stated goal of reducing carbon emissions locally, and “leading global efforts to address climate change” outside U.S. borders.

Bottom of Form

Further, just a couple of months after the 88th Academy Awards, the U.S. would become something of a heady time for environmentalists., whose terms had been negotiated the previous fall.

Fast forward 10 years. Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement in 2020. Joe Biden rejoined in 2021. Trump withdrew again just a few months ago. And in this second go at the White House, the Trump Administration has done everything in its power to tighten the knots tethering the U.S. to fossil fuels. It has literally forced owners of coal plants in Colorado and Washington State that want to shut them down to keep them open. Trump has fought tooth and nail in court to suspend wind energy projects that are fully permitted, under contract and under construction across the eastern seaboard. And his administration has rolled backed numerous efforts to keep climate change in check, like the allowance of state-specific fuel economy standards and the landmark fossil-fuel endangerment finding of 2009.

Meanwhile, that global temperature record that DiCaprio mentioned in his acceptance speech in 2016 seems almost trifling compared to what has happened since. It’s been surpassed six times. According to data from the National Centers for Environmental Information, the three hottest years on record are 2024, 2023 and 2025.

GLOBAL TEMPERATURES ON THE RISE

Temperature difference from 20th Century average

Bar chart shows temperature difference from the 1901-2000 average since 2000. Temperatures have generally risen each year, but show the largest spike in 2023. 2024 was the hottest year.

0.511.522.5° F200020052010201520202025

2015 was 1.6° F hotter than the 1901-2000 average

2024 was 2.3° F hotter

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Includes land and ocean temperature

See charat at National Centers for Environmental Information

Sean Greene LOS ANGELES TIMES

At the 98th Academy Awards, DiCaprio was nominated again for Best Actor — his sixth in that category — this time for “One Battle After Another.” The film, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, won Best Picture. DiCaprio lost in his category to Michael B. Jordan, the lead of Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” so he didn’t have a chance to say anything about climate change.

But not a single one of the Oscar winners this year mentioned it.

Both “One Battle After Another” and “Sinners” were produced by Warner Brothers, which is about to be acquired by Paramount Skydance, which in turn is owned by David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison, one the world’s wealthiest individuals and noted Trump supporter. Ellison the younger has already made decisions that have significantly defanged the climate coverage at CBS News — Paramount’s flagship news network — and it would not be shocking if CNN — part of the WB — is next.

Indeed, one of the defining characteristics of this show was its dearth of any language at the awards that could be considered political.

Instead of the fire we got from, say, Michael Moore in 2003, what we got was a sort of mea culpa from P.T. Anderson — who might be the definitional American Gen X director — in his acceptance speech for Best Adapted Screenplay:

“I wrote this movie for my kids to say sorry for the housekeeping mess that we left in this world we’re handing off to them. But also, with the encouragement that they will be the generation that hopefully brings us some common sense and decency.”

I harbor the same hopes, but it might require at least acknowledging the problems first.

More culture & enviro news

One thing that does give me some optimism is that the feted films themselves did a pretty good job acknowledging climate change. According to Good Energy, a consultancy group, of the 16 scripted features that were nominated for an Oscar and met the eligibility criteria, five passed the “climate reality check.” That’s pretty good!

Relevant especially for those facing the heat wave right now in L.A. and the rest of the southwest: a study published earlier this week in Lancet attempted to quantify how rising global temperatures will impact physical inactivity in different parts of the world. Chloé Farand summed it up for the Guardian, noting the researchers’ projection of 500,000 additional annual deaths due to inactivity by 2050.

Meanwhile, Libby Rainey at LAist wrote about how the city is preparing for the inevitable heat challenges that will accompany the World Cup games this coming summer.

This isn’t brand new — in fact, it references the reporting of my former colleague Sammy Roth — but Alexandra Tey over at the Nation has a nice roundup of sports fans protesting their teams’ financial ties to fossil fuel companies. It focuses on one of the most visible of these partnerships: Citi Field, where the New York Mets play, is named for Citi group, the world’s biggest lender to oil and gas companies.

A few last things in climate news this week

With gas prices skyrocketing due to the war in Iran, some Californians have been wondering why oil companies in the state can’t just start drilling more. My colleague Blanca Begert explains why it isn’t that simple.

The related big question is will the turmoil in the middle east push countries around the world to double down on renewable energy. In the New Yorker, Bill McKibben makes the case that this could be the moment that small clean tech — think solar panels, heat pumps, induction cooktops, etc — really takes off.

Finally, somehow, some 10 million tons of manure produced at California factory farms is unaccounted for. Seth Millstein, writing for Sentient, explains how lax regulation let farms dispose of 200 Titanics’ worth of animal waste without telling anyone where or how they did it.

This is the latest edition of Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change and the environment in the American West

A24X02 X02 FROM GUK

REVEALED: THE WORLD’S WORST MEGA-LEAKS OF METHANE DRIVING GLOBAL HEATING

Exclusive: Fixing a leak can be simple and equivalent to closing a coal power station, making lack of action maddening, say analysts

By Damian Carrington Tue 17 Mar 2026 01.00 EDT

The world’s worst mega-leaks of the potent greenhouse gas methane in 2025 have been revealed by an analysis of satellite data.

The super-polluting plumes from oil and gas facilities have a colossal heating impact on the climate but often result from poor maintenance and can be simple to fix. The assessment found dozens of mega-leaks, each having the same global heating impact as a coal-fired power station.

The researchers said it was “maddening” that such easy action to fight the climate crisis was not being taken, and said people should be angry. Stopping the leaks can even be free, given that captured gas can be sold – methane is the “natural gas” that fires power stations.

The mega-leaks occur across the world, but the top 25 list, produced by the Stop Methane Project at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), is dominated by facilities in Turkmenistan. The scale of methane leaks in the secretive and authoritarian state has previously been described as “mind-boggling”.

Super-polluting plumes were also seen in the US, the largest detected in 2025 occurring in Texas and leaking 5.5 tonnes of methane per hour, equivalent to running about a million fuel-guzzling SUVs. Venezuela (five) and Iran (three) also had multiple mega-leaks from state-owned facilities.

The Stop Methane Project also analysed super-polluting plumes from landfill sites, where rotting organic waste can release huge volumes of methane when not well managed. The worst sites ranged across the world, from Turkey to Algeria and Malaysia to the US.

Methane emissions cause 25% of global heating today, and there has been a “scary” surge since 2007, according to scientists. They have warned that this acceleration seriously risks triggering catastrophic climate tipping points. However, cutting methane emissions has a rapid impact, because the gas is naturally removed from the atmosphere far quicker than carbon dioxide. Some experts call cutting methane the climate “emergency brake”.

“It is really maddening,” said Cara Horowitz at UCLA. “These sites are the result of poor maintenance – if you upgraded the infrastructure a little bit, did good housekeeping, you could solve a really important part of the problem.

