The NOAA Climate Prediction Center announced this week the official return of La Niña.
Agency forecasters predicted La Niña was forming nearly three weeks ago. Oceanic sea surface temperatures have met the operational definition of La Niña for the November through January period.
NOAA scientists report that the 2005 annual average temperature for the
contiguous United States (based on preliminary data) will likely be 1 degree Fahrenheit above the 1895-2004 mean, which will make 2005 one of the 20
warmest years on record for the country.
Scientists for years have been at a loss to explain unexpectedly high levels of mercury in fish swimming the rivers and streams of areas like eastern Oregon, far away from industrial sources of mercury pollution such as coal-fired power plants.
A new study shows that for every five pounds of fish caught by U.S. commercial fisheries, one pound is dumped – dead, dying and wasted.
A temperature analysis of more than 600 boreholes from throughout the Northern Hemisphere suggests that the Earth's climate may be warming at a higher rate than tree-ring analysis and other methods had led scientists to believe.
Scientists at Oregon State University have successfully cultured in a laboratory a microorganism with a gene for an alternate form of photochemistry – an advance that may ultimately help shed light on the ecology of the world’s oceans.
Long-range climate and stream-flow forecasters say they expect a warmer than normal winter, but see few hints about the type of precipitation a thirsty Pacific Northwest might receive during its precious snowpack/water accumulation season.
As researchers announced last wee the lowest amount of ice cover in more than a century in the Arctic, the fourth consecutive year of record and near-record lows, two polar scientists at the University of Washington's Applied Physics Laboratory say they believe a tipping point has been reached.
Harmful algal blooms that have closed shellfish harvests in the Pacific Northwest and caused "red tides" elsewhere appear to be increasing, scientists say, and the likely suspects are global climate change and increased human impact in coastal zones.
Waves the height of a 10-story building regularly propagate beneath the ocean surface into the north Pacific from the mouth of the Columbia River, carrying near-surface organisms and chemicals halfway to the ocean floor.
Scientists at Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center have found a link between the growth rings of trees and the growth rings from the ear bones of long-living rockfish species, and their findings could provide new information for resource management.
The Pacific Ocean off of Oregon has experienced a die-off of birds, declining fisheries and wildly fluctuating conditions in the past few months, and has set the stage for another hypoxic “dead zone” like those of 2002 and 2004, according to experts at Oregon State University.
NOAA Fisheries is asking state, federal and tribal agencies to collaborate in efforts to improve fish passage modeling for the federal Columbia River hydropower system.
By 2040 up to 20 percent of the Pacific Northwest could become too warm for salmon, steelhead and trout if global warming is left unchecked, says an analysis released last week by the National Wildlife Federation.
In most parts of the Cascades, the January snowpack is at its lowest level in 28 years, said state climatologist Philip Mote, a research scientist with the Pacific Northwest Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington.
Recent studies have found that large, old and oily groundfish are significantly more important than their younger counterparts in maintaining healthy marine fish stocks – the larvae from their eggs better resist starvation and have a much greater chance of survival.
Extreme changes in the Arctic Oscillation in the early 1990s -- and not warmer temperatures of recent years -- are largely responsible for declines in how much sea ice covers the Arctic Ocean, with near record lows having been observed during the last three years, University of Washington researchers say.
Some young Snake River fall chinook salmon may be making the best of a dam-caused situation, effectively shifting the timing of their migration to the ocean and thus creating a second distinct life history type within the same fish stock.
Research about wolves that began in Yellowstone National Park has been replicated in an adjacent area, and scientists say a growing body of evidence shows that this predator may have an ecological impact more important than realized in the American West.
University of Washington's James R. Karr, who helped define the characteristics of healthy waterways and developed a system for documenting aquatic well being, has received the top fishery conservation award from the American Fisheries Society.
The governors of Washington, Oregon, and California this week approved a series of recommendations for action to combat global warming, and directed their staffs to continue working on state and regional goals and strategies to combat global warming over the coming year.
Scientists with expertise in climate and its impacts have developed a “consensus statement” that summarizes the likely effects of climate change on the Pacific Northwest.
The National and Oceanic Atmospheric Administration recently updated its U.S. Winter Outlook for December through February, which continues to call for warmer-than-normal conditions in the West and Alaska, and cooler-than-normal conditions in the South and in areas of the mid-Atlantic coast.
A panel discussion Thursday focused on what might be done in the coming years and decades to maintain that buffer that Columbia River basin salmon populations will inevitably need when "ocean conditions" worsen and creeping global warming brings negative changes to their freshwater home as well.
The global average surface temperature has been warming for over a century and the last two years have been two of the warmest on record. And, the warmth will continue, according to climatologists at this week's Climate and Water Resources Forecasts workshop in Portland.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
