The hottest Extreme Weather Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Health & Wellness Topics

Now comes the heat

The Crucial Years • 7892 implied HN points • 13 Mar 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. A strong "super" El Niño looks likely and, combined with already record-warm oceans and a powerful heat dome, will drive unprecedented heat, worsening droughts, fires, and chaotic weather over the next year.
  2. Weather and water systems are more vulnerable than ever. Forecasting capabilities have been degraded by data cuts just as snowpacks and reservoirs hit record lows, raising the risk of surprise disasters and real shortages.
  3. Energy politics are amplifying the crisis—war and fossil-fuel leverage are driving up prices while utilities and some politicians push back against rooftop solar and climate laws, even as cheap, flexible solar technologies offer a fast path to cleaner, decentralized power.

An El Niño is brewing

The Crucial Years • 6427 implied HN points • 16 Feb 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. An El Niño looks likely to form and will push global temperatures to new records because it adds on top of the planet’s steady warming. Scientists warn this surge could raise the world to around 1.7°C above pre‑industrial levels this cycle and hasten hitting 2°C within the next decade or two.
  2. The extra heat will mean more extreme weather—stronger storms, heavier rains and floods, deeper droughts, and bigger wildfires—that will harm people, infrastructure, and ecosystems. That visible jump in warming will also shift politics and public opinion, and could lead to serious debates about risky options like solar geoengineering.
  3. The clean energy transition is gathering pace with expanding renewables, EV adoption, microgrids, and industrial moves to low‑carbon power, showing economic as well as climate benefits. Still, political choices that favor fossil fuels can block or slow this progress, so policy decisions remain crucial.

Are the Strongest Nor'easters Getting Stronger? A Closer Look

The Honest Broker Newsletter • 1609 implied HN points • 24 Feb 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. A recent study's headline that the strongest nor'easters are getting stronger rests on fragile statistical signals that largely disappear or weaken when the analysis is limited to the satellite era or when different start dates are used.
  2. The ERA5 reanalysis has uneven observational coverage and known negative biases for extreme storm winds, so improvements in data over time can create spurious trends unless those artifacts are explicitly accounted for.
  3. Detecting and attributing real long-term changes in storm intensity requires multiple independent datasets, methods, and model-based evidence, and current assessments give low confidence that such trends are detectable, so strong public claims were premature.

Bad Science, Big Consequences

The Honest Broker Newsletter • 3798 implied HN points • 02 Feb 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. A high-profile economic review became hugely influential and helped shape global climate policy and the later rise of “climate risk” in finance.
  2. Its projections of rapidly escalating disaster losses relied on unsupported numbers and misrepresented sources, producing large forecast errors compared with actual losses.
  3. A peer-reviewed critique documented these mistakes but was largely ignored, showing that high-profile scientific errors can persist and continue to affect policy and finance.

"Climate Change Presses On"

The Honest Broker Newsletter • 1776 implied HN points • 26 Jan 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. Estimated annual catastrophe losses rose sharply in nominal dollars from 2020 to 2025, but much of that increase is driven by greater exposure — more construction and higher construction prices — rather than clear evidence of climate-driven loss growth.
  2. When losses are measured as a share of global GDP, weather-related disaster losses have not increased since 1990 and were below the long-term average in 2025.
  3. Different firms produce different loss totals and insured-loss numbers are more reliable than total loss estimates; to detect climate signals you should look at climate data rather than economic loss data, and keeping disaster impacts low will require continued effort.
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The Weather Truther Playbook

The Honest Broker Newsletter • 3660 implied HN points • 27 Dec 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. A vocal movement treats every extreme weather event as obvious proof of climate change and uses those events to push urgent policy action.
  2. Their playbook is PANIC → ALARM → CURE: build advocacy narratives, constantly attribute harms to climate in the media, then present CO2 cuts as the clear remedy.
  3. That approach risks undermining mainstream climate science and public trust, creating obstacles to effective long-term climate policy and prompting calls for stronger scientific integrity.

Global Tropical Cyclone Landfalls

The Honest Broker Newsletter • 2188 implied HN points • 15 Jan 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. 2025 was a fairly typical year for global tropical cyclone landfalls, with 19 landfalls worldwide and 7 of those being major hurricanes.
  2. Long-term records (1970–2025) show no clear upward trend in global landfall frequency, though the proportion of landfalls that are major storms has increased and may be part of natural multi-decadal variability.
  3. Historical cyclone data are heterogeneous and observation changes make trend detection and attribution difficult. As a result, confidence in long-term trends is low and a clear human-caused signal in landfall frequency or economic losses may not be detectable for decades.