“We’re hoping that by bringing visibility to these major issues, we will help increase public and political pressure to do something.”

Unlike previous lists of plumes, the UCLA project investigated the probable operators of the mega-leak sites.

The super-polluting plume in Texas appears to be operated by Energy Transfer. The company did not reply to a request for comment.

“Methane was the stealth pollutant gas for many years: invisible, out of sight and out of mind,” said Horowitz. “But we can now see these tremendously powerful emissions using satellites and use that as a wake-up call for the world.”

Revealed: 1,000 super-emitting methane leaks risk triggering climate tipping points

The UCLA Stop Methane analysis is based on data from Carbon Mapper and found 4,400 significant plumes in 2025, each emitting more than about 100kg/hour, equivalent to running 20,000 SUVs. In the US, nine of the 10 worst leaks were in Texas.

“Americans should be surprised and angered by the fact that the US lands pretty high on this list of top super-polluting plumes,” said Horowitz. “We in the US tend to think of our industry as fairly well and cleanly run, but this shows that we still have work to do.”

Turkmen officials claimed in October that methane mega-leaks had been reduced. “Management has placed this under special control, and leaks are being repaired locally within two to three days,” said Muhammetberdi Byashiev, the head of the environmental protection department at the state company Türkmengaz, citing collaboration with the UN, International Energy Agency and EU. However, the new analysis shows substantial mega-leaks remain.

“It’s clear that Turkmenistan is trying to access the European market,” said Horowitz. “European potential buyers should pay attention to our results and think of this as a ‘buyer beware’ moment.” The EU is phasing in strict limits on methane leaks linked to imported gas.

Mary Nichols, the former chair of the California Air Resources Board and a member of Carbon Mapper’s policy and impact committee, said: “Methane is a more powerful climate villain than any other air pollutant because it acts quickly and is emitted in large volumes. It is also relatively cheap and easy to control. New, detailed satellite pictures can help target the countries and companies that need to be held accountable.”

The Guardian contacted Türkmennebit, Türkmengaz, Petróleos de Venezuela SA, the National Iranian Oil Company and the National Iranian Gas Company but did not receive replies.

• Methodology note: Carbon Mapper uses data from two satellites to measure the plumes as they pass overhead. Leak rates from a plume on different days are averaged and days with no leaks are taken into account. The satellites cannot collect data at night or through heavy clouds, so not every plume may be detected. The Stop Methane Project only considered plumes that were detected at least twice. The top 25 oil and gas plumes were each detected an average of seven times and the top 25 landfill plumes were each detected an average of 11 times.

A25X10 X10 FROM CENTER for AMERICAN PROGRESS

Climate Deniers of the 119th Congress and the Second Trump Administration

A new CAP analysis finds that the federal government is rife with officials who deny climate change in leadership positions within the executive branch, presidential Cabinet, and Congress.

Doug Molof

Director, Government Affairs Report Dec 18, 2025

In this article

• Introduction and summary
• Defining a climate denier
• Climate deniers in the 119th Congress
• A government led by climate denial
• The fossil fuel industry has contributed its way into federal policymaking
• Conclusion
• Methodology
• Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY

Since the January 2025 start of the 119th Congress and President Donald Trump’s second term, fossil fuel-induced climate disasters have hit nearly every state in the country.¹ From the devastating fires in Los Angeles, to the flash floods in Texas, to extreme heat events across the United States, it is no surprise that 74 percent of Americans report having experienced an extreme weather event in the past year, making it more critical than ever to address the impacts of climate change.²

Since 1980, the United States has experienced 417 weather and climate disasters for which overall damages reached at least $1 billion, for total costs of more than $3.1 trillion.³ Yet 119 members of the 119th Congress continue to deny the scientific consensus of human-caused climate change. These elected officials have also received a total of $51,449,854 in lifetime contributions from the fossil fuel industry.⁴ This same Congress passed the Big Beautiful Bill (BBB), which dismantled the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) critical climate investments in clean energy and pollution reduction and gives $18 billion in new and expanded tax breaks to the oil industry.⁵

However, climate denial is not limited to elected representatives in Congress. The two highest offices in the U.S. government are held by climate deniers: President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.⁶ At the U.N. General Assembly this past September, President Trump called climate change the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.”⁷ Under their leadership, the Trump administration has appointed and the Senate has confirmed climate deniers and skeptics to the presidential Cabinet—easing the path toward establishing policies to dismantle climate science.⁸ Leaders of the agencies most directly responsible for environmental and climate-related policies at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) have also used deceptive language and spread misinformation.⁹ New Center for American Progress analysis finds that in the current 119th Congress, climate deniers hold 69 percent of leadership positions in Congress, the executive branch, and the Cabinet.

President Trump and his administration have made no secret of their friendliness with the fossil fuel industry.¹⁰ The combustion of fossil fuels is changing the climate, as the fossil fuel industry has long known and sought to cover up.¹¹ During the 2023-24 election cycle, the industry spent nearly $250 million lobbying Congress, with 88 percent of funds going to Republicans and 12 percent to Democrats, and donated upwards of $75 million to support Trump’s presidential campaign, the Republican National Committee, and affiliated committees.¹²

Since the election, the Trump administration has responded in kind by appealing to corporate insiders and enacting policies that are making it easier for polluters to evade health and safety regulations.¹³ Meanwhile, the fossil fuel industry continues to profit off Americans, who are left to bear the brunt of the negative economic, health, and safety impacts caused by their products.¹⁴

DEFINING A CLIMATE DENIER

This analysis considers a person a climate denier if they have:

· Stated that they believe that climate change is not real or is a hoax

· Stated that the climate has always been changing as a result of natural factors and that today’s warming is merely a continuation of natural cycles

· Claimed that the science around climate change is not settled, including attempting to dismiss the science around carbon dioxide, or that they cannot speak to the issue because they are not scientists

· Claimed that while humans are contributing to a changing climate, they are not the main contributors

· Stated that increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather events, such as wildfires and hurricanes, are not related to climate change

· Claimed that climate change impacts are beneficial to humans or positive for planetary health

If a member previously made statements that qualified as climate denial in past CAP analyses but has since consistently acknowledged the validity of climate science, this analysis no longer classifies them as a climate denier.

