Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Ongoing Climate Change Acceleration and Impacts
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel. As well as my website, and YouTube, you can find me on Patreon, Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit (multiple climate channels within), Quora, TikTok, Discord, Mastodon, Twitch, Vimeo, Bluesky, TruthSocial, Threads, Substack, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc...
References and Links:
UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology: Thunderstorms don’t just appear out of thin air, say scientists
ceh.ac.uk/press/thunderstorms-dont-just-appear-out-thin-air-say-scientists?utm_source=bsky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=papers
Peer reviewed scientific paper from Nature Journal:
Wind shear enhances soil moisture influence on rapid thunderstorm growth
nature.com/articles/s41586-025-10045-7
Abstract
Convective storms can develop rapidly, creating hazards to local populations through intense precipitation, strong winds and lightning. The large-scale environment in which thunderstorms develop is often well captured in forecast systems, yet predicting where individual storms will initiate remains a fundamental challenge. It is known that differential heating driven by soil moisture (SM) patterns creates atmospheric circulations that favor convective initiation over drier soils, whereas wind shear between low and mid levels can enhance storm growth. Here we show that the most extreme initiations are especially favored over SM contrasts by means of an interaction with wind shear. Analyzing 2.2 million afternoon events across sub-Saharan Africa,
we find 68% more initiations classed as extreme given favorable (versus unfavorable) soil conditions, with greatest vertical storm growth occurring where SM-driven circulations oppose the direction of shear-induced cloud displacement. Developing clouds follow the mid-level wind direction and, where this opposes the low-level flow, rainfall is strongly correlated with locally drier soils. Although such shear conditions are particularly common over tropical north Africa, the effect favors negative SM–precipitation feedbacks globally. The combination of SM heterogeneity and
wind shear provides a potentially important source of predictability for where deep convection develops, particularly for the most rapidly developing thunderstorms.
Peer reviewed scientific paper from Nature Journal:
Climate shocks, not just warming, threaten malaria control efforts in Africa
nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00491-2?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nature&linkId=59447186&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEe_Lv7Y-opVB29lvzPAL40Bx-ka4h8pELtE5J-SEJBw_Eh2VzFfxh7QAneBHw_aem_BBw19Z5qL1BYkENh0BLeJA&sfnsn=mo
Peer reviewed scientific paper from PNAS journal:
Accelerated north–east shift of the global green wave trajectory
pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.2515835123
Article from Nature:
Climate change and geopolitics threaten water supplies — but disaster is not inevitable
nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00659-w
Article from Nature:
Rising temperatures pose a threat to tropical insects
nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00377-3
Article from Nature:
Limited thermal tolerance in tropical insects and its genomic signature
nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10155-w
Peer reviewed scientific article from Nature journal:
Sea level much higher than assumed in most coastal hazard assessments
nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10196-1
Article from Nature:
US climate actions must continue, despite setbacks
nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00660-3
Article from Science journal:
Could dewdrops explain why plants are flowering earlier?
science.org/content/article/could-dewdrops-explain-why-plants-are-flowering-earlier
Peer reviewed article from Nature journal:
Global floating algae blooms are expanding
nature.com/articles/s41467-025-66822-5
Article from Nature:
Ocean heat forced West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat after the Last Glacial Maximum
nature.com/articles/s41467-026-68949-5
Climate impacts from North American boreal forest fires
nature.com/articles/s41561-026-01940-3
Hairdressers seen as ‘everyday influencers’ in climate action study
https://www.muser.press/2026/03/03/hairdressers-influencers-climate-action/
nature.com/articles/s41599-026-06781-4
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel. As well as my website, and YouTube, you can find me on Patreon, Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit (multiple climate channels within), Quora, TikTok, Discord, Mastodon, Twitch, Vimeo, Bluesky, TruthSocial, Threads, Substack, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc...
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Ongoing Climate Change Acceleration and Impacts
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel. As well as my website, and YouTube, you can find me on Patreon, Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit (multiple climate channels within), Quora, TikTok, Discord, Mastodon, Twitch, Vimeo, Bluesky, TruthSocial, Threads, Substack, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc...
References and Links:
UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology: Thunderstorms don’t just appear out of thin air, say scientists
ceh.ac.uk/press/thunderstorms-dont-just-appear-out-thin-air-say-scientists?utm_source=bsky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=papers
Peer reviewed scientific paper from Nature Journal:
Wind shear enhances soil moisture influence on rapid thunderstorm growth
nature.com/articles/s41586-025-10045-7
Abstract
Convective storms can develop rapidly, creating hazards to local populations through intense precipitation, strong winds and lightning. The large-scale environment in which thunderstorms develop is often well captured in forecast systems, yet predicting where individual storms will initiate remains a fundamental challenge. It is known that differential heating driven by soil moisture (SM) patterns creates atmospheric circulations that favor convective initiation over drier soils, whereas wind shear between low and mid levels can enhance storm growth. Here we show that the most extreme initiations are especially favored over SM contrasts by means of an interaction with wind shear. Analyzing 2.2 million afternoon events across sub-Saharan Africa,
we find 68% more initiations classed as extreme given favorable (versus unfavorable) soil conditions, with greatest vertical storm growth occurring where SM-driven circulations oppose the direction of shear-induced cloud displacement. Developing clouds follow the mid-level wind direction and, where this opposes the low-level flow, rainfall is strongly correlated with locally drier soils. Although such shear conditions are particularly common over tropical north Africa, the effect favors negative SM–precipitation feedbacks globally. The combination of SM heterogeneity and
wind shear provides a potentially important source of predictability for where deep convection develops, particularly for the most rapidly developing thunderstorms.
Peer reviewed scientific paper from Nature Journal:
Climate shocks, not just warming, threaten malaria control efforts in Africa
nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00491-2?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nature&linkId=59447186&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEe_Lv7Y-opVB29lvzPAL40Bx-ka4h8pELtE5J-SEJBw_Eh2VzFfxh7QAneBHw_aem_BBw19Z5qL1BYkENh0BLeJA&sfnsn=mo
Peer reviewed scientific paper from PNAS journal:
Accelerated north–east shift of the global green wave trajectory
pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.2515835123
Article from Nature:
Climate change and geopolitics threaten water supplies — but disaster is not inevitable
nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00659-w
Article from Nature:
Rising temperatures pose a threat to tropical insects
nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00377-3
Article from Nature:
Limited thermal tolerance in tropical insects and its genomic signature
nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10155-w
Peer reviewed scientific article from Nature journal:
Sea level much higher than assumed in most coastal hazard assessments
nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10196-1
Article from Nature:
US climate actions must continue, despite setbacks
nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00660-3
Article from Science journal:
Could dewdrops explain why plants are flowering earlier?
science.org/content/article/could-dewdrops-explain-why-plants-are-flowering-earlier
Peer reviewed article from Nature journal:
Global floating algae blooms are expanding
nature.com/articles/s41467-025-66822-5
Article from Nature:
Ocean heat forced West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat after the Last Glacial Maximum
nature.com/articles/s41467-026-68949-5
Climate impacts from North American boreal forest fires
nature.com/articles/s41561-026-01940-3
Hairdressers seen as ‘everyday influencers’ in climate action study
https://www.muser.press/2026/03/03/hairdressers-influencers-climate-action/
nature.com/articles/s41599-026-06781-4
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel. As well as my website, and YouTube, you can find me on Patreon, Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit (multiple climate channels within), Quora, TikTok, Discord, Mastodon, Twitch, Vimeo, Bluesky, TruthSocial, Threads, Substack, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc...