Buried by Snow—and by Shaky Science

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 445 implied HN points • 25 Feb 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. Recent winters have felt more extreme, but scientists currently don’t have strong evidence that the most intense nor’easters are getting steadily stronger over the long term.
  2. The IPCC plays a key role by sorting through hundreds of different and sometimes conflicting studies to give cautious, evidence-based conclusions instead of relying on any single paper.
  3. Science advances by testing claims, being honest about uncertainty, and changing course when new evidence shows earlier conclusions were wrong.

Congratulations World!

The Honest Broker Newsletter • 3032 implied HN points • 31 Dec 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. 2025 had one of the lowest global death rates from extreme weather on record, at under 0.8 deaths per million people.
  2. This low toll is part of a long-term decline: death rates from extreme weather have fallen dramatically since the 1960s as better science, technology, policy, and greater wealth reduced vulnerability.
  3. Progress doesn’t eliminate risk—large, deadly disasters can still occur, and the data have limits (older undercounts and exclusion of extreme temperature impacts), so continued preparation and careful tracking are essential.

In From the Cold

The Honest Broker Newsletter • 2100 implied HN points • 13 Jan 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. Scientific findings about climate are often simplified into dramatic one-liners, so media and politicians can end up misrepresenting what the underlying research actually says.
  2. Observed data show heatwaves and heavy rainfall have increased with warming, but there is no strong evidence that hurricanes, floods, droughts, tornadoes, hail, or lightning have become more frequent.
  3. Practical politics and public welfare shape energy policy: people resist costly rapid transitions, emissions intensity has been falling for decades, and the most extreme 'business as usual' emissions scenarios were unrealistic and have been largely abandoned.

The Invention of "Climate Risk" - Politically Brilliant but Fatally Flawed

The Honest Broker Newsletter • 2070 implied HN points • 22 Dec 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. The financial world reframed climate change as “climate risk” by tying it to extreme weather, but real-world trends in most extremes are unclear and rising disaster losses are mainly due to more people and assets in harm’s way.
  2. Framing risks as both physical and transition hazards gave finance a powerful, self-justifying way to push a global shift toward low‑carbon outcomes, and that pressure spread rapidly through businesses and governments with little consequence for exaggeration.
  3. Methods to quantify climate risk—scenario analyses and new proprietary models—are deeply flawed or outdated, yet regulatory demand created a large market for these unreliable products, so required disclosures tend to produce the very risks they claim to measure.

US Hurricanes 2025 in Review

The Honest Broker Newsletter • 2532 implied HN points • 01 Dec 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. In 2025 the continental United States had no hurricane landfalls, even as the Atlantic produced unusually powerful storms and multiple Category 5 hurricanes that caused heavy losses in the Caribbean.
  2. Long-term records show no upward trend in U.S. hurricane landfalls or major hurricane landfalls, and global ACE and ACE-per-hurricane also show no clear trend, which challenges simple claims that warming has already produced fewer but more intense storms.
  3. A peer-reviewed review from 2005 concluded that strong links between global warming and hurricane impacts were premature, and later-revealed efforts by some assessment authors tried to exclude that work from major reports, though the review has remained in the literature and widely cited.

Al Gore's new TED talk is out

HEATED • 2614 implied HN points • 05 Sep 23
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. Al Gore's latest TED talk emphasizes that the climate crisis is a fossil fuel crisis.
  2. The main barriers to addressing climate change are political and financial, not technological.
  3. Regular people applying pressure can drive the needed transformative change in combating climate change.

100 Pages: Dew Harvesters, Water Generators, and Zeers

OK Doomer • 76 implied HN points • 28 Jan 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. The illustrated survival guide now adds practical pages on dew harvesting, water generators, zeers, and heatwave mitigation to help people in different living situations prepare for emergencies.
  2. The guide has been revised and expanded using reader feedback and is being prepared for a print edition, with a downloadable PDF available now.
  3. The project relies on reader support and subscriptions to keep producing updates as climate and social stresses increase, and asks for one-time or ongoing contributions.