The science is clear: CO2 is the primary driver of climate change

Climate deniers often claim that the science around climate change is not settled, despite overwhelming scientific evidence proving the opposite.¹⁵ This includes cherry-picking data that are unrepresentative of the overall scientific findings, such as arguing that increased carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas responsible for climate change, is actually beneficial to humans and the planet or attempting to discredit scientists who have demonstrated the impacts of carbon dioxide.¹⁶ Proponents of this line of reasoning attempt to dismiss the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere as insignificant. Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, among others, have recently used this tactic.¹⁷

Trusted scientific institutions and rigorous peer review processes have repeatedly proved these claims false.¹⁸ Although CO2 and other greenhouse gases do make up a small overall percentage of the Earth’s atmosphere, the current concentration of CO2 at 430 parts per million represents a 45 percent increase since the start of the Industrial Age in the late 1700s.¹⁹ This increase, coupled with the outsize impact CO2 has in trapping radiant heat, is a proven driver of climate change.²⁰

CLIMATE DENIERS IN THE 119TH CONGRESS

There are currently 119 members of the 119th Congress—24 senators and 95 representatives—who publicly deny the scientific consensus of human-caused climate change.²¹ The overall number of climate deniers has declined slightly since the 118th Congress, which had 123 deniers,²² as 11 lost or did not run for reelection in 2024, two have been appointed to Cabinet positions, and JD Vance was elected vice president of the United States.^{23 24} Of the 75 new members of Congress, 13 are climate deniers.²⁵

Climate deniers in the 119th Congress by the numbers

119

Total number of climate deniers

24

Number of climate deniers in the Senate

95

Number of climate deniers in the House of Representatives

Even as the total number of members of Congress who overtly deny climate science has declined slightly, CAP analysis finds that climate deniers have occupied at least half of leadership positions during the second half of the first Trump administration (116th Congress) and the first half of the current Trump administration (119th Congress). This represents a sharp contrast to the Biden administration (117th and 118th Congresses), in both the appointment and the election of climate deniers to leadership positions. Furthermore, this analysis finds that there are more climate deniers in leadership positions now, during Trump’s second administration, at 69 percent, than there were in the 116th Congress, at 50 percent.

The average makeup of climate deniers in federal leadership positions was calculated by giving a 25 percent weight to four categories of appointed and elected federal officials during the 119th, 118th, 117th, and 116th Congresses. The categories are: 1) executive office, including the president and vice president; 2) majority congressional leadership, including the Senate majority leader, speaker of the House, and House majority leader; 3) environmental cabinet members, including the heads of the DOI, EPA, and DOE; and 4) majority members of Congress per congressional session.

TABLE 1

At least half of leadership positions during the 119th and 116th Congresses, both during Trump administrations, have been occupied by climate deniers

Climate deniers in leadership positions by congressional session

During Trump administrations

Table showing the number and percentage of climate deniers in leadership positions by congressional session.

Table with 9 columns and 6 rows.
		119th Congress		118th Congress		117th Congress		116th Congress
	Majority congressional leadership	67%	2/3	67%	2/3	0%	0/3	33%	1/3
	Majority Senate	45%	24/53	0%	0/50*	0%	0/50*	69%	36/52
	Majority House	43%	95/219	45%	98/220	0%	0/222	0%	0/237
	POTUS/VPOTUS	100%	2/2	0%	0	0%	0	100%	2/2
	Heads of the EPA, DOI, DOE**	67%	2/3	0%	0	0%	0	33%	1/3
	Climate deniers in leadership positions	69%		22%		0%		50%

* During both the 117th and 118th Congresses, the Senate was split 50-50, but the Democratic Party held the effective majority because of former Vice President Kamala Harris' tie-breaking vote. ** The acronyms listed here refer to the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Source: U.S. Senate, "Complete List of Majority and Minority Leaders" (last accessed December 2025); U.S. House of Representatives, "Majority Leaders of the House (1899 to present)" (last accessed December 2025); Sally Hardin and Claire Moser, “Climate Deniers in the 116th Congress,” Center for American Progress Action Fund, January 28, 2019; Ari Drennen and Sally Hardin, “Climate Deniers in the 117th Congress,” Center for American Progress, March 30, 2021; Kat So, "Climate Deniers of the 118th Congress" (Washington: Center for American Progress, 2024); Congressional Research Service, "Membership of the 119th Congress: A Profile" (last accessed December 2025); Congressional Research Service, "Membership of the 118th Congress: A Profile" (last accessed December 2025); Congressional Research Service, "Membership of the 117th Congress: A Profile" (last accessed December 2025); Congressional Research Service, "Membership of the 116th Congress: A Profile" (last accessed December 2025); Wide Awake Media, @wideawake_media, November 7, 2024, 6:15 a.m. ET, X; Taylor Popielarz, “In-depth: Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance talks platform, issues,” Spectrum News 1, January 21, 2022; Varney & Co, September 24, 2025, Facebook; Aaron Rupar, @atrupar.com, September 25, 2025, 9:02 a.m. ET, Bluesky; Eliza Relman, "Pence refused to concede climate change is a manmade 'existential threat' during the vice-presidential debate," Business Insider, October 8, 2020.Table: Center for American Progress

Leaders in Congress are responsible for executing their party’s policy priorities and ensuring its members are aligned. In July 2025, the BBB was signed into law, rolling back federal incentives and grants in the 2022 IRA that were aimed at reducing emissions and building climate resilience.²⁶ Instead of creating good-paying jobs, investing in renewable energy, and cutting pollution, the BBB raises the costs of energy, rolls back crucial environmental protections, and risks the reliability of U.S. energy to give tax breaks to billionaires and more than $80 billion in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry over the next decade.²⁷ The bill rolls back federal investments to protect clean air and water and reduce harmful emissions, such as pollution monitoring and emissions-free school buses, while increasing fossil fuel production. Increases in local air pollution are expected to cause 430 avoidable deaths per year by 2030 and 930 by 2035.²⁸ The BBB also cancels clean energy tax incentives that spurred the growth of the clean energy sector, resulting in less available energy and passing the costs onto consumers.²⁹ A recent Rhodium Group analysis projects that the Trump administration’s actions to roll back climate and public health regulations will increase overall greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 26 percent by 2040 compared with what the level of emissions would be if Biden-era regulations were kept in place.³⁰

Climate deniers across 37 states make up 22 percent of the 119th Congress

Number and percentage of climate deniers in Congress by state

Map showing the distribution of climate deniers in Congress in the United States.

