2021 in climate and weather from ABC News, NBC News, and WeatherNation

I foreshadowed the subject of today's entry in the middle of 2021's top science stories from Science Magazine, WatchMojo, and Nerdist when I observed that "all [Science Magazine's 2021 breakthroughs of the year] needed was a story about the environment" for it to hit all of my interests, but I was getting ahead of myself. Without any further ado, it's time to post this year's version of Hurricanes, fires, floods, and drought, the top climate and weather stories of 2020. I begin with The Year 2021: How leaders are innovating to save a climate in crisis from ABC News.

ABC News’ “The Year: 2021” reports on how Americans coped with extreme weather and some innovations in the race to combat global warming.

I blogged about some of these events this year. Going back through posts with the weather label, I wrote about the American West's drought, the Pacific Northwest's heat wave, and the Texas blackout. I did not write about what was probably the number one U.S. weather story, Hurricane Ida, beyond "I hope Ida isn't about to leave such a long-lasting legacy of loss." That has already not aged well.

NBC News' focused more on extreme weather in the U.S. and less on international stories in Looking Back At Extreme Weather's Impact in 2021.

NBC's Al Roker looks back on the major weather extremes that impacted the country in 2021. The Biden administration took a step to address climate change by rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement as the world faces the impacts of everything from wildfires and droughts to catastrophic hurricanes.

I'm glad NBC included that the 2021 hurricane season as the third most active ever. One of the facts it missed was that, while the report listed all 21 named storms, what it didn't mention was that the season used all the names on the primary list.


This season, the World Meteorological Organization prepared for the possibility by proposing a secondary list in case it needed more. No more Greek letter names for storms unless there are more than 42 in a season!

WeatherNation covered nearly all the weather disasters ABC News and NBC News did in its examinations of the top domestic weather stories, so I'm skipping those for its international wrap up, 2021 Top Weather Headlines From Around The World, which covered events beyond those included in ABC News' report.

The weather in the United States was certainly wild in 2021, but let's take a quick trip around the world to discuss this year's top international weather headlines.

Volcanic eruptions are not really weather by themselves, but they can certainly cause disruptions in the weather. One of these days, I should blog about the effects of Pinatubo's 1991 eruption on global climate. May the news slow down enough for me to find a day to do that.

That's it for last year's climate and weather until NASA and NOAA weigh in on how 2021 ranks among the hottest years on record. In the meantime, stay tuned for two more retrospectives of the year about to end.

Hurricanes, fires, floods, and drought, the top climate and weather stories of 2020

With only three days remaining in the year about to end, it's time I take care of some business I promised I would get to in Colbert, Corden, and Fallon run down 2020.

Colbert...mentioned the record setting Atlantic hurricane season, which I promised I might get to in Post-election pandemic update — 10 million total U.S. cases, record daily cases, COVID-19 vaccine, and transition team task force but haven't yet. That's still on my to-do list for this year, so be patient.

Without any further ado, I present this year's edition of the year in climate beginning with The Weather Channel's RECAP: The 2020 Hurricane Season.

November 30th marks the official end of hurricane season. Though activity past this date is still possible (and 2020 has thrown plenty of curveballs...), let's go ahead and recap this record-breaking, catastrophic, please-let-it-be-over season.

Fortunately, the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season actually did end by the official completion date. For once, 2020 did not have an additional unpleasant surprise, unlike 2005, when Tropical Storm Zeta formed on December 30, 2005.

The record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season may have been my top climate and weather story of 2020, but there were plenty of others, such as this year's western wildfires. Weather Nation covered those and more in its Top 10 Weather Events of 2020.

Meteorologist Joe Astolfi takes a look back at the Top 10 Weather Events of 2020.

In addition to the hurricanes and fires, floods, drought, tornadoes, a nor'easter, and a derecho all made the top ten.

All of the above looked at natural disasters as weather but they make more sense in the context of climate, particularly climate change. In addition, both focused on the Western Hemisphere, particularly the United States. For a global climate examination, watch From Hurricanes To Wildfires, 2020's Biggest Climate Headlines by NBC News.

NBC News’ Simone Boyce takes look back at this year’s most important climate-related events.

It's been such a long and eventful year that I had to be reminded that it started off with wildfires in Australia. Those ended up being only a foretaste of what was to come.

That's it for the year about to end's climate and weather. Stay tuned for two more retrospectives of 2020.