Technically, that New York City flood was “mild”

HEATED • 1788 implied HN points • 04 Oct 23
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. New York City's recent flood, although catastrophic, was considered 'mild' by coastal flooding standards
  2. The flood was a combination of heavy rainfall causing flash floods and coastal flooding from high tides
  3. Climate change is making extreme floods in NYC more frequent, highlighting the urgent need for better infrastructure and climate adaptation plans

Five Figures - July 2025

The Honest Broker Newsletter • 853 implied HN points • 18 Jul 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. A new feature called 'Five Figures' will share interesting data and figures every month. It aims to provide engaging content for paid subscribers.
  2. Recent studies suggest that even with increasing extreme precipitation, flooding events haven't necessarily increased. This challenges some common beliefs about climate change and water events.
  3. Understanding the relationship between heavy rain and flooding is complex. Many factors influence whether heavy rain leads to floods, so trends should be examined carefully.

Summer School is In

The Honest Broker Newsletter • 755 implied HN points • 23 Jun 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. Climate change is a big issue that affects the economy, and there are many different opinions on how to deal with it.
  2. The course aims to teach students about climate science and policies, focusing on practical solutions in a complex political environment.
  3. Students will get access to a reading list that supplements the lectures, helping them explore different perspectives on climate issues.

Following the science to the grave

¡Do Not Panic! • 1022 implied HN points • 23 Jul 23
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. Extreme heat events are becoming more frequent around the world, a glimpse into the future of climate change.
  2. Countries heavily reliant on tourism and agriculture are facing economic turmoil due to extreme heat and climate change.
  3. The scientific community can be influenced by capitalist interests, leading to dangerous consequences like downplaying climate change risks.

Attribution Stealth Advocacy at the NAS

The Honest Broker Newsletter • 1089 implied HN points • 04 Nov 24
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. A new committee formed by the National Academy of Sciences is seen as biased because it includes members with ties to groups that have an agenda against climate policy. This raises concerns about conflicts of interest.
  2. Some advocates argue that linking climate change to individual weather events is part of a strategy to support climate lawsuits, which might compromise the integrity of scientific research.
  3. There are worries that the push for extreme weather event attribution could replace established scientific frameworks, risking the credibility of major scientific institutions like the IPCC.

Global Heat Waves: The New Normal in a Warming World

Adetokunbo Sees • 208 implied HN points • 28 Jun 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. Heat waves are happening more often and are becoming more intense. Many places around the world are experiencing temperatures much higher than before.
  2. The number of people affected by heat waves is increasing significantly. More workers are feeling the impacts of extreme heat, highlighting a growing concern for health and safety.
  3. To combat the rising heat, it's crucial to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Cutting down pollution is necessary to lessen the severity of heat waves and protect lives.

Alternative Facts

The Honest Broker Newsletter • 1099 implied HN points • 08 Mar 24
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. Disasters are influenced by human exposure and vulnerability, not just the intensity of extreme events, making cause-effect links challenging to establish.
  2. Climate advocates have historically tried to connect extreme weather events to climate change, leaning towards sensational narratives even when not fully supported by scientific consensus.
  3. Media outlets have become more fragmented, leading to tailored content that aligns with specific audience values, potentially influencing the reporting of climate change issues.

Underestimating climate damage

Klement on Investing • 2 implied HN points • 02 Feb 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. Models that only use average temperature changes miss important effects and tend to underestimate economic damage from climate change.
  2. Higher average temperatures increase the chance of extreme heat waves and heavy precipitation, and these extreme events cause most of the economic harm.
  3. Including within-year temperature variation raises estimated damages a lot—roughly 13% more in temperate regions and about 47% more in continental climates—showing impacts differ greatly by region.

It’s February, and I am writing about… heat waves

Klement on Investing • 1 implied HN point • 16 Feb 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. Heat waves are already interfering with people’s ability to work. They’re even pushing households in traditionally cool climates to install air conditioning.
  2. Sick leave rises as heat waves lengthen, and people with circulatory problems are particularly likely to fall ill. Outdoor occupations like transport, logistics, agriculture, and construction are hit hardest.
  3. A single heat wave causes measurable lost wages and higher health costs, and while the GDP impact per event may seem small, repeated and worsening heat waves mean investing in adaptation (like cooling) is needed to limit future economic and health losses.