0%100%

Source: Final data sheet, which can be found here; U.S. House of Representatives, "Directory of Representatives" (last accessed December 2025).Map: Center for American Progress

A GOVERNMENT LED BY CLIMATE DENIAL

The real-life impacts of climate change are accumulating quickly, with scientific evidence showing that the planet continues to warm due to human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, that release harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.³¹ Climate change is causing more frequent and intense extreme weather events around the globe, from increasingly longer wildfire seasons to more destructive hurricanes.³² Since 2011, 99 percent of U.S. congressional districts have had at least one federally declared major disaster due to extreme weather.³³ Despite this, the Trump administration has created a government built on denying climate science.³⁴

Besides the 119 climate deniers in Congress, the two highest offices in the U.S. government are held by climate deniers. President Trump has consistently denied the existence of human-caused climate change, calling it a hoax and a scam and claiming that it is part of a natural cycle.³⁵ Vice President JD Vance has similarly claimed that he does not know to what extent human actions have influenced climate change.³⁶ Therefore, it is unsurprising that the Trump administration is defunding federal climate science efforts and research, stopping the tracking of extreme weather events and billion-dollar disasters, dismantling the weather service, erasing climate data, and attacking critical scientific efforts.³⁷

The Trump administration has made no secret of attacking efforts to transition the United States to a clean energy economy. According to an analysis from the Rhodium Group, Trump’s executive orders directing the federal government to increase fossil fuel production and creating roadblocks to clean energy such as wind and solar, coupled with the passage of the BBB, will increase climate change-causing emissions in 2040 by 15 percent to 26 percent, compared with emission levels if Biden-era regulations were kept in place.³⁸ More than 80,000 clean energy jobs have already been lost or stalled since November 2024,³⁹ while electricity and gas prices have increased nearly 10 percent on average in 2025 compared with 2024, despite Trump’s campaign promise to lower utility costs.⁴⁰

Further, the Trump administration has nominated and the Senate has confirmed climate deniers and skeptics to head the departments most directly involved with creating federal climate and environmental policy.⁴¹ For example, former Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR), now the secretary of labor, and former Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), now the secretary of state, were both included in CAP’s climate denier report of the 118th Congress⁴² (though not in the current analysis). A recent report from Public Citizen analyzed the backgrounds of 111 appointees and nominees and found that Trump has installed fossil fuel insiders and renewable energy opponents across nine agencies that handle energy and environmental policy.⁴³ Unsurprisingly, 72 percent of these appointees are housed in the DOI, DOE, and EPA.⁴⁴

Here is a closer look at the EPA, DOE, and DOI.

Environmental Protection Agency

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, a former congressman representing New York, has reversed his stance on climate change since taking over the agency.⁴⁵ Since his appointment, he has claimed that carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change, is beneficial to the planet—a form of climate denial.⁴⁶ He said that President Trump’s comments at the U.N. General Assembly that climate change is a hoax or con were “absolutely right.”⁴⁷ Zeldin received more than $410,000 from the oil and gas industry during his election campaigns for Congress and governor of New York.⁴⁸

Under Zeldin, in July 2025, the EPA released a proposal to rescind the endangerment finding, the bedrock scientific basis for addressing climate change.⁴⁹ The 2009 rule has been the foundation for the EPA to enforce pollution protections via the Clean Air Act.⁵⁰ Harmful greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel production, power plants, and vehicles threaten public health, especially in vulnerable communities.⁵¹ Furthermore, the proposal rescinds cleaner vehicle emission standards that would have yielded an estimated $13 billion per year in health benefits. Rescinding the standards will raise gas prices and increase drivers’ costs.⁵² Repealing the endangerment finding by claiming climate change and the pollution that causes it pose no threat to public health or the environment is a giveaway to corporate polluters and will harm Americans.

Additionally, recent reporting has revealed that the EPA has deleted references to human-caused climate change from many of its websites.⁵³ For example, in October 2025, a webpage titled “Causes of Climate Change” included a statement from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that said, “It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land.”⁵⁴ That entire section has now been deleted and only refers to climate change caused by natural processes.⁵⁵

Department of Energy

The DOE, the lead agency tasked with overseeing U.S. energy policy, is led by Secretary Chris Wright, a climate skeptic and former oil and gas company executive. ⁵⁶ In a 2023 video, Wright said, “There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition either.”⁵⁷  He has since provided statements that further muddle his stance, saying that climate change is a “global physical phenomenon that is a side effect of building the modern world,” and has spread misinformation on wind and solar energy.⁵⁸

The EPA’s proposal to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding was based on a report concurrently released by the DOE.⁵⁹ The report was written by five established climate deniers and cherry-picks long-debunked arguments to attempt to discredit the scientific consensus that climate change is human-caused, is a result of increased CO2 emissions in the atmosphere, and is leading to increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events across the globe.⁶⁰ Many across the scientific community called for the report to be discredited, and a group of authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report have refuted the misinformation presented in the DOE report.⁶¹ The Environmental Defense Fund and Union of Concerned Scientists filed a lawsuit against the DOE and EPA alleging that the agencies violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act by creating a secret working group without accountability measures to write the report with the goal of rolling back the endangerment finding.⁶² In September 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted partial summary judgment on behalf of the plaintiffs. This case is ongoing. ⁶³

Finally, the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy recently added “climate change,” “green,” and “decarbonization” to its list of words to avoid.⁶⁴

Department of the Interior

The DOI manages U.S. public lands and is responsible for regulating energy development, including oil and gas activities, on those lands. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, a former governor of North Dakota with strong ties to the oil and gas industry, has claimed that coal is a clean source of energy and attempted to discredit the scientific consensus of climate change, questioning how climate scientists, “could take a spreadsheet and extrapolate [climate] data for 90 years, 80 years, now 75 years and say ‘this is absolutely what’s going to happen.’”⁶⁵ When asked to respond to President Trump’s comments at the United Nations that climate change is “the greatest con job ever perpetuated on the world,” Secretary Burgum said, “President Trump does what he’s always done – he speaks openly and speaks truthfully, which is why the world loves him.”⁶⁶

On day one, the second Trump administration declared that the United States is in an “energy emergency” but proceeded to ban the most affordable, reliable, and clean types of domestic energy available: wind and solar.⁶⁷ Furthermore, the Trump administration’s executive and secretarial orders incentivize oil and gas development, sell public lands to corporate interests, open up public lands to drilling and mining, and prop up a dying coal industry.⁶⁸ In line with this guidance, the DOI has enacted policies to effectively ban new wind and solar projects, including some that have already been approved.⁶⁹ By disrupting the clean energy transition, the administration is tipping the scales in favor of corporate polluters while Americans are left to bear the environmental burdens and financial costs.

The fossil fuel industry has contributed its way into federal POLICYMAKING

The fossil fuel industry profits from its products that exacerbate the climate crisis while passing on the costs of worsening air pollution and other impacts to the public.⁷⁰ The industry knew of its role in causing climate change, and it hid the true impacts for decades.⁷¹ The oil and gas industry has raked in an average of $1 trillion annually over the past 50 years, and the five largest oil and gas companies made more than $100 billion in profit in 2024 alone.⁷² As long as the industry can remain profitable, there is no incentive to move away from business as usual. The fossil fuel industry contributed $96 million in direct donations to support Trump’s second presidential campaign and spent $250 million on lobbying, advertising, and donations to members of Congress in both parties ahead of the 2024 election.⁷³ The 119 climate deniers in Congress have received a total of $51,449,854 in lifetime contributions from the fossil fuel industry.

Elected officials have the responsibility to act in the best interest of their constituents, not of the oil and gas industry. More Americans than ever believe that climate change or global warming is real and that its effects are already happening.⁷⁴ But members of Congress—climate deniers and non-climate deniers alike—are monetarily incentivized by the fossil fuel industry to create policies that benefit oil and gas CEOs and ensure future campaign contributions.

