After a slow start to Canada’s 2026 fire season, activity rebounded in late June amid dry, warm conditions and moved back closer to the 25-year average. As of mid-July, nearly 850 fires were actively burning across the country, according to the Canadian Interagency Wildfire Centre. More than 180 of them burned in Ontario. This NOAA-21
It’s still relatively early in the summer season in the Northern Hemisphere, but several parts of North America were stiflingly hot in mid-July. The latest provider of heat was a strong high-pressure ridge that remained in the upper atmosphere over the northern Rockies on the weekend of July 11-12, 2026. This pushed hot air toward
Editor’s Note: Today’s story is the answer to the July Puzzle. Call it an alluvial showdown. At the southern tip of Severny Island in the Russian Arctic, rivers descend from rugged terrain flanking a wide valley. Upon reaching flatter terrain, the waters slow down and distribute the sediments in the shape of cones called alluvial
From declining annual sea ice extent to greening tundra, environmental change has been gradually unfolding in the Arctic for decades. However, some changes have come more abruptly. Satellite, aerial and ground surveys spanning more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) along Alaska’s Brooks Range have observed stream water changing from clear to orange in more than
On June 24, 2026, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck northern Venezuela, followed less than a minute later by a magnitude 7.5 mainshock. Collectively, the earthquakes left immense damage and loss of life across the region. In the following days, satellite land displacement maps revealed how the Earth’s surface was moving, providing information about the forces
In early July 2026, for the second time in three months, a powerful typhoon crossed the United States Northern Mariana Islands and Guam in the North Pacific Ocean. Super Typhoon Bavi reached its peak intensity as it approached the islands on the night of July 5, bringing winds of 290 kilometers (180 miles) per hour,