Rat Water

Kneeling Bus • 205 implied HN points • 30 Sep 23
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. Climate change narratives frame our interpretation of extreme weather events.
  2. Cities expose their physical vulnerability to natural disasters.
  3. The built environment's infrastructure becomes a barrier in the face of nature's fury.

Summers used to be hotter

The Leftovers • 99 implied HN points • 18 Jul 22
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. The author reminisces about how summers used to be hotter in Rosario, Argentina, based on personal experience.
  2. The post reflects on the use of catchy, sensational headlines in the current age to attract readers.
  3. The content hints at the impact of changing times on communication styles and the need for attention-grabbing methods.

The Kingdome of Heat Domes

Street Smart Naturalist: Explorations of the Urban Kind • 39 implied HN points • 01 Jul 21
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. The term 'heat dome' has recently become popular and represents a specific weather pattern linked to climate change. This shows how language around climate issues is evolving quickly as extreme weather becomes more common.
  2. Weather events like heat domes and polar vortices are becoming more intense due to climate change, indicating that these extreme conditions may occur more frequently in the future.
  3. Historical temperature records show that the heat we experience today might not have happened in millions of years, emphasizing the significant changes our climate is undergoing right now.

Poor regions suffer more from extreme weather

Klement on Investing • 1 implied HN point • 16 Jun 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. Poor regions are hit harder by extreme weather because they often lack the resources to recover. This is due to their location and economic status.
  2. Research shows that even in wealthier areas, like parts of Europe, countries with lower GDP are more affected by weather extremes than richer countries.
  3. A small increase in extreme weather events can significantly lower average income in struggling regions, making it important to consider these risks when investing in such areas.

Heat Waves, Floods, Storms, and the Significance of Attribution Science

The Climate Historian • 0 implied HN points • 24 Oct 23
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. Attribution science helps us understand how much human-caused climate change affects specific extreme weather events. This research can guide us in creating better climate policies and protections.
  2. Major weather disasters like Hurricane Harvey and recent storms in Spain show the link between extreme weather and climate change. These events align with predictions made by climate models.
  3. There's a growing need for accountability in climate issues, and attribution science can help identify who is responsible for climate-related damages, potentially leading to legal action against major polluters.

Amazon's climate disclosure defies politics as risks grow

Callaway Climate Insights • 0 implied HN points • 06 Feb 24
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. Amazon included a section on climate risk in its 2023 annual filing, recognizing potential impacts like higher costs and changing customer demand patterns.
  2. Corporate climate risk disclosure is growing despite political opposition, with more companies outside traditional industries adapting climate change wording.
  3. Large public companies are taking proactive steps to warn investors about climate risks, recognizing that climate risk is investment risk.

Headlines from a Warming World no 6

The Climate Historian • 0 implied HN points • 19 Oct 23
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. Extreme wet heat is becoming a real problem in many parts of the world. It could make life very difficult, especially for food and water security.
  2. South America is experiencing unusual heat linked to climate change, making such high temperatures much more likely. This trend will likely worsen as global temperatures rise.
  3. Drought is severely affecting the Amazon, threatening its ecosystems and the people living there. Urgent climate action is needed to address these extreme weather impacts.

Headlines from a Warming World no 5

The Climate Historian • 0 implied HN points • 12 Oct 23
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. September 2023 was the warmest September ever recorded, with temperatures significantly higher than previous years. This shows that global warming is becoming a bigger issue.
  2. Extreme weather events are costing the world an estimated $143 billion each year, mostly due to loss of life. The impacts of climate change are leading to more frequent and severe weather events.
  3. Brazil's Amazon is facing severe drought, impacting both people and wildlife. The rising temperatures are causing concerns about the future of this critical ecosystem.

"But the Island I love, and I wish I were not seeing it in one of the seasons of hell."

The Climate Historian • 0 implied HN points • 27 Jul 24
🌞 Climate & Environment Extreme Weather
  1. Greece has been facing extremely high temperatures, reaching 44.5ÂşC in June 2024. This heat has caused several fatalities, including tourists who couldn't cope with the conditions.
  2. The heatwaves are getting more severe and last longer now. In July, Greece had 16 days where temperatures stayed above 37°C, even during the night.
  3. Research shows that these heatwaves are a result of climate change, and they hurt poorer countries more. As global warming continues, the impacts of heatwaves will get worse for everyone.