President Trump and his administration were putting the fossil fuel industry and its billionaire donors ahead of the American people before he was even elected to a second term.⁷⁵ In April 2024, then-candidate Trump held a private dinner at Mar-a-Lago where he asked oil and gas industry executives for $1 billion in campaign contributions, suggesting that if he was elected, they could expect his administration to enact industry wishlist policies such as tax breaks and the repeal of EPA tailpipe emission standards—both of which have now been enacted.⁷⁶ The dinner was organized by oil and gas billionaire Harold Hamm and now-Secretary of the Interior Burgum.⁷⁷

Besides tax giveaways and rollbacks on regulations, the fossil fuel industry has taken advantage of its favorable relationship with the administration, reaping the rewards of its investments in the 2024 election cycle.⁷⁸ Some examples include:

· The CEOs of ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Hess reportedly lobbied the Trump administration for immunity from climate lawsuits, capitalizing on Trump’s willingness to show favor to fossil fuel industry insiders.⁷⁹ The Department of Justice is backing the oil and gas industry by suing Hawaii, Michigan, New York, and Vermont—the states that have brought cases against polluters.⁸⁰

· An executive order instructs the Department of Justice to target state climate laws and lawsuits that hold fossil fuel companies accountable for climate damage.⁸¹

· The American Petroleum Institute (API), the leading oil and gas industry trade group, submitted a policy “wish list” to the Trump administration earlier this year⁸² that includes actions aimed at removing roadblocks to oil and gas production and selling out America’s public lands to the highest bidder.⁸³ Since January 2025, the Trump administration has taken steps to deliver at least 20 of API’s top priorities.⁸⁴

· The Trump administration continues to provide emissions exemptions for more than 100 facilities across the country that release harmful air pollutants into the atmosphere, coal-burning power plants, and chemical plants.⁸⁵

· The EPA recently proposed ending the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, which requires coal-burning power plants and other industrial facilities to report their greenhouse gas emissions. This would effectively end the United States’ ability to reduce emissions from the sector.⁸⁶

Conclusion

The effects of the fossil fuel industry’s influence and the climate denial it induces have infiltrated all levels of the federal government, from Congress to federal agencies to the highest elected offices. In fact, during the 116th and 119th Congresses, both during Trump administrations, more than half of these leadership positions were occupied by climate deniers—a composition that has increased over time. The Trump administration has created a government built on denying climate change, rejecting science, and putting special interests over the American people. At the directive of the president and vice president, the departments that directly oversee environmental and climate policy are implementing policies that align with these priorities.

Corporate polluters and Trump’s billionaire allies are getting richer as they perpetuate the climate crisis, while Americans are left to bear the impacts. Government officials continue to use climate denial and misinformation as tactics to thwart effective climate policy. Elected officials must be held accountable for their role in exacerbating the climate crisis and endangering Americans’ lives.

Methodology

Download the dataset for this analysis here.

· CAP reviewed quotes on climate change and its connection to human activity from every elected official in the 119th U.S. Congress—Democrats, independents, and Republicans—and applied the definition of “climate denier” to determine whether that official denied climate science.

· The analysis uses OpenSecrets data to report the total lifetime political contributions to all deniers from oil, gas, and coal-affiliated industries. The numbers only include money from the oil and gas and coal mining industries, under the “energy/natural resources sector” in the OpenSecrets data. The numbers included in this analysis are based on Federal Election Commission data that OpenSecrets released on February 6, 2025.

· The list of elected officials in the 119th Congress that this analysis used was finalized on June 6, 2025. Any changes to the U.S. Congress after this date are not reflected in the overall data.

See charts, graphs and tables here.

A26X27 CUBA X27 FROM FLORIDA POLITICS

CUBA TAKEOVER: 'That island's got a lot of potential and a lot of different things.'

By A.G. Gancarski March 26, 2026

Ron DeSantis doubts deal possible with ‘tottering’ Iran regime, thinks Donald Trump will ‘follow through’ with attacks

Ron DeSantis rips Gavin Newsom for ‘frolicking’ at Davos, dissing Donald Trump on foreign soil

JD Vance says door not shut on another Marco Rubio run for President

Ron DeSantis thinks ‘strong horse’ Donald Trump might have secured Middle Eastern peace

'That island's got a lot of potential and a lot of different things.'

Gov. Ron DeSantis is enthusiastic about the “boom” that can happen in Cuba should “a halfway legitimate government that wasn’t 100% corrupt and actually respected people’s rights and the rule of law” take over from the current communist regime.

“Some of your kids and grandkids will be going to Spring Break there. They’ll be going on honeymoons there. People will be doing golf trips there. They’ll be doing all kinds of stuff. It will be a very successful island,” DeSantis said Wednesday at West Palm Beach’s DeSantis Family Chapel.

Yet despite his belief that Cuba can return to being the American getaway it was in the middle of the last century before Fulgencio Batista’s removal, he doesn’t want newly free Cubans coming to the U.S.

Rather, he believes “people in Cuba and people in the US, maybe exiles, who want to be a part of a solution” should be “in Cuba doing that.”

DeSantis believes “having a pro-Western, pro-America, free government in Cuba would be a boon for that island.”

“That island’s got a lot of potential and a lot of different things. And so hopefully we see that day,” he added.

But he didn’t sound entirely sold on the effort to effect regime change in Venezuela, suggesting that removing Nicolas Maduro may not ultimately be sufficient.

“Getting Maduro was an amazing operation. I think how this government post-Maduro operates, I still think that’s an open question. You basically left everyone else in, and you have a sword of Damocles over them, saying, ‘Hey, you’ve got to change your behavior, otherwise this could be you next.’ And I think that that’s a reasonable approach, and we’ll see whether that ultimately ends up with a free Venezuela or not.”

PEANUT GALLERY: The morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics — 3.26.26

2 comments

Frankie M.

March 26, 2026 at 6:28 am

Trump just wants more beachfront property while DeSantis wants to compete with Disney World.

Reply

EARL PITTS AMERICAN

March 26, 2026 at 7:16 am

Good Morn ‘Ting America,
Firstly Frank (above) is a flaming lefty so We The American People shall heretofore ignore Frank.
Secondly EARL “WEIGHS IN”:
I, EARL PITTS AMERICAN, agree with Florida’s Governor and America’s next POTUS, Ron DeSantis.
We The American People have put up with Cuba’s $HlT for far too long… so frigging long, in fact that We The American People now and forevermore own Cuba, lock, stock, and barrel.
IN CLOSEING:
I, EARL PITTS AMERICAN, Have Spoken.
Thank you America,
EARL PITTS AMERICAN

A27X28 FROM CNN

Arctic sea ice just dropped to an alarming new low

By Laura Paddison

Right now, the Arctic is maxing out on sea ice – the cold of winter has built up over months of darkness, and ice has spread as far south as it will all year. It’s the North Pole’s sea ice maximum, except this year, it’s alarmingly low.

