Oct 14, 2019

A new Blob (aka marine heat wave) along our coast? See what Nick Bond has to say about it

In the fall of 2014, Nick Bond—research scientist at JISAO and Washington State’s Climatologist—dubbed a patch of unusually warm water off the North American coast ‘The Blob’. The warmer temperatures went on to wreak havoc in marine environments over the following year. Now, another slug of warm water has appeared, this time stretching all the way to Hawaii. We sat down with Bond to talk about this new Blob—which is an anomaly in the ocean more commonly referred to as a marine heat wave—and what we might expect.

Becky Alexander named director of UW Program on Climate Change

The UW College of the Environment is pleased to announce that Becky Alexander has been named the director of the UW Program on Climate Change (PCC). Becky is an atmospheric chemist in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences who studies the feedbacks that arise between climate change and the chemical composition of the atmosphere. She also has a long-standing relationship with the program, as she was initially hired as new faculty spearheaded by the Program on Climate Change to promote interdisciplinary climate research and teaching.

Two UW ice researchers to participate in year-long drift across Arctic Ocean

The Polarstern in Antarctica in 2013, on a previous expedition.

When the German icebreaker Polarstern leaves Norway’s coast on Sept. 20, it will embark on a year-long drift across the Arctic Ocean. Two University of Washington researchers are among scientists from 17 nations who will study climate change from a unique floating research platform. The Arctic has warmed dramatically over recent decades, but observations are scarce during the ice-covered winter. The MOSAiC expedition, or Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate, will enclose the research icebreaker Polarstern in sea ice for a year, creating a drifting research platform that will pass near the North Pole.

Wildfires west of the Cascades: rare, but large and severe

Most of us think of wildfire in Washington state as something that happens east of the mountains. There’s a reason for that: more than 99 percent of wildfires in the last 40 years have been east of the Cascade Crest. But forest fires are a natural, though rare, occurrence on the west side of the mountains as well. These verdant forests don’t immediately seem like burnable material.

First evidence of human-caused climate change melting the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

A Seaglider, with the Getz Ice Shelf in the background, being prepared for deployment in January 2018 under the neighboring Dotson Ice Shelf.

A new study reveals the first evidence of a direct link between human-induced global warming and melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. A research team led by the British Antarctic Survey that included the University of Washington found that curbing greenhouse gas emissions now could reduce this region’s future contribution to global sea level rise. Ongoing ice loss in West Antarctica has increased over the past few decades.