There is roughly half a million square miles of ice missing in this year’s “max,” compared to average — an amount twice the size of Texas.

It’s the latest profoundly worrying signal from the top of the planet, a region which has become a clear victim of the climate crisis as humans burn fossil fuels, and increasingly a geopolitical hotspot as melting ice opens up commercial and military opportunities.

Winter is when Arctic ice builds up, typically reaching its maximum extent in March. This year, when scientists from NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center measured it on March 15, they found the ice had reached 5.52 million square miles — roughly 9% lower than the average between 1981 and 2010.

It came in just below last year’s record maximum of 5.53 million square miles, but close enough to it that it’s technically a tie, and is the lowest peak observed since satellite records began in 1979.

“A low year or two don’t necessarily mean much by themselves,” said Walt Meier, a NSIDC ice scientist, but when looked at in the context of a multi-decade downward trajectory, “it reinforces the dramatic change to Arctic sea ice throughout all seasons.”

Scientists are concerned about what it will mean for the spring and summer melt season. The last 19 years have seen the lowest sea ice levels on record.

The Arctic will be ice-free in the summer at some point by 2050, even if humans stop pumping out climate pollution, according to a 2023 study.

Disappearing sea ice has global impacts. Ice acts like a giant mirror, reflecting the sunlight away from the Earth and back into space. As it shrinks, more of the sun’s energy is absorbed by the dark ocean, which accelerates global heating.

This new record is not a surprise as Arctic sea ice had been running at near record lows all winter, said Jennifer Francis, a senior scientist at Woodwell Climate Research Center. But it’s one more alarm bell.

“Like when a person’s blood pressure is out of whack signaling a health problem, the ongoing loss of sea ice is yet another symptom indicating the Earth’s climate is in big trouble,” she said.

The cause is no mystery she added, “the ongoing buildup of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels is warming the oceans, heating the air, melting the ice, and worsening weather extremes all around the world.”

X29 WMO REPORT

A28X29 FROM WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION (WMO)

Earth’s climate swings increasingly out of balance

23 March 2026

Geneva, Switzerland (WMO) – The Earth’s climate is more out of balance than at any time in observed history, as greenhouse gas concentrations drive continued warming of the atmosphere and ocean and melting of ice, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). These rapid and large-scale changes have occurred within a few decades but will have harmful repercussions for hundreds – and potentially thousands – of years.  

Key messages

· WMO State of Climate report confirms 2015-2025 hottest 11 years on record

· Earth’s energy imbalance is highest in sixty five-year record

· The ocean has been absorbing about eighteen times the annual human energy use each year for the past two decades

· Extreme weather impacts millions and costs billions

· World Meteorological Day: observing today to protect tomorrow

WMO’s State of the Global Climate report 2025 confirms that 2015-2025 are the hottest 11-years on record, and that 2025 was the second or third hottest year on record, at about 1.43 °C above the 1850-1900 average. Extreme events around the world, including intense heat, heavy rainfall and tropical cyclones, caused disruption and devastation and highlighted the vulnerability of our inter-connected economies and societies.

The ocean continues to warm and absorb carbon dioxide. It has been absorbing the equivalent of about eighteen times the annual human energy use each year for the past two decades. Annual sea ice extent in the Arctic was at or near a record low, Antarctic sea ice extent was the third lowest on record, and glacier melt continued unabated, according to the report.

“The State of the Global Climate is in a state of emergency.  Planet Earth is being pushed beyond its limits.  Every key climate indicator is flashing red,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

“Humanity has just endured the eleven hottest years on record.  When history repeats itself eleven times, it is no longer a coincidence.  It is a call to act,” said Mr Guterres.

WMO’s flagship State of the Global Climate report was released on World Meteorological Day on 23 March, which has the theme Observing Today, Protecting Tomorrow.

For the first time, the report includes the Earth’s energy imbalance as one of the key climate indicators.

The Earth’s energy balance measures the rate at which energy enters and leaves the Earth system. Under a stable climate, incoming energy from the sun is about the same as the amount of outgoing energy.  

However, increasing concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide - to their highest level in at least 800,000 years have upset this equilibrium.

The Earth’s energy imbalance has increased since its observational record began in 1960, particularly in the past 20 years. It reached a new high in 2025.  

“Scientific advances have improved our understanding of the Earth’s energy imbalance and of the reality facing our planet and our climate right now,” said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo. “Human activities are increasingly disrupting the natural equilibrium and we will live with these consequences for hundreds and thousands of years.”

“On a day-to-day basis, our weather has become more extreme. In 2025, heatwaves, wildfires, drought, tropical cyclones, storms and flooding caused thousands of deaths, impacted millions of people and caused billions in economic losses,” said Celeste Saulo.

The warming of the atmosphere including near the Earth’s surface (the temperatures that humans feel) represents just 1% of the excess energy, whilst about 5% is stored in the continental land masses.

More than 91% of the excess heat is stored in the ocean, which acts as a major buffer against higher temperatures on land. Ocean heat content reached a new record high in 2025 and its rate of warming more than doubled from 1960-2005 to 2005-2025.

Another 3% of the excess energy warms and melts ice. The ice sheets on Antarctica and Greenland have both lost significant mass and the annual average Arctic sea-ice extent for 2025 was the lowest or second lowest on record in the satellite era. Exceptional glacier mass loss occurred in Iceland and along the Pacific coast of North America in 2025.  

The warming ocean and melting ice are driving the long-term rise in global mean sea level, which has accelerated since satellite measurements began in 1993.

Ocean warming and sea level rise will continue for centuries, according to projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Changes in ocean warming, and deep ocean pH are irreversible on centennial to millennial time scales.

The report is accompanied by an interactive story map. It has a dedicated supplement  on extreme events, highlighting their cascading impacts, including on food insecurity and displacement.

It includes a chapter on climate and health, showing how rising temperatures, shifting rainfall patterns and changes in extremes are affecting where and when health risks emerge, how severe they become and who is most exposed.

It highlights the examples of the mosquito-borne dengue disease and of heat stress – and illustrates how climate data, early warning systems and integrated climate services for health can protect people in a warming world.

“And in this age of war, climate stress is also exposing another truth: our addiction to fossil fuels is destabilizing both the climate and global security.  Today’s report should come with a warning label: climate chaos is accelerating and delay is deadly,” said Mr Guterres.

The State of the Global Climate report 2025 is based on scientific contributions from National Meteorological and Hydrological Services, WMO Regional Climate Centres, United Nations partners and dozens of experts.

“WMO’s State of the Global Climate report seeks to inform decision-making. It is in keeping with the theme of World Meteorological Day because when we observe today, we don’t just predict the weather, we protect tomorrow. Tomorrow’s people. Tomorrow’s planet,” said Celeste Saulo.

Key Indicators

Greenhouse Gases  

Data from individual monitoring stations show that levels of three main greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide – continued to increase in 2025.  

In 2024 – the last year for which we have consolidated global observations - the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide reached its highest level in the last 2 million years, and methane and nitrous oxide in at least last 800 000 years.

The increase in the annual carbon dioxide concentration (CO₂) in 2024 was the largest annual increase since modern measurements began in 1957. This was driven by continued fossil CO₂ emissions, and reduced effectiveness of land and ocean carbon sinks.

Global mean near-surface temperature  

The past eleven years, 2015–2025, were the eleven warmest years on record.

2025 was the second or third warmest year (depending on the dataset) in the 176-year observational record, reflecting the shift to La Niña conditions that temporarily cool the planet. The annually averaged global near-surface temperature was about 1.43 ± 0.13 °C above the 1850–1900 pre-industrial average.

The year 2024 – which started with a strong El Niño - remains the warmest year, at about 1.55 °C above the 1850–1900 average.

Ocean heat content  

In 2025, ocean heat content (to a depth of 2,000 metres) reached the highest level since the start of records in 1960, exceeding the previous high set in 2024.  

Over the past nine years, each year has set a new record for ocean heat content.

The rate of ocean warming over the past two decades, 2005–2025, is more than twice that observed over the period 1960–2005 – and is about 11.0–12.2 Zetajoules per year – about 18 times the annual human energy use per year.

Despite La Niña conditions, around 90% of the ocean surface area experienced at least one marine heatwave in 2025.

Ocean warming has far-reaching consequences, such as degradation of marine ecosystems, biodiversity loss and reduction of the ocean carbon sink. It fuels tropical and subtropical storms and exacerbates ongoing sea-ice loss in the polar regions.  

Global mean sea level  

In 2025, global mean sea level was comparable to the record-high levels observed in 2024.

It was around 11 cm higher than at the start of the satellite altimetry record in 1993.

The year-to-year increase from 2024 to 2025 was smaller than 2023 to 2024, consistent with short-term variability associated with La Niña conditions.

The rate of global mean sea-level rise since 2012 is higher than the rate of global mean sea-level rise in the earlier part of the satellite record, 1993–2011.  

Sea-level rise damages coastal ecosystems and results in groundwater salinization and flooding.

Ocean pH

Around 29% of the CO₂ from human activities between 2015–2024 was absorbed by the ocean, leading to the continued decline in ocean surface pH. Global average ocean surface pH has declined over the past 41 years.  

There is very high confidence that present-day surface pH values are unprecedented for at least 26,000 years, according to the IPCC.

Ocean pH changes show regional differences. The largest decreases in regional surface pH are observed in the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean, the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, the northern tropical Pacific and some regions in the Atlantic Ocean.

Ocean acidification harms biodiversity, ecosystems and food production from shellfish aquaculture and fisheries.

Glacier mass balance

In the 2024/2025 hydrological year, glacier mass loss from reference glaciers was among the five worst on record. This continues a trend of accelerated glacier mass loss since records started in 1950, with eight of the 10 years with the largest glacier ice loss occurring since 2016.

In 2025, exceptional levels of glacier mass loss occurred in Iceland and along the Pacific coast of North America.  

Sea-ice extent  

The annual average Arctic sea-ice extent for 2025 was the lowest or second lowest on record in the satellite era (1979), and the average Antarctic sea-ice extent for 2025 was the third lowest after 2023 and 2024.

The maximum daily extent of Arctic sea-ice (after the winter freeze) in 2025 was the lowest annual maximum in the observed record (since 1979) at about 14.19 million km2.  

The annual minimum daily extent of Antarctic sea-ice (after the summer melt) tied for the second lowest in the observed record. The past four years have seen the four lowest Antarctic sea ice minima on record.

Extreme Events and Impacts

A supplement to the report  provides a snapshot of extreme events, based on inputs from WMO Members, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), focusing on the meteorological aspects and the impacts related to displacement and food security.

Extreme weather has cascading impacts on agricultural production. Climate-driven food insecurity is now seen as a risk, with cascading effects on social stability, migration and biosecurity through the spread of plant pests and animal diseases.

It also continues to drive new, onward and protracted displacement of people globally, with particularly severe consequences in fragile and conflict-affected regions. The cascading and compounding impacts of multiple disasters severely limit the ability of vulnerable communities to prepare for, recover from and adapt to shocks.

Climate and heat impacts on health

Climate change has wide-ranging impacts on mortality, livelihoods, ecosystems and health systems and amplifies risks such as vector- and water-borne diseases and mental health stressors, especially among vulnerable populations.

Dengue stands out as the world’s fastest-growing mosquito-borne disease. According to the World Health Organization, about half the world’s population is at risk and reported case are currently the highest ever recorded.

Heat stress is a growing problem. Over one-third of the global workforce (1.2 billion people) face workplace heat risk at some point each year, especially those in agriculture and construction. In addition to health impacts, this leads to productivity and livelihood losses.

As of 2023, only around half of countries provide heat early warning services tailored to the needs of the health sector, and even fewer have fully integrated climate information into health decision-making processes.

There is an urgent need to integrate meteorological and climate data with health information systems to allow decision-makers to move from reactive response towards proactive prevention which saves lives.

A29X31 FROM AI OVERVIEW (MARCH POLLING)

A March 2026 poll reveals a significant majority of respondents are concerned about climate change, with 53.6% "very concerned" and 11.6% "somewhat concerned". Recent data indicates a growing sense of urgency, with many viewing it as a top issue. Concerns are driving preferences for increased government regulation on environmental issues, including oil drilling and emissions.

Key Findings on Climate Change Opinion (Early 2026):

High Concern: Over 65% of people are "very" or "somewhat" concerned about climate change, according to a March 2026 poll (Haystack News).

Government Regulation: 58% of Americans support increased regulation of wildlife habitats, 46% for oil drilling, and 42% for greenhouse gas emissions YouGov.

Energy Preferences: A majority of Americans support the use of more solar (64%) and wind energy (57%) YouGov.

Economic Impact: More Americans believe stricter environmental standards help the U.S. economy (40%) rather than hurt it (22%) YouGov.

Party Divide: A substantial, consistent gap exists, with 78% of Democrats and 52% of independents considering global warming a serious threat in their lifetime, compared to only 14% of Republicans, based on 2025 data leading into 2026 (The Hill, Gallup News).

Climate & Affordability: 65% of people believe climate change is contributing to rising costs, including 88% of liberal Democrats and 77% of moderate/conservative Republicans (The Hill).

YouGov

YouGov

A30X30 COP 30

X30 FROM DIALOGUE EARTH

COP30 chief says climate implementation can’t wait for consensus

In an interview with Dialogue Earth, André Corrêa do Lago said an increasingly fractured world makes faster climate implementation more urgent

Sam Meadows, Flávia Milhorance

March 26, 2026

As the consensus on climate action frays, the world needs to stop waiting for negotiations and start implementing what has already been agreed.

That is according to the Brazilian diplomat André Corrêa do Lago. The president of COP30 in Brazil last year, he remains the incumbent for the UN’s flagship climate change summit until COP31 this November, when Türkiye will take over.

Corrêa do Lago told Dialogue Earth that climate diplomacy now needs to place greater emphasis on action and cooperation among groups of countries, businesses and cities: “For decisions you need consensus, for implementation you don’t.”

Corrêa do Lago also highlighted the “important challenge” posed by the withdrawal of the US from several climate agreements earlier this year, and warned of a growing backlash against the costs of climate action.

At COP30, held in Brazil’s Amazonian city of Belém, countries agreed to a target of tripling finance for adaptation to climate change. Meanwhile, a “just transition” mechanism was created, aimed at ensuring workers and communities are not left behind in the shift from fossil fuels. But the summit ultimately failed to reach a consensus on fossil fuels, or on deforestation.

COP30 OVERTIME: Climate talks in Brazil wrap up in overtime, not addressing fossil fuels

International climate negotiations have long relied on consensus among nearly 200 countries. It has imbued any resulting agreements with strong legitimacy but also made progress slow and politically complex. Corrêa do Lago said the real breakthrough at COP30 was not just a greater focus on implementation, but a clearer separation between implementation and negotiation.

“[Consensus] is a wonderful thing because it gives enormous strength to what is approved,” he said. “But it is also a way of not allowing some things to progress.”

Beyond consensus

Corrêa do Lago points out that countries can act according to their own circumstances and in line with what they have already agreed; smaller coalitions of nations with similar interests can move forward together on issues like the energy transition or deforestation.

“There are many ways of doing the right thing,” Corrêa do Lago said. “And according to each country, it may be completely different.”

That stronger focus on implementation is essential, he argued, because time is running out. “We believe very strongly in science,” Corrêa do Lago said. “And science is telling us that we have very little time.”

A greater emphasis on implementation could also help sustain momentum when political divisions disrupt international cooperation. In January, the US president Donald Trump announced his administration was pulling the world’s largest economy out of 66 international bodies, including several focused on climate, biodiversity and energy.

Corrêa do Lago said the role of the US as both a major emitter and a source of important technological, business and civil-society solutions made this “obviously an important challenge”. But he stressed that climate action in the US extends far beyond its federal government.

There are many ways of doing the right thing, and according to each country, it may be completely different

“One thing is what the government says, and the other thing is what the communities or the business or the scientific community do,” he said. Negotiations may be the preserve of the government, he added, but “in the action agenda” everybody can participate – be it businesses, universities, scientists, or the authorities of an entire state, like California.

Working to implement agreed climate measures could help fill the gap created by these divisions. Several agreements from past climate COPs have not been fully carried out. Targets for climate adaptation finance, for example, have repeatedly been missed, including a pledge made at COP26 in 2021 to double funding by 2025. Meanwhile, new oil and gas licences continue to be approved, despite the COP28 agreement to transition away from fossil fuels.

A renewed focus on implementation could also help counter a growing assault on the “economic logic” of climate action, he said. While efforts to discredit climate science are not new, Corrêa do Lago argued that this energy has increasingly shifted towards attacking the financial case for solving the crisis.

“That is, I think, maybe even more dangerous,” he said.

Trump abandons international climate, biodiversity and energy bodies

Climate action has been pushed down the political agenda in several countries, as governments grapple with overlapping economic, security and cost-of-living crises. In Corrêa do Lago’s native Brazil, the current government presents itself as a climate leader. Yet even here, development priorities include fossil fuel expansion, and continue to compete with emissions-reduction goals.

There has also been growing pushback against the concept of net zero in Global North countries such as the United Kingdom, while right wing think-tanks have continued attempts at what critics describe as “climate obstruction”.

“First it was a questioning of science, and then a questioning of the solution,” Corrêa do Lago said. “I believe that a focus on implementation is what gives us examples that show that the economic solutions do work.”

Roadmaps and contradictions

Corrêa do Lago described the differentiation between negotiation and implementation as one of the “strongest achievements” of COP30. He is now promoting two roadmaps: one on reducing deforestation and another on transitioning away from fossil fuels. They are parallel initiatives that build on existing commitments and are open to input from governments and other stakeholders.

“We decided to do independent roadmaps, so that we advance on it. The idea of the roadmaps is to bring together elements that will help countries to maybe, at some moment, find consensus.”

This sits alongside the COP29 mandate to develop a roadmap to mobilise USD 1.3 trillion in climate finance per year by 2035, which Corrêa do Lago is also working to advance.

To promote the roadmaps, in February Corrêa do Lago visited Türkiye, where COP31 will take place in the coastal city of Antalya. Following a long dispute over the presidency, Australia will lead COP31’s pre-talks with Pacific nations.

Brazil is also developing a national roadmap to translate the country’s climate leadership into a “just and planned” transition – as promised by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in December, shortly after COP30. The plan was expected in early February, but no implementation framework has yet been released.

The Climate Observatory (OC), a coalition of Brazilian civil society organisations, has criticised both the government’s roadmap and the COP30 initiatives. In a letter addressed to Corrêa do Lago, it cautioned that the international roadmaps risk becoming “another document destined to gather dust”. In separate recommendations on the domestic plan, it warned that current policies remain “contradictory” to decarbonisation, and rejected the logic that expanding oil production could finance the energy transition – an approach advanced by Lula.

Corrêa do Lago said such contradictions are not unique to Brazil.

“No country has a unified vision of how to progress in this agenda,” he said, noting governments are often divided across ministries with competing priorities. He added that reliance on fossil fuel revenues reflects limited alternatives: “We may need that because we have not found other ways to get financing for the transition.”

The COP30 agenda also faces a potential rival – or ally – in Colombia. In April, the city of Santa Marta on the country’s Caribbean coast will host the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels. This initiative has been spearheaded by Colombia and the Netherlands. It remains to be seen what the conference will achieve, and how any potential agreement there could interact with COP30’s own roadmap.

Corrêa do Lago noted that the event’s originally proposed language of “phasing out” fossil fuels has been dropped in favour of “transitioning away” – a form of wordplay that has shaped COP negotiations, too.

“It’s not us against them,” he added. “It will be very interesting to see what happens with Santa Marta. They are parallel processes. They are complementary, but they are parallel.”

Looking ahead, Corrêa do Lago said he is optimistic this stronger focus on implementation and action will endure.

“We have talked a lot with Türkiye and Australia, and one of the things that they have already incorporated – and that I think is very important – is this new structure of the action agenda, based on implementation,” he said. “The fact is that, if we have little time, we should explore all those solutions as much as possible.”